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Wikipedia is Awesome

Wikipedia is awesome.  Arguing against this is like trying to convince someone to take a tropical vacation to Antarctica (note to future readers: this was written in 2009 when Antarctica was still somewhat frozen).

Wikipedia is responsible for 13 MILLION articles.  What’s even more amazing – this is a collaborative project worked on by volunteer workers (aka nerds with too much time).  Its top competition (if you can consider a non-profit lead by volunteers to be “competing”) Britannica, is considered to be no more accurate than Wikipedia (source: Wikipedia).

School projects involving lower levels of research will never be the same (time consuming).  You’ve got a presentation due on King Henry the VIII?  What used to involve a trip to the library, scouring the archives for the correct edition, and manually writing notes has been reduced to typing “King Henry VIII” into a Google search bar, clicking the first link, then “File: Print”.  Making a bowl of cereal involves more effort.

However, allowing anyone to make changes creates a double edged sword.  On one end, you can’t accumulate 13 million articles by making an exclusive encyclopedia nerd club responsible for all of the content.  On the other end, here’s what I stumbled upon today (not to be confused with StumbleUpon):

wiki

You learn something new every day.

Death Panels: The Epicenter of Misinformation

There are very few TV shows that I go out of my way to watch.  I try to stay up-to-date with current events in the news, and I of course make time for the occasional comedy (not necessarily in that order).  The Daily Show is a perfect hybrid of the two.  I’m all about multi-tasking.

As for the quality of content, in my humble opinion, Jon Stewart provides better news than what you get on around the clock news networks, i.e. CNN, MSNBC, and of course Fox News (the #1 news network – once again proving that bigotry is still fashionable).  Dear CNN, I didn’t turn your station on to see what people are Twittering.  I can go to Twitter for that. Read more →

Obama = Clinton 2.0?

And I don’t mean in any political or governance sense.  I mean in the overactive hormonal variety.

Okay so maybe Obama knows when it’s appropriate to check out another woman (if married…then never).  But I think the real issue here is what the public chooses to focus their attention on.  Whether it be a Democratic Governor or Republican Governor, President, or gay Senator, we sure give a lot of attention to politicians unfaithful sex-lives.  To clarify, I think that all of these acts are horrible and most likely not mistakes.  A mistake is when you accidently step on your friends toe while playing soccer.  I don’t think you can accidentally pick up a hooker, but I guess I wouldn’t have enough experience to know for sure.  The fact of the matter is, with the exception of Bill Clinton, names like Spitzer, Sanford, and Larry Craig would be largely unknown by most of the public if it were not for their highly flawed personal lives.  These are the same people who decide where our taxes are directed, help process laws, and keep our overall political stability in check, and their names don’t become familiar with the public until they misuse their privates.

We should choose to hold the news to a higher standard.  When CNN continues to force feed us a story about Mark Sanford’s ridiculous affair, they assume we care more about a politician’s personal rather than professional lives.  If I wanted real romantic drama, I would turn on the Real World.  At least the people on MTV are attractive.

As a slight bit of publicity, if you are interested in more pressing issues than who’s kissing who, then may I recommend The Huffington Post.  It’s way less bad then the majority of our alternatives.

Hodgman: Obama, a Nerd President

The White House Correspondents Dinner has been a source for entertainment over the last few years.  First, it was Colbert tearing George W. Bush apart, from 10 feet away, in front of a large national media.  This past Friday, John Hodgman, a correspondant for The Daily Show and the PC character on the infamous Apple commercials, gave an equally entertaining speech (okay, maybe not as good, but close).  In case you haven’t already seen this.

Too Good to be Trulu

too-good-to-be-trulu2

Traditional commerce is dead.  As a quick reminder, the model went a little something like this:

Step 1) Make a good product or service

Step 2) Offer said product/service in exchange for money

Sprinkle in some marketing, and you’ve got yourself a business.

Those were the days. Read more →

A Really Horribly Bad Idea

Yesterday, I successfully ran 26.2 miles.  Today, I will not get out of bed.

There are two general lessons that I gathered from this experience:

1)  You will pay the price for taking short cuts in life

My training period was roughly 20 weeks shorter than what most programs call for.  I figured that I could push myself harder in the truncated period to compensate for lost time.  I compare it to starving yourself in place of eating a healthy diet.  Much like someone with anorexia will lose weight, but will also damage their kidneys, lose hair, and put themselves at risk of osteoporosis in the process; I finished the race, and have probably done irreversible damage to my menisci.  The point is, there’s a right way to do things in life.  I didn’t do that.

2)  The Power of Determination

Despite a serious lack of preparation, I accomplished what I set out to do.  My body decided it was done moving at about mile 22, but unfortunately for my legs,  my mind was the one calling the shots yesterday.

The night prior to the run, I had spent six hours performing manual labor at work, and followed that with less than 4 hours of sleep.  I started the race feeling about as fresh as I would after a 8 mile run.  If it were a training day, I would have opted for rest knowing that running would only do more damage than good.  Unfortunately, this was the day of the marathon.  I had already told people I was going to run a marathon.   I wasn’t just fighting my body, I was fighting expectations.  Soon after crossing the finish line, as the determination loosened, my body started to give into its own sensations.  I began feeling nauseous, light headed, and had difficulty supporting my full body weight.  Basically I was dying.

But I digress….

We’ve heard the cliché “mind over matter” so many times that its meaning has been compromised.  Yesterday, more so than ever, I learned its significance.  In fact, I learned that lesson #2 is more valuable than lesson #1.  I don’t recommend taking shortcuts in life.  Had I trained properly and been determined to run more competitively, I would have finished with a better time and  still be able to walk today.  But I was able to offset preparation with determination.

I think the next time I try something along these lines, I will combine the two.

A Really Good Bad Idea

So far my promise for more frequent updates has been about as successful as a promise to make US politics more transparent.

Regardless, my inspiration for any sort of well thought out, opinion based post, has been buried beneath a layer of anxiety, excitement, and mostly insanity.

This Sunday I will be attempting to run my first ever marathon. Read more →

A Good Badger Update

So instead of my typical 2am routine of Netflix, Hulu, and Google Reader, I decided to update the WordPress Software on this site.  This is much easier said than done.  Needless to say, zrdavis.com all but imploded upon itself and I’ve been picking up the pieces ever since.  I’ve been able to get all of the old posts and pages up and running, but all of the user comments were lost in the fire.  Sorry.

The good news, however, is that this will birth a new era for The Good Badger.  Step one, new page design.  Check.  Step two, more frequent posts.  TBD.  Step three, move to Silicon Valley and bump elbows with Steve Jobs.  I’m all about baby steps.

With that said, zrdavis.com is an eerie place when it’s void of comments.  I encourage everyone to add your 2 cents whenever possible.  It’s not necessary to believe in your opinion, or even have thought it out all that well.  All that matters is that you have one and that you share it with the universe.

And today’s tasty nugget goes as follows:

“I’d rather have a thousand Monica’s….”   wouldn’t we all

Viral Advertising

I guess because I first saw this ad in conjunction with watching The Office on Hulu, it might not technically be a viral ad. But since people have sought it out on YouTube nearly 300,000 times in less than a month, I will count it anyways.

I won’t subject you to an advertisement (that I’m not getting paid for) on my homepage. If you’re interested in a really good new viral ad, check out my recommendables page.

And now a word from our sponsors: