I retired over14 years ago, though I've continued to work on and off since then. Mostly I'm just cruising, making the most of what time I have remaining.
Although my time is nearly up, I still care deeply about the kind of world I'll be leaving to those who follow me and, to that end, I am devoted to seeing the forces of repression and authoritarianism are at least held at bay, if not crushed out of existence.
I write about things that interest me and, as an eclectic soul, my interests run the gamut from science to spirituality, governance to economics, art and engineering. I'm hopeful one day my children will read what I've left behind.
Endeavour flying over Stennis Space Center on her way to Los Angeles
Space Shuttle Endeavor (OV-105) is on the way to her new job at the California Science Center. She is scheduled to arrive at LAX on Friday after completing a flyover of several landmarks, including The Griffith Park Observatory and Disneyland (Disneyland?). I’m conflicted over whether I should drive to Griffith Park or, perhaps, to Malibu – where she is also scheduled to fly over. Parking could be a real pain.
As a young man I used to go to LAX, park in the lot of the Proud Bird Restaurant, and walk down Aviation Blvd. to the East end of the runway. I could stand there and watch the planes come in for a landing, at times only a hundred feet or so over my head. It was exhilarating. Maybe I’ll do that.
I spent nearly half of my adult life working on the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) program at Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, California. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley and have vivid memories of the many rocket engine tests that took place in the Santa Susana Mountains to the West of where I lived. I would go outside and could hear the roar and see the sky lit up. Those engines helped take us to the Moon. It was magical.
I came to Rocketdyne quite by accident and, even after I started as a temp (what they called a “Job Shopper”) working on the return to flight efforts after the Challenger disaster, it took a while for me to realize I could work there. Not being an Engineer, it somehow never crossed my mind that I could find a place in the organization. I ended up spending 21 years there – in a 23 year period (taking two years off in an ill-fated attempt to return to a family business) – working primarily on the SSME program. Endeavour was the replacement vehicle for Challenger, so I am somewhat emotionally tied to her. Half my working life!
In 2010, I accepted an offer of early retirement, which was made to those of us who were sixty years of age or over because the Shuttle Program was coming to an end. It wasn’t quite over, and I had always joked that I would be the one to turn the lights out at the end. I expected to work until I dropped dead, maybe around 80. It didn’t work out that way. I still miss being a part of the space program and seeing Endeavour on her last flight is dredging up a flood of emotion I’m not sure I’m prepared to handle.
Thankfully, she’ll be very close by and I can take my two girls to see her. Fare thee well, Endeavour. I am eternally thankful I was able to play a small role in your voyages. I wish you well on this, your final mission.
We Weren’t Looking for Retribution; Merely Justice
I can’t let today pass without saying a word or two about the tragic events of eleven years ago today. Unlike most Americans, at least as far as I can tell, these events were tragic to me for many reasons. I am somewhat ashamed to note the many people who mourn the loss of those nearly 3000 who died as a direct result of the attacks of 9/11, yet seem to show little or no feeling toward the loss of lives that came about as a result of the actions the United States and other nations took in seeking vengeance for these attacks.
I don’t wish in any way to denigrate the innocent victims of these heinous acts, and I am especially mindful of the hundreds of first-responders who lost their lives performing the duties they were sworn to in order that others might live. I respect and honor their devotion and the sacrifices they made – and continue to make – on our behalf.
Nevertheless, in the wake of this tragedy we engaged in two wars – at least one of which was entirely unnecessary – and was, indeed, a war of aggression based on lies and deception.
While it’s impossible to get an accurate figure, an average assessment of the number of Iraqi civilian deaths — based on numerous estimates — indicates there have been at least several hundred thousand civilian deaths alone (cite). There have been over 4400 U.S. deaths and 32,000 wounded in Iraq (cite). The death toll in Afghanistan is so muddled it’s difficult to determine how many civilians have been killed as the result of our activities and how many might have been killed by the Taliban regardless. There have been over 3,000 coalition deaths (over 2,000 U.S.) and approximately 24,000 wounded. In addition, over 14,000 Afghan security forces personnel have been killed (cite).
Our nation’s cry is “Never Forget”, and we won’t. We shouldn’t. However, we must always be mindful that great injustice was done in the name of those who perished on this day. We should also continue asking questions not only about why we did what we did, but what actually happened on 9/11. I doubt the truth has yet to be told. Keep your eyes and ears open.
Two day ago I came across a graphic that was shared on Facebook and decided it was worthy of writing a blog post. Not so much because of the graphic, but because it gave me the opportunity to test out explaining an observation I have been making lately. Unfortunately, the graphic I chose to illustrate the theory turned out be photo-shopped and wasn’t real. I am sorry I chose to perpetuate it. I should have been more careful and for that I am deeply regretful. Not because the photo did any harm to the Romney campaign; inasmuch as it quite easily (based on past experience) could have been true, the damage is minimal, but because it served to compromise my integrity, which is something I work very hard to not do.
Exhibit B
Exhibit A
So . . . I wish to be very clear here. I am sorry I published it. It’s not real. For those reading this who are uncertain of the controversy, I herewith submit the photo I was bamboozled by, which I have labeled Exhibit A, alongside the photo from Zazzle, labeled Exhibit B, which was the main piece of evidence that convinced me I had been mistaken. There were a couple of people who pointed me to the official Romney website store, which stated the following, “All Products are Made in the USA”. However, these are politicians we’re talking about here and, as far as I’m concerned (whether it’s the Romney campaign or the Obama campaign), the only thing that proves is it says “All Products are Made in the USA”. ¡Punto, final, y redondo!
The ironic thing about this particular post is that, until two days ago the busiest single day I had experienced on this blog was slightly over two years ago. It was from a post I wrote thanking the gentleman who found my iPad after I had left it behind during a medical crisis involving my youngest daughter. I’ve had days that came close, but my post of two days ago more than doubled the number of readers I’ve had in a single day. A Pyrrhic and bitter accomplishment at this point.
I doubt any apology will be accepted by some and that’s OK. I could have just let it go. In fact, I apologized immediately on Facebook and even pointed out the fallacious button on a local Facebook group devoted to discussing local politics and business but, partly because the most active people tend to be politically active as well, sees its fair share of discussion on national issues. Now I’d like to offer a little explanation.
I wanted it to be true! Yes, I admit it. To be honest, I think electing Mitt Romney as our next President would be disastrous. I can find a lot of things to be pissed off at Barack Obama (and the Democratic Party, for that matter) about, but at least there has been a reasonable amount of social progress during his administration. As well, he inherited an economy strapped by two unfunded wars, a giant Medicare pharmacy giveaway, and some of the stupidest tax policies designed to benefit the wealthiest of all Americans at the expense of most ordinary Americans. So, I won’t, at this point, go into much detail as that isn’t my purpose in this post. I just want to point out a few things that made it easy for me to believe the Romney campaign would have their buttons made in China.
More than 10,000 torch-bearers during the 2002 Winter Olympics, which Romney holds up as one of his crowning business achievements, were contracted out to a brutal dictatorship in Myanmar (Burma). Read about it here.
Senate Bill 3364, the “Bring Jobs Home Act”, which provides up to a 20% tax credit for bringing businesses back to the U.S. and denies tax deductions for outsourcing expenses incurred in relocating a business outside the U.S., was blocked by Republican Senators. More here.
Romney has not only been labeled by his former Republican primary opponents as a “Vulture” Capitalist, the National Venture Capital Association has specifically disowned him as one of them (though it’s killing them to do it). His company, Bain Capital, is well-known for its role in shipping jobs overseas.
Let me sum up. I published a photo of a Romney-Ryan campaign button that was inauthentic. I used it to make a point about what I see as more evidence that Republicans “project” their own shortcomings and insecurities on others. I wanted to believe the button was authentic. There is substantial reason for me to have believed that. I have a bit of egg on my face. I am sorry. Mitt is still a jerk. Don’t vote for him. I trust I’ve made virtually everyone happy now. 🙂
I am now fully aware this picture is not real. Please see my apology and explanationhere.
I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to blog about politics, but it seems I just can’t keep my mind off the election. It’s easy to say, as I probably have many times before, this is the most important election of my life. I’m not sure it’s true. There is nothing, in my opinion, Romney and Ryan can do that will stop the inevitable. The arc of history has always bent toward the increasing prevalence of peace, justice, and freedom – even if it doesn’t seem that way in various parts of the world.
Much like the existence of cooler temperatures in one small area of the planet does not prove global warming isn’t occurring, you can’t generalize from regional strife and even setbacks like our current economic conditions that our society is devolving. I have said more than once I almost thought it would be good for Michelle Bachmann to become our President because it would surely bring about the next – quite likely necessary – American revolution. I say “almost” because I really would prefer we evolve peacefully. Violence doesn’t generally do much for the species, although it may temporarily benefit one group over another.
Now . . . having said that, let me offer that this probably is the most important election of my life :). We have just barely come through the worst economic collapse in several generations and we’re not out of the woods yet. In my opinion the Policies espoused by the Romney-Ryan ticket are destined to turn the United States of America into what Arianna Huffington has referred to as Third World America. As Bill Clinton said the other night, in his speech to the Democratic National Convention, the Republican position is “we left him a total mess, he hasn’t cleaned it up fast enough, so fire him and put us back in.” I’m pretty sure that’s not a good idea. I will have more to say about this in the next couple of months. There’s plenty of material out there. I just need to move it from Facebook to here.
At any rate, this graphic is both sad and hilarious. I keep saying that the Republican Party leadership projects all of their worst traits onto others. To me, this is a perfect example of it. One can reasonably assume, if it actually crossed their mind it was important, they would have been willing to spend a little more money getting their buttons made here in the USA. That they don’t care seems pretty evident. Where the projecting comes in is I’m reasonably certain they think we don’t care either and won’t be paying any attention? Am I crazy? What’s your interpretation of why this would happen?
PS – If it’s unclear in the picture I snatched from my Facebook news feed, the arrow is pointing to the words, “Made in China” . . . but you knew that, right?
The Intersection of Stupidity, Religion, & Politics
I had an experience this morning that reminded me of something Neil deGrasse Tyson said, which I’ve read in many places. I’ve also had the experience many times in my life and consider myself somewhat lucky so far having managed not to suffer the final indignity the experience portends.
I’m speaking about nearly choking to death because I fell victim to the inherent – as Neil points out – stupid design of my body that has me breathing, eating, and talking through the same hole.
I was at my weekly QBN (Quality Business Network) breakfast meeting. We meet each week on Tuesday, at 7:00 – 8:30 am at The Junkyard Cafe here in Simi Valley, CA. Most of what is on a breakfast menu I can’t conscientiously eat if I want to keep my blood sugar under control. Pancakes, waffles, french toast, regular toast, potatoes, syrup, jam . . . they’re all verboten. I can have a plate of bacon, eggs, and cheese . . . and sometimes do.
However, today I asked for a salad, with ranch dressing and balsamic vinegar. I don’t have a cholesterol problem, so I don’t worry about the dressing too much. I’ve long liked ranch and Italian, which the vinegar substitutes for nicely.
No sooner did I start shoveling food in my mouth than a stream of vinegar squirted off the salad on my fork into my throat. I inhaled it slightly and immediately started coughing; nearly choking. It was so bad others started to get alarmed for my safety and I had to leave the room to keep from interrupting the presentation that one of our members was giving.
Obviously, I made it. It wasn’t the first time this has happened. I once inhaled some hot sake at a sushi bar in Venice Beach. The owner was horrified. He thought I was going to die right there in the restaurant and indicated how much he would like me to die outside on the sidewalk. I ignored him.
Anyway, back to Mr. deGrasse Tyson. I thought I would share this lovely video of his explaining – by pointing out how stupidly we, and the universe, are designed for life – how there is no such thing as intelligent design. Keep in mind, please, I’m not attacking religion, faith, or spirituality. I don’t care what you believe in. However, if it’s intelligent design, I (and Neil) maintain there is absolutely no evidence for it and only someone who refuses to face reality would entertain such a belief. Here’s the video:
As an opening aside, I find it an interesting statement about the immediacy of the Internet that I would hesitate to share an article or blog post I encountered because it’s more than a week since it was published. Nevertheless, I did hesitate when I came across this particular article in Fast Company. I ended up sharing it on my Facebook Fan page and I’m going to share it here, with a little bit of personal annotation.
Many years ago, when I was in my family’s wholesale food business, I realized what I found to be a very sobering fact. As long as we weren’t manufacturing or producing anything, the only way to stand out from the crowd was to provide service over and above everyone else. Anyone can buy and sell items that are readily available and this was surely true of food. We could break the ice with price, but that was ultimately a losing proposition as the customers we sold to would inevitably leave us for someone offering a lower price.
However, not everyone could provide exceptional service. As a result, we were constantly thinking of ways in which we could provide value that others didn’t even think of. One way to do this is to just be available. When a restaurant runs out of product for whatever reason – whether it be unexpectedly busy days or flat-out stupidity in anticipating certain inevitably busy days – always being there and coming through was one way to stand out.
But that wasn’t enough. I think the real discriminator was the mind-set that our relationship with our customers was more than just seller-buyer; it was that of partners. Such a mindset had us thinking as though we were in their shoes and, frequently, it made enough of a difference in how we anticipated their needs and even helped them understand their needs in ways they weren’t always capable of. I think it worked pretty well while I was there.
So when I read this article today I was both intrigued and somewhat satisfied. I never thought of what we were doing as anything other than providing good service. I didn’t realize it was providing a special customer experience. Back then, as the article points out, customer experience wasn’t what it is today, but in our little corner of the world – in the kind of business we were engaged in at the time – it was what we were providing.
Now, it seems, it’s what everybody needs to do . . . and I agree. Here’s a quote from the article I’m referencing:
You don’t have to take my word for this. Over the last five years we’ve been running a study in which we ask consumers to rate the customer experience at companies they do business with. What we can now prove is that customer experience correlates to loyalty. Specifically, it correlates highly to willingness to consider for another purchase, willingness to recommend, and reluctance to switch to a different provider. In other words, if you want that next sale, if you want good word of mouth, and if you want to keep your customers, it’s unlikely that anything else you do matters more than delivering a superior experience.
Indeed!
Here’s the link. You can read the whole thing at Fast Company. It’s well worth it, even if it is almost two weeks old.
Since my presentation to the American Oil Chemists’ Society at the end of April, I’ve been seeking out other engagements to talk about using social media for managing communities within an enterprise. All of my experience heretofore has been inside the firewall of a large (very large) aerospace corporation, and it was the essence of my presentation to the AOCS.
I haven’t been actually hustling engagements; rather I’ve just been suggesting I’m available and that I might have something worthwhile to say. Today, nearly four months later, I finally had the opportunity to present to an organization that could use social media to improve their ability to achieve their goals, which are manifold – but not commercial.
The organization I spoke with today is a local Rotary Club that has two major fund-raisers each year. Originally, I had spoken with my friend and former Manager who, since retiring, has joined this Club and had suggested I might present, about the one I gave to the AOCS. However, after having dinner with the President of the Club it became clear he wanted to at least partially address the difficulty he’d been having with getting the membership to “like” their Fan pages and join and engage with their group page.
So . . . I put this together somewhat hastily and concentrated primarily on the benefits social media provide for communicating and sharing knowledge, as well as addressing the issue of reluctance to participate. I finished with a little info on how its use is disruptive and pointed out how they could use Clayton Christensen‘s concept of Jobs-to-be-done (disruptive innovation is one of his as well) to address the direction they might take their new efforts in.
I also prepared the presentation exclusively using Google Docs; the first time I have ever done that. The only exception is that I imported a couple of slides from my AOCS preso, which I originally prepared using PowerPoint. I also heavily annotated the slides, which I do not normally do, and printed out a copy of them and the notes. However, I did not use them during the presentation. Once I got going I just winged it, which seems to fit my style perfectly. Having the notes kept me from being nervous, but turned out to be mostly superfluous. I only experienced one moment when I couldn’t think of the right word I wanted to make a point, but it came to me reasonably quickly.
So . . . here ’tis. I don’t know how intelligible it is without the notes. Especially considering I made these slides last close to 25 minutes, I believe. I guess having a long history and lots of stories comes in handy when you tend toward loquaciousness. 🙂
One more thing. I uploaded the .pdf to Slideshare in the early evening and shortly afterward received an email from them that my presentation was the most talked about one on Facebook (where I had shared it) and so they were featuring it on their home page. Frankly, I didn’t see any evidence of the discussion, but the preso had been viewed close to 180 times last I looked, so maybe I’m getting some traction there. Hope you enjoy it.
Just thought I would take a moment to wish everyone out there who’s a lefty (like me) a Happy Left-Hander’s Day. Pretty damn generous of everyone to give us outcasts our very own special one day out of the year. I’m figuring it’s because we Leftie’s are just so awesome any more than one day would be unfair to all those <yawn> normal people, but I could be wrong. It could be a remnant of the persecution left-handers have endured from the ignorant, superstitious people who seem to have dominated accepted thought for most of history. Nah! It’s probably the awesomeness. Don’t you think?
Seriously, though. To this day I don’t think most righties realize just how many ways we southpaws make adjustments to what is predominantly a right-handed world. Even our language exalts being right-handed (Ambidextrous, as an example. Sinister [or sinistral] as another*). When sitting down to eat, I always gravitate to one of two corners where my elbow won’t bump into the person to my left and I can judge the quality of service at a restaurant by whether or not my server sets my second cocktail down on the proper (left) side of my place. I’ve been using right-handed scissors for so long, I find the ones made specifically for us lefties cumbersome.
I could go on and on, but that’s not really my purpose. I just want to send a shout out to my fellow lefties; my southpaw homies (hefties?). Here’s to much ado about nothing. One day really doesn’t change much now, does it?
I think I received my first comeuppance regarding white privilege around 1973. I was not quite 26 years old and had been a very active member in the anti-Vietnam War movement in Los Angeles. I had attended, organized, publicized, and provided security for a number of demonstrations and events.
Now I was preparing to spend a couple of months in Cuba as a guest of the Cuban government. I was a member of the Sixth Contingent (Sexto Contingente) of La Brigada Venceremos. I was excited. However, nobody was allowed to travel without first undergoing some rigorous training in how to not be an ugly American.
We Americans (even the term American is somewhat arrogant, as the U.S. is only one country in an entire hemisphere referred to as America), especially us straight males, have got it way better than we like to think. Unfortunately, due to the concept of American Exceptionalism, we really do like to think our shit doesn’t stink and we are in a class by ourselves.
Well, actually, we are in a class by ourselves – but it’s really not something to be all that proud of, in my less than humble opinion. But I digress.
Part of my ongoing training (which lasted several months) was learning about white privilege, i.e. the numerous and subtle ways in which being white gives those who sport the color (or lack thereof) a leg up on everyone else. The training was excellent. I was not made to feel guilty; merely shown how it works, the evidence of which was impossible for me to deny.
As a Knowledge Management professional, one of the things that’s important to me is the avoidance of re-inventing the wheel. That means, among other things, using the work of others to build on, where appropriate. I think this is an appropriate place to do that with a blog written by John Scalzi who, frankly, I don’t know much about. Nevertheless, this blog he wrote is absolutely brilliant and draws an analogy I think useful in understanding the concept I’m talking about. I want to share it with my small group of readers.
Below is a Slideshare presentation posted by a friend who is in the process of authoring a new book entitled “The Age of Context”. He’s presenting it today at the Big 3 Conference in San Francisco, where he is one of the keynote speakers. It’s quite high level and somewhat simplistic at this point, but you should be able to get an idea of the direction the book will be taking.
I have long believed we humans are on the road to becoming a race of cyborgs. Nothing that’s happened in the last quarter century has served to dissuade me from this belief, either. At the rate we’re developing and making use of prostheses, and with continuing advancements in Fetal surgery and in utero cardiac procedures, it’s only a matter of time (100 years? 1000 years?) before most humans will have some sort of inorganic component attached or implanted.
I haven’t thought much about this lately, being content to watch as we meandered down this path. However, recently I was made aware that a couple of social media “friends” of mine were writing a book discussing another aspect of this inevitable evolutionary route we’re on. Their current working title is The Age of Context and I am really glad they’re writing it.
What they’re talking about is the newest developments in the fields of mobile technologies, wearable computers, sensing and mapping capabilities, big data residing in “the cloud”, and the apps and services that bring them together. I believe they’re truly on to something.
The book likely won’t be available until sometime next year. However, one of the authors (they are Shel Israel and Robert Scoble) has put together a simple Slideshare presentation that gives some hints of the direction they’re heading in. Since the presentation is available, I thought I would share it to give you a taste of what they’re seeing and thinking. I am hopeful I’ll have a lot more to say about the subject as time goes on. Suffice it to say I’m very excited about their thoughts, including how they mesh with and supplement those I’ve had for several decades now.
Disclosure: At the request for assistance by the authors, I offered to proofread the manuscript for them and they agreed. Here is how Shel tweeted about it a couple of weeks ago.
@RickLadd has just volunteered to be the world's most overqualified proofreader for Age of Context. Thanks Rick.
Systems Savvy 