Why America is the World leader

The all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright, tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals. Democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

- Barack Obama

I think if more countries would understand this, wveryone would be much better off. America is not (just) well off because of its resources, but because of its people. My country is not richer and better off because people do not seek opportunity and do not embrace hope. If everyone would embrace and look to the Amercians not for their knowledge, not for their economic guidance, but for their values, the World might just be a better place.

Why 90% of opinions don’t matter (especially in politics)

I have deducted via my ykeen insight, that about 90% of all political opinion is just stupid. Maybe 90% is a bit pushing it, but in the face of politics, even the keenest intelects break down and say the stupidest things ever. This is the result of a wide range of things. In many cases it is the result of not being educated enough, in many cases it is a matter of party-bias, being too impressionable and so on. In all of the cases though there is one common factor, not being able to think further than one’s own self, and not being able to separate the good of the individual or the household from the good of the community, the whole country.

Let me show you what I mean through two examples. Bear in mind that economics and politics is not really a black and white field, so when I say “this and that doesn’t make a difference” I know full well that there are scenarios where it could make a difference, treat these as examples not hard, globally applicable  economic facts. So the first example is undereducation and impressionability. In Hungary we had a lot of talk about how stupid the government is because of the high currency exchange rate (ie: the currency being worth less). People fail to realize that the actual exchange rate is of no real consequence. It doesn’t matter if I can buy a dollar for HUF 230 or HUF 10, it really doesn’t. The “common” people (nice way of saying idiots) say that our money is becoming worthless and so on (this is actually not true regardless), but they fail to see that in my example, the worse the money the better, so I get paid more, and all exporters have a wonderful time as the currency exchange rate rises. Therefore we could praise the government on this. Of course nonetheless, the currency rate is not good at all, mostly because it is going all over the place, but the actual stability point is of no consequence.

The second example is about not being able to see further than yourself. People are heavily swearing about the fact that they are preparing to change the discount structures for public transport. Right now very few people actually pay the full fair because they are over 55, or under 26, or still going to school, or have a disability, or have some other discount. You also have to know that the Hungarian government is not going to go bankrupt, but it is not in a great shape, so it needs to tighten the budget, everyone knows this in Hungary.

Now, these discounts are not given by the public transport companies. The public transport companies get reimbursed by the government for all the discounts, so for them it’s like selling each ticket and pass at a full price. The government pays a boatload of money each year to pay for the sometimes really stupid discounts. Do you really think that everyone over 55 should get a discount? Why? Should pensioners get to travel everywhere for free? Should students get a 50% discount?

My answer to all of these is no, it’s just a stupid waste of money. Someone who is 55 should still be working, so I don’t think they should get any discount. Once people stop work and get a pension they should get a big discount, but not 100%. Maybe 70% or 80%. Students should get about 20% - 30% and there a re loads of other discounts that could be modified.

The real problem with everyone in this country is that they are real angry at the government for the bad financial situation, but when they try to do something, the uproar is even bigger. I suppose this is common in a democracy, but why do people think they can get something for nothing?

Write, write, write

I just realized that I need to write a lot to my personal blog since I am writing a lot of posts elsewhere which I am displaying on the page and it is clogging up everything. I might make the post titles a bit smaller, or display a daily “aggregate” post, we’ll have to wait and see, how very interesting!

Sorting out Adsense and ad clicks

I am totally baffled about how my adsense ads are clicked. Sometimes I get $3 a day, sometimes $0.2. Sometimes for one click I get $2.5, but I have also gotten $0.1. I know how this all works in theory, but it’s still a bit of a mystery. I am guessing my content is very important in this, and I need tofind the link between my content and my clicks.

Since Google ads target content, whenever I write about topic X, I guess I get ads with a high CPM, and a high click ratio. With other topics these numbers aren’t as good, so my priority should be finding which content is generating these clicks.

Anyway, there are loads of ways to do this, I’ll start when I have time, I just felt like sharing that. You’re welcome.

The joys of dieting

I’m not on a hugely strict diet right now, but I do need to shed some pounds, so I’m trying to be as consistent as possible. The only way you can actually loose weight in the long term is if you change your eating habits, not eating for weeks and then getting back into the same routine will see your weight raise back too.

My current strategy is to eat less of course, but try to do it with some sense. I’m trying to eat healthier stuff, and above all, stop eating at night which is probably the worst thing to do. I’m doing pretty well actually, I try to eat as much as I can in the morning, eat less at lunch than I used to, and end the day with a cup of yoghurt, a few strawberries or something.

Obviously the goal is to eat less calories, and the hardest thing is to drop calories in my drinks! The recommended intake for me to be stable is 2500. I drink a lot, so if I go through 2 bottles of Lipton Ice Tea, I’m already at a staggering 3600 calories. So now I try and select drinks which I like with a lower calorie count (Coke isn’t that high, which is surprising). The best choice I think is syrup, since a bottle contains around 500 Calories, and you can use that to make like 10L of drink, so it lasts for about 3-4 days for me. The best part is that drinking more water is another goal, and for each 0,5L of drink I make, at least 0,45L is water.

I also work out much more, I use my jump rope, I use an indoor bike, I do push ups, ab crunches and so on, so hopefully my weight will not be an issue in a few months. I’m actually not obese or anything, I’m just overweight, but I don’t want to die of heart failure at 50, or 70 for that matter.