Sean
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Short talking points
- It has been reported that China emits more greenhouse gases than all the other developed countries combined. China emits 27% of the world’s greenhouse gas, with the next biggest emitter being the United States at 11%.
- Greenhouse gases cause the greenhouse effect on Earth, which traps heat on the Earth’s surface and heats it up. This is the cause of climate change and why the Earth is heating up. People are getting concerned that the Earth’s temperature will get so hot that it will be uninhabitable.
- The greenhouse effect on Earth works just like that for plants. Like a glass greenhouse that is used for plants, the atmosphere allows sunlight to pass through along with the heat from the sun’s rays. Normally, the heat would then dissipate from the Earth’s surface back into space. But the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere act like the glass walls of a greenhouse for plants, keeping the heat trapped inside the atmosphere.
Long talking points
- There was an article in Wired magazine called Why Is It So Hard to Be Evil in Video Games?
- It’s a very interesting question. You can definitely be a little evil in video games like a first-person shooter or a side-scrolling shooter. Killing people in a first-person shooter would be quite realistic and could borderline on aggression development.
- But It’s an interesting concept. Everyone has a little bit of evil in them but it is masked by our goodness. It would be nice to be able to release some of that pent-up evil energy using video games as a portal and therapy. It’s also debatable whether video games are a better format for kids to take out their aggression instead of sports, bullying other kids, or stepping on ants.
- We’ve all heard the term pay-as-you-go. It’s a revenue model for only paying for what you use. But wouldn’t it be really interesting if there was a pay-if-you-learn revenue model in the education and skills training space.
- Imagine this type of fantasy revenue model could be implemented in colleges. Maybe they could have a basic fee for joining the college and would charge a lot of extras on top of that if the student really mastered the material.
- The difficult part for a company or university to implement such a model is being able to prove that the student has learned the material. And it’s very difficult. Even if the student has learned completely, why would he prove it in a test if he then has to pay more money?
- Also, it can’t just be a tiered model where students pay more if they get A’s. This won’t work because:
- Just because you get an A on a test doesn’t mean you’ve really mastered the material, and
- This type of system could easily be exploited. Both parents and colleges have an incentive to give students better grades than they deserve.
- Just an interesting type of revenue model we thought about.
- Tim Tebow expected to sign with Jacksonville Jaguars to play TE instead of quarterback.
- Timothy Richard Tebow is a former American football quarterback and baseball player. He played college football for the University of Florida (Florida Gators) winning the Heisman Trophy in 2007 and appearing on BCS National Championship-winning teams (same as FBS championship) during the 2006 and 2008 seasons.
- In the NFL, Tebow played for the Denver Broncos and the New York Jets. He also played minor league baseball as an outfielder in the New York Mets organization. Tebow is known for his outspoken Christian faith as well as his athletic prowess. His practice of kneeling in prayer on the football field has become known as “Tebowing”.
- After leaving the NFL Tebow also had a stint as a broadcaster. He was hired by ESPN as a football analyst and also worked on the SEC Network.
