Why Two Of My Friends Worked In Dublin For A Year Each

I cannot believe it but Ireland is the richest country in the European Union behind Luxembourg. After the jump, read Thomas Friedman's op-ed column from today's paper which explains how it happened. I guess it isn't so odd to me now that Eric and Erik both worked for Pfizer for a year in Dublin. Hurumph.

The End of the Rainbow

By Thomas L. Friedman

Dublin

Here's something you probably didn't know: Ireland today is the richest country in the European Union after Luxembourg.

Yes, the country that for hundreds of years was best known for emigration, tragic poets, famines, civil wars and leprechauns today has a per capita G.D.P. higher than that of Germany, France and Britain. How Ireland went from the sick man of Europe to the rich man in less than a generation is an amazing story. It tells you a lot about Europe today: all the innovation is happening on the periphery by those countries embracing globalization in their own ways - Ireland, Britain, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe - while those following the French-German social model are suffering high unemployment and low growth.

Ireland's turnaround began in the late 1960's when the government made secondary education free, enabling a lot more working-class kids to get a high school or technical degree. As a result, when Ireland joined the E.U. in 1973, it was able to draw on a much more educated work force.

By the mid-1980's, though, Ireland had reaped the initial benefits of E.U. membership - subsidies to build better infrastructure and a big market to sell into. But it still did not have enough competitive products to sell, because of years of protectionism and fiscal mismanagement. The country was going broke, and most college grads were emigrating.

"We went on a borrowing, spending and taxing spree, and that nearly drove us under," said Deputy Prime Minister Mary Harney. "It was because we nearly went under that we got the courage to change."

And change Ireland did. In a quite unusual development, the government, the main trade unions, farmers and industrialists came together and agreed on a program of fiscal austerity, slashing corporate taxes to 12.5 percent, far below the rest of Europe, moderating wages and prices, and aggressively courting foreign investment. In 1996, Ireland made college education basically free, creating an even more educated work force.

The results have been phenomenal. Today, 9 out of 10 of the world's top pharmaceutical companies have operations here, as do 16 of the top 20 medical device companies and 7 out of the top 10 software designers. Last year, Ireland got more foreign direct investment from America than from China. And overall government tax receipts are way up.

"We set up in Ireland in 1990," Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computer, explained to me via e-mail. "What attracted us? [A] well-educated work force - and good universities close by. [Also,] Ireland has an industrial and tax policy which is consistently very supportive of businesses, independent of which political party is in power. I believe this is because there are enough people who remember the very bad times to de-politicize economic development. [Ireland also has] very good transportation and logistics and a good location - easy to move products to major markets in Europe quickly."

Finally, added Mr. Dell, "they're competitive, want to succeed, hungry and know how to win. ... Our factory is in Limerick, but we also have several thousand sales and technical people outside of Dublin. The talent in Ireland has proven to be a wonderful resource for us. ... Fun fact: We are Ireland's largest exporter."

Intel opened its first chip factory in Ireland in 1993. James Jarrett, an Intel vice president, said Intel was attracted by Ireland's large pool of young educated men and women, low corporate taxes and other incentives that saved Intel roughly a billion dollars over 10 years. National health care didn't hurt, either. "We have 4,700 employees there now in four factories, and we are even doing some high-end chip designing in Shannon with Irish engineers," he said.

In 1990, Ireland's total work force was 1.1 million. This year it will hit two million, with no unemployment and 200,000 foreign workers (including 50,000 Chinese). Others are taking notes. Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said: "I've met the premier of China five times in the last two years."

Ireland's advice is very simple: Make high school and college education free; make your corporate taxes low, simple and transparent; actively seek out global companies; open your economy to competition; speak English; keep your fiscal house in order; and build a consensus around the whole package with labor and management - then hang in there, because there will be bumps in the road - and you, too, can become one of the richest countries in Europe.

"It wasn't a miracle, we didn't find gold," said Mary Harney. "It was the right domestic policies and embracing globalization."

Weekend Thoughts

The New Yorker says it best in its July 4th issue:

In Your Honor

The Foo Fighters have a new double disc titled "In Your Honor" which I am absolutely enjoying - so far I've listened to it a few times over the past 36 hours. I haven't been this pleased by a new disc by an "old" favorite of mine since maybe "Midnight Vultures" by Beck. I'm a huge Foos fan and this album, one disc rock (some metal, some pop, some hard rock) and one disc acoustic, is extremely satisfying.

I was very pleasantly surprised to read in the liner notes that John Paul Jones, 1 of 4 members of my all-time hands down favorite band Led Zeppelin played on 2 tracks. "Miracle" is okay but "Another Round" is very good. The Toronto Sun has an article about what it was like for Dave to play with John.

Some stand out songs me on these discs are "In Your Honor", "Best of You", "The Last Song", "End Over End", "DOA" (very poppy - will be a huge radio hit), "Cold Day In The Sun" (Dave is on drums in this one) "Another Round" (feat JPJ), "Razor" (which sounds very much like a Phish song) - hell, most of them are stand out songs. Buy the album or click on the Foo Player icon on there web site and tell me I'm wrong.

Sobering Stat of the Day

According to the most recent data from the National Science Foundation, 1.2 million of the world's 2.8 million university degrees in science and engineering in 2000 were earned by Asian students in Asian universities, with only 400,000 granted in the United States. That means the US of A supplies less than 15% of all degrees.

With China and India fast on the US's heals, we've got to do a better job as a nation of not only educating our future innovators and leaders but making them want to learn these subjects. Math and science are a hard sell but we've got to be able to close the deal or else we risk a future where America no longer leads but follows.

Fun with FireFox

I use FireFox as my web browser as much as I can help it - there are still some sites that are better viewed using IE but that number keeps falling - because its so wonderful. I love the tab based browsing and the bazillion of other neat features that FireFox offers. Today, I was checking out the various extensions offered after reading about a social networking plugin on Slashdot and found the following fun (to me) plugins:

• The Litany Against Fear: adds the text of "The Litany Against Fear" from Frank Herbert's Dune series to your brower. You go to the "tools" dropdown, select "I must not fear" and an alert box pops up with the full text. I memorized this quote in high school and it means a lot to me. I recite it before each and every athletic game I play. It is sort of responsible for a burn on my left hand. Now its in my browser. Sweet.
  
• TorrentBar: BitTorrent File Search Toolbar for Firefox. Allows to search numerous sites in a matter of minutes for needed torrent files. Nuff said.
  
• ForecastFox: adds Accuweather forecasts, which are so much better and more accurate than Weather.com forecasts, into your browser. Weather nuts will love this one.
  

Free Tours of the UN

I just learned that in honor of its 60th anniversary and to thank New Yorkers for their hospitality, the United Nations is giving free tours each Sunday in June. Note: there are only 2 Sundays left, this one and the next.

5 Seconds Rule Applies To Subway Floor?

In one of the oddest bits of news I've seen today, Monty sent me a link about how 2 men were eating a piece of watermelon on the subway when one piece dropped and skidded about half a foot. The man who was going to eat that half said "Damn!", picked up his half thought about it for a second and then started to pick a few things off his half and dug in. I love the camera phone snapshot. Happy Friday!

Nolan Nails It

I cannot begin to say enough good things about Batman Begins and its stellar director Christopher Nolan. This movie was everything that Revenge of the Sith should have been: a well written, cohesive and engaging story acted out by a superb cast that has been given stellar direction.

Simply put, Batman Begins in now my all-time favorite comic book movie. It has suplanted Batman (1989) in the top slot and pushed X-Men to third. I went to the 11:00 PM showing on Wednesday night with a bunch of co-workers (showing true geek dedication) and found it breathtaking and awe-inspiring. Walking out of the theatre, you ask, "What the hell am I doing with my life? I should be protecting the city from evil!"

The best part is that we saw it on the Loews Lincoln Center IMAX screen which made it flat-out intense. I highly suggest seeing this movie in this manner - it is totally worth it. I had seen Apollo-13 on this screen but it was not as good because it wasn't specially formatted for the IMAX screen - it was too big in many ways to enjoy. Batman however was specially formatted - it was letterboxed - and it looked fantastic.

On the strength of 3 movies - Memento, Insomnia and Batman Begins - Christopher Nolan has now gained a place of esteem on my list of top directors, which basically means I will now go see any Christopher Nolan film in the future.

Go and see this movie ASAP. Bat-time? Whenever you want. Bat-channel? Your local theatre.

By George, A New Stadium

The NY Yankees have announced they are building a new stadium in a deal worth around $800 million that is being almost totally privately funded. That means its coming out of George's pocket, not yours or mine, for the most part which is a breath of fresh air. In a nice bit of creative financing, the stadium will be financed by 40-year tax-free bonds issued by a local development corporation created by the city and state. The Yankees will have to shell out about $50 million a year in interest payments but that cost has the nice benefit of allowing the yankees to pay significantly less in revenue sharing each year to the rest of Major League Baseball. Why fund other teams when you can fund the construction of your own stadium? Very smart and shrewd move guys, I applaud you.

I for one am thrilled by the idea. I love the current stadium and have loved (though not necessarily enjoyed - losing games suck) every second that I have spent in it. The fact is though that its old, it needs to be updated and it needs to generate more revenue that it currently does, especially if the Yankees are to remain the Yankees. So, a new stadium at some point to me was a definite. It just was a matter of when, where and how. So, when the stadium proposal was publicly unveiled, I was very happy to see that it contained lots of good details, like how the current stadium will be kept for the use of local amateur, high school and college leagues and how "not only will the new house retain the feel of the current ballpark with identical field dimensions and bullpen placements, but many planned features will actually recapture some of the original features eradicated by the extensive renovation that was done on the old stadium from 1973-75."

When I was a kid, when Steinbrenner would rumble and threaten moving the team to NJ, I quaked in my little sneaks and prayed that moving day would never come. Over the years it was been a nagging fear and now I don't believe it will happen. The Bronx Bombers stay in the Bronx. Period.

After the jump, check out pics of the new stadium.

Lipso for MVP

It seems that a .309 batting average with 30 runs scored, 1 homer and 9 runs batted in is good enough to be added as a choice to the "Who has been the Riversharks MVP to this point in the season?" poll on the Camden Riversharks web site. The poll is below the fold so you'll need to scroll down to see it.

Do me and everyone who has "lipso" as part of their name (whether first or last) a favor and go vote for Lipso today. He's currently tied for the lead with 33% of the votes. I believe my faithful readers can push him over the top.

Costumes: Star Wars Style

NY 1 told me about this site devoted to capturing bad Star Wars costumes. Some of them are real bad. I particularly like picture 13 of the French Stroom Trooper Legion.

An Auction I Missed

Save the balls!

via blahblahblog

Getcha Scorecard Here!

Can't tell Conspiracy to commit child abduction from attempted lewd act on child under 14 without your scorecard! With less than 30 minutes to go before the Jackson verdict, here is what ever-so-classy CNN has on its website:

Search Engines In The News: Part II

A little over a year ago, I posted about a number of interesting search engines that haven't gotten combined the amount of press that Google alone has garnered. Today, the NY Times had an article about search engines which provided two more interesting engines that I felt compelled to list. Here they are:

• MrSapo, a bizarrely named but extremely useful engine because it allows quick, easy comparisons of the results of the same search on 45 different search engines. Using a DHTML interface, you toggle between the various engines. Using MrSapo, I found a picture Stephanie took of what she thinks an older me will look like.
• The Aquaint project, whose work is unclassified but has gone virtually unnoticed in the news media. The name stands for "advanced question answering for intelligence," and it refers to a joint effort by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and other federal intelligence organizations. To computer scientists, "question answering," or Q.A., means a form of search that does not just match keywords but also scans, parses and "understands" vast quantities of information to respond to queries. In the real Aquaint program, the questions are more likely to be, "Did any potential terrorist just buy an airplane ticket?" or "How strong is the new evidence of nuclear programs in Country X?" Apart from whatever the project does for national security, its innovations could eventually improve civilian search systems, much as the Pentagon's Arpanet eventually became the civilian Internet. Of course, the dark potential in ever more effective search-and-surveillance systems is also obvious. I'll be keeping my eye out for more news on this project.

PlusDeck2, aka The Gadget I Must Have

The $150 PlusDeck2 is a cassette deck the size of an internal CD-ROM drive that pops into any desktop PC's 5.25-inch drive bay. It turns tapes into MP3's - or, for true retro music fans, record MP3's onto blank cassettes. Yes, you read that correctly. Check out the picture below:

It's best feature? Why, validation for saving all my tapes all these years of course! As the NY Times put it, "pack rats who saved hundreds of tapes, to the annoyance of their significant others, will suddenly seem to be masters of foresight."

So very true. I just moved apartments a few months back and lugged all my tapes uptown, not even really knowing why, expect for the fact that I just couldn't throw them away. I must have over 125 great albums on tape that I'm just dying to convert to digital. I have tons mix tapes that I made through the years, like some off of Z-100 full off funny songs like "New Kids Got Run Over By A Reindeer" along with various "High 5 at 9" countdowns from the early 90's. I have a tape of me, age 4, reading a book and me, age 3, setting up blocks and them knocking them down (I wanted to hear how loud the crash sounded). I have an audio journal from a ski trip that I took with my aunt, uncle and cousins in the early 90's which to is me is hysterical. Basically, there is a virtual treasure trove of music and audio now sitting at my finger tips and I cannot wait to get this device and convert these babies into mp3s. I need to order this ASAP.

Eat Some Popcorn Man

I cannot believe it but The Simpsons movie is actually in preproduction and should be in theatres in 2 years. I will now wait for the other shoe to drop...

I Am A Demon God Of Conquest

This Reno 911 clip just made me laugh so hard I cried. Seriously. The best part is that based on the poster's comment, whoever posted it thinks that this is an actual arrest and doesn't realize that its a clip from Reno 911, a cop spoof on Comedy Central. I love it. So much good stuff posted today, I'm busting Jerry, I'm busting. I also think that I have to start TiFauxing Reno 911.

Via Cameron

Scratch That

DJ Stratch mixes up the Imperial March and now all I want is to go home and get two turntables though I'm not sure about a microphone. Turn up the sound for this one.

Via Chris

Literary Map of NYC

Ever read a book that takes place in NY and later walk by the real world house/building that you read about? To me, the Met as it was featured in both From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and in Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is always in the background of my thoughts while I'm there. The same holds true for both Turtle Bay and the "vacant" lot on 46th and 2nd. Since they have such special status in the Dark Tower Universe, they have special status with me. This handy dandy literary map of NYC from the New York Times will show you places that matter to other people out there in our fair city. #38 is about the Dark Tower.

Thanks Phyll

BBQ in NYC this weekend

If you plan to be around Manhattan this weekend, then the 3rd annual Big Apple BBQ Block Party might be for you. Let's face it, if you're not full of yourself and in the hamptons, might as well just be really, really full.

The event will feature mouthwatering barbecue from 10 of the nation's top pitmasters, live jazz, blues, and bluegrass, a bbq documentary, seminars with 'cue experts, great merchandise and more. Regional specialties like brisket, pulled pork, ribs, and even pig snoots (?!) will be smoked on site by 'cue legends all the way from Texas, North Carolina, and St. Louis among other top bbq destinations. "Yo dude, let's like go smoke a pig snoot!"

Its on Saturday, 6/11 and Sunday, 6/12 from 12:00 to 6:00 in Madison Square Park and on Madison Avenue between 23rd & 26th Streets.

Thanks Neu

Homage to Frank Lloyd Wright

Google gives a shout out to FLW by displaying "Fallingwater" and the Guggenheim Museum on its home page:

While Jessie does not necessarily love museums, I can always get her excited about going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by telling her we'll stop by the Frank Lloyd Wright room. It is by far her favorite part of the museum and its one of my favorites too. The fact that it happens to be next to Arms and Armor? Well, that just makes it even better.

Super Sheldon to West Side Stadium: Drop Dead

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, one of the 3 most powerful politicians in NYS, has effectively killed the West Side Stadium project by stating that he will vote no at tonight's Public Authorities Control Board meeting. This little known (before the stadium debate that is) board has only 3 people on it - the others are Governor George Pataki and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno - and all 3 need to vote yes in order for the project to move ahead.

At a press conference today he said, "This plan is at best, premature" and, because he feels that the new retail and office development planned for the area around the stadium might hamper redevelopment at the World Trade Center site, which sits a few miles to the south and is part of Mr. Silver's district, he said, "Am I supposed to sell out thee community I have fought for and I have represented? Am I supposed to turn my back on Lower Manhattan?" Mr. Silver said rebuilding Lower Manhattan was a "moral" issue and dismissed the stadium plan as simple "ambition."

I heard the speech live and was very impressed on how he hit on all the points that I care about and how he was able to successfully rebutt all arguements for the stadium. He offered better reasons that I have ever been able to articulate and from now on I am going to say to anyone else who is in favor of the stadium, "Just go read Sheldon's D-Day speech" instead of debating them because I can't do it better than Mr. Silver.

As an aside, I was sitting in bumper to bumper traffic caused by an afternoon Yankee game on the GWB 2 weeks ago when everyone in the car at the same time asked, "And they want to put a stadium on the West Side?! What are they nuts?!" I'm glad that one elected leader, especially a very powerful one, is still, in my opinion, sane.

Little Mermaid A Mermaid No Longer

To following up on a post from February, Peru's little mermaid, Milagros Cerron, underwent successful surgery to seperate her legs this past Tuesday.

To me, one of the most interesting parts of this story is that "like many poor people in Peru's Andes, Milagros' parents -- young, humble and devoutly religious people -- at first saw her deformity as a punishment from God and had to be convinced that a medical solution existed," said Dr. Luis Rubio. "Other babies born with congenital defects are often abandoned to die." I'm glad to see that she is not under the sea in Davy Jones' Locker but rather living and breathing. Here's to here continued recovery.

Best of Blah Blah Blog: Week of 5/31

Chris has been on a posting tear lately, putting up all sorts of good stuff. Here are two of my favorites:

• Celine Dion is bad and must be stopped! This classic concert footage will make you laugh and wonder why she is being paid around $100 million over 3 years to headline in Vegas.
• A few months back Apple aired a series of commercials themed "Switch." They featured regular people talking about why they switched from a PC to a Mac. Now some Star Wars geek has made a flash movie homage. Check out the Anakin Switch ad.

Via Blahblahblog

Watch Out Apu!

The Washington Post today has a story about how police in Shelbyville stormed a convenience store, freed a woman who was held hostage for 20 hours and killed the suspect in an exchange of gunfire. I hope Springfield isn't next. Just in case, Apu should get extra security at the Kwik-E-Mart as a precaution.

I've Been Mezmerized

I have not really liked any of the new bands that have entered the musicscape the past few years - I'm not sure if its because I'm getting older, if I'm not listening to the right bands or if its because most of the music today sucks. Its probably a combination of the 3 because recently my friends Jordan and Greg have turned me onto some good new music from the likes of Bloc Party and the Arcade Fire so to paraphrase the Descendents, "everything doesn't totaly suck today."

One band that has definitely caught my attention however is System of a Down. I have loved their sound, their style and their weirdness since I first heard "Sugar" on the radio in the late 90's. They recently released their third album "Mezmerize" and it is down right kick ass. I got it and I suggest you do too because its really, really good.

In the most recent Rolling Stone mag, an interview with the band has given me even more reason to love them - they are all full-blown geeks. For instance, their drummer John Dolmayan has storage space in a North Hollywood warehouse to store his collection of comic books, action figures and video games. At the start of the interview he said, "Dude, I like comic books. How cool could I fucking be? Dungeons and Dragons is badass. If I could find a good dungeon master, I'd play a game." So would I dude, so would I...

Rock fucking on!