I just wanted to jot this down really quick before I forgot it.

At the Consumer Electronics, Show Stephanie Pence VP of Communications of Dish put up this slide:

People spend 30 hours a week watching TV. That’s up 40 minutes from last year. “People spend as much time watching TV as working.”

I could spend a lot of time rambling on about that all. But I’ll just let the numbers speak for themselves and you can judge.

I am an optimist at heart. But I’m especially optimistic about 2012.

Here is an economist that makes my case better than I ever could.

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2012/01/my-last-death-threat-in-2011/

Remember 2000 when everyone said, “man, I wish I knew a boom was coming in 1996.” Well, here we are again.

If you have never seen an exhibit of Marina Abramović, I would strongly encourage you to do so.

I saw her at the Museum of Modern Art in 2010.

She is a performance artist who does really striking things. This is what I saw her doing at MOMA:

She was in the center of this huge room that extended up at least 3 stories.

She sat at this table, all day, every day for months.

You could then come join her at the table (like the lady on the left here) and stare at her as she stares at you.

It was a surreal experience. I continue to think about it often to this day.

But a couple nights ago I finally saw Jackass 3:

This film was premiered at MOMA. You can read how Kyle Smith calls it “the most embarrassing piece ever to be showcased at New York’s Museum of Modern Art” here.

This statement reminded me of my first 20th Century art teacher (in the early 1990′s) degrading Andy Warhol as a “pseudo-artist.”

I would not consider myself an art scholar. I’m a casual observer (mostly of 20th and 21st century art) with a great deal of love and fascination.

One thing I hear over and over again is “professionals” trying to tell me (and the world) what is and isn’t art.

I guarantee they all now fully accept as high art, artists that were looked down upon at their time.

Let me give you a few examples:

van Gogh:

Duchamp:

Gauguin:

Warhol:

Basquiat:

Banksy:

I bet there might be some people reading this that would even question my inclusion of the last two artists. But make no mistake: they are great artists.

I believe the trick in determining what is art is comparing it to a craft. What is art? And what is a craft?

Art is making a statement. A craft stands alone with no reference to anything else.

Now, one could say that good art could be something that is indeed isolated and non-referential. But the moment you make that statement it is no longer a craft. It is now art.

A windsock is just a windsock. There is nothing wrong with it, certainly. But it’s a craft. It isn’t art.

Johnny Knoxville is connecting us to our deepest roots: Shit, piss, vomit and pain. And he makes fun of it. He defiles the defiler. He takes it and faces it head on. He takes the most vile, disgusting aspects of the world and makes them hilarious. I’d like to see you do it… something I often hear people say about 20th century art. “I could do that.” Well, I actually don’t think you could do what Johnny Knoxville does.

Marina Abramović did the exact same thing.

She had her helpers naked all over the Museum of Modern Art. She pushes the boundaries of pain and suffering as well.

Take a look at this 50 second video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tz-K4EC8hw

Tell me Johnny Knoxville wouldn’t do this same thing… except 10 times more extreme. Marina Abramović was the Johnny Knoxville of her time.

But this is why I think Johnny Knoxville is a greater artist than Marina Abramović:

She takes herself too seriously. It’s her fundamental flaw.

She is a great artist and she knows it. Because of that her art always carries with it a feeling of elitism and separation. She makes you walk to her table in the center a great room in a great muesuem and do something of significant importance.

Because of her arrogance she never truly connects.

Johnny Knoxville connects.

If nothing else, Johnny Knoxville is not an elitist. He is the opposite. He lives in dirt, shit and violent animals. He has completely removed all sense of boundries and being “proper.”

He takes us to the place of our nightmares and shows us its humor.

Freud educated us about the anal and oral stages of development. He defined our two main drives: death and sex.

Johnny Knoxville lives in those worlds and pushes them farther than anyone ever has.

There isn’t a more meaningful set of topics to all of humanity than our urine, feces and dealing with pain and suffering.

Johnny Knoxville is a great artist and possibly will go down in history as one of the all time great performance artists.

When I first read this I didn’t know who wrote it.

But then I saw a tweet from Danny Sullivan and it made sense.

Danny has always had an amazing knack at covering his topic in a thorough way. I always thought it was just because he understood search so well that he was able to tell me the complete story (background and all) better than anyone else.

But with this article I now realize he is just an overall gifted researcher and analyst.

So please take a moment to check out this article on tracking Santa.

For me the best part is learning how NORAD (the military people who monitor the sky for hostile threats) got involved in the Santa tracking business.

Where’s Santa Claus? The 2011 Santa Tracker List, From NORAD To Your Phone!

http://searchengineland.com/wheres-santa-claus-the-2011-santa-tracker-list-105700

This amuses me:

GOP leaders: Keep pipeline in payroll tax bill – USATODAY.com

A poll released Thursday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found public discontent with Congress at record levels, with two-thirds of those surveyed saying current members of Congress should be voted out of office next year. By a margin of nearly two-to-one (40% to 23%), more of those questioned by Pew blamed Republican leaders than Democratic leaders for Congress’ “do-nothing” record.

I am very excited to see who people will vote for in the next election. They are running out of people to hate.

We voted in all these Tea Party diehards. And it doesn’t seem to make people any happier. 

Of course we have a whole bunch of “do-nothing” leaders. We elected extremists that were required by us to be pure and to not compromise.

Here’s how I see the blame game going down:

• Politicians intially created this mess. They found that by dividing the country 50%-50% that they then only had to convert a few undecided people in the middle. Both sides of the political realm loved this environment.
• But they then created a monster. Their plan worked too well. Both sides created extremists that border on fanatical in their requirements of what they demand from their politicians.
• There is currently no acceptance by the people of any compromise. If you compromise with the other side you are a traitor. 
• The people are now thoughtless zombies that have been fully brainwashed by the powerful marketing message of the Democratic and Republican parties.

The people are now canibalizing their makers. They have been made like Frankenstein was made. And they are out for blood.

It’s very entertaining for me. 

It’s entertaining because the politcians (all of them) know full well this is occuring. They are doing private, hidden backroom deals to make sure the country doesn’t actually flush itself down the toilet. Meanwhile, in the front rooms they are yelling at each other like their zombie creations so badly desire.

That’s why they are able to always, at the last minute, get these budget deals done. They have to get done.

But Americans never cease to impress me. I fully believe that America can demand that politicians work together. I believe that the people can demand compromise.

I think that might actually be the people’s demand in 2012.

If you actually want things done (which I’m not sure is often even really necessary) you have to vote for compromising politicians. 

Make no mistake, however, these politicians aren’t working in a vacuum. They are getting their marching orders from us. We asked for this very thing that makes us so unhappy.

It may be fun to blame politicians for the unemployment. But it actually has nothing to do with them.

The issue we are dealing with is that we live in a global marketplace. And if someone in the Philippines can do it cheaper they will get the work.

Take a look at this chart of percentage rates of unemployment based on education level:

They are based on numbers from this article.

College grads have been mildly effected by unemployment. But it is a significantly different world than a person without a high school diploma.

In fact, I have a feeling (and some personal observations) that at least part of those unemployed college grads are waiting for something better to come along and are taking advantage of the system.

I truly believe that high school grads and non-high school grads would take anything. But can’t find it.

The real issue is that they are in competition with people in third world countries that have college degrees. Their hourly rate on the global market is sometimes on par with global college-level workers.

They probably are also in competition with illegals in this country that aren’t bound by minimum wages.

The reason this is not something that politicians can solve is because it is unsolvable. Or I should say, the solutions (which would probably require U.S. companies from not hiring global workers) are unacceptable.

However, I do believe that a motivated U.S. high school grad would do better work than a third world worker in most cases. Their value just needs to be seen. A large scale advertising campaign for this agenda might help things.

Some innovative experiments in education models to help these people could also be valuable. Possibly an apprenticeship system would be worth testing. This could be a great possible business to test.

If I had all the time in the world I would love to test a small apprenticeship program with inner-city Akron high school grads where I train them on Web marketing techniques and place them in positions where they would be able to compete economically with world workers in systems like oDesk. I’m convinced they could do better work for comparable prices. Plus they speak English as their primary language and they are in the Eastern time zone.

As we were driving back from the Christmas tree farm, I turned a corner, looked in my rear-view mirror to see 2 other cars behind me that were doing the same thing.

Evergreen trees strapped to our cars. Year after year.

It reminded me of those salmon that swim upstream to spawn every year. The video usually includes a bear standing on a rock as these insane fish practically jump right into his mouth.

Or those sea turtles that swim thousands of miles to lay their eggs the same place every year.

Aren’t we supposed to be the “evolved” species?

You have to admit: We are all a little mindless about some things. It is 2011 people! What are we doing stuffing big trees in our house.

Maybe it’s just something fun to do.

Maybe it taps into a resonance of tradition that goes back hundreds of years.

Since I’m not a Christian it is of little consequence to me. I like doing it. My kid likes it. And so we do it.

But if I were a strict Christian I would probably be a little more discerning.

The first “Christmas Tree” is traced back to a group of unmarried merchants and ship owners called the Brotherhood of Blackheads in  15th century Livonia (present-day Estonia and Latvia).

They put up this tree and danced around it. Then eventually they took it to the town square, invited the ladies, danced some more and set the thing on fire. If that wasn’t a setup to get a little action, I don’t know what is.

I’ve researched this a little and it seems unclear to me if it is a  ”Paradise tree” meant to celebrate Adam and Eve on December 24. Or if it was originally from a pagan Winter rite.

My feeling is: The Christians saw the pagans do it, thought it was a good idea and then incorporated it for themselves.

Either way I like to catch myself acting mindlessly. I put a big tree in my living room every year because it’s fun. But what if something else would be more fun? I’ve never asked myself that.

But I will say this: If I was a fundamentalist Christian I would be concerned. Is this what the bible really wants me to do?

Maybe Rocky can weigh in on this.

I am sure that you don’t need me to tell you this. But I rarely go to the doctor. However, I had some severe stomach cramps that landed me in the emergency room. Plus I had to do follow up tests.

These are my most recent bills:

The thing that strikes me about this series of bills is how F’d up they are in each column:

• Why would a tetanus shot cost $276?
• I have no idea what “Ohio Emergency Physicians” is, except that it was on the day I went to the emergency room.
• How is it that my Quest Diagnostic bill cost $310, insurance paid $22. But yet I owe nothing!?

What isn’t on here is an interaction with a medical facility that told me if I paid over the phone, right that minute, (the amount I owed after insurance) they would instantly take 30% off the bill.

This is probably apparent to most everyone, but is novel to me: Everyone is scamming everyone. 

Insurance is randomly not paying for things. Medical providers are over billing. And I’d love to know how many people just throw these bills in the junk. How many bills actually don’t get paid by the patient?

I’m not sure if the new proposed Obama system is going to work or not. But if you think the current system is good enough you are probably in the medical or insurance business.

I just came across this interesting article:

Innovation in Higher Ed: Who is the customer? | Service Co-Creation

The concern in the article is that if we make the parents and students the “customer” they will just ask for easier ways to get “A’s”. 

That has not been my experience. The students in my current class are highly focused on being ready for moving into the workforce. 

Possibly the recession is making them more inspired than normally is the case.

They want to be taught the most relevant information to make them as marketable as they possibly can.

The auther in the above article writes:

Despite the incredible growth as Higher Ed moved from an elite luxury to a middle class requirement, the dominant business model and primary delivery process hasn’t changed much in 400 years. Ironically, organizations that serve as centers for scientific research and innovation have not innovated despite incredible growth and skyrocketing costs.

I agree with that statement. And I believe the students (and probably parents) know this is the case.

Further, online business thought leaders are starting to spread the idea of alternative ideas to tradition college education.

Seth Godin:

Seth’s Blog: The coming melt-down in higher education (as seen by a marketer)

Just as we’re watching the disintegration of old-school marketers with mass market products, I think we’re about to see significant cracks in old-school schools with mass market degrees.

James Altucher:

10 More Reasons Why Parents Should Not Send Their Kids to College Altucher Confidential

In 2006 I wrote an article for The Financial Times on why I won’t send my kids to college. I’ve written, more or less, the same article for several publications including AOL, Yahoo, one of my last books (I forget which one) and the Washington Post wrote an article on my opinions on the subject.

More and more of these sentiments are piling up. 

It seems to me that if colleges can’t even define who the customer is they are going to just continue selling the same thing they’ve been selling for the last 400 years. I mean, how can you know what to sell if you don’t know who the hell you are selling to?

That would be like people still trying to sell the Gutenburg Press as a viable printing solution in today’s business world.

I believe in education. But it is not a blind faith. It is a belief that comes with a healthy dose of questioning and testing tightly held assumptions. 

Let me first say that I don’t consider myself an expert on Issue 2.

But if you are getting most of your information from:

• Politicians
• NPR
• FOX
• MSNBC

I don’t consider you an expert either.

Here is the official language that will be on the ballot (This is an Ohio issue):

Issue 2

Referendum

REFERENDUM ON NEW LAW RELATIVE TO GOVERNMENT UNION
CONTRACTS AND OTHER GOVERNMENT EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS
AND POLICIES

A majority yes vote is necessary for Amended Substitute Senate Bill No. 5 to be
approved.

Amended Substitute Senate Bill No. 5 is a new law relative to government union
contracts and other government employment contracts and policies.

A “YES” vote means you approve the law.

A “NO” vote means you reject the law.

******

OK. That’s not very helpful.

From Ballotpedia:

Most notably, SB 5 prevents unions from charging “fair share” dues to employees who opt out.

It goes on to say:

Senate Bill 5 will impact the state’s 400,000 public workers, restricting their ability to strike and collectively bargain. As it stands, the bill would only permit public employees to collectively bargain for wages, preventing them from collectively bargaining for health insurance and pensions. It would also prohibit all public employees from striking and could increase employee contributions for pensions and healthcare.

Look: The ramifications of either side winning on Issue 2 are completely unclear and dynamic.

It’s reasonable to project an outcome of this where by limiting collective bargaining (which takes strength away from unions) the 400,000 public workers in Ohio could actually be better off.

I’ve seen countless examples recently where unions hang themselves.

A former employee of mine always used our insurance over the insurance her master carpenter husband got from his union because ours was much better. He also got no sick time or vacation time. She got 8 weeks paid leave from us after she had her baby.

Make no mistake that it is the unions that are heavily influencing its members to support voting no on issue 2.

But it’s also possible that things could get much worse. A librarian friend of ours doesn’t like his insurance either. But his stance is, “Think how much worse it would be without the union.”

I often think people in unions tend to be a little more on the safe side of things. So I suspect that it’s more comforting to stick with the devil they know versus venturing out into the unknown. Maybe it would be better. Maybe it would be worse. But risk is not probably largely in their DNA. Mix that with a very influential union and they are probably terrified of considering the other side of things.

So, who knows. Maybe it would be better for them. Maybe it would be worse for them.

Rocky even thinks that there is a potential model projection where Issue 2 actually ends up costing the state more: Unions largely go away. These 400,000 workers lose their safety net. The good ones just leave public work and go into private business. So the state has to end up paying more money to get decent workers.

Who knows what will actually happen if you vote yes or no on Issue 2. If you think you absolutely know what will happen you are either a liar or incredibly naive.

But this is why I’m voting NO on Issue 2:

Every day at work I look out my window across the street at Firehouse #2 in Akron. They have a sign that says Vote No on Issue 2.

My friend who is highly educated, smart, kind and hard working is a librarian. He wears a sticker on his jacket that says vote no on Issue 2.

We are unbelievably fortunate to have our firefighters, police, teachers, librarians. I don’t need to remind you of the sacrifice.

But here’s a little reminder in case you forgot these death numbers:

343 New York City Fire Department firefighters, including one FDNY Fire Chaplain, Franciscan Fr. Mychal Judge, 23 New York City Police Department officers, and 37 Port Authority Police Department officers. Casualties of the 9/11 attacks also included 15 EMTs and 3 Court Officers. Approximately 2,000 first responders were also injured in the attacks.

Those people ran in while everyone else ran out.

I know without a doubt that Ohio firefighters, EMT’s and police officers would do the same without thinking twice.

I’ll give those people whatever they want. They want me to vote NO on Issue 2. And so I will.