NormAtNite Going Premium

I am taking NormAtNite premium for the November 1, 2011 show. I will expand to an hour and eventually to twice a week. By the way I weighed in at 124.85 kgs this morning so I continue to have a negative slope to the graph of my weight. Check out the add for NormAtNite

Came in at 126.5 kgs today. I am sure it is because I drank beer last night. All that work thrown away. Will just start over tomorrow.

Came in today at 124 kilos. I have been walking just under 2 miles everyday and it is starting to have an effect.

Came in at 124.55 Kg this morning. It seems the walking is starting to have an effect on the scale. I had a tuna sub for lunch at the new Subway in Pointer Ridge plaza after I got a haircut at the Vietnamese Barber Shop yesterday afternoon. The walking is also starting my body aching. Today will be a critical day. I have to be sure to do it today. I have terrible gas again from the roasted vegetables. I hope to make stuffed red peppers tonight with green beans. I am going to try and make a pepper or two with fish in them so Karen can have them.

Had a great show last night. We spent most of the 30 minutes talking about the police actions against the Occupiers in Oakland, where 75 protesters were arrested, and in Albany, NY where the State police refused the Governor's suggestion that the police should clear out the mob that was occupying a park near the capital. The commander of the police said the crowd was docile and trying to arrest them was likely to cause a serious riot. I guess memories of Attica still linger in NY.

Tipped the scale at 126.85 kg this morning. Went up a bit. I will get back on the disciplined road today. Stay tuned for NormAtNite tonight at 11 PM. Open Mic today to end October.

I went off the plan a bit since Friday and as a result came in this morning at 275.5 lbs or 125.25 Kg. I will get back on the stick. I would like everyone who reads this blog, or happens to come across it in their meanderings over the web, to stop and think for a few minutes about their digital identity as they leave it on the web. Before you just dismiss this as a silly thing to do, I ask that you watch the You-Tube Video embedded below: I am not wondering about my own digital footprint and what it all means. I will write about it once I figure it out.

This morning I tipped the scale at 276.1......I keep going down:).

Just a short clip to let everyone know that I weighed in at 277.8 this morning. A little bit each day and I will be a be smaller in a few weeks. The key is establishing a new life-style.

Maybe the Apple has a worm...

While we are lamenting the passing of Steve Jobs and the Occupy Wall Street Crowd is tweeting, texting, and using their Apple devices, maybe we should remember that Apple Computer (Steve Jobs) outsources 70% of its jobs and has no real record of corporate giving and discourages giving apps from the Apps Store. For all of the details, check out Why Occupy Wall Street Job Protesters Should Not Ignore Steve Jobs by Masuma Ahuja.

A Great Place for Learning

I watched this TED video today and wished I had made it myself. It spoke to everything learning should be and suggested a new way to educate children. Human beings are social animals and we need social environments to learn and grow. Schools are designed to tame and control children. We need something new!!

A call to action from Michael Moore

Please follow this link and read Michael Moore's view of the last 30 years. It just may give you a different perspective on Ronald Reagan.

30 Years Ago Today: The Middle Class Died

A Guest Post--A Widening Gap of Rich and Poor

A very good friend of mine wrote the following post which explains in a calm reasoned way the widening gap between rich and poor in the United States. Please read it in that light. Maybe have Molly playing in the background

I keep thinking about the stuffwe’ve been discussing, and I think I’m beginning to understandwhat’s going on. I will try to lay out my ideas with language thatI hope will appear as apolitical as possible. Here goes.

Throughout all the national back andforth about “taxing rich,” and having them “pay their fairshare,” some facts have emerged that I think are incontrovertible byanyone on either side. The wages, and therefore disposable income, of themiddle class and below have remained stagnant or are declining. The wagesand disposable income of people at the top have increased. Here’sthe data from the Census Bureau on share of aggregate US income between 1967 and 2009:

Bottom quintile—down 18%
Second quintile—down 26%
Middle quintile—down 18%
Fourth quintile—down 4%
Top quintile—up 15%
Top 5%--up 26%

Understand that I’m not makingjudgments here. The right would say that the big earners should have morewealth, and the left would say it’s unfair. I’m not making ajudgment either way.

What I see here, however, does explain tome the lack of demand in the economy. The overall economy is driven bythe purchases of individuals and households. All households in the firstfour quintiles have experienced a decline in wealth over the last 42 years. This means that for the vast majority of things bought and sold in themacro economy, there is less disposable wealth to spend on them. Yes,there are probably more yachts, and luxury automobiles and second and thirdhomes being sold to the top quintile, but those, in aggregate, make up but asmall portion of the big economy. They’re niche markets you mightsay.

I remember, in a discussion with my son,saying that I don’t think many people in business have the vision ofHenry Ford. Henry Ford dramatically raised his workers’ wages and broughtdown the wrath of his fellow businessmen when he instituted the “fivedollar day,” but replied that he knew that if his employees made a betterwage, more of them would buy his cars, and they obviously did.

The engine that drives the economy is thatbottom 80%, who buy groceries, and IPads, and flat screen TVs, and cars, andclothing and all the rest. When it has less money to spend, the economystagnates. Many conservatives are fond of comparing the overall economyto a household budget, pointing out the wrongheadedness of spending more thanyou take in. Well, this bottom 80% have household budgets that have beentaking in less each year. So they’re doing the natural and rightthing. They’re adjusting spending to match income.

So it’s not just an issue of jobsand hiring, although those things are clearly very important. It’sthat the people who drive the economy have less gas in the tank to drive itwith than they ever had, and so demand begins to dry up. I think that youcan cut taxes to zero on the supplier side, and get rid of every regulationthat costs them money, and it won’t change the fundamental fact that thebuyers of what those suppliers supply simply have less money to spend.

The people in the top quintile have donea marvelous job of maximizing their earnings. But, to the degree thattheir earnings require that the bottom four quintiles have the income to helpthem earn more money things are trending toward the precarious. This iswhat I see in our economy right now. The drivers of the economy areslowly being marginalized, and it was their ability to buy all the crazyvariety of products and services that built the economy in the first place.

Understand that I am no preaching“class warfare” here, but merely observing the facts. Thereis less disposable money out there to buy things, and this to me is the core ofthe problem. Now, I don’t have a solution. But I do believethat unless we do something—and believe me, I don’t know what thatsomething is—to get to a state where the buyers can buy, the economy willremain stagnant. This is why I feel that what Eric Cantor is suggestingwon’t work. In fact, one might suggest that, rather than this beinga new solution, it is something we have already been doing for the last 40years or so. Our taxes on everyone are at the lowest level in 50 years,yet that reduced tax load does not appear to be making the buyers able to buymore. And even if it should somehow lead to hiring as Cantor claims (andwhich I, as you know, don’t believe), it is highly unlikely to increasewages overall and rectify our bottom 80% problem.

I am fearful that we have perhaps killedthe goose that laid the golden egg—the vast American middle class whogrew the economy. As I said, I don’t know what we should, or evencould, do at this point. There’s no way we’re going to justhand the bottom 80 money to spend. But I am convinced that getting thebottom 80 back to the level of wealth that they had just a few decades ago iswhat will change things for the better. Leaving this as it is, in thispolitical climate, is a recipe for economic disaster.

Tom

Revolution

I am a very active Flogging Molly Fan and this song adds to their power for me and points to a real understanding of the times on Molly's part. It is fitting it follows the Anya videos below.

Anya Kamenetz Videos

This post started out in my mind as a series of quotations from DIY U by Anya Kamenetz but I went to video because it it more suitable to this time. Still I am going to post the quotation from the book which made me seek out more information about this edupunk!

I have been a technologist (hate the term) at two American high schools and lost my job over advocating these ideas (some people say I am an attack dog:))in a very strenuous way. Traditional teachers have asked me if they do anything right. They have not always liked my answers.

From DIY U by Anya Kamenetz

Technology upsets the traditional hierarchies and catagories of education. It can put the learner at the center of the educational process. Increasingly this means students will decide what they want to learn; when,where,and with whom; and they will learn by doing.

I have always worked in independent schools where the ideas expressed above are particularly threatening and ill received due to the control and selectivity these school exercise. Maybe the present paradigm's time has past. I will leave you to the videos.

Tapscott speaks

When I was considering this digital world for the first time, one of the most influential books (yes print book!) I read was Don Tapscott's Growing Up Digital(1998). It changed everything for me a teacher and began the journey that I am still on. Tapscott has written several other books, including, The Digital Economy(1996), Blueprint to The Digital Economy(1998),>Digital Capital(2000), Wikinomics(2006), and Macrowikinomics(2010). They make for a facinating body of work which I found to be right on the money. They also support a video he just posted on YouTube which I have embedded here.



Let me know what you think.

Validate Someone

We have ourselves validated by those around us. Most people try to validate themselves by making someone else feel bad. I do not believe that works. This short flick validates:) my point.



Try to help someone validate themselves by making them smile.

She is anything but "Vile"

Debbi Wasserman-Smith speaking before the United States House of Representatives today...

Shelly Blake Plock Live!!!!!

An interesting interview....let me know what you think!!!!!!!!

Keep this Train a rolling.....

It has been a bit difficult for me the last few days and I found myself beginning to wallow in some self pity. I have no job, I an officially unemployed, and I have been afraid of the idea that this bump in Obama's road may just not go away very quickly. I am over that.....and to celebrate that for now here is a song by Lisa Lim and Over the Limit..... Just Keep this Train A rollin

It is class warfare---check the details

http://www.onlineschools.org/blog/rags-to-rags/