03/10/04 09:57 - ID#35465
Rememberescing
Permalink: Rememberescing.html
Words: 268
Location: Buffalo, NY
03/10/04 11:05 - ID#35464
Where the productivity gains go
An example: A call-site with a staff of 100 workers, paid $10/hour, takes 5000 calls/day. An automated line is developed which reduces the need for human assistance by half, in other words, only 2500 calls must be answered by workers. So, our workers' average calls/day has dropped from 50 to 25. What happens now? The standard corporate solution is to layoff half the workforce, or most of them, and make the remaining part-time. Thus, the benefits of the new technology are reaped only by the CEOs and shareholders. Is this the only way to operate? Why can't these technological benefits be assed on to the workers. Instead of a mass layoff, why don't we reduce the workweek from 40 to 35 hours (keeping the salary unchanged)? How about investing in education of your workforce? What about some paid vacation? These ideas are fast becoming unheard of. They don't fit into the standard model of "doing business."
Of course, it's not too hard to find examples of different systems, just look 50-60 years back in America or across the Atlantic. Some European countries still display this attitude of shorter workweeks, longer vacation, and more benefits, though how long this disparity will last under the pressures of modern "free-trade" and globalization is debatable. The point is that technology is not the problem, the distribution of its benefits is. Instead of going directly to CEO and shareholder accounts they should be more equally distributed throughout the workforce they affect.
Permalink: Where_the_productivity_gains_go.html
Words: 336
Location: Buffalo, NY
03/08/04 10:42 - ID#35463
just plain strange
And...this is just disturbing
(The sheep is on top)
Inflatable Party Sheep designed to be the friend you've always needed, the love you have always dreamed of. It's the little lamb you can love and will love you back. For all your sheep loving friends - bring out the beast in them. For centuries men the world over have known that a sheep is the next best thing to a woman. It is soft, sexy, and disease free!
Permalink: just_plain_strange.html
Words: 143
Location: Buffalo, NY
03/06/04 08:44 - ID#35462
Freak genes appear in 2/3rds of our crop
This is a good article too I think and a good idea for Kerry. Bring the whole team along I say.
Permalink: Freak_genes_appear_in_2_3rds_of_our_crop.html
Words: 264
Location: Buffalo, NY
03/06/04 12:32 - ID#35461
music and language
Apparently when the volunteers heard a related word key areas of the brain responded with high levels of activity. When the unrelated word was shown no such response was garnered. The relevance of this "priming" of the brain is seen in many other activities of language. For example, in other studies it has been shown that participants respond differently after reading a passage relating to a particular topic and then seeing a similar word afterwards (ie: a passage about sailing is read and then the brain mapped as the next word is read, desert or ocean). The study gives credence to the theory that music and language evolved along the same lines in terms of human understanding, just how related remains to be understood fully. Some suggest that music (or tonal recognition, and harmonic relations) may have played an important role in the development of language.
Permalink: music_and_language.html
Words: 218
Location: Buffalo, NY
03/04/04 02:19 - ID#35460
right here right now
Permalink: right_here_right_now.html
Words: 317
Location: Buffalo, NY
03/03/04 12:57 - ID#35459
American Roots
In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority [italics mine]. The Senate, therefore, ought to be this body.
So if anyone still believes in the common fallacy that the crafters of our constitution really believed in any form of equality, please reconsider. They knew exactly what they were doing, basically making sure that the wealthy landowners (ie: the opulent minority) would stay wealthy and become wealthier through direct control over the political and economic processes of our country and its people (ie: the sniveling majority).
from:
Jonathan Elliot, ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 1787 ("Yates's Minutes"), Philadelphia: Lippincott, 2nd edition, 1836
Permalink: American_Roots.html
Words: 201
Location: Buffalo, NY
03/02/04 01:22 - ID#35458
Draft 'em all
Currently our army (enlisted men, excluding officers) consists overwhelmingly of poor people. It is a last resort for too many kids with few prospects (see some of my other journals about prisons and soldiers [inlink]userName=terry,blogID=62[/inlink] & [inlink]userName=terry,blogID=64[/inlink]). The reason for this is that we have what is called a "professional army" composed of paid soldiers whose main occupation is war (call it "defense" or "peacekeeping" if you like). What we used to have was a "volunteer army," meaning that our citizens were our army when needed (hence our 2nd amendment rights to carry arms: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.). The draft is an extension on this volunteer army system.
There are many differences between the two types of armies. Economically speaking, a huge standing army (ie: our current system) must be constantly paid, fed, housed, etc. With a draft in place, you would of course keep a much smaller army, and only pay a larger force when necessary. I think a part of the reason for our skyrocketing defense budgets since Vietnam has a lot to do with maintaining a gigantic army constantly. Politically, it is much harder to justify war if you don't have professional soldiers. If the kids going to war aren't just from the farms and the ghettos, but from right next door-suburbia, you better have good reasons. How much more antiwar sentiment can you garner if everyone has to worry about themselves or their loved ones being drafted? I especially like that there are very tough requirements for waivers in the new bill which would hopefully prevent stooges like our current leader from ditching his duty. Another point I always think of is if it ever got down to the army being used for civil purposes (as was very close in Miami this summer at the FTAA protests) I would much rather see a draftee who still remembered being a civilian than a hardened professional killer.
Basically the way it works now is hugely expensive, allows America to have a gigantic army that can be repositioned as easily as the pieces on a Risk board, disproportionately utilizes lower class labor, breeds sociopathic killers, must not be strenuously justified, and allows slackers like Dubya off the hook. So while I personally have no desire to be drafted, I don't know that the idea should be so off-handedly dismissed. I just think of the next war that Dubya thinks up, in Lybia or Iran or wherever, and imagine the draft cards going around, and the hundreds of thousands who then could stand up in solidarity, saying we will not fight for your greedy wars. The 82nd Airborn is never going to do that.
Permalink: Draft_em_all.html
Words: 486
Location: Buffalo, NY
03/01/04 01:45 - ID#35457
Oh the Wild
Squelching through slime
Racing through time
Fast as you can but watch out for the fall
White wonder abounds
Breath panting in rounds
To the river of course though hidden beneath
Coruscating ice floe
Wary feet tread slow
Across and over rushing depths below
Round the next bend
Like pure heavensend
Glistening water frozen while falling
Boys take it in
Both sight and sin
Winter relaxes and they enjoy the melt
Permalink: Oh_the_Wild.html
Words: 78
Location: Buffalo, NY
02/29/04 01:09 - ID#35456
I miss Germany
Permalink: I_miss_Germany.html
Words: 321
Location: Buffalo, NY
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