Research & Rescue

Video: Mike Rowe on hard work

Those of you know me personally know what a TEDhead I am. Yesterday evening, I spent some time rooting around the TED site because I saw that there was something called an associate membership that included shipments of books (!). The price was daunting, so I decided to root around some more to find the book list. As far as I know, there isn't one. So, I set out to make one and will share when I'm done. BUT... while on my quest for speakers' books I came across this gem. Who would have thought that Mike Rowe would be a TEDster? Actually, it looks like it's a TED partner conference on entertainment but still.

It's a great video, though I didn't really care for his statements about OSHA and I have a feeling that many of the people to which he refers (saying they don't think it's important) agree with me. If you think I've misinterpreted what he said, set me straight. I may be oversensitive. At any rate, Rowe's anecdote about his show on sheep is hilarious and this one's well worth your time.

Jim Wallis: A Time for Moral Reckoning

I am watching unbelievable pictures tonight of endless swaths of brown oil mixed with the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico, of dying wetlands and marshes, of miles of contaminated coastlines, of dead birds and animals, of helpless and hopeless Gulf Coast residents sadly witnessing their livelihoods and their lives slipping away. With the explosion and sinking of the BP oil rig six weeks ago, the immediate talk was about environmental threats and technical fixes, economic losses and political blaming, and debates about responsibility for the costs. But with the failure of the latest attempt to stop the spill, and with both BP and the federal government admitting they still really don’t know how much oil has already spilled or will spill, a national discussion is beginning about the fundamental moral issues at stake, and perhaps even a national reflection on our whole way of life based on oil dependence and addiction.

Read the rest at blog.sojo.net

Seth's Blog: Benefit event/help wanted in Hyderabad, India

Many of this blog's readers live in India, but I've never been able to do a live event there. Today I'm excited to announce that I'm doing a benefit for Acumen Fund on July 7 in Hyderabad India. All proceeds go to Acumen Fund.

Get the details at sethgodin.typepad.com

The Cheezburger Empire

Hat tip to Dave Maass for the link. Who'd have guessed that something as silly as lolcats could reap that kind of fortune? Well, based on how many hits I took on the single Mary McCormack post (Thanks, Mary. Please say something else outrageous soon) and cat and dog videos as compared to posts about world hunger and poverty, I would have predicted it. But people need to feel good too. So I can haz more gud posts about cheezburgers sumtimez. kthxbai.

Mr. Huh, a 32-year-old entrepreneur, first became aware of I Can Has Cheezburger, which pairs photos of cats with quirky captions, after it linked to his own pet blog. His site immediately crumbled under the resulting wave of visitors.

Read the rest at www.nytimes.com

Tea Party's Role in the BP Disaster

Amazing piece on Alternet this morning on the oil industry roots of the tea party movement. - a must read.

Why are the hoppin'-mad Teabaggers so oddly quiet these days, ever since the BP oil disaster? That's what Thomas Frank, author of What's The Matter With Kansas? asked last week in his column, "Laissez-faire Meets The Oil Spill." Ideologically, it's painfully obvious why the Teabaggers are now the Teagaggers: their free-market gospel got mugged by oil-drenched reality -- a reality so horrific that even pollster Frank Luntz couldn't spin the BP disaster as the government's fault. Best to just shut up when you're that wrong.   

But there's another, more concrete reason why the Tea Party revolutionaries melted back into their suburbs as soon as the enormity of the Gulf spill disaster hit: The Tea Party evolved out of the pro-offshore drilling astroturf movement in 2008. They even share some of the same organizers and front groups, from PR operative like Eric Odom, to advocacy groups like FreedomWorks, whose combined efforts on the "Drill Here! Drill now!" astroturf campaign succeeded in opening up all of America's coastlines and waters to offshore drilling, overturning a 27-year ban thanks to threats of "a Boston-style Tea Party," as one Republican put it in the summer of 2008.

Read the rest at www.alternet.org

Blackwater for sale

Perhaps Blackwater's retail outlet plan was a tad too late. The NYT reported this morning that the whole company is now for sale.

Erik Prince, the former member of the Navy Seals and heir to an automotive fortune who founded Blackwater, said in a statement given to The Associated Press late Monday that making the decision to sell the company was difficult, but that he no longer wanted to deal with the intense criticism the business has faced.

“Performance doesn’t matter in Washington, just politics,” Mr. Prince said.

via www.nytimes.com

Prince's quote here reminds me of the game Carmaggedon. Performance? Apparently he thinks all the people hurt by their nefarious operations should get him points. And I am ceaselessly amazed at how people who support the kind of behaviour they engaged in (actually that we, the US, have behaved in) scream "politics" when someone calls them on blatant violations of human rights.

Rwanda reduces business registration to one hour

This story is pretty amazing, I think. I could be wrong but I don't think you can do this so quickly in the US.

KIGALI, RWANDA - An Online business registration service has been officially launched in Rwanda reducing time it takes to register a company from a day to just one hour.

The online business registration service went live on Rwanda Development Board (RDB) website http://org.rdb.rw last week.

This means one can register a company in the comfort of their homes or at any internet café without necessarily going to RDB offices in Kigali.

Some RDB officials think the development will help many investors formalise businesses and create more wealth in Rwanda.

via www.busiweek.com

Legal but risky

Hat tip Drake Intelligence Group for the link. One had to anticipate the eventual use of social media in an entirely inappropriate manner. In my humble opinion, this is the business equivalent of breaking up with your high school sweetheart via text message. Have we become this crass?

Firing staff through social media legal but risky - Business - News

Worldchanging: Bright Green: Solar Sisters: The Avon Lady of African Renewables

Solar Sisters, a new solar entrepreneur program, has taken Avon's social sales model and is using it to spread solar powered lamps across Uganda. Avon cosmetics began as a failed 19th century book-selling venture. Its “Avon Calling” approach, where saleswomen sold directly to other women, helped it grow into one of the 500 largest companies in the United States with annual global revenues of over US$10 billion.

Read the rest at www.worldchanging.com

Why Is ‘Free Trade’ Conventional Wisdom?

In this cross-post from Huffington Post, Stan Sorscher, legislative director for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), looks behind the knee-jerk call for free trade to examine what such a policy really means for our nation.

Read it at blog.aflcio.org