There they were – right in front of my eyes – bleeding like stuck pigs in the noon day sun !

I could pass on this perhaps except that the guy delivering these gems was purportedly a wise and reputable enough chap and so it kind of tainted everything he said thereafter. It doesn’t help that I’m beginning to feel like I hear way too many allegories and analogies in every day conversation these days. We have somewhere about  1/4 million words in the english language - do we really have to keep resorting to ripe old (and very often overly simplistic) sayings that MAYBE fit the situation at hand??? It’s like a shortcut to actual thinking …

(reference)

I’m also of a mind that in our ever increasing world of cultural and politically diversity we are cutting out large parts of the audience by relying upon this notion of universally shared context that clearly not EVERYONE is going to have.

But I digress … back to the horror …

We’re on the topic of organizational change and he is looking for another way to express the notion that often times things depend a great deal upon your perspective .. and he decides to use the ‘ a camel can travel through the eye of needle easier than a rich man can enter the gates of heaven’  one and proceeds to talk about how if that camel is close to the observer there is no way he can fit through that needle (also using the apparently misplaced notion of the needle in this allegory being a gate in ancient times) but if you move that camel far enough away from the observer then sure  you can get him through that needle’s eye ??!!!

Seriously???

I’m not a Christian but I do know that the real story behind that particular gem is all about shedding wealth, helping the poor, assuming some humilty and THEN maybe a rich man can be granted access to eternal life in heaven. (reference)

WTH?

First of all this particular allegory is totally not applicable to the point he is trying to make, and secondly I’m sure that more than a few people who heard that reference did not have the proper context to put it in.

I’m starting to think that the use of allegory and analogy are so poorly executed these days that the more one uses them the dumber one sounds….

Remember that great Star Trek TNG episode where Picard is beamed down to a planet to fight off a mythical beast with another alien as his partner but alas this particular lifeform speaks ONLY in allegorical terms and without the context Picard is totally lost ???!!!

Oh wait …..  damn

P.s. thankfully when writing on the internet one can site their references

(Star Trek The Next Generation – Episode Darmok)

I found this via stumbleupon this morning and I have to share it here as it is beyond awesome. It’s a magical combination of visual and auditory art  mixed with scientific inspiration – thank you John Boswel for creating such a wonderment !!!

Dana will love this

(So far my favorite is ‘The Case for Mars’)

Doing some simple math means that the Federal goverment spent 97B/325k  = $298,461 for every job they saved.

Now think of this:

With the average teacher salary of a whopping  55,000 per annum and the jobs apparently lasting just 2 years (since the states are currently laying off almost all of the 325,000 teachers) that means that the individual states should have spent just 55,000 * 325,000 * 2 = 35B on those 325,000 teachers over the last 2 years.

Thats a tiny bit over 1/3 of the 97B …where the heck did the REST go ???

The software and utilities have aged well and even though this time round things are (of course) a bit more complex I’m confident that our team is up to the task.

I’ll be providing more details on our setup in the coming months but it does have some unique requirements driving it’s design which some may find useful.

More to come later, for now enjoy a shot of our newest addition to the family:

http://fromme-toyou.tumblr.com/post/4580313737/coco-takes-manhattan-in-oscar-de-la-renta

Nice!

Pretty crappy subject but you get the idea:

With Filter on the left,  without Filter on the right:

Hope to put this to good use next week up in the great white north where I ALSO hope to take some quality nighttime photos with my new remote control.

So here is a perplexing problem… What with the coming RAPTURE, how should I properly mark my calendar?

WIll I be busy or free, who should I invite, what URL should I leave?

I/m really concerned that should someone want to schedule a meeting with me in say they year 6712 that they’ll be able to determine my availability for said meeting !