» MGPoE Mark Graham Plan of Excellence

April 12, 2011

Should Dayton get a Space Shuttle?

Filed under: Mark's World,MGPoE,Politics — Mark Graham @ 10:56 pm
Tags: Dayton, politics, Space Shuttle

Ok, so let me preface this by saying that I’m a proud Daytonian, and absolutely believe a shuttle should have come to Dayton – which by now Charles Bolton has informed the world that Dayton will, in fact, not receive a shuttle. While this is truly disappointing to me, and a lot of other people I know, I need to take a realistic look at this: Should Dayton have gotten a Space Shuttle?

For me, the answer is simple – it comes down to numbers. If I were NASA, I would want the shuttle to go where it is going to be viewed the most – that’s fair, and I can’t blame them for that. So, let’s break it down:

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex – draws over 1.5 million visitors per year.
The California Science Center – draws around 1.5 million visitors per year.
Air and Space Museum in New York City – gets over 915,000 visitors per year.
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian draws close to 9 million visitors per year.

So clearly the winner here is the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian should get best of breed – they blow everyone away!

Next on the list is clearly Kennedy Space Center – with over 1.5 million visitors per year, who can argue with that, right?

Then that leaves us with NY – they get over 915,000 visitors per year – that’s an impressive number. So clearly they should get the last shuttle right?

If you were wondering, the answer should be ‘NO’. The most conservative number that I could find about visitors visiting the National Museum of the United States Air Force was over 1,000,000 visitors per-year. Sorry, that blows away New York!!!!

What got me interested in doing this article was when Richard Kasier said “Sadly politics played a role in this decision.” I thought, really? Did they? Does Dayton get that many visits compared to NY, CA, and DC? – They don’t – except DC, clearly.

While I took the most conservative number in my report of Dayton’s National Museum of the United States Air Force – I took the most liberal number for each of the other museums (i.e., the higher of all of them). If I took Dayton’s highest number, like I did with all of the other Museums, I would have come up with a number around 1.5 million – way, way higher than NY’s highest visitor count of more than 915k/year.

Sadly, Chuck Schumer, and his cronies, played a HUGE role in this decision – and it was a poor decision for the American Public – Dayton would have done far more justice than NY. NY, one of the largest cities in the world – yet Dayton beats it regularly in museum visits.

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March 19, 2011

Health Food to Live By

Filed under: Fitness,Mark's World,MGPoE — Mark Graham @ 11:28 pm
Tags: fitness, health, weight loss, words to live by

You know there is a lot of talk about what is healthy and what is not healthy and all of that. I used to be a believer in things that were healthy – you know like whole wheat bread is somehow healthier than white bread. Well no more, I don’t buy into any of that and I’m no longer going to say that something is unhealthy.

For example, the pizza to the right, that’s not an unhealthy pizza is it? No, no, I know exactly what your thinking “Oh yes it is!”. But let’s look at the pizza – its nourishing right? So what makes it so unhealthy then? The high amount of calories or fat? If that’s the case, let me ask you this – if there was a 1 inch by 1 inch square piece of pizza there would you think: “Wow, that’s one unhealthy piece of pizza there!”? Or would you think “That’s a pretty small piece of pizza, and not all that unhealthy.”

For me, I would most likely say the second “That’s a pretty small piece of pizza….” Then I would most likely, without thinking about the health consequences , pick it up and eat it. Eating that small piece of pizza hasn’t deteriorated my health in anyway has it?

So let’s be clear about something – food isn’t unhealthy – its the proportion of food you eat. If you ate the entire pizza above, that’s clearly not healthy – that’s over 5,000 calories!!! Likewise with salad – if you ate 5,000 calories of salad – that’s not healthy either and I would argue it is just as unhealthy as eating the entire pizza above.

You see my Dr. once told me that ANY diet in the whole world will work. As long as you burn more calories in one day than what you consume. And that is absolutely true. I’ve done several diets:

Atkins – worked amazingly for me! I lost close to 60 pounds on Adkins – and before you start saying that’s not a healthy diet – it is, my cholesterol shot way down, as did my blood pressure and everything else. However, Atkin’s isn’t realistic to live on for ever – sorry, it just doesn’t seem possible.

Weight Watchers – another great diet, it taught me a lot about proportions. After coming off of Adkins – I had no clue how much food I was allowed to eat – so Weight Watchers really taught me a lot there.

MGPoE – This is my own diet – I eat whatever I want, but I don’t go crazy like I used too. Don’t get me wrong, I stick with lower calorie foods because you get more “Bang for the Buck” not because they are healthier.

I’m Mark Graham and I’m a recovering foodaholic. I used to weigh in at 350 pounds – since then I’ve lost over 130 pounds – so I like to think I’m a self proclaimed expert on this matter. For anyone that is trying to lose a lot of weight, understand that food is absolutely an addiction – and it is something that I battle everyday, and will for the rest of my life. Sadly, I’ll never not struggle with food, this will always be a hard journey for me. But knowing that simple fact is half the battle, the other half is the willpower to say ‘no’ to eating too much – regardless of how “healthy” it is.

February 3, 2011

Where’s the money?

Filed under: Fitness,Mark's World,MGPoE,Sports — Mark Graham @ 8:22 pm
Tags: Basketball, fitness, Football, MGPoE, OSU, Sports

So as I sit here and watch the OSU versus Michigan (go Bucks) I start to wonder, where is the money?

Why can’t these athletes get paid? Is it because college is somehow held to a higher moral standard than professional sports? I don’t think so – millions are made by athletic programs around the country. The NCAA has to make a TON off of college sports, let alone everyone else. In fact, college sports are one of the most ‘sellout’ sports ever. They have a bowl game called the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl – really? Why is it everyone makes money here, except the athletes?

Anyway, before I continue too much on my rant, I do sort of get why they can’t be paid by colleges – believe it or not. If athletes were paid by the school, wouldn’t they just be a minor league team? What about all the smaller colleges that can’t afford the best athletes, their programs would suffer dramatically.

So what’s the Mark Graham Plan of Excellence suggest? Well, it suggests allowing the students to make money. Not by the school, but by sponsorships. If Nike wants to sponsor a Terrelle Pryor – why can’t they? Because the NCAA wants to keep as much money as possible, that’s why. Is it any wonder why the NCAA allowed Pryor and others to play in the sugar bowl game after they ‘broke’ the rules by selling their stuff? Because the NCAA wouldn’t have made near as much money had they not played.

Why did I put quotes around the word broke you ask? There is no question in my mind that those players broke the rules, but that doesn’t mean the rule is right. And no rule is ever going to get changed unless it is challenged first. I think it is a stupid rule, and it needs to be challenged and eventually done away with.

So I say let them make as much money as the market will bear!

P.S. Basketball players have to be the worlds best actors. Its amazing how a light touch will send a player skirting across the floor.

January 30, 2011

Walking the Unemployment Line

Filed under: Mark's World,MGPoE — Mark Graham @ 5:40 pm
Tags: employment, finances, jobs, MGPoE, unemployment

With unemployment currently around 9.1 percent, I think we need to start taking a look at where the problem lies. The Mark Graham Plan of Excellence suggests that the problem really lies with the government paying people to not be employed. Can you believe it? The government will actually pay you while you are not employed. With a deal like that, why ever get a job? Oh, wait a second…. I think I’m on to something here.

Personally, I’m not for unemployment compensation – I think it is too burdensome on businesses, and generally I think people need to be prepared in life for anything that might happen. Is it any wonder why we run our credit limits to the max? We always have a nice cushy pillow to fall back on – unemployment, social security, Medicare/Medicaid, and the list continues. Anyway, even though I’m not for it, I realize we can’t just totally end this job killing social program. So I’ve come up with a Mark Graham Plan of Excellence program to help this situation.

Let’s face it; unemployment stands to only encourage people not to work. It’s simple economics – if you reward someone for doing something, they will continue to do it. In this case, the reward is the money they receive for not working. Now how can we fix this issue? Well, the MGPoE suggests we change the system completely around and give incentives (in this case rewards) for going back to work. The MGPoE prescribes two ways to handle this issue:

Lump Sum Payment – Let’s say the average unemployment claim, for the entire time the person is unemployed, averages around $10,000. Now the MGPoE’s recommendation would be to take 85% of that amount and pay it out to the newly unemployed filer. You get no more, and you get no less. Thus the faster the unemployed finds a job, the more of the $8,500 says in their pocket.

The other option is similar, but the unemployed person would continue to receive their weekly unemployment compensation. For this situation, lets say the average unemployment claim per week is $416. So if the unemployed finds a job in the first month they would get a nice big check for $6,000. If they find a job in the second month, they get a check for $4,500. Third month they would get $3,000, fourth month they would get $1,500, and nothing after that. All unemployment benefits would run out, period, after the 6th month.

Now I don’t think that everyone is lazy when it comes to trying to find another job. But I do believe that as long as people are getting paid for not working, they will not settle for anything less than what they were getting before (at least until their benefits run out). So let’s say you make $50,000/year and you lose your job. A few weeks later a potential employer offers you $42,000/year to come work for them. Under the current unemployment compensation program most people wouldn’t consider this as an option. However, under the MGPoE unemployment compensation program these kinds of offers would be a lot more tempting – because you get to keep a lot more of your lump sum payout.

Obviously a lot of market research would need to go into these options, but this would be an excellent way to save money on unemployment, and give incentives for people to increase their effort into finding a new job. There would also need to be some rules placed on the above programs to ensure they aren’t scammed like today’s unemployment program. For example, a rule that would be required is how often can one file for unemployment compensation? I would argue it should only be once ever 4 or 5 years.

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Mark Graham Plan of Excellence