Celebrating Lammas

A Florida friend posted earlier today about Lammas, a Celtic holiday celebrated on August 1st. I don't know anything about Lammas, so I followed my friend's links to learn a bit more about it.

The day commemorates the harvest and asks celebrants to "honor the passing of the light and the reaping of the harvest," according to Waverly Fitzgerald, a Seattle-area resident who blog includes matters such as "slow time, sacred time and seasonal time." The ancient ideas Fitzgerald considers are refreshing antidotes to today's disturbingly unquestioning embrace of technology.

I think my Florida friend has the right idea. Why not take time to honor Lammas and all that this gloriously pagan holiday symbolizes?

Film Maker Chris Marker -- RIP

Chris Marker
(photo from sensesofcinema.org)

The enigmatic French film maker Chris Marker died recently in Paris at age 91. His passing was noted in France in a rather brief obit in Le Monde, and a somewhat longer one in the Los Angeles Times. Neither obit was particularly satisfying. That's quite possibly in keeping with Marker's life, which was shrouded in mystery. His stance toward publicity was as polar opposite to, say, Oliver Stone, as is humanly possible.

For more insight into Marker, take time to read Agnes Varda's brief adieu to her enigmatic friend. The piece is in French, so reader beware.

Marco Rubio's "Emergency Landing" and The Second Malfunctioning Aircraft

Marco Rubio at a campaign event in Las Vegas, NV,
prior to "emergency landing"

It's been an interesting weekend for Florida GOP senator and VP consideration Marco Rubio. As was reported largely by TV networks, Rubio's private plane, on a flight from Las Vegas to Des Moines, had to make an emergency landing in New Mexico. The CBS/Miami story offers the most succinct, factually based account of the incident.

The publicly stated cause for the unscheduled stop was an indication of an electrical failure on the aircraft. What's curious about the story was that Rubio had changed aircraft earlier that day. The plane Rubio, his wife, and others originally intended to fly was also grounded due to mechanical issues.

Rubio did display some gallows humor in his Tweet about the incident, stating "Now I know how to take a hint!"

What are the odds that two private aircraft will develop mechanical issues on the same day?

This event occurred while presumptive GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney was out of the country.

Google Fiber in KC Comes With $70 Per Month Pricetag

Country Club Plaza, Kansas City, MO

Google announced today that its intriguing fiber-based Internet service will cost users seventy dollars per month. In exchange, subscribers get service that's "about 100 times faster than a basic cable modem," according to an article in today's siliconvalley.com.

Those willing to pony up an additional fifty dollars per month would also receive "cable-TV-like service over the fiber, and a tablet computer that works as a remote."

The last option got my attention. Using a tablet to interface with a lightning-fast fiber connection opens up wonderful possibilities for home and institutional uses. While the service is expensive for most mom-and-pop consumers, someone who works or socializes online may find this opportunity an online bonanza. The key concept in Google's initiative is video, which can take advantage of the Internet speeds Google's fiber gambit offers.

Hopefully, Google's Internet service takes root in KC, and we will be able to witness how truly fast Internet speeds impact work and leisure.

PS. The July 27th online edition of The Washington Post includes an article outlining Google Fiber's service options to residential customers. Curiously, Google chose not to include business-oriented services at this time.

US Not Alone with Drought Woes

Drought in India

I was traveling through Illinois corn and soybean country recently, and it was plain to see the drought's impact on the crops. Many plants had brown stems, and some local businesspeople told me that any ears of corn that do emerge will have fewer kernels or none at all. The consequences of this agricultural disaster are quickly being spelled out. The major impact will be felt by livestock and poultry producers, as corn and soybeans are essential to the animals' diets. In an article in today's Financial Times, the chief executive of Smithfield Foods asserted that the once unquestioned availability of inexpensive meat for most Americans was now in doubt.

Have you considered going on a diet? Sound as if now might be the time to start. It's not as if you would be giving up meat. After all, you can't eat what you can't buy.

Whatever Americans face, though, is manageable compared to Asia. A post in the financial blog zerohedge.com noted that the monsoon season in India has delivered over 20% less precipitation than normal. This situation would mean reduced food and animal feed supply for the world's second most populous nation. That does not sound like a good scenario at all.

Huckabee Urges "Appreciation" of Homophobic Chick-fill-A

Mike Huckabee
(photo from huckpac.com)

Mike Huckabee, whose moment in the sun of possible presidential candidacy faded in Barack Obama's shadow, continues to pursue his social agenda. Some time ago, he started a publishing company whose principal purpose was the production of ideologically sound school textbooks. Today, Huckabee continues to agitate for fanatical Christian right-wing political perspectives. His most recent move, according to today's Washington Post, was to ask people to patronize Chick-fill-A fast food restaurants on August 1st in a show of solidarity with the firm's vocal, homophobic perspectives. Chick-fill-A's president, Dan Cathy, has linked his own opinion to what Cathy asserts are the Bible's insistence on "traditional" marriage and, presumably, traditional sexual relations. Huckabee shares those notions.

What Cathy's and Huckabee's stance is on Mitt Romney's Mormon missionary position remains unknown.

Former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson Lands New Job

Scott Thompson

The first of Yahoo's three CEOs for 2012 has found a new job. Scott Thompson, who was forced to leave Yahoo after allegedly misrepresenting his prior employment experience, is now the big banana at ShopRunner. Thompson's new firm provides "shipping perks from a variety of websites," according to a story in today's Mercury News.

Of course, most people who get caught lying about their resume generally don't get rehired a few weeks after the fact. I would think that would be especially true for a highly publicized case, such as Thompson's. However, the former Yahoo boss has many friends in the tech world. He also might be a value pick that ShopRunner's sharp-eyed owner may have plucked from the scrap heap.

Stranger things have happened on the road to reputational rehabilitation.

Will Offshore Tax Havens Be the Bane of Mitt Romney's Candidacy?

Cayman National Bank

For the first time in American political history, the issue of a presidential candidate's offshore bank accounts has emerged into mainstream consideration. Mitt Romney's campaign is already tarred with innuendo that the presumptive GOP presidential candidate's fortune has benefitted from considerable asset allocation into Swiss and Cayman Island banks. His stance on the issue is essentially to dismiss it, ignore it, and discuss how his business acumen may help the nation.

Unfortunately for Romney, capital flight into offshore havens is a growing, and very dirty, issue. It's no secret that Bain Capital's founder and most significant senior management figure made zillions during his tenure at the firm. He probably approved what most extremely wealthy people throughout the world do: they park the money in offshore accounts. The most significant plays in this case are tax avoidance and secrecy.

Romney knows he is in elite company. According to a report in today's online editions of The Observer, the offshore economy can now be measured in the trillions of dollars.  (It wasn't so long ago that a billion dollars was a profound amount of money. How times have changed!) The wealth transfer is simply staggering. The Observer article asserts the amount of offshore money equals the combined GDP of the United States and Japan.

The impact of this flight of wealth is a bi-level global society in which the super-rich, oligarchs, kleptocracy bosses, gangsters, and powerful politicians dodge tax payments while everyone else is left holding the bill for their nations' well-being. With countries in various forms of financial extremis, those keen to rule democratic societies will have to explain how moving personal wealth to offshore accounts positively impacts the country they desire to serve.

Clearly, this angle will be a tough sell for Romney. No wonder Bain Capital's former boss might very well view offshore tax havens as the bane of his political ambitions.

Wallenda Dunned for Niagara Falls Police, Fire Overtime

Wallenda over Niagara.
Any resemblance to Mitt Romney's tax accountant
is purely coincidental.
(photo from the Washington Post)

Nik Wallenda might find walking over Niagara Falls easier than dealing with the eponymous city's political administration. Niagara Falls, NY's mayor is attempting to compel the performer to pay $25,000 for police and fire department overtime services rendered during Wallenda's recent tightrope act over the world's most famous waterfall. According to a story in today's online edition of The New York Times, the dispute has become increasingly contentious, with the city wanting cash and Wallenda offering the benefits of free publicity.

Niagara Falls could use plenty of both. Instead, it's cash poor and generating the wrong kind of publicity. Why the city administration can't simply bask in the glory of Wallenda's stunt is puzzling. That would be too simple and too sensible. Instead, the mayor is hounding Wallenda for a sum equal to the price of a cheap new car. There must be better things to do.

Washington State Allows Voter Reg Via Facebook

Thanks to a big assist from a Microsoft app,  the state of Washington is now permitting voter registration via Facebook. Just thought you would want to know. The scoop came from arstechnica.com.

Congress Shares Romney's Reluctance to Reveal Tax Returns

First Page of Mitt Romney's
2010 Federal Income Tax Return
(from Washington Post)

There's little doubt Mitt Romney has screwed the pooch on his tax return release. The feeling the presumptive GOP presidential candidate has something shocking to hide just won't go away.

Ironically, some of Romney's harshest Congressional critics have also avoided sharing their tax returns with the voting public. According to a story in today's online edition of The Miami Herald, virtually no member of Congress will offer a detailed revelation of their tax history. The laws regarding Congressional tax transparency are unsurprisingly opaque. They effectively make it difficult to determine what areas of the tax code a House representative or US senator might be sensitive to.

Some of the Democrats' loudest anti-Romney voices hide behind these convenient laws. Among them are Nancy Pelosi, whose husband is a significant Bay Area venture capitalist and real estate owner. Another is South Florida's Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee's chairwoman.

Gary Ackerman, a New York Democrat who is not seeking re-election, stated the matter in bitter terms.  "'First your publishers and editors and execs should publish their tax returns. They have great influence over public policy,'" he suggested. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for a GOP House member from South Carolina complained that reporters were not demanding Barack Obama's college records. Some people just don't get it.

The response from Senator Jay Rockefeller's office was characteristic of the attitude of the nation's 100 senators and 535 congressional representatives: "Thanks, but we will not give you Senator Rockefeller's tax return. Good luck with your project."

Luck you, too, senator.

The MOOC Movement's Big Splash

Daphne Koller
(photo from Stanford University)

The Massive Open Online Courses movement, often called by the acronym MOOC, has recently taken a strong step forward into a brave new higher educational world. An online startup called Coursera is offering courses in selected tech subjects and math suitable for higher education. The firm is the brainchild of two Stanford University professors, one of whom is a MacArthur grant winner. Their goal is to transform "the face of higher education," noted Daphne Koller, one of the Stanford pair.

Coursera, and its MOOC relatives, essentially provide courses taught by star professors. Participants don't earn university credit, but then again, the courses are free. The story, which has received wide, big-league media coverage, hints at MOOC's tremendous implications without really stating them. (The Seattle Times version, which has a hometown interest, as the University of Washington signed a deal with Coursera, is linked here.)

The rather obvious implication in the MOOC movement is turning higher education into a monopoly of star professors. Why would anyone want to study chemistry or poetry from some also-ran doc? Those who has endured the American university system knows first hand how many courses are occupied by researchers who can't teach or communicate. For lower-tier colleges, MOOC is an existential threat, unless they turn their faculty into glorified MOOC teaching assistants. Of course, that strategy would lower salaries and, voila, make college cheaper to operate. The star profs, meanwhile, would be worth millions.

Coursera and others in the MOOC movement have considered the profit motive in their enterprises' calculations. The Seattle Times story quoted a University of Washington provost's estimate of $30,000 required for "one online course, and 'you have to monetize this in some fashion.' Coursera has outlined two models for making money....Under terms of the contract with the UW, the organization would get a 7 to 15 percent return of gross revenue under either scenario...But Coursera's courses still would be free."

Image from Jeremy Knox,
a co-instructor for a Coursera course.

The most interesting part of the story is how Coursera would use "data-mining software" to grasp how students were learning. I'm doubtful any system based on data analytics can foster true intellectual growth. Instead of the Socratic method and dialogue, we're left with a data-driven nightmare principally designed for the benefit of top-down management and financial efficiency. While Coursera and MOOC programs may very well be splendid, they lack the intimate human touch genuine education needs.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Gets 1.05% Home Mortgage

What is the interest rate on your mortgage? If you signed off on a two percent mortgage, you would be thrilled at your deal. Yet, you would still be paying 95 basis points above the deal that Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg scored recently.

The tech world's wunderkind, according to a story in the Mercury News, refinanced his Palo Alto digs with "a 1.05 percent adjustable rate mortgage on a loan of $5.95 million"from First Republic Bank.

It's the closest thing to free cash that money can buy. If you're Zuckerberg, what's not to like about that deal?

Texas City Transforms Abandoned Walmart Into Public Library

Once a Walmart, now a public library
(photo and associated story from Latina)

In a rare instance of civic development jiu-jitsu, the South Texas city of McAllen has transformed the ugly duckling of an abandoned Walmart into a charming prince of a public library. The approximately 124,000 square foot structure is now the largest single-story library in the United States. Its presence has encouraged patronage, as the library has experienced a 23% registration increase since the former Walmart structure's rehabilitation. The story about McAllen's library initiative appeared in the Co.Exist portion of Fast Company.

The irony is that a library's physical presence still has important community impact. This is especially true in areas with high poverty levels, such as Texas' Rio Grande Valley, where McAllen is situated. There are some things e-books just don't replace: a physical sense of community is among them.

Bravo, McAllen!

Social Media Firms Unplug Their Telephone Customer Service

One aspect of the technology "revolution" is its nearly religious belief that greater efficiency leads to a greater good. This largely unquestioned perspective has created commercial drives in which individual users become data points rather than living, breathing human beings. When a tech firm's system doesn't work, does not adequately serve a user's legitimate expectations, or leaves a user puzzled, what happens?

Well, don't expect social media or search engine customer service over the phone, according to a story buried in slow-news Saturday editions of The New York Times, Reporter Amy O'Leary's useful article details how tech's titans disdain offering any telephone service at all. Instead, users are typically directed to a relevant website, where supposedly they will find succor from the service providers.

The delicious irony in the story is O'Leary's attempts to get firms to speak on the telephone for comment on her piece. "Officials at Facebook, Google and Twitter (all reached first by e-mail) say their users prefer to go online, finding it more pleasant and efficient than wading through a phone tree."

Ah, but social media business development is much more important than the "user experience." As Zendesk chief executive Mikkel Svane noted to O'Leary, the social media firms have "paved the way in large-scale customer service by keeping everything online." However, while social media and search engine firms' ambitions are certainly "large-scale," they have carefully considered how to "small scale" customer service expectation and interaction with a human being to its logical vanishing point.

Mikkel Svane
(photo from Twitter)

In tech's world view, absolutely nothing can be permitted to distract the enterprise from its focus. That includes interactions with human beings, who have an annoying tendency to act out of sync with algorithmically estimated probabilities of behavior. The Times story slyly makes this point by going inside the belly of the data-driven beast:

"In Foursquare's offices in New York, phone calls are considered a distraction to the developers and are conducted away from the main work area, in British-style red phone booths, the company's spokeswoman said, explaining that calls are not part of developer culture."

They aren't part of social media's arrogant perspective on service culture, either.

Silicon Valley History Video Released

Silicon Valley Birthplace Marker
(photo from LA Times)

The early days of Silicon Valley seem like a dream now. That was a time when the late Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Andy Grove, and other tech royalty were not Valley blue bloods. In fact, Silicon Valley hardly had the aura it commands today. Some useful histories of that period are available. A recent contribution to that collection comes from self-styled Valley historian John McLaughlin. He's put together a five-part video series that includes interviews with tech A-listers, such as Jobs (in a blue work shirt and full beard) and Meg Whitman.

I haven't seen the series, but it's tempting to want to pay to see the content. Journalist Mike Cassidy wrote a fun story in today's Mercury News about the video series. Check it out: The article includes video samples from McLaughlin's work.

Report: Women Form Majority of Social Media Users

An item in today's Ideas@Innovations blog in The Washington Post observes that more than 50% of social media users are female. Some other findings: women are the majority of Pinterest advocates and, surprisingly, game players. Nearly three of every five Twitter users are women, something I would not have guessed. The report also notes how social media has become a primary conduit for family information. That finding would imply social media's use by older age groups, as the swamping of Facebook with baby picture posts would amply suggest.

However, some things don't change: females form a decided minority of LinkedIn users. The world of work continues to interest males more than the Pinterest proposition of sharing thoughts about the nest with "like-minded individuals".

Judge Rules Twitter Must Provide Tweets, IP Addresses to Prosecutors

Malcolm Harris

Earlier this week, a New York criminal court judge ruled that Twitter was compelled to release user information to prosecutors. In the ruling, the Manhattan DA won the right to access a user's tweets, IP address, saved and deleted messages, and other information that could possibly identify a user's location at specific points in time.

The defendant, Malcolm Harris, is charged with disorderly conduct stemming from Occupy Wall Street activities.

Twitter fought the court order to compel disclosure.

The story was reported in arstechnica.com, Talking Points Memo, and the San Jose Mercury News, and other media outlets.

Designer Sergio Pininfarina -- RIP

Sergio Pininfarina leaning on a Ferrari
(photo from Road and Track)

Italian designer Sergio Pininfarina died earlier today at his home in Turin. His loss will be keenly felt at Ferrari, whose look and style Pininfarina indelibly shaped with his impeccable taste.

The online edition of Italy's leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera, features a rich photographic archive of the Torinese designer's work, celebrity associations, and family. (Click on "torna indietro" when you want to return to the photo collection's home page.) It's hard to imagine that, only fifteen years after the devastation of World War II, the Farina family (their original name), the Ferraris, and other enterprising Italians were bringing their creative, commercial vision into the world beyond the Alps. There was plenty of ambition to go around. They also possessed a self-assurance, somehow connected to the Western European experience at its best, that's very difficult for Americans to truly understand. I've often wondered if what perpetuated that self-confidence was an aristocratic strain in Italian society.

Pininfarina articulated this notion in a 1987 New York Times interview: "'You make a new car and you invite a dozen people, a dentist, a sportsman, a lawyer, a prostitute. And you say, do you like this, do you prefer that? I accept it, but I am not an enthusiast, and I'll tell you why,' Mr. Pininfarina told the Times. 'I am looking to the future, and these people are accustomed to the past.'"

The quote, and other details about Pininfarnina's life, are included in the designer's obit in today's Washington Post.

Twitter's Transparency Report Notes Government Requests for Information

Twitter just released something called the "Twitter Transparency Report." The statement includes the number of requests from various world governments for "user information" and "to withhold content". The winner in this grim sweepstakes is none other than the United States. Of the 849 requests around the world, Washington generated 679 -- 75% -- of them. If you throw in Japan's 98 requests, that leaves the remainder of the world with 5% of the requests.

The announcement is quite interesting and, in a way, provocative. Thanks to the financial blog zerohedge.com for alerting its readers to the Twitter initiative.

Investors Target Oakland Foreclosures as Rental "Opportunities"

A Church in West Oakland

Oakland, California has experienced more than its fair share of foreclosures since the US housing market bubble popped a few years ago. Recently, investors have been purchasing foreclosed homes in the city's tough western neighborhood. What's interesting is that the homes' new owners are not reselling the homes. Instead, according to a story in today's online edition of sfgate.com, the houses are being rented.

The catch in the story is that the rents are more than the former owners' mortgage monthly mortgage payments. (I don't know the profit margin on that type of transaction.) The higher rent scenario would logically shut out the previous residents from returning to their homes. Who is moving in? The likely suspects are those people who can barely afford a broom closet in San Francisco, where the rents are at Manhattan levels. They are now the spearhead of the gentrification of certain West Oakland blocks, an inconceivable thought only a few years ago.

Unstated in the sfgate.com piece is where the uprooted families go. I suspect that, if it were up to the investors, the dispossessed would simply disappear.