On a Limb

I will probably get in trouble for saying it, but I kind of agree with Rand Paul on the matter of ownership and your right to kick anybody out of your restaurant for any reason that pleases you.
The laws that enforced racial segregation in public matters were wrong. There is no equivocation on that score. But, I do not see why the government needs to force owners of apartments or restaurants (or any privately-held business) to serve anyone who comes through the door. People have a right to be bigoted and even wrong-headed.

If you believe in property ownership, it follows that you must believe that the owner has a right to use the property in a way that they choose, providing it does not harm others. I don't think anyone is harmed by being excluded - unless they are also beaten up.

I may as well go all the way out on the limb and say that I think an owner or proprietor may exclude anyone for any reason. Further they may also decide to allow cigar smoking and naked line-dancing if it is not prohibited by local laws.

Rights go both ways. You have the right to move around the public square and vote and speak your mind - even though you might be totally full of crap.*
But, if I don't like the way you look, I should have the right to ask you to leave my property.

The knee jerk thing we have about discrimination makes us leap-up to condemn it when we see it applied to a traditional minority group. But don't we agree that people have the right to discriminate? Certainly we are forced to accept this concept when it comes to economic segregation - for example First class riders get extra perks and big seats. (The po' folk sits in the cattle car wiff de goats. )

We allow gated communities, doorman guarded apartments and private country clubs. We let our elected representatives treat themselves like royalty and we are not invited to join the real parties. Institutions have always excluded people because of age, gender and rank.

So, lets stop getting all hinky just because someone wants to exclude someone on the basis of race or religion. We are programmed at birth to distrust others based on the way they look or behave, so maybe it's just a human thing.
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*They have not yet passed a law against blogging while being full of crap, thank goodness.

Chacun à son goût

About a week ago Saturday, I could not put any weight on my right ankle because of excruciating pain. I could barely hobble to the bathroom with the aid of a cane. And descending the stairs was only accomplished the way a one-year-old does it: on my backside, taking steps one-at-a-time. The cause of the pain was a mystery. I could not recall any trauma or misstep that might have resulted in this apparent damage. The foot and ankle seemed swollen, but not blown-out like a purple grapefruit - as usually happens with an injury sprain.

I stayed immobile and fairly agitated most of Saturday. Convinced that something was broken, I showed up at the doctors office on Monday hoping to get it X-rayed. After examining the pictures, the doctor said he could see no bone fracture. He believed the problem is Gout.
"Gout? Isn't that what fat old men who drink too much beer?" I scowled.
"Yes. So what is your question ....?"
Naturally, I got a lecture about my unhealthy eating and drinking habits and lack of exercise. But also a prescription for a steroid (Prednisone) to quell the inflammation.
"Steroids? Hmm, will this help my batting average?" I wondered.
"Definitely, and if I were you I would get over to Fenway Park. They need some help."

The drugs seem to be working, so am getting back to normal. I mowed the lawn a few days ago without any painful after-effects. Last Friday, I attended the monthly retirees lunch with my old Northeastern Univ. cronies. When they observed me nursing a light beer, I was subjected to a hearty round of mockery. I protested that one should not drink alcohol when one is taking drugs.
Jack, who is about my age and shares a fondness for fermented barley and malt, told me that he has had a number of close encounters with gout for years, and has, at times, been so debilitated that he has needed a wheelchair or crutches to get around. When I asked how he controls it, he replied without equivocation that he now has it completely under control. He takes a drug 2 pills a day which flushes his system, and he is never bothered by it anymore. He even washes the pills down with beer. He calls Budweiser "The Beverage of the Gods." Well, who am I to argue with such overwhelming expert medical testimony? I ordered another bud.

Lest the reader think I am too glib for my own good, let me assure you that I take this assault on my mobility very seriously. The ability to go up and down stairs is taken for granted until suddenly you find yourself incapacitated. Perhaps it is time for a change in diet and lifestyle. As they say, the sight of the guillotine sharpens the thinking.
Or, is it the drugs?

Being Proactive

I'm feeling quite proactive today. The plumber is coming to replace the aging water heater.
After 40 odd years of home ownership, this will be the first time in recorded history that we have replaced a water heater before it leaked all over the basement floor.

Our current 40 gallon Ruud P40S has been on duty since about 1997 - and has served well. A brief ceremony to honor of it's steadfast reliability will be held in the driveway before it is consigned to its final resting place in the halls of rust. Beer will be served.
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During my days as a full time employee, I always got a little uneasy when I heard the word "proactive" being bandied about by the Boss. Please don't think that I was just some lazy lout, lounging around the break room, foraging for donuts, waiting for some brilliant management type to tell me what to do next. The way I remember it, I was a diligent team player whose get-r-done attitude often manifested itself in taking an leadership initiative that would take us in the direction we wanted to go.

Some of my old bosses saw it differently.

Usually, proactivity would start with a shadow across my computer screen. I'd look up and there would be the Boss, looking at his marked up version of the project plan.
"Looks like we are a bit behind on the invoicing module."
"Yeah, the code needed some tweaking after the tests we ran last week. Don't worry we'll get caught up."
"It's a tight schedule. We don't have time for the tests to fail." (This, of course, is the same manager who picked the delivery dates out of his butt despite our insistence that we allow for a reasonable time for each activity on the project.)
"Well, what are you suggesting?"
"We need to be more proactive..."
" Oh sure, why don't we just skip the testing and just fix any problems after implementation. That would save time!" I would say mockingly.
"Great. Let's get this thing moving!"

So for that manager proactive was just management speak for: "Go faster."
I wonder if things have changed out there....

Who Needs to Know?

My daughter informs me that the urge to share is probably a generational thing. My generation - those who have been around for 5 or 6 decades - are reticent about sharing personal data with friends and strangers in these wild west un-sherrifed cyberspace locales commonly referred to as social networking sites. While not universal, this is mostly true.

My daughter's generation - those who identify with the "thirty-something" generation - feel at ease with modern social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter (I call it electronic graffiti). They tell us their thoughts and feelings, post photos of the kids or the new tattoo, talk about upcoming vacations, chat in public, boasting, complaining and boring. They don't worry that sometimes a glitch will expose all their info to everyone. And that info - once posted to the Internet - is like, forever dude. They seem to have no trouble accepting the fact that a total stranger can pay $30 and learn pretty much everything about you from financial records to legal actions. If you have nothing to hide, what's your problem?

IMHO, The problem with her generation is a sort of smug arrogance - perhaps based on an irrational faith in the goodness of others, or maybe because of a dependent sense that the nanny state will keep them secure... and you are just an old fart who is afraid of the unknown. But, consider how ineffective governments are at protecting citizens...think about the fear of seniors and others who live in dangerous areas of our cities (while our troops are policing other countries), everywhere you look people are being robbed - by crooks and by banks and credit card companies, and on and on. The thieves and polluters and drug lords are allowed to move freely among us.

The generation of Facebook users kids who are in school today haven't a clue that someday they may regret posting their innermost thoughts and opinions. The kid that posts "Obama is a doushe" on his profile at age 17 may be blissfully unaware that this data could be available to background checkers when he applies for that secure government job in a few years. The checkers might not think that miss-spelling is the worst part of that statement.

Such a mistake can follow a person forever. Poor Zuckerman, (Founder of Facebook) has his own privacy problems. At age 19 he sent an instant message to a friend boasting how he had the personal data about 4,000 friends at Harvard. When the friend asked how he got the data he answered, "They trusted me. Dumb f*cks."

I guess I agree with the generational differences about sharing - in that we tend to become more cynical as we get older and experience the unpredictable things that our fellow human beings are capable of. Some people call that wisdom.

Mark Twain said it: “It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.” (I'm sure he never dreamed that we would be reading his private letters a hundred and ten years later.)

One of my octogenarian friends tells me that in his day nobody would would talk about it if they had come into any money. For example if he won a bet or hit the number, he would not tell his friends for fear that they would expect him to buy the drinks.

So what are we afraid of? Well, just for example: ID thieves are always looking for info about you that could reveal your password. Most people's passwords are the names of their kids, or pets, or some easily decipherable keystrokes. One recent study found that approximately 3.4 million U.S. adults were victims of stalking in a given 12 month period. 75% of stalkers are not strangers to their victims.

Today in the WSJ I found evidence that I am not alone in wondering who really needs to know what I am thinking. Several new sites have popped up aimed at FB users in an effort to warn them to be aware of the privacy issues. One fed-up group has organized their own planned demonstration by encouraging others to quit en masse on May 31, to send a final message to Mr. Zuckerman I guess. Sounds like he really needs to know what people of all generations are thinking.

We Are Not Alone

Another ex-Facebook alum tells his story (Why I Quit Facebook)



My daughter says I am paranoid because I do not trust strangers with my information. I think the correct word is cynical. You think you know what it means? Look it up.

Guess where you can read these terms and conditions that you have already agreed to?

" By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing."

Yes, friends, that means your data, your photos, your links, your info. For sale to the highest bidder. Can you hear me now?

Perhaps it's Time to Stop the Sharing

Facebook, the social networking choice for those who can't stop talking about themselves, has been in the news several times recently, edging out the notorious Craigslist in stories that indicate where pop culture is headed...

Betty White hosted SNL last Saturday night, thanking half a million Facebook users who voted for her to get the gig. However, the 88 year old former "Golden Girl" could not resist a few zings at the expense of her fans. She mentioned that she had not even heard of Facebook before the buzz started. Now that she has become familiar with it, FB "seems like a huge waste of time." She insisted that she would never call frequent FB-ers "losers" because she was "too polite." Zzzzing!

Today there was a piece about "Giant cocktail parties" organized by Facebook members in France. A total of 20,000 young people attended these mob scenes in Nantes and Montpelier. More startling was aside from the usual problems associated with large groups and alcohol, only a single drunken reveler died of injuries - when he fell off a railing that he was trying to slide down.

Then there is the one about the dumbest criminal of the week - the guy who was on the lam in Mexico and got caught because he couldn't help posting his activities on FB.

"Maxi Sopo fled to Cancun, Mexico, last year after learning he was under investigation. For a while, investigators weren't sure where he was. But then Sopo began posting status updates on Facebook saying how much fun he was having -- and he added a former Justice Department official to his list of Facebook friends."

It makes you wonder whether all this connectedness isn't really just a journey from dumb to dumber. But it's also an interesting reminder how this medium has the power to bring mobs into the streets, create instant popularity and even to track down fugitives.

Another issue that has been in the news recently is Facebook's privacy policies. Too many trusting ( or shall we say naive) users are unknowingly sharing way too much of their personal data with strangers. Not all FB users are nice, and some of them can use information to steal ID's or even TV's (How would you like to see this note from some crook on your wall? "...thanks for telling us that you are in Marrakesh, now can feel secure, knowing that nobody will be around to stop us from breaking-in and stealing your 50 inch flat screen.")

Personally I am thinking about finding another way to waste time. Perhaps I will be following the crowd.

[Thursday evening, “how do i delete my facebook account” was among the top 20 trending searches on Google Hot Trends, and Friday morning “delete facebook account” made the list. ]

Seekers Need Not Apply

After diligent searching over the past year or more, I have been somewhat discouraged by the paucity of professional part-time jobs. Beyond a few specialized industries, such as Health Care (Nurses) and Higher Education (Instructors), I have not seen a demand for part-time business professionals. It seems strange - especially during hard economic times - that companies have not realized the cost savings that could result from the hiring less-than-full-time professionals.

Perhaps this is reflective of the general downturn in employment opportunities over the past few years due to the crappy economy. Just as likely, it reflects the historical attitudes of many companies towards part-time workers - a vestige of a bygone era when company loyalty was considered to be valuable, and part-timers were considered transient. Traditionally, such jobs have been plentiful in retail, customer service, farm labor and hospitality industries where the routine nature of tasks require only basic skills and moderate experience. These skill sets are highly transferable. Indeed, most employers of part-time workers treat them as interchangeable parts. These jobs typically require little judgement or creativity on the part of the worker. Tasks are proceduralized to the nth degree to eliminate potential variables, and all unexpected questions are bucked-up to the ever-present supervisor.

But for some reason, hiring managers for professional (i.e., Sitting in an office working at a keyboard, staring at the PC, clicking the mouse) work seem to ignore the patent advantages of hiring people who cannot/do not wish to work full time.
To list a few:
- Less wasted time. I know from long experience that most salaried office workers are less effective than they are busy. They worry about career, status, promotion. They waste large chunks of time sucking around Mr Big and getting very little done. A part-time worker on the other hand comes in and works 4 hours a day 5 days a week, head down and gets stuff done.
- Reduced expectation of benefits. Most part-time workers earn about $9-11 per hour in retail establishments. Elite part-timers might make 12-14 per hour. Professionals might get $20 per hour. Over a year, that amounts to a payroll cost of 20K vs an equivalent full-time worker costing three times that amount counting benefits.
- High function low cost. There are lots of guys like me who have retired from the career track. We still know how to do things and we have a pretty respectable work ethic. We don't need constant supervision. We can handle problems and find solutions. We are not interchangeable parts. We want to feel valued. We miss the action, but not enough to make us go back to the 40+ hour a week grind. And we are willing to the same level of work for considerably less than the going rate for a full-timer.

Most job listings for interesting work demand a full 40 hour week. Most of us who have escaped from hellholes have no desire to return to the work-obsessed existence that characterizes full-time employment these days. I don't want/need to carry a mobile phone (except to order take-out on my way home). Today's career-minded workers must be blackberried or i-phoned up to be taken seriously. They must be willing to give-up luxuries like undisturbed dinners, time with family or even vacations.
During my Florida vacation in February, I was forced by proximity to overhear many phone conversations at the pool and on the beach. People who were supposed to be relaxing who were still tethered to the office. And then there were the fully dressed people who looked like they were attending a conference, but on duty 24X7. It was pathetic to see four people sitting at a table eating breakfast, not enjoying the view or even looking at the others, each one texting on their mobile phone or laptop.

The biggest difference is that part-time professional worker wants to leave the office behind when he goes home or on vacation. He can still work without a supervisor monitoring every action. He doesn't expect to be paid for hours not worked. So I wonder why is this not a reasonable value proposition for an employer.

Some people think I sound irrational, talking about still searching for a minor league job when I should be spending my time fishing and golfing, looking at the wonders of nature and seeking the answer to life's eternal questions.
Maybe they are right...

The Reality of Perception

Some of you Skeptics may have a hard time with certain claims made by true believers about the efficacy of pseudo scientific systems of belief , such as Feng Shui and Astrology
The term pseudoscience refers to any body of belief that cannot be subjected to the rigorous test of science.

Most believers in pseudoscience also believe in scientific facts, but they feel that traditional science does not answer enough questions satisfactorily.

My wife tells me that according to Feng Shui the flood was good for us, because it makes room for new things. Yeah, we had to take a lot of wet stuff to the dump and there is room for new things like sump pumps, dehumidifiers, water monitors, back-up generators. And our lives are so much richer with heightened awareness of the power of water to change everything, the increased fear of rain and nightmares of mold growing in dark corners....

Drip Drip Drip = bad, Flood = good, she tells me. And she believes it.
She seems to have a mystical belief in cosmic harmony. If you arrange physical things according to a prescribed thousands-year-old tradition, you create avenues for good energy (Chi) to flow. This is supposed to bring good luck.

I think that the Chi is disturbed by the glut of wireless signals, (especially tweets) because the Universe thinks most electronic gadgets are a huge waste of time. I don't see how ancient systems of belief can be applicable in a quantum physics era. Unless the Chi is traveling through some kind of worm-hole.

A few weeks ago, I was debating a friend about the efficacy of psuedo-scientific medical "cures." He cited anecdotal claims of certain patients who seemed to have benefited from "alternative" (usually a synonym for "psuedo-scientific")approaches to medicine. I argued that there have always been claims of faith healers and charlatans which have been bolstered by the testimony of true believers. Much of the cure was in the mind.
He argued that my position is - in essence - that if the cure was in the mind of the believer, then it follows that the disease is also created by the mind.
I was reluctant to jump on the "it's all in your head" bandwagon because I realize disease is much too complicated to have such a convenient explanation. Clearly, physical injuries are externally caused, and clogged arteries are not a figment of imagination. But studies in recent years show a strong correlation to certain emotional states and diseases. Anger and Heart attacks, neuroses and bowel issues, etc.
A recent article in the Boston Globe Ideas section summarize recent research into the Placebo effect. This is the name scientists give to the phenomenon that occurs where people who think they are getting medicine experience Cures even when the "medicine" is fake.

One of the findings is that the efficacy of placebo is much stronger in diseases that are actually a collection of symptoms that do not appear to have a physical cause, such as irritable bowel and chronic headaches. It seems there is an increasing body of evidence that the real power of the universe is somewhere up there - among the little gray cells. I notice that none of the faith healers on TV are able to grow a new leg for an amputee. Now that REALLY would be a miracle! Paraphrasing George Carlin, "God is all powerful. He has infinite power to cure you, but He draws the line at replacing missing parts!"

One of my old managers would settle disputes with the dictum "Perception is Reality." At the time, I thought it a feckless phrase, typical of the pronouncements of Ivy league B-school graduates. Now, I see the quantum truth of it.

Notes from the lagging edge - 1

Last week, we learned the answer to the question, "What happens if your cellphone becomes immersed in water?" If you have not already experimented on your own, you might want to review the following potential results:

A. Nothing happens, cellphones are designed to be waterproof.
B. The cell phone still works, but it sounds like you are calling from an aquarium.
C. The cell phone still works, but you lose your contacts list.
D. All Cell phone functionality ceases, Il est mort. (if you'll pardon my French)

The correct answer is, of course, D.

...because the geniuses who design mobile technology apparently do not have access to indoor plumbing, they don't go on boats, and don't carry bottles of water around in their purse that might leak and cause the cell phone to become drenched.

Now, if you or I were designing a device that was small and portable, we would make it waterproof, because we know that human beings often drop things, and gravity sometimes makes things fall into inconvenient places. We understand that a device that is small enough to fit in a pocket, will someday go through the laundry.

That's the practical approach. But if you are really smart, you don't waterproof the device, because you know that you can easily sell a new phone to the forgetful, irresponsible, hapless wet-phone loser.

Anyhow, one of our phones got wet last week. It was time to upgrade anyway. Both of our bare bones Coupe 8630's were at least 3 years old. Ancient by today's standards of functionality. Heck, they were primitive when they were new: no camera, very limited graphic processing, mundane ringtone options. The dry phone had started "pocket dialing" phone numbers on the contacts list at random.

So we reluctantly decided it was time to go down to the Verizon Wireless store to get the screwjob over with.

[As mentioned previously, I am a prisoner/customer of a loose federation of businesses that call themselves Verizon. Once you get hooked into FIOS (TV, Internet, Land phone), you might as well get their wireless service too. This way you get one big, consolidated incomprehensible bill each month, instead of several unconsolidated incomprehensible bills.]

They upgraded both of our old low tech phones to the new low-end model. It's an LG Accolade. One of the reasons I chose it was the review that said this model "...isn't the best camera phone, but it succeeds where a cell phone should." As far as I am concerned, my phone is for outgoing calls. I never turn my phone "on" unless I need to call for take-out Chinese or pizza from the car.

Go ahead and try to call me, you will get my voice mail encouraging you to leave a message on my land line. I do not text or take pictures. I have email and a blog (!) if I want to type some words, and I have a Canon digital camera if I need to take a photo.


What is the deal with ringtones anyhow? Why would you want to disturb everyone at the bar with your dumbass favorite song that everyone knows you paid extra for and of course you are very slow to drag out the phone because you want everyone within earshot to know how cool you are, but they are thinking answer the phone you moron and shut off that lame Yanni ringtone.

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Equipment Failure

Oil is boiling uncontrollably from a damaged oil well in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana Coast. Life-killing oil threatens the coasts fisheries, resorts and wildlife preserves of 3 other states. The president of the oil drilling company BP says that the initial explosion was due to "equipment failure."

Is it coincidental that the price of gasoline was jacked-up ten cents, and is now hovering just under $3.00?

Here in the Boston area over the weekend, a catastrophic "equipment failure" event came when a break in a ten foot pipe sent gillions of gallons into the Charles River and millions of people in 38 communities endured a third day with no pure water. This was not some ancient Roman aqueduct. This is a new facility. The construction of the complex that processes the water was completed just a year or so ago.

Today, the leak is is fixed. But for how long?

One cannot help but think of the faulty construction that characterized "The Big Dig. Can anyone who has read about the corruption and shabby construction practices drive through those tunnel without worrying just a little about safety? Will the ceiling cave-in again?

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The necessities of life - stuff we take for granted such as pure drinking water and available automobile fuel can suddenly become scarce. When this happens, we see how thin the veneer of civility actually is. People who just hours ago were smug assholes proud of their lifestyles turn into snarling beasts fighting over the few bottles of water left at the supermarket.

Water Water Everywhere

It seems that water in one form or another is responsible for most of our woes and joys.
Yesterday, there was a break in the ten foot pipe that feeds water to about 30 communities that surround Boston. About two million people are being advised to boil their drinking water until the situation is fixed.

This photo (ripped-off from Boston.com) shows the empty aisles
in a local store where thirsty residents thronged to stock-up on bottled water. Good news for Poland Springs. Putting in a Buy order tomorrow.


Smart people plan ahead.
If you live in the affected areas, please take my advice: boil up some water now and freeze it so you wll have pure ice cubes for your evening cocktail.