The NBA Season is Here!

The 2015-2016 NBA season is now underway after the first three games of the season are now in the books after yesterday's debut. After the long awaited day in late October, the NBA has been stirring with much excitement and many questions after a long summer. Superstars Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, and Paul George are all coming off of major injuries while the Golden State Warriors are coming off their first championship in over 30 years. This year's draft class featured many superstars from the top colleges in the country and the expectations are high for many rookies. After a definitive blow out by the reigning champs, a loss by the runner-ups, and a win over one of last year's top teams, the NBA is geared to give its viewers a great season to come.

Yesterday's tip off featured three games. The first was the runner-ups of last year championship the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. the Chicago Bulls. There has been many talks about how the Cavaliers would bounce back this season after signing multiple of their free agents and starring three all-stars. However, one Cleveland all-star would not make an appearance and this left all eyes on LeBron James yet again. Although he did not play spectacular like he did in the Finals last year, he still was able to carry the team to only a two point loss. The Chicago Bulls on the other hand opened the season with a new head coach, Fred Hoiberg. After securing the team's first victory of the season and Hoiberg's first win of his NBA coaching career, it seemed as if the Bulls were a bit different than before. Derrick Rose admitted to only playing with vision from one eye, Pau played sub-par, and Joakim Noah left the game with a knee contusion which doesn't look promising. At the end of the day, the Bulls got the W at home with a 97-95 victory.

The second featured game starred the Golden State Warriors and the New Orleans Pelicans. What better way to start off the season than with the championship and ring ceremony on your home court in front of all your fans. The Warriors could not have asked for better scenario to start off the season. Reigning MVP Stephen Curry started off the game on fire, scoring 24 points in the first quarter. He would end up finishing the game with 40 points overall. On the opposing team, Anthony Davis had come into the season putting on 15 pounds of muscle. The expectations for him are extremely high this season but he only came out to shoot 4-20 from the field, scoring 18 points and only securing 6 rebounds. These are not the exact numbers that you want to see as a Pelicans fan or as an owner in fantasy basketball. Do not be afraid though, as we all know he will bounce back the next game. The Warriors won convincingly 111-95.

With the first three games out of the way, today features 14 games and 28 teams and it will be action packed all day long. I can't wait to see what the rest of the season will bring!      

GOM #3- Wangari Maathai

In John Bloom’s interview with Wangari Maathai, I was able to learn about the Green Belt Movement and how politics and humans play a better role in our society. Maathai started the Green Belt Movement to help empower women, who were in charge of the farm, to be able to plant their own trees to provide resources for themselves rather than export crops only. By doing so, they would be able to fulfill more needs rather than selling for money only. Where the politics come in is when anyone or any program encroaches into the government’s money. When Maathai realized that she was competing with the government, she was required to show all these licenses and certifications when all she wanted to do was plant trees.

Politics play a huge role in almost everything. In countries such as Kenya where the government may be a bit more corrupt than other countries, those who are under the government will usually get quashed. The government was the first ones to originally uproot all the trees but the trees are what feed the people and soil. Maathai also mentions about spirituality of humans and nature that I believe is dying faster and faster in our growing world of technology. No longer are we playing outside or taking hikes but usually cooped up inside and playing video games. I am afraid that by the time I have kids, I won’t be able to take them to the great outdoors that I had the chance to experience. We need to reconnect with nature and be able to provide it with what it needs so that it can do the same to us. Instead, we are always taking from nature yet never really giving back and that is what the Green Belt Movement is trying to accomplish. 

The Touchstone and the Labyrinth Ch. 14- Genius of Money

In Bloom's opening paragraphs, he quotes Paul Klee saying that the purpose of visual arts is to make the invisible visible. Well I believe that from reading the first 2 paragraphs of the chapter, Bloom is going to seem as if money can bring out certain intangibles as well and I think it does as he states "Money is linked to our material needs and our participation in economic life, and yet what it represents is entirely abstract, non-material, and, to a degree, faith based. Value is thus a big player in the  mystery drama of money." We value the dollar at what we want it to be. If we think that a smoothie is worth $5, then that is what we pay, if not, we don't value the smoothie the same as $5. So by looking at purchases on an individual, you can see what their values are through the lens of money.

Bloom actually continues to mention that money is both a medium of exchange and a measure of value-- a kind of mathematical metric of meaning. Bloom relates the labyrinth with money saying that labyrinths have their own horizontal and vertical measures and their resources of stones can always be used as a currency as we see gold and the more precious metals much more valuable then pebbles. And this is where the touchstone comes in, measuring the quality of gold.

Bloom continues to say that there is no relevant test for the purity of the medium of exchange, and no time to journey with it through transactions. The touchstone and the labyrinth are about real experiential value, much as money has been throughout its history. But recent current has no real value, no reference point as found with the touch stone. We live, instead, with fiat currency which means that it has no standard or reference tied to the mineral world, or otherwise. I think the point that Bloom is getting to here is that we see money purely as a form of government currency and we let it dictate our lives. No long do we see the real value of money but we live to only make money and to spend money without really thinking about our spending.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

The Genius of Money- Chapter 4

The Other Invisible Hand
Money and Its Subtle Influence on Social Life

After reading the chapter, I would have to say that I agree with the author that there is another invisible hand that affects our social lives. Having money is great because money buys you what you want. However, sometimes having too much money is bad and the want for more money may turn people into greedy human beings who do not care who they hurt in order to obtain their money.

There are a few ways that came to mind that can describe how money affects our social lives. Firstly, because it is our money, we are more likely to spend it on ourselves. Going off of that, we tend to spend more money when we just received our latest paycheck or ended up with more money than we thought we might have at a certain time. For instance if you spent less during the month or won a lottery ticket you would be incentivized to spend more because it was money that you didn’t expect. But we tend to spend less money when we have just recently splurged and made a huge purchase. Secondly, sometimes the amount of money that we have affects what activities can be done and what food can be eaten. To be honest, I know I have some friends that are a bit more sensitive about spending money at dinner and I choose restaurants accordingly so they still feel inclined to come eat without feel like they’re spending unnecessary money. I too also pick and choose which meals I want to spend more money on and which meals I can eat fast food and spend less on and it may impact whether or not I am able to eat with my friends or by myself.