David Schroeder’s ipodmyphoto has become an interesting internet success story, largely due to word of mouth – online via blogs.
Category: Culture
Steve Coll: Afghanistan’s Poetry
Ghost Wars (excellent) author Steve Coll discusses Masood Khalili, an Afghan Poet today, on NPR.
Coaching in Wisconsin – Worth it?
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Pearly Kiley – wishoops.net [PDF Version 103K] |
“With all this talent, why aren?t we winning more games?”
“My kid averaged 20 points in summer league, why isn?t he playing more?”
“Why are we walking the ball up the floor all the time?”
“I wish we had the old coach back.”
These unfounded sentiments were also a major reason why over 80 coaches
chose to resign, were relieved of duty or retired since last season.
There are coaches who point to AAU basketball and all its dramatically improving impact. Some blame school administrators for showing more allegiance to parents than them in disputes over individual roles and playing time. Still others say it takes too much time ? and impossible patience ? to deal with the increasingly overzealous parent.
?At the high school level, the rewards aren?t tangible,? said former Waupaca coach Tim Locum, who resigned after last season and is currently an assistant coach at UW-Oshkosh.
Zuboff on Business Ethics
Shoshana Zuboff makes a few useful points on business ethics:
When I wondered last month how the insurance industry carries on when so many customers have lost faith in it, I had no idea my worst fears would be confirmed so soon. The short answer is that some of them cheat. That’s how companies can remain profitable while being despised and mistrusted by so many customers. This was captured piquantly by Vinay Saqi, a Morgan Stanley insurance analyst, who noted insurance companies have had “a difficult time making money when the game is rigged in their favor. We’re concerned they won’t fare well in a truly competitive environment.”
Among the wealth of wrongdoing in this still unfolding story, one fact looms over the rest: Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of grown-ups knew about an array of fraudulent practices and failed to shout, “Wrong!” Instead, many regulators, independent watchdogs, brokers, executives in both the retail and commercial sectors, benefits consultants, and investment advisers joined together in a parallel moral universe. Collusion and conformity — “it’s not wrong because everyone is doing it” — is accepted. Obedience — “it’s not wrong because they told me to do it” — is okay. Opportunism — “it’s only wrong if I get caught” — is encouraged. And, of course, narcissism — “it’s not wrong if it’s good for us” — is celebrated.
Saturday Night Live has its way with Dan Rather & Rathergate
SNL lampoons Dan Rather’s document problems (transcript & video).
Buy Local & Live Free: Tired Tomatoes
Our wonderful farmer’s market supports Robin Good’s statement that we should “Buy local and Live Free”. Good provides a useful illustration:
It?s gotten to the point where much of our nourishment depends on a handful of giants.
And they?re shipping foods an average of 1500 miles to reach your plate, a practice that strains anyone?s notion of ?fresh.?
But a quiet revolution is in the air, and we the eaters hold the power for change.
The typical Tom (tomato) is exhausted by the time he gets to market.
1500 miles from field to fork ? that?s the trek made by the average fruit or vegetable these days. Because of the need to hold up over distances, our foods are bred, not for taste but for transport ? their ability to handle the long haul. And what do we eaters get? Tired tomatoes
Yesterday’s winter farmer’s market included a big stack of tomatoes, potatoes, cheeses, honey, spinach, apples, eggs, pork and beef.
The Masculine Aspects of Tire Chains (or not)
Living in San Francisco years ago, I remember the hassles of California’s chain laws (State law requires that all vehicles carry chains during the winter, and that a three-tier level of chain use be followed, depending on the amount of snow). Charlie LeDuff talks to a few “chain monkeys” – people licensed by Caltrans to install chains on Sierra Nevada roads ($30/car).
He said there were philosophical points to his second career. “Women love you, they just love you,” he said. “You’re like their hero, and that gives you a good feeling.”
He finds modern men, on the other hand, a disappointing lot. They have become so sedate, so inept and removed from the ability to fend for themselves, Mr. Miesel said, that they must pay another man to put chains on their tires.
Classic Doonesbury
Sunday’s Doonesbury is simply classic.
Madison Good Samaritans
I talked briefly with a Madisonian who was quite a good Samaritan Saturday. This person lives at the bottom of two hills which a number of people slid down during the freezing rain. Several of those people spent the night at his family’s home. One, a Korean woman and her young child had never driven on ice before…. Here’s the story of the Good Samaritan….
How long will our ascendancy last? Jared Diamond on US Power
Very useful reading:
Jared Diamond, who won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction for “Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies,” is the author of the forthcoming “Collapse: How Societies Choose or Fail to Succeed.” His article, The Ends of the World as We Know Them was published January 1, 2005:
History also teaches us two deeper lessons about what separates successful societies from those heading toward failure. A society contains a built-in blueprint for failure if the elite insulates itself from the consequences of its actions. That’s why Maya kings, Norse Greenlanders and Easter Island chiefs made choices that eventually undermined their societies. They themselves did not begin to feel deprived until they had irreversibly destroyed their landscape.
Could this happen in the United States? It’s a thought that often occurs to me here in Los Angeles, when I drive by gated communities, guarded by private security patrols, and filled with people who drink bottled water, depend on private pensions, and send their children to private schools. By doing these things, they lose the motivation to support the police force, the municipal water supply, Social Security and public schools. If conditions deteriorate too much for poorer people, gates will not keep the rioters out. Rioters eventually burned the palaces of Maya kings and tore down the statues of Easter Island chiefs; they have also already threatened wealthy districts in Los Angeles twice in recent decades.