Elin's second day in soccer class with nalle

Another Saturday morning with Elin's soccer class for kids 3-5 years old, and Elin wasn't too keen on attending. She grabbed a teddy bear (nalle in Swedish) and we were off to class.  Arrived a couple of minutes late so I dropped off Helena and Elin before I parked.  When I reached the soccer field with Johanna, there was Elin dribbling the ball with nalle in one arm.  Nobody laughed or said anything.  Thankfully, expectations for kids this age are incredibly low.

Top 10 Happiest and Most Hated Jobs

According to a General Social Survey by the National Organization for Research at the University of Chicago published in the Christian Science Monitor on a September 2, 2011 posting titled "The 10 happiest jobs", the 10 happiest jobs are:

1.  Clergy
2.  Firefighters
3.  Physical Therapists
4.  Authors (yes, money is not everything)
5.  Special Education Teachers
6.  Teachers (but an average career lasts only 5 years for half)
7.  Artists
8.  Psychologists
9.  Financial Services Sales Agents
10. Operating Engineers

And the top 10 Worst according to Steve Denning of Forbes.com - these are jobs that are meaningless; employees "see little point in what they're doing." - they're mired in bureaucracy - from "Think Your Job Is Bad? Try One Of These!", 8-11-2011:


1. Director of Information Technology
2. Director of Sales and Marketing
3. Product Manager
4. Senior Web Developer
5. Technical Specialist
6. Electronics Technician
7. Law Clerk
8. Technical Support Analyst
9. CNC Machinist
10. Marketing Manager

Elin's first day in soccer class

First day of soccer class through the city of Irvine at Woodbury community park was rained out.

The following weekend (today) on Saturday the 17th at 11 a.m., Elin's class went off without a hitch.  The parents surrounded the kids, snapping pictures and videos at a furious pace like paparazzi, me included.

Halfway through practice, Elin told her mom in Swedish "the coach said they should all go pee".  While the coaches would give the kids water breaks from time to time, there was no mention of a pee break, so that was a false alarm.

Elin began drifting away 2/3rds of the class.  She appeared to lose interest, so I stepped in and accompanied her through the rest of the exercises.

The video below is of Johanna disrupting the class by collecting most of the cones used as markers for kids to maneuver around.  She appeared to be having more fun than many of the kids.  She even kicked a ball or two  quite adeptly.

Skimboarding at the Balboa Pier

I shot the skimboarding video below at the Balbao Pier yesterday.  The tide was high and there were powerful waves breaking near the sand.  City workers had moved sand from the back of the beach to the front to prevent the high tide from flooding the parking lot and beyond.  All of this created the perfect conditions for skimboarding, which is similar to surfing, except skimboarders run from the beach to the water and catch late breaking waves by the sand.  The skimboards are small replicas of surfboards without fins to allow gliding in shallow waters.

Does Ruby's have a monopoly over pier real estate?  I've never been on a pier in SoCal without a Ruby's at the end.

And here's a popular skimboarding video on YouTube:

Profoundly skewed fundamentals - A review of "Aftershock", by Robert Reich

The American history of capitalism, viewed through the benefits of economic change has been swinging like a pendulum over the past 100 years between concentration of wealth in the hands of few, and the sharing of prosperity among many. In 1929, the year that marked the beginning of the Great Depression, income inequality in America was at its worst. The current income inequality is similar to the years immediately preceding the great depression. A widely used measure of income distribution called the Gini Coefficient ranked the U.S. 93rd out of 134 countries in 2010 (the higher the rank, the greater the income inequality). Iran was ranked 90th, and Russia 82nd (source, CIA - 2010).

Wealth concentration rose from 1870 to 1929 (the year the Great Depression began), followed by a more broadly shared era of prosperity (1947 - 1975), and then the "Great Divergence" according to Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman, which is rapidly rising income inequality since the late 1970s.

Mr. Reich believes unless the tide of rising income inequality is turned, we are sure to experience anemic job growth, persistently high unemployment and low wages, which affect everyone including the wealthy. With a weak purchasing power, the middle class that fuels all economic recoveries will be in no shape to sustain a strong recovery of the Great Recession of 2008. Over time, there will be growing public discontent, and two groups will vie for political dominance: The demagogues and the reformers, and let's hope the latter group dominates the voice of reason.

While Mr. Reich's reliance on the pitfalls of income inequality seems plausible -the impacts of which are debatable among economists - one of his lofty remedies could use more forethought. Mr. Reich proposes hefty government subsidies ("wage supplements") for the poor and middle class to the tune of $633 billion annually, funded partly by a carbon tax that can generate roughly the equivalent. Mr. Reich goes on to tout the benefits of such high carbon taxes as an inducement to develop "cheaper and more efficient" sources of energy, but fails to name a substitute when carbon emission is significantly reduced as a result.

Much of Mr. Reich's arguments pertain to establishing the importance of the inequality factor, followed by a very condensed version of how to fix it. Even if Mr. Reich's uncompromising remedies were ignored - there are many ways to skin a cat - "Aftershock" goes a long way in bringing "income inequality" to the forefront of the debate of U.S. economic woes since 2008.

Aftershock

Why Russell Crowe is Wrong - My 1.3 year old robot monkey

My 1 year old, Johanna, has a lot to say and most of it only she can decipher.  She is now in a monkey phase, mindlessly imitating what others say.  So a couple of nights ago during dinner, her 3 year old sister uttered "Duudde", and that's all Johanna needed.  She was off and running, directionless, yelling "dude" rapid fire.

Russel Crowe thinks babies are born perfect.  Here's video proof Mr. Crowe is grossly misinformed:

The rich request to have their taxes raised!

Ask and you shall receive:

The French government is to impose an extra tax of 3% on annual income above 500,000 euros (£440,000; $721,000).

From an August 24, 2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk article:

France introduces new tax on high incomes

....some of France's wealthiest people had called on the government to tackle its deficit by raising taxes on the rich.


Sixteen executives, including Europe's richest woman, the L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, had offered in an open letter to pay a "special contribution" in a spirit of "solidarity".

It was signed by some of France's most high-profile chief executives, including Christophe de Margerie of oil firm Total, Frederic Oudea of bank Societe Generale, and Air France's Jean-Cyril Spinetta. They said: "We, the presidents and leaders of industry, businessmen and women, bankers and wealthy citizens would like the richest people to have to pay a 'special contribution'."

They said they had benefited from the French system and that: "When the public finances deficit and the prospects of a worsening state debt threaten the future of France and Europe and when the government is asking everybody for solidarity, it seems necessary for us to contribute."