As an observer of this world, I can't help but call attention to interesting connections that I feel are being overlooked. Forgive me if you have heard this one before, but I have not, which is why I am creating this post. If you dont like to read, or just dont have the time, Figure 1 below pretty much explains it all.

Fig. 1
Please note the correlation between the unemployment rate (yellow) and facebooks monthly traffic (blue)

Black hole economics comes to me as a concept which has a severe negative impact on the growth of an economy and the people that are a part of it. I use the term black hole because this seems to be how these micro industries operate. Here's a brief description of a black hole from wikipedia.

"A black hole is a region of space from which nothing, including light, can escape."

Lets start by looking at some industries that are NOT black holes. The auto makers not only provide transportation for workers to get to and from jobs, they also provide jobs within the industry itself. They, in a sense, provide a useful product that people can use productively, which in turn "stimulates" the economy. Agriculture, now this should be a no-brainer, as every animal on this planet consumes some sort of food. Therefore, it has a positive effect, people can't do much if they don't eat. On the other hand there is one industry that does not have the stimulating effect that most industries have. Ill call it "The Worthless Web". This industry takes in the majority of the most valuable resource (time) and returns far less in economic positivity. Call it a rant or call it interesting, but the following content will give my perspective of this industry.

When looking at the most recent economic down turn (depression), I begin to notice the vast amount of emphasis on the fact that so many people are losing jobs, and/or cant find jobs. Then I noticed the enormous growth in social networking, social bookmarking, and entertainment sites. (facebook, myspace, digg, youtube, etc.)

"Whats the connection?" you might ask. Well, it's not hard to notice that the majority of videos, posts and comments are about frivolous matters which deal with anything but self improvement or the improvement of others. This is the reason why I included the jobs sites traffic and w3schools. They are a part of the web industry, yet have an orientation to give back to those who visit (but look at how low their traffic is when compared).

If there were as many people visiting websites to find a job, there may not be as many people without one. And if these people don't have the skills to find a job, then they should be spending more hours acquiring those skills from sites like w3schools (which is basically a flat-line when compared to the others). Now, there has however been a decent amount of traffic at www.ehow.com, which is basically a site for learning. This is great! But my disappointment starts when I look at the "Top 10 eHows". Here are the top 5 from that list.

1. How to Give Your Boyfriend a Valentine's Day Present
2. How to Install the ActiveX Control on Facebook Photos
3. How to Find Your Computer IP Address (Windows)
4. How to Make Guacamole
5. How to Upload Photos on Facebook

Two of them deal with facebook! Not a single one appears to be progress towards a career foundation.

Moving on, I would also like to mention, the secondary effect (or primary depending on how you look at it). The time spent on these sites, which take away from the productivity of those who do have jobs. Now, Ill leave it up to the individual as to what is a reasonable work to browse ratio, but I just find it hard to believe that we are being as efficient as we can when the top youtube video has 136,788,775 views. That's almost 1 view for every 2 people in the US. And that's not the kicker, the real joke is the actual content of the video (do a search for "Evolution of Dance", and you'll see what I'm talking about). I wouldn't mind if the video was a tutorial on how to create drinking water from salt water, or how to do CPR, or a motivational passage from one of our world religions, or even geometry 101, but its not, its just not.

And yes yes, I understand that this post and all my others are in some way a contribution to all the crap on the web. I just hope that one can recognize my attempts to disseminate useful knowledge.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is fact, hence the word "theory". I will continue to look for more connections, and consult with some of the good minds that I know to find out if there is any other evidence to support this theory. If you have links or any other useful info, please contact me

During the writing of this I was able to think of one other industry which may create similar effects in our economy and culture, Sports. Though it may not be as severe as the black holes found on the Internet, its concentration of intake, is far greater than its positive economic output.

So I would like to declare a new holiday which will take place each Wednesday. Windex Wednesday allows us all to get a clean start for the remainder of the week. To participate, simply give yourself one generous blast of Windex (or a generic brand blue liquid substitute) instead of your usual cologne, perfume or smelly goods. If you are a bigger guy or girl you might want to think about taking advantage of a second squirt, it may give everyone the extra pop that the holiday is after. Mix it up world, do something different. Stop being so serious. Please join us every Windex Wednesday.

“Mixed company”. A term my pops has used several times. Usually in regard to when it is and is not appropriate to pass gas or start up certain conversations. Well, over the years the people I have met and hung out with would give the term a new facet, so here goes.

As I start to settle in here in Hawaii I start to look at the transition and how good it is to my soul. As most of you know, im a bit of a mess and all over the place with my ideas and directions in life. So to keep you up to date I thought I would write this and introduce you to my new site.

I’ve never been too good with words so I figured I would simply show some pictures and lay out some facts and new knowledge that I have gained in the past few weeks.

1: When you don’t have a car, you have to take a taxi to the post office to mail large boxes.

2: One in every two thousand people that enter the post office in San Francisco’s china town branch are under the age of… say…. 65

3: It costs $240 to send a 23lb bike from San Francisco to Honolulu via UPS (2 days).

4: It cost $179.40 to send A guitar, a computer, 2x19” monitors, and box of random items, and a regular size duffel bag via USPS (15 days. They said 7-10 days. Image below).

5: Surfing is hard work… (the paddling)

6: If you don’t where a shirt while surfing, chances are you will end up with strawberries on your stomach and nipples.

7: Sea urchin stings hurt a lot longer than I would have hoped

8: Snorkeling is somewhere between sleep, a roller coaster ride, meditation, a horror movie, and heaven.

9: People take pictures of you if you paddle a kayak down the Ala Wai canal.

10: The Hilton across from me does a fireworks show 1-2 times a week.

11: Most of the street names here only have four letters… K, L, A, and U and range from 3 to 20 letters long.

To close things out, I want to tell everyone that I really appreciate the connections we have made. Thank you for being you, because it allows me to be me. Life is short but the journey is long. Ill end with a quote from the movie troy (not sure of its origin).

“The Gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be more lovely than you are now. We will never be here again.”

If you haven’t seen it, see it.

May thy path bring thee peace
Au revoir

Why does life want to continue?
To learn about itself.

Why does life want to learn about itself?
To discover/sense itself.

Why does life want to discover/sense itself?
To gain the ability to answer that question.

Work molds us. The result is that we value what is returned by that sacrifice of time and of life. We become our jobs. We begin to hate those who cause us work and start to asses everyday life from that angle even when we are not working.