JAB42 - a place for my stuff: January 2008

Friday, January 25, 2008

It's a slow Friday, so what not a little entertainment courtesy of the USMC?

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Good example of Yamaha V Star 1100 Classic modifications (lights and luggage)

My 2002 Yamaha V-Star 1100 Classic, plus some blings and things

& My Constant Companion and Mascot, "SilverBack, Two"

Irving Wladawsky-Berger: Final Thoughts on the Evolution towards a Knowledge Economy

In the last two weeks I have been writing about my feeling that 2008 might be a key year in the transition to an IT-based knowledge economy. In the first post, I focused on the emergence of the advanced technology platforms needed to deliver a diverse set of information-rich services to a very large number of people. In the subsequent post I wrote about the critical importance for a business to stand out and differentiate itself from competitors by providing consistent, first-rate customer service and thus building a loyal customer base.

In my third and final post on the subject, I want to focus on business values - in particular, on the critical importance of trust, responsibility and accountability in our increasingly integrated, global knowledge economy.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Travel Safely: Create your own DIY first aid kit for the road - Gadling

The first kit that should be the basis of all the others is the "Basic Travel Kit" set forth below. It will be highly customizable depending on the health needs of the travelers, length of travel, and destination. This is the kit that is ideal to bring on a trip through larger, developed cities and towns where advanced medical care is easily found and re-supply of medicine is possible.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

It is all about jobs

This is exactly right. Social programs are a necessary safety net. However (to really abuse the metaphor), the real goal is to make sure people don't fall off the high-wire in the first place. Lots of jobs that pay well enough to support families does that. The state and local government's primary job (warning, metaphor switch coming) is to ensure that the economic environment is a well fertilized field that will cause lots of jobs to grow on their own. A city government that makes it easy for 5000 new well paying jobs are created is doing a better job that one that runs shelters for 5000 homeless. While obviously both need to be done, the creating of one well paying job will have a more positive impact.

Fortunately, making it easy for job growth is predominantly one of getting the hell out of the way (regulations, taxes) and figuring out how to advertise the strengths of the citizens to potential businesses.

More businesses/jobs means more tax dollars which means more money for social programs. Grow the tax base by more businesses, not by raising business taxes.

The Corner on National Review Online

In today’s innovative high-tech world economy, where the global spread of free-market capitalism is the single biggest growth factor, saying “the entrepreneur is no longer king” is just plain wrong. New technologies and new companies are springing up everywhere, and it is precisely this Schumpeterian process that is the single-biggest driver of jobs, incomes, prosperity, and wealth creation.