I, for one, would love to be rich. Being able to partake in the finer things would be awesome. Five-star restaurants. No more broken down cars. Someone else to do my house repairs. A personal trainer to equal out my increase of Volcano Taco consumption. Oh that’d be so grand. However, that stuff would very quickly become boring, I’m sure. So, I’d like to think that I could do something more meaningful with my newfound financial responsibility, such as giving it away, starting my own charity, helping widows & orphans, and spreading the Gospel. You know, Bible stuff. Christian stuff. The trouble is, I don’t really do much of that now, so what makes me think I would increase those activities just because I had more money? More money would probably equal more distractions and stress, which would in all likelihood decrease those activities.

Well, here’s a great example of a few people that did what I’d like to think I would do. And by the way, they were just killed a few hours ago in the pirate-infested waters of Somalia.

According to this news article I read today, four Americans traveling around the world on a Yacht were captured and executed by Somali pirates. Apparently, there was a skirmish aboard the pirate ship when the U.S. military got involved. Unfortunately, they were not able to save the four hostages:

The officials said U.S. military personnel boarded the yacht and discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors.

The officials said two pirates were killed and 13 others captured after a brief gun battle as U.S. forces took control of the boat.

What you don’t find out until most of the way through the article, is that the people were traveling around the world trying to spread the Gospel. I doubt the people were executed because of their faith, but they still died doing the most important thing in their lives:

Scott Adam, who was in his mid-60s, wanted to combine his love of adventure with his faith by spreading Bibles around the world, Professor Robert K. Johnston, of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, said Sunday.

“He was sailing around the world and serving God, two of his passions,” Johnston said.

He said that despite an adventurous spirit, the Adams were meticulous planners who knew the dangers they faced.

Now, I have no idea what kind of people they were. However, I love this story (as tragic as it is) because here is an example of someone who has a lot of money and decided to enjoy their money while serving God. The could have given it all away, but they chose to go on an adventure. I’m not saying you should do the same thing with your money if you were rich. Some are called to give it all away, and others are called to use it as a tool. I think it depends on what type of person you are. My point here is that I respect people who live their lives for God, but I really respect these people for living their lives for God, know what I mean? Good work.

The tallest structure ever built is complete. The Burj Dubai has been under construction since 2004, located in Dubai, UAE (that’s in the Middle East if you don’t know). It is one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen, in one of the most beautiful cities (structurally) I’ve ever seen. It is 2,684 feet tall with 160 floors, and it’s GIGANTIC. The record for tallest skyskraper in the world has been broken several times recently, but the Burj Dubai not only broke the record, it broke the record for how much a record was broken by. To give you an idea of how tall this building is, let me show you some images and compare it with other supertall buildings.

To the left you can see the tower as it nears completion. Do not adjust your television set, that is a real image of the tower. I know, I know, you just realized it is now the future. Happened to me too. The tower is a half-mile high, and it can hold 35,000 people. Just imagine waiting for an elevator at the end of the work day. Of course, since the building houses offices and residential spaces (and hotels and restaurants to boot), your rush hour commute could potentially consist of an elevator ride from the 150th floor to the 107th floor. That is, if you’re super rich.

Speaking of elevators, Burj Dubai has 56 of them, which are capable of speeds up to 40 mph (a world record). You still want more trivia? Ok, the air outside the building is 11 degrees cooler at the top than the base, and the top of the tower can sway 4 feet during strong winds. It took 22 million man hours to complete. All 700 private residences between the 45th and 108th floors sold out within 8 hours of being on the market.

So just how tall is Burj Dubai? Well, for a long time the tallest building in the world was the Empire State Building, which stands at 1250 feet with 102 floors:

After 42 years of owning the record, the Empire State Building was destroyed by aliens on July 4th. Just kidding, it was surpassed when the World Trade Center towers were built, which stood 1368 feet and had 110 floors, beating the previous record by 118 feet:

Is it just me or were those towers ugly? Well, they were surpassed in 1973 by Willis Tower (originally Sears Tower) which stands at 1450 feet and has 108 floors, beating the previous record by 82 feet:

Willis Tower held the record for a few decades until the Petronas Towers were built – the ones featured in the movie “Entrapment” with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Well those are 1480 feet tall, beating the previous record by 30 feet:

They were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004. Then, along came Taipei 101, built in Taipei, Taiwan. Completed in 2004, it is 1670 feet tall, breaking the previous record by around 200 feet:

Holy cow that’s tall. Well I’ve got news for you. None of these buildings compare with Burj Dubai. As mentioned, Burj Dubai is a whopping 2684 feet tall. That smashes the previous record by over 1000 feet! Ever since the Empire State Building, the record for tallest building in the world was broken by 118 feet, 82 feet, 30 feet, and 200 feet. You can add all those together and Burj Dubai smashes the record by more than double that number. Just take a look at this infographic to get a feel for the scale of the buildings:

Wow! Feast your eyes on these images of Burj Dubai. Keep in mind the buildings in Dubai are really tall, ultra modern buildings. Look at them compared to Burj Dubai. They seem so insignificant. Also, keep in mind that the exterior of the building was completed so recently (within the last week) that there aren’t even images out there yet of the finished product. The following images were taken before it was even at its full height:

Now that your mind has been fully blown, let me go one step further in classic TGM style. There is a building in the works that is going to blow Burj Dubai out of the water. Remember in Star Wars when you are actually able to fully fathom the size of the Death Star? You are only able to do so when you use relative objects. We start out grasping how extremely large a Star Destroyer is. Then we see how miniscule it is compared to a Super Star Destroyer. Then, and only then, are we able to grasp the sheer size of the Death Star, when we see that a Super Star Destroyer is only a dot compared to it.

In similar fashion we have taken a look at the tallest buildings ever built, and then shown how insignificant they are compared to Burj Dubai. Now, we are going to fully grasp the size of a building that is currently being built by comparing it to Burj Dubai. The building is called Nakheel Tower, and it is being built in – you guessed it – Dubai. It is going to be 4593 feet tall. That is almost a mile! Take a look at some of these renderings:

That second one is interesting because you can see some other buildings in the works around the world, including the China 117 Tower in China, the Freedom Tower (1 World Trade Tower) in New York, the Chicago Spire in Chicago, and the Abraj Al Bait Towers in Saudi Arabia. Some Buildings in the works not pictured are the Shangai Tower in China, the Pentominium in Dubai, the Burj Al Alam in (*yawn*) Dubai, and the Federation Tower in – hey – Moscow enters the ring!

As for local news, let’s check in on the progress of a beautiful skyscraper being built right here in my hometown of Indianapolis. The JW Marriott tower – the 7th tallest building in Indianapolis, the tallest hotel in Indiana, and tallest JW Marriott in the country – is coming along quite nicely:

It’s actually a lot taller than that now, but that’s the latest construction image I could find. Hope you enjoyed this post!

Rest assured I will be seeing this movie. Martin Scorcese has never let me down. Even with Gangs of New York (it was enjoyable right?)

P.S. sorry for the format of the embedded video. I couldn’t find one that was narrower. Oh well, it still works. You know what, I take that back. This is my blog and I apologize to no one! (I apologize for my arrogance.)

I know, I know. Taco Bell released the Volcano Taco. I’ve been busy.

I don’t know if you’ve read in the papers lately, but the DJIA (?) is way down and the Nazz Deck (?) has lost a lot of points and the SMP-500 (stands for “Stock Market Price 500″) is failing miserably. Well I don’t know exactly what all of this means, but it seems bad.

So what is the stock market? It’s one of those questions that most people think they know the answer to, but do they really? The answer is no. For instance, can you explain this picture?

Stop. Don’t say “people trading on Wall Street”. You’re like a child that repeats a cuss word.

Let me tell you something that really annoys me. Sometimes when the stock market comes up in conversation (which is never my doing) I ask the other person this question: “Hey, what is the stock market?”

I always get the same response: “The stock market? Duh, dude. It’s … [blah blah blah, regurgitate facts they heard on Bloomburg, blah blah blah] … so, you see, it’s pretty cool.”

That’s when I look at the person and exclaim, “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

It really annoys me because I have this pet peeve about people that aren’t able to just say they don’t know the answer to something. Instead, they run their mouths and hope there’s no one around that actually knows about the subject at hand. Occasionally there will be an expert on hand to present follow-up questions to the know-it-all, and that’s when the know-it-all really starts to squirm. This is very pleasurable to observe and it’s something that I greatly look forward to each day that I wake up.

So what IS the stock market? I’m not asking for a one sentence definition. I want to know why it exists, how it works, and why it has been falling lately. I’ve had classes on this and I’ve read articles and done research and passed my Series 7 exam and everything. Heck, I work at a financial institution. You think I ought to know the answers to these questions. But I don’t truly grasp how it all works.

I just read this article on BBC that is totally written for dumbasses like me. What happens every time I read one of these watered-down articles about the stock market is this: I become enlightened at about the second paragraph and begin to realize what it all means and how it all works as I get further into the article. Then, when I get to the end, I realize I have forgotten the basic elements on which the article has been building.

I can understand each piece, but I just can’t wrap my head around the sum of the parts. Why can I build a complicated web application but I can’t understand the stock market? Probably because I build it in small pieces. It’s similar to the “Baby Steps” theory presented in the exquisite film “What About Bob?”

Do you feel the same way? I can offer some consolation. 1) To make myself feel better, I have determined that no one really understands the stock market. 2) I oft’ enjoy Volcano Tacos.

Combining those two elements is a recipe for success! Ignorance cancels out gluttony and vice versa.

That’s a screenshot of Digg at around 11:00 AM on 9/18/08. What is wrong with that picture? You don’t have to look very close.

8 of the top 10 stories are anti-McCain/Palin and pro Obama. Why do I still read Digg? Oh that’s right, because it’s the best thing ever created, despite all the political articles.

For the record, I would be just as annoyed if 8 of the top 10 stories were anti-Obama and pro McCain/Palin. I don’t care about politics. I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care.

There’s a new Coors Light press conference commercial tonight during the opening game of the NFL, featuring Jim Mora. Hopefully it will be as funny as his first one:

Also, if you’re like me and you read Stuff White People Like, I’ve got some news for you. The author, Christian Lander, is going to be appearing live on Conan O’Brien this Friday night.

And I bet you didn’t even know he was in a commercial, did you? Have you seen the new ads for NCAA Football ’09? That’s Christian Lander. I recognized him the first time I saw it because of the pictures he sometimes puts himself in on his blog. Here’s the clip:

So, you have two awesome things happening on TV over the next two nights. Not to mention the defending Super Bowl champs against the Redskins starting at 7pm EST tonight. You’re welcome.

*update*

“Please nod if you like the following.”

ROFL – great commercial.

It’s not even on ESPN.com yet, so I can’t give you any other details other than I have received confirmation that we have won the 2012 Super Bowl bid for sure!

GO COLTS!!!

*Update*

More info here and here

I have a fear of voids, so that’s all I wanna know.

I have goosebumps on top of goosebumps having goosebump children. That’s disgusting. Stop it.

1) 99% of the music performed and honored is top 40, bubble gum, over-played hornswaggle. The Grammys have become an awards ceremony honoring artists with the top music sales, not the top music. I consider the millions they’ve earned from their record sales to be award enough, why do we have to give them a trophy, too?

2) The 1% of music that is not terrible never wins and is only included in an attempt to quell the feelings of people like me. I don’t know, maybe I used to think this type of music was good, but listening to The Sixty One has opened my eyes to truly good music.

3) Kanye West’s record sales will plummet from here on out. He lost way more fans last night than he gained. If you didn’t see it, you probably slept more soundly last night than I did, for I now know of an evil that exists in this world, so arrogant, that it could overthrow nations and wipe out civilizations.

This man was given 10 minutes of Grammy air time to perform, the most elaborate set I’ve ever seen, and a Grammy, and what does he do? He throws it back in our faces.

During his acceptance speech, he said something about “hip hop is dead” or “hip hop is not dead” or something of this nature, and was rambling on incoherently for way too long. Well, they politely turned on the music to signal he should wrap it up. Then he got angry about the music and said “aw naw, ya’ll ain’t gonna turn on the music on me, are ya’ll?” and continued to talk over the music for another 30 seconds.

Finally, he proclaimed that it was “bad taste” for them to keep playing the music while his eminence was accepting his award, so they shut it off and gave up the fight. Then when he finally got them to turn off the music…. HE HAD NOTHING TO SAY. That’s right, it finally got quiet, and then he forgot what he was even saying (or realized he had nothing to say in the first place), and wasted all of our time.

I bet the producers were so angry. No, Kanye, we don’t have any other awards to give to anyone else, there are no shows on TV after this one, we all just came to see you tonight, and you can have everything you want if you just cry about it loudly enough. I wish I had footage of it, but I guess it hasn’t been posted online yet. You’ll see it. It’ll be on every entertainment news show this week.

4) I knew before I turned it on that there would be three particular artists involved in some capacity with the Grammys. I could just feel it. These three artists are in every awards show. Even if they don’t have a current album or anything. You just know you are going to see them perform for some reason. I’m talking about Kanye West, Beyonce, and Fergie. I was right. They all three performed. Beyonce doesn’t even have an album out. I’m losing hope that humanity will win the fight.

5) Foo Fighters performed the same song on SNL, the MTV awards, and The Grammys all within the same couple months. We’ve all seen them play it. Why are they still around? What are they doing right now to capture our attention? I don’t get why they keep getting invited back to the same awards shows to do the same music. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge Foo Fighters fan, but that doesn’t change my observation.

6) Are you kidding me? Are we still on the Beatles? Why do they continue to saturate our lives? The Grammys were all about the Beatles last night for some reason. They’re a little late to jump on the bandwagon, don’t you think? I’m not necessarily angry about this, I’m just a little concerned. The Beatles could either be sent from heaven, or they could be minions of the Devil. It’s really hard to tell.

Those are the things that really got under my skin last night. If I could sum up the show in 10 words or less it would be Kanye West, The Beatles, and unoriginal, uninspired music. Does that really sound like a show you’d want to watch? The only bright points of the night were when Feist performed, and when Vince Gill got up on stage and totally BURNED Kanye West for his arrogant behavior. I can’t remember exactly what he said, so I’ll let you just catch the rerun on TV or Youtube.

What he said made the whole night worth it. It was so great to see everyone laugh at Kanye and to know that at least there are some other people out there that are as fed up with the man as I am – even if those people are Country singers. Yikes.