Create an Account
username: password:
 
  MemeStreams Logo

Twice Filtered

search

noteworthy
Picture of noteworthy
My Blog
My Profile
My Audience
My Sources
Send Me a Message

sponsored links

noteworthy's topics
Arts
  Literature
   Fiction
   Non-Fiction
  Movies
   Documentary
   Drama
   Film Noir
   Sci-Fi/Fantasy Films
   War
  Music
  TV
   TV Documentary
Business
  Tech Industry
  Telecom Industry
  Management
Games
Health and Wellness
Home and Garden
Miscellaneous
  Humor
  MemeStreams
   Using MemeStreams
Current Events
  War on Terrorism
  Elections
  Israeli/Palestinian
Recreation
  Cars and Trucks
  Travel
   Asian Travel
Local Information
  Food
  SF Bay Area Events
Science
  History
  Math
  Nano Tech
  Physics
  Space
Society
  Economics
  Education
  Futurism
  International Relations
  History
  Politics and Law
   Civil Liberties
    Surveillance
   Intellectual Property
  Media
   Blogging
  Military
  Philosophy
Sports
Technology
  Biotechnology
  Computers
   Computer Security
    Cryptography
   Human Computer Interaction
   Knowledge Management
  Military Technology
  High Tech Developments

support us

Get MemeStreams Stuff!


 
There are great benefits to connectedness, but we haven't wrapped our minds around the costs.

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
Topic: Science 8:23 pm EDT, May 31, 2004

Amazon wrote:

The definitive history of water resources in the American West, and a very illuminating lesson in the political economy of limited resources anywhere. Highly recommended!

Publishers Weekly wrote:

This stunning work of history and investigative journalism tells the story of conflicts over water policy in the [American] West and the resulting damage to the land, wildlife and Indians.

This timely and important book should be required reading for all citizens.

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water


Looming threat to water security
Topic: Science 8:11 pm EDT, May 31, 2004

The very large Ogallala aquifer in the American mid-west is under severe stress. The Great Lakes, the largest repository of freshwater in the world, are losing water and have suffered considerable pollution and contamination. Mexico, once rich in water, has become dry because of the destruction of old systems, and is sinking because of extensive groundwater-extraction.

Big corporations, sensing profits in the emerging water scarcity, are moving in (Suez, Vivendi, RWE-Thames, Bechtel, the soft-drinks giants Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola, and so on), and are trying to obtain control over the world's water resources. The growth of the global water lords and the emergence of water cartels make frightening reading.

The book is a very important one, and one hopes it will be widely read in this country.

Acidus recently asked, "Do salesmen/upper management need to better understand their products?"

Perhaps what's central to success is to understand scarcity, the lack thereof, and which model applies in any given scenario.

Looming threat to water security


Like Water for Profit
Topic: Business 8:04 pm EDT, May 31, 2004

Many Ghanaians can no longer afford the cost of clean drinking water, and according to the country's Ministry of Health 70% of all disease in the country is water related.

"The World Bank policy is aimed at creating markets for multinational corporations dealing water, and those corporations are not charities, they are in it for the profit."

"We must establish networks of communities in defence of the right to water. These networks must share information about these companies, because they are the same companies."

Multinational corporations, such as Bechtel, Vivendi, Saur, Suez Lyonnaise of France and the UK's Biwater, "have realized that the gold of today is water, and because the availability of fresh water is reducing due to climate change and other environmental problems, the value of water is increasing.

Whoever controls the water in the future will control the wealth.

Whoever controls the world's water is controlling the world's life."

Like Water for Profit


Relationship of oil, stocks leads to ugly truths
Topic: Business 7:53 pm EDT, May 31, 2004

Sell telecom, buy energy.

Barrels, not bits.

Bits are worthless. Go for scarce. Go for oil and water.

Vivendi was right to sell media holdings; it should sell more of them. Shareholders should stick with the water company.

The question is whether $40 a barrel oil is or isn't a transitory peak. My view is that it's the new reality. The era of cheap oil is over.

Ugly Reality No. 1. We love unlimited energy, but we don't want to do anything to get it.

Ugly Reality No. 2. The Middle East remains the largest pool of oil reserves in the world. That's bad news.

Ugly Reality No. 3. There are disturbing signs that Hubbert's Peak is arriving as predicted.

Relationship of oil, stocks leads to ugly truths


Robert McNamara
Topic: History 7:44 pm EDT, May 31, 2004

This entry is posted in response to k's comment on this quote:

Alarmed by his company's escalating health insurance costs and a frightening scarcity of remedies, Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive William C. Ford Jr. declared in December that the nation needs an entirely new health care system.

Then he tapped Ford's vice chairman to craft a proposal to develop one.

k's comment on this was:

The excerpt above truly struck me. This is Ford motor company devoting resources to crafting a new health care system for the country.

I would point out that this is certainly not the first time this has occurred. There is a fine line between government and industry, and Ford has a history ...

Defense issues, including the missile gap, played a prominent role in the campaign of 1960. President-elect Kennedy, very much concerned with defense matters although lacking Eisenhower's mastery of the issues, first offered the post of secretary of defense to former secretary Robert A. Lovett. When Lovett declined, Kennedy chose Robert S. McNamara on Lovett's recommendation.

In 1946 McNamara joined Ford Motor Company as manager of planning and financial analysis. He advanced rapidly through a series of top-level management positions to the presidency of Ford on 9 November 1960, one day after Kennedy's election. The first company head selected outside the Ford family, McNamara received substantial credit for Ford's expansion and success in the postwar period. Less than five weeks after becoming president at Ford, he accepted Kennedy's invitation to join his cabinet.

Although not especially knowledgeable about defense matters, McNamara immersed himself in the subject, learned quickly, and soon began to apply an "active role" management philosophy, in his own words "providing aggressive leadership questioning, suggesting alternatives, proposing objectives and stimulating progress."

Initially the basic policies outlined by President Kennedy in a message to Congress on 28 March 1961 guided McNamara in the reorientation of the defense program.

McNamara played a much larger role in the formulation of nuclear strategy than his predecessors.

As defined by McNamara, assured destruction meant that the United States would be able to destroy in retaliation 20 to 25 percent of the Soviet Union's population and 50 percent of its industrial capacity. To make this strategy credible, McNamara speeded up the modernization and expansion of weapon and delivery systems.

Robert McNamara


Discipline Takes a Break at the White House
Topic: Elections 11:22 am EDT, May 30, 2004

All over Washington, Republicans and Democrats alike are asking what cog got loose or, put another way, how did an administration that made an art form of singing from the hymnal suddenly lose its rhythm?

While the president is thinking about his second term, many of those in his cabinet are thinking about getting out.

Discipline Takes a Break at the White House


Weapons of Mass Destruction? Or Mass Distraction?
Topic: Media 11:14 am EDT, May 30, 2004

Even in the quietest of times, newspaper people live to be first.

There was a period in the not-too-distant past when editors stressed the maxim "Don't get it first, get it right." That soon mutated into "Get it first and get it right." The next devolution was an obvious one.

Stories, like plants, die if they are not tended. So do the reputations of newspapers.

Weapons of Mass Destruction? Or Mass Distraction?


Hollywood's Casting Problem: Who Will Run the MPAA?
Topic: Movies 10:45 am EDT, May 30, 2004

Doesn't anyone want to run the MPAA?

Who wouldn't want a million dollars a year to plump for Tom Cruise instead of, say, biomedical tax credits?

Oddly, not too many folks.

The job is becoming even harder. The crisis of worldwide movie piracy, held at bay only by technological limits, threatens to sink the movie industry entirely, as it may the music business.

Hilary Rosen asked, "If there are easier jobs available, for more money, then why take a hard job?"

Here's to apathy!

Hollywood's Casting Problem: Who Will Run the MPAA?


In Their 20's, Thinking About War
Topic: Current Events 10:01 am EDT, May 30, 2004

I have been troubled for some time now by the notion of college students not engaged in conversations beyond themselves, in what should have been their own expression of empowerment on campus, and their willingness to accept the status quo without questioning it. I hope that the debacle in Iraq will change all that.

It's sad to consider that after four years of the best education money can buy, these students have only over the last year "been forced to relearn the lessons" of their parents' generation. One would hope that the well educated wouldn't need to witness firsthand a repetition of mistakes of the past to get the point.

Do you understand the difference between "Is it worth buying?" and "Can it be sold?"

In Their 20's, Thinking About War


The Things They Wrote
Topic: War on Terrorism 9:52 am EDT, May 30, 2004

It's been really strange. At each place I go to, I go through a phase when I have to adjust. I was afraid in Uzbekistan. Then a little more in Bagram. Then when I got here I was really scared. But you adjust.

It is definitely interesting getting shot at for the first time. But don't worry -- they have really bad aim here.

I sometimes have no idea what time of the day it is. The days of the week are completely irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the date and time. Since we work seven days a week, it doesn't matter if it's Monday or Saturday. It's kind of nice, I think -- one less thing to worry about.

The Things They Wrote


(Last) Newer << 381 ++ 391 - 392 - 393 - 394 - 395 - 396 - 397 - 398 >> Older (First)
 
 
Powered By Industrial Memetics
RSS2.0