NCMR 2008

A fantastic video to watch for 40 mins... Bill Moyers addressing the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform.
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"What does it matter? Why a media anyway? I’m going to let an old Cherokee chief answer that. I heard this story a long time ago, growing up in Choctaw County in Oklahoma before we moved to Texas, of the tribal elder who was telling his grandson about the battle the old man was waging within himself. He said, "It is between two wolves, my son. One is an evil wolf: anger, envy, sorrow, greed, self-pity, guilt, resentment, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other is the good wolf: joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.” The boy took this in for a few minutes and then said to his father—to his grandfather, “Which wolf won?” The old Cherokee replied simply, “The one I feed.” Democracy is that way. The wolf that wins is the one we feed. And media provides the fodder." (great little story)
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"The new owner of the Tribune Company, the real estate mogul Sam Zell, recently toured his new property, the Los Angeles Times newsroom, telling employees that the challenge is: how do we get somebody 126 years old to get it up? “Well,” said Zell, “I’m your Viagra.” I’m not making this up. He told his journalists that he didn’t have an editorial agenda or a perspective about newspapers’ roles as civic institutions. “I’m a businessman,” he said. “All that matters in the end is the bottom line.” Just this week, Zell told Wall Street analysts that to save money he intends to eliminate 500 pages of news a week across all of the company’s twelve papers. That can mean eliminating some eighty-two pages every week just from the Los Angeles Times. What will he use to replace reporters and editors? He says to the Wall Street analysts, “I’ll use maps, graphics, lists, rankings and stats.” Sounds to me as if Sam has confused Viagra with Lunesta."
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"As conglomerates swallow up newspapers, magazines, publishing houses and broadcast outlets, news organizations are folded into entertainment divisions. The news hole in the print media shrinks to make room for ads, celebrities, nonsense and propaganda, and the news we need to know slips from sight."
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Our Dilemma

So the latest book I've finished was The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. The dilemma, as Pollan puts it is simply: "What to eat?"

As always, its hard for me to put into words the message that Pollan pushes in the book. His goal through the book is to trace a few meals back to their origin point, and along the way touches on all of the sources of food in America: the CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) and factory farms, Industrial Organic like those from Whole Foods, locally produced and pastured meat, and he goes and at the ends he journeys to find a meal by using a hunter-gatherer method. The argument is that as Americans we have to culturally-enforced eating habit, and the advent of the industrial farm has further thrown us as humans out of whack with our eating and food-buying heritage. Pollan tries to convince us that we have to give up the idea that supermarket foodstuffs are OK, that we're really fooling ourselves with absurdly cheap food engineered to make us keep eating and all built on a mountain of corn and petroleum (read the book to find out more)

Pollan writes well, and he gives sufficient evidence to make you think twice about where you get your food. Definitely a book to read.

Ban Cluster Bombs!

I've just sent a message to government leaders urging a strong ban on cluster bombs. I hope you'll join me. Here's the link:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/ban_cluster_munitions/99.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK
And here's more info from Avaaz.org:
Final negotiations are underway right now in Dublin, Ireland on a treaty to ban cluster bombs -- but its outcome is in danger.
Cluster munitions don't just kill during war--they scatter small, unexploded "bomblets" on the ground. When children pick them up, they are often maimed or killed. Most governments agree that they should be banned--but many are now trying to weaken the proposed treaty with loopholes, exemptions, and delays.
Negotiations end this Thursday. If enough of us raise our voices, we can drown out the arms manufacturers and convince our governments to do the right thing. Click below to send a message, and then forward this email to friends and family:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/ban_cluster_munitions/99.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

Yay for the spotlight!

So the project myself and another coworker have been working on recently has been getting a ton of visibility in the O&G services sector; to top it off we're being presented with an award at the Offshore Technology Conference next Monday!

I don't usually toot my own horn, but I think this exception is worth it :o)

for more info: http://www.otcnet.org/2008/spotlight/Baker_Oil_Tools.html

'Dilbert's' 9-point financial plan worthy of economics Nobel - MarketWatch

Source

Fortunately for America's 95 million investors, Adams' secret nine-point formula was finally revealed in "Dilbert and the Way of the Weasels." Notice its simple brilliance in the exact reproduction of his formula:

1.
Make a will
2.
Pay off your credit cards
3.
Get term life insurance if you have a family to support
4.
Fund your 401k to the maximum
5.
Fund your IRA to the maximum
6.
Buy a house if you want to live in a house and can afford it
7.
Put six months worth of expenses in a money-market account
8.
Take whatever money is left over and invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount broker and never touch it until retirement
9.
If any of this confuses you, or you have something special going on (retirement, college planning, tax issues), hire a fee-based financial planner, not one who charges a percentage of your portfolio

Adams boldly states that this is "everything you need to know about personal investing." In just 129 words, nine simple points, one page you have the unabridged "Unified Theory of Everything Financial." That's it. Everything!

Writing Tips

Great PDF on writing tips... print it out and keep with you or with your writing supplies
http://mikeshea.net/writing_tips.pdf

Yum.

How to pour the perfect Black and Tan:

1 Guinness Draught can of beer
1 Bass Pale Ale
2 glasses
1 large spoon (the head should be able to fit inside the glass)

Pour the Bass first... you want to fill about half the glass and make it as frothy as possible - I think the head dampens the impact of the Guinness when it's poured.
Then, place the spoon (with the convex side up) in the glass, touching the end of the spoon to the side of the glass.
Pour the Guinness SLOWLY over the top of the spoon - I tilted the spoon so that most of the Guinness rolls down the side of the glass from the spoon head.
Enjoy!

Finally!

I found a way to have your PowerPoint presentation show up on the projector (or 2nd screen/monitor) and be able to see your notes with your screen... much props to Michael Hyatt

Link

That's what she said.

Suja and I just finished watching Disc 4 of Season 3 of The Office

I had a habit (or I guess non-habit) of not getting caught up in any TV shows recently (not since I dug The Simpsons in my early college days)... but I caught a few episodes of The Office - season 2 I think - and really just laughed enough to watch as much as I could... this included catching some on Netflix' 'watch instantly' and then Suja and I got the season discs Netflix'd in... So after hours of laughter, we're all caught up... a definite recommend.

And of course it's so funny because we can relate... we've all got people, or an accumulation of traits of people we know that become Michael, Dwight, et al...

So now that we're all caught up... what's next? Not sure I want to get into Lost, Heroes, or 24 yet...

Empowered...?

So the Texas primary was yesterday, and the wife and I went to the primary and the caucus (dumb "Texas Two-Step"). I placed my vote, felt bad that I didn't know Any of the local candidates or their positions on issues, and then we went out to eat to celebrate our demonstration of civic responsibility.

As far as who I voted for, it really was a tougher decision than I thought it was going to be; once I got back from Denmark I started researching Clinton, Obama, McCain, Huckabee, Paul and Nader... after going through their stances on the different issues, I decided to vote for Obama, but it took more contemplation than I thought it would've... before I thought about it more, I was really energized by Obama's campaign and was relieved to see someone like him move the young electorate so well.

But the more I thought about it, the more I kept feeling that Obama's campaign was more emotive than anything else. He pulls a lot by using the 'outsider/non-Washington' label... and yet I can't help but think he's able to do that purely from a lack of experience in that environment.

So in reviewing candidates, I ran across Russ Feingold, the junior senator from Wisconsin... and I really wish he ran so I'd be really sure where my vote would go. He seems to be the uncompromising idealist that everyone's pining for, including myself, but he's been around since 1992.
When Feingold was running against the Republican incumbent for the in '92, he wrote the following 5 promises on his garage door:

1. I will rely on Wisconsin citizens for most of my contributions.
2. I will live in Middleton, Wisconsin. My children will go to school here and I will spend most of my time here in Wisconsin.
3. I will accept no pay raise during my six-year term in office.
4. I will hold a "Listening Session" in each of Wisconsin's 72 counties each year of my six-year term in office.
5. I will hire the majority of my Senate staff from individuals who are from Wisconsin or have Wisconsin backgrounds

Feingold has continued to have "Listening Sessions" in each county every year since then... there was a story about it on NPR last year I think... what other senator 'gets' it like that?

Feingold's also been working hard for campaign finance reform and a national health care system; especially notable is that he was the ONLY senator to vote against the Patriot Act and also led the fillibuster against the renewal of the act, and voted against the 'compromised' version of it (unlike Obama). Feingold voted against the resolution to go to war with Iraq. He started the movement to censure President Bush. (info from wikipedia)

According to the Washington Post, Hillary Clinton has missed 141 votes (29.2%) during the current Congress. Obama has missed 196 votes (40.6%). Feingold? 0... he's missed 10 votes total since he became a senator - 16 years ago
more vote-missers at http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/senate/vote-missers/

EDIT: I should've thought more about this, but I'm sure that the reason these senators missed the number of votes that they did was because they were on the campaign trail... my mistake.

I like both of the Dems candidates, and would be overall happy if either won the general election (I guess I'd be happier with Obama), but I think my heart lies with Feingold. As my coworker Mark put it "seems like he's got an abundance of common sense".