fair and balanced ranting

Essential work tools

Field Notes notebook, Jet Pens Pilot Choose pen, spare brain, Eddie Bauer pocket knife (in brain), and small tea pot.

Arianna Huffington: Rome Diary: Metaphysical Slogans, Half-Full Restaurants, Giving up Texting for Lent, and Dinner with the Italian King of Soy

I usually give up penguin meat for Lent…

On the ride to the hotel I read Kara Swisher's post on the conference and learned that a local Catholic diocese is asking its parishioners to give up text messaging for Lent. I guess abstaining from meat on Fridays from now until Easter is so 16th century.

(Via Arianna Huffington: Rome Diary: Metaphysical Slogans, Half-Full Restaurants, Giving up Texting for Lent, and Dinner with the Italian King of Soy.)

Op-Ed Columnist - The Dead Tree Theory - NYTimes.com

Louisiana has gotten $130 billion in post-Katrina aid. How is it that the stars of the Republican austerity movement come from the states that suck up the most federal money? Taxpayers in New York send way more to Washington than they get back so more can go to places like Alaska and Louisiana. Which is fine, as long as we don1t have to hear their governors bragging about how the folks who elected them want to keep their tax money to themselves. Of course they do! That's because they're living off ours.

(Via Op-Ed Columnist - The Dead Tree Theory - NYTimes.com.)

Leadership Is About Skills Not Gender

Interesting quote on leadership by Nina Simosko of SAP at Myventurepad.

we must remember that every successful leader owes their achievement to the dedicated and energized organization that supports them — or what I call a village. For sure, a leader leads, but one also needs followers, supporters and a raft full of other leaders at all levels. It's high time we put the focus on where we want to go and how we are going to get there

From her own site:

Working faster, producing more with less and so on will not transform our businesses or make our teams more resilient to the economic cycle. Working creatively and redefining the nature of what we do is, perhaps, one of the greatest challenges that leaders face in the period ahead.

Jesus...

louisgray.com: One Thousand Four Hundred Sixty One Days

Over the next one thousand, four hundred and sixty one days, there will be scandals, both real and artificial. There will be surprises. There will be excitement and frustrations. There will be great speeches and boring ones. And if you think about it, theoretically, Obama and his team would have to royally screw things up to not have the American people say, in November 2012, that they will be better off than they are today, giving them a running start at reelection already. But anyone who thinks this is going to be a piece of cake is kidding themselves. Even as Obama spoke today, and gave a speech many are fawning over, the stock market fell. Even as many cheered in Washington DC, others were notified they were losing their jobs. And the wars around the world didn't take a time out.

(Via louisgray.com: One Thousand Four Hundred Sixty One Days.)

Talking Points Memo | Breaking News and Analysis

As some of you have seen, Vice President Cheney is getting pushed around today in a wheelchair. Thankfully, it's no serious medical issue. He hurt his back lugging books while moving out of the old digs. But it's iconic. There's no escaping the symbolism of the tired and enfeebled old guard hobbling off the stage. On so many fronts the stage setting, the unpredictable coincidences, perhaps just the fates seem to be conspiring to give us a dose of hyper-reality, not just the truth of the moment but a scaffolding of trappings and symbolic exclamation points to make sure we're paying attention.

(Via Talking Points Memo | Breaking News and Analysis.)

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

It will be about the moment. What Obama understands - and it's worth reiterating - is that his presidency is a unique combination of one man and one very specific moment in time. We are witnessing the collapse of an old ideological order, the end of the 1960s, and the implosion of conservatism as an intellectually coherent governing philosophy. Into this wasteland, created by some hideous combination of evil enemies abroad and clueless leaders at home, this man arrives. Without the events of 2003 - 2006, Obama would not be president. And after the Bush catastrophe, we are immensely lucky he is. Alone, he is impressive - and would have made a good president at any time in the next few decades. But now, in this moment, with this set of gargantuan problems, at a time when Americans need desperately to believe again in their country and their constitution and their president ... well.

I don't really believe in any grand idea of providence, and don't believe that America is somehow more blessed by the divine than any other (that notion is absurd to my Catholic mind). But this week is testing my agnosticism.

(Via The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.)

eLearn: Feature Article

Wrenching changes in business and society accompanying the global transition from the industrial age to the network economy will kill off much of the training and education programs as we have known it. In its place will arise a more natural approach to learning through collaboration and sharing. There are great times ahead, an era of fulfilling, bounteous learning unprecedented in human history. However, the journey to this promised land will be brutal and unforgiving for people and organizations who resist change and lobby for "back to the basics."
—Jay Cross, Internet Time Group LLC, USA

(Via eLearn: Feature Article.)

The Wine Bin

Went to The Wine Bin yesterday for their grand opening. It is in Old Town just as you come into town. Great location and layout. Nice selection of under $15/bottles. Very friendy staff. Will go back.