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- @ericabiz Funny, we found a kitten in a box last week. Unfortunately, it was abandoned there, not playing. Now, we have a 5th cat. in reply to ericabiz #
My Favorite Present
My favorite Christmas present this year was the one I gave to my 13 year old son.
Allow me to walk you through his evening….
First, he opened one of his presents. It was just a small box, about 3 inches by 4. A Japanese puzzle box. Inside the box was a note that read:
Closed off in the smallest room you will find a clue to bring you closer to your prize.
When he checked the cabinet below the sink in our basement bathroom, he found another note that sent him to my business website one a page with a url that contained “the square of my children”. When he eventually figured out that I meant their ages, not their quantity, he found a clue on my website.
This lead him to a section of his Minecraft server. It’s effectively a no-man’s land because he and his friends set off a nuke and turned it into a giant pit. They fall down and die there. Inside the pit was a cave. Inside the cave was a clue. The clue read:
Grandma and Grandpa love you.
What do you do when someone says they love you? You either get scared of the commitment and end a perfectly good relationship, or you say “I love you, too”. When the kid finally called his grandparents to tell them he loves them, they told him to give his parents a kiss.
I’m a jerk.
He came over and gave me a hug and a kiss. I handed him a piece of paper. When he looked at it, he asked if it was supposed to be torn in half. I reminded him that he has two parents, so Mom got a hug and a kiss, too. The resulting clue read:
The Answer to the Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything
Naturally, this points to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but the boy hadn’t read far enough into the book to understand the reference, so he had to hit google. After spending time looking for chapter 42, he finally thought to look at page 42, which had this clue:
My Little Pegasus
Two steps to the right
Two steps forward
Two steps up
This clue started at the My Little Pony I set next to a Pegasus in my daughters’ room. The boy was in dense mode because he had to ask his sister what a Pegasus was. She also had to suggest he open the closet door when one step forward made him bump his nose on it.
For all of that work, he got the Ticket to Ride game. He laughed the entire way through the treasure hunt, then decided he hated the whole process. However, for two nights running, he’s stopped the video games to play his new game with his family.
It’s a present he’ll remember forever.
The High Cost of Keeping Richard Ramirez in Prison
Serial killers in the United States often gain cult status due to their strange courtroom antics and dramatic personalities. Recently deceased death row inmate Richard Ramirez was definitely one of the most famous serial killers of all time before he passed away of liver failure in California’s San Quentin State Prison.
After a dramatic arrest in 1985 in East Los Angeles by residents who recognized Ramirez from photographs displayed all over the news, Ramirez would sit in jail for years while awaiting a trial that finally began in 1989. There would be no more expensive trial in the history of Los Angeles County except for the O.J. Simpson trial that occurred a few years later.
At a cost of $1.8 million dollars, Los Angelinos would pay dearly for the privilege of trying Ramirez in a court of law. Incredibly, however, this massive sum wasn’t the only cost associated with this vicious serial killer. Because he was sentenced to death and due to the incredibly long appeals process associated with death row inmates, Ramirez sat in jail for over two decades without any fear of actually being put to death by the state of California.
Over the past hundred years, the number of individuals incarcerated in the United States has ballooned from a few hundred thousand people to almost 2.5 million prisoners. The most expensive people to incarcerate are death row inmates, who sit in a type of solitary confinement for decades. A moratorium on future executions in California has ensured that inmates like Ramirez have been costing taxpayers millions of dollars for housing and appeals with no likelihood of being put to death.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, there are around 700 people sitting on death row in California, which require a massive investment of tax dollars. The state’s ongoing budget crisis and inability to balance its budget has put great strain on the prison system to house so many death row inmates at such an incredible cost.
Richard Ramirez’s untimely death at the age of 53 and his decades-long residency within a state prison brings to light a disturbing fact: more inmates die of natural causes while on death row than are actually put to death. Whether support for the death penalty exists or not, the billions of dollars spent by the state to keep inmates on death row has resulted in just 13 executions since the late 1970s.
A study in 2011 that was conducted by a judge and professor in the state suggested that California has spent over $4 billion since the death penalty was reinstituted. Out of those funds spent, at least a billion dollars was used for housing and incarceration of the inmates, including serial killers like Richard Ramirez.
A further study presented by the Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice in 2008 suggested that keeping the system intact with inmates on death row would cost around $137 million dollars a year. On the other hand, if California was to commute those death sentences to life in prison and abolish the death penalty, the yearly cost would drop to $11.5 million a year.
Offering the families of victims of death penalty-worthy crimes the chance to see a killer or other criminal experience the ultimate punishment may offer some sort of closure. Unfortunately, with the expectation that individuals on death row are more likely to die of natural causes than be put to death in California, the implementation of the death penalty in the state must be reexamined.
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Apple Launches iPad Air in November
With a lighter and thinner chasis, the newly announced iPad Air has a more powerful processor with a great new design and performance features that’s sure to continue Apple’s trend setting reputation. Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller is calling it the biggest leap forward for a full-sized iPad. We expect people have already started packing overnight bags for their long wait on the sidewalks outside the stores.
Apple is promoting its newest innovation as having the power of lightness, hence the addition of the “Air” moniker. That’s because the iPad Air weighs a mere pound and even then doesn’t feel like it. It’s 7.5 millimeters thin and has a design that might remind you of the iPad mini. It’s been engineered with a smaller bezel that shrinks the tablet without losing any screen size. The new dimensions and weight actually makes it easier to hold the tablet in one hand.The device will certainly impress its fans with its incredible power. The new A7 chip has a 64 bit architecture, providing graphics and CPU processing that’s significantly faster than the previous version. Working alongside the A7, the M7 motion co-processor, according to Apple, provides a graphic performance that’s over 70 times faster than the processor in the original iPad model. In fact, in terms of graphics, the Retina Display is likely the most impressive aspect of the new iPad. Graphics promise to render at two times the speed of the last iPad. The pared down bezel makes the screen stand out prominently.The iPad Air is supposed to give a user the chance to do more in more places with an advanced wireless connection. It’s faster than ever in more locations than ever before. The iPad Air brings a WiFi performance twice the speed of the last iPad. It utilizes two antennas instead of one, and MIMO, the latest in communication and smart antenna technology. The WiFi and Cellular model will support more LTE brands, offering greater support and quicker connection anywhere in the world.
With almost a half million apps already available for the iPad, you have a great head start on things to do. Apps built into the iPad Air will include solutions for routine tasks, like web surfing and checking email. A number of previously apps that had to be purchased are now free, such as iMovie, Keynote, iPhoto, GarageBand and Pages. Popular apps for other Apple products, they have all been upgraded to work with iOS 7 and the iPad. Quickly put together an original song or detail a presentation anywhere. As a lot of apps are developed solely for Apple products, these can look stunning on their displays.
The iPad Air’s current launch date is November 1. It will come in black and gray or silver and white. It will start at $499 for a 16 gigabyte WiFi version. This is $100 more than previous generation launches, but supporters say the consumer is getting more screen real estate. The Cellular model will retail for $629. The iPad 2 will continue in the stores for $399.
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FINCON Friday
When this goes live, I’ll be on the road to the Financial Bloggers Conference outside of Chicago. That translates to a day off here.
Monday, I’ll be back with a whole bucket full of bloggy goodness.
Huh?
Am I the only one who just noticed that it’s Wednesday? The holiday week with the free day is completely screwing me up.
Just to make this a relevant post:
Spend less!
Save more!
Invest!
Wee!
