Philosophical Money

How Obama Might Achieve World Peace?

2009-10-09T22:04:00.004-04:00

I had a dream tonight
and in that dream
was

Free Energy!

In my dream
the Nobel Peace prize was awarded to Obama
under the presumption that he would make free energy universally available
thereby solving many of the world's problems
as well as engineering real peace.

Dreams can come true..

Evolve, Survive, and Reproduce - is this the Meaning of Life?

2009-10-06T23:31:00.007-04:00

Evolving, surviving, and reproducing
appear to be the rule of nature..

Most animal and human behaviors,
be they conscious or unconscious,
appear to revolve around these three characteristics..

Is this the Meaning of Life?

Is man an end product of nature,
or merely a stepping stone to something greater,
perhaps a greater manimal that's yet to be fully realized?

Upon close examination of human history,
I can only conclude that man has a long way to go..

Throughout history, the creatures that appeared to survive and thus carry on
were the ones who could adapt and become better than they originally were.

What do you do to make yourself better than you are?
Are you thriving or merely surviving, and why?

We Live in A World Full of Lies

2009-08-25T19:27:00.002-04:00

If everybody could read each other's minds all the time
then could there be any lies
would there be any crime?

Pretty Lights at the Belle of Louisville

2009-08-18T15:14:00.002-04:00

Pretty Lights at the Belle of Louisville from Patrick Yen on Vimeo.

"Pretty Lights" performs on July 11, 2009 at the Belle of Louisville during the annual Forecastle Festival's afterparty.

Video shot and produced by Patrick Yen for the 2009 Forecastle Festival in Louisville, Ky.

See That Which Cannot Be Seen

2009-06-28T12:14:00.010-04:00

Human perception is incredibly limited.

For example, bees can see frequencies of light that most humans cannot,
dogs can hear frequencies of sound that most humans cannot,
sharks can sense smells that are incomprehensible to man.

What humanity is capable of perceiving to be real and true
is really only a small sample of objective reality..

..perhaps knowing too much would drive us all mad?

In psychology there exists a concept natural to man known as the “overconfidence bias”
which states that people are inclined to think they know more than they actually do.

Overcoming this fallacy of perception is perhaps the first step
to seeing that which cannot be seen,
or knowing how not to know?

***

See That Which Cannot Be Seen - Images by Patrick Yen

We Cannot Solve The World's Problems With The Same Thinking That Killed The Newspaper Industry

2009-04-26T23:09:00.003-04:00

Duh.

Is everybody crazy, if only God is sane?

2009-04-23T10:21:00.008-04:00

"You'd have to be crazy to be so sane," said the Evil Banshee of Change,
"but lucky for you that really everybody is crazy, because only God is truly sane."

"What do you mean by sane?" asked the Crazy.

"By truly sane I mean 'all-knowing' or omniscient, and of course rational,"
replied the Evil Banshee of Change, "Nobody is sane by those standards."

"Oh," said the Crazy, "Well now I don't feel so alone!"

Quick Restructuring of J-Schools Reaffirms Total Failure of Mediastablishment, Need for New Leadership

2009-04-22T01:24:00.005-04:00

Here's an excerpt from something I wrote during April 2008:

"The options in the new media route allowed me to study and prepare for print, radio, broadcasting, and web journalism all in one degree. I think this is essential, to prepare for any kind of media route. Media is converging.

I also minored in Entrepreneurship because I anticipated the collapse of the industry. Business classes I took that I think should be incorporated into journo programs include:

Advertising
Marketing
Economics
Entrepreneurial Business Management
Personal Finance
Accounting
Business and Professional Speaking
Business Law.."

***

As of more current..

“J-Schools Play Catch-Up”
By BRIAN STELTER, Published April 14, 2009

Excerpt:

The changes are forcing colleges and universities to rethink what a journalism education should look like. The perennial debate about journalism programs — theoretical teaching versus professional skill building — has been displaced by more urgent questions: How can you help students find sustainable business models, while introducing the formerly verboten subject of the business side? What are the implications for the craft of journalism in the shift to digital? And how do you position students for an uncertain future in the media?

“I don’t know a journalism dean in the country who knows what the solution is, or where the journalism industry is going,” says Christopher Callahan, the dean of the Cronkite School. “I am convinced that those answers are going to come from people of their generation,” he says of the students. “Not my generation.”

To raise its national profile, Arizona State has invested heavily in its journalism program. In a new curriculum, Mr. Callahan is trying to instill an ethos of innovation — a sea change for an industry that has acted for decades like a slow-moving train, with J-schools the caboose. “Newsrooms have tended to be highly inflexible; innovation was not encouraged,” says Mr. Callahan, former associate dean at the University of Maryland’s journalism school. Deans across the country say they can’t afford to be the caboose anymore.

The new forward-thinking approach is to bracket traditional journalistic values withWeb classes and an entrepreneurial spirit. Take the weekly entrepreneurship course at Arizona State taught by Dan Gillmor, a former columnist for The San Jose Mercury News, in which students create products for news consumers — last fall, a team built a site for local filmmakers. The purpose of the course, Mr. Gillmor says, is to learn to “invent your own jobs.” (Because they may have to.) Mr. Gillmor also runs the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, a catalyst for the student projects; that the center even exists is a testament to the changes that are afoot within journalism education.

First-year students at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University now take “Multimedia Storytelling” and “Introduction to 21st-Century Media.” In the fall, the school of journalism at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, will be adding an immersion experience in “communication, business and entrepreneurship.” With $8 million from the former newspaper executive Leonard Tow, the graduate schools at Columbia University and the City University of New York are creating two centers for new media innovation.

Rich Beckman, a professor of visual journalism at the University of Miami and a guru of new media education, confirms the evolution:“There were deans all over the country saying, ‘We’re never going to teach computer programming in J-school.’ Well, now they are.”

***

Oh, how the stale cookies of the mediastablishment continue to crumble..

Payment Model for An Ultramodern Media Publication of the Future

2009-04-20T13:56:00.000-04:00

Angry Journalist #8554:

#8551: Talk up a decent paycheck and maybe you’ll get names.

***

AJ 8554:

Here's what I'm thinking in terms of compensation..

Base pay would be about $52,000 a year per full-time employee, with four weeks paid vacation for each employee. That's about $1,000 per week, or $200 per day of work per full-time employee.

Every employee would receive the same base pay, however, each employee would receive ad revenue profit-sharing for any exclusive content they create that is published through this publication or syndicated via iTunes. For example, say you write a story that has ads running with it, you would get a cut of that revenue in addition to your base pay. If you produce better content that gets more views (or more downloads from iTunes) then you get more pay, in addition to your base pay.

As for what percentage this will be, that has yet to be determined. However, I believe it should be at least 20 percent. This will provide more merit-based compensation to employees that perform better.

If the content you produced was co-produced by others, that cut of the profits must be divided between the contributors. This process will all be automated by computers and the royalty checks will be automatically printed every week, with no room for mistakes or inefficiencies that are the result of human error.

In addition to producing news, this publication will also produce music, entertainment, humor, cartoons, educational programming, iPhone applications, advertising production, et cetera. Larger revenues made from music and iPhone applications will go towards subsidizing the production of other media such as news production, which may not earn as much revenue as other media.

This organization will adopt more of a newer, matrix-type organizational structure rather than the traditional top-down hierarchical structure. This matrix-type structure will allow for more adaptability than is normally allowed through more traditional business models, as well as increase productivity and decrease inefficiencies. I can't go into more detail about this particular organizational structure here, however, because it is the secret to this organizational model that I have developed that will essentially drive the success and profit of this hypothetical publication.

I would also like to provide benefits to full-time employees, but the range and scope of these benefits would be completely dependent upon how much startup capital I could acquire for the initial formulation of this company, as well as the kinds of profit margins that materialize.

Much of the work would also be produced by freelancers, who could expect to make more than current freelance rates for media production.

I am also considering a merit-based system that would provide my top producers with "merit points" that could be applied toward acquiring partial ownership of the company, as well as towards promotion within management of the matrix cells of the company's organizational structure.

Because base pay would be the same for all, then any "raises" would thus be tied and proportional only to performance and merit, rather than favoritism or nepotism. Moreover, the relatively higher cost of compensation would help ensure that only the relatively best would get hired in the first place, at least for full-time employment. Any increase to base pay would be applied equally to all employees at the same time.

Anybody who works hard enough towards the success of this company could become partner or work their way up through management. Managers who have stopped performing, however, could just as easily be demoted to dynamically make way for better talent to replace their positions of authority within the matrix structure of this organization. That way, the company always gets better, more innovative, more efficient, and more profitable over time, without being stagnated in the long-run by cronyism or prima donnas.

Thoughts?

***

Update:

Also, if I might add one more critical detail without giving too much information away..

This publication will be heavily oriented towards providing services for individuals. Products will be produced, yes, such as computer programs or iPhone applications, but there will also be a strong emphasis on service-oriented tasks which may include but are not limited to:

Transferring people's old home movie films to video,
editing videos for businesses and consumers,
providing/organizing focus group marketing research,
producing news stories on-demand,
helping to co-author books or autobiographies for clients,
providing affordable educational workshops,
trade/vocational training - licensing - testing - and certification services,
renting recording studio space to musicians,
producing high-tech super interactive multimedia classifieds that are produced on-demand,
producing high-tech interactive expositions of real estate properties on-demand at a cost to the consumer,
et cetera et cetera et cetera.

This is necessary I think because there is essentially more scarcity of services than there is scarcity of digital media. There are also many people afraid of computers who are willing to pay decent money for computer or digital-related services, that may not be willing to pay nearly as much money for digital media that they can more easily pirate or view for free. Providing more service-related resources for consumers may also bring in more readers/viewers for the media that is published through this hypothetical publication.

Revenues generated from these services will help sustain the operational costs of the media production, and the media that is published - produced - and viewed - will help bring light to the various production services that are also directly available to viewers through this hypothetical company.

It's all about diversification here, essentially, as well as making full use of what this kind of high-tech media publication has to offer.

Fund me. Pretty please. Fund me and help save journalism. Now.

***

Update 2:

I for one am tired of watching the journalism industry flop around in a slimy goo of failure. It could do so much good in the world, help so many people, but instead it continues its kamikaze death march towards oblivion. I feel I have answers, and solutions, to help prevent the dystopian future that is most likely going to be an unavoidable reality after the current flawed leadership of the media industry takes its last breath of zombie death. If you know somebody that has money who wants to help curtail the moral and intellectual degradation of society then please let me know.

Thank you.

Help Us Help Me Help You

2009-04-16T12:42:00.000-04:00

I am seeking the names of specific individuals who would seriously be willing to fund the construction of an ultramodern media publication of the future.

The main thing that has held me back from better developing particular ideas that relate to this for so long is having no capital to do so. Almost everything I have produced, much of which has never been published, has been produced on zero funding. I consider almost everything I’ve produced up to this point to be mere practice and child’s play compared to what I could (and should) actually build with adequate funding.

Many films are produced annually on budgets of $70 million or more. For less than one sixth of that kind of funding I could build my vision for the supreme media publication of tomorrow, the likes of which has yet to be fully realized, ever.

I want to rebuild the journalism industry as well as make it a valuable profession again for the right people with the right drive who have the right training and the right vision. That is my goal here, to save journalism and to better society with better journalism. My goal here is not to attain wealth or power over other individuals, but having adequate funding and executive control over the creation of this project will be absolutely necessary for the successful completion and full realization of this project, at least in the short term.

Trying to retrofit or restructure any existing businesses or institutions simply will not do if I am to build what it is that I envision in particular, to the scope that I envision it. I have to build this one from the ground up and I need to be the one with executive control over its creation if it is to truly succeed, as quickly as possible. Of course, I have no problem collaborating with others on its creation for I would certainly plan on hiring many talented people that I have in mind, but this project is simply not going to be fully realized if I do not have executive control over its creation (at least within the short term).

I am looking for specific names of specific people who would genuinely be interested in funding this initiative. They could be venture capitalists, philanthropists, celebrities, whatever – so long as they are individuals. Groups, such as the “Knight News Challenge,” I am absolutely not interested in hearing of, at all. Most of the ideas they fund are an absolute joke in my opinion.

Large groups and committees are often way too conservative and myopic to understand the value of ideas that are “ahead” of their time (or even ideas that are in their time right now, that society is already currently ready for). And when I mean “conservative” I do not mean “economically or fiscally conservative,” I mean “completely and utterly debilitated by group think” to the point to where they have little or no foresight in their thinking, whatsoever.

Many individuals, however, are often not nearly as myopic in understanding the value of ideas that are categorically ahead of their time (especially the right individuals). Landmark creative individuals such as “Steve Jobs” are not going to suffer from the same flawed, myopic reasoning as compared to groups like “The Wall Street Journal” or “The Knight Foundation.” Steve Jobs would not have been able to accomplish what he has accomplished if he was forced to work under the likes of Dick Cheney or was funded by the likes of Rand Corporation.

If you happen to be one of these such individuals or happen to know any of these individuals specifically, then please let me know.

Many people with the capital and will to rebuild journalism don’t necessarily have the right ideas to do so, and most people with the right ideas and initiative to rebuild journalism simply just don’t have the capital to do so. That’s why we need to work together.

Help us help me help you. Thank you.

Nature and Newspapers

2009-04-11T10:12:00.003-04:00

Part of what separates the strong from the weak within Nature is the will to survive
(as well as the ability to successfully adapt to a changing environment).

Therefore, it could easily be argued that most of these hidebound newspaper executives
who are refusing to take the necessary steps and hire the right people to actually save their companies,
must either be tremendously weak or weak-willed within spirit, as well as
fundamentally incapable of successfully adapting to a changing climate.

Think survival of the fittest, they are not the fittest.

The slow and weak will get eaten by lions if they slow down the pack for too long,
that's just the natural order of things, so to speak.

Sorry hidebound newspaper executives,
but Nature and the pack are both saying, "No."

Death By Ineptitude?

2009-04-07T12:20:00.000-04:00

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Better Know a Lobby - Newspaper Lobby

comedycentral.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

NASA Name Contest

From here, circa March 31, 2009:

"Last question.."

"Sure."

"Knock knock."

"Who's there?"

"The death of the newspaper industry."
-Stephen Colbert

***

From Pat Thornton's Journalism Iconoclast - "It’s time to reinvent the newspaper industry"
circa April 6, 2009 (emphasis by me):

"When an industry goes from so high to so slow, so fast, it’s ultimately because its leaders became complacent.

They never thought that the monster profit margins would end. They never thought that diversification was important. Instead, they gleefully doubled down on print in recent years with ill-advised acquisitions.

After all, why diversify away from newspapers when they make so much money?

When you look at industries that ultimately fail, it’s because their leaders never thought a new technology or a new way of producing a product could come along. They thought they would be able to do the same thing forever. That short-sighted thinking is ultimately doomed to fail."

[...]

"If newspapers want to reinvent, it means a lot more than just finding new ways to disseminate old content. Reinvention means thinking of completely new products that tap into separate markets.

That’s why a computer maker gets into the portable music space. That’s why a computer maker starts selling movies. That’s how a computer maker becomes a dominant player in the cell phone space.

If Apple executives insisted on only being a computer company, Apple would have gone bankrupt. Instead, when the chips were down, they decided to start taking major risks and those risk paid off. Newspaper companies have to start taking real risks, and they have to be captained by those willing to take risks."

[...]

"We cannot change the complacency of the past, but we can change the course of the future. We must make a pact never to be complacent again. New technologies will be rapidly forming and changing lives in the coming years.

If the remnants of the newspaper industry want to survive and ultimately thrive, we have embrace new technology and get out of front of trends, not behind them. We have to embrace change. And, yes, that means we have to employ people in all ranks who are not married to the past and are willing to be a part of a revolution.

And so, the newspaper industry eventually won’t have that much to do with paper. Like Apple with computers, newspapers will still have print products (and they should, after all there is a market for them), but newspapers will be so much more than papers. They’ll produce products that are wildly different from newspapers.

That’s the only path forward."

***

So..

..how many times do you have to prove yourself to newspaper executives
before they start paying you to save their companies from certain doom?

Hey newspaper execs, hire me to save your company. Now. Seriously.
What are you waiting for?

Death?

I may not have all the answers, but I know enough to know
that other people are not coming up with the same ideas
that I’m just sitting on, yet to be published,
waiting for media publications to give me a call.

It’s time for the executives of media companies to swallow their pride
and pay me for my ideas, you know, if they want to have any chance for survival.

Or they could just continue on their kamikaze suicide run..

***

Here’s some classist humor for you guys..

How many overpaid wealthy change-hating newspaper executives does it take 
to screw in a lightbulb?

None,
that’s what the unpaid interns are for!

Haha, oh.. 
I’m laughing so hard I almost shit my pants!

Not really,
it’s almost criminal how so many of these executives have absolutely destroyed
the livelihoods  of so many decent, hardworking journalists
with their ineptitude.

You might think that the absolute shame of their utter failure
might drive more of these executives  to step down
or at least hire the right people to save their companies,
but apparently not.

Death by ineptitude?

Everybody Deserves To Be Hugged By Somebody..

2009-04-02T13:12:00.000-04:00

..everybody deserves to be loved?

If you happen to have any beauty or smarts..
then share it with someone you love?

Four Things That Make People Jealous

2009-04-02T11:50:00.002-04:00

Four things that cause jealousy are..

***

1) Wealth  

A) Economic Wealth 
Surplus of time, money, mobility, or other material wealth - relative to others.

B) Social Wealth 
“Social capital” - a surplus of love, respect, fanfare, or popularity relative to others. 

2) Power

A) Authority 
Ability to exert formal or institutionalized political power & control over others, 
such as elected officials, law enforcement, or business managers.  

B) Influence 
Ability to effect change through less direct & more informal means, 
such as celebrities, academics, or lobbyists.

3) Beauty

A) Scientific or Natural Beauty 
Symmetry, health, or innate capacity for survival within nature.  

B) Culturally Defined Beauty 
Qualities & traits which are inclusively selected or deemed valuable by society.

4) Smarts

A) Intelligence 
Natural & innate logic or reasoning abilities that may include, but are not limited to, 
strength of memory, problem-solving abilities, or speed of thought.  

B) Knowledge 
Street smarts, social mores, information, or wisdom learned & obtained culturally 
through social institutions such as family, school, community, or media.  

C) Creativity 
Inventive abilities relating to imagination, abstract thinking, 
& the ability to generate new or original ideas & concepts.

***

Wealth, power, beauty, and smarts. These are the things that make people jealous..

Watch out!

Sara Catania's "How To Fix American Journalism"

2009-03-16T10:40:00.000-04:00

"How To Fix American Journalism"
By Sara Catania, Posted March 12, 2009 | 11:46 AM (EST)

Excerpt from the Huffington Post article..

***

If American journalism is to save itself, it must look to non-profits and universities for funding and support, forging partnerships hinged on hard-hitting investigations and led by a new crop of reporters trained to gather and not simply comment on the news.

That was the message conveyed by media watchdogs who gathered Thursday morning for a two-day conference at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

"Let's invite a group of our leading private universities and colleges to create, fund and operate a non-profit demonstration model for investigative journalism," said Bevis Longstreth of the Fund for Independence in Journalism, a conference sponsor.

Longstreth dismissed calls for a government-funded media bailout as "crazy, absolutely crazy" because one of the chief roles of an independent media is to report on government abuse. "Being fed by the hand one is trained to bite won't work," he said.

Media partnerships are already underway at schools across the country, said Charles Lewis, founder of the Center for Public Integrity and president of the Fund for Independence in Journalism.

In recent months programs have launched in Wisconsin, Illinois, and the state of Washington, as well as in Boston, Los Angeles and Miami, Lewis said. More established models include Lowell Bergman's UC Berkeley students working on projects for the New York Times and Frontline, as well as David Protess' death row innocence project at Northwestern University's Medill School.

"The diaspora of immensely talented journalists are going out and creating their own centers," Lewis said.

Sheila Coronel, director of Columbia's investigative journalism program, said such partnerships are crucial to a healthy media future. "Most of the watchdogs we have are middle aged - like me," she said. "We need watch puppies, and this is where universities can play a role."

***

For background, How to Save the New York Times
circa December 8, 2008.

Media publications must attempt to combine with Universities
if they are to survive in the near future.

The real crisis? We stopped being wise..

2009-02-18T14:32:00.000-05:00

Barry Schwartz: The real crisis? We stopped being wise
February 2009

"Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for “practical wisdom” as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world."

"Barry Schwartz studies the link between economics and psychology, offering startling insights into modern life. Lately, working with Ken Sharpe, he's studying wisdom."

***

Extra..

Elizabeth Gilbert: A different way to think about creative genius
February 2009

"Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk."

"The author of Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert has thought long and hard about some large topics. Her next fascination: genius, and how we ruin it."

***

I would agree that everybody possesses some form of genius,
it just has a tendency to be beaten down and stifled by others while growing up.

Perhaps one of the most universal human tragedies is when everyday people
are robbed of the opportunity to achieve their fullest potentials
and to live a happy productive life.

I wonder how many Einsteins were born in places like Kenya who could’ve been but never were
because their growth was stunted by the circumstances of their environment?

Tragic.

NY Times "News You Can Endow" Op-Ed Article Circa January 27, 2009

2009-02-17T22:27:00.004-05:00

News You Can Endow
By DAVID SWENSEN and MICHAEL SCHMIDT
Published: January 27, 2009

"Although the problems that the newspaper industry faces are well known, no one has offered a satisfactory solution. But there is an option that might not only save newspapers but also make them stronger: Turn them into nonprofit, endowed institutions — like colleges and universities. Endowments would enhance newspapers’ autonomy while shielding them from the economic forces that are now tearing them down."

[...]

"By endowing our most valued sources of news we would free them from the strictures of an obsolete business model and offer them a permanent place in society, like that of America’s colleges and universities. Endowments would transform newspapers into unshakable fixtures of American life, with greater stability and enhanced independence that would allow them to serve the public good more effectively."

---

To give a little background on this for those who may not already know,
I spend a lot of time trying to come up with solutions
on how to save the journalism industry.

Here is a piece I wrote on December 8, 2008 entitled, "How To Save The New York Times":
http://www.newglobalorder.org/2008/12/how-to-save-new-york-times.html

Though I am deeply honored to read some of my ideas expanded upon and published by two financial experts in the New York Times (within just two shy months of me submitting this "How To Save The New York Times" op-ed material to the NY Times President, Publisher, & Editor), I am a tad disheartened that I never received any legitimate response or follow-up from the NY Times regarding my material.

Of course, it probably goes without saying
that I never received any citation in this Op-Ed article
and never received any compensation from the NY Times for sharing my ideas.

Horseracing and The Death of Journalism

2009-02-17T19:57:00.000-05:00

Most all the Winning Horses that run in Horseraces
are Alpha-type Horses or direct descendants of Alpha-type Horses..

That is to say, they're wild.. rebellious.. warring.. cunning..
hyper.. risky.. fast..

perhaps even a lil' bit dangerous sometimes..

..but ultimately they're warriors
who'll either win, or die trying

Excerpt From 10,000 Words, "Multimedia... but why?"

2009-02-11T17:51:00.001-05:00

"There are so many sources of news in the crowded online market that making print articles available online is enough to attract a substantial readership, but not enough to stand out from the crowd. Considering many web readers skim content rather than read it, interactive and multimedia news stories force users to interact with the content rather than passively consume it.

In addition, a good interactive story can yield thousands of Diggs and Stumbles, hundreds of mentions on Twitter and other social networks, and a slew of saves on social bookmarking sites like delicious, which in turn means hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of visitors. All that is worth the extra man hours if it means higher page views which also translates to, for those concerned with the business side of journalism, greater revenue.

A nice multimedia presentation doesn't even have to be a complex database like those created by the New York Times. Popular Mechanics' interactive map of proposed North American high-speed train projects could have been a simple infographic, but its interactive Flash graphic was Dugg more than 1,700 times, bookmarked on delicious by more than 60 different users and was Stumbled a gajillion times."

Albert Einstein Quotes

2009-02-09T15:56:00.001-05:00

"Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression. Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude toward the convictions that were alive in any specific social environment - an attitude that has never again left me, even though, later on, it has been tempered by a better insight into the causal connections."

-Albert Einstein, Autobiographical Notes, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly."

-Albert Einstein, letter to Morris Raphael Cohen, professor emeritus of philosophy at the College of the City of New York, March 19, 1940. Einstein is defending the appointment of Bertrand Russell to a teaching position.

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions."

-Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions (1954)

"The Internship"

2009-02-03T03:33:00.002-05:00

"Listen kid, we know that you're the best candidate for this position. There's no question about it. It's just that, well, I'm gonna be completely honest with you kid - you deserve at least that much..

It's just that we're total whores for money, all the managers here. Every single one of us would suck a dick hard for a million bucks you see, but within reason of course. Know what I mean?

The truth is that every single one of us managers here, we've all got these rich friends of ours who have these spoiled kids that are essentially unemployable. Most of them are actually total dumbshits, but their parents are willing to pay us thousands upon thousands of their hardly earned trust-fund dollars to make it look as though their kids have real work experience on paper, for simply making our coffees and stroking our massively undeserved egos for a couple of months at a time.

As I'm sure you already know, our company is more than likely collapsing, and we really have no choice but to stoop to any low humanly possible to protect our seven-figure salaries by slashing costs, even if that means charging our interns to work for us.

We know that you're the best candidate, but to be honest, you'll never have any chance in this market because you're poor, and quite frankly, that's the way we think it should be in this world run by whores. You know, real whores for money and power - pigs, swine like us - the plutocracy.

Now if you had a nice pair of tits and low enough self-esteem to suck my dick every morning for nothing in return, then I might be willing to give you a chance, but in this market, no, you'd never have any chance at all even though you're the absolute best candidate for this position.

See kid, your problem is that you're too good. When you're a privileged and powerful imbecile such as myself, nothing intimidates or threatens you more than a poor, talented young man like yourself with exceptional leadership abilities. Every single supervisor here, including myself, is afraid that you will take their job away from them, because none of them are nearly as talented, hard-working, or capable as you are. We'd much rather give this internship as well as any possible future promotions to some bumbling idiot who represents no threat to our authority or egos - a real go-getter who will do or say absolutely anything that we tell him to do or say without question, whatsoever. That's just how prostitution - I mean capitalism - works. We want somebody who we can pin the blame on whenever we fuck up real bad, as we usually do, so that we can continue to collect our seemingly undeserved multi-million dollar bonuses as well as travel to exotic places on our personal jets. Jet fuel isn't cheap you know, especially nowadays.

You see kid, how it works in the real world is that people like me don't get into our positions of power by being nice guys or making the right decisions or hiring the right people or being honest. No sir, we get to our positions of power by lying, cheating, stealing, and killing our way to the top. We get into our positions of power by sabotaging our more capable co-workers by any and all means necessary. It's a dog-eat-dog world kid, and that idealistic disposition of yours will get you nowhere fast. Hell, I used to be an idealist myself when I was your age, but then I had a family and joined the military - which got me over my 'freethinking' real fast. Having to kill dozens of crying children who are running towards you - children who may or may not be bearing grenades - will teach you a thing or two about 'fairness' real quick.

It's a dog-eat-dog world kid, and unless you're extremely rich or willing to play dirty - then you're never gonna make it in this industry. Ever.

Now go away kid, I've got an important meeting with the mayor."

Angry Journalist #7977

2009-02-02T23:48:00.002-05:00

dear newspapers:

fuck you. and your low-paying jobs. and your constant layoffs. and your inability to innovate. and your inept managers. and your broke business model. and your spirit-breaking, soul-sucking demands.

i hate you.

***

(I have no clue who wrote this but I feel your pain, hang in there fella! Hope you feel better!)

Paying To Work: Worse Than Unpaid Internships

2009-02-02T16:45:00.001-05:00

From Do You Want An Internship? It'll Cost You
By SUE SHELLENBARGER, JANUARY 28, 2009..

"Faced with a dismal market for college summer internships, a growing number of anxious parents are pitching in to help -- by buying their kids a foot in the door.

Some are paying for-profit companies to place their college students in internships that are mostly unpaid. Others are hiring marketing consultants to create direct-mail campaigns promoting their children's workplace potential. Still other parents are buying internships outright in online charity auctions.

Even as the economy slows, internship-placement programs are seeing demand rise by 15% to 25% over a year ago. Critics of the programs say they deepen the divide between the haves and have-nots by giving students from more affluent families an advantage."

***

plutocracy |ploōˈtäkrəsē|

noun (pl. -cies)
government by the wealthy.
• a country or society governed in this way.
• an elite or ruling class of people whose power derives from their wealth.

DERIVATIVES
plutocratic |ˌploōtəˈkratik| adjective
plutocratically |ˌploōtəˈkratiklē| adverb

ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Greek ploutokratia, from ploutos ‘wealth’ + kratos ‘strength, authority.’

USAGE See usage at aristocracy.

***

From Opportunity for Sale
Psst! Wanna buy an internship?
By Timothy Noah, Jan. 28, 2009..

"It's a huge misconception to say this is a program for rich kids," Eric Lochtefeld, CEO of University of Dreams, told the Journal. "The average student comes from the middle class, and their parents dig deep." To whatever extent that were true, inegalitarianism would shade into encyclopedia-salesman-style exploitation. The company "has begun funding scholarships and grants for low-income applicants," the Journal reports. But that merely lowers the price of opportunity. Whoever said a summer internship was something you had to pay for? The idea of getting a job is that they're supposed to pay you.

***

Why is this happening?

Is it merely the result of unregulated market trends
or could many people actually be losing their minds?

***

From Studies find mercury in much U.S. corn syrup
Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:15pm GMT..

"We went and looked at supermarket samples where high fructose corn syrup was the first or second ingredient on the label," he said. These 55 different foods included barbecue sauce, jam, yogurt and chocolate syrup.

"We found about one out of three had mercury above the detection limit," Wallinga said.

***

We already know that the mercury levels in fish are at an all time high
because of environmental deregulations under Bush.

Interesting how this story about mercury in common products such as soda pop
comes out just as soon as Bush leaves office..

Mercury poisoning can result in insanity
as well as a permanent reduction of your IQ,
depending on how much mercury you've been exposed to.

I would be willing to bet
that those who are paying money to work at for-profit companies
are actually exhibiting symptoms of mercury poisoning,
in addition to being filthy rich.

History has shown us beyond any reasonable doubt
that power coupled with insanity
can be a very destructive combination.

***

The government needs to intervene on this practice.

This practice of paying to work is much worse
than sweatshop slave labor or even prostitution.

What are your thoughts?

(You may need to have your mercury levels tested.)

My Case for a Job or Fellowship in Academia

2009-01-29T13:32:00.001-05:00

I have not published or distributed what I believe is my best work and journalism research. I have a great deal of original material that would be very well-suited for a Master's thesis or for course materials directly related to any "Interactive Multimedia & Entrepreneurship" faculty positions. Let me stress that this is original research and philosophy that has yet to be published anywhere else on the web by anybody else, ever.

The reason I have not published or distributed what I feel is my best work is because I have been plagiarized numerous times without citation, often times from people in academia. I have become somewhat disheartened by a seemingly thankless industry that has also made me somewhat cynical. I am also not in a position to afford being able to publish my best material for free.

As a "futurist" I have demonstrated a strong tendency to write original theories, philosophy, and predictions years in advance of them coming true or being legitimized through hindsight. I understand this frightens and intimidates many people, but I feel I have demonstrated my abilities to the point that the professional journalism industry needs to provide me with a legitimate forum to conduct funded research as well as publish my findings. I believe I have more than demonstrated my abilities to potentially help rebuild and restructure the journalism industry successfully given the chance, and that any continued dismissal of my work would represent a great disservice to the journalism industry - perhaps even a disservice to America.

If that requires deleting certain things I have written online in the past then I am more than willing to do so in exchange for a fellowship or a well-paying instruction position. I understand that some of my writing might be considered rather coarse to some, but when you are forced to the margins by those high up then it tends to have certain effects on your psychology. In any case, much of my seemingly anti journalism-establishment rhetoric has indeed been thoroughly legitimized in hindsight.

Petition for a U.S. Secretary of the Arts

2009-01-28T00:07:00.000-05:00

Quincy Jones has started a petition to ask President Obama to appoint a Secretary of the Arts.

While many other countries have had Ministers of Art or Culture for centuries,
the United States has never created such a position.

Please take a moment to sign this important petition
and then pass it on to your friends and colleagues:
http://petitiononline.com/esnyc/

Signature 210808, Patrick S. Yen says:
"Many artists are especially being hit hard by the current economic recession.

The ingenuity and creativity of many American artists can be harnessed for the public good
if strategically fostered and supported by the government."

(PS: I would love a job in the U.S. Department of the Arts!)