Bnet has a very interesting story about 10 careers which pay well, but which do NOT benefit society. I agree with most of them, with cavets like the author includes – Chriropractors do give some benefit, some self help books are ok, some health experts can help you, etc. I have a dream that someday #9 will not be true, but I believe it may always be. http://team-swap.com/?p=433

Fox has a story up about how the government is considering counting pizza as a vegtable. REALLY…THAT IS CRAZY EVEN BY FED STANDARDS. Of course ketchup became a vegetable in schools in the 90′s. Full story here

Gizmodo has a very interesting story up today about the sell of a “potential” home of Adolph Hitler in Argentina. The basis of the idea is that Hitler escaped Germany and lived out his days in this remote Argentinian home – leaving two daughters as his legaacy. Interesting story, though I don’t personally believe it. Nice house though, full story here

I know the Knoxville mayoral race ended a week ago, but … well I was busy … so here is my two cents. I was not surprised Madeline won, I was surprised she won so handedly. I thought the combination of Haslem money, a down job market looking for business leadership, a push back from conservatives concerned with Rogero being too liberal, and Padgett’s father’s long line of Knoxville political connections would lead to a closer race.

I am still shocked that Bill Owen even waste his time running.

Over the last few months the Being Frank team has desired to start regular posting again. Life, work, and some lingering family health issues, have interfered with these plans.

That said, we will push on and hopefully get to regular blogging over the next few weeks and months.

Readers from way back will either be happy or sad to hear that the three C’s – Christ, Cycling and Computers – will still make up a majority of post on this blog. Going forward there will likely be a few new areas of interests – Exercise, Electricity, and Engineering – added into the irregular posts on politics, pens, people, misc news, current events, metro Knoxville TN, economics and whatever else strikes our fancy that day.

So, sit back and hopefully the ride will get interesting again soon.

Several months ago I found a interesting story at CNN.com about how an American inventor of solor powered bulbs was attempting to both help build third world economies, via building village based businesses, and also change how social aid is handled / viewed world wide. Full post here.

The two most interesting quotes in this story follow –

First, Katsaros had to answer a key question that would determine how he would have the strongest impact: should his company be nonprofit, or for-profit?

Katsaros found inspiration from the 2008 book by Paul Polak, “Out of Poverty.”

Polak, who has worked in developing nations for 30 years, believes that the charity model of aid used by nonprofit organizations doesn’t work — despite its good intentions.

The best way to help people, according to Polak, is to treat them as consumers. If you can sell to them, he says, you can help them.

“In the beginning I was a nut case and nobody paid attention,” Polak says. “The consensus was 30 years ago that this is what caused poverty, and to be involved in business was outrageous and evil.”

Today, that is starting to change, he says. But that doesn’t mean that nongovernmental organizations have rolled out the red carpet for Polak’s ideas.

“Many NGOs say it’s making money on the back of the poor, but I love to make money on the back of the poor,” Polak says.

“You can feel really good about yourself giving stuff away … but if you are going to sell things to people, you need to have respect for them because no one is going to buy something if you have contempt for them.”

“If you have a village that’s used to the dole, it’s very hard to get them off of the dole,” Polak says. “We have to face the fact that conventional development aid has failed.

“It just doesn’t work.”

The New York Times has a interesting piece up today (link here) about how some college dropouts go on to make millions and billons (at times). One of the most interesting points the story makes is that the often quoted about 80% of the jobs created are in small business, actually the vast majority of jobs are created by START UP businesses, not small businesses. This point leads back to the idea that traditional American schooling actually is based on removing some of the key skills required to start a start up business – risk taking, failure, creativity, actual sales, and networking skills.

I agree with those ideas to a point, but I would add that the key point to success is drive (which can be found in college dropouts, college graduates, blue collar workers, illegal aliens, and drug dealers) and if someone has drive and a idea they will succeed.

The point of the article, that we need to develop better entrepreneurs and not stifle so much within the nature of people via standardized education (a point that I only partially agree with), is well taken, but I am concerned that too many people who lack drive will read it and decide that they can be the next Jobs, Gates, and Zuckerburg (all people who were smart enough to go to and succeed at college mind you).

The following quote comes from the Wall Street Journal – story here –

Those who make $1 million accounted for about 0.2% of all tax returns but paid 20.4% of income taxes in 2009. Those with adjusted gross income above $200,000 a year were just under 3% of tax filers but paid 50.1% of the $866 billion in total personal income taxes. This means the top 3% paid more than the bottom 97%. Yet the 3% are the people that President Obama claims don’t pay their fair share. Before the recession, the $200,000 income group paid 54.5% of the income tax.

That really puts the idea of what some consider fair into a new prospective. Personally I want to live in a world where those that make over $200K, i.e the top 3%, can dream of paying less then 50% of taxes and we have a better tax system – like the fair tax without taxes on food you prepare at home, medical treaments / drugs, and only taxes NEW items (so used cars and houses are not taxed).