Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Orgin of Mass

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=410666

Some interesting threads here. Learning that all we have is illusion. So why NOT watch TV and phone it in?
Dunno...

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=410666

Monday, September 12, 2011

Serena is part of a larger trend


http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/sep/12/serena-williams-abuse-us-open

Serena was flat coming out of the gate. Period. She did whatever she did out of an effort to gain an advantage. Can we fault her? Should we?

Serena Williams is part of a larger trend that needs to be addressed: Poor memory. She -- or more likely her whole team for the last twenty six years -- has not come to appreciate the reality that without a game, she has no life. And that game is tennis and tennis is determined by the rules of the game. Officials are a critical part of that. Serena has acted as if she is much more important than any other part of the game.Serena has forgotten how important this game is to her. Well, she has spoken, and it is time for the game to respond.

It happens to Alzheimer patients. It is a part of every argument between me and my wife. Once in a while a petulant prima donna whips it out in public, like here.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/sep/12/serena-williams-abuse-us-open

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Fairness Doctrine Struck Down

Fairness Doctrine


Time was when the Federal Radio Commission said it wasn't cool for media sources to use the public airwaves to stump for their own causes and ignore the issue's debate environment and context. The Fairness Doctrine was put in place requiring dissenting views be voiced as well as supporters of what cause you were hammering for.



Unused since 1987, the doctrine of fairness has now been removed from our books as well as our hearts.
More travel down the road of small government? We may now need to police ourselves and actually think about the messages that are barraging us.


BTW, Equal Time Rule still applies, with that pesky phrase "legally qualified."


http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=equaltimeru




Friday, August 19, 2011

Chinese Brawl

The goodwill games between U.S. and China in China ended in fighting, clawing, scratching and chair-throwing on Thursday. What can we learn from this? Well, I don't know, mostly I think it is sad and despair-making.

I mean, these are our AMBASSADORS. You know, those people tasked with patching up rough spots in one countries dialog with another? The bridge-builders who connect two disparate sides of basic, bitter and long-lasting disagreements.

When these guys are throwing chairs at each other and being pelted with debris from the crowd watching, it is tough to see how anything will change. As a species, we are pretty prone to violence.

***********************



Chinese Vice Foreign Minsiter Cui Tiankai said Bayi members went to Beijing airport to see off the Georgetown team and the sides exchanged souvenirs.
“My understanding is that it’s all cleared up,” Cui told reporters at a briefing on Vice President Joe Biden’s ongoing visit to China. 
Good to know Mr. Cui has put it behind him...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/georgetown-chinas-bayi-attempt-to-make-up-after-nasty-brawl-on-basketball-court/2011/08/19/gIQAmAFkPJ_story.html

Friday, July 15, 2011

Why don't the damn kids care about these lessons? Don't they know it is for their own good?

Why don't the damn kids care about these lessons? Don't they know it is for their own good?

*************************************

Does the golf ball care if you have pink plaid on? Of course not. Will your students?

Maybe.

This is one way that a human is different from a piece of sports equipment. But similar too, you say?

Yes indeed!

For like the golf ball, a human student does really not care a whit ( “give a fuck” in old english ) about much of what a teacher does. What the student and the ball have in common? Bam! Impact. Moment of contact. The meeting of the minds. Shared spaces and thoughts. In short: THE HIT.

The ball waits on a tee, perhaps bored. Personification demands that we assume indifference as the player strides to the tee, chooses a club and goes through pre-shot routine. Even the swing (we DO have empathy with the piece of plastic technology, we know how it feels) is entirely irrelevant to the waiting, passive orb. Especially the experienced ball; one that has been hit more than a few times, will ignore all prelude to impact. Much as a seasoned and bored student will ignore much of a teacher’s presentation, even when it SEEMS so important to the instructor...

But then the club meets the ball.

The waggle has triggered swing and this torso pivot, weight shift, stretch to the sky perhaps, pause and reverse motions (the last the most menacing for those following the sequence), have all been completely ignored by the ball. How could it do other? It waits, unmoved. But not forever. The body moves the arms and the hands at the ends grip club arcing, dropping, accelerating with gravities help (christ! what is this ball THINKING about? Why doesn’t it do something?) until a very slight pause results from all of the focused energy being applied to the ball in the form of impact.

THEN we have a reaction from the inanimate object (“Oh,” you say, “there it is! The great distinction and insult. Comparing a human child student to a lifeless piece of equipment. Isn’t that just like a jaded, dead-to-the-core, pension-guarding, change-hating, responsibility-shirking, public-education-ungrateful-servant? Well, maybe. But again, the golf ball doesn’t care what we do, and that is a shared trait of the student, too. Even if you do wear pink.

Next time we will talk about “Why?”



Why don't the damn kids care about these lessons? Don't they know it is for their own good?

Saturday, April 30, 2011

message from the president

The White House, Washington


Good morning,
This week, as gas prices hit four dollars a gallon, oil companies like ExxonMobil announced skyrocketing profits -- while still receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies

video



A few weeks ago, I emailed you about rising gas prices, and I want to give you a quick update on three important steps:
    Watch the Video
  • Ending oil and gas subsidies. Oil companies are receiving $4 billion a year in taxpayer subsidies that don't make sense and that we can't afford. That's why President Obama has called on Democrats and Republicans in Congress to stop subsidizing the oil and gas industry so that we can afford to invest in the clean energy economy of tomorrow.
  • Stopping oil market fraud. Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder announced a working group focused on rooting out the cases of fraud in the oil markets that might affect gas prices (the President discussed this in his Weekly Address last Saturday).
  • Reducing our dependence on oil. Stepping back to look at the bigger picture, President Obama recently unveiled his Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future that set a goal of reducing our imports of foreign oil by a third in a little over a decade. To do this we have to increase our domestic energy production, reduce our demand for oil by building cleaner, more efficient vehicles, and fully utilize alternatives to oil in the transportation sector like natural gas and advanced biofuels.
These are difficult issues to tackle, and it's going to take all of us working together to move forward. For years, politicians in Washington have kicked this problem down the road, but we simply cannot afford the price of inaction any longer.
Sincerely,
David Plouffe
Senior Advisor to the President

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Yes Men And GE

Yes!

Yes Men Strike Again!

Nightly Business Report just covered the Yes Men and their hyjinks with GE refund return. Woo Hoo! This is participating in your government! Way To Go Andy!!

US Uncut + the Yes Lab: GE Returns Billions to Public... NOT

The following project was accomplished by US Uncut with some help from the Yes Lab. Press reaction has been good. Tonight: on CNN's situation room. Can someone record in high-def and send us the DVD?
April 13, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Blair Fitzgibbon 202-503-6141 blair@fitzgibbonmedia.com
Duncan Meisel 512-657-9124 duncan.meisel@gmail.com
Carl Gibson 601-454-6443 usuncut@gmail.com
The Yes Lab info@yeslab.org
GE Returns Billions to Public... NOT
USA Today, AP fall for US Uncut ploy; GE stock loses billions
Washington, DC - US Uncut, a burgeoning grassroots movement pressuring corporate tax cheats to pay their fair share, posted today a fake GE press release announcing that they would return their illegitimate (but legal) $3.2 billion tax refund, and that they would lobby to close the sort of corporate tax loopholes that had allowed them to skip taxes in the first place. Several major media outlets, including USA Today, ran the story as true. (Here is a link to the original USA Today story; here is the first article debunking the release.)
US Uncut quickly reacted with another release pretending to praise GE for this entirely unpredictable, unlikely, and in fact impossible act.
"At a time when working families are being asked to accept massive cuts nationwide, this action showed another way the world could work," said US Uncut spokesperson Carl Gibson. "For a brief moment people believed that the biggest corporate tax dodger had a change of heart and actually did the right thing. But the only way anything like this is really going to happen is if we change the laws that allow corporate tax avoidance in the first place."
In the period the hoax was believed, GE's stock plunged by .6% (far more than the value of the supposed return), then quickly recovered as soon as it became apparent the press had been duped. "Obviously, GE can't possibly be expected to do the right thing voluntarily; their stock would keep plunging," noted Gibson. "That's why we must change the law."
"GE's tax avoidance is unpatriotic, it's undemocratic, it's unfair," said Andrew Boyd, a US Uncut spokesperson. "It might be legal, but that's only because GE has used its money and lobbying influence to buy the loopholes they're now taking advantage of."
US Uncut developed the project with help from the Yes Lab (http://www.yeslab.org/).
US Uncut, a grassroots movement organized through social media, connects corporate tax cheating to cuts in valuable public services. The group has lead over 100 actions nationwide against corporations who do not pay their fair share in taxes, bringing protests directly to the front door of corporate retail stores. US Uncut will hold more than 80 such events over the course of the upcoming Tax Day weekend.
"Billionaire corporations profit from the system of public services set-up by the government. It only makes sense for them to pay their fair share, just like everyone else," said Gibson. "No corporation is an island, even if they hide all their profits in tropical tax havens."
"While we all pay our taxes this weekend, Congress just passed the largest spending cuts in US history, much of it to social programs and investments for our country's future," said US Uncut DC organizer George Taghi, "Instead of slashing public services like Head Start and Pell Grants, why not go after corporations who don't bother to pay any taxes at all?"
Composed of self-organized citizens through social media, including Facebook and Twitter, the magnetic message of US Uncut has spread like populist wildfire. Anger is rising as Americans are being forced to endure brutal cuts at both the federal and state-level, for a budget crisis they did not cause. Over $100 billion estimated annually could be gained, if corporations ended practices of tax avoidance.
"Billionaire corporations have already abandoned America for foreign tax havens," said US Uncut spokesperson Ryan Clayton, "They pay zero income taxes here, hold their profits in international banks, and ship millions of American jobs overseas. That is un-American."
For more information, please visit http://USuncut.org
For time & locations of all the upcoming actions: http://USuncut.org/actions

Monday, April 4, 2011

Duke LAcrosse Story

....Okay, I see my process here. I am no neutral observer. For me it is a time machine. I remember being on the fringe of school and resenting those who were thriving, especially the male athletes who were almost uniformly giant A-holes [well, the golf team stoners were okay :) ]. Anyway, that is how I picture this event: a party thrown by and for a bunch of pampered A-hole athletes, who are about to get fast-tracked into a world I will never know. This party was a bad idea from the start, yet it is endorsed or at least tolerated by the parents and coaches.

So one of the bigger A-holes knows some hookers/strippers and calls them up. The girls get there and the energy levels climb. Over-sexed, under monitered, cash-heavy, male juveniles in a group trying to out-stupid each other. How could anything go wrong?

Somebody gets ugly, somebody gets hurt, somebody calls for help and the cops show up. The strippers have no representation and the guys have legal teams paratrooping in out of the sky. Even with that David and Goliath advantage, the girls get some press and some representation and make it to national news. At no time do the parents team leaders say, "...okay, we f'd up. Let's cut a big check and make this go away. Our guys f'd up and we need to do the right thing."

My problem is in two distinct parts:

1) I object to the labeling of these athletes as innocents. They were drinking, partying, hiring prostitutes and behaving like cave-men. Been there. Shit happens. I don't really care who was raped and how or how many. That was for the cops and the courts. As a teacher and a fervent promoter of the STUDENT-athlete, though, I just believe that this was a mistake from the start and it should be dealt with accordingly. Not like some hit and run: "...I swear, your honor! These black chicks just came out of nowhere and started telling stories about us! We didn't do nuthin'! I mean, fersher....!

And,

2) I know next to nothing about the real story and have made my version up from tortured parts of my own twisted and lonely past.


MORE later...C19 out

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Disaster Preparation

BRIAN MCNAMEE, CPA

Private Mortgage Banker

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage | 1 Montgomery St, 1st Floor | San Francisco, CA 94104
MAC A0177-012



From: Charles Gagan [mailto:cgagan@usfca.edu

With all the earthquakes that have happened around the globe it does not hurt to know what to do just in case.........a
 


I figured it wouldn't hurt to re-send this email once again just as a refresher on what you need to do in the event of an earthquake.  Please read it. The old methods we were taught like getting under a desk or doorway have been proven to be wrong.  Pease pass this email on to anyone you know. This new information may save your life or the lives of those you love.


 
Subject: Where to Go During an Earthquake

This is the text version of my earlier email styled Save your life with "The Triangle of Life"(see below)
further elucidating on the life-saving concept of "The Triangle of Life"....

   
Folks, please SHARE, SHARE, SHARE this with your loved ones:

Where to Go During an Earthquake


Remember that stuff about hiding under a table or standing in a doorway? Well, forget it! This is a real eye opener. It could save your life someday.


EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON 'THE TRIANGLE OF LIFE'


My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI ), the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.

I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries. I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years, and have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.

The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene -- unnecessary.

Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them - NOT under them. This space is what I call the 'triangle of life'. The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the 'triangles' you see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed building.


TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY


1) Most everyone who simply 'ducks and covers' when building collapse are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.

2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a bed, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.

3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.

4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.

5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.

6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!

7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different 'moment of frequency' (they swing separately from the main part of the building). The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads - horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.

8) Get near the outer walls of buildings or outside of them if possible - It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.

9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.

10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.

Spread the word and save someone's life...

The entire world is experiencing natural calamities so be prepared!

'We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly'

In 1996 we made a film, which proved my survival methodology to be correct. The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul , University of Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten mannequins did 'duck and cover,' and ten mannequins I used in my 'triangle of life' survival method. After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the results. The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions , relevant to building collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck and cover.

There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the 'triangle of life.' This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe, and it was seen in the USA , Canada and Latin America on the TV program Real TV.
 
Subject: Save your life with "The Triangle of Life"

"Triangle of Life":


Without listening or reading, simply by looking at the following self-explanatory photos, you can learn more than in a thousand words about how to protect yourself during a major earthquake...










If you are inside a vehicle, come out and sit or lie down next to it. If something falls on the vehicle, it will leave an empty space along the sides. See below:















Source:國際救援小組(ARTI),網址:
http://www.amerrescue.org/

American Rescue Team InternationalARTIis said to be the World's most experienced rescue team and disaster management-mitigation organization.
---

 
  
  
 





Monday, March 21, 2011

Regarding Barry and His Drug Problem

Seed for a story I probably won't write:

"Hello Mrs. Sam,

Regarding Barry and his drug problem: We are so far past the crisis point no one knows when it was. Barry every moment is dominated by his need to get his fix. Now he is pushing aside higher priority items like getting in  fights and how he spends his money, because nothing is as important to Barry as drugs."

Take it, it's yours. No charge. I wanted to write something about the president's speed on Tuesday, and got stuck here. You have the con.


The president was pushing education as a remedy. I dunno. We've got an ocean of drugs crossing the border north and a freaking waterfall of money and guns going south. What kind of a teacher do you need to get THIS CLASS to sit down, make nice and follow the rules?

Copy boy!

C19 out

Friday, March 18, 2011

Pet and animal policy for military evacuations

No. This is really where my libertarianism comes out. Policies like this just breed trouble and confusion and despair. Being a pet guardian is a big job, and just one of many. To think that you may ask someone's son or daughter to stay in harm's way while your chihauhau rides safely out seems like a poor application of priorities. And I am no fan of people. But we have a long precedent of putting humans first, and lacking compelling evidence this should remain in place. That being said, a local official should be able to wiggle around these rules for extreme situations. This is a lose, lose and then die situation. But changing policy like this is not a good fix. DD

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Epigramatic

I don't at all know if I am spelling it right, but Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) just used it on a CBS interview. Epigramatic: the ability to write like Hemingway in your tweets.

ep·i·gram·mat·ic  [ep-i-gruh-mat-ik] Show IPA

–adjective
1.
of or like an epigram;  terse and ingenious in expression.
2.
containing or favoring the use of epigrams.
Also, ep·i·gram·mat·i·cal.


Origin:
1695–1705;  < Latin epigrammaticus  < Greek epigrammatikós,  equivalent to epigrammat-  (stem of epígramma ) epigram  + -ikos -ic

ep·i·gram·mat·i·cal·ly, adverb
ep·i·gram·ma·tism [ep-i-gram-uh-tiz-uhm] Show IPA, noun
non·ep·i·gram·mat·ic, adjective
non·ep·i·gram·mat·i·cal·ly, adverb
un·ep·i·gram·mat·ic, adjective
un·ep·i·gram·mat·i·cal·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2011.
Cite This Source Link To epigrammatic
World English Dictionary
epigram  (ˈɛpɪˌɡræm) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
1. a witty, often paradoxical remark, concisely expressed
2. a short, pungent, and often satirical poem, esp one having a witty and ingenious ending
 
[C15: from Latin epigramma,  from Greek: inscription, from epigraphein  to write upon, from graphein  to write]
 
epigram'matic
 
adj
 
epigram'matically
 
adv

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Search another word or see epigrammatic  on Thesaurus| Reference

Friday, March 11, 2011

All good so far, here by the beach

First two surges off of the Japan Tsunami have left us unaffected here 100 feet above street level in the Fillmore district of San Francisco, CA.

Crescent City, several hundred miles north and Santa Cruz, 50 miles to the south are having some damage to boats and areas near the water line. Ongoing, but biggest issue as usual, is human panic by those least prepared and informed. Inform yourselves, people! Start with the Hard Work Hour on Blog Talk Radio and the hard Work Hour with Douglas Douglas on Blogger.

Namaste!

Respect the ocean!

DD

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Libya, of course. Horrible stories across this huge, complicated country. Rumors of Security Forces firing on crowds from airplanes and even from AMBULANCES! "Pray for peace, people everywhere."

...and LAUSD revokes charter for schools that break rules of test preparation. Implication? End of world. The center has no mass. The fucking SCHOOLS are teaching the kids to cheat. Why? Because we told them to. More Much Later.



In Pakistan, Christians are being killed with popular sanction. We can learn much from this intolerance. Anyone (including myself) who believes in capital punishment or state-sanctioned violence may see another perspective here. The shoe is definitely on the other foot.



Commonwealth Games. Corruption chargesfor administrators of troubled games. Future?



Bilingual Rocks! Study shows that infants as young as 9 mo can distinguish between English and French (even when they don’t know either language!), as long as they are exposed to two languages in the home. If you were raised with two languages, thank your parents.


Considering a Six Continents blog. What? You don't even have ONE? Lemme know whatcha think.
Much more later,
C19 out

Friday, February 18, 2011

A little corporate greed rant, Part One

Okay, okay! Chevron is bad! Halliburton is bad! War and killing and injustice are very bad. I hear you. I get it. But like everything else in this world, there is little black and white, or should I say "us" and "them," to THE ENDLESS GREED AND SHITTY BEHAVIOR OF CORPORATIONS.

I am going to keep this one short.

Corporations are simple machines. And yes, this includes the most diverse, conglomerated, vertically structured multi-national, banking, military-industrial-whatever. They are all the same in one way. They are all about money. Now this may seem like a simple truth, but it is much more. It is the tool that we as consumers have to bend them to our will.

Every corporation has at its core a JOB #1 : Make money for the owners (shareholders, usually).

Period.

The "Good Hands" people didn't start up their firm 150 years ago, build it, and keep it running to make sure your Prius gets fixed when the drunk dick dents it and runs. That is not worth their time and money. And when I say time and money I mean Millions of woman hours and billions of dollars. What they did do is to create a machine that will pay for the ddd and millions of other insurance claims from a fund built up out of payments from us to them based on the idea that Good Hands will protect us when dd comes by. Most importantly, their BEST work is to MAKE SURE THERE IS MONEY LEFT OVER.

Period.

They just want money.

This does not make them bad. Really. They do a lot of cool stuff. Driving would be a very different thing without the insurance industry. The food you just ate, the chair you are sitting in, the clothes you are wearing, the phone in your bag, and on, and on and onandonandonandon, came from and through corporations. Somebody made the chair for two bucks and sold it for thirty. Made a computer for twenty that sells for seven hundred. Whatever. If they don't make money, your don't get to watch Philip DeFranco on YouTube. They just want money. And  they will do ANYTHING to get it.

This does not make them bad. This makes them simple. Now put that simple organization in an ocean of kill-or-be-killed similar organizations and the best, smartest, strongest survive. They grow, thrive, diversify, and protect themselves. Still simple, money-making machines.

They learn and adapt. Large, 21st century corporations have learned to protect themselves with lawyers, politicians, judges, lobbyists, researchers and a thousand other tools that guard that simple process of having more money at the end of the day than they had at the start. And THAT is how you do battle with them.

I am currently supporting a group that is working to reverse a corporate transaction here in San Francisco. The best radio station in town was sold and we, the listeners are pissed off and protesting the sale. But it won't do much, because we aren't dealing with the money. I'll get into it more later (and on my show today 9:30am PST), but basically the thrust of the group SAVE KUSF is to complain about the sale. I do not understand why anyone thinks this will work.

What would work is if we -- it ALWAYS comes down to education (see Girl With The Dragon Tattoo)--repeat it, now: "IT ALWAYS COMES DOWN TO EDUCATION." If you want to drop a corporation to its knees, take its money away. I am not talking about the wealth that they HAVE. That is of secondary interest to them. They want the FLOW of money every day, into their control. Interrupt that and you have them. But how? Education.

You must learn how they make their money.

Stop buying what they're selling! Sounds easy, until you consider the diversity and hidden nature of corporate diversity. When you buy a dozen eggs, a gallon of gas, a loaf of bread, or a newspaper, the money doesn't just go to the store you buy it at. The store owner has to pay for the product: she didn't make it! And she has to pay rent and overhead and employees and taxes and a million other things and it all comes out of your little $2.49 for a loaf of sliced Wheat Berry, or your $3.49 for a gallon of Chevron unleaded.

This is getting long. End of Part One.

In Part Two we FOLLOW THE MONEY

Thanks for reading! Now get back to work!

C19

Thursday, February 17, 2011

LA Open this week at Riviera!

Man, Oh Man! What I wouldn't do to have a free week and a thousand bucks to blow. I would think long and hard about hanging out in Los Angeles for the best West Coast stop on the PGA tour. The Northern Trust Open is what the LA Open is called now, but it hasn't always been up for sale.

Used to be a premium stop on the tour's schedule. Only two, really. Here and Pebble Beach. The Open when it was at Olympic. Other than that, the tour was something to watch on TV. But every year about this time, Santa Monica canyon would polish up and show off for the world.

Walking in to the -- well, hopping a fence, really -- was always a major buzz. The smell of the eucalyptus, the thrum of the crowd, and the specter of those princes of sport, the players.

Mac Hunter was the head pro back then. Riviera was the western sister of the Hathaways and the L.A. Athletic Club. The barranca was an untamed gully full of treachery, frogs and slime, not the concrete-drained ornament that it is today. When you played the front of the front and the front of the back, you had it in your face a LOT. Nobody hit the ball 300 back then except Nicklaus, so you were spared on your first tee shot, but your approach on one, your tee shot on number two were definitely emphasized by the deathly certainty if you crossed the boundary of this firth of Santa Monica canyon. After two you had a break until seven, and even then, it just sort of nodded to you, off out of play way to the right on this short par four. The way eight is played now, with the split fairway and the tee back of the seventh green, it is a different animal.

My uncle was a bigger than life character who loved fast cars, fast boats and fun. He could play a hell of a game of golf. he played Riviera a lot, though I don't believe he ever belonged to the club. He used to tell a story about standing on the sixth tee during a round with Mac Hunter. Hunter was hot. He had birdied four of the first five holes. Back then, one was a tougher challenge with the barranca and all, and two was a shorter par four. So with scores of 4, 4, 3, 2, 3 he had gotten to four under. And he was one down to my uncle.

I never heard how the rest of the round went. I am pretty sure my uncle didn't finish eighteen under.

Looks like one of the players, Kevin Na, almost matched my uncle's story. Today he got to the sixth tee and had the same numbers written on his scorecard that Mac had all those years ago. As of this posting, he has made it past ten and kept it to three under par. I wish him all the best.

More from Santa Monica Canyon soon....C19 out

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Save KUSF Show on Hard Work Hour with Douglas Douglas 9:30-9:45am Friday, February 18, 2011

Save KUSF Show on Hard Work Hour with Douglas Douglas 9:30-9:45am Friday, February 18, 2011 on Blog Talk Radio

If you want to Save KUSF, this Friday will hold TWO media events worthy of your attention.

9:30-9:45 am
Blog Talk Radio will air the "Save KUSF" episode of the Hard Work Hour with Douglas Douglas

12 Noon - 3:00pm
Ameoba Music San Francisco will host their SAVE KUSF show. The resistance has been getting some traction and now has a growing group including many faculty members and local politicians. Show your support for the best radio this city ever had!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198751616801744

http://www.amoeba.com/

Hear you there!

C19

Save KUSF Show on Hard Work Hour with Douglas Douglas 9:30-9:45am Friday, February 18, 2011

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The Tournament

Okay, I have dragged a few unwilling people with me to this event and I know how to do it. Just follow these simple rules:

1) Be ready to walk through a hurricane. This means have good shoes that can deal with mud. Understand you may walk 5-10 miles from car door to car door. Also, especially this week, there may be weather, so have a nice set of layers to deal with it. And be ready to wear all of it, because they won't let any bags on the course. Oh, and keep your phone quiet, or they may take it.
2) Be respectful of the players and those around you. Unlike other sporting events, you will be in the middle of the playing field the whole time you are on the course. The golf ball can go anywhere and the player may have to chase it there. The best way to be mindful of where the players are is to keep your antennae up, pay attention to the marshalls and anyone giving you directions. Just for these few hours, humble yourself and try to be an invisible fly on the wall. It is worth it. There is SO MUCH STUFF TO SEE HERE.
3) Pay attention. You are going to be tits to tits with not only the elite top shelf athletes of a great game, and all the weirdness surrounding that, you will also be sociologist to a unique population. You will see many, many people far out of their elements, including golfers. Also notable: the houses bordering the golf course on Santa Monica Canyon, the occasional mega-rich, the spectacular golf course, the amazing network of people who support the tournament, the vendors, the volunteers, and of course YOU in the middle of it all. Now, if you are REALLY AMBITIOUS take a stroll through Santa Monica Canyon off of the golf course, a special mix of Monterey, Bel Air, and Venice.

Namaste, and FORE!

C19