chuck kottke

> True, it is one motivator in human endeavors. And yes I agree - CEO's have taken the lion's share of the profits, way beyond their worth, and often to the disincentive of the companies they are at the heads of. Yeah, that is so true - you can't take it with you, and if not shared, one looses something more valuable than all the money in the world can buy - shared happiness. But I think it becomes a game to some (without a doubt!) where it's just a peg on a scoreboard; to others, it's a drug, which delivers a euphoric sense in the brain when some level of accumulation or goal is achieved; the gambling, scrambling frenzy of the market floor attracts still others. Divorced of reality and devoid of reflection, individuals caught up in the race loose sight of all other values, of reality, and of social stability and equity. External things are not accounted for, things become objects or compartments, loosing their sense of deeper meaning. It has a certain corrosive effect on democracies when a few who have amassed control in the markets can buy the government they want, or prevent real competition from occurring. I agree - salary caps are a good start! But I still wonder if the whole system isn't highly flawed by design - there are other ways to motivate, to coordinate and form effective teams for the production of goods or the delivery of services. Instead of the same way, what about more worker-owned companies? Motivation can be monetary, but often that neglects other principal motivators we all share in life. The love of humanity, one of the great Greek loves - philanthropy - just seeing the shared joy or knowing the greater social good being done is a powerful motivator. And not all venues in life seek the coin of the realm as a motivator - hence, artists simply want to create and convey some sense of something, a state of mind, an awakening of the senses. Or a family practitioner who just wants to see neighbors and friends get well, and is rewarded by the warm sense of knowing that a neighbor feels better, and of giving of oneself gains something of the infinite in return. Can we reward people for good service towards others fairly, and not put them on a tread mill to service more patients per hour? When applied to the medical field, market driven systems are highly flawed, and hence the U.S. has poor outcomes when it comes to primary and preventive care, while costs top all other nations for health care. We suffer from a lack of general practitioners - family doctors - because the money is made in specialties where expensive procedures and equipment turn the biggest profit. And it is this preventive, general care that is the most important, for correcting problems before they become more serious. So few want to go into general practice, and the high costs of market-driven education makes the loans a heavy burden, pushing more and more grads into specialties. So I wonder if a broader spectrum of motivators and team efforts needs to be considered, as well as the other concepts that motivate - the joy of discovery, as in the sciences; achieving goals for the sake of making something happen (I think of the Greek potters who simply wanted to master the art of fine design and decoration on vases, competing with one-another not for money, but for a higher level of perfection or interest). Puzzle solvers, mystery solvers - investigators who are driven to piece together a problem and find a solution. And when it comes to CEO's, in worker-owned companies, motivation by standards and merit, based on effort or technical expertise or teamwork, and rewarding members of the company in that manner has proven a successful way to structure a business. Ultimately to prevent the excess of concentrated wealth in any nation is to preserve democracy and individual liberties. Setting up better structures and establishing better patterns makes our world a better place.

This is an excerpt from a very recent interview with Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon from DemocracyNow!: Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón on Holding Torturers Accountable, Why He Opposes the Killing of Osama bin Laden, and His Threatened Ouster from the Bench JUDGE BALTASAR GARZÓN: Good Morning. Thank you. AMY GOODMAN: And thank you to Tony Geist for translating. Judge Garzón, let’s start with the latest news: the assassination of Osama bin Laden. You have condemned this. Why? JUDGE BALTASAR GARZÓN: [translated] Any person who leads a terrorist organization like al-Qaeda is obviously a target. Under the rule of law, justice should be sought by legal means. According to the information we have, he could well have been arrested and brought to trial for his crimes. AMY GOODMAN: Yet he was assassinated. Talk about the example you believe this sets. JUDGE BALTASAR GARZÓN: [translated] According to international law, the murder or the assassination of bin Laden was not the appropriate solution. Clearly, from the information we have, it’s an undefined situation, given the state of conflict between the United States and al-Qaeda.

Sometimes I lead, sometimes I follow, this time I go where she wants me to go. Said maybe today, maybe tomorrow, keeping the boys down on long valley road..

walk

:stunned: A helicopter pad at work? Must be an interesting place to work at then!:) Is there sufficient lawn to land another one on? Maybe they would add another pad, if they knew you needed a "parking" spot?;)

The juxtaposition of military personnel and how they are taught to think in uniform, and individuals in private homes, how we are in different modes of thought. Is it not a universal right, the respect of oneself in one's own home, of one's privacy and sanctuary? The things we so enshrine we must uphold for all, as these are basic rights of all.

Justice, that's what I think we really need to look at. All the business about this or that is a distraction to me from the central issue - what is the right way to deal with those extremists who use terror tactics ? As suspects, and for the sake of respecting the rule of law, they should be primarily arrested and then tried in court. Since it's an international matter, one should go with the international courts. We did this with Milosevic, Mugabe, Goring, Hess, Demjanjuk, and so forth. One can't make war on organized crime - it's not a state, it's an amorphous organization - it has no central location, and it's leadership simply gets replaced when one "takes out" the current leader. I think if we did this and showed respect with how we conducted searches alongside Pakistani police forces, using credible evidence presented to a judge, obtaining warrants if the evidence is sufficient to justify arrests or collection of evidence, and then conducting careful searches with due respect for human rights and individual dignity - we would probably be solving the terrorism problem, by showing that we behave in a manner respectful of human rights. Combine that with reducing poverty and inequity, finding ways to offer meaningful work, education, and mutual respect for the citizens of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the recruitment by Al Qaeda would drop, citizens there would see us as standing on their side as protectors of human rights. It's a problem with states which were fragmented such as Afghanistan, but then the answer is working with locals to listen to their interests and respecting their rights, treating them as equals. Bin Laden is dead, but solving the issues of reducing the threats of terror acts isn't - I think that is the more critical matter. Unfortunately the U.S. military brass is bent on hitting targets without much consideration for innocents killed, or the respectful way to conduct searches in private residences - they forget what so incensed Americans at the time of the revolution - the barging in unannounced by British troops under King George into people's homes, without protections of law and courts to safeguard one's sense of sanctuary - that had the colonists up in arms. I really wonder about not being able to arrest Bin Laden and take him into custody - sounds like the seals could have done that, but why didn't they? Perhaps they really were threatened, but there are reports to the contrary.

:laugh3: It's a police state here, I tells ya! :laugh3::policeman: Just try and drive around with an old car with "cop magnets" on it once - then you'll know what I'm talking about! Add to that, the budget shortfall means agencies try to make up the loss of revenues in other "creative" ways. You'll never catch me, copper! :shifty:

:stunned::laugh3: A very Dyslexic world we will be living in then!:laugh3: I vote for Davidism, which makes sense, since King David will rule again!:crown:

Thanks for the updates Nancy! I hope the Spanish Coldplayer is well and her family is well there in Spain, though it sounds like everyone fared pretty well being prepared for the quake. Sounds like the Japanese Quake was minor, but still, that's got to be unsettling. Hope everyone's alright there, and sad to hear the news about the plant worker.

:laugh3: I'm betting on Pink Floyd to have a huge comeback - lots of interesting bands coming from their music.

Bands - emission spectra bands, when the electrons "jump" down from up high, and give off a little wiggle on their way to the ground state. It's their music sort-of, and it fits in a band width. ;) Maybe Radiohead, since they seem the most bandwith prone, although radio waves are low energy. But Coldplay emit more high energy radiation, and I much prefer something in the visual frequencies.

:laugh3: Thanks for clarifying that Maggy !!

Of course it's not dead, but I though the title would grab some attention..:P But I do think something has to be done to improve fairness in the anthropogenic world. What are your thoughts?

:escaping2::escaping::escaping3::wacko: What goes on in here? Some sort of cake dance?:P

Semiconductor valence electron energy bands! :P It's important in our times - that's what keeps all this super-duper high techy stuff going!!:glasses2::smart: (and let's not forget the dopants - there's phosphorous and arsenic, boron and antimony) Types of semiconductors - Learn about their classification

Hi Sarah, hope you have fun here!:sunny:

I think Capitalism is nearing it's zenith, on it's way down. No system that allows such great inequities to develop, and has no interest in fostering the social good can last. It has led to an amassing of power in the hands of a very few, who attain their power on the backs of poor workers. But what to replace it with? Some have said worker-owned cooperatives, or pay-it-forward places works better. What else would be better? Better checks and balance in social programs with governments? Or should we just find ways to check the excesses, demand better social safety nets, and keep corporate oligarchies from happening?

> All roads lead to Rome! (or is it Roam? :laugh3:) You could invest in a personal helicopter, and generally there's less air traffic... Let's see - there's this Mosquito one, which looks like fun :Mosquito Aviation - Home of the Ultimate Ultralight Helicopter : Index Or one made by RotorWay: RotorWay International - Premiere Kit Helicopters These are both kit builds, but I think that saves some money.. Or, how about an Enstrom Helicopter, built near here: Enstrom Helicopter Corporation Or just enjoy the country-lane route.. ;)

Harrison, George :guitarist:

ELO:cool3:

Andy Worhol:wiseguy:

I'll start off - this should be interesting! Coldplay

I knew it all this time - people are radioactive, just like stars! :laugh3: Yikes, dim that glow a bit, your intense emission of photons is giving me a starburn!:P :sunny::sunny::sunny::sunny::sunny:

That would be true if everyone does that. More likely that most will just do what they usually do - drive like nuts and get there as fast as they can.:laugh3: (because they're horses in a race) Ah, Friday is when the loonies are all released onto the roads here - I see nothing much changing.. faster faster, the lights are turning red! Life in the fast lane, overdrive, all the time. I suppose drivers are more civilized in the UK? > Sounds like a traffic engineering problem, solvable with some common sense. But public works don't always involve common sense solutions! Which is why we need to implement the real solution to driving to work. Simply live at work! (actually this is often the case in California, where the commute can be 2 hours one-way)