I'm on the Bus !!!

So after weeks of anticipation about life on a bus the big day finally comes. I'm on the bus ! Where was the first new and interesting destination ? We traveled 1/2 hour down 95 to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro !

I work here 75ish days a year. Our leader had some business to attend to. After an hour in Foxboro we have resumed our trip to New York. More later this week.

Other buses at Mohegan Sun

So anyway ... Walking through casinos and looking for coffee 9 out of the last 11 mornings has got me thinking. I have no moral problem with gambling. In fact while in Vegas I lost 1,800 pennies and had a blast doing it. Usually I enjoy "disposing" my disposable income in other ways, but I have no problem with anyone gambling or any company that profits from providing a service that meets that demand. However the "inner economist" in me is concerned as Massachusetts begins to consider again our governor's proposal for 3 Massachustts casinos. Here's why.

In our brief history there is only one community that has enjoyed economic benefit from casinos and I was just there. Before there were casinos in Las Vegas, Las Vegas was one gas station. Every year since then, in every measurable way, the city has experienced economic growth. That's because money pours in from other communities. Not true with our local casinos. Money spent in local casinos comes from locals. When economists model how money behaves they observe that local money spent in local casinos has the same effect on a local economy as a tax. In other words the money leaves the local economy. The economic health of a community needs money to be spent over and over. The tip you leave a bartender turns into piano lessons for her daughter, which turns into a haircut for the piano teacher. To think a casino at the Mass border will stimulate the economy is myopic. All the dollars raised in job creation and taxes will come directly from piano lessons and haircuts.

Years ago I read a great book on the subject called "The Luck Business" which you can find if you click here:

http://www.amazon.com/Luck-Business-Robert-Goodman/dp/0684831821/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240929187&sr=8-1

Happy Birthday to Jean (Dad's wife) and Kyle (My nephew). I think Kyle turned 13 yesterday. He is a baseball machine. This 15 second clip is a 2 out rip from last summer.

NAB 2009

Las Vegas is hurting. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas but nothing happens if people don't come here. Attendance for the trade show I am attending was reported to be down 20% but it seems lighter than that to me. Restaurants and bars in my hotel remained closed even though this week the hotel is full. Nobody complains about the economy but the distress among the cab drivers and servers is palpable.

NAB is The National Association of Broadcasters and I'm attending their trade show this week. Manufacturers of equipment for TV, radio, and internet broadcasting demo new products. I spent most of the last two days listening to presentations from Adobe, Autodesk, and Sony.

I took a few pictures inside the dimly lit conference rooms but I'll save you the bandwidth. This is slightly more interesting but a little hard to explain ...

It is a demonstration of the NHK "Super Hi-Vision" camera system. A camera is on Las Vegas Blvd and transmitting a live image via fiber optic cable. (1 gig/sec data rate) In a theater, where photography was not allowed, the entire 7680x4320 pixel image was projected using a projector that was also developed by NHK. Most people reading this blog have never seen resolution higher than 1080i. Each quadrant of this display is twice that resolution at 1080p. So ... 4 times 2 is 8 times the resolution most Americans have ever seen and this image represents only half of the signal.

Another cool NHK exhibit that I couldn't photograph was a rudimentary 3-D system that doesn't require glasses to view. By the time my 14 year old nephew Mitchell talks me into taking him to this show, it will be a viable product.

NHK is a publicly financed Japanese TV network that also runs a consortium made up of private companies that develop technology. Why haven't I ever shot anything on an American TV camera ? I think RCA invented TV broadcasting. Didn't they ? The U.S. could never let that happen again ... could we ?

Today I'm attending this event

http://www.redusernab.info/

Then an overnight flight home and back out on the road Friday. Thanks for all the emails. Next post will be sometime next week. M.

Hiking in Red Rock

I was in Red Rock canyon all day yesterday. Most of the day I was bummed because I was trying to take big huge landscape photos and I only had a telephoto lens. (long story) About 6 miles in, at the very base of the canyon, I met this guy.



The long lens finally came in handy. He is a long horn sheep and staring at me from about 40 yards away. The rest of the family ran further into the base of the canyon.

My first up close experience with an animal with horns was at my Dad and Jean's house. Within five minutes of meeting their pet goat "Oatmeal", I almost lost my left testicle and right eye from two separate head butts. Yesterday's encounter was non-violent but we were all frightened when I stumbled upon them.

Last night I had dinner with Kathy O'Toole at some Irish place and ran into Jim D who was here on business with his wife. It's odd writing news to such a disparate group of friends and family. At least the KSP people will appreciate what a small world it was last night.

I'll post an update from the NAB convention after Monday. Until then, here are a couple more pics from Red Rock ...

My First Post !

Hello All. If you arrived here safely then you know what this is all about. Although I've never had a blog before, I thought this would be a fun way to share news and pictures from my adventures on a bus for 9 weeks. I don't get on the bus until April 29th, but I'll be out of town after April 15th. My first stop is here ...

... hiking in Red Rock Canyon.