Personal Dork Assistant

Corporate Largesse

As the economy recovers, it's imperative for corporate managers to squeeze as much out of their employees as possible. Remember, salary and benefits are cost centers, to be slashed down like noxious weeds. The high priests of capitalism are warning Costco of the dire consequences of treating workers like actual human beings.

"From the perspective of investors, Costco's benefits are overly generous," says Bill Dreher, retailing analyst with Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. "Public companies need to care for shareholders first. Costco runs its business like it is a private company."

Now we know who'll be first up against the wall when the revolution comes. Geez, what a shitty thing to say. I mean, what are we talking about by "overly generous" here?

Costco pays starting employees at least $10 an hour, and with regular raises a full-time hourly worker can make $40,000 annually within 3½ years. Cashiers are paid $10.50 to $17.50 an hour.

Wal-Mart doesn't disclose its wage rates, since they vary by location. According to a recent study funded by Wal-Mart, cashiers at its Supercenters in Las Vegas were paid $7.65 to $11.45 an hour.

Oh no, double-digits! Costco folks get better health insurance, too. Unfortunately, that's starting to go away as health-care costs continue to spiral upwards.

One can argue that outsourcing isn't a big deal, and one would probably be right in the macroeconomic sense. However, anecdotal stories like this one about a call center in Applalachia being closed in favor of one in India is the sort of political dagger that can kill an incumbent politician.

The Travelocity call center brought 250 jobs to a community wounded by the decline of coal mining, its mainstay for a century. It plugged the town's 1,500 residents into the global high-tech economy, offering the prospect of a secure future.

That illusion crumbled last month when Travelocity fired Clintwood, saying it would close the call center by year-end and move all the jobs to India. The Internet, far from being the town's salvation, is threatening it with collapse.

The call center only went to Clintwood, WV because the local officials bent showered them with tax breaks and subsidies, but there ain't no subsidy that can compete with the two-bucks-per-hour wages in India. I usually don't hold much sympathy for spoiled techies who thought they were too smart to be replaced, but it's another matter when townsfolk get sucker-punched by the Invisible Hand. Sympathy is about the best they can expect though, because those jobs ain't ever coming back. If it makes them feel any better, I doubt Travelocity will be around for much longer anyway. Stupid gnome.

Draft on Tap

Set the alarm clock last Sunday for the first time since I've been home to get up for the fantasy baseball draft, which was starting at 8am in concession to the east-coasters. Like last year, Sam handled the bidding while I advised him on the values. Setup the laptop upstairs to go with the PC to maximize the screen real estate. Just had enough time to make a cup of coffee before Sam called in and we signed into the AIM chatroom for the draft. We based our bids primarily on the Baseball Prospectus projections, supplemented by stats from RotoTimes. Of course, one guy (there's always one) doesn't show up. Calls and emails went unanswered, so we moved on.

Everyone was cautious in the early going. Pedro selling for $30? But the pursestrings loosened as the big names kept coming. A-Rod reached the mystical 50-dollar barrier, which might even be low considering his shortstop/3rd base dual eligibility. We got into a mini-bidding-war for Barry, but we quit at $47, because we just couldn't make ourselves pay more for him than what we paid last year. Let Helton go at $36 because BP biases against pure first basemen. We kept Javier Vazquez as the bedrock of our rotation, then picked up Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, and Derek Jeter almost by accident as we tried to drive up the bidding on big names. We weren't total whores of the Evil Empire, though, as we let Jason Giambi go by (that bias against 1B plus injury risk).

As the bidding went on, it became rather obvious that we weren't the only subscribers to Baseball Prospectus. Eric was jumping on the same bandwagons we were and screwing our plans. He picked up the BP-projected sleepers like Adam Dunn (BP-value = $34, the 6th rated offensive player on the list!), and Brad Wilkerson ($28 by BP). We bid them up a little bit so he couldn't get away with grand larcerny, but we usually blinked first. We weren't totally passive, though, as we went with the Monster Mash Outfield plan, grabbing Manny, Brian Giles, and Lance Berkman to complement our keeper Richard Hidalgo. Kept Asian pride and our stolen bases total alive with Ichiro. They took a big bite out of our budget, and we went into the shell for a while. That was a bad idea as the pitching stock started to thin out. Got into bidding for Hudson and Moose, but I chickened out on the bidding too early. It's not good when David Wells is your #2 starter in an 11-team MLB-universe league. Did scrape up some random closers. Unfortunately we don't find out until after the draft that Bob Wickman blew out his elbow and is out for at least half the season. We ended up spending our last $35 on good old Dave Roberts for our last spot, i.e. left a bunch of money on the table. No buck-bargains for us this year.

It's amazing what you can do when you're unemployed and bored. I plugged in each team's BP-projected stats to calculate the standings, and the news wasn't good for us. Eric projected to win the league, but that was to be expected because he was going by their book, so any BP-based projection automatically favored him. We were stuck in the third tier, though, in the middle of the pack and far out of the money positions. Our starting pitching was particularly dismal, and we couldn't improve it during the bench draft. Brock, our missing man during the draft, decided to stay in the league. He had to fill his squad with guys off the scrap heap, though. He did have some sweet keepers for trading chips, and Curt Schilling was at the top of the list. Sam started working on him as soon as we found out he was still in the game. Lowball offers like David Ortiz + Danny Graves were summarily rejected, but at least we found out that he wanted a closer and a bat. Of course, that was dumb of him because one closer still wasn't going to get him out of the Saves cellar, but we had junky closers to spare so it worked for us. Junk closers weren't going to get it done, though, so we had to offer up our big name in Mariano and try to minimize the damage to our offense. Sam handled the negotiations.

"If you're still interested in moving Schilling for saves, what other pieces will be necessary if Rivera is involved?"

well in a perfect world i could get a hitter and a closer for him. Schilling for Rivera and Giles probably is asking too much eh?

Yeah no shit.

"yeah, that'd be too much since it's debatable if Schilling is worth more or less than Giles. I was thinking more like Rivera + an OK hitter ($8 or $9 type) for Schilling. unfortuantely, i don't really have any of those. Do you think that's fair? If so, I'll try to get one of those guys and flip him to you. Let me know."

how about schilling for Rivera and Conine?

Hey, he made the offer, not us. Sam actually wanted to dicker some more, and I told him to get it the fuck done. Where would this team be without me? Other people are bitching and moaning about the trade, but it's not our fault that he bent over and dropped his pants for us. Especially when the bitch-and-moaner traded Gil Meche and Brad Fullmer for Jason Giambi last year. Now let's get it on.

Viticulture

Uncle is over here for the cousins' spring break. Nothing like a trip to Vegas to celebrate the DPP victory. Got together for dinner at Saigon Seafood Harbor Restaurant, which actually doesn't have anything to do with that city in Vietnam. It's good old HK-style seafood. I love their chinaware. Nice, heavy stuff that's not restaurant-generic. Of course, uncle broke out a bottle out of the cellar (a.k.a. unfinished basement) for the occasion. It's unfortunate that all the stir-fried and steamed seafood make for just about the worst possible pairing with the Bordeaux red. On the other hand, I wasn't going to quibble over a chance to chug some 1998 St. Emilion Premier Grand Cru, either. It beats the hell out of Two-Buck Chuck, and I thought it had a more complex nose and flavor than our regular Costco specials. The latter impression could just be the placebo effect at work, though.

Electoral Strife

If you thought the American presidential election is getting ugly, you should get a load of the brouhaha that is the Taiwan presidential election. The day before the election, the hotly contested campaign hit an explosive climax when the incumbent president and VP were shot while campaigning. It was a shocking event in a country with strict gun control and a tradition of up-close street campaigning. On the other hand, the injuries were so minor that they walked out the hospital after a few hours, and the mysterious gunman is yet to be found, which makes for some suspicious conspiracies theories. I might've put on my tinfoil hat, too, if it were the KMT, but I doubt the DPP is competent enough to pull off anything that elaborate. But those sympathy votes sure came in handy, as Chen Shui-Bien and the DPP won by less than 30,000 votes out of almost 13 million ballots cast. Of course, the KMT camp is already crying foul and demanding recounts, etc. If you thought Bush vs. Gore got messy, you ain't seen nothing yet. There won't be any reconciliatory feelings between the two camps, that's for sure.

Even though the DPP won the presidential election, the referendum they sponsored regarding missile defenses and negotiations with China was shot down because it didn't get enough votes, as opposed voters simply ignored the question rather than vote No. It's very much a reflection of the Taiwanese attitude toward mainland China, as most people would probably prefer the calculated ambiguity of de facto independence, rather than aggravate tensions by pushing for de jure status. Phew, it won't be raining missiles in the weather forecast tomorrow. Great for all the Taiwanese business folks working on the mainland. Even better for the airlines that's ferrying them and the American expats back and forth.

Hiring Practice

The sociopathic Slashdot teenagers who hate their parents (give or take the random Indian) jumped all over the poor guy who wanted to start a family business in tech. One person did link to an author who wrote In Defense of Nepotism, but the smarmy, holier-than-thou attitude of the article wouldn't convince any jury.

Since we are clearly not going to get rid of the new nepotism anytime soon, Americans must come to terms with it. That means learning to practice it in accordance with the unwritten rules that have made it, on balance, a wholesome and positive force. If history shows anything, it is that nepotism in itself is neither good nor bad. It's the way you practice it that matters. Those who observe the hidden rules of nepotism are rewarded and praised; those who do not are punished, often savagely.

"Just deal with it" is a pretty lousy answer to any question, especially on a divisive issue like class in America.

I myself am the son of the novelist Saul Bellow, and I got my job in publishing through what might be called the neocon family network—the same network that aided John Podhoretz, William Kristol, Daniel Wattenberg, Jonah Goldberg, and Joshua Gilder, all children of well-known conservatives.

Oh, that explains it.

Chinese Junk

In the face of ever-increasing trade deficits, it's up to the creative American exporter to make up the difference. So what does America have that China wants? Junk, of course. Raw materials such as scrap metal and recycled cardboard are just about the only things filling up all those shipping containers on their return trip to China. Funny how the increasing scrap metal prices are screwing American manufacturers from both ends, as their own raw material costs increase even as competition from China are driving down the prices for the finished goods.

To Mr. Strelitz, Mr. Omer and others dependent on copper scrap, this seems like the ultimate indignity — that Chinese companies drive up scrap prices, yet are able to sell products made from that scrap for less than American manufacturers can.

Mr. Pan, the Chinese scrap merchant, said that Americans should be a little more appreciative of the benefits of China's scrap purchases. After all, he argued, they keep some junk that could never be used in the United States from ending up in American landfills.

Sure, because the Chinese care all that much about the environment. Oh well, sometimes you gotta sacrifice some trees to keep the lights on.

Electricity consumption jumped by 15 percent. Domestic coal production rose by 100 million tons - and still there were shortages.

Yet China's appetite today is modest compared with what is estimated for the future; the country's energy needs are expected to more than double by 2020. This prospect has the Communist Party reportedly rolling out plans for at least 100 new power plants, including nuclear, hydropower and coal-fired ones. It has also raised concerns that efforts to improve China's polluted environment will be muted by the demand for power.

The funny thing is that despite the hue and cry in the U.S. about its trade imbalances, China actually runs a net trade deficit, mostly because of its voracious appetite for raw materials like oil and steel. So much for hopes of a stronger yuan.

Phair Game

Noticed that ESPN is using Liz Phair's "Extraordinary" for their NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament promotional ads. It's a cool song and all, and the chorus is appropriate for the event:

I am extraordinary, if you'd ever get to know me
I am extraordinary, I am just your ordinary...

But they edit in another part of the song:

See me jump through hoops for you
You stand there watching me performing

Instead of the rest of the chorus:

Average every day sane psycho
Supergoddess

They must've thought the word "hoop" stood out enough to make the song sound more appropriate for a basketball commercial. More than "psycho supergoddess," anyway. Not sure if I agree.

One good thing about having parents who don't understand English that well is that I can play "H.W.C." loud without them batting an eye.

Materia

Mom's gone back to .tw for a month, which is good in that it gives me a chance to stow more of my stuff away before the clutter drove her insane. Good thing that my wastefully excessive number of CDs just happened to fit into the wastefully excessive cabinets that she bought.

"It can't hold anything else anyway."

Her absence also allows me to tear through the kitchen cabinets. Sure, I spent a lot of money on CDs, but at least I've listened to all of them at least a time or two. We've got enough gleaming new pots and pans stowed away to give Macy's Cellar a run for its money. Of course the collection is missing the one thing I've been wanting: a non-nonstick sauté pan for those times when you need a good sear. Although to be fair I don't think she's picked up anything in a long while, since we've pretty much reached cookware critical mass. It's not just pots and pans, either. Who knew we had a blender and a mixer? Sure would've came in handy when we were trying to make whipped cream that last time. There's the roasting kit stashed in the oven, the oven that I don't think we've even turned on once (we're not big on baking). There's the basting brush in the miscellany drawer, alongside the graters, the ice cream scoop, and the oversized boba straws (perfect for the smoothies that I can make now thanks to the blender). The Henckel knives that sit unused in deference to the good old cleaver. Not to mention the fancy teasets and other porcelain crockery that we never quite have the occasion to break out. At least the kitchen gadgets will keep me un-bored for a while, although I just couldn't resist the latest X10-modules-for-S/H sale, because turning on lights with a remote is cool. I might even get around to interfacing it with the computer, now that XTension for X is almost ready for release.

Brilliant!

Another Slashbot thinks he's soooo much smarter than everybody else.

I'm constantly told that I have an extremely high intelligence. I always feel like I should know so much more, though. Do you, the Slashdot readers, know of any ways to improve ones brain power?

Obviously reading Slashdot wasn't enough for him. I wonder if the folks taking lunch in the Athenaeum ever have this sort of trouble.

The group often includes two or three Nobel laureates among the four currently on the Cal Tech faculty. The professors are occasionally joined by Cal Tech's president, Dr. David Baltimore, who won a Nobel Prize in 1975 for his work in virology.

Occasionally the profs will invite undergrads in their class to the Ath for a meal. I highly recommend the Berries Athenaeum for dessert. The bit of cognac makes all the difference.

The Death of Supersize?

It must've killed the bean-counters to get rid of super-sized fries and drinks. The marginal profit on the extra bit of potato and sugar water is awfully sweet. On the other hand, the bad publicity was starting to sting.

The move is part of McDonald's "Eat Smart, Be Active" initiative, which it launched last year under first-year CEO Jim Cantalupo and U.S. operations chief Mike Roberts in an attempt to revive then-stagnant U.S. sales.

Sure, the salads are doing great, raising same-store sales, attracting more women, etc. But are they actually any healthier? Um... well, salt and fat taste good.

For example, McDonald’s Crispy Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad with dressing has a hefty 51 grams of fat and 660 calories while a Big Mac has 34 grams of fat and 590 calories. Surprisingly, this salad entrée also has just as much cholesterol, 85 milligrams, as the Big Mac.

At least the salads provide a good portion of veggies under the gloopy dressing. Ironically, the workers who pick the lettuces for those salads are too poor to afford them. Most of the time the fresh produce isn't even available.

Farm worker Iris Caballero often has a hard time keeping the refrigerator and cupboard stocked with food. Yet, she's overweight and diabetic. She is a classic example of a modern-day paradox: as reliable access to healthy food declines, the likelihood of being overweight goes up.

Meanwhile, it just kills me that the nearest In-n-Out is now 7.5 miles away instead of 5.0 miles. Although the addiction should be in check for a while, considering we ate there each time we drove up and down I-5. Dad likes it Protein Style.

Wealth Creationism

Social Darwinism is right up there with Intelligent Design far as stupid "scientific" theories go. So I found it a little distressing that China's nouveau riche are resorting to that old saw in justifying the exponential disparites between rich and poor in the country.

"If we want to proceed to a full market economy, some people have to make sacrifices," my relative said solemnly. "To get to where we want to get, we must go through the 'sheep eating people' stage too."

In other words, while most Chinese have privately dumped the economic prescriptions of Marx, two pillars of the way he saw the world have remained.

First is the inexorable procession of history to a goal. The goal used to be the Communist utopia; now the destination is a market economy of material abundance.

Second, just as before, the welfare of some people must be sacrificed so the community can march toward its destiny. Many well-to-do Chinese readily endorse those views, so long as neither they nor their relatives are placed on the altar of history. In the end, Marx is used to justify ignoring the pain of the poor.

Cute how the writer ties laissez faire capitalism to Marxist tenets. Ironic how China is the Libertarian wet-dream, at least economically, with taxes at only 17% of GDP (compared to almost 1/3 in the U.S.).

"A lot of people simply don't believe that things like truth, selflessness and altruism exist," said a government researcher in Beijing. "We have a very cynical population.

A dictatorial government plus a meatgrinding economic machine will do that to ya, if you're on the bottom of the pyramid. And if you're at the top, you probably got there by cheating, backstabbing, and stepping over other people to get there, so why change?