Melançon Enterprises • a multidivision multinational since 1980

[posted first at the closed-off triiibes.com]

I am very much in favor of people's self-organization, especially to meet common needs and dreams, in fact it's the point of People Who Give a Damn. To the extent that this, and building communities, is part of what we mean by tribes, that is great. But there's also an aspect of human progress where tribes are bad.

Finally saw Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer. He says his formula is:

Exercise.
Discipline.
Affection.

In that order.

Interesting.

Good stuff, his show. Trying to figure out how to apply it to clients.

But not sure where to apply using your hand as a mouth, to bite/grab, not push. Nor holding the tail up to help get over fear.

And I love the disclaimer every episode:

"Do not attempt these techniques without consulting a professional."

On health care...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

Definitely worth a watch.

The massacres allowed them to take apart the systems of social assistance negotiated with the unions.

http://www.colectivodeabogados.org/article.php3?id_article=1364

my unsolicited advice: you should go to a place [with a dozen or more people] at a fairly high level-- a lead consulting role, a lead design role. If it's a "we hire you and you prove yourself and move up / to different things" attitude (usually unspoken), that doesn't seem a good fit

you shouldn't have to prove yourself and more importantly you WILL prove yourself, but not necessarily in a manner, style that will be recognized

Posted at Amy Gahran's Poynter blog, commenting on a post about Many Eyes. (I lost concentration somewhere through this...)

The visualization of "problems" mostly shows, I think, that the reports are written in such unclear, fuzzy, let's-not-talk-about-what's-really-happening language that no visualization or linguistic tool will get much information out of it.

Every branch off every word seems to peter off into meaningless phrases.

In trying other words, there were just two hits for "mistakes", and none for "oops" ;-)

Maybe it's just because I somehow never heard him talk, but I'm genuinely sad that anyone, even a Murdoch/Bush sycophant and professional liar like Tony Snow, would die at 53.

[File this under 'why care' and 'what we need to do']

Michael Pollan on the Cornification of Food (AR, Boulder Colorado)

One farmer can feed 129 of us with corn.

Rather than 12, before the munitions factory converted from bombs to fertilizer in 1947.

We're putting away 200 extra calories, to take up 30 to 40 percent of

the way we're feeding the world with corn makes it harder for the world

we can sell it so cheaply because our government subsidizes the cost of production of corn

1.5 million Mexican farmers left the land

"Israel and the Diaspora: A Growing, Difficult Bridge to Gap"
Yes, read that last part of the headline again, and know that's the way it's printed in the magazine. Poor Uriel Heilman has a right to major grievances against his editors.

"A state monopoly on religion in Israel is emerging as a major impedient for Diaspora-Israel relations, the Jewish identity of Israelis, and aliyah," [president of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, Stephen] Hoffman says.

Keywords
like capitalism so much everyone a capitalist Texas
want everyone to own capital
Sam Rayburn want everyone to own capital
Sam Rayburn everyone private property
Everyone should have private property
texas politician believe in private property some
texas politician believe in private property everyone have some

Private Property

UPDATE: Apparently the answer, if this web page and the cited Mr. Galbraith can be believed:

Douglas Rushkoff at the Personal Democracy Forum: Second day invocation speech video.

Some notes. Paraphrasings, not exact quotations, so I'm just putting the whole thing in brackets.

[
Personal democracy is an oxymoron.

I'm on the here comes everybody side of this discussion. But it's the everybody that matters.

It's not the network.

It's the people.

The network is just a tool for people to be people again.

The problem with branding, the problem for top-down communication, all these Renaissance era ideas

Thoughts from David Cohn's Representative Journalism: Funding Beats or Stories (cross-posted from a comment left there, with a couple typos corrected).

Key point, that people don't have to believe in "journalism" to contribute to its practice through spot.us.

This will bring many more people to get involved, which will make the funding of individual stories more independent of pressure from concentrated interests than beat-covering institutions.

Important counter-intuitive (for some of us) math in Seth Godin's latest, "The Magic of Low-Hanging Fruit:

Imagine that half the cars in the US get 10 miles per gallon. And half get 40 miles per gallon. Further stipulate that all cars are driven the same number of miles per year.

So, throwing on an extra $10 for express delivery, in addition to the previously disclosed $10 for Saturday delivery (pardon me, I exaggerate: $9.99 for each)— that I can live with.

The vaguely weird partnership with something offering free delivery, fine.

But the $10 off -- no, no, $15 off -- gift code it excitedly tells you about, with the fact that a monthly fee will be added to the credit card you thought you had used and done with-- that's just being creeps.

This was in fine print in a long skinny sidebar low on the left-hand side:

OFFER DETAILS

It is the general thought that Amazing Things is doing well and - although we are doing pretty well, we're only making it because of your support. Some of you are members - and that helps a lot - even at the lowest level. But it is our membership - especially at the higher levels and our auction that keeps us alive.

— Michael Moran, Amazing Things Arts Center

http://agaricdesign.com/amazing-auction-enhancements
http://agaric.chipin.com/amazing-auction

Nick did a great job. My last two experiences have been very good at the Genius Bar, both times I've been in Natick.

My previous experiences with Apple support have not been so great, which is why the recommendation of the Apple Store is only at 7 right now, and I do have to say this--

Spotted on a discussion thread that turned to questions of government spying (FISA), in a comment by the inimitable Bill Conroy:

(For the record, I assume this communication is now being monitored since it likely crossed international lines over the Internet -- wish the monitors would weigh in, as long as it doesn't show up on my phone bill ... make it more interesting.)

Saul Alinsky on the radical:

In the end he has one conviction—a belief that if people have the power to act, in the long run they will, most of the time, reach the right decisions. The alternative to this would be rule by the elite—either a dictatorship or some form of political aristocracy.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/11/195520/045/275/493981

I have nothing against the people of the nuclear industry. In fact, I think they've done a very good job not killing many of us, certainly fewer then even natural gas drilling, and despite not building a power plant in well over 30 years, still provides 20 percent of U.S. electricity.

What if community scaled better than corporations?