Young Males and Guns: A Lethal Mix
Last Friday, 20-year old Adam Lanzer shot his mother in the face killing her and then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut where he shot and killed 26 people: 20 first graders (6 and 7-year olds) and 6 adults. We don’t know much about Adam Lanzer at this point except that he was a young male who had access to firearms – a seemingly lethal combination these days. Read more 
The Health Insurance Exchange – What’s the Big Deal?
The governor of Arizona let the federal government know the state does not plan to set up a Health Insurance Exchange by October 1, 2013 – the deadline to have the exchanges operating to allow consumers time to purchase policies for 2014 coverage. 17 states and the District of Columbia plan to create their own health insurance exchanges and the remaining states have until December 14, 2012 to decide what they are going to do. For those states that decide not to set up a Health Insurance Exchange themselves, the task will be left to the federal government who has the authority to step in and create the exchanges. Read more
Nate the Great and 538
Nate Silver, the quant jock who created the website: www.fivethirtyeight.com (538) has proved his detractors wrong once again and accurately predicted the outcome of the presidential election (Obama). Despite the conservatives claiming the presidential election was too close to call and trying to spin Romney as the front-runner (especially after the first debate), the race had never been that close, according to Silver. Obama always had a strong chance of winning: ranging from a low of 63% on Oct. 9th to a high of 91% the day before the election. In terms of electoral votes, Silver predicted (on election day) Obama would obtain 313 electoral votes while Romney would obtain 225. The actual outcome was 303 electoral votes for Obama and 206 for Romney, with Florida too close to call. And yet numerous news stations, talk shows, radio programs, and newspapers predicted the 2012 presidential election too close to call. Why is that? Read more
Nate Silver and 538
Four years ago, Nate Silver created “538 dot com” or “538” – a blog that applies mathematical models/statistical analysis to predict election results. Frustrated with the lack of quantitative methods in polling data and prediction models reported in the media, Silver used his math skills to analyze polls and predictors for their size and historical margin of error and make his own predictions. His results were astounding with an accurate prediction in the Democratic primary in March, 2008 (Obama) followed by the Presidential election (in 49 out of the 50 states) and the winner of every 2008 US Senate race. Since the 2008 election, Silver has continued his success and has a proven track record for predicting who our elected officials will be. Read more
TFW: The Fucking Weather.com
When I need to add some humor to my day, my go-to website is www.thefuckingweather.com (although the site is often referred to as TFW for those less inclined to drop the F bomb). People talk about weather all the time and it’s a safe topic to discuss when there isn’t anything else to have a conversation about because the weather is relevent and people have either a sense of curiosity, wonder, or disgust with it on any given day. And, of course there is always the looming weather disaster somewhere in the world which generates chatter. But, if you simply want a more humorous take on the weather go to TFW – one of the most hilarious weather websites ever created. Read more
Remembering Janet Alonso
Eleven years ago today – September 11, 2001 – our world was forever changed with the terrorist attacks. We all know that nearly 3,000 people died that day but because of the magnitude, most of us don’t put a face to the number. One of the faces of 9-11 was a 41-year old woman named Janet Alonso – a wife and a mother of two young children who perished on the 97th floor of the north tower at the World Trade Center. Read more
Who Is The Better Presidential Candidate?
At my core, I am a social liberal and fiscal conservative which makes the choice of whom to vote for very difficult. Always reminding myself not to be a single issue voter, I compiled a short list of issues that are important to me and then thought about which candidate would be a stronger supporter of each issue (in parenthesis): Read more
FAB
An artist friend of mine introduced me to a relatively new website last month called “FAB” – a design e-retailer that has four distinguishing characteristics: (1) the products are fabulous in design, taste, or use; (2) e-mails are sent daily alerting subscribers to new products offered; (3) the products are not widely available; and (4) the products are all offered at a discount. Founded in June, 2011, FAB was the brainchild of Jason Goldberg and Bradford Shellhammer – two West Villagers who believed they could build an e-commerce powerhouse through word of mouth, which is exactly how it’s grown (witness my introduction to the website by a friend who has an eye for design). Read more
20 Things That Shouldn’t Be Difficult….
Through the years, I’ve learned there is a difference between aggravations and problems. Most problems are really aggravations and most aggravations we encounter day-to-day shouldn’t be so difficult. Among them: Read more
Soliciting Grocery Shoppers for Donations
Over the past week, I’ve been asked 11 times by retail clerks if I want to donate money to a charitable cause. This question has been asked by cashiers in grocery stores and in a variety of retail establishments. Yesterday, I decided to use the self check-out at a Stop & Shop grocery store in Connecticut and was approached by three separate sales clerks asking if I wanted to donate money. After I finished bagging my groceries, I went to the manager’s desk and politely told her that most people want to grocery shop in peace, that the grocery store is one place where the expectation is to be a customer, not a source of donations. Read more
Paddock Post 