brain candy, current events, opinions, tech, and the event horizon
Let’s face it: Work can be stressful.
…and in America, current trends lean toward working more hours and taking less vacation time. …which amplifies the stress level. Vacations are a crucial part of the average worker’s decompression and stress-reduction process.
However, as Sue writes on the Business Management ABCs blog:
American workers are working longer hours (about nine hours to nine and one half hours per …
American politics has long been divisive. Take the early debates on Federalism. …or look to 1800s thought on race. However, today’s society is more mobile than before. It is easier to relocate far from your ancestral home and maintain contact with parents and grandparents. Furthermore, when relocating, our highly mobile society allows one to live within commuting distance of one’s place of employment. …
My MBA program uses the book Operations Management for MBAs as the core text for the operations management course. I must admit that I really enjoy the book. While it is light, at 460 pages, it is concisely worded and precise. Furthermore, the authors do not shy away from difficult topics. In essence, it is truly a book written for the graduate level– no fluff, lots of meat.
I highly recommend the book for …
For a summary of Network Neutrality (NN), see Wikipedia. Essentially, NN is the belief that content should not be restricted by ISPs. I realize that I am over simplifying; however, that should get readers into the ground-floor of the issue.
One of the original inventors of the WWW (not Al Gore) states:
When I invented the Web, I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission. Now, hundreds of millions of people are using …
China once referred to itself as the Middle Kingdom. This self-centric naming convention is very common in ancient civilizations across the planet. Anthropologists believe it has to do with the limited awareness most ancient civilizations had outside of their own world. Nevertheless, this naming convention serves as a reminder that China is among the many nationally centric countries on Earth.
This tendency is also demonstrated by China’s ancient maps of the …
Imagine a world where biotechnology helps other alternative energy methods to reduce our reliance on traditional energy extraction. According to the Times Online, we are nearing that world. One of their articles indicates that bio-engineers have developed micro organisms that can consume organic material (e.g., wood chips) and excrete a form of crude oil. The article states:
Because crude oil (which can be refined into other products, such as petroleum …
Today’s meme for any form of dissemination is going viral. Whether marketing a product or spreading knowledge, viral is in. …however, many people are already fed-up with this concept. Is it time to redefine our propagation metaphor? Kevin Marks thinks so and I agree.
In a blog post, Kevin compares different forms of organic reproductive strategies and translates them into strategies for spreading software. For type r-Strategy - …
While at a conference, somebody used the following joke as an icebreaker. I have a soft-spot for business humor, so I thought I would share. The joke is a jibe at Six Sigma Black Belts (SSBBs).
A few days ago, a small fire broke out in the CEO’s wastebasket. Many employees rushed in to help fight the fire: one brought water, another brought a fire-extinguisher.
Meanwhile, the company’s SSBB was starting …
Digital photography has changed the world of picture taking. Is geo-tagging the next revolution in how people approach their photographs? Wired writes:
Location-based metadata doesn’t just let you see where you shot your holiday photos, it opens up a whole new resource for the the public. Flickr, for example, lets you search on a location before you even visit and see just what the place looks like. Better still, combine this with …
Many different analogies exist for the concept of continuous improvement. One of the more controversial ones is the “broken window” analogy. LSS Academy describes it as such:
The theory asks us to consider a building with broken windows. It goes on to state that if these windows are not repaired, vandals are far more likely to come along and break additional windows.
Then, unsatisfied with this, these misfits may ultimately decide to break …
