Saturday, March 31, 2007

Comparisons



I met Richard Bushman yesterday. He gave a lecture to the J. Reuban Clarke Law Society New York Chapter. He is a proffesor emeritus at Columbia University here in New York. He has a written a bunch of books, including "A rough stone Rolling" which is cultural biography of Joseph Smith. He lectured on the law in the United States during the lifetime of Joseph Smith giving a number of insightful details of the history of law in this country.

I spoke with him for a moment afterwards. I explained to him an article I wrote for a Pre-Law Review less than a year ago comparing and contrasting Slavery with Illegal Immigration (I guess it might benefit to explain what I said so I might blog that out later). I asked if any of his colleagues had proposed similar ideas, or if he saw comparisons, and most importantly perhaps if he thought people would even care about that concept. He responded to those questions: No, Yes, Yes. So it probably a fair and interesting comparison to make- between slavery and illegal immigration. I will have to blog more on this later

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Only 405 pages to go!


Just finished the prologue of "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond. It's about essentially why some societies conquered others- very summarized that is. I still am not sure what it will be like. But so far it has got me thinking, about a lot of things derived from his main thesis.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Amazing Lectures

I am fascinated by these Stanford Lectures. Two of them I have heard (Google, eHarmony) are great. I learned that 200 people are married each day that met on eharmony, and that they have rejected 1.5 million people for things like being married 3 times. And now I know most of Googles ideas come from everyone at their company. Google News came from a worker who after 9/11 became a news junky and everyday looked at his favorite 15 news sources, and one day he decided to sort them. If you like fresh innovation and achievement, you gotta check these out!

http://edcorner.stanford.edu/podcasts.html

Monday, March 19, 2007

Sticking to Strengths to Look Smart


If you always particpate and work with things and people you are naturally good with, it is easy to lead in then you look smart. Stepping outside of this zone however, is an increased risk to trip, fall and look dumb to everyone. Why? because you are not sticking to your strenghts. I think we should generally stick to our strengths- it gives more opportunity to excell and lead in our area of choice. Stepping outside our 'comfort zone' of things were naturally good at can do even more to enhance our strengths. This could be analagous to excercising your heart- this improves all other areas of your physical health. Our how climbing a mountain makes living in a valley seem easier.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

I love Kimchi


I vistited New York's lovely Korea town off 34th st yesterday with two fellow interns. I had not eaten Korean food in a while. The scents in the restaurant took me back to my high school friend Peter Park's house where I ate Korean food many times. I ate a piece of the pepper aftern my intern friend Ella said they were not supposed to be too hot. My second bite burst tears out of my eyes-and as I write this I feel it a little bit again- and my mouth felt on fire for about 5 minutes. But the pepper taught me a lesson, it's like it screamed at me: "Wake up!, you don't wander through life quietly, there's a world to be experienced!". So that's my new motto and I owe it all to that pepper/Korean food. And the Kimchi was great

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Wikipedia- The Modern Expert

Wikipedia is in my opinion an amazing academic, intellectual, social phenomenon. I used it first in 2005, it wasn't exactly new then(created in 2001) and is improves everyday. It contains a plethora of information-significant stuff to insignificant- on an incredible of amount of ever expanding topics. If this had been here sooner we could have all spent so much time finding out insightful details about the lives of our favorite music stars, some city like Valparaiso Chile that you've barely even heard of. And best of all: correct information about historical events or people which the people who lived through it or already know about it are too biased or their memory does not serve them properly to actually relate it themselves. Note: Picture is a snowflake uplclose compliments of wikipedia.

Some people critique Wikipedia (just as they did the internet circa mid to late 90's) for its authenticity because literally 'anyone' can add or edit an entry. Misinformation on the site, is I believe limited and much less than people suppose for two reasons.
1) It's updated frequently-by good sources. (I once made a posting before lunch and when I returned it had been improved with more info).
2) It's difficult to miseducate people on topics on which you are ignorant.

So it's still good to double check sources for research. But Wikipedia gives further illimunination that we know more collectively than individually.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Little Italy- Everyone getting older


Little Italy is really little. The restaurants are bright, the foods delicious, and you definitely pay for it. I went on Saturday, the bread was so good. Having good bread when you first sit down is a great thing for the customers. And the restaurant can get away with putting less food in the entree dishes. 3 groups were sung happy birthday while we were there; seems like a place where people enjoy getting older in style.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Moving All Over and Never Leaving Home!


I was listening to my friend Nick(he's sitting on the right) speak with an acquaintance on the phone when they discovered they each lived in New Canaan Connecticut and the same area of Surrey England. Coincidence? Yeh a little, however under closer examination maybe not. Why not?




Well it really seems that people most often live in places based on 1) What they can afford and perhaps slightly more important 2) What they are comfortable with. A kid growing up in a suburb of Atlanta is probably more likely to live -if he moves- in a suburb of Chicago or Denver or San Francisco or wherever which will probably have a similar demographic makeup as the one he grew up in. People from rural small towns in the inner mountain west often eventually stay in rural areas with towns with similar population sizes.

This is definitely not always the case, but I believe is more common than not. Often people in socio economic brackets keep some distance from each other, so it is easier to bounce around the world in the hot spots and bump into the same faces.

Obviously changing countries or states or areas within states where the economies is significantly different has a huge affect. The point here is that often when people move address and actual city or town name changes, but the city or town itself doesn’t. The Wall Street Journal lists every Sunday the property value in select zip codes across the country. You meet people from those places and find out where they have lived, their friends they see on the weekends, often their extended families live in those same select zip codes. It’s easy to change locations, but with respect to the values and standards and way of life that emanates each city; we generally stay close to home.

Friday, March 2, 2007

Thai Noodles


I ate some Thai yesterday with my fellow intern and friend Nick who is returning to London today. The restaurant "Republic" is on the northwest corner of Union Square next to the McDonald's. I got a safe dish, noodles and chicken, but I put lots of spicing in it so it got really hot towards the end. The service is friendly, but I was a little shocked when they sat us next to some total strangers (I looked at Nick and said "are they serious?" incredulously) on a long table-kind of cafeteria style. The food was fast, fresh and not too expensive. Combine those elements with a highly charged atmosphere and a restaurant I would definitely recommend checking out, especially if you like those clear noodles (which according to one source have little nutritional value).

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Marc-h


I love the month of March, not only because my name is in it, but it also means winter will meet its demise soon.