June 28, 2008: Religous Tolerance, Haburgers, Random Kindness
Listen: sitp0007.mp3
Current Events:
Survey Shows Religious Tolerance
Cultural Phenomena:
Two Stories From The Fast Food Front
True Stories:
Today's Random Act Of Kindness
Legal:
The Stuck In Traffic theme music by Duane Andrews of duaneandrews.ca and is used with permission.
The podcast as a whole is copyright 2008 by Calvin powers and all rights are reserved.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Today's Random Act of Kindness....
Today I was the lucky recipient of one of those "random acts of kindness" that really made a very stressful day a lot easier.
I'm in Boston for a set of customer meetings this week being held a very nice Mariott. They fly in a bunch of key customer representatives for 2 days of product roadmap discussions and technical presentations. I'd weaseled my way on to the agenda because I'm desperate for some feedback on a prototype proposal that I've been working on for months and months. I really needed to get some good feedback and direction on this so I was very stressed out about giving this presentation and the round table discussion after.
My presentation was not until late in the afternoon so I stayed in my room for most of the morning catching up on work e-mails etc. I'd put my "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door so that the housekeeping people would know that I had not left yet.
Anyway, around 10:30 I headed down to the meeting rooms. As I was walking down the hall, I saw an asian woman working on cleaning a room a few doors down from mine. She had her housekeeping cart in front of the door ad she was standing in the doorway getting towels off the cart. As I walked by she looked up at me and in a very thick asian accent said good morning. I sai d Good Morning back and mentioned off hand that 217 was ready to be cleaned. She nodded and smiled and I wasn't sure if she understood me or not. But it really didn't matter. I knew she would get to it eventually. I just felt like saying something more than Good Morning.
I went down to the meeting rooms and listened in on some of the other presentations for about an hour and then I realized I'd left my notebook power cord in the room. I probably coul have gotten by without it, but I decided to run back up to the room and get it.
When I got back the room, the housekeeping lady was working on my room and her cart was in front of the door etc just like it had been for the other room. I could see her in there working. So I moved her cart and slipped into the room. I said hello and that I was just stopping in to get my power cord. She smiled and profusely nodded and said Good mornign about hundred times and other minor phrases and I quickly got the impression that she had no idea what was going on and that she really didn't know English very well and only knew a few phrases to get her through the day. Anyway, I picked up the power cord and pointed to it in an exaggerated fashion so she could see what I was there for and then quickly left.
I got through the day. Presentation went about as good as I could hope for. Some aspects of my prototype proposal did not go over well at all and I'm going to drop them. But most of the customers agreed with the core idea. So I think I have enough to go forward. My presentation was 90 minutes long and I was exhausted when I was done. All I wanted to do was got out of there and get back to my room. I hung out for a few minutes but as soon as was "polite" I got the hell out of there and went back to my room.
When I got back to my room, I noticed that on the night stand someone had written a note on the notepad. I knew that I hadn't written anything on it. So I went over to see what was written on it. What I saw made my day:
After stressing out for 90 minutes this was an incredibly nice surprise to have. Put me in a good mood for the rest of the day.
I'm in Boston for a set of customer meetings this week being held a very nice Mariott. They fly in a bunch of key customer representatives for 2 days of product roadmap discussions and technical presentations. I'd weaseled my way on to the agenda because I'm desperate for some feedback on a prototype proposal that I've been working on for months and months. I really needed to get some good feedback and direction on this so I was very stressed out about giving this presentation and the round table discussion after.
My presentation was not until late in the afternoon so I stayed in my room for most of the morning catching up on work e-mails etc. I'd put my "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door so that the housekeeping people would know that I had not left yet.
Anyway, around 10:30 I headed down to the meeting rooms. As I was walking down the hall, I saw an asian woman working on cleaning a room a few doors down from mine. She had her housekeeping cart in front of the door ad she was standing in the doorway getting towels off the cart. As I walked by she looked up at me and in a very thick asian accent said good morning. I sai d Good Morning back and mentioned off hand that 217 was ready to be cleaned. She nodded and smiled and I wasn't sure if she understood me or not. But it really didn't matter. I knew she would get to it eventually. I just felt like saying something more than Good Morning.
I went down to the meeting rooms and listened in on some of the other presentations for about an hour and then I realized I'd left my notebook power cord in the room. I probably coul have gotten by without it, but I decided to run back up to the room and get it.
When I got back the room, the housekeeping lady was working on my room and her cart was in front of the door etc just like it had been for the other room. I could see her in there working. So I moved her cart and slipped into the room. I said hello and that I was just stopping in to get my power cord. She smiled and profusely nodded and said Good mornign about hundred times and other minor phrases and I quickly got the impression that she had no idea what was going on and that she really didn't know English very well and only knew a few phrases to get her through the day. Anyway, I picked up the power cord and pointed to it in an exaggerated fashion so she could see what I was there for and then quickly left.
I got through the day. Presentation went about as good as I could hope for. Some aspects of my prototype proposal did not go over well at all and I'm going to drop them. But most of the customers agreed with the core idea. So I think I have enough to go forward. My presentation was 90 minutes long and I was exhausted when I was done. All I wanted to do was got out of there and get back to my room. I hung out for a few minutes but as soon as was "polite" I got the hell out of there and went back to my room.
When I got back to my room, I noticed that on the night stand someone had written a note on the notepad. I knew that I hadn't written anything on it. So I went over to see what was written on it. What I saw made my day:
After stressing out for 90 minutes this was an incredibly nice surprise to have. Put me in a good mood for the rest of the day.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Survey Shows U.S. Religious Tolerance
The New York Times has an article titled, "Survey Shows U.S. Religious Tolerance" which reports on the results of a survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The study shows a large degree of religious tolerance in the U.S. across all sects and segments of society.
From the NYT article:
From the NYT article:
For example, 70 percent of Americans affiliated with a religion or denomination said they agreed that “many religions can lead to eternal life,” including majorities among Protestants and Catholics. Among evangelical Christians, 57 percent agreed with the statement, and among Catholics, 79 percent did.
Among minority faiths, more than 80 percent of Jews, Hindus and Buddhists agreed with the statement, and more than half of Muslims did.
The findings seem to undercut the conventional wisdom that the more religiously committed people are, the more intolerant they are, scholars who reviewed the survey said.
Now if only other countries were as equally tolerant.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Two Stories From The Fast Food Front
The juxtapostion of two news stories involving burger joints is just to delicious to pass up.
First, there's a news story in the Star-Tribune of Minneapolis, MN, about a man in Quinton Virgina who lost 80 pounds by eating every meal at Mc Donald's. Yes. You read that right. He _lost_ 80 pounds by eating every meal at McDonalds. According to the news story, he didn't eat the burgers, but instead he ate "Mostly salads, wraps and apple dippers without the caramel sauce."
Chris Colson started off at 278 pounds and now weighs 199. He says he wants to get down to 185, the weight he was at when he married his wife.
Second, earlier this week, Fox News reported that Burger King announced that it had just brought to market the world's most expensive hamburger. According to the news story:
All proceeds from the $200 burger go to a London charity for abused children.
I think when Mr. Colson reaches his goal, somone ought to buy him "The Burger" to celebrate.
First, there's a news story in the Star-Tribune of Minneapolis, MN, about a man in Quinton Virgina who lost 80 pounds by eating every meal at Mc Donald's. Yes. You read that right. He _lost_ 80 pounds by eating every meal at McDonalds. According to the news story, he didn't eat the burgers, but instead he ate "Mostly salads, wraps and apple dippers without the caramel sauce."
Chris Colson started off at 278 pounds and now weighs 199. He says he wants to get down to 185, the weight he was at when he married his wife.
Second, earlier this week, Fox News reported that Burger King announced that it had just brought to market the world's most expensive hamburger. According to the news story:
The fine ingredients of what is called simply 'The Burger' include Wagyu beef, white truffles, Pata Negra ham slices, Cristal onion straws, Modena balsamic vinegar, lambs lettuce, pink Himalayan rock salt, organic white wine and shallot infused mayonnaise in an Iranian saffron and white truffle dusted bun.
All proceeds from the $200 burger go to a London charity for abused children.
I think when Mr. Colson reaches his goal, somone ought to buy him "The Burger" to celebrate.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Congressman Calls For Nationalization of Oil Refineries
US House Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) is a member of the the House Appropriations Committee and has been known as one of the leading opponents of allowing oil drilling off the coasts of the US.
During a press briefing yesterday, he was quoted by several news sources including MSNBC as saying,
Of course if you don't actually let the oil companies drill, what is there to refine?
Also, note that he didn't say that the government would actually increase the amoint of oil refined if they nationalized the refineries. He said that the government would control it. Not the same thing by any stretch of the imagination.
During a press briefing yesterday, he was quoted by several news sources including MSNBC as saying,
"We (the government) should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market."Yeah. Right. That'll help a lot.
Of course if you don't actually let the oil companies drill, what is there to refine?
Also, note that he didn't say that the government would actually increase the amoint of oil refined if they nationalized the refineries. He said that the government would control it. Not the same thing by any stretch of the imagination.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
A Chill On The Internet
I recently learned of a blog posting from someone in Germany named Florian Sander who was commenting on a recent survey in Germany. Unfortunately the original survey report is in German.
But the blog post is in English and the author makes a point that I've long believed:
In India, the government is pressuring Blackberry to give it the keys to it's encryption mechanism so that the Indain government can monitor all traffic on the blackberry network in India.
It goes on and on. No one seems to care about how these laws are going to be affecting society as a whole.
But the blog post is in English and the author makes a point that I've long believed:
The problem with surveillance is not primarily that some bored officer might learn about some embarrassing private detail (although this is a problem as well). The fundamental problem with surveillance is that it changes people. People under surveillance behave differently than people who are not monitored - differently than free people.
I've long kept my eye open for scientifically credible studies that back up this point, but have never run into one.
The author however has posted information about a law tht was recently put into effect in Germany. From the author's blog:
Unfortunately, this fundamental problem has just been proven in Germany. Since the beginning of this year, communication providers are required to record who communicated with whom and when (but not the content of the communication). This data is stored for six months and available to law enforcement in cases related to certain forms of crime.
The author goes on to reference a survey done recently be a research firm in German, which discovered:
- 73% know about the data retention
- 11% said that they had already abstained from using phone, cell phone or e-mail in certain occasions
- 6% believe to receive less communication since the beginning of the data retention
- 52% said they probably would not use telecommunication for contacts like drug counselors, psychotherapists or marriage counselors because of data retention
In India, the government is pressuring Blackberry to give it the keys to it's encryption mechanism so that the Indain government can monitor all traffic on the blackberry network in India.
It goes on and on. No one seems to care about how these laws are going to be affecting society as a whole.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Not Your Average Floor Mat
This past week I had to have my car's brakes worked on. Local friends will be relieved to know that it is now safe again to ride in the car with me.
For complex repairs, I try to take my car into the dealer. So I took the TSX into the Acura place to have the work done. And they always have this auto-dealer-theater where they make a big production about how carefully they are treating your car etc.
One of the things they always do is put a piece of paper in the floor board, presumably so that their service technicians wont sully your car with dirt from their boots etc. And as usual, the Acura people did this too.
Only in this era in which everyone is wants to keep up their green reputation, they no longer put simple paper floor mats in the car, noooooo. That would be a missed opportunity. So it's no longer a floor mat, it's a......
Eco-Barrier!
For complex repairs, I try to take my car into the dealer. So I took the TSX into the Acura place to have the work done. And they always have this auto-dealer-theater where they make a big production about how carefully they are treating your car etc.
One of the things they always do is put a piece of paper in the floor board, presumably so that their service technicians wont sully your car with dirt from their boots etc. And as usual, the Acura people did this too.
Only in this era in which everyone is wants to keep up their green reputation, they no longer put simple paper floor mats in the car, noooooo. That would be a missed opportunity. So it's no longer a floor mat, it's a......
Eco-Barrier!
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