Article on an embarrassed US media's excuses over Downing Street Memo reporting
Tacit, autocensorship. Not to say craven irresponsibility....
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2005/06/17/dsm_press/
US Administration: Impeachable?
You couldn't call the writer of this Bangor (Maine) Daily News article eloquent. Robert's views are unimportant to the world outside Bangor. He's angry and bewildered, like many of us who just don't get it........
"What's curious is why anyone like me should have to even point this out."
Robert's the kid in the crowd who cries, "The King has no clothes!" Unpalatable, even unacceptable to adults. But being a kid- or an unknown writer from a small town in Maine- doesn't make the truth any less the truth. As Krishnamurti put it, it's not who says it. It's what is said.
http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=114420
Many would trash this article as lies, liberal propaganda, anti war nonsense, deranged ranting....
Well, is it?
You know the answer.
The real problem is the answer doesn't matter.
"What's curious is why anyone like me should have to even point this out."
Robert's the kid in the crowd who cries, "The King has no clothes!" Unpalatable, even unacceptable to adults. But being a kid- or an unknown writer from a small town in Maine- doesn't make the truth any less the truth. As Krishnamurti put it, it's not who says it. It's what is said.
http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=114420
Many would trash this article as lies, liberal propaganda, anti war nonsense, deranged ranting....
Well, is it?
You know the answer.
The real problem is the answer doesn't matter.
Skyping the Telecoms
Some are probably shocked an upstart could "ruin" major communications monopolies. Others applaud. I'm in the second group. Do telecom execs spend all their time on the phone, or what? It's hard to sympathize with companies that have been exploiting monopolies and ripping off consumers unmercilessly for a hundred years.
Dinosaur phone companies have a shabby tradition as innovators. They have no idea when it's staring them in the face. I used call back systems in the early 80's from Brazil, where 60 companies sprang up overnight. The response from the Brazilian telephone monopoly EMBRATEL was weak. It tried blocking calls to "certain area codes" in the USA (those where call back computer were at work.) That didn't last long: Congressmen couldn't get through to associates who happened to live in the blocked area code. EMBRATEL backed off.
Stodginess is typical of heavily regulated industries like telecommunications. Shipping, transportation, airline companies, insurance, etc, come to mind. Typically, executives in these sectors were, prior to deregulation, hired to do little more than administer within narrow public interest boundaries set by governments. While creative businessmen are hired by marketing companies for unregulated market segments where decision making, rather than paper shuffling, is prized.
"Skype is a good company," said independent telecom analyst and commentator Jeff Kagan. "But Skype is never going to catch up to the major service providers," the large telephone and cable companies that increasingly are offering bundles of services, including local and long-distance calling, wireless, high-speed Internet access and digital television.
This is what they said when telephone companies were being deregulated, and AT&T talked of offering a 'one stop communication shop'. I told an exec at an ATT seminar lots of people would prefer "cheap phone calls" to well packaged billing, thank you. I'm unsure how, but they seem to have gotten over that hurdle.
Until Skype...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/03/AR2005060301520.html
Dinosaur phone companies have a shabby tradition as innovators. They have no idea when it's staring them in the face. I used call back systems in the early 80's from Brazil, where 60 companies sprang up overnight. The response from the Brazilian telephone monopoly EMBRATEL was weak. It tried blocking calls to "certain area codes" in the USA (those where call back computer were at work.) That didn't last long: Congressmen couldn't get through to associates who happened to live in the blocked area code. EMBRATEL backed off.
Stodginess is typical of heavily regulated industries like telecommunications. Shipping, transportation, airline companies, insurance, etc, come to mind. Typically, executives in these sectors were, prior to deregulation, hired to do little more than administer within narrow public interest boundaries set by governments. While creative businessmen are hired by marketing companies for unregulated market segments where decision making, rather than paper shuffling, is prized.
"Skype is a good company," said independent telecom analyst and commentator Jeff Kagan. "But Skype is never going to catch up to the major service providers," the large telephone and cable companies that increasingly are offering bundles of services, including local and long-distance calling, wireless, high-speed Internet access and digital television.
This is what they said when telephone companies were being deregulated, and AT&T talked of offering a 'one stop communication shop'. I told an exec at an ATT seminar lots of people would prefer "cheap phone calls" to well packaged billing, thank you. I'm unsure how, but they seem to have gotten over that hurdle.
Until Skype...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/03/AR2005060301520.html
The Pro War Movement
Article forwarded by a friend impressed by Canadian Naomi Klein speaking in Oakland recently. Some interesting comments....
Most people feel Naomi is "truly brilliant", as my friend does. Or another "Hanoi Jane". In which case, what epithet really fits? Osama Naomi? Baghdad Klein? Not really. The difficulty in stereotyping Naomi, except mindlessly as 'treasonous', proclaims the illegitimacy of her accusers' position.
The point is, who is she 'working for'? The "Anti War Movement". Which has 'lost the plot', as our Australian friends put it:
The Movement needs to migrate to the center and rename itself "The Pro War Movement." Motto: "The RIGHT war at the RIGHT time." An umbrella concept, like merely being "against war"- has long since become maudlin and depleted.
Instead, the Movement should trash Bush and the Neo Cons cabal because of what they are: appallingly incompetent War Administrators. Not because of what they are not: peace loving. They have no exit strategy. No occupation strategy. No war prizes (ones they'll tell open up about, anyway.) Certainly none to be shared with their fellow Americans. No slaves. Well.... Poor administration, widespread corruption, ideology as a substitute for transparency, etc. They've botched it badly.
Opposition often promotes the strengths of the Opposed. The Anti War Movement needs to regain the credibility it has not had for a long, long time. Then, nail them.
The majority of the center and right don't hear the tune with that same old shopworn, impractical slogan:
How to End the War -- In These Times
Most people feel Naomi is "truly brilliant", as my friend does. Or another "Hanoi Jane". In which case, what epithet really fits? Osama Naomi? Baghdad Klein? Not really. The difficulty in stereotyping Naomi, except mindlessly as 'treasonous', proclaims the illegitimacy of her accusers' position.
The point is, who is she 'working for'? The "Anti War Movement". Which has 'lost the plot', as our Australian friends put it:
The Movement needs to migrate to the center and rename itself "The Pro War Movement." Motto: "The RIGHT war at the RIGHT time." An umbrella concept, like merely being "against war"- has long since become maudlin and depleted.
Instead, the Movement should trash Bush and the Neo Cons cabal because of what they are: appallingly incompetent War Administrators. Not because of what they are not: peace loving. They have no exit strategy. No occupation strategy. No war prizes (ones they'll tell open up about, anyway.) Certainly none to be shared with their fellow Americans. No slaves. Well.... Poor administration, widespread corruption, ideology as a substitute for transparency, etc. They've botched it badly.
Opposition often promotes the strengths of the Opposed. The Anti War Movement needs to regain the credibility it has not had for a long, long time. Then, nail them.
The majority of the center and right don't hear the tune with that same old shopworn, impractical slogan:
How to End the War -- In These Times
Tech Caused Real Estate Crash?
A 'visionary" article by a technology consultant for CNN.
Nothing new- just another brick in the mainstream wall of conventional wisdom on the decline of urban living...
Tech will cause a real estate crash, CNN, May 16, 2005
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/05/12/visionary.nielsen/index.html
Excerpts:
The balance between remote regions and the center will change in favor of a more distributed lifestyle, resulting in a real estate crash..... Given the nature of real estate, he warned that even a drop in demand by 20 percent could cause prices to be cut in half.
Nothing new- just another brick in the mainstream wall of conventional wisdom on the decline of urban living...
Tech will cause a real estate crash, CNN, May 16, 2005
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/05/12/visionary.nielsen/index.html
Excerpts:
The balance between remote regions and the center will change in favor of a more distributed lifestyle, resulting in a real estate crash..... Given the nature of real estate, he warned that even a drop in demand by 20 percent could cause prices to be cut in half.
Gays smell different
No, that's not what I meant....
New study shows gay brains are excited by the same pheromones in male sweat which affect female brains.
While heterosexual male brains remain unaffected.
Locker room odors ever do much for you? No offense, just wondering....
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/05/09/pheromones.study.reut/index.html
New study shows gay brains are excited by the same pheromones in male sweat which affect female brains.
While heterosexual male brains remain unaffected.
Locker room odors ever do much for you? No offense, just wondering....
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/05/09/pheromones.study.reut/index.html
Buffet on Terrorism
Warren Buffet alert to risks of terrorism, plugs docudrama site.......
"If you go to lastbestchance.org, you can obtain a tape, free, that the Nuclear Threat Initiative has sponsored, that has a dramatization that is fictional but is not fanciful. We would regard ourselves as vulnerable to extinction as a company if we did not have nuclear, biological and chemical risks excluded from our policies. There could be events happening that could make it impossible for our checks to clear the next day."
"If you go to lastbestchance.org, you can obtain a tape, free, that the Nuclear Threat Initiative has sponsored, that has a dramatization that is fictional but is not fanciful. We would regard ourselves as vulnerable to extinction as a company if we did not have nuclear, biological and chemical risks excluded from our policies. There could be events happening that could make it impossible for our checks to clear the next day."
Online Ads Taking Over.....
Google + Yahoo overtake CBS/ABC/NBC combined ad revenue:
http://economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3908700
http://economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3908700
Tiger, tiger.....
An article on Tiger, the new Mac operating system. Will Spotlight really supplant, if not obsolete the decades old Mac "folder" filing system? The significant, the good and the trivial.
" Mac OS X has recently become interesting even to people outside the Cult of Macintosh. The more Microsoft Windows is bogged down by viruses, spyware and disruptive security updates, the more miserable life becomes--and the more the long-suffering Windows majority begins to investigate virus-free, spyware-free alternatives like Mac OS X. "
Will the PC crowd wake up- THIS time? Not a chance. Old habits (crash, virus! reboot, reinstall, crash, virus!, reinstall, etc) die hard. As they say, if people will accept it (whatever IT is) the way it is now, they'll accept it 10X as bad.... (The freeway system, current administration, the Mall as village square, water quality, health insurance, etc ad inf)
I guess an idea, gadget, OS, consciousness, policy, etc - has to be really fresh to get them to 'invest' in it. Lke the iPod?
"Tiger tiger burning bright, in the forests of the night, what unholy hand or eye hath framed they fearful symmetry?"
- Paraphrase of Bill Gates re: Steve Jobs via William Blake
" Mac OS X has recently become interesting even to people outside the Cult of Macintosh. The more Microsoft Windows is bogged down by viruses, spyware and disruptive security updates, the more miserable life becomes--and the more the long-suffering Windows majority begins to investigate virus-free, spyware-free alternatives like Mac OS X. "
Will the PC crowd wake up- THIS time? Not a chance. Old habits (crash, virus! reboot, reinstall, crash, virus!, reinstall, etc) die hard. As they say, if people will accept it (whatever IT is) the way it is now, they'll accept it 10X as bad.... (The freeway system, current administration, the Mall as village square, water quality, health insurance, etc ad inf)
I guess an idea, gadget, OS, consciousness, policy, etc - has to be really fresh to get them to 'invest' in it. Lke the iPod?
"Tiger tiger burning bright, in the forests of the night, what unholy hand or eye hath framed they fearful symmetry?"
- Paraphrase of Bill Gates re: Steve Jobs via William Blake
A Woody Joke
More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. -Woody Allen, author, actor, and filmmaker (1935- )
How is it that this guy became so successful? What am I missing about human nature that seems to value second rate Jewish humor? Second rate- I know some great Jewish jokes. There's the one about.....
Some other time. For Woody's jokes, too...
How is it that this guy became so successful? What am I missing about human nature that seems to value second rate Jewish humor? Second rate- I know some great Jewish jokes. There's the one about.....
Some other time. For Woody's jokes, too...
Beginner's view of blogging
Blogging, from a beginner's point of view, feels like I'm talking to myself. Weird, onanistic, directionless. As long as it reduces the load on friends' and familys' "Inboxes", I suppose it's worthwhile. Will wait and see....
9/11 Deja Vu
Post 9/11, and some of us have the feeling we've been here before. To a time and place so different in many ways, yet so much like it. I remember the McCarthy hearings in the early 50's, the Commie witch hunts, and what my very nice 5th grade English teacher at Coronado Jr. High, California, asked me not to do......
She called me up to her desk after class one day. Looking a little uneasy, she said, "Bobby, I'm sorry. I know I told everyone you could all write your very first term paper on ANYTHING at all. But I won't be able to let you write on..... "that'. You understand, don't you? It would look to the school, the PTA and everyone like I was, well, teaching COMMUNISM!"
I didn't get it, 12 years old and all. Sounded like a real mysterious, interesting subject, to me. Everyone was talking about whatever it was- my parents, on the radio, in the newspapers. Worked out in the end, though. I switched to 20 pages on "Thermonuclear Fusion Power for Peaceful Purposes", complete with footnotes, bibliography and formulae detailing the fusion chain reaction.
I got an A+. Natch. I didn't realize at the time I'd had my first experience with blackmail.
She called me up to her desk after class one day. Looking a little uneasy, she said, "Bobby, I'm sorry. I know I told everyone you could all write your very first term paper on ANYTHING at all. But I won't be able to let you write on..... "that'. You understand, don't you? It would look to the school, the PTA and everyone like I was, well, teaching COMMUNISM!"
I didn't get it, 12 years old and all. Sounded like a real mysterious, interesting subject, to me. Everyone was talking about whatever it was- my parents, on the radio, in the newspapers. Worked out in the end, though. I switched to 20 pages on "Thermonuclear Fusion Power for Peaceful Purposes", complete with footnotes, bibliography and formulae detailing the fusion chain reaction.
I got an A+. Natch. I didn't realize at the time I'd had my first experience with blackmail.
Inaugurablog
Today is the first day of the rest of our blogging life.
Here, in this tiny part of the virtual universe. Whether it wll have a long or short life, be interesting or forgettable, superficial or significant.... time will, we are told, tell. I suppose like all things new, it seems a little strange. Like serial Christmas Greetings to those we care about. Who may not even open the envelope.
If you care to let me know I'm not (just) talking to myself.... leave a comment, post something new, or otherwise get in touch! Thanks.
Do check back from time to time. If this works as I'm told, it will save friends and family time deleting all those wordy emails of mine.
Be well, stay well,
Bob
Here, in this tiny part of the virtual universe. Whether it wll have a long or short life, be interesting or forgettable, superficial or significant.... time will, we are told, tell. I suppose like all things new, it seems a little strange. Like serial Christmas Greetings to those we care about. Who may not even open the envelope.
If you care to let me know I'm not (just) talking to myself.... leave a comment, post something new, or otherwise get in touch! Thanks.
Do check back from time to time. If this works as I'm told, it will save friends and family time deleting all those wordy emails of mine.
Be well, stay well,
Bob
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