Occupy Wall Street - A Turning Point
It's hard to write about Occupy Wall Street and say what has not already been said but I'll share my thoughts. If you live near New York City, you should visit the movement because it's unique experience that can't be fully taken in through pictures. I absolutely support the movement. These people are sacrificing their time, comfort and daily lives to stand up to a system that is not working. And when I say system, I believe it's not the absolute fault of Wall Street, but an entire American system that includes people spending beyond their means, a culture that values having more stuff, government regulation or lack of, politics, unions, our health care ... the list goes on.Their two weeks of occupation is gaining more traction than countless opinion articles in the New York Times and they're doing more than most of us who are merely complaining to our friends and family about our anger against Wall Street. Occupy Wall Street looks like a scene from an apocalyptical movie where people from all walks of life come together to fight for a cause. You have the Jesus lovers, hippies, homeless, yuppies, students, blue collar workers, old, young, musicians, super heros, yogis, and then you have all the people coming to observe this cast of characters, capturing moments with their iPhones, iPads, point and shoot video cameras, fancy cameras, analogue cameras, or pens and notebooks. There are people who choose to protest with their voice in song, use their wit in clever signs, their t-shirt design skills, their sub-conscious in meditation, or their hands letting their instruments speak. And their are the cops who stand around doing their job and watching the movement with amusement.
But a picture tells a thousand words.
The Strategies to Getting a Job & Hiring
Forbes has a great article on the challenges employers face in finding new candidates. Over the last decade, Americans have learned that no job is safe, but rather than sitting in our current jobs like lame ducks, we have adapted to always look for the next thing. Forbes discusses how hiring managers have changed their tactic when recruiting new employees. The article also touches on what tactics employees have used to increase their visibility and always stay employed. Are you following these rules? Will you get hired right away if your position is eliminated? The article comes via Talent 2050, a smart talent agency that focuses on bringing diversity into the workplace. Hiring Is Getting Harder For Employers, Not EasierDan Finnigan, 01.20.11, 02:05 PM EST
For the past couple of years, you have been holding down the fort, keeping expenses and hiring down while waiting for a turnaround in the economy. Nice job. Once again, we have near record profits in the U.S. Consumers are now opening their wallets and, with a workforce again near record highs in productivity, you and your business are clearly getting ready to hire now.
But if you think you're going to be in the driver's seat because your company has open positions at a time of prolonged, record unemployment--think again. The top-level unemployment numbers are deceptive. Dig deeper and you will see that there's a long-term battle for the highly skilled people you will most want to go hire.
Why? By 2015, 60% of the new jobs being created will require skills only held by 20% of the population, according to a recent report from the American Society for Training and Development. In 1991 fewer than 50% of U.S. jobs required skilled workers. But by 2015 76% of all U.S. jobs created will require highly skilled workers, for example people with special skills in science, technology, engineering or math. Worse yet, Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce reports that the demand for college educated workers will outpace the supply in the U.S. by more than 300,000 a year. That means the country will produce 3 million fewer college graduates than are needed over the next decade.
So, you will be waging a war for talent whether you like it or not, a war that requires new strategies and tactics to win. And the fact is that most of us are out of practice, and thus, are likely out of touch with how fast-growing companies hire now.
Two major trends have converged to alter the job-seeking mentality among American workers. First, during the recession, the American worker received the loudest, most clear message in our country's history: No job is permanent, few employees are irreplaceable, and everyone should be prepared to look for a new job at a moment's notice. Second, at the same time, social media has advanced so far beyond the tipping point that it has become the cultural norm for making connections and sharing information, both professionally and personally. (Time spent on Facebook now exceeds that on Google ( GOOG - news - people ), and Facebook now sends more people to news and information websites than does Google's dominant search engine.)
The result is a new landscape for both employers and job seekers to navigate, a landscape you will have to get to know quickly to attract the talent you need for your company to compete and grow.
If you've asked your recruiting team to target passive candidates in the past, it's time you get to know the new proactive candidates, people who cultivate new job opportunities long before they need them. Our company recently commissioned a national survey, Job Seeker Nation 2010, to find out about the job search intentions and practices of the modern, recession-weary American worker. Our research found that 53% of employed Americans--that is, 63.5 million people--are now open to new job prospects, even if they are not actively looking for a new job per se. But a deeper look into their behavior shows they never stop looking for their next opportunity. In fact, 73% of these proactive candidates have engaged in job search activities in the last 12 months, compared with only 28% of those not open to a new job.
So, then how are these proactive job seekers different from the rest of the population? Very, and much more likely to be the people your company needs. They are:
--Highly educated. 52% are college graduates, while 31% of active job seekers and 44% of those not open to a new job are college grads.
--More social. 77% use Facebook, 36% use Twitter, and 34% use LinkedIn--higher adoption rates than other groups reported.
--Well-connected. This group has significantly more contacts within these social networks. The difference is even more pronounced when the proactive job seeker has a college degree.
--Networking for jobs. Given their large social networks, this group finds referrals even more important as a job source than do others, and they are leading the charge toward using social networks to find jobs.
Let me get to the bottom line: These proactive job seekers--many of whom are some of your best employees, as well--are not waiting for their résumés to be plucked out of a stack of hundreds or found among thousands at job boards. They are cultivating networks of opportunity that they can tap into at any time they need to--like at the next hint of reorganization, layoffs or slow growth in their company.
Smart companies are getting ahead of this. Like the proactive job seeker, proactive employers are cultivating networks of prospective employees to generate the right prospects for their open positions. The fastest-growing companies, like Zynga, Twitter and Groupon, and those that compete with them for talent, provide examples of how employers can reorient their recruiting strategies to attract these motivated, connected and career-minded individuals.
--They've gone social. Proactive companies promote jobs in social networks, of course, but they also cultivate networks of followers, engage in online conversations and tell their stories about their companies. This investment pays off for both their marketing and recruiting departments, with new customers and new recruits. To get going: If you have a marketing-driven social media plan, that's a start. (If not, see Time's person of the year award for 2010.) Now layer in content that attracts potential candidates--company news, color commentary from employees, video of the work environment and of course job information. Cover all the big social channels, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.
--They're crowdsourcing their recruiting programs. Employers have long encouraged employees to provide referrals for jobs (the highest- quality source of candidates); and now social technologies offer a way to power up this crowd. The most successful companies have hundreds and sometimes thousands of brand ambassadors in social media, employees who love their company, products and work and are willing to talk about it. They bring a unique perspective to everything from the best latte to the best place to work. To get going: Tell your employees you need their help; give them an easy way to deliver their referrals to your recruiting department; and don't block access to social networks at your workplace. That's just handing candidates to your competitors.
--They walk the walk. The top executives in market-leading companies demonstrate their commitment to hiring goals by helping out themselves. If you aren't hearing about changes in your company's recruiting strategy, ask. If your human resources executives are pushing changes, get on board. To get going: Stand up at the next company meeting and thank specific employees for their referrals; mention your commitment to hiring the best and brightest in your next press interview; tweet some jobs yourself.
--They know their numbers. If the preceding points sounded touchy-feely to you, don't be fooled. Proactive employers have transformed their talent acquisition with metrics-driven recruiting programs. They are not wasting time or money sorting through mounds of résumés from under-qualified candidates. They are increasing the yield of their recruiting dollars with targeted programs, intelligent analytics and smarter technologies. To get going: Review the pipeline report from your recruiting department and ask about the candidate sources with the highest return on investment.
An evolution in the marketplace of talent has quietly but irrevocably changed how people look for work and how companies find workers. The faster your company adapts to the new ways of acquiring talent, the more competitive your business will be.
Dan Finnigan is the chief executive officer of Jobvite.
Cats of All Sizes
I recently watched a TED talk by Beverly + Dereck Joubert about big cats in Africa. They spent 3 years studying a leopard they named Legadema, Setswana for "light from the sky." How beautiful is that? Perhaps my emotions are running high from all the changes I've been experiencing - mostly overwhelmed with happiness, but I teared up many times during their 20 minute talk. I'm not going to ruin the video for you but I will say it was heartbreaking to learn how these big cats are being decimated by poachers and hunters. According to the Joubert's, over the last 50 years: Lions have gone from 450,000 to only 20,000 today.
Tigers from 45,000 to only 3,000
Cheetahs from 50,000 to 12,000
and Leopards from 700,000 to only 50,000.
From global warming to killing animals needlessly, we have lost touch with nature. But this is something we should easily be able to prevent. How could we, as humans, knownigly be responsible for this type of behavior? In the video, they pointed out that killing one lion disrupts an entire ecosystem. The new lion that enters the pride, kills all the cubs and sometimes even the mothers protecting them in order to establish his power. It's interesting to learn how violent nature is, and in this case - as unnecessary as war itself. But humans are causing that added violence.
Before you lose hope completely, there's a beautiful and bright side to nature - specifically an incident of motherly instincts that we see through Legadema. But I'm not going to tell you what happens. You'll just have to watch for yourself and if you're interested in learning more, you can check out this post via Roar Africa, a company that offers guided tours of Africa.
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
Web Wandering Wednesdays
Remember these? Yeah, I can't believe it's only Wednesday either. Lately I've been reading Daryl Lang's well written personal blog that touches on everything from politics and religion to personal matters. Hmm.. sounds like topics I'd be likely to bring up on a first date. He works downtown and has been closely following the controversy surrounding the "Ground Zero Mosque." Recently, he cleverly photographed establishments that are the same distance from the World Trade Center as the proposed Mosque site - a post that got picked up on Gawker, Gothamist, and the Village Voice among others. Reactions were mixed but he started a huge conversation and got us all thinking.The photos featured New Yorkers, perhaps Muslims, Christians, Jews, etc. working together and going about their daily business. But it also featured a strip club, an Irish pub, an off beating track and other establishments that Sarah Palin would no doubt deem as immoral. And that's just the beginning. The fast food joints and pizza deemed as "healthy" cohabit the space without opposition. See Daryl's original post here. And reactions to his post here.
Hi My Name Is Molly
And I'm in the NY Post today! Not terribly thrilled about the main picture but I like this one. Yes. Hello Badonkadonk in Mark Ruffalo's face.
Unemployment Via New York Magazine
"Most Americans Fail to Write Novel, Learn Italian in Spare Time
Photo: 20th Century Fox As terrifying as the employment numbers have been over the past two years, we have to admit that a part of us has been — don't read this next line, bosses — a teensy bit jealous of people who have been laid off. The ones with decent severance packages and money in their checking accounts, who had the foresight to prepare for such an event, of course, so in this fantasy, we're not technically us. But the point is, wouldn't it just be great to have some extra time? You could get cracking on that book idea. Learn to play guitar. Volunteer with homeless special-needs kids. Make the duck en croute from that effing cookbook you bought when Julie & Julia came out that you have literally not even cracked open, and not even feel guilty about eating it because obviously, you'd be exercising loads more now that you had been unshackled from your cubicle. Your ass would really look fantastic if you were unemployed. But while many people have this kind of fantasy, few actually live it. According to the American Time Use Survey released by the Labor Department yesterday, rising unemployment has indeed left many Americans with more spare time on their hands. However, most of them have done approximately jack with it.
From the WSJ:
Time spent in front of the television rose by 12 minutes, to two hours, 49 minutes a day in the two years through 2009. Sleep was the next big gainer, increasing by six minutes to eight hours, 40 minutes a day. The data also show what Americans aren't doing with their extra time: There was virtually no change between 2007 and 2009 in the time devoted to volunteering, religious activities, exercise or education.
Well ... sleeping and watching TV sounds kind of fun, too. Except it turns out people are really judgey about it.
In sum, time people might have used productively is instead being squandered, says University of Texas economist Daniel Hamermesh. "It's not like we're using the recession to build our skills — the skills are depreciating," says Mr. Hamermesh. "It's a waste."
Ouch. That's harsh, Hamermesh. Good thing he's not talking about us, or we would feel really bad about ourselves. Now, if you'll excuse us, please, we really don't have anymore time to fritter away here, we have a job to do."
Sleep More: Check
Work on my novel: Err.. I did once.
Watch move TV: Hellz No
Exercise more: Hmm.. that would be smart
Have been busier than I was while employed: Check!
Leave The Country?
My sister sent me a link to this article. It's fairly long but worth the read. Oh, and kind of depressing but interesting and potentially motivational. I wonder how much of it is accurate. Any thoughts? It reminded me of a posting that Jordan wrote a few weeks ago about having to figure out which hospital took her husband's insurance as he was bleeding profusely. That's completely insane and our health care system shouldn't be that way. Not to mention you already know my thoughts on balancing work and play. Personally, I don't see the point in living life and working crazy hours all in the hopes that you'll have enough money to retire and travel. What about having enough time and money to travel now? Traveling both enriches our lives with experiences and perspectives that we wouldn't have had otherwise - possibly even helping us in our jobs. And of course, taking vacations help us perform better at our jobs because we're well rested and not burnt out. That's only the beginning. Don't even get my started on the lack of availability of fresh, whole foods in this country, our factory farms, fast food joints, etc.
America – The Grim Truth
By Lance Freeman / Jun 10
Americans, I have some bad news for you:
You have the worst quality of life in the developed world – by a wide margin.If you had any idea of how people really lived in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many parts of Asia, you’d be rioting in the streets calling for a better life. In fact, the average Australian or Singaporean taxi driver has a much better standard of living than the typical American white-collar worker.
I know this because I am an American, and I escaped from the prison you call home.
I have lived all around the world, in wealthy countries and poor ones, and there is only one country I would never consider living in again: The United States of America. The mere thought of it fills me with dread.
Consider this, you are the only people in the developed world without a single-payer health system. Everyone in Western Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand has a single-payer system. If they get sick, they can devote all their energies to getting well. If you get sick, you have to battle two things at once, your illness and the fear of financial ruin. Millions of Americans go bankrupt every year due to medical bills, and tens of thousands die each year because they have no insurance or insufficient insurance. And don’t believe for a second that rot about America having the world’s best medical care or the shortest waiting lists: I’ve been to hospitals in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Singapore, and Thailand, and every one was better than the “good” hospital I used to go to back home. The waits were shorter, the facilities more comfortable, and the doctors just as good.
This is ironic, because you need a good health system more than anyone else in the world. Why? Because your lifestyle is almost designed to make you sick.
Let’s start with your diet: Much of the beef you eat has been exposed to fecal matter in processing. Your chicken is contaminated with salmonella. Your stock animals and poultry are pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics. In most other countries, the government would act to protect consumers from this sort of thing; in the United States, the government is bought off by industry to prevent any effective regulations or inspections. In a few years, the majority of all the produce for sale in the United States will be from genetically modified crops, thanks to the cozy relationship between Monsanto Corporation and the United States government. Worse still, due to the vast quantities of high-fructose corn syrup Americans consume, fully one-third of children born in the United States today will be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at some point in their lives.
Of course, it’s not just the food that’s killing you, it’s the drugs. If you show any sign of life when you’re young, they’ll put you on Ritalin. Then, when you get old enough to take a good look around, you’ll get depressed, so they’ll give you Prozac. If you’re a man, this will render you chemically impotent, so you’ll need Viagra to get it up. Meanwhile, your steady diet of trans-fat-laden food is guaranteed to give you high cholesterol, so you’ll get a prescription for Lipitor. Finally, at the end of the day, you’ll lay awake at night worrying about losing your health plan, so you’ll need Lunesta to go to sleep.
With a diet guaranteed to make you sick and a health system designed to make sure you stay that way, what you really need is a long vacation somewhere. Unfortunately, you probably can’t take one. I’ll let you in on little secret: if you go to the beaches of Thailand, the mountains of Nepal, or the coral reefs of Australia, you’ll probably be the only American in sight. And you’ll be surrounded crowds of happy Germans, French, Italians, Israelis, Scandinavians and wealthy Asians. Why? Because they’re paid well enough to afford to visit these places AND they can take vacations long enough to do so. Even if you could scrape together enough money to go to one of these incredible places, by the time you recovered from your jetlag, it would time to get on a plane and rush back to your job.
If you think I’m making this up, check the stats on average annual vacation days by country:
Finland: 44
Italy: 42
France: 39
Germany: 35
UK: 25
Japan: 18
USA: 12
The fact is, they work you like dogs in the United States. This should come as no surprise: the United States never got away from the plantation/sweat shop labor model and any real labor movement was brutally suppressed. Unless you happen to be a member of the ownership class, your options are pretty much limited to barely surviving on service-sector wages or playing musical chairs for a spot in a cubicle (a spot that will be outsourced to India next week anyway). The very best you can hope for is to get a professional degree and then milk the system for a slice of the middle-class pie. And even those who claw their way into the middle class are but one illness or job loss away from poverty. Your jobs aren’t secure. Your company has no loyalty to you. They’ll play you off against your coworkers for as long as it suits them, then they’ll get rid of you.
Of course, you don’t have any choice in the matter: the system is designed this way. In most countries in the developed world, higher education is either free or heavily subsidized; in the United States, a university degree can set you back over US$100,000. Thus, you enter the working world with a crushing debt. Forget about taking a year off to travel the world and find yourself – you’ve got to start working or watch your credit rating plummet.
If you’re “lucky,” you might even land a job good enough to qualify you for a home loan. And then you’ll spend half your working life just paying the interest on the loan – welcome to the world of American debt slavery. America has the illusion of great wealth because there’s a lot of “stuff” around, but who really owns it? In real terms, the average American is poorer than the poorest ghetto dweller in Manila, because at least they have no debts. If they want to pack up and leave, they can; if you want to leave, you can’t, because you’ve got debts to pay.
All this begs the question: Why would anyone put up with this? Ask any American and you’ll get the same answer: because America is the freest country on earth. If you believe this, I’ve got some more bad news for you: America is actually among the least free countries on earth. Your piss is tested, your emails and phone calls are monitored, your medical records are gathered, and you are never more than one stray comment away from writhing on the ground with two Taser prongs in your ass.
And that’s just physical freedom. Mentally, you are truly imprisoned. You don’t even know the degree to which you are tormented by fears of medical bankruptcy, job loss, homelessness and violent crime because you’ve never lived in a country where there is no need to worry about such things.
But it goes much deeper than mere surveillance and anxiety. The fact is, you are not free because your country has been taken over and occupied by another government. Fully 70% of your tax dollars go to the Pentagon, and the Pentagon is the real government of the United States. You are required under pain of death to pay taxes to this occupying government. If you’re from the less fortunate classes, you are also required to serve and die in their endless wars, or send your sons and daughters to do so. You have no choice in the matter: there is a socio-economic draft system in the United States that provides a steady stream of cannon fodder for the military.
If you call a life of surveillance, anxiety and ceaseless toil in the service of a government you didn’t elect “freedom,” then you and I have a very different idea of what that word means.
If there was some chance that the country could be changed, there might be reason for hope. But can you honestly look around and conclude that anything is going to change? Where would the change come from? The people? Take a good look at your compatriots: the working class in the United States has been brutally propagandized by jackals like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity. Members of the working class have been taught to lick the boots of their masters and then bend over for another kick in the ass. They’ve got these people so well trained that they’ll take up arms against the other half of the working class as soon as their masters give the word.
If the people cannot make a change, how about the media? Not a chance. From Fox News to the New York Times, the mass media in the United States is nothing but the public relations wing of the corporatocracy, primarily the military industrial complex. At least the citizens of the former Soviet Union knew that their news was bullshit. In America, you grow up thinking you’ve got a free media, which makes the propaganda doubly effective. If you don’t think American media is mere corporate propaganda, ask yourself the following question: have you ever heard a major American news outlet suggest that the country could fund a single-payer health system by cutting military spending?
If change can’t come from the people or the media, the only other potential source of change would be the politicians. Unfortunately, the American political process is among the most corrupt in the world. In every country on earth, one expects politicians to take bribes from the rich. But this generally happens in secret, behind the closed doors of their elite clubs. In the United States, this sort of political corruption is done in broad daylight, as part of legal, accepted, standard operating procedure. In the United States, they merely call these bribes campaign donations, political action committees and lobbyists. One can no more expect the politicians to change this system than one can expect a man to take an axe and chop his own legs out from underneath him.
No, the United States of America is not going to change for the better. The only change will be for the worse. And when I say worse, I mean much worse. As we speak, the economic system that sustained the country during the post-war years is collapsing. The United States maxed out its “credit card” sometime in 2008 and now its lenders, starting with China, are in the process of laying the foundations for a new monetary system to replace the Anglo-American “petro-dollar” system. As soon as there is a viable alternative to the US dollar, the greenback will sink like a stone.
While the United States was running up crushing levels of debt, it was also busy shipping its manufacturing jobs and white-collar jobs overseas, and letting its infrastructure fall to pieces. Meanwhile, Asian and European countries were investing in education, infrastructure and raw materials. Even if the United States tried to rebuild a real economy (as opposed to a service/financial economy) do think American workers would ever be able to compete with the workers of China or Europe? Have you ever seen a Japanese or German factory? Have you ever met a Singaporean or Chinese worker?
There are only two possible futures facing the United States, and neither one is pretty. The best case is a slow but orderly decline – essentially a continuation of what’s been happening for the last two decades. Wages will drop, unemployment will rise, Medicare and Social Security benefits will be slashed, the currency will decline in value, and the disparity of wealth will spiral out of control until the United States starts to resemble Mexico or the Philippines – tiny islands of wealth surrounded by great poverty (the country is already halfway there).
Equally likely is a sudden collapse, perhaps brought about by a rapid flight from the US dollar by creditor nations like China, Japan, Korea and the OPEC nations. A related possibility would be a default by the United States government on its vast debt. One look at the financial balance sheet of the US government should convince you how likely this is: governmental spending is skyrocketing and tax receipts are plummeting – something has to give. If either of these scenarios plays out, the resulting depression will make the present recession look like a walk in the park.
Whether the collapse is gradual or gut-wrenchingly sudden, the results will be chaos, civil strife and fascism. Let’s face it: the United States is like the former Yugoslavia – a collection of mutually antagonistic cultures united in name only. You’ve got your own version of the Taliban: right-wing Christian fundamentalists who actively loathe the idea of secular Constitutional government. You’ve got a vast intellectual underclass that has spent the last few decades soaking up Fox News and talk radio propaganda, eager to blame the collapse on Democrats, gays and immigrants. You’ve got a ruthless ownership class that will use all the means at its disposal to protect its wealth from the starving masses.
On top of all that you’ve got vast factory farms, sprawling suburbs and a truck-based shipping system, all of it entirely dependent on oil that is about to become completely unaffordable. And you’ve got guns. Lots of guns. In short: the United States is about to become a very unwholesome place to be.
Right now, the government is building fences and walls along its northern and southern borders. Right now, the government is working on a national ID system (soon to be fitted with biometric features). Right now, the government is building a surveillance state so extensive that they will be able to follow your every move, online, in the street and across borders. If you think this is just to protect you from “terrorists,” then you’re sadly mistaken. Once the shit really hits the fan, do you really think you’ll just be able to jump into the old station wagon, drive across the Canadian border and spend the rest of your days fishing and drinking Molson? No, the government is going to lock the place down. They don’t want their tax base escaping. They don’t want their “recruits” escaping. They don’t want YOU escaping.
I am not writing this to scare you. I write this to you as a friend. If you are able to read and understand what I’ve written here, then you are a member of a small minority in the United States. You are a minority in a country that has no place for you.
So what should you do?
You should leave the United States of America.
If you’re young, you’ve got plenty of choices. You can teach English in the Middle East, Asia or Europe. Or you can go to university or graduate school abroad and start building skills that will qualify you for a work visa. If you’ve already got some real work skills, you can apply to emigrate to any number of countries as a skilled immigrant. If you are older and you’ve got some savings, you can retire to a place like Costa Rica or the Philippines. If you can’t qualify for a work, student or retirement visa, don’t let that stop you – travel on a tourist visa to a country that appeals to you and talk to the expats you meet there. Whatever you do, go speak to an immigration lawyer as soon as you can. Find out exactly how to get on a path that will lead to permanent residence and eventually citizenship in the country of your choice.
You will not be alone. There are millions of Americans just like me living outside the United States. Living lives much more fulfilling, peaceful, free and abundant than we ever could have attained back home. Some of us happened upon these lives by accident – we tried a year abroad and found that we liked it – others made a conscious decision to pack up and leave for good. You’ll find us in Canada, all over Europe, in many parts of Asia, in Australia and New Zealand, and in most other countries of the globe. Do we miss our friends and family? Yes. Do we occasionally miss aspects of our former country? Yes. Do we plan on ever living again in the United States? Never. And those of us with permanent residence or citizenship can sponsor family members from back home for long-term visas in our adopted countries.
In closing, I want to remind you of something – unless you are an American Indian or a descendant of slaves, at some point your ancestors chose to leave their homeland in search of a better life. They weren’t traitors and they weren’t bad people, they just wanted a better life for themselves and their families. Isn’t it time that you continue their journey?
This article first appeared on Information Clearing House and has been reporoduced with their kind permission
Pay Attention - This Is Important
The Short of It
In between running from meeting to meeting (again!), networking event to networking event (again!) and spending a delightful weekend in NJ/Croton on Hudson (woohoo!), I read this article about short people in the New York Times. It was uplifting and pointed out successful short people through out history. I much preferred this to the counter argument, that short people are more likely to commit crimes because they are less successful. So thank you! Me and my 5ft 1 1/2 inch self will be more assertive, take pleasure in the fact that I'm usually in front, always have enough space in an airplane seat, and am just as likely to succeed as my taller counter parts. But yes, I'll still seek out that taller guy regardless.
In any case, I highly recommend you read both article. I think there's something to be said for subtle factors influencing success or crime rates. It's a very touchy subject but one that should be addressed non the less. Once I start reading about genetic traits influencing someone's livelihood, I start thinking about the movie Gattaca
And More Coverage
Incidentally, A Photo Editor posted a link to a photographer's site, Chris Jordon, with images of the tragic consequences of ocean dumping and our love for non-biodegradable plastics. According to the photographer's statement, none of the images were altered in any way. Birds choke and die as they mistake plastic for food.
Update on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
A woman named Mary Crowley is making an effort to clean up the garbage that has accumulated in the Pacific Ocean by starting a non profit, Project Kaisei. See CNN article here.
P.S. Still have no heat in my building and now no hot water either. On the bright side, my roommate met our next door neighbor who's lived in the building for 7 years. She said this is the first time something like this has happened which gives me hope that it won't happen again, but also makes me wonder if I brought the bad luck to the building. She, like me and my roommate, is also going through the great "what career do I ultimately want?" internal debate. Amazing how that kind of stuff comes up in conversation upon an introductory meeting. I guess it's forefront on everyone's mind.
Garbage Island (Pacific Floating Garbage)
About a year ago, I posted a story and pictures of the Pacific Floating Garbage patch. It's amazing how little attention this atrocity has received by the media. I think either Yahoo.com or CNN picked it up in a tiny story a few months ago and everyone I spoke to about it was shocked - like they heard it for the first time. Qquestion no more. Here's an informative video via VBS.tv (thanks Julia) where a TV crew spends 3 weeks on the open sea observing and documenting the tiny particles of plastic that are prevalent throughout the ocean. It's extremely disheartening to see how our wasteful ways cause so much lasting pain to the eco-system. How many plastic bags or containers does one need? If your corner deli didn't put your sandwich in a plastic bag, would you really miss it or even care? NO! Plastic is incredibly convenient but whatever our circumstances, humans can adjust. If you don't have time to see all 3 videos, at least see the last one. The next time your friend mentions hearing about some mysterious floating garbage patch the size of Texas, you can explain to them that yes it does in fact, exist. And no one seems to be doing anything about it.
Career DNA Test
I'm going to take a moment to disregard the moral implications of this test and ask: Where the hell can I get it??!!
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/js/2.0/video/evp/module.js?loc=dom&vid=/video/world/2009/08/04/chang.china.genetic.gifts.cnnEmbedded video from CNN Video
Great Pacific Garbage Patch. etc.
Glad that CNN is finally covering the issue of floating garbage in the ocean. See article here. They don't know much about the garbage and how it's effecting the ecosystem. They say most of it is tiny bits of plastic that gets ingested by birds and ultimately kills the birds or finds its way into their food.
By the way, am so happy that the Current.tv journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were freed by the Korean government. Definitely makes Bill Clinton out as the hero, saving the damsels in distress. I'm curious to hear more about what they went through- if they're even allowed to share their ordeal at this point. See CNN's article here. It makes me feel good that Bill Clinton and Al Gore are still involved in our politics to some extent even though Bill sort of bailed out Gore's employees.
Four Hot Naked Women
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrTiKP84kAA&hl=en&fs=1&&w=560&h=340]
Some promo. Apparently all for the release of Guitar Hero 5 via Adrants. I guess sex sells.