Chance and Circumstance

By DAVID LEONHARDT

In 1984, a young man named Malcolm graduated from the University of Toronto and moved to the United States to try his hand at journalism. Thanks to his uncommonly clear writing style and keen eye for a story, he quickly landed a job at The Washington Post. After less than a decade at The Post, he moved up to the pinnacle of literary journalism, The New Yorker. There, he wrote articles full of big ideas about the hidden patterns of ordinary life, which then became grist for two No. 1 best-selling books. In the vast world of nonfiction writing, he is as close to a singular talent as exists today.

Or at least that’s one version of the story of Malcolm Gladwell. Here is another:
In 1984, a young man named Malcolm graduated from the University of Toronto and moved to the United States to try his hand at journalism. No one could know it then, but he arrived with nearly the perfect background for his time. His mother was a psychotherapist and his father a mathematician. Their professions pointed young Malcolm toward the behavioral sciences, whose popularity would explode in the 1990s. His mother also just happened to be a writer on the side. So unlike most children of mathematicians and therapists, he came to learn, as he would later recall, “that there is beauty in saying something clearly and simply.” As a journalist, he plumbed the behavioral research for optimistic lessons about the human condition, and he found an eager audience during the heady, proudly geeky ’90s. His first book, “The Tipping Point,” was published in March 2000, just days before the Nasdaq peaked.
These two stories about Gladwell are both true, and yet they are also very different. The first personalizes his success. It is the classically American version of his career, in that it gives individual characteristics — talent, hard work, Horatio Alger-like pluck — the starring role. The second version doesn’t necessarily deny these characteristics, but it does sublimate them. The protagonist is not a singularly talented person who took advantage of opportunities. He is instead a talented person who took advantage of singular opportunities.
Gladwell’s latest book, “Outliers,” is a passionate argument for taking the second version of the story more seriously than we now do. “It is not the brightest who succeed,” Gladwell writes. “Nor is success simply the sum of the decisions and efforts we make on our own behalf. It is, rather, a gift. Outliers are those who have been given opportunities — and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.”
He doesn’t actually tell his own life story in the book. (But he lurks offstage, since he does describe the arc of his mother’s Jamaican family.) Instead, he tells other success stories, often using the device of back-to-back narratives. He starts with a tale of individual greatness, about the Beatles or the titans of Silicon Valley or the enormously successful generation of New York Jews born in the early 20th century. Then he adds details that undercut that tale.
So Bill Gates is introduced as a young computer programmer from Seattle whose brilliance and ambition outshine the brilliance and ambition of the thousands of other young programmers. But then Gladwell takes us back to Seattle, and we discover that Gates’s high school happened to have a computer club when almost no other high schools did. He then lucked into the opportunity to use the computers at the University of Washington, for hours on end. By the time he turned 20, he had spent well more than 10,000 hours as a programmer.
At the end of this revisionist tale, Gladwell asks Gates himself how many other teenagers in the world had as much experience as he had by the early 1970s. “If there were 50 in the world, I’d be stunned,” Gates says. “I had a better exposure to software development at a young age than I think anyone did in that period of time, and all because of an incredibly lucky series of events.” Gates’s talent and drive were surely unusual. But Gladwell suggests that his opportunities may have been even more so.
Many people, I think, have an instinctual understanding of this idea (even if Gladwell, in the interest of setting his thesis against conventional wisdom, doesn’t say so). That’s why parents spend so much time worrying about what school their child attends. They don’t really believe the child is so infused with greatness that he or she can overcome a bad school, or even an average one. And yet when they look back years later on their child’s success — or their own — they tend toward explanations that focus on the individual. Devastatingly, if cheerfully, Gladwell exposes the flaws in these success stories we tell ourselves.
The book’s first chapter explores the anomaly of hockey players’ birthdays. In many of the best leagues in the world, amateur or professional, roughly 40 percent of the players were born in January, February or March, while only 10 percent were born in October, November or December. It’s a profoundly strange pattern, with a simple explanation. The cutoff birth date for many youth hockey leagues is Jan. 1. So the children born in the first three months of the year are just a little older, bigger and stronger than their peers. These older children are then funneled into all-star teams that offer the best, most intense training. By the time they become teenagers, their random initial advantage has turned into a real one.
At the championship game of the top Canadian junior league, Gladwell interviews the father of one player born on Jan. 4. More than half of the players on his team — the Medicine Hat Tigers — were born in January, February or March. But when Gladwell asks the father to explain his son’s success, the calendar has nothing to do with it. He instead mentions passion, talent and hard work — before adding, as an aside, that the boy was always big for his age. Just imagine, Gladwell writes, if Canada created another youth hockey league for children born in the second half of the year. It would one day find itself with twice as many great hockey players.
“Outliers” has much in common with Gladwell’s earlier work. It is a pleasure to read and leaves you mulling over its inventive theories for days afterward. It also, unfortunately, avoids grappling in a few instances with research that casts doubt on those theories. (Gladwell argues that relatively older children excel not only at hockey but also in the classroom. The research on this issue, however, is decidedly mixed.) This is a particular shame, because it would be a delight to watch someone of his intellect and clarity make sense of seemingly conflicting claims.
For all these similarities, though, “Outliers” represents a new kind of book for Gladwell. “The Tipping Point” and “Blink,” his second book, were a mixture of social psychology, marketing and even a bit of self-help. “Outliers” is far more political. It is almost a manifesto. “We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that 13-year-old to become a fabulously successful entrepreneur,” he writes at the end. “But that’s the wrong lesson. Our world only allowed one 13-year-old unlimited access to a time-sharing terminal in 1968. If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity, how many more Microsofts would we have today?”
After a decade — and, really, a generation — in which this country has done fairly little to build up the institutions that can foster success, Gladwell is urging us to rethink. Once again, his timing may prove to be pretty good.

Top 10 Birthday Gifts For Girls

 by Denise Sanger

Kids love opening "real" presents-don't resort to offering a gift card for your next birthday gift. You can offer a fun present that your child (or a friend) will enjoy playing with, and get some other real benefits as well. Choose outdoor toys to encourage physical activity, or an art set to get the creative juices flowing. Consider bringing one of the following "girl" gifts to your next party:

1. Barbie with clothing: If you are at all crafty, you can knit, crochet, or sew a unique, one of a kind Barbie wardrobe. Looks for scraps of sparkly and embroidered fabrics or yarns to make your child's Barbie the best dressed on the block.
2. Sewing Machine: Choose a basic "grown up" sewing machine equipped with a simple zigzag and straight stitch for an older girl. Girls under 9 may prefer a child sized machine with the same functions. Include a basic sewing book and some fabrics to get her started. This is an "old fashioned" gift, but learning to sew and craft at an early age promotes both creativity and manual dexterity.
3. Salon Trip: Plan a mini salon day, including a haircut and style, and a simple manicure and pedicure. This is a great way to spend some one on one time with your daughter, no matter how old she is.Sports Equipment: Sports are not just for boys! Most little girls will enjoy a t-ball set or similar item, and girls of all ages can play basketball or soccer. Playing sports builds confidence and fitness, and a child that enjoys sports will develop healthy habits that last a lifetime.
4. Play House or Kitchen Set: Even young toddlers enjoy pretend play. If you provide your daughter with a pretend house or kitchen, you are providing her with the opportunity to play "pretend", and role play as well.
5. Bicycle, Skates, or Skateboard: Provide a fun way to get around, and add a matching helmet and safety gear as needed.
6. Cooking or baking set: Depending on your child's age, you can provide a "real" set of cooking utensils, and possibly some cooking lessons. If your child is interested, you can seek out classes in cake decorating, artisan breads, or other specialty items. This gift is not limited to girls-many boys enjoy cooking as well!
7. Art set: Assemble your own art set using a tackle box and basic art supplies. Include paint and brushes, paper, pastels, canvas, scissors, and other fine art supplies. You can also include a collapsible easel for your budding artist to work on.
8. Scrapbook Set: Select or make a scrapbooking kit, including an album, specialty papers, scissors, punches and stickers. Include an inexpensive camera, and your child can scrapbook using her own photos.
9. Petting Zoo party: If your child is the birthday girl, rent a petting zoo for the big day- hire a travel petting zoo for the day. These small businesses will set up in your backyard, and bring along a variety of kid-friendly animals for your child to meet and learn about. The best travel zoos include an "animal talk" as well, and let your child and her guests meet and learn about animals right in your own backyard.

Printable Play Money Helps Kids Learn

 by Kevin Savetz

Helping kids learn the value of a dollar (or 10 or 20) is easier when they can practice hands-on using play money. With play money, including bills that can be printed for free via the Internet, children can gain many useful skills without the need to raid their parents' pocketbooks. Little Alex P. Keatons of the world can prep for a career in finance by wheeling and dealing with parents, teachers or friends using pretend cash. Playing "store" is also a fun and popular way to teach kids about monetary denominations and the value of a buck.

When selecting a fake money design to use with children, parents and teachers might opt for cartoon-style money or more realistic bills.

For older children, realistic play money is usually the best option, since it is very close to the bills they will see in everyday life. And there's no need to worry about being carted off to the slammer, because the faux cash offered by reputable Web sites is altered enough to comply with federal regulations.

Once you find a play money design you like, download and print it in color on your home printer. Cut the bills apart and start doing business! For added durability, you might want to print the bills on cardstock or even laminate them, especially in a classroom setting.

When working with very young children, start by teaching them to identify the various denominations. Print out several copies each of $1, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 bills. Kids can learn which presidents are on which bills for a bonus history lesson! Toddlers and preschoolers might do best with oversized play money, as it can be easier for little hands to hold.

Children who are a little older can begin to add and subtract with the help of fake money. Consider setting up a pretend store with items priced for "sale" at prices that match simple combinations of bills. For example, a child can quickly learn that a $20 item can be obtained by exchanging a $20 bill, or two 10s, or four 5s or a 10 plus two 5s.

Printable play money can also be used as a replacement for bills that are missing from family board games, or in gaming tournaments or fund-raisers. The paper can also be used as a "currency" given for chores and redeemable at a later date for real cash.

There's really no need to pay to print play bills, as they can often be found for free on the Internet.

Garmin Nuvi 275T Car GPS Review

The GPS users who are looking for up to the minute traffic information on their GPS unit can find Garmin Nuvi 275t as a prefect driving aid. The multi-featured navigation device is designed with North Americans and European Maps that are updatable. The Nuvi 175t also comes with advanced features like turn-by turn directions, and text-to-speech.

The review of the Garmin Nuvi 275T is positive about its touch screen direction guide and easy start up. That apart the automatic routing ability is one of the most striking features of the GPS unit. The first feature that the users can see is the intuitive interface of the device that displays options like “Where to?” and View Map”. The touch-screen allows the users to easily the search the services and addresses. The drivers can get turn-by-turn directions with the device that speaks the name of the streets. Apart from enabling the users to customize POIs, Nuvi 275t alerts about the approaching POIs. Featured with HotFix™ satellite prediction system, the unit can calculate your position to your direction faster.

The GPS users who were tired of monthly subscription service can find the Garmin Nuvi 275t a really useful device as they can receive up to the minute information about traffic and road construction without any additional requirement of hardware or subscriptions.
The Garmin Nuvi 275T Feature and Specification review:

Type: Portable GPS
Built in Memory: Yes
Receiver: 12 Channel
Number of Routes: Unlimited
Number of Waypoints: 500
Number of Waypoints per Route: 500
Map Storage: Internal
Database or Basemap: City Navigator NT, North America and Europe
Additional Map Options: SD card slot
Display Size: 3.5″ (diagonally)
Pixels: 320 x 240
Display Type: QVGA TFT
Backlit Display: Yes
WAAS Capability: Yes
XM, MP3: No
MGRS Position Format: N/A
Standard GPS Antenna: Integrated
Interface: USB (repl 352944)
Touch Screen: Yes
Built-in Speakers: Yes
PC/USB Cable: Included
Vehicle Mount: Included
Datacard: Optional

The Garmin Nuvi 275t supports Bluetooth Wireless Technology for hands-free calling. You can dial numbers and receive call with touchscrren interface. The automatic routing technology in the unit is a great help for the driver if taken a wrong turn. Integrated traffic receiver is another remarkable feature of Nuvi 275t that allows the users to receive lifetime 3 alerts about road construction and traffic delays on the route. Another advanced feature of the unit is its ability to store picture from JPEG files. Currency and measurement converter, calculator, world travel clock with time zones are other included features of the model. Users can receive up to the minute direction with the text-to-speech technology available with the Nuvi 275t.

The slim design of the model enables it to fit easily in pocket or purse. The Garmin Nuvi 275t review mentions about its useful emergency locator “Where Am I?” that informs the users about the nearest address, closest fuel station, hospitals, fuel stations etc by simply tapping the screen. Overall, the Garmin Nuvi 275t is a functional device for the drivers.

The LG 22LH20 is nice flat TV

LG’s LH20 series released in 2009 will appeal to the budget-conscious consumer. The 22LH20 a 22” screen framed by a black bezel. The front panel is left plain with all the ports and controls to the rear and side of the HDTV. The swivel stand lets you have a clear view of the HDTV at any angle in the room. You can also mount the TV on the wall if you want.

The LG 22LH20 has a built-in HDTV tuner which can receive over-the air broadcasts with the help of an optional antenna. You can also attach a set-top box for high-definition satellite programming. The image clarity is also enhanced by the 1366 x 768 resolution. The 16:9 aspect ratio provides the correct ratio for widescreen programs.

The XD Image Processing technology is responsible for improving the color and brightness of the images. The signal noise is also drastically reduced to provide crisp and vibrant pictures. The fast action sequences will not look too blurry with the 5ms response time. The faster the pixels refresh themselves, the more natural the images will be. The 60 Hz refresh rate plays a key role in this.

LG 22LH20 Features and Specifications Review:

22” screen
720p native resolution
ISFccc Ready
Smart Energy Saving
60 Hz refresh rate
1 year warranty on parts/labor

The LG 22LH20 incorporates a 24p Real Cinema mode with 2:2 pulldown. You will feel like watching movies right from the theaters. There are other image enhancement techniques like 8000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and a high brightness. Reviews show that this HDTV has pretty decent sound for a 22-inch LCD TV. There is a 2-way 6W speaker system with surround sound technology. There is scope to reduce volume fluctuations too. The Clear Voice II lets you hear the dialogues distinctly above the din in the background.

There is a HDMI input for high definition connections. You can play games by connecting your video games console to it. Parents too have the flexibility to block certain channels from being viewed by the children. Additionally, the LG 22LH20 is Energy Star 3.0 certified. This means you can save a lot of money on power. The LG 22LH20 is a great option if you’re looking for a low-cost, small LCD screen for your bedroom, office or wherever.

Samsung Flat TV LN22B460 - The TV You Have to Own

Do you like to experience television rather than watch it? Does pulsating colors, sharp picture and booming sound all rolled into one excite you? Your wait is over. The Samsung LN22B460 is the TV for you. The slender design, current technology and reasonable price point makes the Samsung LN22B460 very hard to resist.


Samsung is one of the best television makers in the world. Their TV sets are sold all over the world and get very positive ratings from all users. What makes their TV's even more special is the fact that they incorporate their latest technology into it, making them stand head and shoulders above the other TV manufacturers of today and still competitive with the TV's of tomorrow. If you buy one of these TV's, you won't have to replace it for a while.

he Samsung LN22B460 is loaded with a lot of features. It is compatible with the latest technology in the market, be it camcorders, blue ray players, DVD players or video game systems. It is also compatible with new home theatre systems. This TV has a power saving mode, making it more energy efficient.

The width of this TV is 21.6", the height is 16.6" and the depth is 8.5". The TV weight about 16.6lbs. It is a compact and good looking TV and ideal for your home.

Samsung has always made good TV's and with the Samsung LN22B460, they continued that tradition. If you are looking to buy a new small TV, you have found it.

RC CARS

by Patrick Brothers

RC cars are always among the hottest toys in any given year because of kids’ fascination with controlling cars of their own, plus the fact that there are countless adult RC car enthusiasts throughout the world. RC cars run on electricity, gas or nitro-fuel. The basic RC cars that most kids play with are called toy-grade RC cars. Toy-grade RC cars are powered by either normal or rechargeable batteries and are usually reasonably priced. The more expensive RC cars that have interchangeable and replaceable parts are called hobby-grade RC cars. The gap in performance between low-end and high-end RC cars is astounding. The simplest of RC cars travel at only a couple miles per hour and can only be directed to move forward or backward, meaning they lack steering capabilities. High-end RC cars come equipped with shocks, complex engines and custom paint jobs. Of course, not all toy-grade RC cars are cheaply made.

In 2005, a model of a Lincoln Navigator was manufactured with working lights, a detailed interior, dub rims and a working mp3 player. Many toy-grade RC car makers have started building specialized models that have unique traits, such as stunt driving abilities, like the Discovery Radio Control Equalizer Stunt Car. It sets itself apart from other toy-grade RC cars because it has rotating wheels and can drive upside down. Even though it’s not a hobby-grade RC car, it can still do amazing things like popping wheelies, spinning, twisting and power-slide drifting. The first ever RC car was built in the mid-sixties but they did not become available to the public until 1967, and even then they were just kits, not pre-assembled RC cars. During the 1970s, many of the RC cars produced were gas-powered models that used internal combustion engines. The mid-seventies brought about the electric RC car, which was far easier to run and maintain than its gas-powered predecessor. The 1980s were a great decade for RC car enthusiasts because major competitions began popping up around the world, proving that these “children’s toys” weren’t just for kids anymore. There haven’t been any major breakthroughs in RC car technology in recent years aside from the ability to install tiny music players and “tricked out” accessories. That being said, the hobby has showed no signs of slowing down or dying out.

Besides being faster and more responsive to user commands, hobby-grade RC cars also give owners the ability to customize their cars with individual replacement parts. Customizable RC cars have been one of the major reasons for the hobby’s popularity. Customizing RC cars is a matter of preference—the types of shocks and tires used, whether or not the car runs on nitro-fuel or electricity—the possibilities are nearly endless. The quality of these customizable parts can make all the difference in a hobby-grade RC car’s performance. Many hobby-grade RC cars don’t go much faster than 35-40 mph, but the world record for RC car speed, held by Nic Case, is 134.4 mph.