Watch, learn what innovation and the human intellect can do. (And do NOT stop before the end!).
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Monday, March 24, 2014
The Ugly Pus of the Bush II Dynasty Starts to Ooze
Some of the really ugly aspects of the Bush II realm are starting to emerge finally, and they are presenting the Obama administration with some ugly choices in some areas because the administration is basically bound to defend the acts of prior administrations in most cases.
One of the ugliest is the CIA's "role" in the Bush-era war on terror, which paints neither the US government, nor the CIA in particular in a particularly flattering light.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Out There
If you have not run into his work previously, Chris Hadfield is a Canadian astronaut who fulfilled his childhood dream with two shuttle missions and has the talent and more importantly the personal insight to share with us what it is like. If you are not among the 21 million plus viewers, here is his cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity - it was filmed on a shuttle mission, then the music track added after he returned.
There is another video though that shows his real thoughts and values to us. It is a TED Talk and he goes into a lot of what it is like to perform this unnatural act of space flight, enjoy the unusual splendor of it all --- and then have a potentially catastrophic event happen "up there".
I dare you not to get chills during the launch sequence at 3:10, or to not think just a bit differently about things (like the universe) when he describes "looking down at the rest of everything" at 7:40.
There is another video though that shows his real thoughts and values to us. It is a TED Talk and he goes into a lot of what it is like to perform this unnatural act of space flight, enjoy the unusual splendor of it all --- and then have a potentially catastrophic event happen "up there".
I dare you not to get chills during the launch sequence at 3:10, or to not think just a bit differently about things (like the universe) when he describes "looking down at the rest of everything" at 7:40.
Monday, March 17, 2014
The Beginning...No I Mean the REAL Beginning!
This is getting close to some pretty incredible stuff. One of the basic problems/quests of astrophysics has been to discover evidence of the theorized "Big Bang" birth of the universe. It looks like now they are a big step closer (sorry any Bible-thumping "the world is only 6000 years old and probably flat" types):
If you have seen "Close Encounters of The Third Kind"...yes, this is also evidence that Einstein was "one of them".
If you have seen "Close Encounters of The Third Kind"...yes, this is also evidence that Einstein was "one of them".
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
To H**l with SATs, ACTs, Give Me Thinkers!!
There is a lot of fluff flying about as to redoing the SATs and possibly the ACTs in reaction to that. The SAT's decision to do away with the essay portion of the tests is possibly the most colossally stupid move that they could have made.
I swear...I would like to take all of these "universal test" organizations into a waterproof room and then fill it with water!. They are SO out of touch with the real world.
I have been involved in hiring on and off for the last decade either as an advisor to a hiring manager or a hiring manager myself. And I can tell you plainly, I have never been so disappointed with the candidates presented to me. I mean, most recruiters are absolutely, completely worthless, lets face facts - it is an easy field to get into and you don't even have to really understand who you are recruiting.
But the candidates they do send are even worse. We live in a flat world which is a world of ideas which people much smarter than me have written about.
We live in a world where ideas are really the only marketable item for the future...and our college graduates cannot express their ideas in any intelligible format (believe me I have tried to extract/read them).
If you have the greatest idea in the world you have to be able to intelligently express it, support it, and define it in terms the world will understand and accept.
Facebook/Twitter ain't going to make it folks....
I swear...I would like to take all of these "universal test" organizations into a waterproof room and then fill it with water!. They are SO out of touch with the real world.
I have been involved in hiring on and off for the last decade either as an advisor to a hiring manager or a hiring manager myself. And I can tell you plainly, I have never been so disappointed with the candidates presented to me. I mean, most recruiters are absolutely, completely worthless, lets face facts - it is an easy field to get into and you don't even have to really understand who you are recruiting.
But the candidates they do send are even worse. We live in a flat world which is a world of ideas which people much smarter than me have written about.
We live in a world where ideas are really the only marketable item for the future...and our college graduates cannot express their ideas in any intelligible format (believe me I have tried to extract/read them).
If you have the greatest idea in the world you have to be able to intelligently express it, support it, and define it in terms the world will understand and accept.
Facebook/Twitter ain't going to make it folks....
Thursday, February 27, 2014
More Than Meets the Press
If you believe (as I do) that there is a certain dirty or slimy feel to certain aspects of the ridiculous wars of the George II dynasty (err, I mean administration) then you might want to watch the Oscar-nominated "Dirty Wars".
Here is an interview with one of the principals of the film and what they saw and endured to get this story. Not only is there an undercurrent of dishonesty, but an implication at least that these practices are being carried forward to the future.
(Note also the sense of journalistic integrity -- they did not run with everything they knew or felt strongly was true, but only what they had convincing proof for -- take that Internet gossip sites (and FoxNews of course) !).
Here is an interview with one of the principals of the film and what they saw and endured to get this story. Not only is there an undercurrent of dishonesty, but an implication at least that these practices are being carried forward to the future.
(Note also the sense of journalistic integrity -- they did not run with everything they knew or felt strongly was true, but only what they had convincing proof for -- take that Internet gossip sites (and FoxNews of course) !).
Saturday, February 22, 2014
The Real F-35 Story
The 60 Minutes report that I posted about unfortunately turned out to be a disappointing fluff piece, interviewing only proponents of the program from the Pentagon and elsewhere. There was a minimal amount of tsk-tsking and hand wringing about "gee we know it costs a lot" (but it isn't my money.....so send some more...).
60 Minutes journalistic quality has slipped in several areas in the last few years, and I no longer trust them as much as I once did. However, I had hoped with a program so deeply flawed and based on such ridiculous assumptions from the outset as the F-35 they would do better.
Fortunately the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) stepped into the breach. This article is an interview with Winslow Wheeler, director of POGO's Straus Military Reform Project which is full of interesting and insightful analysis into that tax-dollar cesspool we call the Pentagon.
He mentions a website that is dedicated to tracking the F-35 abomination and hopefully spurring people to do something about it.
Both the POGO page and the website have this video, but it is important enough that I am posting it here as well.
My only regret is that I did not coin "The Jet That Ate the Pentagon", but then again with the prevailing attitude in Washington DC of "just keep pouring money onto it" where the Pentagon is concerned it may not be possible for any program to actually "eat the Pentagon".
60 Minutes journalistic quality has slipped in several areas in the last few years, and I no longer trust them as much as I once did. However, I had hoped with a program so deeply flawed and based on such ridiculous assumptions from the outset as the F-35 they would do better.
Fortunately the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) stepped into the breach. This article is an interview with Winslow Wheeler, director of POGO's Straus Military Reform Project which is full of interesting and insightful analysis into that tax-dollar cesspool we call the Pentagon.
He mentions a website that is dedicated to tracking the F-35 abomination and hopefully spurring people to do something about it.
Both the POGO page and the website have this video, but it is important enough that I am posting it here as well.
My only regret is that I did not coin "The Jet That Ate the Pentagon", but then again with the prevailing attitude in Washington DC of "just keep pouring money onto it" where the Pentagon is concerned it may not be possible for any program to actually "eat the Pentagon".
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