tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304092011347451632011-07-07T18:21:37.348-04:00The Cultivator helps stimulate the mind by aggregating interesting and noteworthy news—systematically farming food for thought, all year long. Posts are not strictly fact or opinion. Each topic will provide facts, in addition to an informed conclusion, with links for further reading and verification of those facts—all in the name of creating awareness.Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.comBlogger301100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-87017873487690375862010-05-28T17:35:00.000-04:002010-05-28T17:35:00.436-04:00

Given that the BP oil spill has already, by and large, been declared the worst environmental disaster in American history, and that the area in question is larger than the tri-state area/the state of Hawaii, let's hope that BP will plug the hole once and for all so that we can begin the process of cleaning up the mess. Then we can add tougher regulations to the oil industry so that a mess of this

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-54662142621279855782010-04-09T18:00:00.009-04:002010-04-09T18:19:09.508-04:00

Whether the recently passed health reform bill will create positive results on the national economy and premiums has yet to be determined. But a few things that won’t happen are all the catastrophic predictions from the right about death panels, socialism, government takeovers and generally the argument that our freedom is being taken away.   Or how about that its passage is

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-26965607870532636082010-03-15T20:37:00.006-04:002010-03-15T20:36:11.607-04:00

It's worth pointing out dual hypocrisies on both sides of the health care debate. I will start with the most obvious example. Republicans Their stance: The current health reform bills do not lower premiums. In fact, they raise premiums. Proposed solution: Let's start over and commit to half measures instead. That will surely lower premiums. If February's health care summit revealed anything

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-92185426310051289232010-02-22T21:30:00.010-05:002010-03-15T20:42:39.491-04:00

Taliban Leaders Captured in Afghanistan After nine years, I finally feel like we are going after the extremists responsible for 9/11. I think there are a lot of people who still believe, mistakenly, that Saddam Hussein is linked to the attacks. While he certainly didn't shun away those who were responsible, The Iraq War is rightfully labeled as a war of choice—not of necessity. Maybe in the end

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-92016946509332852182010-01-20T22:25:00.019-05:002010-01-21T17:41:59.021-05:00

Scott Brown's Mass. Senate victory marks a stark change in the political climate since Obama was sworn in exactly one year ago today. It's clear now, as Ted Kennedy's Senate seat turns Republican for the first time since 1962, that an inevitable liberal backlash is well underway while the Senate midterm elections in November rapidly approach. Truth be told, the Obama administration certainly

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-50039341826239321212010-01-19T22:42:00.014-05:002010-01-20T17:24:16.171-05:00

Within just three days following the 7.0 earthquake in Haiti, The American Red Cross has raised $8 million in aid through text donations via cellphones. Simply texting "Haiti" to 90999 will send a donation of $10 to the relief effort that is billed to your cellphone bill. By far, this is the most convenient way to send a small donation that can go a long way. Simple math reveals that

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-72304585889201143052010-01-01T21:44:00.008-05:002010-01-01T21:58:06.595-05:00

This past Wednesday, I gave a two weeks notice to Borders, my part-time position. For the first time, I will be working exclusively in my field as a full-time employee starting Jan. 13th at Image Marketing Group. Doing so will end about a year and a half of working two jobs in order to receive health insurance. Thanks to COBRA, I'm allowed to retain my existing part-time coverage for 18 months

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-73671457070666750492009-11-10T21:35:00.008-05:002009-11-10T21:41:30.202-05:00

Saturday night's 220-215 decision by the House of Representatives marks the furthest legislative reach U.S. Health Care Reform has ever gone. But the real test for the bill lies in the hands of the Senate, where it is likely to see the same back-and-forth debate that has been going on for months now. That is: Whether the U.S. should spend money now to remedy the financial hole we're in or pay

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-2435295076176433742009-10-19T20:44:00.001-04:002009-10-19T20:58:15.321-04:00

After about a month of calling up places and sending out resumes, I just recently landed a job at Image Marketing Group, an advertising and marketing firm in need of a Copywriter / Web Consultant. It's not too big a change from my previous web content position at a local magazine in CT, except this style of writing is more marketing-focused as opposed to journalistic (e.g. print ad headlines,

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-22562576272990219342009-09-16T19:00:00.013-04:002009-09-16T19:46:48.477-04:00

There's been a very legitimate reason for the lack of updates lately: I've relocated to North Carolina with my girlfriend of 2 1/2 years!She recently landed a job as a news reporter at a local station about 45 minutes from Charlotte at Cleveland Headline News (Cleveland is the name of the County). This is after looking for a job mainly in the northeast for more than two years! We're absolutely

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-31270624394242051172009-07-31T21:36:00.021-04:002009-08-03T13:53:30.828-04:00

Kurt Andersen wrote an excellent piece in Time this week, entitled "The Avenging Amateur." He argues that it's America's supposed amateurs that are "our best hope for thriving after the crisis."He quotes Shunryu Suzuki, a Japanese Zen master as famously saying, "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few.""Beginner's mind" (Sho-shin) is essentially

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-25616218936596891642009-07-24T22:45:00.004-04:002009-07-24T23:23:28.857-04:00

Technology is not without its flaws—one of the necessary evils of the internet is that there is too much to search and explore. It's not uncommon to feel overwhelmed by the massive amount of information at your fingertips. In this age of excess choice and complexity, sometimes it's just better to keep things simple. That's why I highly recommend a full screen text editor for those who wish to use

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-89741488184748085152009-07-17T21:50:00.003-04:002009-07-17T22:06:26.697-04:00

I recently took a few days from posting to apply for student loan consolidation. One of the the more interesting repayment options I came across was IBR, or Income-Based Repayment.Since July 1 of this year, IBR makes repaying staggering college loans more manageable by scaling monthly payments to yearly income, while factoring in martial status, dependents, and state of residence. According to

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-28588976824557247072009-07-08T01:00:00.000-04:002009-07-08T23:18:20.276-04:00

There are few things that hinder the progress of society more than the spreading of misinformation and downright lies. Take this one, for example:"President Obama is a Socialist."Republicans, along with the right-wing media, have been upchucking this phrase throughout his campaign and presidency.Which is funny, because the last time I checked, Obama didn't run for the Socialist Party USA. He ran

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-27170428416232942032009-06-26T22:00:00.010-04:002009-06-26T23:44:52.845-04:00

Twitter has become less "What are you doing?" and more "What's going on in the world?"The Iran protests are a handy example. Searching #IranElection ("#" denotes a searchable subject) on Twitter yields literally hundreds of 140-character blurbs (albeit, some of which unreliable) on the escalating political situation every minute. Given that the Iran government has blocked most other media outlets

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-2709806122238193102009-06-19T23:50:00.004-04:002009-06-20T00:35:13.890-04:00

The showdown between Google and Microsoft is at a very intense moment right now. Early this month, Microsoft rolled out Bing, a rival search engine to Google. The release has forced Google to take a look at the new engine, along with news of Bing's early success. It also most likely prompted a link posted under Google's famous search bar that explains all the areas search covers.Bing has a long

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-58757894336794318912009-06-12T21:30:00.011-04:002009-06-12T21:41:29.906-04:00

This week, I went over the towering amount of debt that I owe from college loans. Yes, like millions of American graduates, I will probably be paying off my education until I'm 50—not something to look forward to. I did, however, stumble upon a newly released Plain Language Disclosure document through one of my loan providers, which will no doubt ease the process and understanding of my repayment

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-37328179556188659862009-06-05T21:00:00.026-04:002009-06-09T10:39:57.785-04:00

Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The incident left hundreds of pro-democracy protesters dead and many more injured, not unlike the way Hitler and Saddam Hussein destroyed political opposition to keep a tight hold on power.The Chinese government never apologized for its extreme actions in defending communist stability, even tabooing the bloody ordeal by

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-85447002976288299002009-05-29T23:50:00.005-04:002009-05-30T02:38:21.764-04:00

The world is witnessing the end of American dominance according to The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria.So why are we entering what Zakaria says is the third power shift in the past 500 years? Because world economies have shown the greatest gains ever in the past 20 years, something he calls "the rise of the rest." So-called "developing countries" have shown remarkable growth:In 2006 and

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-50255196407741647692009-05-22T22:32:00.014-04:002009-05-23T01:30:55.127-04:00

This week's issue of Time focused on a series of articles about the future of work. Now that employment has been uprooted, dispersed or terminated altogether by the economic crisis, a new wave of job standards is taking shape. Time cites examples of the cubicle life slowly disappearing, along with the company ladder, and reason to believe they will only continue to do so in the future.Working

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-90287758790187606602009-05-19T15:46:00.008-04:002009-05-19T23:06:25.087-04:00

I had been eagerly awaiting the release of Dan Brown's Angels & Demons since I heard it was making its way as a movie adaptation a few years ago. Unfortunately, it did not quite live up to the hype, though it was still worth seeing.The plot continues with Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) following The Da Vinci Code (2006). This time, the age-old feud between science and religion

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-54985306759384607622009-05-15T21:56:00.005-04:002009-05-16T17:10:21.811-04:00

Victims of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be able to finally get past their repeating fear.Recent advances in neuroscience have revised our conventional view on memory. We used to think that long-term memory was stored in our brains for good once they were stored that way. But a 1999 presentation by a relatively obscure neuroscientist, Karim Nader, changed all that.He discovered that

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-73121313914346615812009-05-11T13:30:00.013-04:002009-05-19T23:17:07.215-04:00

By now, Alec Greven is well-known across the nation. The 9-year-old sensation appeared on The Tonight Show, Late Night, and Ellen with his published self-help book, "How to Talk to Girls," which grew from a $3 school project he sold to classmates to New York Times best seller.What some people may not know is that his young entrepreneurship didn't end there. Shortly after his advice book began

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-63827440020907235362009-05-06T23:25:00.003-04:002009-05-08T00:19:25.453-04:00

David Brooks of the New York Times points out new findings that show genius is more ordinary than we think, having more to do with countless hours of practice rather than a natural gift. Two recently published books, The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle and Talent Is Overrated by Geoff Colvin, argue this very point.The latest research suggests a more prosaic, democratic, even puritanical view of the

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-48700037270880919652009-05-01T18:56:00.011-04:002009-05-08T17:33:41.175-04:00

"Generation Me."That's what a recent psychology book, The Narcissism Epidemic by Jean M. Twenge, is calling a new culture of egocentrics. A recent Newsweek article featured the book, praising it for its accurate description of our society....we've built up the confidence of our kids, but in that process, we've created a generation of hot-house flowers puffed with a disproportionate sense of

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-46627268495061266352009-04-28T16:25:00.006-04:002009-05-19T23:21:39.819-04:00

Mint.com is an invaluable budgeting tool that can be accessed on anything with internet.While the site is not new, launching back in 2006, this personal finance lifesaver has seen an influx of new users as of late, along with useful new feature implementations.Here's the low-down:Mint.com is a third-party portal between you and all your banks—including checkings, savings and credit card accounts,

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-53733396160933010232009-04-26T02:41:00.004-04:002009-04-30T08:25:14.534-04:00

Obama's decision to declassify CIA torture memos is more than just an exposure of the wrongdoings of Bush's administration. It admits that for years, the United States, as a nation got it wrong—that torture didn't produce anything valuable.For once, in a very long time, the government has owned up to its wrongdoings instead of hiding it in a dizzying shroud of classification.A recent Time article

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-58233661857085562782009-04-25T01:40:00.003-04:002009-04-30T08:25:30.154-04:00

A recent article by Time tells us a trend in top universities: trying to get their best lectures out of the classroom and onto the web. Using sites such as YouTube, AcademicEarth.org, TED, and other educational portals, they are providing a free, quality service to citizens while simultaneously boosting their profits.It doesn't come without a hefty price tag: thousands of dollars per lecture—but

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-55546033269708423722009-04-24T01:39:00.009-04:002009-05-19T22:20:06.663-04:00

Rarely do I see a movie at the theaters twice. When I heard about State of Play, with its journalistic angle and a dash of suspense/thriller, I knew I was in for more than one viewing.Let's talk plot: A congressman's life (Ben Affleck) turns into a media storm after it's discovered that he was having an affair with a recently murdered co-worker. It's up to Boston Globe journalist (Russell Crowe)

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430409201134745163.post-60625557286656341522009-04-23T18:38:00.011-04:002009-08-03T14:08:38.804-04:00

Merriam-Webster defines the act as: to foster the growth of; to improve by labor, care, or study; to refine.By that same token, this blog (The Cultivator) is a tool used to help stimulate the mind by aggregating interesting and noteworthy news—systematically farming food for thought, all year long. But posts are not strictly news or opinion. Each topic will provide facts, in addition to an

Matt Renferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11753381862444590270noreply@blogger.com0