This came from the HIStalk blog, aimed at healthcare IT, but it really applies to just about any workplace with an IT shop.

10 Ways to Get Off on the Wrong Foot as a New IT Executive

1. Convene endless department meetings under the naive assumption that all problems, from understaffing to poor system architecture, are due to insufficient employee communication.
2. Insist on extensive cross-training and information-sharing, thereby alienating the experts who deliver most of the results, but who don’t like working in teams.
3. Mandate the use of overlapping software applications that require employees to record time and write status reports in multiple locations.
4. Fill leadership positions with people from your previous employer, communicating a clear message of distrust for the department that just hired you.
5. Spend time behind closed doors working on org charts, having meetings with high-level peers, and plotting strategy, all without ever getting to know the employees who have to actually do the work being planned.
6. Repeatedly state that you wouldn’t have been brought in from outside if things were going all that well, so obviously past accomplishments were bogus and everything must be immediately changed to the exact structure, policies, and practices of wherever you came from.
7. Compare the software applications in use with those great ones where you came from, implying that you’ll displace the existing ones at the first opportunity even though you know nothing about them.
8. Consider group consensus to be equal at best to your own anecdotal experience.
9. Convince the executives to increase IT funding as part of the job offer, then take personal credit for the resulting technology improvements even though they could have been achieved at any time had the money been freed up.
10. Repeatedly remind low-level employees that, unlike them, you get a reserved parking spot, a sweet office, and bonuses.

Barbara and I are cooking cornbread today as a recipe try-out for Thanksgiving. I'm doing the one below. She has modified hers to use Pamela's Ultimate Baking and Pancake Mix rather than flour, as she eats gluten-free.

Corn Bread
from The Bread Baker's Apprentice

ETA: Both the by-the-book and gluten-free version are keepers! They both go into our permanent must-do-this-frequently recipes.

This song was a #1 hit on the US country charts in 1965. There were obvious (and more vulgar) parodies.

First, it it not just racism or homophobia. I dislike anything the deprecates others due to race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity or national origin, health status, intellect, economic or social class, etc.

There are plenty of respectful ways to communicate my displeasure at what someone has said. Being confrontational is generally not the best choice, even it it feels good in the moment.

The person who has hurt me the most, although not deliberately, is myself. And I have confronted and healed the harmful things.

The University of Florida has a plan for zombie invasions. See http://www.gainesville.com/article/20091001/ARTICLES/910019935/1002?Title=Thank-goodness-UF-has-a-plan-for-zombie-invasions

Astrology does not tell one's fortune nor provides special insights that are unavailable through other means.

That being said, I do use divination -- Tarot and Astrology, mainly -- as a means to guide introspection and meditation. This helps me discover what's inside, finding things I'd overlooked or failed to comprehend.

I do get annoyed when people assume things about me, especially when it's easier to just ask. Some of the generalities found in Astrology would apply to me as easily as they would to my next door neighbor yet, even from a brief meeting, someone could easily tell that we are quite different people.

Sometimes I amuse myself by sharing my natal chart data with people who boast about their knowledge of astrology. It's a schadenfruede moment when they get it really wrong.

I see the "World's oldest person dies" headline with regularity. They must be queued-up.

Cancer
22 June - 22 July

All the base that were belong to you are soon to be re-patriotised with their original owners. Today will be fraught with exciting wonderment and thrills for at least somebody you know.

Although it is true that you are not bound to find love, love may instead find you. If it does, we warn you to be wary since sometimes love can carry sharp axes and other instruments of pain. You are disgusted with yourself today as yet again you miss an opportunity to put things right between yourself and your lover. But in good news you find some chewing gum you thought you'd eaten.

1. Place a box of donut holes in front of the subject.
2. Observe the subject.
• If the subject starts consuming the donut holes mindlessly until they are gone, it is human.
• If the subject stops eating about halfway through, it is half-human.
• If the subject stops eating before the halfway mark, it is subhuman.
• If the subject does not eat, it is not human.

(from a Facebook conversation)

[unverified] Sarah Palin will be on Dancing With The Stars next season!

Yes.

However, the science behind some things is not known yet. People respond to unknown science by:

• Going on a quest to discover the science
• Supporting those who are questing for the science
• Accepting it as unknown and going on with their lives
• Supporting those who offer non-scientific explanations
• Developing non-scientific explanations
• Unfortunately, going to meetings and shouting at those whose views differ from one's own.

I'd travel to July, 1963, and say:

1. Your school guidance counselor is not trustworthy. He will fuck-up your preferred college plans. Develop a plan B and apply early so you can get a decent scholarship.
2. [Strong advice on a private personal matter.]
3. If you meet [my first wife's name], ignore her.
4. When [names of various high-tech companies] go public, buy as many shares as you can and hold them until [optimal selling times of various high-tech companies]

Endow a scholarship for majors in healthcare informatics.

Palin says she is eager to campaign for Republicans and independents and even Democrats who share her views on limited government, national defense and energy independence.

But I wonder who would ask her to do that? Perhaps Libertarians...

12:06 pm - United Breaks Guitars (echoed from valkyri)

Bad customer service? Write a song about it, do a video, and spread it around.

Run my air conditioner

UK comedy actress Mollie Sugden dies at 86

Just hook-up a generator.

Bullshit!

Comparable sentences for lesser swindlers are 25+ years.

He needs to serve at least as long, doing hard time rather than a "country club" prison, and with a big burly cellmate to be his "special friend".

¡Carrajo!

For common pets, some dogs seem to feel shame but not regret. That same could be said for many humans.

Cats, on the other hand, never regret anything.

The strident voices on the political right and left will cease in favor of reasonable dialogs.

Barbara and I finally saw the movie on Monday afternoon. We loved it and look forward to this new cast having a few more on-screen adventures.

This is not a matter of belief. It is a personal choice.

I don't have a mother any more. Her death, at age 86, was a consequence of chronic alcohol abuse. Her long life was a consequence of New England stubbornness and a phenomenally robust liver.

While I'm married to a mother, my son does fine in honoring her.

The founder of Mother's Day, Anna Jarvis, was very upset with the commercialization of the day and impoverished herself in a campaign to abolish it. She failed.

( A longer version of the story )

The era I live in now is just fine. While it is not perfect, at least I know how to cope with its imperfections.

I recall a delicious breakfast item that my grandmother used to make when I stayed overnight. She called the "buttercakes". It was basically a griddle-fried buttermilk biscuit, served with a dab of butter and maple syrup. While I have the from-scratch recipe, it is easy to recreate using a tube of pre-made buttermilk biscuits. Just fry them up on a lightly greased griddle rather than baking them. Maple syrup and real butter are important to the taste, so don't use cheap substitutes.

(Link to NPR Story )

This story raises some major ethical issues:

• There is a genetic component. That means a specific clinical test may be developed to determine the native genetic intelligence of infants, even as they develop in the womb, allowing selection for special treatment. It also suggests that those who lack the genetics might be de-selected.
• There is an environmental component. Exposure to ongoing educational and mental tasks throughout life can yield greater brain intelligence. It's like exercises for the neurons. This suggests a science-based rationale for early education and increased public funding of education throughout life. How to fairly allocate those funds is problematic.
• It can be imaged non-intrusively. This suggests ongoing brain imaging to determine the effectiveness of education. It also suggests a path for development of new medical/educational information technology. And for those without access to it, it creates a new class of people: the untested.
• The data can be persistent. Who has legitimate access to it? Who controls it? Under what circumstances? What about privacy breaches?

The key ethical issue is similar to eugenics. Should we use this technology to categorize people, judge them, and perhaps discriminate for or against them?

This was me in December, 1946, 4.5 months old.

( Clicky )

Bonding With Their Downward-Facing Humans

New York Times, April 9, 2009,
By BETHANY LYTTLE

IN Chicago, Kristyn Caliendo does forward-bends with a Jack Russell terrier draped around her neck. In Manhattan, Grace Yang strikes a warrior pose while balancing a Shih Tzu on her thigh. And in Seattle, Chantale Stiller-Anderson practices an asana that requires side-stretching across a 52-pound vizsla.

Call it a yogic twist: Downward-facing dog is no longer just for humans.

Ludicrous? Possibly. Grist for anyone who thinks that dog-owners have taken yoga too far? Perhaps. But nationwide, classes of doga — yoga with dogs, as it is called — are increasing in number and popularity. Since Ms. Caliendo, a certified yoga instructor in Chicago, began to teach doga less than one year ago, her classes have doubled in size.

Not everyone in the yoga community is comfortable with this.

“Doga runs the risk of trivializing yoga by turning a 2,500-year-old practice into a fad,” said Julie Lawrence, 60, a yoga instructor and studio owner in Portland, Ore. “To live in harmony with all beings, including dogs, is a truly yogic principle. But yoga class may not be the most appropriate way to express this.”

Appropriate or not, this is how it works: Doga combines massage and meditation with gentle stretching for dogs and their human partners. In chaturanga, dogs sit with their front paws in the air while their human partners provide support. In an “upward-paw pose,” or sun salutation, owners lift dogs onto their hind legs. In a resting pose, the person reclines, with legs slightly bent over the dog’s torso, bolster-style, to relieve pressure on the spine.

Doga instructors are not required to complete certification, though teacher training seminars do exist, like ones taught by Brenda Bryan, 43, a yoga and doga instructor in Seattle who has just written a book on the subject. In general, instructors learn informally by sharing techniques. Guiding these techniques is an agreed-upon, though not officially stated, philosophy: Because dogs are pack animals, they are a natural match for yoga’s emphasis on union and connection with other beings.

Ms. Yang, 39, a financial analyst in Manhattan, has gone to doga classes for more than a year. Though she says that her 10-pound Shih Tzu, Sophie, has helped deepen her stretches by providing extra weight, the main reason she goes is to bond with her dog. “I always leave with a smile,” she said.

Such post-doga smiles run about $15 to $25 a class. Whether this is a bargain or overpriced depends on how — and why — the class is taught. Paula Apro, 40, of Eastford, Conn., owner of an online yoga retail store, tried a class near her home last summer.

“A stuffed animal — but not even a dog-shaped stuffed animal — was used by the instructor,” she said. Owners struggled to get their very real dogs to replicate the stuffed-animal poses, she said, and bags of treats were used to get the dogs to change positions. “It was lunacy,” Ms. Apro recalled. “Peanuts, my retired racer greyhound, didn’t participate at all. Instead, I did downward-facing dog while he ate the most treats he’s ever had in a 60-minute period.”

Ms. Caliendo said such tales are the exception. She offers her class in conjunction with the Royal Treatment Veterinary Spa in Chicago, which specializes in holistic animal care. “In no way is doga for teaching dogs silly tricks,” she said. “The dogs are never manipulated into any type of pose.”

Ms. Caliendo’s classes focus on poses and massage for dogs aimed at improving digestion and heart function, and poses for people that emphasize stress reduction and feeling well.

Ms. Bryan, the author in Seattle, said: “It’s a new field so there can be confusion about what doga is and isn’t.” Her classes are loosely structured and filled with humor. “Who cares if everybody’s facing the same direction and doing exactly the same thing?” she said. “Besides, laughing is spiritual.”

Ms. Bryan said some of her earliest classes were a challenge. “I was brand new to this, and in one class, this dog just wouldn’t stop barking,” she said. “There I was, trying desperately to look tranquil and calm, but inside I was, like, ‘Shut up!’ That was the turning point for me. I mean, this was a dog. Plus, he was having the best time of his life.”

Kari Harendorf, 38, teaches doga in Manhattan. “Jobs are disappearing,” she said. “Mortgage payments are looming. Change is everywhere, but your dog remains steadfast. So, why not spend time together?”

Ms. Harendorf links yoga to reductions in stress hormones, like cortisol, and blood pressure. “People always ask me, ‘Do dogs need yoga?’ ” she said. “I say, ‘No, you need yoga. But your dog needs your attention, and bonding with your pet is good for your health.’ ”

She is saying something many dog owners already know: Were it not for their pets, many people would never take daily walks in the park. By extension, it’s easy to see how taking your dog to doga may be a surefire way to make certain you do yoga yourself.

"One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions" -- Grace Hopper

Even in tough economic times, my score on the political spectrum remains the same.

Widespread commercialization of a low-cost energy source that does not use fossil fuel.

When you say "been there, done that" you follow it with:

If you checked "other", what would you say?

People deserve first chances. They earn second chances by accepting the risk of failure.