The habits of highly successful bosses.

Some things you may not think about when you think of a great manager:

Great bosses get the small picture.

Great bosses never forget that employees experience things locally, from the trenches of IT or accounting or sales. In words and action, great bosses take account of those perspectives.

Great bosses make people feel smart.

Great bosses, when presented in a meeting or in private conversation with some enthusiastic but misguided bit of twaddle, listen carefully for the tiniest germ of potential. Seizing that germ, they talk it through--teasing it, tweezing it, rearranging it--until they produce something workable and smart.

Great bosses know who does what.

There is no i in team, but there is an i in underappreciated, which is how people feel when their individual contributions disappear into the common collaborative slurry

Great bosses know when they're not wanted.

Good bosses delegate. Great ones don't hang around in the background monitoring how that delegation is going.

Great bosses remember.

Employees' hobbies. Their families' names. Who plays what position on the company softball team. Who is terrified of flying. Who has expressed interest in a leadership role. And employees, in return, remember them.

Income-Inequality Gap Widens

The gap between rich and poor is growing.

• Widening Gap: The wealthiest Americans' share of national income has hit a postwar record, surpassing the highs reached in the 1990s bull market, and highlighting the divergence of economic fortunes blamed for fueling anxiety among American workers.

• Behind the Numbers: Scholars attribute rising inequality to several factors, including technological change that favors those with more skills, and globalization and advances in communications that enlarge the rewards available to "superstar" performers whether in business, sports or entertainment.

Changing the tax structure to improve this situation is not enough. Pay attention to this as the Democrats discuss it in the coming election.

To know that one person breathed easier...

"...to know that one life has breathed easier because I have lived. This is to have succeeded."

I think we all tend to think of things in large often overwhelming terms. This quote makes the idea of helping others a little simpler for me...

WHAT IS GOING ON??? Getting sued for music piracy.

WHAT IS GOING ON? A woman just got sued by the The Recording Industry Association of America, representing six record labels, for music sharing and guess what? She lost. How much was the verdict for her illegally shared 24 songs over file-sharing site Kazaa? $220,000.

I don't know how to respond to this. A service comes out that allows you to share music but actually doing it is illegal. I know this is like the pipe and grass (marijuana) argument but come on! Millions of people did/do this. Are all going to be procesecuted? This just defies common sense. Unfortunately much of what goes on in the legal and political world around us doesn't either.

NOTE: Many of the 30,000 people sued by the RIAA have settled, for an average of $4,000.

Mall Rats?

Question of the day: If moving into the mall is considered "art," what does that say about our culture?

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (AP) -- The leader of an artists' cooperative has been sentenced to probation for setting up a secret apartment inside a shopping mall's parking garage as part of a project on mall life.

Michael Townsend, 36, said he and seven other artists built the 750-square-foot apartment beginning in 2003 and lived there for up to three weeks at a time.
The artists built a cinderblock wall and nondescript utility door to keep the loft hidden from the outside world.

But inside, the apartment was fully furnished, down to a hutch filled with china and a Sony Playstation 2 -- although a burglar broke in and stole the Playstation last spring, Townsend said.
There was no running water -- instead they used the mall bathrooms. Tour the hidden apartment »

On his Web site, Townsend said he was inspired by a Christmastime ad for the mall which featured a "an enthusiastic female voice talking about how great it would be if you (we) could live at the mall."

He built the dwelling "out of a compassion to understand the mall more and life as a shopper."
Townsend said plans to make the apartment "super-sweet" with laminated wood flooring and other perks fell apart last week after he and a visiting artist from Hong Kong walked into the room and were greeted by three security guards. He pleaded no contest to a trespassing charge.
Providence Place Mall spokesman Dante Bellini Jr. described the living space as little more than "an area with stuff in it."

But Providence Police Maj. Stephen Campbell said he and other detectives were so intrigued they visited the apartment to see for themselves.
"I was surprised at what he was able to accomplish," Campbell said. "But what he did was clearly criminal. The mall is private."

Metabolism Management

People are always counting their calories and fighting themselves tooth and nail to avoid that one indulgence only to see little benefit as a result. Why? Much of reason is that their metabolisms adjust making their slightly-adjusted diets have little effect. Little do people know that they can actually get in better shape by eating more. By doing all of the following advice in this article (listed below) and sustaining these changes you can actually change your metabolism forever. It takes time and hard work but I never thought that working out hard and eating a lot was that unpleasant. Not to mention that there are countless other benefits to you physical and mental health that will come as a result of these changes.

• Engage in aerobic exercise 4 to 5 days a week: Several studies show that aerobic activities cause your metabolism to stay increased for a period of time after exercising.
  
• Work your muscles:Lifting weights and/or other strengthening activities like push-ups and crunches on a regular basis (at least 2 to 3 times each week) will boost your resting metabolism 24/7.
  
• Eat enough food - at least 1,000 calories: Your body and metabolism thrive on food, so when you fast, crash-diet, or restrict calories below 1,000, your metabolism will slow down in a response to conserve energy.
  
• Eat every 4 to 5 hours: Because our bodies work hard to digest and absorb the foods we eat, your metabolism revs in response. This is called the thermic effect of food. Take full advantage and schedule meals and snacks every 4 to 5 hours.
  
• Incorporate lean protein with every meal: Eating any food creates a thermic effect and boosts metabolism after consumption. However, the consumption of protein has the absolute greatest metabolic boost when compared to carbohydrate and fat. Plus, eating the appropriate amount of protein will ensure you're able to maintain and build muscle mass (the more muscle mass you have, the greater your metabolism).

Use your time wisely; by slacking off

A recent survey found that the typical American worker wastes slightly more than two hours a day, not including lunch and scheduled breaks. The No. 1 time-wasting activity is surfing the Internet and sending personal e-mails, followed by socializing with co-workers, conducting personal business and just plain "spacing out." All of this loafing is supposedly costing employers $759 billion a year in lost productivity. But guess what, American workers, it turns out, are wasting less time than they did just a couple of years ago - 19% less. And the U.N.'s International Labor Organization recently issued a report that found that the U.S. leads the world in worker productivity - and by a wide margin.

So here is the paradox. "We are a nation of doers, hard workers, yet we are also a nation of ideas, big ideas." It has long been known that idea generation requires idleness, but idleness makes us uncomfortable. These two aspects of the American personality constantly rub against each other. This leads our minds to constantly shift from guilt (for using work time on personal matters) to resentment (for having to work so-damn-much) to boredom. This cycle causes us to misuse a lot of energy when in fact we can accept that there is a healthy balance between work, idleness (and whatever else you do on the job) that each of us can find for ourselves if we look for it.

Maybe the Vegetarians Have It Right?

"Eating beef ' is less green than driving' "

Producing 2.2lb of beef generates as much greenhouse gas as driving a car non-stop for three hours, it was claimed yesterday.

Japanese scientists used a range of data to calculate the environmental impact of a single purchase of beef. Taking into account all the processes involved, they said, four average sized steaks generated greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to 80.25lb of carbon dioxide.

This also consumed 169 megajoules of energy. That means that 2.2lb of beef is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions which have the same effect as the carbon dioxide released by an ordinary car travelling at 50 miles per hour for 155 miles, a journey lasting three hours. The amount of energy consumed would light a 100-watt bulb for 20 days.

Most of the greenhouse gas emissions are in the form of methane released from the animals' digestive systems, New Scientist magazine reported. But more than two thirds of the energy used goes towards producing and transporting cattle feed, said the study, which was led by Akifumi Ogino from the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuba, Japan.

Sue Taylor, the press officer for the Vegetarian Society, told New Scientist: "Everybody is trying to come up with different ways to reduce carbon footprints, but one of the easiest things you can do is to stop eating meat."

Yet another way we can make small changes to improve our quality of life in the long run...

Shopping Is NOT a Solution

This website is in response to campaigns such as Gap's RED campaign, which attempted to raise money for Africa, but ended up being a HUGE failure... (After spending $100 million, the campaign only raised about $20 million)...

The truth is, if you want to help, the best thing to do is to be proactive. Get out there and effect change. However, if you are going to donate, do your research and donate to a legitimate organization that will properly handle your donation.

Buying a T-Shirt from the GAP may be the more glitzy thing to do, but a direct donation goes a lot further.

To make a difference, give. Give of yourself, your time, your efforts, your funds. Giving goes further than shopping.

The Power of Mindfulness

"Mindfulness" is the practice of focusing one's self in the present. Things like paying attention to your mood, heart rate, temperature, stress level, etc. By focusing like this you recognize things that may have escaped you previously or feelings you may be ignoring. Many people practice mindfulness as part of meditation.

Recently researchers at UCLA compared those who were more "mindful" to those who were not by monitoring their brain activity. Their finding was that those were more mindful experienced less negative emotions and showed greater calmness in their brain activity.

So based on this research we know that mindfulness works, but what it doesn't tell you is that it is not easy. It takes discipline and focus. When we are busy with deadlines, errands, and are bombarded by the information that surrounds us every day, it becomes quite difficult to focus on the present and on one's self. As a result some of us neglect ourselves to a point of extreme emotional discomfort that goes beyond the point that a little mindfulness each day can clear up. That is why we need to remember to be mindful everyday, even if just for a few minutes. You may already do this and not even know it. Possibly when you walking, cooking, or taking a shower part of your mind wanders into thinking about your current state. Remember the importance of these times especially when the more stressful moments arise.

Fat Tax

"LONDON (Reuters) - A "fat tax" on salty, sugary and fatty foods could save thousands of lives each year, according to a study published on Thursday. Researchers at Oxford University say that charging Value Added Tax (VAT) at 17.5 percent on foods deemed to be unhealthy would cut consumer demand and reduce the number of heart attacks and strokes."

A fat tax? Funny idea, maybe a good one though. I am usually against the government interfering with people's freedoms. I'm the first to say that people need to take personal responsibility for what they eat. However, as this article points out, this tax would hit the poorest groups the hardest. They try to use this as a point against the fat tax when in actuality it is the most important reason we need it. Lower socioeconomic groups also suffer the most from poor diets. The truth is that most inexpensive foods (i.e. fast foods) are also the most unhealthy, while healthy, fresh foods are significantly more expensive (been to Whole Foods lately?) making them inaccessible to the poor.

The point is that everyones got to eat but the poor have far less healthy options (ever seen a Whole Foods in Watts, or Compton?). Couldn't a tax like this be used to tilt the scales the other way? Possibly, tax unhealthy food and subsidize wholesome options???

Oh, and if you were wondering about why this matters to people like you and I, I can tell you that the increased health care costs of the poor come out of our tax dollars, which are directly related to diet and other lifestyle differences.

Models Banned for Being Too Skinny

"I absolutely don't want models who are too skinny... They are a bad example for young generations." Explained designer Raffaella Curiel who fired 15 models from her show in Rome because they were too skinny, complying with a fashion code signed by the Italian industry last year to combat anorexia.

I had never heard about this ban that came in the wake of a 21-year-old Brazilian model's death from anorexia a month earlier. At the time of her death the 5-foot-8 inch model weighed 88 pounds.

We all obviously understand the reasoning behind these new regulations but I am curious to know about the weight and height of the 15 models banned form the show. I mean where do you draw the line? I think anorexia and other eating disorders have a lot more to do with self-confidence and satisfaction than creating a certain appearance. Maybe this is the first step to make improvements or possibly a inane stab at addressing a problem that is more complex than we perceive it to be from the outside in.

Real Estate Reset

I know that most readers are aware that we are in a housing downturn after years of record setting home sales. Soon we will see how far this downturn will go.

Many, many people who purchased homes over the past 6 years did so through the use of an Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM). As I'm sure you know, the interest rates on ARMs are based on the established interest rates at the times meaning they fluctuate. Well, now many of these loans are set to reset to much higher interest rates in the coming months; more than 2 million of them to be more precise. This means that the interest rates on these loans could jump by 35% or more, undoubtedly putting far more financial strain on those who have them. It will be interesting to see what happens...

Why discuss this on this blog? Because people in the US, especially those on the coasts and large cities appear to be short sited. They take ARMs on homes that are beyond their means and give little thought to the consequences 5 or 10 years down the line. This issue does not just concern matters of money. Americans consistently look for quick fixes to lifetime problems. Whether it's liposuction, or get rich quick schemes, we look for ways to avoid hard work and perseverance. The result is a rocky, up and down cycle that leaves us with less than we began with.

I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.
Steve Jobs(1955 - ), Interview, 1995

The Tattoo Issue

"Nearly 50% of Americans between 21 and 32 have at least one tattoo or a piercing other than in an ear, according to a 2006 study by the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. Men and women alike say their tattoos make them feel sexy and rebellious, a 2003 Harris Poll found, while the unadorned of both genders see body art as unsightly and think those with tattoos and piercings are less intelligent and less attractive."

As I mentioned in my previous entry about emergence of Generation X & Y groups into working society, things are changing whether employers and institutions like it or not. Tattoos are becoming more and more popular especially with those who are thought to be creative or expressive types. Yet at the same time employers with "old school" values still find them unprofessional and even offensive.

It's interesting what people choose to judge as bad or no big deal. Simply think about what a tattoo is: A piece of art on someones body. Yet the stereotype that it carries is one that would be wholly unacceptable if it were geared toward something like race, gender or sexual preference. As the article explains, some of the world's largest organizations still have rules prohibit ting the employment of individuals who cannot cover all their tattoos. That is harsh, but I understand why they do it. They are scared that they will loose the business of their conservative customers, who have little else to do with there time then to be upset by someone elses appearance.

Now I know that tat's historically have certain affiliations with those from undesirous groups but when the statistics show that 50% of 21 to 32 year olds have at least one tattoo or a piercing other than in an ear, then perceptions have to change. It's now like all these people of gangsta's, or ex-cons.

Email: "Like bleeding to death from a thousand pinpricks"

http://www.slate.com/id/2165452/nav/tap1/

A great article about the role email plays in modern work and life. Is it true that email "eats away at people's time, a minute at a time... [like] bleeding to death from a thousand pinpricks?"

Or is the following description a little more accurate?

"Many people who are addicted to e-mail are more correctly described as addicted to work. Lots of e-mail makes you feel important. E-mail addicts (like me) fear the empty inbox and, strangely, the potential freedom that e-mail provides. A BlackBerry can make you feel accountable at night, but it also lets you say, play golf, while still monitoring any situation that might come up. When business is conducted through e-mail, it shifts the responsibility of actually working off of the physical setting of the office and back onto you. That lack of structure, or the need to provide your own structure, can be uncomfortable. Still, you often find confident people who are immune to e-mail addiction. They just don't understand what the fuss is about. They check e-mail when they need to; they turn it off when they've got stuff to do. It's a tool that serves them. "

Set yourself some boundaries and follow them. Soon email will serve you as it serves many others.

Generation X & Y - What the Future Holds...

I recently attended a conference focused on the unique generational shift that is currently going on. The Baby Boomers (born 1944-1962) are getting old while Generation X'rs (born 1963-1981) are taking their roles as adults, and Generation Y's (born after 1981) are entering the workforce. What does this all mean??? Society is going to change quite a bit.

Interestingly generation X is one of the smallest generations since The Depression, but is sandwiched between two of histories largest generations, the Baby Boomers and Generation Y. This is why you've heard that organizations are very concerned about the aftermath of the Baby Boomer retirement. The fear is that there will be a shortage of quality employees to not only take the roles left empty by exiting Baby Boomers but also the question of who will manage the large group of younger generation Y employees.

This put's Generation X'rs in a very unique position as the intermediaries between two very different groups that have and will shape the world as we know it. How are these groups different? To help you with this imagine each of the following people as representatives to their respective generations (I didn't come up with these):

Baby Boomers - Bill Gates

Generation X - (None, that's why we are signified by the X)

Generation Y - Paris Hilton

Now, you may look at these representations and come to the simplified conclusion that I think those from the Y generation are idiots and that our society is going downhill, but you'd be wrong. Many people actually believe this point of view to be true and justify their concerns with evidence about how Y's are unwilling to work hard, can't focus, and are clueless when it comes to social interaction (e.g. showing respect for their elders). But this is only a shallow view of what this group brings to the table.

The Bad Background: Y's were raised by wealthy, protective, and overworked Baby Boomer parents taking excellent care of them (or at least hiring someone to do so). As a result they have a great feeling of entitlement and little discipline. They don't believe in sacrificing today for happiness tomorrow. They want to be happy today and tomorrow. To go along with this is a deeply ingrained feeling of equality. In there eye's people are people; things like age are not significant or justifications for special treatment (remember these are the kids having temper tantrums in the market, yelling at their parents because they tried to stop them from getting Power Ranger cereal). Again this all sounds negative, but look a bit deeper and you may see things a bit differently.

• When studying spiritual literature one is constantly reminded of the idea of focusing on the moment instead of dwelling on the past or anticipating the unknown of the future. Y's do this naturally.


• Feelings of entitlement combined with equality create a high standard for all to live up to. What I mean is, that someone who feels entitled has high expectations for themselves irrespective of the work they do or sacrifices they make. When this is combined with broadly supported feelings of equality with no thought of age, race, and gender then these high standards are expected for all.

Now, these characteristics don't appear to be as bad as they did before, do they?. When you add to this that Y's are resourceful, creative and fully integrated into the systems that Boomers still can't fully comprehend, and X's barely have a handle on, you find a group that is truly unique and definitely not inferior. That is except in one area: Focus.

It still waits to be seen whether Y's will have problems focusing on anything for long enough to really make any sizable impact. This is where the information overload, lack of discipline and constant connectivity may have hurt our newest generation. Will they be able to focus there energy, attention, etc. for long enough to meaningfully improve the world? I don't have the answer but I'll leave you with these quotes about managing Y's:

"Generation Y doesn't care about how much you know, until they know how much you care."

"Generation Y needs leaders not managers...Managers do things right; leaders do the right thing."

America Today

The last few posts have brought to light some of the interesting dichotomies that plague America today... On one hand, we are taught to believe that we are the most advanced in terms of human rights, given our long-standing commitment to and foundation in the concept of freedom (i.e. see Constitution and Bill of Rights). Yet, at the same time, while we sometimes over-value life, for example, the debate on stem cells, at other times, we just as easily undervalue it, for example see the value of a mexican post.

What kind of culture do we live in where an unborn fetus that is only a few cells large has more rights than an actual human being?

The Truth About Stem Cells

(skip to the bottom if you are already knowledgeable about stem cell research)

A few weeks ago a few friends and I had a contentious debate about progress of stem cell research and the actual use of stem cells. Without solid knowledge of the subject our debate was reduced to conjecture, and assumption. This weekend I did some research to find the bottom line on stem cell research.

Stem cells are specific cells found in the VERY early stages of development of all organisms. These cells have not yet specialized so they can become anything in the organism. For example, a stem cell can become a skin cell or a nerve cell later on in development. In fact, a stem cell is what eventually multiplies and multiplies until you have a whole organism (e.g. a human). So stem cells are what is used for cloning.

When a sperm and egg fuse you have your first stem cell. This cell then divides, and then those two cells divide, etc. taking us through the stages of embryonic development. As this process continues the stem cells change into specialized cells that make all the organs and tissues of an organism. These specialized cells cannot be used for anything else other than their specialized usage (not exactly true but good enough for our purposes). That is what makes stem cells so valuable. They can be anything. They can even be used to create a whole new organism (i.e. cloning). This means that someone who has a damaged organ that must be removed can use stem cells to create a new organ to replace it. Or someone who is paralyzed because his/her spinal cord was cut can use stem cells to re-attach their spinal cord and walk again. The applications are endless and there has actually been a case where a blind man's vision was restored using stem cells.

So up until this point I think we have covered what is more or less basic knowledge that most people have about the subject, but here is what most people don't know is: What is the source of stem cells?

Answer: A fetus. This is what creates all the debate about stem cell research and what has made it illegal in the U.S. It's the idea that using fetuses is morally questionable. But what people don't know is that the only stem cells that can be used for research are those of an embryo that has only reached UP TO 16 CELLS in size. At this point the fetus is still microscopic! This also means that stem cells can be created in a lab using the eggs and sperm of those who donate or sell them. They do not need to be gathered through abortions.

Also, in case you didn't know, people sell there sperm and eggs all the time. Stem cell research would not cause people to do this for the first time.

The Value of a Mexican

The title sounds like a bad joke but Slate.com took it seriously and did the math. There's this idea out there that "Americans should care more about their countrymen than about a bunch of foreigners." Well, let's just assume this is true. Then the question becomes how much more$?$

"Surely there's some limit; virtually nobody thinks, for example, that Americans should be allowed to hunt Mexicans for sport. So, exactly how much are you willing to hurt a foreigner to help an American? Is a foreigner's well-being worth three-quarters as much as an American's, or half as much, or one-quarter as much?"

"Virtually all economists agree that immigration makes us richer, not poorer. Every immigrant is a potential trading partner, a potential employee, and a potential customer. He bids down wages, but that's a two-edged sword: It's bad for his fellow workers, but it's good for employers and good for consumers."

After doing some pretty daunting economic analysis looking at the hourly wage benefit to a immigrant worker and loss to an American worker the bottom line is:

The immigrant gains $7 an hour, which as "actually worth about five times the American's $3 loss. In other words, to justify keeping the immigrant out, you'd have to say he's worth less than one-fifth of an American citizen."

Tattoo Regret: Is Nothing Sacred?

Tattoos are getting easier to remove. Estimates: Up to 45 million Americans are tattooed; 17 percent of them regret it; the annual number of tattoo removal treatments might be 100,000. Summary by a removal company's CEO: "As your life changes from young to middle-aged to older, from single to married to divorced, you get tattoo regret." Sample reasons: 1) Get my ex-fiance's name off my body. 2) I don't want my tattoos to show around my strapless wedding gown. 3) I need to start looking employable and marriageable. 4) I want to replace my old tattoos with new ones. Current removal technology: multiple expensive laser treatments to break down each color. Impending technology: special ink that can be removed with a single laser treatment. CEO's pitch: The new ink will embolden "fence-sitters who always wanted a tattoo but have been afraid of the permanence." Half-cynical view: It'll make them feel as though they're getting a real tattoo when, in fact, they aren't. Fully cynical view: Removable tattoos for the era of removable relationships."

In today's world, obsolescence dominates. Hot one moment, gone the next, it seems that nothing these days has any permanence: not our goals, not our toys (as the only thing we can seemingly count on is that our new "technologies" our outdated the moment we receive them), not our relationships (see divorce statistics). Even the tattoo, what was once the ultimate symbol of permanent commitment, can now be edited right out of existence.

The question is, is anything sacred? Do we every commit to anything anymore for the long haul? And if the answer is no, what consequences are we suffering?

The Newly Rich Cash-Out of Love

"There is no question that a huge infusion of wealth to relatively young people has a disastrous effect on the marriage's stability," says Bern Clare, a Manhattan divorce lawyer.

In the world of hedge fund managers one can become an overnight multi-multi-millionaire. And with this new wealth come drama. High dollar value divorces are becoming more and more common among fund managers and with them, excessive demands. Just take a look at a few:

- "A case in which the dependant spouse insisted that she needed $800,000 a month in child support payments, even though she already had an income of $7 million a year. "The judge listened calmly and found she had plenty to maintain herself. Then he ordered $100,000" a month."

- "In one recent divorce, the entire settlement was hung up on the issue of whether the former wife would be given $500,000 or $750,000 a year to cover first-class air travel."

The reason why I decided to discuss this article is because I believe wealth interferes with many parts of our lives. Wouldn't you think that wealth would improve a marriage? Eliminating so many of the worries most of us have. But this is obviously not the case, and there are countless other areas where wealth damages our lives whether it be parenting, to our own internal happiness. As Dr. Richard Easterlin, one of the world's foremost economists explained: As a person’s income goes up, he or she doesn’t grow any happier in a lasting sense.

The point is wealth can be a vice without the proper foundation... A foundation where one understands that money is not a replacement for love, or a pre-requisite for happiness.

Not So Insecure After All?

Self-effacing people are secretly confident
Despite appearances, most people think highly of themselves.

"No matter how meek they might appear, most people are endowed with the same self-confidence, new research reveals. For some, however, that confidence is buried deep inside.

Within the United States as well as across cultures—and stereotypes —all individuals hold a positive inner confidence.

“A given person with high implicit [or inner] self-esteem may be outwardly self-promoting or may be outwardly very modest,” said study team member Anthony Greenwald, a psychologist at the University of Washington.

The results are detailed in the June issue of the journal Psychological Science."

Father's Day Quote

“Every father should remember that one day his child will follow his example instead of his advice.”
- Author Unknown

Public Schools - Adam Smith would be pissed!

Adam Smith, the author of the Wealth of Nations (the outline for capitalist economies) would be quite perturbed if he saw the state of public schools in our country. Why? Because they go against everything he stood for.

A capitalist economy is based on supply and demand, accountability, and above all humanity's innate greed. Being the antithesis of socialism, where people are supposed to be motivated by promoting the common good, capitalism correctly assumes that an individual's desire for self promotion is usually stronger. So why is our education system based on socialist philosophies, free of competition, or accountability? The public answer we are given is: Because no child can be left behind. But the "simple fact [is] that one of the surest ways to leave a kid "behind" is to hand him over to the government."

"Americans want universal education, just as they want universally safe food. But nobody believes that the government should run 90% of the restaurants, farms and supermarkets. Why should it run 90% of the schools — particularly when it gets terrible results?" Take for example Washington D.C. which spends $12,979 per student per year, but is "last in spending on instruction. Fifty-six cents out of every dollar goes to administrators." Washington D.C. is near the top when it comes to spending on education, but near the bottom when it comes to student performance on standardized tests.

The point made by this article, is that education is a business whether we like it or not. By shutting down public schools and allowing private schools to handle education we will allow the capitalist economy we are a part of to manage the quality and integrity of education. We will provide an atmosphere that rewards results because parents won't send their kids to a low performing school when they have the choice to send them to another.

The government can use the funds it currently spends on students to subsidize education without managing the whole schools system. In addition, the government can use these funds to help level the playing field between the wealthy and socio-economically challenged but first the overall structure must be changed to one that makes business sense.

Are Kids Staying Kids for Too Long?

This article, by Camille Paglia of Salon.com, raises a number of interesting points, from politics to pop culture. One however, stuck out in my mind. Are young adults (ages 18-25) revelling in their youth too long? Paglia refers to the recent pop culture debacles of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan as examples of when parents hinder the development of their children but refraining from teaching responsibility.

"What links the Lohan and Hilton cases is the weird behavior of the parents -- either flaky and dysfunctional or overbearing and coddling. The Lohan and Hilton mothers seem to reject aging by trying to keep their daughters in developmental limbo. Paris in particular seems to have become a psychic prisoner, turned into a flash-frozen marzipan doll by her belligerently benevolent mom. Neither family is typical, of course, but are the Hiltons exposing an unhealthy symbiosis in recent American family life? Adulthood keeps getting postponed for white middle-class girls, who even after they arrive at college are obsessively linked by umbilical cellphones to their hovering parents, who want to shield their progeny from all of life's nicks and scrapes."

Although Paris and Lindsay's experiences are hardly American culture's common denominator, there is something to be said for teaching your kids to take responsibility for themselves at an early age, rather than allowing them to rely on you as a parent long as possible. Rather than "postponing" their adulthood, we should teach our children to embrace it, even if it means having our children endure a few of "life's nicks and scrapes" along the way.

If Paris and Lindsay are any indication, "developmental limbo" leads to nowhere - at least in their cases - other than rehab or jail.

Green Guilt Trip

Copied form the article:

The government and the greenies are afraid of making you feel guilty. Not me. And a whole lot of sources back me up.

Plastic: You're not throwing away plastic bags, genius — you're throwing away oil. In energy alone, recycling a ton of plastic bags saves 11 barrels of oil. Which means that Californians, by tossing away 19 billion plastic bags last year — all of them blowing across my lane of the freeway — wasted about 4.5 million barrels of oil. And those darling little plastic water bottles you tossed — 18 million barrels of oil to make them. What, did you think the Sparkletts fairy whisked them all away?

Paper: The lungs you ruin may be your own. A mature tree eats 13 pounds of carbon dioxide every year, so every time you don't recycle a huge stack of envelopes and junk mail and wrapping paper and newspapers, you're murdering a tree that could have saved you. You could heat your house for six months on the energy saved from recycling a ton of paper.

Aluminum cans: Too lazy to shuffle to the recycling bin? The energy you waste by throwing away a single soda can would run your TV for three hours. Throwing away an empty six-pack is like throwing away nearly a $3.50 gallon of gasoline. We Americans toss away enough aluminum cans in a year to rebuild every commercial airliner in America. Good work, cola-for-brains.

Et ceteras:

• You throw away three pounds of trash every day; two pounds of that could be recycled, unless you like the idea of living next to Landfill World

• You're adding 10% or 20% to your electric bill and sucking coal and oil by keeping energy vampires plugged in: phone chargers, TVs and printers.

• Pour away a gallon of motor oil instead of recycling it, and you're dumping enough energy to dry your hair for 216 days or to watch 60 Super Bowls.We've come to the end of this guilt trip; thanks for ride-sharing.

Price is Right

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-kurson6jun06,0,6477820.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

According to Ken Kurson of the Los Angeles Times nobody "give(s) much thought to Pierre de Fermat or Blaise Pascal," but thanks to Bob Barker, the probability theory developed by those "brilliant mathematicians from centuries past" has been seamlessly transmitted "into millions of homes for 35 years." Barker, who recently taped his last episode of The Price is Right, educated the public using "daily lesson(s) in the principles of behavioral finance." Besides being a staple of American "comfort entertainment," the game show was essential viewing if "you wanted to know how to exploit -- or get trapped by -- market inefficiencies and the often irrational behavior of competitors." And by combining "real prices" for real products with hot women, continuously fresh contestants, and the ever-youthful Prof. Barker, lessons were"made... as painless as possible."

Research: Stem Cells Can Make Blind See

http://www.themoneytimes.com/articles/20070606/scientists_stem_cells_can_make_blind_see-id-104433.html

http://www.physorg.com/news100319385.html

Macular degeneration is the most common cause of blindness in older people and is believed to affect about 14 million people in old age and 30 percent of 75-year-olds. Lyndon da Cruz of the University College London Institute of Opthamology has had some success transplanting retinal pigment epithelium cells within patients' eyes. Now Cruz and his colleagues hope to use cells grown in a petri dish. The project received an $8 million gift from an anonymous U.S. donor whose father became blind and who obviously couldn't invest his money in a U.S. firm doing the same research. "This is totally geared toward getting in the clinic," said Pete Coffey, a colleague of Cruz' at the institute. "Our goal within the five-year period is to have a cohort of 10 or 12 patients we can treat. If it hasn't become routine in about 10 years it would mean we haven't succeeded. It has to be something that's available to large numbers of people."

Another interesting article from 2003 - Stem cells used to make a blind man (from eye injury) see again:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=4180

Tips on Aspiring Creativity

http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html

I don't normally link to blogs, but this is good, real good. There is a detailed explanation of each of these tips if you go to the link.

So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years:
1. Ignore everybody.
2. The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to change the world.
3. Put the hours in.
4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.
5. You are responsible for your own experience.
6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
7. Keep your day job.
8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.
9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.
10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.
11. Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.
12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.
13. Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside.
14. Dying young is overrated.
15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.
16. The world is changing.
17. Merit can be bought. Passion can't.
18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.
19. Sing in your own voice.
20. The choice of media is irrelevant.
21. Selling out is harder than it looks.
22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.
23. Worrying about "Commercial vs. Artistic" is a complete waste of time.
24. Don�t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.
25. You have to find your own schtick.
26. Write from the heart.
27. The best way to get approval is not to need it.
28. Power is never given. Power is taken.
29. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.
30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.
31. Remain frugal.

Not so Helpful Self-Help

I was forwarded the quote below by a friend who knew I was interested in these kinds of inspirational, self-help statements. To the average reader this may seem insightful or even profound but I don't see it that way. After reading enough of these statements you come to realize that some of them are empty. They just incite you by stating a variety of issues but leave you hanging with no direction or even suggestion of how to move forward. I believe that most of us are aware that our society, and generally speaking, the world are flawed, so the question becomes "What do we do?" or "How can I better deal with these issues?" At the end of this forwarded message you'll see the following statement: "You can choose either to make a difference, or to just hit 'Skip Ahead'... " I don't see this as providing any substance. Without guidance, or insight it appears that passages like these leave us in a worse place than we started.

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We've conquered outer space, but not inner space; we've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we've split the atom, but not our prejudice.

We write more, but learn less; we plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait; we have higher incomes, but lower morals; we have more food, but less appeasement; we build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication; we've become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; tall men, and short character; steep profits, and shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw away morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer to quiet to kill.
It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom; a time when technology has brought this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to make a difference, or to just hit "Skip Ahead"...

Eating Oil for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Everyone has heard about the problems Americans face (case in point: war) due to our dependence on foreign oil. However, most of us confine our worries to our cars or heating our homes. As prices for oil go up, worst case scenario, we'll have to start carpooling, right? Wrong.

Our dependence on oil goes to the very heart of our ability to exist: food. Without fossil fuels, we literally would not be able to eat given the current system we have in place for getting food to the marketplace.

"Assuming a figure of 2,500 kcal per capita for the daily diet in the United States, the 10/1 ratio translates into a cost of 35,000 kcal of exosomatic energy per capita each day. However, considering that the average return on one hour of endosomatic labor in the U.S. is about 100,000 kcal of exosomatic energy, the flow of exosomatic energy required to supply the daily diet is achieved in only 20 minutes of labor in our current system. Unfortunately, if you remove fossil fuels from the equation, the daily diet will require 111 hours of endosomatic labor per capita; that is, the current U.S. daily diet would require nearly three weeks of labor per capita to produce."

As we approach the upcoming Presidential election, this issue should remain in the forefront of our minds. We may not need to drive, but we certainly need to eat.

Who's Rich? Not the Smartest...

"Intelligence really isn't one of the key driving forces. In fact, people at the middle of the smarts spectrum have the fewest money problems."Ohio State economics professor Jay Zagorsky suggests different factors: "Staying married, not getting divorced, thinking about savings."

In Zagorsky's study of 7,500 middle-aged Americans, the smarter you are, the more you tend to earn. For each IQ point you have above someone else's IQ, you'll earn between $200 and $600 more. You would reasonably assume, then, that smarter people would end up wealthier. But that was not suggested by the study. Instead, people with higher IQs and incomes tended to spend more, maxing out credit cards and paying bills late. At the end of the day, those with lower IQs often had a greater net worth.

Rich don't save either

HSBC reports that people with more than $250,000 in household income, who constitute the top 1.5% of U.S. households, report facing many obstacles when it comes to saving. The #1 answer for what prevents them from saving more: the need to pay everyday bills. Some interesting facts:

• The savings rate in the United States dipped to zero in 2005 and has even fallen into negative territory, the first time since the Great Depression.
• 49% of respondents with at least $250,000 in income aren't saving more because they simply "want some spending money."

"Savings can be a challenge at any stage of your life." "Regardless of your income, financial status, or age, saving does require a level of control and awareness."

"It seems that awareness dims, however, with the more money you earn. More people who earn between $50,000 and $100,000 save consistently than people who earn between $200,000 and $250,000 per year, according to HSBC."

Springwise.com: Your Daily Fix of Entrepreneurial Ideas

This blog it awesome. It posts new and interesting business ideas. Everything from high-end camping to a service that allows you to send them an email that it then prints and sends via snail mail for you. Not to mention virtual travel guides, gorilla bakeries, and pizza vending machines. You can even be a "SpringSpotter" to help report new ideas and win prizes. Enjoy!

Darfur, The NBA, Lebron James, China, and One Man's Attempt to Make a Difference.

tp://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/aditi_kinkhabwala/05/17/newble.darfar/index.html

"It all started on a road trip, with a copy of USA Today and an article on the crisis in Darfur, the western region of Sudan where ethnic cleansing might not adequately describe the horror. Since early in 2003, the Sudanese military and its proxy militia, the Janjaweed, have been raping and dismembering and just plain slaughtering the land-tilling, non-Arab villagers. Newble (a Player on the Cleavland Cavaliers) read that some 500,000 Sudanese are dead and another 2.5 million are homeless, and he rubbed his eyes."

"Then he logged a few hours on the Internet and found out that China buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil, and that the proceeds from that fund weapons for the Janjaweed. He read that China has invested a billion dollars a year, for the last 10 years, in Sudan, and that just under 50 percent of Sudan's exports land on China's shores. Newble learned that every attempt the U.N. has made to send civilian-protecting peacekeepers into the region has been vetoed ... by the 2008 Summer Olympic-hosting Chinese."

Newble felt that had to do something so he got in touch with Eric Reeves, an English professor at Smith College who's the preeminent expert in the U.S. on the situation in Sudan. They decided the best thing to do was to send a letter to the Chinese government which states: "We, as basketball players in the NBA and as potential athletes in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, cannot look on with indifference to the massive human suffering and destruction that continue in the Darfur region of Sudan." He plans to get this letter signed by as many athletes as he can to help pressure China into taking action. That's why his agent, Steve Kauffman, met with representatives of the NFL's and MLB's players' associations and why he hopes Muhammad Ali signs on too.

Newble first approached his teammates and they all signed it. Except for two. Damon Jones, who has a deal with a Chinese shoe company, asked for a little more time to see if he'd be violating that contract. And LeBron James. He says he needs more 'information.'"

The Teachings of "Fight Club"

Tyler Durden: The things you own end up owning you.
----
Tyler Durden: [whispering] Tell him the liberator who destroyed my property has realigned my perception.
----
Narrator: I flipped through catalogs and wondered: What kind of dining set defines me as a person?
----
Tyler Durden: We're consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra.
Narrator: Martha Stewart.
Tyler Durden: Fuck Martha Stewart. Martha's polishing the brass on the Titanic. It's all going down, man. So fuck off with your sofa units and Strinne green stripe patterns. I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.
----
Narrator: This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time.
----
Tyler Durden: People do it everyday, they talk to themselves... they see themselves as they'd like to be, they don't have the courage you have, to just run with it.
----
Tyler Durden: First you have to give up, first you have to *know*... not fear... *know*... that someday you're gonna die.
----
Tyler Durden: Hitting bottom isn't a weekend retreat. It's not a goddamn seminar. Stop trying to control everything and just let go! LET GO!
----
Tyler Durden: All right, if the applicant is young, tell him he's too young. Old, too old. Fat, too fat. If the applicant then waits for three days without food, shelter, or encouragement he may then enter and begin his training.
----
Tyler Durden: Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.
----
Tyler Durden: All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.
----
Tyler Durden: You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.
----
Tyler Durden: Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else.
----
Narrator: On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
----
Narrator: When people think you're dying, they really, really listen to you, instead of just... Marla Singer: - instead of just waiting for their turn to speak?
----
[after deliberately crashing the car on the side of the road] Tyler Durden: Goddamn! [Histerical laughs]
Tyler Durden: We just had a near-life experience, fellas.
----
Narrator: After fighting, everything else in your life got the volume turned down.
----
Narrator: And then, something happened. I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.
----
Tyler Durden: Fuck what you know. You need to forget about what you know, that's your problem. Forget about what you think you know about life, about friendship, and especially about you and me.
----
Tyler Durden: Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think every thing you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned- Tyler
---
[Gets up from airplane seat] Tyler Durden: Now a question of etiquette; as I pass, do I give you the ass or the crotch...?

216 Common Chemicals are Linked to Breast Cancer

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-cancer14may14,1,1252250.story?page=1&ctrack=3&cset=true&coll=la-headlines-health

Experts have long suspected that diet plays a role in causing breast cancer. But new research found "no association that is consistent, strong and statistically significant" for any particular foods raising or reducing breast cancer risk.

There is substantial evidence, however, that regularly consuming alcohol, being obese and being inactive increase risk. Now new evidence of 216 common chemicals found to cause cancer in test animals has been reported. Of those, people are highly exposed to 97, including industrial solvents, pesticides, dyes, gasoline and diesel exhaust compounds, cosmetics ingredients, hormones, pharmaceuticals, radiation, and a chemical in chlorinated drinking water.

As Ana Soto, a Tufts University professor of cell biology who specializes in cellular origins of cancer and effects of hormone-disrupting contaminants"More and more, cancer looks like an environmental disease." This is not to say that there are not genetic and hereditary factors in the development of breast cancer, but simply to point out the apparently great influence of environment and lifestyle.

Don't Believe (Or Forward) Everything You Read

Contrary to what forwarded e-mails would have you believe, progesterex is not a date rape drug that is being used to sterilize women, people are not spraying ether perfume, estee lauder lipstick does not contain lead, and Ashley Flores is NOT missing.

Basically, 90% of the forwards you are receiving are COMPLETELY FALSE. Stop forwarding them. Instead, use a fact checker such as http://www.snopes.com/ to see whether or not the forward you are reading is based in fact

The Internet is an unprecedented tool for the proliferation of information. Let's keep it as pristine as possible.

Unwanted Baby Drop Box - This is for Real!

http://www-cgi.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/05/10/japan.babybox.ap/index.html

This is truly one of the strangest - and to be quite honest, innovative - practices I have read about in a long time. Around the world there are hospitals that allows people to drop off unwanted babies in an anonymous "drop box." These baby drop offs exist in Japan, Germany and South Africa.

"In Japan the baby drop-off, is called 'Crane's Cradle,' was opened by the Catholic-run Jikei Hospital in the southern city of Kumamoto as a way to discourage abortions and the abandonment of infants in unsafe public places. The hospital described it as a parent's last resort.'"

"A small hatch on the side of the hospital allows people to drop off babies in an incubator 24 hours a day, while an alarm will notify hospital staff of the new arrival. The infants will initially be cared for by the hospital and then put up for adoption."

"'We started the service but hope it won't be used,' head nurse Yukiko Tajiri said. "I hope it is seen as a symbol that we are always here for parents to share their difficulty.'"

Quotes on Selfishness

What is being selfish? Some people say everyone is selfish with even the nice things they do for others having some self-benefit. But the predominant belief is that people can be truly righteous, which means that others truly aren't.

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

If you think taking care of yourself is selfish, change your mind. If you don't, you're simply ducking your responsibilities.
Ann Richards

The principle of liberty and equality, if coupled with mere selfishness, will make men only devils, each trying to be independent that he may fight only for his own interest. And here is the need of religion and its power, to bring in the principle of benevolence and love to men.
John Randolph (1773 - 1833)

Manifest plainness,Embrace simplicity,Reduce selfishness,Have few desires.
Lao-tzu (604 BC - 531 BC), The Way of Lao-tzu

Sorry Soldiers, No More My Space or You Tube. No Big Deal...Right?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400112.html

Imagine that you're a soldier somewhere in the middle of nowhere: Afghanistan, Korea, Iraq. You see some pretty horrible things, are far from those you love, and are often excruciatingly bored. You look forward to your time on the web to communicate with loved ones, see what's going on back home, and just take in a little light entertainment. Sites like YouTube and MySpace surely go a long way in making your stay in a life-threatening environment a bit more comfortable.

But now the Defense Department decided has begun blocking access to YouTube, MySpace, and 11 other Web sites on its computers due to the "enormous amounts of traffic on those sites that could swamp the military's dedicated Internet network and disclose sensitive materials." No big deal, right? Wrong.

Some Facts About Bottled Water

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthnews/4505/water-facts-bottled-or-tap

"Bottled water has become the fastest growing commercial beverage sold in the United States. In 2005, Americans spent nearly $10 billion on bottled water."

"To date, no independent investigation has shown that bottled water passes more safety and health checks than tap water. In fact, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) tested 103 brands of bottled water and concluded there was no assurance that water out of a bottle is cleaner or safer than water from the tap. Another of their conclusions didn't surprise me either: They estimated that 25 percent or more of bottled water is nothing more than tap water."

"...a five-year supply of bottled water cost over $1,000 compared with $1.65 for the same amount of tap water. Not to mention the environmental impact of the many discarded plastic water bottles that are not recycled. "