How do Balance a Budget for Dummies (all 535 of them)

During class, Mrs. Weser had given us a link to a game called "Budget Heroes." The game gives you a challenge to balance the budget of the US economy by eliminating and adding "cards" which either add or contribute to the debt. I played this game and I have to say that I am quite impressed by it. It works by simulating the possible outcomes of your descisions in subtracting/adding cards. I took away luxury items (travel budgets, wealthy senior healthcare etc.) and put some of the money (about a tenth of what I cut) into DARPA, NASA, and education (specifically college tuition rates). Eventually, I had about a 50B surplus compared to the -600B deficit that I started with. I cut the Interest payed on debts down to about half of it's former size and still managed to keep many discretionary spending programs intact.

I am literally better at balancing budgets than 535 professional politicians. I would make a great dictator I suppose.

Refection for 02-19-2014

This week, we discussed and debated about whether or not a Wal-Mart would be beneficial to the town. We eventually decided that the Wal-Mart was good to go and could begin building in Weserville. Some of the points that were brought up in the defense of Walmart coming to Weserville were the number of jobs created, additional source of revenue for the town, and an attraction to the town from other local towns. The downsides would be the loss of one of our small town businesses, the Dandy Mini-mart. But, I feel that the benefits outweigh the downsides.

Candy Crush Saga v. Candy Swipe: A Trademark Battle

Link
Recently, a game called candy swipe has spoken up saying that its rival, King.com, is trying to use trademark laws to remove Candy Swipe's copyright of the word "candy". Candy Swipe has been in the market for about 2 years whilst Candy Crush has just pooped up. But, King.com threw a curve-ball when they bought the rights to the game "Candy Crusher", another bejeweled clone from 2004.

This is an interesting case as many people like Candy Crush. But, now people may come to question the legal morals of King.com, especially since Candy Swipe was created in honor of the Developer's mother who passed away at 62 with Leukemia. They are likely to trade blows over this for the next  few months.

Evolutionary Theory vs Creation Theory

In case you missed it, here are the opinions of the Evolutionary Theory vs. Creation Theory. Bill Nye and Ken Ham debated the two dominant theories of origin. The live stream of the debate was a whopping two hours and thirty minutes.

Bill Nye is a popular TV scientist and an advocate of science in education. Ken Ham is the founder of Answers in Genesis and the owner of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. Ken Ham noticed a lack of debates since 1980 on this topic, so he decided to create one.

Now that the basics are out of the way, lets get to my opinions. The debate, which I watched most of, was comparable to the Broncos and the Sea Hawks. It is no wonder why they stopped doing these in the 80s. The creationists are forced to use their imagination and a book, where as the evolutionist has the ability to use a database of facts and research. Even so, it goes to a problem I feel that all debates of religious theory vs. scientific theory have and will run into. Logic.

Conventional logic is simple. If you can prove it, it is proven. But religious logic runs inversely. If you can't prove it, there can't be a final decision. Somehow, it is better explained by this image here. Even so, I feel that Ken Ham was not the right person to debate creation v. evolution. He is a fundamentalist who believes in Fundamental Christianity. Maybe not even Bill Nye was right to debate evolutionary theory either since he is not an evolutionary scientist (on the other hand, he is a great public speaker).

Please keep all comments as far away from inflammatory as possible as this can always be a touchy subject.

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-Jake Z.