Natasha Richardson 0 comments
We were all shocked to hear of the sudden death this week of actress Natasha Richardson after a skiing accident at Mt.Tremblant north of Montreal.
Of course I would like to express my condolences to her husband Liam Neeson and her family at this sad time.
It does amaze me how people and the media (fueled by the people's desire to know) pounce on stories like this, and then in our internet based life, how comments on the news stories and blogs pop up which makes it seem like everyone is an expert on what happened and how to prevent it.
Here is the way I see it. It WAS a tragic accident. It MIGHT have been prevented had she worn a helmet or might not. There have been more than one skiing / snowboarding accidents in the past month here in Ontario where people have died and they WERE wearing helmets, so the helmet issue is not a guarantee.
I'm not saying helmets don't save lives, they do, but not always and there are no guarantees.
If you hide in the Chalet because you don't want to risk injuring yourself on the slopes, you might fall down the stairs. (Should you wear a helmet?) I'm being facetious.
There is risk in all we do. I skied and cycled for years like every other kid of the 1970's and we NEVER wore helmets. Yes - some kids got injured and some probably died, but you should not do the 'What if?' thing.
None of us are really in a position from afar to say for sure if anything might have prevented this tragic loss. We can speculate and comment and sound like experts, but in the end, it really does not matter.
From what I have read, Mt.Tremblant Resort did everything they could and there is no question that Montreal hospitals are well equipped to handle patients like this, but again, I was not their, and neither am I an expert, so I wish people would stop speculating on things they really know little about. It would be nice to see people commenting on positive things about Natasha and expressing their condolences rather than pouncing on the negative and 'what if's'.
Only when people stop being an audience for the kind of paparazzi media stories will the media stop reporting them that way.
Just imagine... 0 comments
Remember that Lotto 649 TV ad that shows the Dad giving two cottages to his kids when he wins the lottery? Lotto 649 ads that use the tag line 'Just Imagine' and show images of cars, houses and quitting your job to live the dream life?
Well this morning on the radio, the Ontario Lottery Group (OLG) had an ad where a guy says to his wife - 'Let's invest your paycheck in the lottery' and the ad goes on to say that the odds of winning big are low and discourages the irresponsible buying of lottery tickets.
Wow. Why? Either one or the other message is the right one, in my mind the latter.
Why do the lottery, alcohol and tobacco industry spend money with the left hand to encourage use and the right to discourage it?
Does it really make sense?
Wordle.net 0 comments
Sara told me about a very cool website at http://www.wordle.net.
It creates a neat looking word cloud from words you enter or grabs them from your blog like this one created from Globespotter.com. One of the interesting things about it is that the more you use a word in a blog, the larger it is in the cloud. So I guess I use the word 'Really' a lot. On the positive side - I see in large letters - REALLY LIKE & PEOPLE :)
What do we value? 1 comments
This past week, my friend Surya posted a very funny yet true clip on his blog that gets you thinking about what we have today and how little we really seem to appreciate it.
You seriously need to watch this:
So it got me thinking about how much things have changed since I was in school. I don't even have to go back too far - say to when I graduated from College in 1980. (Yup - I'm THAT old :) )
So back then, we had no cell phones, no Blackberries, no CD's, VCR's were new, most people still had phones that were screwed to the wall, and the internet was barely there.
So here we are in 2009 - "Everything is so amazing, and nobody is happy."
Flashback to 1980 - "Things were not too amazing, and people were happier."
Flashback even further to say 1973 - "Things were not really amazing, and people were much happier."
In the interest of not boring you, I think I'll end up breaking my 'flashback' blog into several episodes. (Think LOST).
So flashback to 1973 (Cue the LOST Whoosh sound...) - I was living on the West Island of Montreal and starting High School. We had a very long 1969 Chrysler New Yorker with lots of new electric options - Power Windows, Door Locks, Antenna, a foot button that changed the radio station etc. That was our 'Blackberry' of 1973.
I started making short films then. I recently converted one of my first films and uploaded it to the internet. We forget what life was like back then, until we watch a film and see that black dial desk phone and typewriter. In the Police office - the Captain's desk has NO computer, but lots of files. Look at your desk today. Shut off your computer and Blackberry. Can you work? Don't know what to do?
How soon we forget how business used to run with no PC's or Laptops, or Blackberry's or Cell Phones.
Our house had one phone. Wall mounted. Standard Issue. Dial. Probably white, later to be Harvest Gold or some 70's Green. Long cord so Mom could talk while she cooked. No call waiting. No answering machine. Nobody home or on the phone? Call back later or get off your butt, cross the street and ring the doorbell.
One TV. Black and White. (Finally got color in 1975.) Get up to turn it on. Get up to change the channel. Get up to turn the volume up or down. Get up to slap it when the Vertical hold started going wonky. No Cable or Satellite. Only Rabbit Ears. (Click if you are confused.) Channel 12 (CFCF - CTV), Channel 6 - (CBMT - CBC), and the American channels out of NY, Maine or Vermont or somewhere just close enough that on a good day you got a pretty clear picture, with periodic snow flurries. Channel 3 - WCAX (CBS) Vermont, Channel 5 - WPTZ (NBC) - Plattsburgh NY, North Pole, NY, Burlington, VT and Channel 8 - WMTW (ABC) - Poland Spring ME, but actually transmitting from Mount Washington, NH. Missed the show? Too bad. (No VCR or PVR or TiVO)
Not a lot of amazing stuff (other than the 1969 Chrysler New Yorker). Certainly no computer in the house and no internet or text messaging.
(All the teens reading this say in unison - "So what did you do????")
Well when I think back, we were never really bored and we were much happier. How is that possible? Well, we rode our bikes EVERYWHERE. We went to the park in the summer to play games and discover things. We built snow forts in the winter and went toboganning. We made smoke bombs with a chemistry set and burned magnesium. We strung two cans and a string together and ran it across the road between my house and my friend Bruce's house.
We built go-carts and raced them down the street. We read books and comics - Superman, Superboy were my faves. We listened to the radio. We hiked in the natural areas that were not built up and found rocks and toads and all kinds of cool stuff. I found a rock I thought was a meteorite and still have it. (Maybe it is.)
We watched freight trains and counted the cars and dreamed of hopping one to California. We always found something to do that usually cost nothing and was a lot of fun. Time moved pretty slowly in the summer, but we were rarely bored.
We forget what it was like, and that is too bad. Our kids don't even know what it was like back then, and that is even sadder.
Maybe things were not so 'amazing' back then, but we sure were happier and appreciated what we DID have.
Stay tuned for more 'flashbacks.' I'm starting to like this.....
Thanks Surya.
Gregory Knox on the GM Bailout 1 comments
You might have heard of this email from Gregory Knox of Knox Machinery, as it has been circulating on many blogs already, but if not, I wanted to share. I have verified that the email is authentic and is from Greg Knox. I'm sure that there are GM employees who do work hard and try to do their best, but I cannot deny that the letter does make good points.
Abridged letter from Troy Clarke, President of General Motors–followed by a response from Gregory Knox, President of Knox Machinery, a manufacturer of precision machine tools which, supplies the auto industry.
Dear Employee,
Next week, Congress and the current Administration will determine whether to provide immediate support to the domestic auto industry to help it through one of the most difficult economic times in our nation’s history.
Your elected officials must hear from all of us now on why this support is critical to our continuing the progress we began prior to the global financial crisis… As an employee, you have a lot at stake and continue to be one of our most effective and passionate voices.
I know GM can count on you to have your voice heard. Thank you for your urgent action and ongoing support.
Troy Clarke President General Motors North America
RESPONSE: From Gregory Knox:
In response to your request to call legislators and ask for a bailout for the United States automakers please consider the following, and please also pass this onto Troy Clark, the president of General Motors North America for me.
You are both infected with the same entitlement mentality that has bred like cancerous germs in UAW halls for the last countless decades, and whose plague is now sweeping the nation, awaiting our new "messiah" to wave his magical wand and make all our problems go away, while at the same time allowing our once great nation to keep "living the dream"?
The dream is over!
The dream that we can ignore the consumer for years while management myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time that our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid, arrogant, ignorant and laziest entitlement minded "laborers" without paying the price for these atrocities and that still the masses will line up to buy our products
Don't tell me I'm wrong. Don't accuse me of not knowing of what I speak. I have called on Ford, GM ,Chrysler, TRW, Delphi ,Kelsey Hayes, American Axle and countless other automotive OEM's and Tier ones for 3 decades now throughout the Midwest and what I've seen over the years in these union shops can only be described as disgusting.
Mr Clark, the president of General Motors, states:
There is widespread sentiment in this country, our government and especially in the media that the current crisis is completely the result of bad management. It is not.
You're right. It's not JUST management. How about the electricians who walk around the plants like lords in feudal times, making people wait on them for countless hours while they drag ass, so they can come in on the weekend and make double and triple time for a job they easily could have done within their normal 40 hour week ?
How about the line workers who threaten newbies with all kinds of scare tactics for putting out too many parts on a shift, and for being too productive (mustn't expose the lazy bums who have been getting overpaid for decades for their horrific underproduction, must we?!?!? Do you really not know about this stuff?!?
How about this great sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke's sad plea:
Over the last few years, we have closed the quality and efficiency gaps with our competitors.
What the hell has Detroit been doing for the last 40 years?!?
Did we really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency between us and them?
The K car vs. the Accord?
The Pinto vs. the Civic?!?
Do I need to go on?
We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the United States auto industry for decades.
Time to pay for your sins, Detroit .
I attended an economic summit last week where a brilliant economist, Alan Beaulieu surprised the crowd when he said he would not have given the banks a penny of "bailout money". Yes, he said, this would cause short term problems, but despite what people like George Bush and Troy Clark would have us believe, the sun would, in fact, rise the next day And something else would happen where there had been greedy and sloppy banks new efficient ones would pop up. That is how a free market system works- it does work if we would let it work.
But for some reason we are now deciding that the rest of the world is right and that capitalism doesn't work - that we need the government to step in and "save us". Save us, hell ! We're nationalizing; and unfortunately *too many of this once fine nations citizens don't even have a clue that this is what's really happening. But they sure can tell you the stats on their favorite sports teams - yeah ? THAT'S important? * Does it occur to ANYONE that the "competition" has been producing vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades now in this country?...
How can that be???
Let's see?
Fuel efficient ?
Listening to customers?
Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul?
Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr W Edwards Deming 4 decades ago
Ever increased productivity through quality, lean and six sigma plans?
Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like "the enemy"?
Efficient front and back offices?
Non union 'DejaVu Sans Mono'"?
Again, I could go on and on, but I really wouldn't be telling anyone anything they really don't already know in their hearts.
I have six children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of wanting someone to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten yourself into. My children do this on a weekly, if not daily basis, as I did at their age. I do for them what my parents did for me (one of their greatest gifts, by the way). I make them stand on their own two feet and accept the consequences of their actions and work them through.
Radical concept, huh?
Am I there for them in the wings? Of course. But only until such time as they need to be fully on their own as adults.
I don't want to oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly are unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting and
government.
Detroit and the United States need to pay for their sins.
Bad news people. !!! It's coming whether we like it or not.
The newly elected Messiah really doesn't have a magic wand big enough to "make it all go away". I laughed as I heard Obama "reeling it back in" almost immediately after the vote count was tallied. "We might not do it in a year." Where was that kind of talk when he was RUNNING for office?
Stop trying to put off the inevitable.
That house in Florida really isn't worth $750,000.
People who jump across a border really don't deserve free health care benefits.
That job driving that forklift for the big 3 really isn't worth $85,000 a year.
That couple whose combined income is less than $50,000 really shouldn't be living in that $485,000 home.
Let the market correct itself people. it will. Yes it will be painful, but it's gonna be painful either way, and the bright side of my proposal is that on the other side of it is a nation that appreciates what is has, and doesn't live beyond its means and gets back to basics and redevelops the work ethic that made it the greatest nation in the history of the world - and probably turns back to God.
Sorry - don't cut my head off, I'm just the messenger sharing with you the "bad news".
Gregory J Knox
President
Knox Machinery, Inc.
Franklin , Ohio 45005
