Slow down

Speed is the greatest factor in modern life ~ Long Beach, CA, 1935

Last March we shared my late grandfather's reminiscences about growing up around the turn of the 20th century: Living, fast and slow.

This week has stirred similar thoughts, what with billboard pop ups on our TV's FIOS guide offering even faster broadband speeds, and the news that many national retailers and food chains like Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, Macy's, Best Buy and Pizza Hut will be open today, ahead of tomorrow's Black Friday, requiring employees to leave their families on Thanksgiving Day to ring registers and reap profits.

Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal, gets it right in Stay Home, America, excerpts below:

"You know where we're going, because you've seen the news stories about the big retailers that have decided to open on Thanksgiving evening, to cram a few extra hours in before the so-called Black Friday sales. About a million Wal-Mart workers will have to be in by 5 p.m. for a 6 p.m. opening, so I guess they'll have to eat quickly with family, then bolt. Kmart will open on Thanksgiving too, along with Target, Sears, Best Buy and Macy's, among others.

"The conversation has tended to revolve around the question of whether it's good for Americans to leave their gatherings to go buy things on Thanksgiving. In a societal sense, no—honor the day best you can and shop tomorrow. But that's not even the question. At least shoppers have a choice. They can decide whether or not they want to leave and go somewhere else. But the workers who are going to have to haul in to work the floor don't have a choice. They've been scheduled. They've got jobs they want to keep.

"It's not right. The idea that Thanksgiving doesn't demand special honor marks another erosion of tradition, of ceremony, of a national sense. And this country doesn't really need more erosion in those areas, does it?

"Black Friday—that creepy sales bacchanal in which the lost, the lonely, the stupid and the compulsive line up before midnight Friday to crash through the doors, trampling children and frightening clerks along the way—is bad enough, enough of a blight on the holiday.

"But Thanksgiving itself? It is the day the Pilgrims invented to thank God to live in such a place as this, the day Abe Lincoln formally put aside as a national time of gratitude for the sheer fact of our continuance. It's more important than anyone's bottom line. That's a hopelessly corny thing to say, isn't it? Too bad. It's true.

"Oh, I hope people don't go. I hope it's a big flop.

"Stay home, America."

The Pale Blue Dot

Last July, we posted a NASA photo of Saturn with Earth in the distance. Newer photos have been posted that show Mars and Venus as well.

Watch Carl Sagan's speech, The Pale Blue Dot, to keep perspective, and to be kind and live humbly.

Hockey fights

Sugar Jim Henry and Maurice Richard

With the increasing focus and litigation on concussions and head injuries in professionals sports, there's one that's "fighting" the trend, and that's ice hockey.

USA Today recently ran opposing editorials for and against fighting.

Brian Burke, a former NHL player and now head of hockey operations for the Calgary Flames, shared his thoughts for why fighting works:

"Ninety-eight percent of NHL players voted to keep fighting in the game, yet somehow members of the news media take it upon themselves to try to convince the players that the scribes know what is best for them. They don't write about the times a heavyweight skates by his opponent's bench to say, "Settle down, or I'll settle you down," and it works. They don't notice a tough guy warning an opponent at a faceoff. They've never heard a star player march into their office, slam the door and demand the team get tougher because he's getting killed out there by opponents playing without fear. They've never seen a chippy game on the edge settle down after a good fight.

"It's not a perfect system. Not every fight is a good fight. Not every fighter is a perfect policeman. There are a small number of rats in the game who live outside the code. But our game is improved tremendously by players' ability to police the game. It makes it more exciting and honorable. It allows skill players to focus on the skilled aspects of the game because someone else can watch their back. And it fundamentally makes our game safer."

 P.S. The photo above is considered one of the most iconic photographs in hockey history. Here's the backstory.

Obamacare by Morning

Guess there are some celebrities outside the Hollywood orbit who aren't afraid of being politically incorrect. But, as Dr. Ben Carson knows, there's probably an IRS audit in their future.

healthcare.gov

The New Yorker ~ Barry Blitt

If you can bear it, read this TechCrunch article from the spring of 2010 about the clever minds at work on healthcare.gov. This is why the federal government has no business doing what private industry, or even the states, can do better. Idealism's a nice notion, but when you legislate control of an annual $1.7 trillion industry, realism is a requirement. That means real business leaders with management expertise and track records, not simply hip crowdsourcers. Playing business, er politics, with "other peoples' money" is a prescription for failure. Another round of golf anyone?

Excerpts here:

“We were working 24/7, working in very, very rapid cycles, with very, very short deadlines and milestones. We were working in a very, very nimble hyper consumer focused way…all fused in this kind of maelstrom of pizza, Mountain Dew, and all nighters, and you know idealism.”

That may sound like the caffeine-fueled, sleep-deprived rant of a typical Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Except it’s not— try Todd Park, the buttoned-up CTO of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Halloween Costumes