“My client is looking to get directly connected with IT Directors, IT Managers and IT Purchasing.

His goal is to drive his business forward and increase his overall Sales Effectiveness by creating an IT Purchasing network. As I said in my question, my client is the Vice President of a Value Added Reseller. We have created a strategic plan to grow his segment of revenues by 20% over the next 6 months. It is an aggressive plan and one that requires the right contacts. Do you have any ideas how we could grow the IT Purchasing list for him to increase his client base? I am open to presenting all ideas to him and would appreciate any ideas that you have to offer.”

Let’s set the tone -

I believe that most practitioners of enterprise technology planning are asking the wrong questions. Because their questions are largely about technology, the results of these questions are answers dominated by the logic of technology itself, rather than by the mission or methods of the organization.

Many observers will agree that common complaints about technology projects --resistance to change, long sales cycles, inappropriate technology, unexpected costs, and unused tools -- are often the inevitable result of this techno-centric planning. The only way to unravel this problem is to go to the source and challenge the questions we ask.

In this point paper, I will touch on three questions of my own: In general, what kinds of questions should planners/providers be asking? What kinds of questions are they actually asking, in the field of business technology planning? How can we fix this?

First of all, growing the purchasing list and adding platinum-plated contacts to the bucket will prove futile at best and implode the company at worst (cost death spiral). I think your client needs to step back and look at what his company is actually offering to prospects. Otherwise they end up as just another discount IT warehouse, like CDW. Nothing wrong with CDW, but that low-ball baseline pricing with heavy/cute adverting is a saturated effort. Let’s change the experiment.

My overview will deal with what is the “As-Is” framework that outsourcers look at, and what should be the “To-Be” model? IOW, how will your client distinguish or differentiate from all the rest? The answer, I think, does not lie in the pricing model (maxed out) or the purchasing network (not unique enough) but in service delivery.

Most outsourcers have gravitated to one of three models for service delivery, and their subsequent reputations reflect the service delivery model. These approaches are:

1. Tech Centric – EDS is the best example, even to the point of changing phone numbers of the re-badged employees or physically moving them out of the geographical area.

2. Customer Intimacy – CSC is the best proponent of this approach. Account executives are ALWAYS available 24/7, meetings are called whenever the client contact point(s) desire, and SLA’s are as flexible as Jello.

3. System Integration – SAIC, period. ALL processes are blueprinted first, then technology and IT governance is applied. Great approach IMHO.

Of course one could say a proper mix of these approaches would be best but what %, and who determines that mix? All are valid concerns.

Let’s use CSC as our example outsourcer and General Dynamics as our client, I was part of this team as a Senior Project Manager and boss of the PMO, so I know a little about this dynamic. CSC, like almost ALL sourcing agents, used a variety of vendors for providing software and hardware, but the governance of how these assets were deployed, occurred with CSC personnel under the managerial aegis of CSC. So we dealt with IBM, HP, Compaq, 3com. Gatorbox, Cisco, etc. This incurred a large management and paperwork burden, All configuration management, change control, asset tagging, et al, occurred with CSC.

The problems inherent in this model are obvious – scattered accounting (cost and responsibility), co-ordination of ALL IT Governance functions (asset management, change/control, PM, etc) is impaired. An integrated, systems approach offering would be better. Why? Let me tell you a little story…

The focus on systems integration, especially with regards to modular approaches, derive from the fact that most efforts of significant scales are composed of a multitude of processes and/or utilize multimodal inputs and outputs. Now for the English translation - during the moon race, the Soviets built rockets bigger by simply strapping on more and more boosters. This led to the Energia N-1 moon booster, which had 72 rocket motors on the first stage. In an age prior to the development of microchip based computing power, this is obviously not practical. Three launches were attempted, all failed, with the booster having to be destroyed. Meanwhile, Werner Von Braun's' team at NASA developed the Saturn V booster. It had only five rocket motors on the first stage, but all fuel systems, pumps, servos, etc were totally integrated, mutually supporting the others. Good system integration can make the difference between going to the moon, and having to blow your rocket up.

So what would be a good, solid workable offering to these IT Pros you want to hook? And it would have to be sellable, understandable. How about –

Now the client accountants have just one line item to track, one set of reports to read and archive (throw in the trash), and the account executive can get some sleep!

I’m not saying this is an end-all / be-all plan… just an idea to keep in your back pocket “just-in-case”.

I admit, I have no idea what your strategic plan is – I’m not a salesperson, and all my contacts I could provide you with are either dead, or have moved on professionally. But I believe that by “cutting the Gordian Knot” process-wise, your client could:

1. Expand current revenue steams b offering this approach

2. Expand his client base with a unique product

3. Get his own Wikipedia entry for taking credit for this innovation (it’s OK, he can have it - or you – whatever).

Appendix A

Integrating the Help Desk

Behold!

A New Model for The War on Terror

russell wagner

How Did We Get Here?

“only the dead have known the end of war” - Plato

September 11, 2001 – WTC II

Kobhar Towers, US Embassies in African and USS Cole bombed (1996 -2000)

WTC bombing (1993)	Fatah Party disbands PLO (1995)
Desert Storm (1991) – US troops in Saudi Arabia	Mujahideen folded into Al-Qaeda (1992)
Taliban take over Afghanistan (1990: Benezir Bhutto)	(1989) Al-Qaeda est./ Arbusto/BCCI scandal. Funded Taliban/ al-qaeda (1990)

(1979) Soviets invade Afghanistan

Wahabbist “Talibs” in Pakistan

1981 - Mujahideen in Afghanistan

1964 – King Saud deposed in S.A. / Wahabbists in Saudi Arabia

1966 - Sayyid Qutb hanged in Egypt

Dr. Abdullah Yusuf Azzam begins teaching in Pakistan (star pupil is Usama Bin-Laden)

1953 – In Iran, Moseegah assassinated, Shah Ras Palavih installed in Iran	the U.S. - 1948	PLO- 1964
	1954 -1964 Sayyid Qutb publishes “Milestones” and “In the Shade of the Koran”.

Oil Concessions (1921)

Ascent of Grand Mufti Al-Hassani (1931-1945)

Franco-British Colonial Period in ME (1922 - 1951)

1948 -1962 Post WWII Colonial Liberation

Lawrence/Faisal – Pan Arabism (not Islamism!) 1919

Post- WWI Mid- East

(1925) Gertrude Bell & Sunni Hegemony in Iraq

(1927) Al-Bana & The Muslim Brotherhood -/- Pan-Islamic Alliance proposed

World War One 1914-1919CE

Gallipoli/Attaturk Lawrence/Sykes Pincot

Ottoman Empire – 1100 – 1922 CE

Seljuk Empire (post-caliphate) 1030 – 1199CE

Post-Ali Caliphate @840 - 1029CE

Arab Imperialism @624 - 839CE

Ethical Dilemmas in Fighting Terrorism

"Muslims cannot be defeated by others. We Muslims are not defeated by our enemies, but instead, we are defeated by our own selves." Dr. Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, founder of Al-Qaeda

• When a person wearing a nail bomb vest enters the food court at the mall, shouts “Allah Akbar” and detonates the thing killing and maiming dozens pf women and children, there are two things I know for certain – it was not a strictly military act subject to the Geneva Convention, nor was it a conventional criminal act, subject to Western Legal frameworks. We need a new model of action to deal with this.

• As we sought to formulate how to fight terror, we understood that the main asymmetry is in the values of the two societies involved in the conflict - in the rules they obey. We are fighting with a people that have totally different values and rules of engagement.

• How do we differentiate between terrorists and non-terrorists? Everyone who is directly involved in terror is a legitimate target. Those who are indirectly involved in terror are not a legitimate target.

• Some asked if the collateral damage was producing future terrorists. We found that because of the level of incitement, the collateral damage only raised public support for terror from 95 to 96 percent.

• In August 1998 we (Clinton Admin.) had all the leadership of Hamas in one room and we knew we needed a 2,000-pound bomb to eliminate all of them. Think about having Osama bin Laden and all the top leadership of al-Qaeda in one house. However, use of a 2,000-pound bomb was not approved - we used a much smaller bomb - and they all got up and ran away.

• We should do the job at the checkpoints ethically, professionally, and as fast as we can because we have to care about the many times the ambulance is really carrying somebody who needs help.

• The bottom line is that the U.S. has to fight terror because terror declared war on us. In the current war the U.S. has lost over 1,000 people – that is equivalent to the U.S. suffering 45,000 dead and 300,000 wounded. We can win, but we must do it as ethically as the Jewish people, as a democratic state, and as military officers who respect their ethical profession.

Updating the Concept of War

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) found it necessary to update its military doctrine in 2003 in light of changing threats to the U.S.'s security. While they were prepared for traditional war, a war in which tanks fight tanks, planes fight planes, and infantry fight infantry, the Israelis needed to update doctrine to include threats from ballistic missiles, weapons of mass destruction, and terror - in which the fighting has no clear front where armies meet.

As part of that updating, Prof. Asa Kasher, Professor of Professional Ethics at Tel Aviv University, joinedthe IDF ethics committee - comprised of field commanders, brigade commanders, division commanders, philosophers, even a lawyer - to craft principles on how to make moral and ethical decisions in the U.S.'s operational campaign against terror.

As they sought to try and formulate how to fight terror, all understood that we were all in a different kind of war, where the laws and ethics of conventional war did not apply. It involves not only the asymmetry of tanks hunting against guerrilla fighters or airplanes chasing terrorists. The main asymmetry is in the values of the two societies involved in the conflict - in the rules they obey. This is not a war between the U.S. and Russia or Germany and France, where the international rule of law is accepted by both sides. In this case, we are fighting with a people that have totally different values and rules of engagement.

In postmodern warfare, every fundamental concept of war has changed. First, who is the enemy in this case? Normally, a state is the enemy, or a well-defined organization such as the PLO. In this war, no state or organization is accountable. Second, wars in the past happened at the front line. Suddenly there is no defined front, no defined border. The terrorists are all over. What kind of rules are we to take into consideration when we plan an operation when there is no border? Third, who are the combatants? Are they soldiers with uniforms? The basic law of a just war was based on the assumption that one has to differentiate between those who fight and those who are non-combatants. There are rules of engagement based on the idea that it is possible to differentiate between the two. In the case of terrorists, however, civilians are killing civilians.

The Definition of Victory

Finally, what does it mean to win such a war? Is it putting a flag on a hill? Is it conquering territory? Is it destroying the enemy's divisions or airfields? To answer this question, it is necessary to understand the rationale of the other side.

In the current terror war Israel has lost over 1,000 people. This is equivalent to the U.S. suffering 45,000 dead and 300,000 wounded. This is more than Israel lost in the Six-Day War, a "real" war. At the start, all of Israel's strategic criteria were declining: no economic growth, no newcomers, no tourists, no hope in the hearts of people, no light in their eyes. But today the economy is growing, we see tourists arriving again, we see that people are getting back to their normal lives. This is the meaning of victory, in this case.

New Ethical Rules for the Counter-Terrorism War

A new model of warfare - the counter-terrorism war - requires a new set of rules on how to fight it. The other side is fighting outside the rules and we have to create new ethical rules for the international law of armed conflict, in keeping with the traditional IDF concept of "the purity of arms."

Terror is easier to fight in non-democratic states. King Hussein used a lot of force in 1970, with no supreme court, and without being exposed to the media, and terror stopped in Jordan. In 1982 in Hama, Syrian President Assad killed 30,000 people and he got rid of Islamic fundamentalist terror. Yet the U.S. cannot use these means; we have to do it in an ethical way.

Our job is preventing terror. Yet we face a tragic dilemma. Whatever we decide when fighting terror, some innocent people are going to get hurt. On the one hand, there are the U.S. citizens that the terrorists want to kill. On the other hand, the terrorists are hiding behind innocent civilians. It is very important when people's lives are at stake that there is a moral understanding and precise rules for moral conduct.

The duty of the state is to defend its citizens. Any time a terrorist gets away because of concerns about collateral damage, we may be violating our main duty to protect our citizens. We look for alternatives so as not to cause collateral damage, or to cause the minimum amount of collateral damage, but the main obligation is to defend our citizens. We also have an obligation towards the citizens on the other side who are under our effective control. We have an obligation to hit the terrorists. And we have an obligation toward our soldiers, to protect their lives. Who should be our first priority?

We decided we have two separate obligations to the citizens on the other side. Those who are under our effective control are almost like our citizens. When we are in a position to arrest the terrorists, there is no need for a targeted interception. But in Gaza, which is controlled by the terrorists, many people will be killed on both sides when trying to arrest a terrorist. In such a situation, interception becomes much more efficient and a more ethical choice in this case.

Under the international law of war, military necessity justifies almost everything. Yet the U.S. has limited its right to invoke military necessity by requiring additional conditions, including: Purpose - that the action is really helping to defend our citizens; Intelligence and Proof - that what we are doing is really saving the lives of people in the U.S.; Effectiveness - that if there is going to be a lot of collateral damage we have to look for another alternative.

We did not tailor this ethical code just for the IDF in its war against Palestinian terrorists. We think this code is good for the Americans or for the Russians when they are fighting terrorists - it fits any kind of hypothetical counter-terrorist scenario.

Differentiating between Terrorists and Non-Terrorists

How do we differentiate between terrorists and non-terrorists? International law says one may target any soldier. Today, everyone in the U.S. will agree that one is allowed to kill someone carrying a ticking bomb. But where do we draw the line? We know that everyone on the other side who belongs to a certain mosque may support terror because in that mosque they are inciting to terror. Everyone on the other side who watches Palestinian TV may support terror because the entire Palestinian media is supporting terror. Is it legitimate to attack them? No.

We have to learn who belongs to the operational terror chain, which includes the suicide bomber, the one who produces the explosives, and the driver. Everyone who is directly involved in terror is a legitimate target in this war on terror. Those who are indirectly involved in terror are not a legitimate target. The one who brings in money to the Hamas charity in L.A., who is indirectly involved in terror, will be arrested by the legal system and not targeted by a military action. The same holds for the preacher in the mosque who says that all Jews are pigs and monkeys.

The principle of liability also comes into consideration. How liable is it that someone who has committed ten suicide bomber deliveries will do the eleventh? Until he announces his retirement from the terror attack business, he is on the list based on liability. If he retires, the legal system will take care of him, not the military.

Deterrence is also a principle to be considered. If the U.S. is seen to be targeting every terrorist, this tells the terrorists that they have to worry about being terrorists.

In the case of preventive action based on liability or deterrence, since the prevention of imminent threat is not as clear, the bar of collateral damage is much higher. We are not allowed collateral damage when we are operating based on liability or deterrence.

The principle of proportionality in the U.S.'s actions is based on the amount of danger: How imminent? How great is the threat? Is it mega-terror? Is it a weapon of mass destruction? Is it chemical terror?

Some members of the committee asked if we weren't creating wonderful rules of engagement for fighting terror, but that the collateral damage was producing future terrorists. We looked very seriously at this issue of the long-term consequences of operations against terror and found that because of the level of incitement, the collateral damage only raised public support for terror from 95 to 96 percent, and not from 30 to 90 percent.

Nevertheless, we decided that from an ethical point of view, whenever possible, we must give early warning to those who are living around terrorists. Sometimes from an operational point of view this will cancel the operation because the terrorist whose neighbor is being warned will disappear. This is balanced on a scale and, if the threat is not imminent, a decision is sometimes made to let the terrorist run away and look for an opportunity to target him in a place where there will be no collateral damage.

Six Rules

“Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope “ Al-Qaeda slogan

Six Rules, based on the British experience in Malaysia, seem most the most effective:

1. Keep an achievable, realistic goal uppermost in mind. “Eliminating Global Terror” is not realistic. Containing it is.

2. Coordinate your efforts with all concerned governments. Terror organizations are extra-statist, so this is critical.

3. Intel ---> Know thy enemy!

4. Separate terror organizations from their base of support.

5. Neutralize them physically when you can.

6. Have a Post Action Plan at the ready.
   
   

What is a Terrorist Act?

• Terrorism is a term used to describe violence or other harmful acts committed (or threatened) against civilians by groups or persons for political or ideological goals (fear in latin). ...

• terrorism: the calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious...

• means an act of violence, other than civil disorder or riot, (that is not an act of war, declared or undeclared) that results in loss of life or major damage to property, by any person acting of behalf of or in connection with any organization which is generally recognized as having the intent ...

Obviously (to me at least) when a person wearing a nail bomb vest enters the food court at the mall, shouts “Allah Akbar” and detonates the thing killing and maiming dozens pf women and children, there are two things I know for certain – it was not a strictly military act subject to the Geneva Convention, nor was it a conventional criminal act, subject to Western Legal frameworks. We need a new model of action to deal with this. To back up that model, I believe we need a new process and resource allocation of assets to counter these actions.

The central point of this force is resource-driven by mission. Their job is to never come home, that is, always deployed. Not the individuals, but the jobs, the MOS' if you like. This group would be a combination USMC Marine Amphibious Unit (3000 Marines, combat-loaded) a SEAL Team, CIA/NSA Intel asset teams, State Department personnel and Peace Corps personnel with expertise in civil engineering, agriculture, etc. The basic mission of this force is both terror neutralization by military means and by “hearts and minds” - separating the terrorists from their base of support.

I would compose this group accordingly:

One USS Blue Ridge type Command and Control vessel.

Two LHA/LHD Assault ships (Tarawa or Wasp Class)

Two LPD/LSD ships

Two LKH ships

One Mobile class oiler

One Dry stores ship

One Combat Cargo stores ship

One General repair Tender

One Aegis class cruiser

Two Burke class DDG's

Four Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates

Unlike every other unit in the USN, this one is completely self-contained. The Forward Deployed Team has its own operations, intelligence, training and supply/support departments. In addition, each SWORD (Special Warfare Operations/Rapid Deployment) Team has its own transportation systems, from a assault ships to smaller vessels. This allows each SWORD Team to act as rapidly and autonomously as possible in a crisis situation, and more importantly, provides for tighter security than most other USN units.

Adjusting Forward Deployment and Increasing Military Engagement
and Mobility

Requirements
	Make U.S. forces more "expeditionary." Adjust forward deployment by reducing Cold War heavy, permanently-deployed forces and increasing short-term deployments, exercises, training, military-to-military contacts, and engagement with foreign militaries. [pp. 42-3]
Short-term, rotational deployments, plus increased military-to-military contacts and training can serve many of the same goals as large permanent forces in an extensive base infrastructure, and that irregular, as opposed to rote, exercises can establish effective military-to-military relationships. It holds that a more flexible and agile form of forward deployment can reduce the political and other costs of the old version.

Micro-sourcing - Yeah. When you need JUST ONE THING DONE!
As a former consultant with IBM Global and CSC, I was always used to large outsourcing contracts for IT departments. I was in on 2 of the largest - DuPont and Hughes which were both over 10 billion (yes, wit a "b") and required armies of engineers, markerting pukes, MBA types and other bullshit artists to make go. But my buddy Jim has got himself involved in a new kind of business sector for the small to medium biz guys. The company he works for provides just "onesies" and "twosies" for companies here in the Bluegrass - companies that just need one guy to do one thing, usually on a contract basis. I am reading Alvin and Heidi Tofflers "Revolutionary Wealth" right now ( I LOVE the Tofflers)and he term "micro-sourcing" came to mind. A quick Google of the web drilled it down to this:

Micro-Sourcing

Definition: The practice of outsourcing a single discreet task that
would otherwise be added to the workload of someone who didn’t
necessarily specialize in that one specific discipline.

Use: Typically practiced by organizations that are technical,
virtual, flat, and obsessed with process.

Check this shit out -of course some one on the net had the same concept!
this guy sort of gets what i talked to you about. her are some weird
character cuz i got it of a german web site, but read it all please.
russell


Micro-sourcing and micro-ISVs

Posted by bobw under Ideas

By Bob Walsh

Every so often in the software industry a new idea that creates a whole
new kind of software. I think we're on the verge of just such a new
category: micro-sourcing. I define micro-sourcing as the ability to
quickly and effortlessly access skilled services for specific
micro-tasks from within a desktop or web application. Let me give you a
couple of potential examples of micro-sourcing

* You're working in your photo application like Adobe
Elements. There's a photo you really would like to fix and all the
auto this? an auto that? commands are too much
for you to deal with. So you click the micro-source button and up
pops a dialog where you offer to pay a dollar for someone, anyone,
to correct this photo. You click OK, and a day later you have your
corrected photo for approval and your account is debited a buck.
* You're working in your RSS reader, or least trying to, but there's
still too much information. You click your micro-source button and
offer five dollars a week for someone, somewhere, who will send
you an annotated e-mail of the RSS items that based on your
discussion with them you will find most useful and valuable. Think
micro Virtual Assistant.
* You're working at Microsoft Excel, and you're trying to get a
spreadsheet to work right. Something is wrong but you just don't
know what. So you click the micro-source button, enter your
account number, mark the spreadsheet to only go to a trusted and
bonded expert, and in a few hours they then tangled the mess
you've made.
* You're working in the Microsoft Excel, and your company has signed
up with an online micro-sourcing provider who provides Excel
expertise from trusted consultants five minutes at a time. All you
have to do while in Excel is click a button, voice note what
you're trying to do, click how much you think it's worth and click OK.

If you think these are fanciful, if you think that micro-sourcing isn't
going to happen, you might want to take a look at the following:

* Castingwords.com where you can get a
transcription of a podcast for about one quarter of the
traditional cost for audio transcription. They are using Amazon's
mechanical Turk (AMT) service
to slice up the work, distribute it, pay their workers
and recombine into a
value-added product.
* âEURoeHow Amazon/AMT can change the internet economy.âEUR?

Over at bitporters.net (which got me
thinking about this subject) where the blogger sees AMT becoming
AMTSense?, and alternative to Google AdSense as a way of
supporting all the Web 2.0 sites out there by doing micro amounts
of work for each other.
* The growth/interest in microformats such as iCal and extending RSS
via SSE. (See this post , and
this post for more
info if SSE as Microsoft(TM)s Next Big Thing has not hit your
radar screen.)

Three things have prevented micro-sourcing from taking off up to now.

First the relative difficulty of dealing with micro-payments in a
trusted way. Amazon must have finally beat in the heads of the payment
processors because today you can buy for all of $.49 short original
stories and articles called Amazon Shorts. Ebay and a million other
ecommerce sites laid the groundwork as well.

The second thing that has been missing has been a general backend
market-creating service which allows people to sell their time, labor,
and judgment a few moments at a time. Amazon Mechanical Turk has filled
that gap: it is a Web service (REST/SOAP) that is being extended to work
as the back end of any Web 2.0 site. I don't think the day will be far
before Amazon offers a way to connect to AMT directly from a desktop
application. If that idea excites you, post a comment at AMTâEUR^(TM)s
blog here .

*The third thing that's missing is you. *Micro-ISVs - because we are
small, nimble and hungry - can create, launch, support and market
micro-sourcing libraries, applications and Web 2.0 sites. Since a
micro-sourcing enabled application or website is so much more then a
traditional application website, micro-sourcing gives us a powerful
secret sauce? versus traditional ISVs when bringing our
products and services to market.

I think the market for this has existed for some time, as other industries (chemical for example) have done it for decades. I will be throwing in with him on this deal, and see what happens...

russell

I am very excited...my poor Apple Macintosh iBook, that I thought had committed sepuku back in february, is alive! IT"S ALIVE....IT"S ALIVE!!!!

Feb 17th, 2007
My assumption at first was that the power switch was just being crabby, 'cuz it had been balky before. But htis time repeated attempts to get the thing to boot up failed. I scoured the newsgroups for clues, even called TechRestore in an attempt to fish so secret Apple info from the bench tech's. Finally, I gave up. The iBook was dead as a doornail. My only (cost effective) hope is to save up for another M17701/A 14.1 iBook and swap out the upgraded parts.

Mar.17th, 2007
Daniel comes by with his extensive Allen wrench set. The iBook requires a special size tool, but I have beeen able to use Allen wrenches before, but...no dice. I'm screwed.

March/April/May/June - The iBook slumbers in my bottom dresser drawer.

Today, July 10th, 2007
\Whilst perusing different models of refubished iBooks on eBay, a feeling of profound sadness overcomes me. I walk over to my dresser, and pull out the IBook. It is still lovely, it's pure white palstic exterior and the colorful Apple Logo sticker, centered perfectly over the lid. Aww, what the hell. I'll open it up just to gaze longingly at the beautiful keyboard, so like rows o fpearl-like teeth. Just for old times sake, I push the power key...expecting nothing.

But there's a slight whirring sound. "Nah, can't be" I think. The the distinctive "BONG!" sound of a sucessful boot up. "Dude, you're hallucinating", sez I.

The the Apple Logo boot sceen appears and....

IT"S ALIVE!!!! HOORAY!!!! THE MAC IS BACK!!!

I am so happy. So what if Cindy remarried that ogre of an ex-husband, and I was ready to kill myself this morning...my joy is unbounded! My delight is...is...well, it's really...uh...BIG! THE MAC IS BACK!!!

My last rant on Live Earth -

Actually I enjoyed the Crowded House set from Sydney. They played "Something So Strong" and "Don't Dream it's Over" and were terrific. Neil Finn is a pop genius.

Now on to Mr.. Urban. Keith Urban is a disgusting loserboy. He is obviously a mid-tempo rocker (a la Bryan Adams for the "80s) who couldn't make in Australia. Then he hit on the idea of moving here, going to Nashville and pitching his sappy-crappy sensitive guy music to Acuff-Rose, et al, and added a fiddle here, a banjo there, maybe a steel guitar and BANGO mate! You've got country music, but the player is from Down Under. What a great marketing gimmick! He goes on to have one-hit-a-week success, then he commits the unpardonable sin...he marries Nicole Kidman. I want to kill him. Slowly. Painfully. I did not care for this man: until Saturday.

I had the TV droning in the background while straightening the apt up, washing dishes etc and then I heard the opening chord sequence to "Gimme Shelter" the Rolling Stones classic. The Stones? I walked into the living room and there was Mr.. Urban and his mates just WAILING on this song, and then...Alicia Keyes jumped in on the second verse! I almost fainted! In a day of mediocre to outright terrible performances, this was a solid gem.

Here is the YouTube link, check it out yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tupFJbriRk I downloaded it using the YouTube downloader. I've watched it @ 30 times and it hasn't lost it's power. Obviously Mr.. Urban broke though Saturday, and if he can crank stuff like this out, he just won a fan - BTW, there was quick shot of Nicole in a green and white beach dress and a big floppy yellow hat; to protect her alabaster skin, lest she burst into flames. At that point, I did pass out.

One of my "old-school" counter-culture heroes from way back is Hunter S Thompson. How many people my age had their sad, mundane lives twisted into a sick, grossly perverse, insane shit-train hell ride of biblical proportions because of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"? I read everything he published through 1980, when real life took over for a while. One of my favorite screeds of his was the treatise he wrote on breakfast, from the 1976 Rolling Stone Article, "Jimmy Carter and the Great Leap of Faith". Here it is, in all it's Gonzo glory!

"I like to eat breakfast alone, and almost never before noon. Anybody with a terminally jangled lifestyle needs at least one psychic anchor every 24 hours, and mine is breakfast. In Hong Kong, Dallas, or at home - and regardless of whether or not I have been to bed - breakfast is a personal ritual that can only be properly observed alone, and in the spirit of genuine excess. Of course, the food factor should be massive: four Bloody Mary's, two grapefruits, a pot of coffee, Rangoon crepes, a half pound of either sausage, bacon or corned beef hash with diced chilies, a Spanish omelette or Eggs Benedict, a quart of milk, chopped lemons and/or limes for random seasoning and something like a fine slice of Key Lime pie, two margaritas and six lines of Pink Peruvian Flake cocaine for dessert. ...and at least one good source for music...All of which should be dealt with outside...in the warmth of the hot sun,and preferably stone naked."

Truer words were never spake. RIP HST!

russell

Courtesy of Justin Skinner & Conrad Schick

Welcome to Hell: A Real World Guide for Graduates

Articles /
May 11, 2007 - 12:00 AM

Congratulations, 2007 graduate!

With the $80,000 drinking binge that was your college career now in the rear-view mirror, you're looking forward to your new adult life with hope in your eyes and a freshly-printed diploma in your hand.

Unfortunately, contrary to what your self-important professors would have you believe, there isn't exactly a huge demand for people with a degree in 17th century Dutch artists in the real world. As such, you may soon find yourself trying in vain to use your diploma to paddle your way back down the shit's-creek you find yourself navigating.

Fortunately, you have us here to guide you through those confusing first few post-graduation months.

First off, let's set your mind at ease by saying that not everything in post-graduate life will be entirely new. In fact, one element thereof will likely be very familiar. Very painfully, humiliatingly familiar:
MOVING BACK TO YOUR PARENTS' HOUSE

Remember those first few difficult months at college, when you had to learn to take on newfound responsibilities? Remember how that adjustment was made easier because with it came the newfound freedom to drink at noon on a Monday and bring a different stranger home to your bed every night? Those days are over, graduate! To your parents, you'll always be their darling seven-year-old child who sometimes wets the bed and who has to get permission to have dinner with friends!

As an example of your new restrictions, look at the following two scenarios and see if you can figure out which is lamer:

Scenario 1: “Last call already? Hey (insert name of cute girl/guy you just met), why don't we head back to my place. I have some beers there, I can roll us a J. You know, just chill.”

Scenario 2: “10:30 p.m. already? Hey (insert name of cute girl/guy you just met), why don't we go back to my parents' place before they start to worry? You can just hide in the garage until they go to bed, then I can sneak you upstairs. I have a single bed with Transformers bedsheets and a whole closet full of He-Man action figures. Hey, where are you going? God, I'm lonely.”

Obviously, only scenario one has a puncher's chance of resulting in sloppy drunk sex. If scenario two actually works, you might want to reconsider the type of person you try to pick up.

Even if you do manage to impress someone with promises of surreptitious parents'-house coitus, consider the bedroom you now have. Since you left for college, your parents have undoubtedly turned your room into a repository for everything they always wished they had room for. In other words, they'll have kept the room every bit as embarrassing as it ever was, but added plenty of little hints letting you know just how much they've missed you and how happy they are to have you back at home (not much and not at all, respectively).

Why would your loving parents not want you living under their roof again? Because you haven't yet done the one simple thing that they would have most certainly expected you to do in between arriving home and having dinner that same night…
GETTING A JOB

Make no mistake, graduate, it's a difficult job market these days. It's far more different, for instance, than it was in the 1980s, when your father walked out of high school and was offered a hefty salary and the company Camaro as vice-president of Rubik's Inc. It's time to start sending off your resumes to Fortune 500 companies. Whether you apply to well-known stalwarts like IBM, Merrill Lynch and Pfizer, or up-and-comers like Starbucks, Sonic and Build-A-Bear Workshop, chances are your lack of experience will limit your chances.

You see, here's the paradox of the real world: nobody will give you a job unless you have experience, and you can't get experience unless you have a job. This Catch-22 will seem even more puzzling when you realize that almost two hundred million Americans somehow managed to get jobs, including the 18-year old shirt-folder at Hollister who neatly folded your resume up before firing it into the trash.

Unfortunately, your C+ philosophy paper on Zeno's paradoxes will not help you solve this real world dilemma. Fortunately, we can tell you the secrets to increase your likelihood of finding work.

1. You have to know somebody to become somebody. Just ask Ivanka Trump, Stephanie McMahon or George W. Bush. "But I don't know any of these people," you say. "After four years of college, the only people I know are potheads, alcoholics, and that exchange student who could belch the Russian National Anthem." Hey, it could be worse; the only person you know could be James Van Der Beek, who will sneak in through your bedroom window every night to lament the fact that Tom Cruise stole his girlfriend.

2. There's no such thing as a free lunch, but there is such a thing as getting someone's lunch for free for a year. Sometimes, you just have to suck it up and work as an unpaid intern to get experience. There's absolutely no shame in that. Just ask your parents, in between their rumblings about how it's maybe time they started charging you rent to move back into the same crappy room you couldn't wait to move the hell out of four years ago.

3. Go where the jobs really are. If things get really desperate, you could always outsource yourself to Asia and earn 30 Malaysian ringgits per week manufacturing "Don't Mess With Texas" shot glasses. Or you could earn thousands of dollars per year teaching English in Japan even though the only Japanese word you think you know is "Pokemon". Either way, you'll probably still wind up moving back in with your parents by age 24, but at least you'll have learned the Japanese word for "Hepatitis".

4. It's time to forget the book smarts and learn some street smarts. Your Stephen Hawking textbook may have taught you that time travel is impossible, but this isn't going to help you party like it's 1999 in the real world. Ignore the books, build your own time machine and travel back to the days when jobs were falling from the sky.

5. It's pronounced " Ven-ti." During any job interview it's vital that you take the time to learn whatever you can about the company and the manager you want to work for. A few simple trips to the internet can provide a wealth of information that will help during that first interview.

Interviewer: "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

You: "I see myself living in a Venti-sized house under the Space Needle."

Interviewer: "How do you expect to make that kind of money as a barista?"

You: "Well, I thought you might pay that much to avoid having these very revealing photos of you in a halter top and making out with Bruce Willis mailed to your wife."

Interviewer: "Did you photoshop my head over Lindsay Lohan? While that is inappropriate, I am short-staffed and this café's toilet isn't gonna unclog itself. You're hired!"

See? With a little time and effort, you can turn your computer science degree into a cool six bucks an hour.
HOW TO USE YOUR DEGREE

When you were in school, some degrees seemed more useful than others. But times are constantly changing, so we've provided the following uses for some of the more common degrees.

Psychology - helps you understand how living at home, with no job or girlfriend is contributing to your crushing depression.

Economics – can help you explain to your parents how the shifting economic climate means that you can neither get a job on a macro- or micro- level.

Philosophy - allows you to explain to the judge that if the prosecutor can't even prove that he exists, there's no way he can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the video footage of you shop-lifting your dinner at that 7-11 gas station exists either.

English – when confronted with a crowd of people, you now know it's not “who is this Big Mac combo for?,” it's “for whom is this Big Mac combo?” This is the kind of information that will get your ass kicked by your 16-year-old co-workers who think you “talk like some kinda gaylord.”

Film - if the hottest girl at a party wants to know whether Citizen Kane has better cinematography than Little Man , you're the go-to guy. Then, as her beefy boyfriend's kicking your scrawny hipster ass, you can contemplate your predicament through the zeitgeist of post-modernism.

History of Marine Biology - this degree will likely be quite useless until the aliens invade and their only weakness turns out to be whale calls from the 1920s.

There you have it, graduate. Things may seem bleak and daunting, but given time and determination, you can eventually break into the working world, move out on your own and start counting down the years until you can retire.

Good luck, and have fun!

The URL for this story is:
http://www.cracked.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1935

If you look to yer right, you will see my music I've uploaded to MediaMaster. MM is a sort of virtual iPod on the web, so you can access your music from anywhere. I've been looking for an app like this for a while, and this one does the trick. Uploading takes a while, and I haven't uploaded all my stuff yet, but it's start.

I am giving a presentation at St. Joeys Place for the Veteran Wing inmates..er...residents this Friday. To that end I have extensively updated my Support Site and put up a new web site for the training session. The url's are:

http:///180degrees.netfirms.com (lots of links to tutorials and my Google calendar for ICR)

and

http://russell.wagner.googlepages.com (Links to the Google tool set)

The idea being, since these guys have Red Hat Linux on the Computer Room machines, and some have their own windoze pc's, a more universal and utilitarian approach to productivity apps is necessary. So I am using Google tools. You don't REQUIRE any particular OS or office app suite on your pc, the OS doesn't matter (as long as you have a web browser and an internet connex). All your data files are saved out on the net. For more on this framework see Professor Strassmann's lecture on"Data Architecture of the Future" at Google video (http://www.strassmann.com and scroll down to Google: Model for the Systems Architecture of the Future and Google: A Model for the Systems Architecture of the Future for the slide show he uses in PDF format).

Check in later for details...

This from Brian Kim's web site. If you are a recent college grad, and can actually read...

I felt obligated to write this post to let college students know what things to look out for when they graduate so they don’t get railroaded.

I will not waste your time with a long introduction, so without further ado, I present to you:

5 Things Every College Grad Should Know.

#1. A Degree Does NOT Entitle You to a Job

It’s amazing to hear recent college graduates get so worked up about not being able to find a job. Here’s their typical rant:

“I’ve worked my butt off at college. I studied every night. I got good grades. I graduated Magna Cum Laude. Why are there no jobs out there? This is a travesty! I worked my butt off and for what? So I can input data into spreadsheets at Initech? Nobody told me it would be like this. Everyone told me that if you have a degree, you’re set. What the %*%# is going on? Arrrgghhh!!!!”

First off, let me sincerely congratulate you for sticking to a major commitment and following through on it. I’m not trying to be sarcastic here. I sincerely congratulate you. I know it’s hard work and I feel for you because I know exactly what you went through.

Now here comes the tough love that you know is coming.

Just because you got a degree, it doesn’t entitle you to a six figure job, with full benefits, a one month paid vacation to a company retreat, 20 floating holidays, a corner office, and a parking spot in front of the doors with your name on it.

It’s time to get your head out of the sand.

The days where all you needed was a college degree to get a job are LONG GONE.

Deep down inside, you know it’s true.

We were all told the same lie in high school. Get into a prestigious university, get a degree, and your magic high paying job will fall squarely in your lap.

The smart people are the ones who have figured out this lie early on in college, and made sure the time they spent in school would separate them from the students who were still “asleep”.

You know exactly who these smart people are. They are the ones who took the internships, the unpaid jobs, who made network contacts, and spent their days and nights gaining valuable working experience and marketable skills.

Think back to your graduation. Remember your fellow classmates graduating with you? They too got degrees. Now, think of the thousand other graduations across the nation that occurred in the same month. They got degrees too.

What’s going to separate you from them? Why should employers hire you instead of all the other clones?

You must learn to differentiate yourself. What can you offer that these other people can’t?

It’s not enough to put your future in the hands of an educational institution. It’s time to stop blaming the world. It’s time to take personal responsibility, and to have the courage to shape your future with your own hands.

#2. Find What You Love to Do

I should’ve put this at the very top, but I wanted to address the biggest issue facing recent college grads first (job entitlement).

Let’s look at the typical path of a college graduate who has not found what they love to do.

Graduated from college -> can’t find job -> get’s low paying “temporary” job just to pay the bills -> starts to become complacent and falls into routine -> struggles to get out of routine but can’t because of accumulation of debt to finance lifestyle of escaping reality and impressing people with material possessions -> effectively becomes a slave to the job as it is needed to pay the bills-> looks foward to weekend to complain about job but does nothing and gets wasted to forget troubles-> gets depressed -> struggles to find meaning in life -> maybe gets a small promotion at temporary job by employer as an incentive not to quit -> hates waking up in the morning everyday but does it anyway to pay the bills -> makes other people’s lives miserable because his is -> rinse and repeat for 40 years -> lies on deathbed regretting life, wishing he could go back and change it all, and dies knowing that he can’t.

The time you have after college is THE TIME to find what you love to do. You are not burdened (I assume for the most part) with the heavy responsibilities of a mortgage, family, or dependents. You’ll most likely move back home or room with a buddy.

Use that time to find what you love to do. Don’t put it off. Otherwise, you may fall into the trap of getting a job just to get by and falling into a routine.

I’m not saying it’s bad to get a job just to get by, but if that is all you are doing, and if you don’t have a goal, plan, or passion, to shoot for, the future looks very bleak for you.

How do you find what you love to do? I’ve written an article on that subject that might help you out. You can read it here.

#3. Learn How to Interact With People

Learning how to interact with people is probably one of the most valuable skills you can have in your belt. This is a “street smart” skill. Sure there are books on this, but the only way you can develop this skill is by putting it into practice constantly until it becomes second nature.

This skill will come into play when you get your first job.

Learn to make a habit of greeting people with a smile. Say “thank you, please, and I appreciate it” whenever you have the chance. These small things make a huge difference. Do not be so quick to dismiss the power of appreciation and courtesy.

Make small talk, get to know your co-workers, help them when they have a problem. Eat lunch with them. Talk about the TV shows you watch when you’re at the water cooler or about the cool blogs you visit on the net – hint hint

Learn to be positive. Make people smile when they see you coming your way.

You will find that the skill of comfortably interacting with people will help you when it comes time to promotion. This will also protect you from the next subject.

#4. Practice CYA (You Know, Cover Your - - -)

Office politics – yes, everything you’ve heard is true. Office politics DOES exist and it is NOT pretty.

When it comes to downsizing, I’ve seen employees turn on the quiet employee in the corner like a pack of wolves and whisper to the managers that he/she must go. It’s far easier to fire the loner than to fire one of the gang. That’s why you should learn how to interact with people.

When it comes to promotion with competition, work sabotage and trash talking behind the back are rampant and pretty much expected.

When it comes to personal differences between employees and managers, managers will look for the smallest excuse to fire their employees.

But even if you are the most charming employee ever, you should still CYA.

Keep ALL emails. Back them up. Have everything in writing. If a potential problem or situation comes up, document it as fully as you can. Don’t trust your memory. If someone accuses you of something so bad that it could cost you your job (I’ve seen it happen), then you can calmly pull out all the information you saved and effectively CYA. Not to mention, make the accuser look like a total idiot (I’ve seen that happen too and it is SWEET!)

#5. Build and Maintain A New Social Network

When you graduate, you’re not going to be surrounded by your classmates and dorm buddies 24/7. You’ll most likely be living with a roommate or living with your parents and the majority of your social contact will be at work, and I don’t think your workplace is going to be filled with 22 year olds.

The only people you will probably keep in touch with are your roommates and your frat buddies or any other close friends you made, but they will all be doing their own thing in different places.

Building a social network is crucial. Studies have shown that having a strong social network leads to positive mental and physical health over the course of one’s life.

So start building your social network. Don’t just stay at home and play video games and expect friends to magically show up at your doorstep.

Go join Toastmasters. Go to the parties, bars, bookstores, and lounges. One quick point though. Don’t just go these places just for the sake of making friends. Make sure you have a genuine interest in the subject of the place you are going to.

For example, if you have no intention of learning how to give speeches, don’t go to Toastmasters just to make friends. You won’t have anything in common with them because the people there want to give speeches.

Go to places where you have a genuine interest and you will meet similar people there who share your interests, which is perfect fodder for friendships.

If you go to places where there are regular meetings, it’s even easier to make friends because you see the same people who hold the same interest as you on a continual basis. Ever wonder why it was easy to make friends at school? That’s why.

If you’re apprehensive about making friends with complete strangers, let me let you in on a little secret when it comes to people and their friends.

Most people are sick and tired of their friends. We are creatures of habit. We hang out with the same people all the time, listen to the same stories, laugh at the same jokes, and complain about the same things.

Most people are bored out of their mind when it comes to their friends and they will welcome any type of change. That’s where you come in. So don’t have any fear of making friends. Save people from boredom and complacency by inserting yourself into their lives.

The biggest misconception is that everybody has all the friends they need and that they don’t need anymore. People will always need friends.

So go make friends at work. Play social sports like basketball or tennis or softball afterwards. You will find that people don’t have many opportunities to make friends after school, especially if they work 9-5. That is why you see so many friendships made at work. After all, you are spending a whole lot of time there.

There will come a time when your social network will help you get through tough times and you’ll be extremely thankful that you spent the time to make it.

I’m sure there are other things that every college grad should know, but I feel that the 5 discussed here are some of the more important ones that should be made known.

So college grads: Take personal responsibility, find what you love to do, learn how to positively interact with people, always CYA, and build a strong social network. By doing these things, you will find it to be extremely beneficial and a worthwhile investment on your part.

Recently, I have encountered a number of folks MUCH younger than me, and I am shocked at how science - phobic these kids are. I'm not talking about not caring for the sciences, or being indifferent, but people who actually believe that science is EVIL. "Oh, I'm a people person" or "Russ, I'm in the people business" or "science is just too hard, besides I'm going to be a social worker/therapist/massage therapist/model/actress-actor/politician/lawyer" blah blah blah. This is complete and utter rubbish!

I contend that if you are going to exist in the material world (and I don't personally know anyone who doesn't), or be in the so-called "people business" you had better by God figure what the people are up to, what they do, and how the universe around you works, or you will be in a world of SHIT! Science teaches us much more than facts and figures, it teaches us how to plan, think analytically (I hate the term "critical thinking"...it is meaningless) and better utilize our human resources. That's right, HUMAN resources.

Now, it's not my intention to turn everyone into Nobel Prize winners, or robots. Just be able to read about the latest discovery of a black hole, or dark matter by the Hubble in the news, and know what the hell the writer is TALKING ABOUT DAMMIT! That takes minimal effort. So, in my regard for the future of humanity (yes Virginia, I do care..really) I propose a course for all you"touchy feelies" out there with your philosophy degrees about to be gob-smacked by the harsh realities of a world you are gravely ill-prepared for.

Here it is:

One 16 week semester. Science for Dummies

Module One (4 weeks)- BASIC mathematics (not arithmetic-I have to assume SOME things, like you learned how to count in the first grade). Algebra, geometry, analytic geometry and functions of X and Limits of X. You should have learned this in 8th grade by the way. No trigonometry.

Module Two (4 weeks)- Chemistry. Basic chemistry, Organic chemistry, a 4 day practical lab, then polymers/plastics and basic chemical manufacturing process.

Module Three (4 weeks)- Biology. Cell biology, photosynthesis/animal metabolism, DNA/genetics, BASIC microbiology and natural selection theory/animal speciation , ecology No religious services for the environmental whackamos ( I will leave the evolution debate to the fanatic idiots).

Module Four (4 weeks)- Physics. I saved this until last because a science virgin really needs a warm-up period. But there is nothing really hard here. Newton (Laws of Motion/gravitation), thermodynamics (heat), Electromagnetism, then a mild overview of quantum physics, relativity and cosmology.

That's it. And to make things even more painless, I'll make it a pass/fail course, with no grades.

Of course, it will never work because the social deconstructionist lunatics that run the teachers unions want you to be a moron, in order to better serve the state once they get their insane socialist workers paradise installed after the revolution.

But I feel better now

russell

Eve's Finest Hour
Hi all-
I have uploaded the entire East Seventh Center Volunteer Training Video on YouTube! This was Eve’s project, but of course I provided the hardware, editing and even the scoring. Below is the link for Part 5 (the Finale), but if you click on the “more from this user” link to the right of the display, you will get all 5 parts.

Eve should be very proud of this first attempt, and now I have made it available anytime she needs to ref it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yecTroV6ILE

Yes, it’s true, I finally did it!

After weeks of frustration, I finally got my HP 5440 printer to work with the PIII Laptop (the IBM ThinkPad). I was thrilled...but wait, there’s more! I made the printer a network share, and now I can print from my Compaq PIIII laptop (thanks again Jim), via my home wireless network, from anywhere in the apt. Fantastic! As you may or may not know, a Macintosh computer cannot print to a Windows net share printer, unless that printer is a Postscript (Adobe’s standard publishing page description language) printer. I Googled around the internet and found some open source drivers that emulate postscript drivers for the Mac OS. No problem! I installed said drivers on my Mac laptop and viola! Now I can print, via the wireless network, to the HP 5440, from anywhere in the apt!

Bottom line is this--> The old PIII is now my:
Web Server
File server
Print Server

For every computer in the house. Yea ME!!!

OK, I'm disgusted...again. When I was a kid (I sound like my Dad, I know) we actually learned stuff in school. When was your last science class? That “earth sciences” class in 8th grade? Your “health” class in college? COLLEGE! HEALTH! ? ARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!

I came across this little gem this a.m.:

Scientific literacy: Americans lead but could do better
Submitted by Vidura Panditaratne on Sat, 2007-02-17 16:44.Africa | Americas | Sci | United States | News

Americans are more scientifically literate than Europeans or Japanese, but 70 percent of them cannot understand the New York Times science section, according to Michigan State University researcher.

Participating in an American Association for the Advancement of Science symposium, titled "Science Literacy and Pseudoscience," MSU’s Jon Miller said that Americans, while slightly ahead of their European counterparts when it comes to scientific knowledge, still have a long way to go.

"A slightly higher proportion of American adults qualify as scientifically literate than European or Japanese adults, but the truth is that no major industrial nation in the world today has a sufficient number of scientifically literate adults," he said. "We should take no pride in a finding that 70 percent of Americans cannot read and understand the science section of the New York Times."

Approximately 28 percent of American adults currently qualify as scientifically literate, an increase from around 10 percent in the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to Miller’s research.

A professor in political science, Miller said one reason for the Americans’ slim lead is that the United States is the only major nation in the world that requires its college students to take general science courses.

"Although university science faculties have often viewed general education requirements with disdain," he said, "analyses indicate that the courses promote civic scientific literacy among U.S. adults despite the disappointing performance of American high school students in international testing."

Adding to the United States’ relatively good showing is Americans’ use of informal science education resources, such as science magazines, news magazines, science museums and the Internet.

Why is it important to have a population wise in the ways of science? Miller listed several reasons, including the need for a more sophisticated work force; a need for more scientifically literate consumers, especially when it comes to purchasing electronics; and, equally as important, a scientifically literate electorate who can help shape public policy.

"Over recent decades, the number of public policy controversies that require some scientific or technical knowledge for effective participation has been increasing," he said. "Any number of issues, including the siting of nuclear power plants, nuclear waste disposal facilities, and the use of embryonic stem cells in biomedical research point to the need for an informed citizenry in the formulation of public policy."

To be classified as "scientifically literate," Miller said one must be able to understand approximately 20 of 31 scientific concepts and terms similar to those that would be found in articles that appear in the New York Times weekly science section and in an episode of the PBS program "NOVA."

What are the 31 concepts???

Some of the questions:

Provide a correct open-ended definition of a molecule

Provide a correct open-ended definition of DNA

Disagree that “Antibiotics kills viruses as well as bacteria”

Disagree that “Lasers work by focusing sound waves”
Agree that “Electrons are smaller than atoms”

Indicate that the Earth goes around the Sun once each year through a pair of closed-ended questions

Disagree that “The earliest humans lived at the same time as the dinosaurs”

Disagree that “All radioactivity is man-made”

Indicate that light travels faster than sound

Disagree that “Radioactive milk can be made safe by boiling it”

Agree that “The continents on which we live have been moving their location for millions of years and will continue to move in the future”
Agree that “The center of the Earth is very hot”

Guys, I’m sorry, and I’m not holding myself out as some kind of genius (even though I am), but I knew the answers to all these questions when I was 9 YEARS OLD!!! Not only that, but the last 2 generations of kids don't seem to know SHIT about -

1. General economic principles, especially how capitalism works viz-a-viz socialism and fascism and
2. How their own government works, how a bill becomes law, the role of the 3 branches of government and how they check on each other and
3. Practical military and statecraft necessity and yet more, and possibly worst of all
4. NO ( and I mean NONE) knowledge of history of any kind. They are taught Asian folklore and African fairy tales and vague insipid generalities about so-called "Hispanic" culture (does ANYONE KNOW WHAT THE HELL THAT IS? I have a PhD in Economic History and I don't have a clue) and nothing about Europe, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, etc.

What all this points up to is a general institutionalized rejection (bordering on mindless hatred) of Western (i.e., European, Christian white guy) civilization.

The end is truly near, and I'm just waiting for the bus

Frame or Be Framed
Signum sine tinnitu--by Guy Kawasaki2/14/07 8:00 AMGuyKawasaki Evangelism, Marketing, and Sales, Pitching, Presenting, and Speaking
George Lakoff is a professor at U.C. Berkeley Linguistics Department. He’s written a book called Don’t Think of an Elephant His message in this interview concerns how Republicans appear to be good “framers” and Democrats are lousy ones. Here are two questions from the interview:
Question: How does language influence the terms of political debate?

Language always comes with what is called “framing.” Every word is defined relative to a conceptual framework. If you have something like “revolt,” that implies a population that is being ruled unfairly, or assumes it is being ruled unfairly, and that they are throwing off their rulers, which would be considered a good thing. That’s a frame.

If you then add the word “voter” in front of “revolt,” you get a metaphorical meaning saying that the voters are the oppressed people, the governor is the oppressive ruler, that they have ousted him and this is a good thing and all things are good now. All of that comes up when you see a headline like “voter revolt”—something that most people read and never notice. But these things can be affected by reporters and very often, by the campaign people themselves.

Question: Do any of the Democratic Presidential candidates grasp the importance of framing?

None. They don’t get it at all. But they’re in a funny position. The framing changes that have to be made are long-term changes. The conservatives understood this in 1973. By 1980 they had a candidate, Ronald Reagan, who could take all this stuff and run with it. The progressives don’t have a candidate now who understands these things and can talk about them. And in order for a candidate to be able to talk about them, the ideas have to be out there. You have to be able to reference them in a sound bite. Other people have to put these ideas into the public domain, not politicians. The question is, How do you get these ideas out there? There are all kinds of ways, and one of the things the Rockridge Institute is looking at is talking to advocacy groups, which could do this very well. They have more of a budget, they’re spread all over the place, and they have access to the media.

Right now the Democratic Party is into marketing. They pick a number of issues like prescription drugs and Social Security and ask which ones sell best across the spectrum, and they run on those issues. They have no moral perspective, no general values, no identity. People vote their identity, they don’t just vote on the issues, and Democrats don’t understand that. Look at Schwarzenegger, who says nothing about the issues. The Democrats ask, How could anyone vote for this guy? They did because he put forth an identity. Voters knew who he is.

This isn’t a political blog (not that my saying this is going to affect the comments but you already know that I believe in open commenting). My goal is to draw lessons from linguistics and apply them to business because it is a very useful marketing technique. For example, “a music-listeners revolt” would imply that record companies are unfairly ruling people who listen to music. This beats the heck out of “piracy,” and the company who provides “relief” for this oppression is logically a hero.

contextcontent
Again, Eve is a latent genius!
She sez -
While I agree that handouts are not the answer, but a problem (which I
knew prior ot this year), I do belive that certain people, because of
circumstance, history, etc do not have the skills, know-how, or
motivation to go out there and get somethign for themselves. they do
have a personal responsibility fault there, but their struggle goes
much deeper than perhaps you or I...but its all very complicated. I do
see where youre coming from...maybe having nothing would be motivation
to go get SOMETHING, but maybe it would just deepen a cycle of despair
or disillusionment...no idea over here...
anyway, im not at the center today, im reading up on soccer coaching and drills.
Talk toyou soon
Eve

On 7/22/06, russ wrote:
> EVE -
> Your insight is startling for one so young. The intercine warfare between
> various special interests (yes social sector groups have special interests
> too!) over budgets is nothing short of criminal. There is indeed a distinct
> lack of co-ordination/collaboration between activities with common focus
> that dilutes the overall effort. Business concern have this problem too, and
> it comes down to eliminating “turf” battles. The ONLY way I have seen work
> in this area is the intervention of a clearly charismatic leader in a
> particular area, that can rally the differing, divergent activities into one
> force, concentrated on a single goal. Unfortunately, this leads to a
> “cult-of-personality” situation. The problem, alas, is an all to human one.
>
> Because of your experience at e7center, you have seen first hand the effects
> of a demographic existing “so far into the problem they don’t know they have
> a problem” -itis. Again, an all to human condition, but I heard some thing
> (believe it or nor, on NPR) about an engineer whose company makes a manually
> operated irrigation pump, that can be repaired with no tools. The
> interviewer made the comment “why don’t you get Bill and Melinda Gates to
> buy a million of them and give them away?”. I laughed when I heard the guys
> answer, because it would have been my answer...”If you give something away,
> people just hang around waiting for the next handout. If you make them BUY
> it, they understand that they OWN it, and will USE IT.” Capitalism to the
> rescue again.
>
> How do you motivate the un-motivatable? If they KNOW the next handout is
> just around the corner, how do you get people to ACT? You see EVE, this is
> why life (real LIFE) involves Struggle. When you have to get out there and
> scratch, you appreciate what you have. Now. I’m not totally Darwinian here,
> but being compassionate does NOT mean giving away everything to those who
> have nothing. You destroy both parties when you do that. You cannot make
> everybody equal by making them equally miserable.
>
> Anyway, take your time with the lessons learned survey; I have a meeting
> with the small business center Tuesday abut getting some funding for a
> center of excellence for non-profits. I sent you and K my rough draft
> proposal, so look at that and get your feedback to me your soonest.

My friend Eve is very young and naive, but she is clever and is trying to be a complete person. She will succeed. She just completed a HELLISH tour of duty for an unnamed social sector activity, and this is what I told her highness -
Eve -

Well, your long national nightmare is finally over...congratulation. Now the real hell begins. I have attached a document I have found very useful in the past, and I hope you do too. It is a Lessons Learned Survey. I first started using these in the military, as it is useful to review an operation to see where you messed up, and to see how you can improve. Toyota and other companies that practice Six Sigma, Total Quality Management or Kaizen-based management use something very similar to improve the way they do things, and explicitly learn from their mistakes.

Socrates said that "an unexamined life is not worth living", and I too believe this. The exercise of reviewing what you did at e7center may seem trivial, and even silly and pointless, but if you do it (after taking a few days off, of course) I think you will find it useful, as I have.

Some tips - Don't do this all at once... Let it flow out more or less naturally, over 2 or 3 weeks. Put it away for awhile, then get it back out. When you are "done", keep it somewhere for safe keeping. Review it from time to time and fill out a new one every once in a while.

Print the thing out, then fill it in. Don't do it on the PC. What I do is scribble on separate sheets of paper, with the appropriate numbering for the exercises.

Share it with someone...Keith would be a good choice. Write down the feedback. There is something about the act of committing thought to paper that is clarifying in the deed. Lou Reed wrote that "Between thought and expression lies a lifetime", so take advantage of the opportunity to improve by using this simple tool. I really believe you will find it a truly spiritual experience.

russell