Blog Template Redesign

I just noticed that WordPress had some new template CSS designs available and I decided to update around here a bit. I hope you like this clean white bright design from their library of options, I thought it looked cool.

I am in a bit of a blog catch up month since the wedding is past and work is now the crazy part of my life. I hope that by month’s end (Aug 09) I will be updating my collection of blogs more than once a week. (each!) I know its a challenge but I really enjoy how different Blogging is than my regular day job in data analysis of online advertising. Sure numbers are cool, but sometimes you need a break from all the format requests for millions of little excel tables in minuscule fonts. (that are of course needed all on the same day and only with 24 hours notice or less).

All in all I am tired, but blogging still excites me and I am happy to have a job in the current market, even though I get frustrated just like everyone else at some point. So, I will hopefully be more active on the Protagonist5 blog again soon.

ps- Why does WordPress come up as a mis-spelled word in the spellcheck of the WordPress.com editor?

MicroPlace.com Can you invest money to end poverty?

Ebay’s MicroPlace.com is a new site where you can invest small amounts of money (starting at $50.00 and $100.00 in some funds) in a 3rd world country and help individuals start their own businesses and help reduce the rate of poverty there. It’s free market profitable charity? If that makes sense. It is piggybacking on the consumer idea that started with a site called Prosper where individuals loan to other individuals at different levels of risk and get bigger returns than a bank would pay in interest on your money. This is profitable for Prosper because they take a cut of the profit first and then the loan gets its interest.  Even with the lender and Prosper’s cut, its still a lot less interest for someone to pay back than payday loans or other super high interest loans.

The idea that small loans (which make interest and are repaid on a regular schedule) to individuals in impoverished countries that allow them to start small businesses has been a popular idea of the past few years. The University of Chicago economist and author Jeffrey Sachs wrote about it in his book The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Timein 2005. It was a best seller and landed him on Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people list. Muhammad Yunus also got critical acclaim for his micro lending company Grameen Bank and the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

On MicroPlace.com anyone can try to end poverty. You can choose a region of the world and a country and research some statistics about the population there. Then look through an read up on the programs available to invest in. There are risks involved in these investments, like in all investments. These MicroPlace invetsments specifically have these risks you should be aware of before investing:

1. They are not FDIC insured

2. The interest rate is lower than you would get in a bank or an average index fund rate over time. (I saw 2% listed)
3. You can’t purchase these funds in Pennsylvania (it says so on the prospectus)
4. In the investment world the ones who loan the least get the smallest rewards, so $100.00 may do some good, but you won’t get rich from it.

I think these programs have succeeded in their limited trials so far because of a few reasons. They are starting small in areas where this has never been available before. The newness of the opportunity seems huge and people are so excited about repaying because they have never had an opportunity for a loan before. Over time this will wear off if they are available to everyone everywhere and the payback rates will drop. (look at home loan defaults right now in the U.S.) They also don’t have competition in a lot of the new businesses they start, so the success rate is high when no one else has a loan yet or a new business. I also think that Americans are very into the popularity of  charity and giving to help poverty right now, and are eager to donate and invest. (sometimes instead of investing in their own 401K plans, paying off credit card debt or donating to communities at home) Over time if rates of return don’t stay high, and change doesn’t happen the popularity will decline also. And lastly the idea that “free market capitalist economies can save the world” is very popular right now. As this expands and shows the pluses and minuses long term (America has a lot of poverty too you know, and no one seems interested in ending it here) may change our thinking. But for now it’s Laissez Faire for everyone.

I applaud Ebay for their efforts, because they are trying to do good while doing business. But, over the long term I think these programs should stay small and primarily offline with more involvement in the venture by the investors to help supply the knowledge needed to make these new businesses succeed. (because money alone can’t create a successful business) Commoditizing this process as an investment opportunity for all is probably going too big too soon and at an unmanageable level and will not return gains on investments or really help end poverty in the long term. (in my opinion)

Top 10 Signs you have been working too much

1. You try and open your car door with your key card.

2. You try to open your home’s front door with your key card.

3. You dial 9 before the number when you try and dial your home phone.

4. You have dreams about meetings, coworkers and your work. You wake up in a pile of papers you were reading when you fell asleep. Bonus points if it is in the living room.

5. You wake up on Saturday, get dressed and don’t realize you don’t have to be at the office until you see all your neighbor’s cars still parked in the driveway.

6. You wake up on Sunday, get dressed and don’t realize you don’t have to be at the office until you see all your neighbor’s cars still parked in the driveway.

7. You get really bad caffeine headaches on Saturday and Sunday.

8. You don’t know what to do with yourself on Saturday or Sunday. Your social life has kind of died since you got this job.

9. Your home has no real food in it, just coffee and granola bars.

10. There is a pile of dirty laundry the size of Mt Fuji around your closet and dry cleaner bags and hangers on the floor everywhere.

Bonus signs:

11. You have no idea what TV shows are new this season or what plays on what channel on which days. Ditto for what songs are popular this year.

12. Your big Friday night plans you are all excietd about involve take out chinese food and sleep.

13. You have never meet your neighbors. Bonus points if you live in an appartment building and you have never seen your neighbors.

14. You sometimes slip and call your kids the names of the people who work for you.

15. Your home was vandalized, the TV and DVD player are gone and you didn’t notice.

Morning Show, Today and CBS Evening News

I was interested to see how this Meridith Viera and Katie Couric swap would work out on morning TV. I agreed that they were both top of their respective segments in broadcasting and were both looking to move on to the next pay grade and promotion after a long time in their respecive jobs. What I think happened is that people had certain impressions of both and it didn’t transfer well to each of their new roles. I see Meridith on about 1/2 the time in the morning and she is not as quick, perky or awake as Ann Curry who usually fills in for her. Plus Ann Curry and Matt Lauer have a better on camera rapport. Plus it always seems like the other hosts of the Today show are making jokes at Meridith’s expense. Why they won’t accept her, I don’t know. Katie on the other hand has been turned into more of a robot than I think she would like to be, and CBS is actually a network for old people by old people, so she would have done better anywhere else. CBS viewers want to see someone old up there and they don’t care for Katie. I don’t know if there is a way back for both of them or a way forward to something new, but neither are doing well in their current positions and should consider an exit strategy.