Ra Ra Ree... Kick em in the Knee...

Just a quick post following the State of the Union Speech tonight. All things considered I thought President Obama gave a great speech. He hit a lot of points that were both positive and bipartisan, making it easy to entice the applause out of the Republicans. While not being specific on most of his points (the devil is always in the details), he did mention a couple of issues that I think he will get in trouble for, protectionism being one of them.

But Enough of the serious stuff, my favorite parts were when he made Joe Biden blush like a school girl after his "Nobody messes with Joe" comment. The Vice President looked like a chameleon attempting to blend into the red stripes of the flag behind him.

The my other favorite part was watching Nancy Pelosi literally jump up and cheer like she was a cheerleader at a high school football game. She was so exuberant during the first part of the speech that someone must have said something to her because she toned it down as time passed. For a few minutes it was almost more entertaining watching her gush than it was watching the President.

Oh, the title of this post isn't meant to be mean spirited, it's the only cheer that I remember from high school...

Genomics and expanding economic value

Where will the next big value bump come from to excavate the world economy from its current pit. In a previous post, I attempted to draw a linkage to between our economic state and the value of the economy (I need to spend more time on this idea). That is the easy part, the hard part is to determine what the next major value contributor will be to the economy. This Simpsons short from Hulu.com serves may give us a clue.

or not... I just liked the clip.


Back in 2003 Juan Enriquez presented this talk on the future with genomics, a field with its roots dating all the way back to the 1970's. But there has always been something keeping the future of genomics from completely unfolding...at times our computers were to slow, other times the National policies were too hesitant, but today the primary obstacle is the the health of the economy (we have fast computers and a pro-science administration). So over the next few years, I would expect to see the field expand like it never has before.

There are a few companies that seem to agree that genomics may be the way forward. Invitrogen's purchase of Applied Biosciences combines the sale of gene sequencing equipment with genomic services. Can you imagine if you were able to upload your genome to Google Health and have Google send you alert you when treatments or cures were available for your genetic dysfunction... Now that's value!

Are you smarter that George Bush? Bill Clinton? Hillary?

The Kids IQ Center is an interesting site... It turns out that George W. Bush has an above average IQ (123), and is within seven points of President Obama (130-148, a range that I'm sure will be refined as his presedency proceeds). And Bill Clinton (137), while above average, isn't as smart as his wife, Hillary (140).



I dare anyone to take an IQ test and post their score on this blog, see how you stack up...

Very Interesting