An Open Letter to Senator Sam Brownback

Dear Senator Brownback,

I recently read an article about a major breakthrough in medical science where Adult Stems cells were used to restore feeling in a paraplegic patient.

"The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Cythotherapy, centered on a woman who had been a paraplegic 19 years due to an accident.

After an infusion of umbilical cord blood stem cells, stunning results were recorded:

'The patient could move her hips and feel her hip skin on day 15 after transplantation. On day 25 after transplantation her feet responded to stimulation.'

Umbilical cord cells are considered 'adult stem cells,' in contrast to embryonic stem cells, which have raised ethical concerns because a human embryo must be destroyed in order to harvest them."

source: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46546

Sam, I ask you as a fellow human being to strongly review your current stance on Stem Cell research and start to allow more funding for this technology. I received your last letter on the subject and although I appreciate your quick response, I do not agree with your position.

I realize that change is not easy, but please strongly consider supporting more ideas in this area.

Respectfully yours,

Kendall Schoenrock
Villanova University
MBA' 06

Applied Intelligence

I was talking to MattyK, one of my good college friends, when he brought up a good point on "Applied Intelligence." He was recently watching a rerun of the classic game show Jeopardy and it was one of the shows with the record breaking savant Ken Jennings. The answer posed was,

"It's a colloquial term for Black English."

The question Jennings asked was "What be Ebonics?"

I think this is interesting not because the answer is difficult, but rather because Ken Jennings was not only able to ring in his question first, but was able to use the knowledge in the correct manor - on the fly.

I think there are many smart people out there, but the speed and accuracy of some is sometimes shocking.

So that’s a great little tidbit but where am I taking this?

I've seen that there are many amazingly smart people in the world. They are even at school, but often times the ones who are teaching me about business have spent little time in the business world. They reveal a truly shocking disconnect between the academic and business world, especially in a "business program." I think that the people that are excellent at defining and teaching a course on business logic have proven to be the very people who either lack the capacity or will to actually deliver on those same ideas. This holds true from the people I've seen at Wharton to those at other schools in the area, including Villanova. I once sat in on a Wharton lecture and the material presented was taught from the same text book in my bag, the only true difference I saw was the quality of the people in the seats... and I didn't find everyone drop dead impressive.

I think time spent knocking on door, making cold calls, putting together market data or closely following specific markets is a much better way that people can add to the classroom. This goes for both student and professors.

As for all others, either cram to be the next superstar winner on Jeopardy or spend some time with what really matters to the business world… not the academic world.

Sad, Sad KC Chiefs

The Denver Bronco's gave my KC Chiefs a good spanking tonight on Monday Night Football. The Ponies dominated them in nearly every aspect of the game and I was left with utter disappointment in tonight's showing. I am not normally able to view many KC games out here in Eagles Territory so I'm always pumped to catch a game.

Next week won't be a walk in the park either as the Eagles travel to good ol' KC, and not for some BBQ. The game should be a good one as Arrowhead provides a pretty tough atmosphere for any visitor, including TO and my boy Westbrook. It is the one game where I cannot, I just cannot root for the Eagles. 18 years in Kansas overpowers the 7 in Philadelphia.

Next week: 4:15 Fox, Arrow Head Stadium. KC Chiefs Vs. Philadelphia Eagles.

Hopefully Tony, Priest and Trent will bring their A Games... Not the poor schoolboy showing they had tonight at Mile High. I'm sure TO and the crew won't give the KC boys any free points.

IMAX, Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D


This weekend I was able to see the new Tom Hanks Imax Movie that I blogged about on September 1. The film itself was very well done and the 3d effect was captivating. I was slightly disappointed by the expensive price per ticket with such a short runtime. The cost per Adult ticket was $11.00 and the films runtime was only 40 minutes. I understand that putting together an Imax 3d Movie is more expensive than a normal film, but this puts the cost slightly outside of my comfort level for entertainment.

The film was probably worth the expensive ticket price. Magnificent Desolation does a great job creating the feeling of actually being on the moon. They also highlight a number of excellent points about the space program and our youth being unable to name any astronauts who've walked on the moon. "Lance Armstrong" was offered up by a young student as the first man to walk on the moon.

Prior to seeing this film I could only name three of the 12 Astronauts who've walked on the moon; Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Alan Shepard.

The full list:

20 July, 1969- Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin
19 November, 1969- Charles Conrad, Alan Bean
05 February, 1971 - Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell
30 July, 1971 - James Irwin, David Scott
21-23 April, 1972 - Charles Duke, John Young
11-13 Dec 1972 - Harrison Schmitt, Eugene Cernan

In doing more research on this subject I found an interesting article on how the men of the Apollo program never really bonded.

"I do wish that the group of us who went there had a closer camaraderie," [Buzz] Aldrin said prior to an invitation-only screening for an audience of space scientists of Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D.

Aldrin speculated that the lack of togetherness and sharing by his fellow moonmen isn't just due to macho pride, but rather to intense NASA training. Astronauts were conditioned to suppress their emotions, so they wouldn't get in the way of work.

The movie is highly supported by hollywood with Morgan Freeman, John Travolta, Matt Damon, Paul Newman and Scott Glenn lending their voices to the project. The film is also supported by Lockheed Martin.

If you enjoy the cheesy 3D glasses are are able to stomach the high ticket price, this is a must see. I would give it a thumbs up.