Forbes most powerful

Forbes updated their list of most powerful people today. In a mild surprise Russian "president" Vladimir Putin took the top spot after it was held by United states president Barack Obama the past 3 years. Rounding out the top ten is Chinese President Xi Jinping, Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church, German chancellor Angela Merkel, Bill Gates, Federal reserve head Ben Bernanke, Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud King of Saudi Arabia, Mario Draghi European central bank president, and Walmart CEO Michael Duke. The list mostly makes sense to me as the people are either extremely wealthy, the head of major countries or both. Regarding the to spot President Obama's reputation and influence have taken a hit recently with the issues in Syria which a lot people thought Putin handled better with a plan to have syria give up its chemical weapons opposed to missile strikes threatened by the U.S. government.As well as continued discoveries in the NSA spying scandal and the government shutdown debacle. 

BItcoins

A first of its kind cryptocurrency created in 2009 bitcoins were mostly used in sketchy online deals as they are decentralized an could be traded and cashed out essentially anonymously but are starting to take hold in more mainstream markets. Yesterday a bitcoin public ATM opened in Vancouver Canada. However it still takes a lot of criticism from most economist as its value isn't really based off of anything, creating an unstable value point that frequently fluctuates with what speculators are willing to pay for it. Plus it is not accepted as currency in many places. Also Bitcoins differ from most other currencies because its transactions are irreversible and is uninsured. To me the convience of having an virtual online currency is a solid idea but there is a ways to go in developing bitcoins to where they are widely accepted and more stable value wise if I was to ever use them or a majority people would use them. Which is unlikely since they are decentralized and most governments like having control over the predominant currency people use.

Near space Baloon rides?

World View enterprises is set to start offering balloon rides which would let passengers glide for about two hours at maximum height of 19 miles into earths atmosphere. Private space and near space flights are not a new idea. Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace have planned on near space flights for almost a decade and are expected to launch in about a year. World views balloon rides are different in a few ways though. Virgin is going to use a 6 passenger rocket powered vehicle called SpaceShipTwo which seats costing around 250,000 and XCOR has a one passenger rocket in the works estimated to be 95,000 a ride. World View's plan is to use a Capsule that may seat 5-10 at 75,000 per person  connected to a parachute that connects to a high altitude balloon which takes you up then disconnects once it is time to go down. To me it seems like a great idea hypothetically but there is a lot of complications they would have to work out plus once one thing goes wrong they will get buried in lawsuits. But if it does work out it something i would definitely try if I could realistically afford to.

Wartburg west seminardelioblog

I was originally interested in Wartburg west because Denver is a pretty cool city with lots of internship opportunities necessary to get into Grad school. Plus its close to some great ski areas which is always good. The seminar went over a lot of the basics so it was helpful but a lot of the details and stuff I will have to talk with my advisor about. I did learn they already have a lot of internship connections but you do not have to limit yourself to just those options and that it does not cost a whole lot more than a semester at Wartburg.

Google selling you

This friday Google announced a change in its terms and services, which will allow the company to include adult users’ names, photos and comments in ads shown across the Web, based on ratings, reviews and posts they have made on Google Plus and other Google services like YouTube. The new ad policy goes live Nov. 11, Google will be able to show what the company calls shared endorsements on Google sites and across the Web, on the more than two million sites in Google’s display advertising network, which are viewed by an estimated one billion people.
Sites like Facebook and Twitter have been using a similar system for selling ads This has raised some privacy concerns from people and could at some point hurt the companies if users get tired of all the ads or having their input or ideas used by companies without really getting their direct consent.

Red River Rivalry

One of the oldest rivalries in college football resumes today at the Cotton Bowl outside the Texas state fair park in Dallas. Oklahoma and Texas have played 107 times since 1900. Texas leads the series 59-43 with 5 ties. However Oklahoma has won the past three including two blowout wins. The Golden Hat, a gold ten-gallon hat, goes to the winner and is kept by the athletic department till the next year. This year Texas enters the game as a heavy under dog as an underwhelming start to the season has head coach Mack Brown on the hot seat. But as we have seen from games in the past current records can be practically thrown out the window when these two teams face off.  

Playoff committee

With a new 4 team playoff coming to college football next year a committee is being formed to decide which four teams will qualify for the playoff. This committee is being filled with some of the biggest names in college football. Including former NFL qb Archie Manning, former Nebraska coach and athletic director Tom Osborne, Tyrone Willingham, the former football coach at Stanford, Notre Dame and Washington, Wisconsin Athletic director Barry Alvarez, USC athletic AD Pat Haden, West Virginia AD Oliver Luck and Clemson AD Radakovic. Rounding out the rest of the group is  former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Gould,  former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Gould and Rice strike me as odd choices at first glance as they are the only ones not at some point associated with the game. But after looking closer into it they both seem to know a good bit about football and could be able to provide  a different perspective on the potential playoff teams.

NFL London?

Although there are major logistical and cultural challenges in moving or starting and NFL franchise in London they seem dead set on making it a reality. Already the worlds richest sports league with revenues, buoyed by massive TV deals, upwards of nine billion per year. League officials are always looking for ways to expand the game. Moving a current franchise to London seems like their preferred option as starting a new one would mean they would have to add a second franchise with it probably in Los Angeles and further splitting TV revenues. An obvious candidate to be moved is the Jacksonville Jaguars who are perennially mediocre and haven't sold out one of their games in years. But would Londoners really get behind a team that lacks direction? To me moving such a bad team to a new location that is also somewhat new to the sport and has plenty of other popular sporting entertainment options is doomed to fail. For more long term success it would be better to keep playing a few games a year in London like they have to grow interest. As well as expand games shown on TV over in Europe. Then in 10 to 15 years start a new franchise in London and another in Los Angeles or some other American city.      

The Mentalist

My second favorite television show is back for its final season. Before the last episode on sunday Patrick had cut his list of possible red john suspects to just seven after he was given an inadvertent tip by one of red johns that he had met red john and shook his hand. In sundays episode Patrick and the CBI team were investigating the murder of a man in a small town that had happened over two years ago but the body was only recently found. They managed to solve the murder when patrick gathered all  the possible suspects at the local diner. They had learned from the murdered mans wife that she knew he was not faithful in their marriage and that he was last in that area around his disapearence. When Patrick brought that up with the suspects at the diner he speculated that the man flirted with the waitress and then her boyfriend got jealous and hit him with a baseball bat. As the man was running away he tripped and his briefcase fell open with cash spilling out.  At that point the waitress admitted that her boyfriend and another man from the diner decided to kill him and take the money and she had nothing to do with it. The case wasn't much different from other episodes but what happened at the end was quite shocking. Agent Lisbon received a call of a person in distress, she called local police to back her up but they weren't present when she arrived she heard a noise inside and decided to go in even without backup. After searching the house she found the body of Brett Partridge one of the seven red john suspects. Then she is grabbed by a dark figure with the last scene of her unconscious or dead with blood on he face which should make for an intriguing next episode to see how that turns out.