
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a former Democratic presidential candidate now supporting Barack Obama, said Sunday John McCain's military service does not automatically qualify him to be commander in chief.
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Sappy, yes. Very sappy. But sweet and definitely beautiful.
The temperature hit 90 or higher both days, and I have to say that while I love the heat when I'm outside, I do not love it inside. You know why? Well, we don't have air conditioning - virtually nobody in the Seattle area does, even new buildings. Some people will argue that we need it, some will argue that we don't because it's not warm enough for long enough, but all I know is on the days I feel like we need it, it's crazy-hot when you're inside your casa.
Today my friend Jill and I went for a two-hour long bike ride down along the Green River and while hot, it was very pleasant because of all of the trees. Yeah, when I was finished I feel like I sweat a small toddler off my body, but it was all good.
Beautiful song, and a beautiful video. I want to have lights floating in my boudoir, wouldn't that be splendid?
(Source)
Turns out the ninja was actually a camp counselor dressed in black karate garb and carrying a plastic sword.
Police tell the Asbury Park Press the man was late to a costume-themed day at a nearby middle school.
The lockdown began shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday and lasted until 9:30.
(Source)
From Harvard Business Publishing:
I spend a lot of time visiting with companies and figuring out what ideas they represent and what lessons we can learn from them. I usually leave these visits underwhelmed. There are plenty of companies with a hot product, a hip style, or a fast-rising stock price that are, essentially, one-trick ponies—they deliver great short-term results, but they don’t stand for anything big or important for the long term.
Every so often, though, I spend time with a company that is so original in its strategy, so determined in its execution, and so transparent in its thinking, that it makes my head spin. Zappos is one of those companies. Two weeks ago, I paid a visit to Zappos headquarters in Henderson, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas, and spent time with CEO Tony Hsieh and his colleagues. I could write a whole series of posts (and just might) about what I learned from this incredible operation. But I want to focus this post on one small practice that offers big lessons for leaders who are serious about changing the game in their field—and filling their organization with people who are just as committed as they are.
First, some background. As most of you know, Zappos sells shoes—lots of them—over the Internet. The company expects to generate sales of more than $1 billion this year, up from just $70 million five years ago. Part of the reason for Zappos’s meteoric success is that it got the economics and operations right. It offers customers a huge selection—four million pairs of shoes (and other items, such as handbags and apparel) in a warehouse in Kentucky next to a UPS hub. (If Imelda Marcos visited that warehouse she'd likely have a coronary on the spot.) It also offers free delivery and free returns—if you don’t like the shoes, you box them up and send them back to Zappos for no charge.
So the value proposition is a winner. But it’s the emotional connection that seals the deal. This company is fanatical about great service—not just satisfying customers, but amazing them. The company promises free, four-day delivery. That’s pretty good. But most of the time it delivers next-day service, a surprise that leaves a lasting impression on customers: “You said four days, but I got them the next morning.”
Zappos has also mastered the art of telephone service—a black hole for most Internet retailers. Zappos publishes its 1-800 number on every single page of the site—and its smart and entertaining call-center employees are free to do whatever it takes to make you happy. There are no scripts, no time limits on calls, no robotic behavior, and plenty of legendary stories about Zappos and its customers.
This is a company that’s bursting with personality, to the point where a huge number of its 1,600 employees are power users of Twitter so that their friends, colleagues, and customers know what they’re up to at any moment in time. But here’s what’s really interesting. It’s a hard job, answering phones and talking to customers for hours at a time. So when Zappos hires new employees, it provides a four-week training period that immerses them in the company’s strategy, culture, and obsession with customers. People get paid their full salary during this period.
After a week or so in this immersive experience, though, it’s time for what Zappos calls “The Offer.” The fast-growing company, which works hard to recruit people to join, says to its newest employees: “If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus.” Zappos actually bribes its new employees to quit!
Why? Because if you’re willing to take the company up on the offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for. It’s hard to describe the level of energy in the Zappos culture—which means, by definition, it’s not for everybody. Zappos wants to learn if there’s a bad fit between what makes the organization tick and what makes individual employees tick—and it’s willing to pay to learn sooner rather than later. (About ten percent of new call-center employees take the money and run.)
Indeed, CEO Tony Hsieh and his colleagues keep raising the size of the quit-now bonus. It started at $100, went to $500, and may well go higher than $1,000 as the company gets bigger (and it becomes even more difficult to maintain the all-important culture and obsession with customers.)
It’s a small practice with big implications: Companies don’t engage emotionally with their customers—people do. If you want to create a memorable company, you have to fill your company with memorable people. How are you making sure that you’re filling your organization with the right people? And how much are you willing to pay to find out?
In one case, a Harvard Law student was passed over after criticizing the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. In another, a Georgetown University student who had previously worked for a Democratic senator and congressman didn't make the cut.
Even senior Justice Department officials flinched at what appeared to be hiring decisions based — improperly and illegally — on politics, according to the internal report.
"Individuals at the department were rejecting any of our candidates who could be construed as left-wing or who were perceived, based on their appearances and resumes and so forth, as being more liberal," Kevin Ohlson, deputy director of the department's executive office of immigration review, complained to Justice investigators.
The report marked the culmination of a yearlong investigation by Justice's inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility into whether Republican politics were driving hiring polices at the once fiercely independent department.
The investigation is one of several that examine accusations of White House political meddling within the Justice Department. Those accusations were initially driven by the firings of nine U.S. attorneys in late 2006 and culminated with the ouster of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general last September.
The report issued Tuesday concluded that politics and ideology disqualified a significant number of newly graduated lawyers and summer interns seeking coveted Justice jobs in 2006.
As early as 2002, career Justice employees complained to department officials that Bush administration political appointees had largely taken over the hiring process for summer interns and so-called Honors Program jobs for newly graduated law students. For years, job applicants had been judged on their grades, the quality of their law schools, their legal clerkships and other experiences.
But in 2002, many applicants who identified themselves as Democrats or were members of liberal-leaning organizations were rejected while GOP loyalists with fewer legal skills were hired, the report found. Of 911 students who applied for full-time Honors jobs that year, 100 were identified as liberal — and 80 were rejected. By comparison, 46 were identified as conservative, and only four didn't get a job offer.
The political filtering of applicants ebbed for the three years between 2003 and 2005, the inquiry found, then resumed by 2006.
Of 602 Honors candidates that year, 150 were identified as liberal — including 83 who were cut. Five of 28 self-described conservatives were rejected.
James Hansen told Congress on Monday that the world has long passed the "dangerous level" for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and needs to get back to 1988 levels. He said Earth's atmosphere can only stay this loaded with man-made carbon dioxide for a couple more decades without changes such as mass extinction, ecosystem collapse and dramatic sea level rises.
"We're toast if we don't get on a very different path," Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences who is sometimes called the godfather of global warming science, told The Associated Press. "This is the last chance."
Hansen brought global warming home to the public in June 1988 during a Washington heat wave, telling a Senate hearing that global warming was already here. To mark the anniversary, he testified before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming where he was called a prophet, and addressed a luncheon at the National Press Club where he was called a hero by former Sen. Tim Wirth, D-Colo., who headed the 1988 hearing.
To cut emissions, Hansen said coal-fired power plants that don't capture carbon dioxide emissions shouldn't be used in the United States after 2025, and should be eliminated in the rest of the world by 2030. That carbon capture technology is still being developed and not yet cost efficient for power plants.
Burning fossil fuels like coal is the chief cause of man-made greenhouse gases. Hansen said the Earth's atmosphere has got to get back to a level of 350 parts of carbon dioxide per million. Last month, it was 10 percent higher: 386.7 parts per million.
Hansen said he'll testify on behalf of British protesters against new coal-fired power plants. Protesters have chained themselves to gates and equipment at sites of several proposed coal plants in England.
"The thing that I think is most important is to block coal-fired power plants," Hansen told the luncheon. "I'm not yet at the point of chaining myself but we somehow have to draw attention to this."
Frank Maisano, a spokesman for many U.S. utilities, including those trying to build new coal plants, said while Hansen has shown foresight as a scientist, his "stop them all approach is very simplistic" and shows that he is beyond his level of expertise.
The year of Hansen's original testimony was the world's hottest year on record. Since then, 14 years have been hotter, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Two decades later, Hansen spent his time on the question of whether it's too late to do anything about it. His answer: There's still time to stop the worst, but not much time.
"We see a tipping point occurring right before our eyes," Hansen told the AP before the luncheon. "The Arctic is the first tipping point and it's occurring exactly the way we said it would."
Hansen, echoing work by other scientists, said that in five to 10 years, the Arctic will be free of sea ice in the summer.
Longtime global warming skeptic Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., citing a recent poll, said in a statement, "Hansen, (former Vice President) Gore and the media have been trumpeting man-made climate doom since the 1980s. But Americans are not buying it."
But Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., committee chairman, said, "Dr. Hansen was right. Twenty years later, we recognize him as a climate prophet."
WASHINGTON - Droughts will get drier, storms will get stormier and floods will get deeper with changing climate across North America, U.S. government experts said in a report billed as the first continental assessment of extreme events.
Events that have seemed relatively rare will become commonplace, said the latest report from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, a joint effort of more than a dozen government agencies.
"Heat waves and heavy downpours are very likely to further increase in frequency and intensity," the report stated. "Substantial areas of North America are likely to have more frequent droughts of greater severity. Hurricane wind speeds, rainfall intensity, and storm surge levels are likely to increase. The strongest cold season storms are likely to become more frequent, with stronger winds and more extreme wave heights."
There has been an increase in the frequency of heavy downpours, especially over northern states, and these are likely to continue in the future, Thomas Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center, said in a briefing Thursday.
For example, Karl said, by the end of this century rainfall amounts expected to occur every 20 years could be taking place every five years.
Such an increase "can lead to the type of events that we are seeing in the Midwest," said Karl, though he did not directly link the current flooding to climate change.
The report itself noted that "intense precipitation (the heaviest 1 percent of daily precipitation totals) in the continental U.S. increased by 20 percent over the past century while total precipitation increased by 7 percent."
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June 18, 2008
You've seen the headlines today - McCain, Bush, and Gingrich are organizing a push to drill for oil along our coastlines and lift a 27 year moratorium. They seem to be taking advantage of high gas prices to help their friends in big oil make even more money. Opening up our coastline to drilling will take up to 10 years before the first drop of oil would reach your local gas stations and it would last for less than 10 years - yet the devastation it will cause is hardly worth the price.
Opening our national coastlines to oil exploration would begin with seismic testing to find where the oil is located. Seismic blasts have a decibel level of 260 - that's more than twice as loud as an ambulance siren. Whales, dolphins and other marine mammals rely on their sense of hearing to navigate, to locate food and to communicate with each other. Exposure to this level of sound underwater can cause deafening disorientation and can lead to permanent damage and brain hemorrhaging and even cause entire pods of whales and dolphins to beach. Only last week over 100 melon-head whales beached off of Madagascar close to where ExxonMobil was conducting seismic testing.TAKE ACTION >> Tell your friends to help put a STOP to plans to drill our coastal waters!
Seismic testing is not the only danger offshore drilling would cause for our oceans and wildlife. Major oil spills would threaten our beaches, fish, and marine mammals. And global warming is already a major threat to our world's oceans, and despite McCain's efforts to combat it, drilling for more oil will only cause more greenhouse gas emissions.
Instead of pushing for more drilling, we should be investing in renewable energy sources.
In order to stop this concerted effort to drill offshore, I need YOUR help to mobilize your friends, family, and coworkers. It's up to each of us to share the real impacts of drilling offshore. Please, take just a second to sign our petition to McCain and pass it along to your friends.
Thank you,
John Passacantando
Executive Director
P.S. This issue is critical, and we need all the support we can get. Once you've taken action, please, send this alert to your friends and family too.Ways to Help Take Action
Sign the petition to McCain today!Tell a Friend
Forward this message to a friend.Last week, approximately 100 rare melon-head whales were stranded following offshore seismic surveys by Exxon-Mobil off the coast of Madagascar.
Greenpeace recently released a new report on the impact of seismic and sonar testing on whales and dolphins.
Read more >>
It's finally happening, welcome Whole Foods to Seattle as the delays
seem to be over.
From bad can come good.
Leo — rescued from heavy chains that confined him as one of the pit bulls in former NFL quarterback Michael Vick’s dogfighting ring — is a lover, not a fighter. He now happily frolics in a clown collar as he makes the rounds at the Camino Infusion Center, where he brings comfort to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
I haven't been this happy in years! OK, I lie but still...
It's about time! If you're worried about the sanctity of marriage, outlaw divorce and then talk to me.
SAN FRANCISCO - Dozens of gay couples were married Monday after a landmark ruling making California the second U.S. state to allow same-sex nuptials went into effect.Can you score 100% on the first try? Typically, it takes an average of 5 tries to get to 100%. Follow the directions!
Click here to give it a whirl.
If you continue to have to pay more to be green, most people won't do
it. Making an environmental statement isn't enough motivation for
people, we need subsidization for the companies or people who buy
these products. If we, as a country, truly want to be independent or
at least less dependent on oil, this must happen. I don't believe our
current administration really wants that. That's not really rocket-
science I realize, but people need to realize that if pressure is not
put on our government and these businesses to offer these greener
solutions at a more affordable price, it simply won't happen. People
can't pay their mortgages, let alone pay MORE to be environmentally
conscious.
Tornadoes throughout the Midwest, flooding in Iowa and Wisconsin,
drought, shall I go on? Wake the fuck up people, global warming is
real and only republicans want you to think it is all hype!!! (pardon
the huge generalization)
These are the things that keep me up at night. Speaking of, time to go
to bed.
"No capes!"
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - This city had hoped the worst would be over by Friday, but instead the Cedar River keeps rising and has now swamped more than 400 blocks and forced thousands to flee. In Des Moines, meanwhile, officials issued a voluntary evacuation order as the Des Moine River neared the tops of levees.
Cedar Rapids officials earlier said 100 blocks were underwater, but that number rose to at least 438 city blocks in downtown by midday Friday. There was more flooding outside of downtown, but authorities don't know what widespread it is.
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I've got a sneak preview for you. I want to share a great new online tool that we're officially launching to the public in July. And I want to ask you to help us get it ready for the big launch. I'm talking about our new Responsible Shopper Web site, of course. It's like the flip-side to our popular GreenPages.org. While the Green Pages help you find the best companies to reward with your business, our ResponsibleShopper.org Web site helps you avoid the worst. We comb through reports from the news media, the government (from the EPA to the FDA), and our environmental and social justice nonprofit allies to compile comprehensive data on some of the largest corporations in America. Then, we put it together in our easily searchable Web site, so you can make informed purchasing decisions on everything from cosmetics to groceries to clothing and much more. Through Responsible Shopper's “Go Green” feature, we also link you to strategies for shifting your purchasing and investing to more responsible options. Also, here's how you can help us get it ready for the big launch this July. We'll be blasting it out to the media, holding a special press teleconference to show the media how it works, and getting it posted all over the Internet. Before we do this, please help us: 1. Make sure it's totally ready. This is a big site with tons of information – and lots of ways to link to it. Check it out; click through the links. Let us know if any aren't working, or if you have any suggestions. Just hit “contact us” when you are on the Responsible Shopper site to let us know what you find! (And tell us how you like the site too.) 2. Build some buzz. Help us make this smart-shopping tool available to everyone and spread the word today by blogging about Responsible Shopper or posting a link on your Web site. If you do, please tell us about it, and we'll include you in an upcoming Responsible Shopper blogroll. Thanks so much, and please take advantage of our site each and every time you're questioning where to spend your dollars so that they make a (positive) difference in the world. Here's to voting with your dollars for people and the planet‚ 1. Which major retailer saw its New Dehli factories raided in October 2007 by authorities acting on a tip from an undercover newspaper reporter who found children as young as 10 sewing garments for a children's apparel line? 2. Which fast food company (owner of KFC and Taco Bell) received the dismally low score of 1 out of 100 in the "Climate Counts Company Scorecard," a report that that judged companies on their commitment to reversing climate change? 3. Which popular retailer of apparel and toys got busted for the ninth time by Students and Scholars against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), which uncovered sweatshop abuses (unpaid wages, illegal working hours, unsafe working conditions) at a producer factor in China in 2007? 4. Which electronics company was revealed in November 2007 to be at least partly responsible for more than 100 current or former Superfund sites? (Superfund sites are locations designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as being so contaminated by toxic chemicals that they are dangerous to human health.) 5. Which chocolate-maker, long under fire by social justice advocates concerned about rampant child labor in the cocoa industry, has also become a dominating force in the bottled water industry, generating tons of plastic-bottle waste, and drawing criticism for polluting groundwater near its bottling facilities? 6. Which popular catalog company was the subject of a 2006 National Labor Committee report documenting abuses at its Saidan factory in Jordan including: human trafficking of guest workers, confiscation of passports, 118-hour work weeks, wages below the legal minimum, no sick days, and unsanitary working conditions? 7. Which chemical company was named the number one polluter in America by a May 2008 report from the Political Economy Research Institute called the “Toxic 100 index”? (The index is based on EPA Toxics Release Inventory data, and ranks the nation's largest companies based on the quantity of their emissions, relative toxicity of chemicals emitted, and proximity to population centers, among other criteria.) |
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