Ten Things That Reasonably Intelligent People Should Know

The highlight of my workday today: reading a Forrester report and analyzing the top twelve BPM companies.  So to end the workday, I will leave you with some interesting information to stimulate the mind.  It’s ten random bits of history, economy, math, science, and knowledge overall that anyone who considers himself reasonably intelligent should know.  It’s okay if you don’t know, because I consider myself reasonably intelligent and yet, I didn’t know any of the ten until I looked it up on Wikipedia. 

1. What is the Buttonwood Agreement? What is it and why is called the Buttonwood Agreement, and when was it created?

The Buttonwood Agreement is an agreement which started the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange).  It is called the Buttonwood Agreement because it was signed under a Buttonwood Tree outside of Wall Street by 24 stock brokers.  It was signed on May 17, 1792.

2. What does Pareto Optimal mean?  Who is it named after?

A Pareto Improvement means that moving from one allocation to another can make one individual better off, without making any other worse off.  Something is Pareto Optimal when no more Pareto improvements can be made, and both individuals are well off.  It is named after Vilfredo Pareto.

3. What is the Bretton Woods System?  Why is it called such?  What two main organizations were created as a result of the Bretton Woods System?

The Bretton Woods System is an international money management that established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the world’s major industrial countries.  It was the first example of a fully negotiated order to control monetary relations between nations.  It is called such because Bretton Woods, New Hampshire was the convention point for all 730 delegates of the 44 Allied nations during World War II.  As a result of the system, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (now a part of World Bank Group) and the International Money Fund were created. 

4. What is the difference between Cognac and Armagnac?

Cognac and Armagnac are both brandies, however, cognac is distilled in pot stills and armagnac uses column still distillation.  Also, they are categorized by region.

5. Who was Leni Riefenstahl?  What is she famous for?  Was she a good person or not?

Leni Riefenstahl was Adolf Hitler’s private filmmaker.  She is famous for making documentaries deifying Hitler, and just her art in general.  I believe she was a good person simply because she was innocent, and didn’t know what she was getting herself into.  She was swept up by Hitler, just as the others were, due to economic depression and promise for improvement, without knowledge of his eventual plans.  She also invented the concept of taping on tracks.  Before, a camera would be either stationary or held by hand.  Using tracks, the tape was smooth while moving.

6. Provide a short description of Game Theory and describe what the Prisoner’s Dillemma is.

Game Theory is a branch of applied mathematics and economics.  It studies situations where multiple players attempt to maximize their returns.  Prisoner’s dillemma is a game in which two players are faced with a choice: to cooperate or to defect (betray). The objective of the game for both players is to maximize their own returns.  Defecting, while gaining no returns for one player, maximizes the returns for the other player.  The returns in defecting are far greater than in cooperating.

7. Who was Mata Hari?  What is she famous for?

Mata Hari was a Dutch woman who became a famous exotic dancer in Europe prior to and during World War I.  Married and with two children, her son died of poisoning.  Her husband then divorced her and left with the daughter.  Desperate for money, she became an exotic dancer and travelled the eastern world to do so.  Popular for her sex appeal, she slept with many prominent figures of several countries.  During World War I, she, being from a neutral country, was able to travel freely across borders.  Assumed as being a double-spy, (although never proven) she was condemned and then executed at the age of fourty.  She is famous for all the rumors that encircle her persona, especially the ones about her being a double spy for France and Germany during the war.

8. How much money was given in aid (broken down by country) through the Marshall Plan?  Two reasons for why the US gave that money, one that sheds the US in good light, and one that sheds the US in bad light.

13.4 billion dollars were put into this plan, and the amounts given to each country are as follows (in millions): 

Country	Dollars (in millions)
Austria	488
Belgium and Luxembourg	777
Denmark	385
France	2,296
Germany	1,448
Greece	366
Iceland	43
Ireland	133
Italy and Trieste	1,204
Netherlands	1,128
Norway	372
Portugal	70
Sweden	347
Switzerland	250
Turkey	137
United Kingdom	3,297

One reason the US gave the money was to help out the financially decimated countries of Europe (positive).  Another reason the US gave money was because by picking up the economies in Europe, they would then trade with the US, making the US’s economy stronger (selfish, negative).

9. Describe the difference among binary, decimal, and hexadecimal.  What is 1,000,000 in hexadecimal, and number 8 in binary?  Why does the decimal system seem most natural to humans?

Decimal numbers have 10 symbols (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9).  Hexadecimal has 16 symbols: 1-9, along with A, B, C, D, E, and F.  Binary only has two symbols, 0 and 1.  Computers use binary notation for everything, and then translate it to decimal for common use by humans.  1,000,000 in hexadecimal is 0xF4240, and 8 in binary is 1000.

10.  What is the origin of the expression of “No Strings Attached”?”

No strings attached” originates from merchants.  When merchants would send silk over to another merchant, they would tie a tiny string to the edge of the material to indicate a slight flaw in the weaving, even if the flaw was nearly invisible to the naked eye.  A perfect, flawless piece of silk was indicated by the phrase “no strings attached”. 

Le Premier Jour

I write this from the comforts of a leather wheely chair, stationed in a small cozy office, a tiny portion of an architectural beauty.  It is my first day interning for the Forrester ranked numero uno BPM software company.  BPM (Business Process Management) is the key to improving a company.  A company starts out with an idea, and that idea forms into a process, and that process is carried out to benefit clients, consumers, and customers of that company.  Generally, the process is complicated.  Take, for example, the processing of college applications.  The entire routine is rather complicated, and every year complaints about lost applications are heard.  First, the student must fill out applications, specific to each school, and write essays.  He must then get recommendations and references from teachers and other figures of the community.  The entire package must then be given to a college counselor, who then mails it to the college.  There, the application must be recieved and given to someone to read.  If the student is a debatable applicant, the application might then be sent to another person, or an alumni might be contacted in the applicant’s area, or another reference might be requested.  All of these steps can get very messy, resulting in the loss of applications, or applications filled out incorrectly, or missing deadlines.  In order to clean things up and make the process more efficient, BPM software companies come in and create a program.  Taking the process already in place, they come up with a new and improved one, which would in provide a safe journey for applications.  That way, when students get rejected, they can no longer say, “It’s not my stupidity, the college lost it.” So that’s BPM, simplified.  Many companies would be a complete mess today, if it wasn’t for Business Process Management.