TECHNOLOGY: OLPC has roll out problems — no leadership!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

http://radian.org/notebook/sic-transit-gloria-laptopi

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Date: Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:46:36 +0800
From: jidanni
Subject: OLPC: Sic Transit Gloria Laptopi

…there was no one hired to work on deployment while I was at OLPC, with Uruguay’s and Peru’s combined 360,000-laptop rollout in progress. I was parachuted in as the sole OLPC person to deal with Uruguay, and sent to Peru at the last minute. And I’m really good at thinking on my feet, but what the sh*t do I know about deployment? Right around that time, Walter was demoted and theoretically made the “director of deployment,” a position where he directed his expansive team of — himself. Then he left, and get this: now the company has half a million laptops in the wild, with no one even pretending to be officially in charge of deployment. “I quit,” Walter told me on the phone after leaving, “because I can’t continue to work on a lie.”

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How can you have a roll out without leadership?
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Posted by reinkefj

POLITICS: Milton Friedman – Curing American Health Care

Thursday, September 17, 2009

POLITICS: Milton Friedman – Curing American Health Care

Five and a half safe for work minutes, this demolishes the concept of gooferment licensing medical practice. And, that it winds up in socialism. Where we are today. Argh!

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POLITICS: An unreliable friend

Thursday, September 17, 2009

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100010237/barack-obama-surrenders-to-russia-on-missile-defence/

Barack Obama surrenders to Russia on Missile Defence
By Nile Gardiner World Last updated: September 17th, 2009

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What signal does this send to Ukraine, Georgia and a host of other former Soviet satellites who look to America and NATO for protection from their powerful neighbour? The impending cancellation of Third Site is a shameful abandonment of America’s friends in eastern and central Europe, and a slap in the face for those who actually believed a key agreement with Washington was worth the paper it was written on.

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The USA has ALWAYS been an unreliable friend. I remember, as should any little insurrection, the ’57 Hungarian Revolution. Our Hungarian neighbor cried at the table with my father and uncles about how the State Department sold them out. At your own peril, trust ANY politician’s promise.

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MONEY: Ignore the 5% “rule” at your own financial peril

Thursday, September 17, 2009

http://tinyurl.com/q2c7fp

Tales From Lehman’s Crypt
By LOUISE STORY and LANDON THOMAS Jr.
Published: September 12, 2009

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“I spent a long time being very angry,” says Mr. Schaefer, the former Lehman executive turned gas station owner. “Angry for working so hard and doing so much. More importantly, for my family and all the time I was away traveling — the time I put in away from them. Now all that money I earned, the money paid in stock, is gone. I can’t go back and remake it.”

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When Lehman closed its origination business, Mr. Linton lost his job. Rich and single, he has pursued a life of leisure since then — sailing in his 37-foot boat, playing jazz trombone and, at the moment, taking a week to learn how to fly Russian fighter jets and gliders in New Mexico. He briefly considered attending culinary school.

Although Lehman laid him off in early 2008, his departure turned out to be a boon for Mr. Linton. Being forced out convinced him to bet against the firm’s stock as a counterweight against the Lehman shares he still owned, which protected him when the stock’s value plummeted. Combined with a well-timed sale of his Manhattan apartment and a stream of income from real estate investments, the moves gave him financial padding that frees him from job worries.

“I have been fortunate to have some nice toys,” he says. “And they are all paid up. It’s a nice situation to be in.”

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I don’t understand a lot of things.

I didn’t understand how smart people, with dependents, working on Wall Street, don’t have life insurance. 91101 exposed they didn’t.

I don’t understand how these ex-Lehman people, who worked on the Street, have all their portfolios so heavily weighted with Lehman. Guess they never heard of options or derivatives.

I don’t understand a lot of things. Wall Street’s “rules of thumb” have been time-tested. Ignore them at your own peril.

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Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: A slender thread!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/commentary.asp?record_id=612

Celebrate the Constitution by Becoming an Activist
By John W. Whitehead
9/14/2009

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   “I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state; up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better to have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake.”–Thomas Paine, 1776

Federal law mandates that all high schools, colleges and universities across the country that receive federal funds host educational events about the Constitution on Constitution Day, September 17. There will also be various festivities in Washington, DC, and in some communities across America celebrating the Constitution.

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A scrap of paper is all that stands between us and the camps!

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LIBERTY: What crowd?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

200909162341.jpg

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FUN: Michael Moore can’t sing, but he can bring back memories

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/09/leno-tuesday-ratings-.html

September 16, 2009

Jay Leno’s ratings drop notably for second episode

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The Leno episode featured an interview with Michael Moore in the studio

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I think Michael Moore is a muddled thinker. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed “The Times They Are A Changing”. While he’s no Dylan or PP&M, I can remember singing that in Greenwich Village along with all the other audience of the many folk singers.

For the times they are a changing?

How’s that “hope and change” working out for you?

For the loser now, Will be later to win, For the times they are a-changin’.

“We, The People” have been losing for a long time at the hands of the Political and Elite. Time for us to start winning.

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POLITICS: The only way to win is not to play

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

http://c4ss.org/content/1051

Your obligation not to vote
Center for a Stateless Society
by Alex R. Knight III

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“No one has any ‘right,’ under ordinary everyday circumstances, to use violence or the threat thereof to control another’s life or property. In fact, each of us has a very serious moral obligation to not engage our fellow human beings in such a manner. Yet, cloak a cop or a tax collector or a politician in the magical, quantum-physics defying aura of government, and suddenly this becomes not only acceptable, but even commendable and necessary. Such is the intrinsic nature of the State. Thus, by voting in political elections, a voter implicitly endorses this kind of immoral and intellectually indefensible behavior by proxy. No, Mr. or Ms. Voter, it’s not you specifically who holds the gun to the taxpayer’s head, throws the marijuana smoker into the jail cell, imprisons the peaceful owner of a certain type of weapon for life — and it may not even be the series of politicians you voted for — but in essence, by voting, by casting that ballot for the continuation of government, you are hiring hit men (and women) to do those things for you.” (09/09/09)

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I’ve “learned” by banging my head on the proverbial wall that voting makes ZERO difference.

The incumbent duopoly has insulated themselves from change.

Maybe not voting will eventually tumble the state. Nothing else to date has worked.

Civil disobedience?

WarGames (1983) “A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?”

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RANT: Municipal plate on the GSP

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Monroe’s MG63207 sped down the GSP tailgating.

No cops.

Guess there is a fire convention in Wildwood. The many other fire related cars and trucks with SG and MG plates seemed to be in no need to endanger everyone to get there!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Beck calls the FED out

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Glen Beck on his show now just called out the FED.

“Helicopter” Ben testified that the FED would NOT monetize the debt.

Today, Glen, with some help, demonstrated that the FED auctioned debt to the “public” and the next month bought that specific debt on the secondary market.

Can you say “shell game”?

I bet the Chinese are really steamed with their 5T$!

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