to be or not.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
-- "Maxims for Revolutionists: Reason", Man and Superman. 1903

...society, with all its prisons and bayonets and whips and ostracisms and starvations, is powerless in the face of the Anarchist who is prepared to sacrifice his own life in the battle with it. Our natural safety from the cheap and devastating explosives which every Russian student can make, and every Russian grenadier has learnt to handle in Manchuria, lies in the fact that brave and resolute men, when they are rascals, will not risk their skins for the good of humanity, and, when they are sympathetic enough to care for humanity, abhor murder, and never commit it until their consciences are outraged beyond endurance. The remedy is, then, simply not to outrage their consciences.
-- Preface, Major Barbara. 1905

...George Bernard Shaw

Angry Red Planet - Solve the Mystery!

http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/mspot/arp/index.htm
(this is an excellent and safe on-line 'game' for all..jim)
ANGRY RED PLANET
is one of a series of online science mysteries created for Access Excellence, a national science and health education program.
Through Access Excellence, high school biology and life sciences teachers gain access to colleagues, scientists, and critical sources
of new scientific information via the World Wide Web...MORE

Factoids Archive

http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/Factoids/archive.html

SEVEN CHOICES

Two-thirds of cancer deaths can be prevented by healthy lifestyle choices. The American Cancer Society suggests seven choices:

Cut out tobacco
Hold the fat
Opt for high-fiber fruits, vegetables and grains.
Intake of alcohol: only in moderation.
Call your doctor for regular checkups
Exercise every day
Safeguard your skin from the sun.

SOURCE: American Cancer Society

Find Your Passion

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/find-your-passion/#more-228
There’s a big myth in our culture: that passion can only be spontaneous. You either love your job or you don’t. You either enjoy exercising or hate it. You are interested in reading books or you find them boring. That passion can’t be forced or created.
I disagree. Passion can be created. Even for things you don’t currently enjoy.
By tweaking the activities and pursuits you engage in, you can find a passion for anything. All it takes is a bit of patience and an open mind.
The benefit is that you end up loving the things you have to do anyways. Exercising, learning, studying, working and almost any pursuit can be made into a passion. And if you know how to do it, existing passions can be turned from mildly interesting to exciting. The skill of finding your passion is like turning up the dial for the amount of color you experience in life.Here are some ways to find your passion:...MORE

At Elite Prep Schools, College-Size Endowments - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/26/business/26prep.html?ex=1359003600&en=0458a47643f064c8&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
At Elite Prep Schools, College-Size Endowments - New York Times

By GERALDINE FABRIKANT
Published: January 26, 2008

EXETER, N.H. —
When Curtis Thomas, a 14-year-old from a poor family living in St. Rose, La., arrived here two years ago to attend Phillips Exeter Academy, he brought little more than a pair of jeans and two shirts. That would hardly do at a 227-year-old prep school where ties are still required for boys in class.

So Curtis’s history teacher, armed with Exeter funds, took him shopping for a new wardrobe.

That outlay was just a tiny fraction of what Exeter spends on its students. With its small classes, computers for students receiving financial aid, lavish sports facilities and more, Exeter devotes an average of $63,500 annually to house and educate each of its 1,000 students. That is far more than the Thomas family could ever afford and well above even the $36,500 in tuition, room and board Exeter charges those paying full price...MORE

A message from Skitch

Created with Skitch from plasq - http://plasq.com

New Black Man: Saggin' on the Down Low?

http://newblackman.blogspot.com/2007/10/saggin-on-down-low.html

The Bryant Park Project
October 26, 2007

A new campaign by the city of Dallas targets the hip-hop style of wearing your pants low enough that your boxers are showin — and part of your posterior, too.

The campaign has a signature song, "Pull Your Pants Up," by Dooney Da' Priest, that links so-called saggin' with being gay. 
After the BPP blogged NPR's original report on the public service announcement, listeners objected to lyrics they consider homophobic...MORE

village voice > news > Nat Hentoff: Is Obama's Constitution Strong Enough? by Nat Hentoff

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0804,hentoff,78935,6.html

Is Obama's Constitution Strong Enough?
by Nat Hentoff
January 22nd, 2008 6:21 PM

He stirs the crowds, but when will he tell them about their lost liberties? ...MORE

Veto of Children’s Health Plan Stands - New York Times

http://preview.tinyurl.com/2uzn55

Veto of Children's Health Plan Stands
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By ROBERT PEAR
Published: January 23, 2008
WASHINGTON — Democrats cited the nation's economic problems as a reason to expand a popular health insurance program for children on Wednesday, but their effort failed as the House sustained President Bush's veto of a bill to provide coverage to nearly four million more uninsured children.

The vote for the bill was 260 to 152. Supporters were 15 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass the measure over the president's objections....More

A House Divided: Investment or Shelter?

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/rss/5843.html

A House Divided: Investment or Shelter?
Published:    January 23, 2008
Author:    Nicolas P. Retsinas

Dictionaries are not static. Some words go unused for so long that lexicographers dub them archaic. Definitions also gravitate to that catch-bin.

The plummeting housing market has forced a reevaluation, not just of the financial value of a home, but of its meaning. Once just a place for a family to live and take root, the home in recent times has been elevated to Investment Opportunity, a place where you stayed for awhile, made a lot of money, then moved on to the next home-investment.

Is the definition of home about to change once again?

Family sanctuary

When immigrants crowded into this country, they yearned for shelter, a sanctuary in a new land. That shelter could be a tenement, a farmstead, a ramshackle cottage. For families, home had a connotation of safety and stability.

Banks did not lend with 30-year amortizing mortgages, but with 5-year loans and a balloon payment at the term's end. A family needed to amass a 50 percent down payment; few Americans could. So homeownership was neither a plausible individual aspiration nor a policy prescription. The word home had no investment connotations.

The ultrarich owned mansions, but home does not describe those sumptuous resting places on peripatetic journeys: People summered in Newport, wintered in Manhattan, or toured Europe, moor-less, for years. If you had asked an Edith Wharton matron where home was, she would have asked what you meant.

Home as anchor

When the federal government introduced long-term mortgages, people could finally afford to buy their domiciles. The definition of home shifted. A home became an anchor, a stake in the community. Veterans from World War II seized upon the FHA and VA mortgages to sink roots into the middle class; one hallmark of middle-class success was owning a home. The Levittowns and their ilk sprung up. For a machinist at an automobile plant, the American dream was to own a 3-bedroom expandable Cape Cod cottage.

The anchor was construed as just that—an anchor. The home was more a place to live than the linchpin of an investment strategy. Economists praised homeownership as "forced savings": People might eventually pay off their 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, celebrating with neighbors at mortgage-burning parties.

Owners hoped to be upwardly mobile, to get promotions, to find higher-paying jobs. But the house itself was not the catalyst for the increase in wealth. People did move—the starter house (a term now listed as archaic) came first. After a new child, or a promotion, some fortunate families moved to larger homes, often in better neighborhoods. Others expanded a dormer or converted a breezeway. But most home-owning families stayed put, expecting to age in their homes.

This experience was not unique to America. In most of the world, homeownership still carries that expectation of rootedness. Home also represented an asset, but an asset that was illiquid and that was not expected to reap mega-returns. Indeed, many homeowners, coping with repairs, renovations, and taxes, saw their homes as money-pits.

Home as investment

Over the past decade, home became an exciting investment, more a place to buy and sell than to live in. Americans who lacked the prescience to pick up shares in Google or Amazon could buy a house, thereby netting double-digit returns on their investment. People who bought homes expected to sell them at a huge profit. Some owners converted their homes into ATM machines, borrowing against ever-rising equity.

Mortgage products evolved to let everybody, even people with shaky credit and no savings, sign on the dotted line. Some people made their living by buying and selling homes. "Flipper" entered the lexicon. Home might or might not be where the heart is—but home was clearly where the money was.

But 2007 reminded us that this economic juggernaut carries risk. Investors know that the price of all assets rise and fall. In much of the country, home prices are falling.

Soon the dictionary, under home, may shelve "investment" as archaic, reflecting a period of inflated values, easy credit, and wild expectations of profit. The standard usage definition will hark back to the older one: an anchor in a community where a family can live, work, and play.

Future generations may wonder why Americans for a brief stint redefined home into an ultra-profitable financial investment. That frenzy made many people wealthy, but left many others adrift.

About the author
Nicolas P. Retsinas is a lecturer of business administration at Harvard Business School and director of Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies.

CALL FOR PAPERS: THE HUMAN CONDITION SERIES: 2nd Annual International Multidisciplinary Conference: May 2-3, 2008, Laurentian University @ Georgian College, Ontario, Canada,

2nd Annual International Multidisciplinary Conference on:
TERROR,May 2-3, 2008,
Laurentian University @ Georgian College, Ontario, Canada,
  

Please send a 250-300 word abstract or proposal as an email attachment (MS Word Format) to
TerrorProposal@ideologiesofwar.com

DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF ABSTRACT: FEBRUARY 15, 2008.

For more details about the conference go to:
http://humanconditionseries.wordpress.com/speakers-08/ or http://humanconditionseries.wordpress.com/past-conference-07/

Description of the Series and Conference Theme

 

"Terror becomes total when it becomes independent of all opposition:
It rules supreme when nobody any longer stands in its way."
-Hannah Arendt

This conference is part of a larger series of ongoing, international, multidisciplinary conferences--run under the banner of The Human Condition Series--that brings together people from a variety of disciplines to assess a singular topic from artistic, cinematic, literary, ethical, social, political, philosophical, psychological and religious perspectives. We encourage you to share innovative ideas and new ways of thinking and acting. Proposals will be considered on any related theme and we especially welcome papers, reports, works-in-progress, workshops and sessions. This year's theme is Terror.

The concept of Terror is often found safely hidden and un-thought in diverse cultural, philosophical, and religious traditions and ways of life. One can see these safe havens extending from the divine mythologies of religious experience to the seemingly opposed rationalized life of contemporary high-tech societies. With respect to religious experience, it is clear that we have to seriously reconsider the dynamics of organized religion in the face of rising religious fundamentalisms and terrorist activity.

But terror in the highly rationalized world of technological societies can also impose its existing logic as a way of maintaining the order of things. We give it various positive names that conceal its potency and negative effects. At precise moments in history, terror's potency has appeared in benign terms such as "child welfare," "residential schools," the "founding nation," the "developed world," the "hysterical woman," the "mentally ill," the "social and sexual deviant," the "immigrant problem," the "disposable income," and the "democratic liberation of other peoples."

It is the absurd rationalizations of these terms in the face of concrete realities that covers over terror's effects and keeps it intact. This conference will investigate what role Terror has in maintaining the contemporary condition of humanity--and what hope there is of envisioning a condition in which Terror is natural and organic rather than strategic and imposed.

NPR : Companies Use Fees to Counter Bargains

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18212223&ft=1&f=3

YOUR MONEY
Companies Use Fees to Counter Bargains

Morning Edition, January 18, 2008 ·
From hotels to cell phone bills, companies attach a barrage of hidden, extra charges. One reason is the Internet. Online shopping permits consumers to comparison shop for bargains. So companies are countering low prices with hefty fees.
So if a $99 room is snagged at a nice hotel via Priceline.com, then the hotel tends to attach a "resort fee" for towels at the pool or removing something from the mini-bar – even it put back 60 seconds later.

Bob Sullivan, author of Gotcha Capitalism, talks with Steve Inskeep about deceptive fees and why U.S. businesses are so dependent on them...MORE

Chem Lab: Scientists Are Learning How Weed Causes Paranoia | Wired Science from Wired.com

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/chem-lab-the-sc.html
*
Chem Lab: Scientists Are Learning How Weed Causes Paranoia*
By Aaron Rowe January 16, 2008 | 10:57:34 PMCategories: Chem Lab, Drugs
& Alcohol, Neuroscience

In the January issue of Neuropharmacology, which happens to have a
marijuana theme, two teams of researchers tried to explain what causes
some people to feel paranoid when they smoke weed.
If you think it's impossible to have too much of a good thing -- think
again...MORE
<http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/chem-lab-the-sc.html>

They Want Influencers for More New Recruits

 

 

Sent to you by jimuleda via Google Reader:

 

 

They Want Influencers for More New Recruits

via Center for Media and Democracy - Publishers of PR Watch by Diane Farsetta on 1/16/08

"The U.S. Marine Corps is rolling out a new ad campaign this week in an effort to target teachers, coaches, clergy and other groups that tend to have influence on kids' career paths," reports the Wall Street Journal. The Marines "previously aimed its marketing directly at young adults," running ads on Walt Disney's ESPN or News Corporation's FX. But the new spots will run during Fox's "American Idol," which "has a broader audience that includes adults as well as kids." The WPP Group advertising firm JWT designed the Marines' new television spots; the campaign also includes print and online ads. One ad "features a line of Marines standing in formation in front of landmarks across the U.S. such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Independence Hall." The campaign's focus on "influencers" is consistent with the U.S. Army's recruiting efforts, which the Center for Media and Democracy previously reported on. Their slogan "Army strong" was chosen, in part, to appeal to influencers.

 

 

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• Subscribe to Center for Media and Democracy - Publishers of PR Watch using Google Reader
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Competition in Modular Clusters

 

 

Sent to you by jimuleda via Google Reader:

 

 

Competition in Modular Clusters

via HBS Working Knowledge on 1/18/08

Published:	January 17, 2008
Paper Released:	December 2007
Authors:	Carliss Y. Baldwin and C. Jason Woodard

Executive Summary:

The last 20 years have witnessed the rise of disaggregated "clusters," "networks," or "ecosystems" of firms in a number of industries, including computers, telecommunications, and pharmaceuticals. In these clusters, different firms design and produce the various components of a complex artifact (such as the processor, peripherals, and software of a computer system), and different firms specialize in the various stages of a complex production process. This paper considers the pricing behavior and profitability of these so-called modular clusters. Baldwin and Woodard isolate the offsetting price effects in a model, and show how they might operate in large as well as in small clusters. Key concepts include:

• Clusters operating under open, public standards may have higher prices and profits than those operating under closed, proprietary standards.
• Cluster forms of industrial organization may not be conducive to all kinds of innovation. In particular, innovations that add new layers of functionality to the system, and thus increase total demand, will not be adequately rewarded relative to the value they create.
• It is important to learn how cluster configurations affect incentives to supply different forms of innovation, and how firms respond to these cross-layer dependencies in formulating their long-term strategies.

Abstract

The last twenty years have witnessed the rise of disaggregated "clusters," "networks," or "ecosystems" of firms. In these clusters the activities of R&D, product design, production, distribution, and system integration may be split up among hundreds or even thousands of firms. Different firms will design and produce the different components of a complex artifact (like the processor, peripherals, and software of a computer system), and different firms will specialize in different stages of a complex production process. This paper considers the pricing behavior and profitability of these so-called modular clusters. In particular, we investigate a possibility hinted at in prior work: that for composite goods, a vertical pricing externality operating across complements can offset horizontal competition between substitutes. In this paper, we isolate the offsetting price effects and show how they operate in large (as well as small) clusters. We argue that it is possible in principle for a modular cluster of firms to mimic the pricing behavior and profitability of a vertically integrated monopoly. We then use our model to compare open and closed standards regimes, to understand how commoditization affects a cluster, to determine the relative profits of platform firms and firms that depend on the platform, and to assess the impact of horizontal and vertical mergers. Our model highlights a collective action problem: what is good for an individual firm is often not good for the cluster. We speculate that this conflict may be a source of strategic tension in platform firms.

Paper Information

• Full Working Paper Text
• Working Paper Publication Date: December 2007
• HBS Working Paper Number: 08-042
• Faculty Unit: Finance 

 

 

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• Subscribe to HBS Working Knowledge using Google Reader
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If Marketing Experts Ran Elections

If Marketing Experts Ran Elections
From HBS Working Knowledge
Published:    January 17, 2008
Author:    John A. Quelch

Editor's Note: Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes a blog on marketing issues, called Marketing Know: How, for Harvard Business Online.
                         It is reprinted on HBS Working Knowledge.

For all the coverage of the Presidential primaries, only half of eligible voters will likely cast ballots in November. While 20 percent of U.S. adults are political junkies, the rest can't spare the time, don't think their vote will matter, see no important differences among the candidates, or are turned off by the electoral process and candidates' campaign tactics.

They are the "vanishing voters" of U.S. politics. There are 5 structural reasons why this is the case.

In U.S. general elections, voters usually see only 2 viable candidates on the ballot. That's one reason turnout is low. In any other product category, there are many more choices. As a result, consumer interest—and consumption—is higher.
In representative democracies, the consumer has to live with the majority decision. That also dampens enthusiasm. Not so in commerce. You can buy or own whichever brand, or suite of brands, you wish."...MORE

Whats Been Missing From This Presidential Campaign? - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/whats-been-missing-from-this-presidential-campaign/
January 17, 2008,  1:32 pm
What’s Been Missing From This Presidential Campaign?
By STEPHEN J. DUBNER

In earlier posts here and here, I wrote that I was going on TV to talk about an issue that’s been missing from the presidential campaign. And that issue is …
Crime.

A lot of you guessed correctly; a lot of you named other issues that have also been very quiet. I think the fact that the candidates aren’t spending much time talking about crime is a wonderful thing. It means that the nationwide crime downturn has allowed people to worry about other things — especially, at the moment, the economy.

This does not mean that we should ignore: a) the crime that still exists; or b) the factors that have (and have not) contributed to the crime drop; but we probably should ignore c) the occasionally hysterical media coverage that blows a minor crime uptick out of proportion."...MORE

BBC NEWS | Americas | Judge allows Vegas casino votes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7195209.stm
Judge Allows Vegas Casino Votes
 
Nevada Democrats agreed last year to hold some caucuses in casinos
A US judge has ruled that Las Vegas casinos may be used by Nevada Democrats for presidential voting on Saturday.
Observers say the decision may benefit Barack Obama, who has won the backing of the union representing many of the shift workers employed in the casinos.

The lawsuit, filed by a teachers' group with ties to Hillary Clinton, argued it was unfair that only workers around the casinos could vote at their workplace.

Mr Obama, Mrs Clinton and John Edwards are competing to be the state's pick...MORE

Discover the .EDU Underground

http://lifehacker.com/software/technophilia/discover-the-edu-underground-307427.php

Discover the .EDU Underground
Little appreciated outside the world of academia, there are literally thousands of .edu sites bursting with incredibly useful and interesting information and resources.
Most of these sites won't pop up to the surface of the average search engine quest, and so they wait, neglected and underused...until now. Keep reading for a
quick tour through the mysterious underground world of .edu...MORE

New Bacteria Strain Is Striking Gay Men - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/health/15infe.html?em&ex=1200718800&en=d8f1d09b1e96ae83&ei=5087%0A
New Bacteria Strain Is Striking Gay Men

In a study published online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the bacteria seemed to be spread most easily through anal intercourse but also through casual skin-to-skin contact and touching contaminated surfaces.

The authors warned that unless microbiology laboratories were able to identify the strain and doctors prescribed the proper antibiotic therapy, the infection could soon spread among other groups and become a wider threat.

The new strain seems to have “spread rapidly” in gay populations in San Francisco and Boston, the researchers wrote, and “has the potential for rapid, nationwide dissemination” among gay men...MORE