It's Friday - No Politics - No Problems

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It's Friday, February 10 in Southern Maryland.  The weather has now become so confused that when Punxsutawney Phil, you all know him, the famous Groundhog Day prognosticator who checks his shadow to see when winter will be over.

According to the tradition, if Phil sees his shadow and returns to his hole, he has predicted six more weeks of winter-like weather. If Phil does not see his shadow, he has predicted an "early spring."

The date of Phil's prognostication is known as Groundhog Day in the United States and Canada. He is considered to be the world's most famous prognosticating rodent. During the rest of the year, Phil lives in the town library with his "wife" Phyllis.

Did you know the first official Groundhog Day was February 2, 1887 , at Gobbler's Knob, which was about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, but there is reference that the first Groundhog Day was in 1841.

Who cares?  So when Phil stepped out of his condo February 2, this year's Groundhog Day, what did he see?  I think he got a sunburn.  Anyway, he's only been accurate 39% of the time over the past 125 or 170 years.

Better than our weatherman but no where near the accuracy of my Irish Grandfather, God rest his mischievous soul, who could feel the weather in his bones.

This is supposed to be the doldrums of winter yet the Crocus are popping out all over.  It is the Dead Zone of the primary campaign with only one debate the entire month after debates every other day for the past year.

We need a break from politics, from Obama, from Democrats, from Republicans and from the media.  So I thought about it and realized at this moment we are only 85 days, 8 hours and 17 minutes from the 138th running of the Kentucky Derby.

Now that coincidence should not go unnoticed.

So it's time for my Derby preview thus turning our attention from the weird weather and weirder political and international events.  Forget about the End Times, the Kentucky Derby is well before December 21, 2012 (the end of the Mayan calendar).

Visualize with me tens of thousands of beautiful Southern Belles in these most extraordinary hats.

Nearly 200,000 people fill the enchanted Twin Spires of Churchill Downs.

Mint Juleps rule the day, the Kentucky Blue Blood cocktail invented to sell bourbon to the sophisticated socialites.

And then there are the thundering herd of million dollar horses pounding around the final turn and heading for the stretch run of the fastest two minutes in sports.

Oh Lordly what a sight as these fire-breathing behemoths remind us of the greatest of Greek Mythology, the Immortal Horses of the gods. The majority of these divine steeds were offspring of the four Wind-Gods who themselves were said to draw the chariot of Zeus.

It is only about three months before the draw for the post positions for Derby horses so I am going to share with you the Churchill Downs tracking of horses most likely to get into the Derby.

Before that I must share my experience with pari-mutuel betting, picking the winner of the Kentucky Derby and next superstar of the h0rse racing world.

You see, I'm not a gambling man in the sense of betting on things.  I already take enough foolish risk with the things I do in my life.  Still, my memory of the Kentucky Derby seems to predate even the World Series.

There was the end of World War II, then the mighty Citation winning the triple crown in 1948, the fourth time in the 1940's there was a triple crown champion.  It would be the last triple crown champion for 25 long years.

Then along came Secretariat in 1973, Seattle Slew in 1977 and Affirmed in 1978, three triple crown champions in five years, and no winners since 1978.  Winning the triple crown is among the most difficult achievements in all of sports.

So I grew up trying to pick the winner of the Derby for family bragging rights.  Later in life I would place a single bet on the Derby every year and more often than not I picked the winner.

When I worked for the governor of New Jersey one of my assignments was to be chief of staff for a cabinet commissioner who loved the challenge of handicapping the horses.  He was pretty good at it and just recently was appointed to the Board of Directors at Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby.

I have family in the Lexington, Kentucky area and some are involved and all follow the Kentucky thoroughbred industry and Kentucky Derby.  One is involved in thoroughbred auctions and the millions of millions of dollars involved in race horses.  Others, like my nieces and nephews, can be found in a box on Derby Day plastered on Mint Juleps hidden somewhere under the outrageous hats.  Just kidding.

So this last year when I was travelling to Lexington for treatment for this and that (see other stories on my tragic medical odyssey), my younger brother, we shall call him Bosco in order to hide his identity and protect his right to privacy, asked if I knew the Breeders Cup races were at Churchill Downs.

Now the Breeder's cup races are a really big deal like the Derby.  You see, the top horses in all the world are invited to race each other to see who is horse of the year in the different categories.  Over two days about $35 million in purses are awarded and millions more in breeding rights can be earned.

Now my betting experience over the decades never got any farther than picking horses to win, place or show.  I just had no time for all the variations of betting like the following.

Straight bet or Single or Win bet. This is the simplest and most common bet. You bet on a winner at given odds. You collect only if your chosen horse is the first across the finish line.

• Place. A wager for place means you collect if your selected horse finishes either first or second.
• Show. The third horse across the finish line. A wager to show means you collect if your selected horse finishes either first, second or third.
• Combination Bet. Combinations cover from two to four horses to win in chosen order.
• Pick 3. This wager requires the player to pick the winners of three consecutive races. Some race tracks have a rolling pick 3 which is when the player must pick three races in a row and it continues for the next three races.
• Pick 6. This wager requires the player to select the winner of six consecutive races prior to the first race of the pick six. Some tracks place the pick six as the first six races, the middle six races, or the last six races. Many tracks have carry over pools for the pick six that can grow to as high as a million dollars.
• Quiniela or Reverse Forecast (UK). A bet placed on two horses to finish first and second in either order.
• Perfecta or Exacta or Straight Forecast (UK). A bet placed on two horses but they must cross the finish line in exact chosen order.
• Trifecta or Tricast or Treble Forecast (UK). A bet placed on three horses to cross the finish line in exact chosen order.
• Superfecta. A bet placed on four horses to cross the finish line in exact chosen order.
• Daily Double. Similar to an accumulator you select the winners of the first and second races on that day. You must place your bet before the start of the first race.
• Jackpot. Pick six winners in six races to share in a Jackpot prize. The rules and prizes will vary from race track to race track.
• Parlay or Accumulator. A multiple bet. A kind of 'let-it-ride' bet. Making simultaneous selections on two or more races with the intent of pressing the winnings of the first win on the bet of the following race selected, and so on. All the selections made must win for you to win the parlay. If a race is a tie, postponed or cancelled, your parlay is automatically reduced by one selection; a double parlay becomes a straight bet, a triple parlay becomes a double. A parlay bet can yield huge dividends if won.
• Future. A bet on a future event. At the start of each season, the sportsbooks give out odds for horses to win a certain event. The odds change as the race date approaches and in most cases get shorter, but if you win you get paid at the original odds that you took. This is possibly one of the most profitable bets if you have considerable knowledge of the race that you are betting on including the jockeys, and a good sense of judgement.
• Exotic Bets. Betting on unusual events. Some sports books post odds and take bets on a wide variety of other sports related events and activities. A few others will take bets on just about anything you can think of.
• Proposition Bet or Prop Bet. An offer of bets at odds and conditions chosen by the sportsbook, usually on 'Exotic' bets. 

But Bosco says he wants to bet on the Breeders Cup races.  The first day we won about four races but lost money on the rest.  The second day we won about the same and were slightly ahead when he said he wanted to bet a Superfecta in the last race.

I had no clue what he was talking about.  He said we had to pick the first four horses in order. I told him he was mad, we couldn't even pick the first horse most races, let alone four in a row.

So I asked if he ever won a Superfecta and he said no but his kids did.  He said the payouts were in the thousands of dollars.  I was intrigued and said why not, it's only a few bucks and one race.

We each picked out the horses we wanted and he went and bet the ticket.  The race, on the big screen TV, went off and I had the winner again, for about $5.  It was the last I thought about it until the next afternoon.

I heard the Superfecta paid around $1,500 a ticket.  It meant nothing to me but I still pulled out our Superfacta ticket to check the horses.  To my complete and utter astonishment our ticket accurately picked the first four horses in order.

So I grabbed my brother and said how much did he bet on the Superfecta.  Since I would bet between $5 and $50 on a horse my brain was already multiplying the massive winnings. Let's see, 5 times 1500 is $7500 and 50 times 1500 is a staggering $75,000.

So Bosco, how much did you bet! I shouted.  He gave me that dumb Cheshire Cat look from Wonderland as if I should know better than to ask.  Then he whispered something.

What! I demanded.  Whatever he mumbled, it didn't register on my brain or my brain refused to let it register.  Then I heard the worst words I had heard in who knows how long.  "Ten cents!".

That did not even compute.  What ten cents?  He said he bet ten cents per horse, not $1, $5 or $50.

Somehow his math indicated we might have won our first Superfecta and in the featured race of the breeders Cup, no less.  But his fractional betting left us with about 1 /1000 of what we were supposed to make. because he bet ten cents rather than more.

I asked if there was any reason he decided to bet pennies instead of dollars and he said he'd never won a Superfecta and never expected to win so he bet pennies instead of dollars.

So now my brother and I have finally won a Superfecta.  Yes, we nailed them from first to fourth place.  We even had the foresight to bet the race.  But don't ever have your slightly crazy brother place the bet without checking the tickets or you may wind up winning parking money rather than $75,000.

As for me, I'm back to sticking with picking just the winner.  So here are the horses that Churchill Downs says are qualified for the Derby so far.  More will be added later as other three year olds win the Derby prep races.

Algorithms

Owner: Starlight Racing

Trainer: Todd Pletcher

Jockey: Javier Castellano

 Alpha

Owner: Godolphin

Trainer: Kiaran McLaughlin

Jockey: Ramon Dominguez

Creative Cause

Owner: Heinz Steinmann

Trainer: Mike Harrington

Jockey: Joel Rosario

 Dullahan

Owner: Donegal Racing

Trainer: Dale Romans

Jockey: Kent Desormeaux

Gemologist

Owner: WinStar Farm LLC.

Trainer: Todd Pletcher

Jockey: Javier Castellano

Hansen

Owner: Dr. Kendall Hansen & Sky Chai Racing

Trainer:Mike Maker

Jockey: Ramon Dominguez

I'll Have Another

Owner: J. Paul Reddam

Trainer: Doug O'Neill

Jockey: Mario Gutierrez

Liaison

Owner: Arnold Zetcher

Trainer: Bob Baffert

Jockey: Rafael Bejarano

Sabercat

Owner: Winchell Thoroughbreds

Trainer: Steve Asmussen

 Union Rags

Owner: Chadds Ford Stable

Trainer: Michael Matz

 

As for me, maybe I'll just have to go on a bike ride.  Might as well enjoy early spring.

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Internet Service Stocks - Once Again Facing Imminent Collapse

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The cyber world of dot coms has seen a rather tumultuous start to the 21st millennium.  It began with the dot com boom and bust that peaked in 1999-2000.  As the after market crashed, reality set in, and options morphed from retirement funds to wallpaper, most people believe it was a situation that was overdue.  There was no foundation to support the high flying stock values in the market place.  Seemingly overnight 60-70% of the value of many of these companies vanished.

What insidious dark forces were at work in the high flying tech sector to bring such chaos and devastation to the silver lining?  Well, where do I start?  Perhaps the most obvious can be found in the faces of the new tech Wizards.  Often what is not there is more telling than what is.  Their faces seemed too clean, too unblemished, and too confident.

They lacked the lines and scars of experience found etched in the faces of the Old World masters, meaning those people in business prior to 1999.  When the Wizards were still in diapers and cutting teeth, the old masters were setting in motion a sustained economic growth unparalleled in the history of the US, and the world.

Once e-mails became the staple of American leisure time, and the pc became the Source for all that is, then the Wizards declared the old economy to be a dinosaur and relegated the veterans of American capitalism to be ready for the museums.

That was how we ended the last millennium and the results were quite expected.  The wisdom of the Wizards of technology gave us a stock prices collapse, options evaporated, losses continue to mount and the seemingly endless money pit went dry.  Yes, the Internet certainly speeded up everything, including failure.

Where did the e-commerce Wizards go wrong?  If blame is to be assigned at all, it should be assigned to those that bought the hyperbole in the first place.  For a short time all rules of economic logic and reason were suspended.  For a short time greed dominated the marketplace.

Look at what we forgot.  Revenues were no longer important.  Profitability vanished.  Multiples were no longer relevant.  Market caps were established by smoke and mirrors.  Executive experience was no longer considered necessary.  At times being young enough to have zits was an acceptable substitute for training.

So what if there was no market for the new product or service, the "Internet" would fix all that with its vast new market of consumers.  The principle of supply and demand gave way to the concept of creating demand regardless of need and regardless of supply.

The same with using traditional media and advertising.  The power of the Internet would fix that too.  Conventional broadcast and print media would soon be obsolete, and certainly weren't needed for the e-commerce high flyers.

As for competition, copycats flourished as the new economists determined that the Internet would create such a massive new consumer market that anything and everything could be sold.  Have faith in the digital revolution and trust the cyber gods.

In one form or another capitalism has existed in this country for about 500 years.  We fled unfair taxes, traded Manhattan for costume jewelry, and beat up the English over tax on tea, all before we even had a country.  Now our capitalist system has been a dominant world force for a couple of hundred years.  Yet in the course of 12-18 months the high-flying Wizards of the new economy were going to change all that and bury tradition in the ashes of the cyber firestorm.

By the 4th quarter of 1999 it seemed the cyber gurus might be right as greed and need sucked the masters of the old economy into the furious world of dot coms.  Suddenly the names attached to the IPOs read like a guest list to a presidential fundraiser or Board meeting of the Metropolitan Museum.  Familiar names.  The backbone of the American financial infrastructure.

Well folks, the fad flopped.  Along the way we discovered the Wizards really didn't know it all.  A lot of people got burned, and a lot of people got hurt.  Many compromised their values for the quick buck.  Those rushing to jump on the e-commerce bandwagon, despite the warnings and suspicions of the old economy warriors, found the wagon missing when they landed.

Less than a year after the spectacular ascent of the cyber gods, came the even more spectacular fall.  In the vernacular of the cyber psychics, the ascension never quite got off the ground.  It will take years for the impact to be realized.  Make no mistake, through it all the cyber revolution has forever changed the American and world landscape.  Even in many positive ways.

So in the spirit of David Letterman, perhaps we should establish the top ten misconceptions from the coming out party for the cyber revolution, sort of a new millennium report card for the years 2000-2001.  Clearly these represent the views of the author and will be far from all-inclusive, but I would hope many contributions will be added by more informed readers.

Lesson #10:

The rules of capitalism do not apply to the new economy of the cyber world.

Sorry folks, but capitalism is capitalism no matter what the industry or technology.  The same rules apply to capitalism that always applied to capitalism whether we are in the industrial age, the service age, or the cyber age.  A business still needs a product, revenue and profits to succeed.

Lesson #9:

In the cyber world experience is not necessary for success.

There is still a need for competent and experienced management.  Having Internet access to more choices and information and bigger markets does not automatically result in management knowledge and wisdom.  As always, experience is a process of learning, not declaring.

Lesson #8:

Acceptance of new technology will happen overnight.

It took 70 years for radio to mature in America.  Fifty years for television to take hold.  Vinyl records were around for 75 years before compact discs really replaced them.  Even eight track recorders died a very slow death.  Phones became accepted in the last half-century.  Computers have been in development since the 1940's.  Cable TV has been in use since the 1950's.  And still not all homes in America have phones, personal computers or even cable television.

Lesson #7:

Technology breakthroughs will benefit all related technologies.

So as long as the public buys a new technology, they will buy all new technology.  I don't think so.  The market explosion in video games and high tech gadgets was supposed to mean we are adapting to the cyber world.  Yet Sony sold 80 million Play stations (a high tech marvel at the time) but only 20% of the buyers had access to the Internet.

Lesson #6:

The new economy would render traditional masters of the old economy obsolete.

This is a bold and arrogant perspective with no historical basis.  In our system of capitalism winners and losers are determined by sustained performance, adaptability, access to resources, and staying power.  Often times the traditional economic leaders let others make mistakes before embracing new concepts.  Never will that be more apparent than if or when retailing giants Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target and J.C. Penny suddenly become the dominant forces in e-commerce.

Lesson #5:

The millions and millions of new Internet users represent an entire new market for consumer goods and services.

This might sound logical but it is based on an unfounded assumption.  What in the world do we think these millions of new users have been doing before the Internet?  They still bought everything they needed from traditional sources.  The Internet does not represent a new market but an opportunity to shift the market share from traditional consumer sources to cyber sources.  To achieve that, the consumer must be given a reason to change buying habits.  Access to the Internet is not a reason, just an opportunity.

Lesson #4:

The Internet will foster unlimited new opportunities in audio and video broadcasting including interactive communication.

Well guess what folks, who in the world will ever have time to surf 500 video channels, 10,000 audio broadcasts, not to mention the hundreds of interactive channels for every major retailer and cause in America?  Already the many but still limited choices on cable television have left the public in a quandary.  Interactive tests have failed miserably.  Over 5 million websites exist before the real broadcast benefits of the Internet have been felt.

Lesson #3:

The Internet itself can provide all the advertising opportunities necessary for the new economy players.

With millions of users in the US one would think this could be true.  But the truth of the matter is the Internet has resulted in market segmentation and fragmentation on a level never before seen or experienced.  What the technology of the Internet has done is give the consumer the chance to exit or ignore ads like never before.  Our click happy culture has discovered the ability to spend an average of a few seconds looking at a screen before zapping along.  So while we are bombarded by more cyber driven commercial messages than radio or television ever dared throw in our face, reach and frequency no longer have meaning.

Lesson #2:

The Internet technology will render all current forms of communication technology obsolete.

This statement implies that the Internet, as well as existing communication technology, is good in the first place, which remains to be proven.  However, whether one surfs the web or works the remote, there is a furious competition for your attention.  Demographic analysis is more complex than ever.  The "known's" of traditional media remain much clearer than the "unknowns" of the Internet.  Don't look for this to change any time soon.

Lesson #1:

Thanks to the Internet, the world will never be the same.

Instant worldwide communications has indeed given us the opportunity to be better informed, better educated, and easier misled than at any other time in our history.  High technology has given us a new way to communicate.  But communications without morality and standards has created a whole new playing field for purveyors of fraud, deceit and corruption.

I count this as a misconception, but with positive leanings, for the power of information and education will, in time, result in a world with more truth.  In a Biblical sense, the Internet will finally bridge the horrible gaps in communication between people and races and maybe even religions.  Ever since we were cursed with multiple tongues as a lesson in ancient Babylon, we have been separated by language.  The cyber world is tearing down those barriers.

So What About Today?

As we sit on the verge of the Face Book IPO for $10 billion has much changed over the past decade?  Not really.  People now lose over $50 billion in fraud, credit card theft, cell phone theft and identity theft thanks to the digital revolution.

Now electronic banking has expanded digital crime to new frontiers.  As we clearly saw this past recession, the Internet age has greatly speeded up the creation of new crimes and the execution of those crimes on a worldwide basis.

Even today the Internet has become the haven for massive "Internet service companies" like Face Book, Google and Yahoo among many others.  With Face Book preparing to make a run at becoming the most valuable company in the world when the IPO is issued, it will leave Face book worth $100 billion, are we hell bent for another major Internet adjustment and market crash?

In terms of establishing fair market value for Internet companies, there is no justification for the Face Book valuations because it is just as impossible today as it was ten years ago to determine the real value of Internet advertising.

Think of this, 90% of the Face Book revenues come from advertising and Internet advertising has been dropping each year as businesses are developing the statistics to prove there is no value in the ads that bombard our computer screens.

With most ad revenues dropping at least 10% this past year, we are on the cusp of seeing a major collapse in the real value of such ads, the real impact on earnings, and the real annoyance factor from being blasted by ads.

Also, in an ad industry with few standards and no guarantees, how long will companies pay exaggerated prices for such ads?  As ad revenue continues to drop what will the Face Books of the world do to maintain stockholder value?

Increase ad prices?  Hardly.  Charge Face Book members a user fee?   Most certainly.  Sell more and more personal data of the members?  That has already begun as you will note from the massive new increase in junk mail based on the sale of your personal information and personal interests stolen from your emails, and web searches.

I predict a massive devaluation of Internet service companies because of their foundation of cards.  This Internet advertising base can evaporate overnight, was never based on loyalty to begin with, violates every accounting standard known in terms of determining the long term value of a company, and is so vague and unregulated those who profit from the stock price manipulations will never be prosecuted for the massive fraud they are currently using to concoct fair market value.

The stock market is dancing on thin ice with the highly inflated Internet service companies and the manipulation of prices and values.  How many normal people will ever get a chance to buy Face Book stock in this new IPO?  Who bought the initial $10 billion since it has all been pre-sold?  Why are certain Internet companies stock priced so high?

These and other issues relating to the rise and fall again of Internet stocks will be examined. In the meantime, you should think about it and study what is taking place so you aren't victimized like the millions of stockholders the last couple of times people operated in the Dark Side of the Internet with our money.

Maybe it is time to consider a break from the Internet world and enjoy what you might have left behind.

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Lost and Found - That First Cup of Coffee

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So I got up three times this morning, meaning I went to bed three times as well.  It was a typical sleep with my brain running wild when it was supposed to be resting.  That is a curse I face which I suspect ties in to the Salem Witch Trial curse already inflicted on my ancestors.

Let me explain.  Tests indicate my brain never goes to sleep like it should every night when it is supposed to go into a REM (Rapid Eye Movement) state and recharge your batteries.  Somehow it tricks my body into a REM state and then the wily brain is off to Alice's Wonderland where nothing is as it seems.

So while you might spend the midnight hours safely asleep and restoring your body and mind, my mind is off in the Land of Oz, Wonderland, Camelot, or where ever my fantasy wants to go.  Now who would want to miss a chance like that?

As for the Salem Witch curse, if you check the real records of what transpired in the Salem Witch Trials back in 1692 you will find many, far too many, references to my paternal ancestors.

For a time they were suspected of providing a sanctuary for the witches and wizards from the Puritans and several times they came close to getting caught.  But it was other family members, part of the Church hierarchy, who falsely testified, were part of the trial or part of the clergy condemning the witches.

Thus the sins of the father, mother or whoever most certainly can result in a powerful spell being cast against the accusers, and all future generations of that family, like me, for something that happened 320 years ago.

At least I used it as an excuse for failing to do something, like homework when in school or chores at home.  You need some bizarre family stories to make for a decent genealogy and to be able to mesmerize the kids with your spell.

Now back to getting up.  Here is my routine.  Pour a cold cup of yesterday's coffee.  Check my face in the mirror to make certain some alien walk in did not take place overnight.  Grab the remote control and sample the various cable news shows listening until I'm certain they are still in a mindless babble mode.

Then I ask my brain what I did last night and wait for the download.  My next physical activity, (until this point I only walked down from the bedroom to the kitchen, poured the coffee, and staggered to the front room to remote cruise the cable), is my daily radiation fix.

This is my second concession to modern technology having already subjected myself to the television radiation.  So I wander to the pc and check my emails, the comments and stats on my newspaper, and confirm that I again failed to win the lottery so my routine will continue ad infinitum.

Then I think, I write, I fantasize just so I can check my options, and finally eat lunch.  From that point on all measure of predictability, planning, foresight or productivity can and most likely will be thrown to the winds.

When we were kids my kid brother, one year younger, would get bored and come find me to conjure up our next adventure, we called them "capers"  Finding something to do was never a problem for my mind.  It did not matter if I was alone, with my brother or in group, an endless series of "what to do" possibilities were always waiting on the tip of my tongue.

I think that is missing from a lot of kids in today's world.  The desire for adventure, a thirst for knowledge, a hunger for understanding and a motivation to learn what you don't know and experience what you've never seen.  We should all help them.

Right now kids are trapped into delegating all their knowledge, wisdom, time, maturity and truth to the viral world of the Internet.  Talk about peer pressure.  If you don't have the latest I Phone, I Pad, Smart Phone and Apps then forget it, you are ostracized from society.

Add to that the parental pressure to keep up with technology, network with all those kids in case any of them might be kids of rich people who can help you some day, to finally to compete and do all those other things parents seem obsessed to do with computers.

So the phone can replace your teachers and social media replaces society, it has now become viral.  With the Internet you never need to personally know your best friends.  In fact, with the Internet, you can create any kind of persona for yourself you want, thus insuring you can never interact with people lest you expose who you really are.

Losers can have friends.  The lonely can find lovers.  The dumb can act smart.  And we can all live happily ever after as long as we never expose the person behind the facade.

The Internet has ruptured the fabric of family and societal structure leaving real people dependent on a machine for communication, companionship, knowledge, entertainment and all the creativity in your life.

On a national level we need to Take Back America and on a personal level we need to Take Back Our Kids from the precipice of self-destruction which comes when the mind becomes a useless thing and only follows instructions from the God in the Cloud of Cyber Space.

Save a kid.  Unplug him or her.  Teach them the real life meaning of knowledge, wisdom, caring and love.  Teach them their responsibility to be creative, sing, dance and be happy.  In the process we just might remember our long lost responsibilities as well.

Teach them to think, to be sociable, to be articulate and to be humble and all those other things our technology has not quite mastered yet.  Video games should be an occasional diversion, not a constant obsession.  Life is more than being bombarded with the latest videos, movies and music that somebody else decided you need.

I mean we can still do things for ourselves, can't we?

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