Check out this alarming video training from Homeland Security. I recall as a youth being trained to duck and cover under our desks in the event of nuclear attack. Nowadays, the perceived threat is closer to home.
Large institutions depend on fear. As a lad, I was taught to fear the nukes. And now we are taught fear of a deranged shooter. Of course, there would be no need for a department of Homeland Security if we aren’t all afraid, all the time. But what is the worth of a life lived in perpetual fear?
I’m afraid nobody gets out of this alive. Of that you may be certain.
Hypocritical drug war drives local property crimes
Property crime has increased lately in our town. There’s no denying it. And we can’t be the only community having problems. It seems from editorials and the recent town hall meeting that more police/security is always the cure. There is never enough security once you embark on that path. But what is driving the increase? We don’t seem to be asking the tough question about ourselves, and our culture of hypocritical drug policy.
As long as we enable and encourage the criminals, we’ll never ever have enough security.
Six lanes and smoggy skies
Interstate 5 is six lanes wide now in Redding. With thick smoke from local wildfires standing in for urban smog, we can glimpse a future where our town begins to resemble the rest of California. So best get your furnance and air filters 20×25 ordered, because if this is the way Redding is heading, you’re going to be changing them a lot.
Just need to fill up the lanes with bumper to bumper traffic, and the image will be complete.
Progress, or so it would appear.
Gas prices in perspective
From my phone, I posted an image onto Facebook of what looks like high gas prices in Redding.
$90 bucks for 20 gallons. I got some interesting comments about the “high” cost fuel. The thing about Facebook, and the internet actually, is the global nature of the viewers. I got 2 comments from the UK:
Nick Rothwell: “Wow … that’s almost as high as half what we pay in the UK.”
Ben Richards: “You’d have a revolution if you saw UK prices”
Presumably, Ben meant “another” revolution. But I get the point. I wondered what they pay in the UK vs US so I went to WolframAlpha for a gas price computation. Here are the top 10 countries for gas prices:
Wow indeed. I guess “high priced gas” is a relative term. Still, I don’t think we in the US are set up to run on $8 gas, unlike say, the Netherlands. And saying that, we may need to look more closely at how they manage it.
Kodak bankruptcy hits close to home
The sad news that Kodak has declared bankruptcy bears mention here. Below, is the clock I was given for my 20th anniversary with Eastman Kodak (EK).
20 years is a long time in the life of a human. I didn’t spend it all as a direct employee of EK. About half that time I was with a company acquired by Kodak, Bell & Howell. I was a Field Service Manager for both company’s operations.
When I began with EK, the sheer scale of the company was truly astonishing. They were so large in Rochester, the company had its own bus system for the thousands who worked there. Laboring in huge brick factory buildings that seemed literally to stretch for miles. Yellow boxes of film sold everywhere for fabulous profit margins. The company was doing amazing science and research.
Yet even then, in the late nineties, you could tell the glory days were long past. This great American company was on an arc, and the signs of its descent to an inevitable end were already plainly visible, a hundred years in the making. Aside from the obvious fact that its main product was as obsolete to most people as a buggy whip, the decay was as much from the top down, as it was from the bottom up.
A century in Rochester had produced a royal court of management, and generations of entwined managers spoke of having Kodak in their blood. From an outsider’s view, the bloodlines were clearly more important than managerial competence. The atmosphere was at times maddening.
But in the end, perhaps the troubling leadership problems made no difference. The company simply ran its course.
Toward the final days of my career there a decade ago, it seemed I was spending more time working on who to lay-off than getting anything constructive done. I had even developed a sort of routine to handing out the news. An acquired skill of which there is nothing good to be said. Make it fast and unannounced. Be aware of their safety, and of your own. It is a formidable thing, to tell a multi-decade employee who is good at what they do, that they are no longer needed. And then they came for me.
It seems a lifetime ago. The day I was “let go,” my boss arranged for me to lay off 3 of my employees first. These were all longtime people, all more senior than me. Good people. All heartbroken. One gentleman unexpectedly brought his wife with him, and I listened as sympathetically as I could as she cried and threatened to sue me. In the back of my mind, I knew my boss had flown in from Chicago, to lay me off later in the day. But right then, these were my people, and they deserved to hear it from me. They deserved my solemn respect, and the right to look me in the eye as I delivered the bad news.
Kodak was a great American company. They created terrific products. They pioneered many progressive ideas, like employee health insurance. And they fostered scientists who provided them with a multitude of useful patents, which is apparently the bankrupt company’s only equity now. I am sad to hear the news of their demise. Saddened, but not surprised.
I wonder what the bankruptcy process will look like for Kodak. Going bankrupt, whether it is an individual who files for bankruptcy or a business that finds that this may their only option, this situation is never an easy one to go through.
I was talking to a friend in another company who filed for Chapter 11 and they said that they were using a Cary bankruptcy attorney that specializes in this area of law. Apparently, they have a shining recommendation for maintaining core assets based on what my friend said. There was some concern that the bankruptcy filers they were using previously were not credible. Yes, fraudulent insolvency is a real concept that preys upon companies filing for bankruptcy and I hope that doesn’t happen to Kodak.
Kodak’s future is uncertain at this point and I can’t say what will happen. America still manufactures many things. A different Kodak may emerge. But the multitude of jobs won’t be there, not like they once were. Automation, computerization, and other “efficiency” factors have worked to create this jobless recovery. Kodak will be missed by all who worked there, and I think our nation will miss Kodak if it goes for good.
Don’t let them kill the internet
Copyright infringement and online piracy is a complex issue. Unfortunately, current “anti-piracy” legislation before congress labeled SOPA/PIPA is like using a sledgehammer to perform surgery, when the patient isn’t even sick. Media producers flourish in an ever-expanding online world of content and consumers. Government/Corporate censorship of the net will only harm free speech. If you’re wanting to learn more on adult censorship and free speech among the internet, you can find out in this article.
Large media corporations don’t see it that way. Their business model is being altered beyond their control. I have some personal experience with being pirated. Longtime readers may recall my post about a CD release of music I was part of in 2009, Beyond the Portal, on the Lotuspike label. We hoped the music would make a connection with listeners, and sales of the CD would rise. Profit! But, a few days after release, somebody sent me a link to our music on a pirate site.
You could download it online for free.
Contacting the label, they said nothing could be done about it. Sometime later, after my initial dismay, I noticed something important about the pirate’s remarks where they shared the music. The “pirate” was a fan. He/She posted the music along with some nice words about it, wanting to share with others. That struck me as important. Our fans want to share our music more widely. Yet by doing so, they defeated our traditional business model. When your fans act enthusiastically on your behalf, and that wrecks your compensation plan, the problem isn’t your fans, it’s the plan.
Other, more clever artists have found ways to succeed and thrive in a world where fans share content widely. Nine Inch Nails comes to mind. They give away tracks on their site. Radiohead. Comedian LouisCK recently self-released his new DVD online knowing it could be easily pirated. He charged just $5, and asked politely that people respect that. He sold over one million dollars worth of downloads in just a few days. I bought a copy. He figured it out.
All this is bad news for (some)record companies, (some)movie studios, and other often superfluous middlemen. Their business model is altered forever. But those moneyed corporate entities still have clout with politicians, whose votes are too easily bought. SOPA and PIPA legislation are the result. Bad policy. They want a return to their old model where they profited from distribution, in an era when distribution is instant and almost free. They are willing to trash the internet to get their way.
Having my music pirated, and also having seen my published blog photographs used without permission, I have more than a little sympathy. Like I wrote at the top, it’s a complex issue. But there area already laws in place to protect intellectual property rights. The greater good is the open web, and the free interchange of information and ideas. Without that, we seem destined for a 1984 Orwellian future. This issue is important to you and to our society. Don’t let government/corporations censor your internet.
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
Discount marijuana sales all over town?
One imagines the scene.
Dark clouds hang over the landlords of the many local marijuana collectives as the City of Redding charges Code Enforcement to shutter their tenant’s doors. Now Redding spends money it doesn’t have, defending enforcement of laws over which it has no control. Confused? Well, there is only one problem to blame.
Prohibition.
High Speed Rail would put Redding on the map
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” -Michelangelo
From the USHSR website: “Our vision is for a 21st century, 17,000 mile national high speed rail system built in 4 phases, for completion by 2030. This new national system will revitalize our economy, reactivate our manufacturing sector, create millions of jobs, end our oil dependency, and cut our carbon footprint by epic proportions, something that is always worth going to find more info about. Powered by electricity, this system provides sustainable, affordable, and safe mobility for all.”
A new rail line/system will not only add to the culture of the area but it will also bring in more tourists and others to the area. This is a huge leap forward for the economy as well the environment, to anyone that is involved this can help immensely, as previously mentioned, with jobs, hopefully starting people off on a viable and sustainable career path that helps the population. There are various ways in which promotion can be done for this railway in the US, the railway marketing services in the UK are similar in the way they want to promote a cleaner and more efficient manner of transportation. Using a planning and preparation company can help with the marketing of this railway so that it brings in the customers needed for it to make an impact on the environment and an impact on how people travel in their day-to-day lives.
Jobs, transportation, reduction in oil dependence. Nothing but upside for Redding in this idea. Our community began this latest phase of civilization as a rail town, back in 1872. This is our next logical step. Let’s take it.
You smell it before you see it.
One of the most interesting aspects of being a real estate agent is what I call the amateur anthropologist aspect. We get to see firsthand how we humans really live. Go inside their homes, and in their neighborhoods. This being marijuana harvest week, or whatever, I can tell you there’s plenty of ripe gardens growing. This means there will be plenty of smokers and growers looking to websites like budexpressnow.net to find information on everything regarding cannabis just in time for their next lot of crops to be ready for harvest. If you would like to check out some more information on growing then you may want to read this review guide. And believe me, you really do smell it before you see it this week. Check out this clearly visible garden in downtown Redding. Higher than the rooftops.
Which brings me to my point. Sunday October 2 at 8pm, KIXE begins the first installment of the new Ken Burns documentary on Prohibition. It promises to be well worth your time. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Already we have locally seen a recent spike in marijuana prohibition related crime. Like the several recent armed robberies of several local speakeasy collectives. It’s time to end this foolishness before somebody gets hurt. You can’t legislate human behavior, and money empowers organized crime. Thanks KIXE! On the subject of smell, if you’re in a medicinal or recreationally legal state or country, you could enjoy the creation of cannabis infused drinks from companies like Oki.
A day of reflection
Our hearts go out to the families of those killed in the 9/11 attack. And today we are reflective, in quiet observance of the blood and treasure spent in the decade since.
This photo is of Karry and me in a different New York. It’s a poignant reminder that every time you kiss or hug a loved one goodbye for even the most mundane separation, it may turn out to be the last time. But such is the nature of life.