Youtube and All its Glory

Daily Show: Islam vs. Christianity


GM has turned me on to the wonders of YouTube. And I just love the daily show. Combine the Daily show with Steve Carrell and you have a magic combination.

Happy and Relaxed

Thanks to this submission from GM, I am dying of laughter! This is hilarious...BUT don't dismiss it as just a joke. I firmly believe in the old saying, "laughter is the best medicine." It has been proven in studies that even facial expressions such as smiling can alter your mood and temperment (even if there is nothing to smile about). I saved this clip not only to have a good chuckle but also because I believe this is better than "An apple a day".

Bush and the Buzz

I find President Bush's speeches hilarious. This article in Newsweek is fantastic, recounting President Bush's new buzz word "Caliphate" which he used 4 times in a recent speech. It reminds me of the all too funny Inaguration Speech by Bush when he used the words "Freedom" over 30 times and "Liberty" 20 times. (and if you watch the Daily Show, you saw the funniest skit on television when they did a recut of the president's speech with just the words Freedom and Liberty and did a count off). So Bush has found a new word to add to his 3 buzz word vocabulary of Freedom, Liberty, and Terror...."Caliphate".

From the article...."A caliphate, according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, is the “office or dominion of a caliph”; a caliph is “a successor of Muhammad ... [the] spiritual head of Islam.” Simply put, the caliph is Islam’s deputy to the world. After the Prophet Muhammad died in 632 A.D., his father-in-law, Abu Bakr, became the first caliph. (At the heart of the schism between Sunni and Shia Muslims, even today, is the question of succession: who has the right to become Islam’s caliph?) From the time of the Prophet’s death until the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258, caliphs ruled over Muslims and presided over the Muslim expansion throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe. These were the caliphates; some beneficent, some warmongering, in concept not unlike any other empire or dynasty."

Bush's use of the word (an excerpt from the article)...."The enemy, he said—by which he clearly meant the Islamic terrorist enemy—wants to “extend the caliphate,” “establish a caliphate,” and “spread their caliphate.”

I don't think Bush is even using the word correctly, but to his credit this is a quote from a Democratic speech writer--“Bush has been successful in defining terms in his own way,” said Steve Ebbins, a former Democratic speechwriter. “[The Bush administration] has captured the language. If you control the language, you control the message and are able to sway people’s attitude toward your policy. It’s a policy-endorsing mechanism.”

One of the most interesting comments about Bush and his communication strategy, I heard when I was at a small group breakfast with Dick Gephardt. He said that despite the flaws that the American people can see in Bush, what they can't see past is his focus on Terror. He went on to say that when you look at Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Safety is Number 2 after hunger. So by focusing everyone on safety, every other issue is less relevant.

The Boss and Bush

Dukes of Hazzard was ahead of its time. Watching a re-run over the weekend, it is apparent that Boss Hog is a larger-than-life caricature of our own real life president G.W. Bush. Anytime something’s awry, it’s got to be those Duke boys...Chase ‘em and Lock ‘em up. The parallels to Bush’s fascination with Iraq post 9/11 and his use of "terror " fear as a crutch are hard to ignore. While Iraq may not be the model of innocence of the Duke boys, maybe G.W. Bush is the real J.D. Hogg.

What is a good Deal?

The few times I've watched Deal or No Deal...I've painfully watched contestants give up large sums of money in hopes of the big $1 million. It's amazing how caught up contestants get in the frenzy of the chance of winning $1 million. I frustratingly watch thinking I should pull out my computer and start modeling this on Excel to figure out the probabilities and expected outcomes. Alas I think I would find myself too extreme, if I go to analyzing a game show, so I can never bring myself to do it (though i secretly try to do it in my head). Thankfully some statisticians did it for me. Read here for their findings as printed in the USA Today.

What I found most interesting is that without calculators, the constestants got surprisingly close to the expected outcomes. The average values of all 26 cases is $131,477. The average from the 47 contestants has been $116,763, only 11% lower than the average. You have to assume that the house is taking some of that spread. So in my opinion I think the contestants are astoundingly accurate. Maybe we aren't so bad at math afterall...and when it comes to money we might just be mathematical geniuses. No longer will I shout in frustration when a contestant goes for the big one, because I know that in the end, the average contestant will be ok.