The US Auto Hospice

Today the White House issued its assessment of the GM and Chrysler turnaround plans. To summarize: Chrysler has 30 days to live. It is being given palliative care only and physicians are under medical directive to not revive the patient. Fiat, it's slightly less dead companion, will either marry Chrysler or let it slip into liquidation, at which point the patient's healthy organs will be harvested for donation. Now would be the time for family members to stop by and say their farewells. GM is terminally ill -- but we prefer to say that it needs serious rehabilitation. GM is receiving end of life care at a very expensive hospice because frankly, we hate to see this old guy go. GM is huge and complicated, so forget about everything outside core US and Canadian operations. Forget Opel, half of GMAC, the Defense unit, a bunch of small subsidiaries and overseas operations in Brazil, India, South Africa, Korea (Daewoo), Europe, and China. These operations will either stand alone or be sold off separately, depending on the fate of the North American operations. The White House issued an impressive and crisp summary of the patient's condition. The diagnosis surprised nobody: the old guy is like a hard-drinking chain smoker in his 80's; he has been deteriorating for decades. He now sits drooling and incontinent -- mumbling about competitiveness and Volts. But it's over -- he cannot recover. From the report: GM has been losing market share slowly to its competitors for decades. In 1980, GM's US market share was 45%; in 1990, GM's US share was 36%, in 2000, its share was 29%. In 2008, its share was 22%. In short, GM has been losing 0.7% per year for the last 30 years. Fundamentally, the lingering consumer perception is that GM makes lower-quality cars (despite meaningful improvements in the last few years), which in turn leads to greater discounting, which harms GM's price realizations and depresses profitability. These lower price points are an important impediment to enhanced GM profitability and need to be reversed over time in order for GM to bring its margins into line with its best-in-class peers GM earns a disproportionate share of its profits from high-margin trucks and SUVs and is thus vulnerable to energy cost-driven shifts in consumer demand. For example, of its top 20 profit contributors in 2008, only nine were cars. GM is at least one generation behind Toyota on advanced, "green" powertrain development. In an attempt to leapfrog Toyota, GM has devoted significant resources to the Chevy Volt. While the Volt holds promise, it is currently projected to be much more expensive than its gasoline-fueled peers and will likely need substantial reductions in manufacturing cost in order to become commercially viable Absent the successful introduction of a number of new-generation nameplates, as described in the Company's plan, GM's product portfolio is more vulnerable to CAFE standard increases than the portfolios of many of its competitors (although GM is in compliance today with current standards). Many of its products fail to meet the minimum threshold on fuel economy and rank in the bottom quartile of fuel economy achievement. As GM moves through its forecast period, its cash needs associated with legacy liabilities grow, reaching approximately $6 billion per year in 2013 and 2014. To meet this cash outflow, GM needs to sell 900,000 additional cars per year, creating a difficult burden that leaves it fighting to maximize volume rather than return on investment. The situation is long beyond dire, but the US Auto Hospice wants to take 60 days try a powerful new experimental medicine called a federally backed debtor-in-possession bankruptcy. The DIP just means that the company keeps operating -- and guzzling cash -- during the treatment. The feds will ensure that the car warranties get honored and provide a bunch of dough to sweeten the deal. How much? Well, they didn't say. But GM got $13.4 billion in December and is seeking another $16.6 billion that it qualified for in February. The feds also made $5 billion available to suppliers and offered government backing of warranties plus 60 days of working capital (call it another $3-4 billion) today. At best, GM emerges a dramatically smaller company with taxpayers out $30-$35 billion plus pension and health care obligations -- where the real money gets spent. GM will now file for bankruptcy -- something that would have made a lot more sense a year ago but was resisted by CEO Rick Wagoner, among others. Bondholders will get back pennies in stock for their $27 billion in unsecured debt and the UAW will likewise give until well past hurting. It seems likely that both labor and capital will find it easier to have these changes forced on them -- there is nothing to be gained in making these kinds of concessions voluntarily. Thus bankruptcy judge will have about 30 days to reset every claim on this massive business. He or she will restructure every labor contract, retiree commitment, bond, real estate lease, and dealer franchise agreement. Everybody will take some fresh new shares of stock in return for a big haircut. The federal government, having fired the CEO, will now wipe out the shareholders, pass out new shares to workers, dealers, and lenders, create a new board of directors, and hire new managers. Talk about lemon socialism.The feds also have to pick a product line. This takes a careful analysis of car platforms -- something GM has been doing for decades. You end up with something like Chevy, Buick, and Cadillac nameplates. Chevy would make trucks, vans, and a couple of fuel efficient cars. Buicks could just replay footage of today's presidential endorsement, when Obama proclaimed Buick as America's most reliable car. (Problem: nobody buys cars on reliability any more. Saying that a new car is reliable is like saying that a new laptop has wireless -- customers expect it.) Rationalizing all GM products into a smaller, profitable business is a Rubic's Cube when you can forecast demand. Add a vicious recession, Congressmen lobbying for their local assembly plants, activists rallying behind favored nameplates (sweet Jesus, don't kill our Corvettes!), bondholders beating your brains out and the politics of this grow ugly fast. There is little chance that either GM managers or White House appointees and their BMW-driving consultants manage to get this right.By summer, the UAW will be talking suicide strike, bondholders and dealers will be in the streets, and the state of Michigan will be trashed for a decade as tens of thousands of people are forced to abandon the state. This is probably not avoidable, it is not at all pretty, and for all of the admirable tough-talk from the Auto Industry Task Force, it is not politically sustainable. Obama will spend taxpayer capital because the alternative to a full scale liquidation of GM requires that he spend more political capital than he can possibly build or borrow. Translation: Barack Obama owns General Motors. At best, we have a fast and painful pre-packaged bankruptcy process. The feds draw up all the papers, a bankruptcy judge signs them, and GM emerges smaller but with a competitive cost structure and a clean balance sheet. Sweet! Grandpa has a hair transplant, a suntan, and a triple dose of Viagra. What else could he possibly need? A lot. GM still needs cars that people want to drive. It needs leaders who can rebuild a multibillion dollar global business from the ground up. I still like Jerry York as a GM turnaround guy -- but he would be insane to take the job. Mitt Romney was the first guy I saw suggest that the feds back car warranties. He is from Michigan and a real turnaround guy. He's a lot better at fixing companies than he is at politics -- sign him up. And we need a way to compete. GM needs designs and product technologies that can give it an advantage in the marketplace. It needs loads of process innovations, brand assets, and creative marketing. And it especially needs dealers and workers who care deeply about GM's success. In short, GM needs the things it spent three decades killing and has lost the ability to develop. Gramps, as they say at the Auto Hospice, may "need a foreign partner" just as bad as uncle Chrysler did. Surely the Koreans and the Japanese will each take 2-3 plants. Maybe Ford wants one or two. And don't forget the Chinese. They have way too many dollars on their hands, they need distribution, and they LOVE their black Buicks. Chery is young, but it is starting to impress. To most Americans, GM doesn't matter. Three decades ago, GM shuttered a plant here in Silicon Valley. Toyota reopened it and it has flourished, more or less, ever since. It did not cost taxpayers a dime and the UAW didn't even change shop stewards.The history of government attempts to rescue dying car companies is not encouraging. Recall the tale of British Leyland -- like GM, an amalgamation of many car makers. In the 1970s, Leyland owned 36% of the UK market when it ran into trouble (its cars never actually ran all that well). The Labor Government nationalized the company and invested several billion pounds in it. Today it is gone. The British still make and drive fine cars -- but they wasted a huge amount of their tax money propping up a dying car giant until its final breath. Labor could not save Leyland, but they did resurrect the Tories. Leyland became the central story line for the rise of Margaret Thatcher -- a risk that Obama should not ignore. Best case, in five years, Americans will build outstanding, fuel efficient cars in 3-4 dozen production plants. These cars will be designed, manufactured, financed, serviced, and driven by Americans. The companies that make them will even be largely owned by Americans if you think that capital knows or cares what country it comes from. But the senior executives of these companies will mostly be German, Japanese, and Korean. And you won't care. Except that you might look back and wonder if the $50-$75 billion bucks that the Auto Hospice looks ready to spend is really the best way to help the 123,000 people that GM employs in North America or the perhaps half million that would be directly affected by GM's liquidation. That money would buy a lot of transition assistance -- and not everybody will need it (after all, the transplants are going to need auto workers and dealers at some point). Obama should remember the lesson of Leyland: every dollar to GM is a dime to the Republican Party. Punch line: the US Auto Hospice cannot, should not, and will not "save" GM. We should of course offer significant help to regions and families affected by the demise of two auto companies. It may even be politically wise to spare no visible effort to save grandpa before kissing his forehead for the last time. But GM simply does not matter enough to the economy or to the American people to justify tens of billions on life support. In the end, our metaphors will either guide or mislead us. Obama, especially, needs to keep his political symbols straight. He declares that the US auto industry represents a vibrant American middle class -- something that has not been true in his adult lifetime. Obama served up a telling aphorism today when he summoned the vision of America's spirit in crisis -- and tied it to sodden, self-serving, irresponsible companies, by claiming that it "sent those first mass-produced cars rolling off the assembly lines; that built an arsenal of democracy that propelled America to victory in the Second World War; and that powered our economic prowess in the first American century."Whew. Evidently grandpa GM still inspires iconic visions of big business, big unions, big cars, cheap gas, and -- let's admit it -- our personal as well as our national coming of age. It may have been your father's Oldmobile, but it was a helluva lot of fun and explains no small part of our occassional urge to "save" GM. Face it, in high school, nobody ever got laid in a Toyota.

Eyelash fall into eyes

Last week, Eyelash usually,nearly everyday,fell into eyes,how to deal that?

Raw Food Made Easy for 1-2

Interested in raw food but don't know where to start?We recommend getting the book, Raw Food Made Easy (for 1 or 2 People), by Jennifer Cornbleet!This "cookbook" includes simple delicious recipes with easy ingredients and quick preparation. Jennifer writes a good introduction on your 'kitchen setup' - equipment and raw food staples, and 'raw basic' info to help you get started.Some recipes that look especially delicious that we want to make in the future:Raw Fig/Date Granola and MuesliWhole Oatmeal using soaked oat groatsZucchini HummusCream of Tomato SoupSpinach Apple SoupShaved Beet Salad with Lemon Herb DressingTahini Lemon DressingMock Rice PilafMediterranean KaleApple Crumb CakeThe two recipes we've enjoyed so far was the Sunflower Herb Pate and Key Lime Mousse.The Sunflower Herb Pate calls for soaked sunflower seeds, lemon juice, garlic, dash cayenne, onion, and fresh herbs (like dill or basil). We also added celery seed, and some kelp granules. We used the pate to make collard green wraps and stuffed mushrooms - both very good! It was a very filling wrap and was good complimented with juicy tomatoes, cucumber, and avocado. The mushrooms were so elegant yet easy and filling too!The Key Lime Mousse (pudding) was so easy to whip up - all you need is avocado, agave, and lime juice. Awesome served with fresh berries (we used Marionberries)! Good recipe to make other variations like lemon pudding or banana pudding.Now we don't eat raw every day, but we are trying to have more raw foods even if it's just part of our meal. So if you want to start eating more raw foods check out this book!Have a sunny week, LK

Thursday Tidbits - Wildtrees, Twitter Parties, and More!

Welcome to the latest edition of Thursday Tidbits!Wait a minute, you say. Thursday Tidbits? The Tidbits posts are usually on Tuesday!Well...yes, they are. But given that on Tuesday I was still recovering from Monday's trip to Helena (sometimes working for the Forest Service isn't glamorous) and fighting what's now been diagnosed as walking pneumonia AND a severe sinus infection, it wasn't such a good day for writing.So this week, it's Thursday Tidbits. And hey, the alliteration still works!WildtreeI would like to start by introducing you to a friend of mine. Lauren and I go back a long way - in fact, my parents still have a picture of us reading in church when we were in the first grade! I recently reconnected with Lauren on Facebook, and she asked if I would check out her website, which features food products by a company call Wildtree.The story behind Wildtree is the story of Leslie Montie. When Leslie discovered that her children had medical conditions requiring special dietary restrictions, she and her family sought to develop delicious foods that would not cause reactions in her children and were easy to make. Their discoveries led to the founding of Wildtree in 1996.Wildtree seemingly markets itself similar to Tupperware - selling quality products through host and hostess parties. But in our on-line generation they also offer the ability to purchase their products through a representative's web site. If you go to Lauren's web site - http://laurens.mywildtree.com/Pages/Homepage.aspx - you can see that Wildtree offers a wide variety of products, from grapeseed oil to a large variety of sauces and seasonings to soups and stews. All made without artificial flavors, additives, hydrogenated fats, preservatives or dyes.Now here's the catch, as Lauren told me when she asked me to check Wildtree out. Many Wildtree products do not contain gluten or casein, but Wildtree products are not certified gluten free, or casein free for that matter, as they are manufactured in the same facility as gluten and casein-containing products (although not necessarily on the same lines). I am sure you can contact Lauren or someone else affiliated with Wildtree with questions concerning specific products.I'd encourage you to check out Lauren's website and see if Wildtree products would meet your needs. And also, please check out Lauren's blog The Good Life where she not only shares recipes and stories, but some pretty darn good poetry as well.Lauren, it's good to reconnect with you again.The Gluten Free Twitter party is TOMORROW!!!Tomorrow, April 3, is the date for the all day GFCF Twitter party! Bonnie Sayers, who blogs at Autism Family Adventures and tweets at http://twitter.com/autismfamily, is our host. There will be panelists at (note: all times are PACIFIC time) 9am, 1pm, and 7:30 pm speaking on their experiences in the GF and GFCF lifestyles, including yours truly, who will be part of the 7:30 pm panel. Bonnie has also lined up prizes for you to win as well. Some come and participate - it will be fun?How do you participate? First, click here and RSVP to Bonnie using your Twitter ID. Then, on April 3, follow all the action by using the hashmark #gfree. You can use a service such as Twitter Search, Tweetchat, or Tweetdeck to keep track of the posts under this hashmark (Bonnie has details at the RSVP post).Please come join us for a fun day tomorrow!Let's Do GF Ice Cream ConesI was going to do a formal review of these wonderful treats that we picked up for the kids last week, but then remembered that my dear friend Katherine, The GFCF Mommy, already did a great review. So please click over there and read about these wonderful treats. I'll wait...You back? Good.One of the challenges of the GFCF lifestyle is not to create new foods, but recreate old foods so that those living this lifestyle can enjoy them as well. We have managed to do this for our children in many ways - if they have a party to go to, we can easily give them pizza or a piece of cake so they are having essential what the other kids are having. But ice cream cones were a challenge. Until now.I actually remembered Katherine's review as decided to try and get these ice cream cones for the kids. We found them at our local Good Foods store - Whole Foods or Trader Joes probably carry them as well. Like Katherine, I probably got as much pleasure out of watching my children eat this new treat for them as they did eating it. Another piece of childhood (and adulthood) that they can now have.What a joy.Recipe RoundupThis week we go back to our usual formula - 4 meals, lots of great recipes!BreakfastOkay, so I am gonna cheat a little here. But for breakfast we are doing cereal.Most people know that last year General Mills changed the formula of their Rice Chex cereal and made it gluten free. Well, things have gone so well that they are changing the formula of smoke more Chex cereals! Corn Chex, Strawberry Chex, Honey Nut Chex, and Cinnamon Chex are all going to be made gluten free too!!Most websites reporting this are saying that the change over occurs June 1, and in fact the Chex website is still only touting Rice Chex as being gluten free. But I was able to find GF Corn Chex at Super Walmart last week. And the folks at A Gluten Free Guide are reporting that other gluten free Chex cereals are starting to pop up on shelves throughout the country.This is great news, and hopefully sales will soar so that other cereal manufacturers (Kelloggs? Post? Are you listening?) will follow suit and start making their cereals gluten free.Just be sure when you pick up your boxes of Chex that you read the label to be sure you have the GF version.LunchWanna try something good for lunch? Then head over to Karina's Kitchen and try this recipe for Baked Grape Tomatoes with Basil and Cornbread Crumbs. It looks delicious!Or how about a panini? Carrie, the Ginger Lemon Girl, offers these Chipotle Chicken Panini's to try. What, you say, panini means bread? Not to Carrie...she uses the chicken as bread!!DinnerFeeling a little daring, and maybe a little Italian? Then friend Sea at the Book of Yum has the answer! As part of the Daring Baker's challenge, Sea made GF and Egg Free Spinach Egg Pasta, along with several sauces and "uncheeses" so you can make lasagne rolls! Mmm....Yum!!For more Daring baker Lasagne recipes, check out these offerings by Sheltie Girl and Lauren, the Celiac Teen. Note that these two are not necessarilty casein free, so if you are CF you will have to make some substitutions.DessertDessert today is cookies, starting with these delightful Peanut Butter Vegan Lace Cookies, courtesy of Ellen at I Am Gluten Free.Wanna try something a little different? Celine at Have Cake, Will Travel has the answer! Try these Tahini Orange (or Lemon) Cookies. The look great!As always, these are just a small sampling of the wonder GF and GFCF recipes that are being shared by some terrific bloggers. Please visit the blogs on my right sideboard for more great recipes. And, if your blog is not on the sideboard, please leave me a comment and I will be happy to add it!

Book Driven Development

(This one is also on the Pathfinder blog, but since it fits in here, I wanted the full text here...)Jay Fields, who has been posting a very nice sequence of nuts-and-bolts Ruby and Rails guidelines, pauses to talk about creating examples. It's a topic I've wanted to write about here for a while, and this is as good a lead-in as any. Plus, I'm generally interested in how principles of software development apply or don't apply in odd cases, and software being developed specifically for example purposes certainly qualifies as an odd case.For Professional Ruby On Rails, I knew that I wanted to run a single example application through the book. I had some grand visions of it being a "real" application or at least a real example of coding best practices. For best practices, I think it's pretty good on a method-by-method bases, but has some weaknesses as an entire app, for reasons that I think will become clear.The first question was exactly what I wanted the sample application to do. On some level, this is a superficial question -- who really cares what the fake app in the book does? At the same time, certain application structures would make it easier or more plausible to discuss certain features. And I had a list of features I wanted to cover -- legacy databases, users and roles, navigation, and graphics. Ideally, the sample app would have some kind of consistency that would make it reasonable to have these features. In addition, I didn't want it to be a thinly-veiled version of a site that everybody would recognize, and I wanted it to be something that I could type every day for six months without going crazy. One of my first ideas was to resurrect an old Web 1.0 joke for my killer e-commerce plan: a web-based store for selling and delivering gasoline. But I decided that the gag was a lot less funny with gas in the $3 per gallon range, and I also decided that I didn't want the fake site to be primarily an e-commerce site.Brainstorming ensued. I almost did a social networking site for pets, but I decided that was too silly, subsequently discovering that there are already a zillion pet social networking sites...Eventually, I settled on Soups OnLine, a soup recipe-sharing site. It had the advantages of:Having a data model that could plausibly handle RESTful nested resources (recipe and ingredients)Having an actual user model.Being a plausible site, while still being silly enough to keep anybody from taking the whole thing too seriously.The first problem came up almost immediately -- site design. I felt that a site that was just dull HTML would not be credible or interesting, but at the same time, I didn't really have the time or resources to create a full site design from scratch, nor did I want the book to become about site design. My solution, which I'm not prepared to defend to the death, was to integrate a template from freewebtemplates.com. This kind of sideswipes the whole issue, providing reasonably good-looking site without having to get into the weeds debating CSS minutia.Over time, the example mutated away from a normal application development process in a few interesting ways.The nature of the book-writing itself was a strong anti-agile push, in much the same way that any large body of documentation is. Changes in code structure affect the tests, which is fine, but also affect some amount of text in the previous 300 pages, which there's no easy way to find. (As you can read in this post, the issue affected not just me, but also the editors on the book). At least once, a late change in Rails invalidated a helper method I used in an early chapter. Not a big deal, except I also used that helper method to demonstrate a test structure later in the book -- I wound up keeping a shell of the original method redirecting to the new Rails method.Also, some features that I had hoped to get in, didn't quite get there -- because I ran out of time or because they didn't with the chapter structure. (If you read the book, you'll see some early structures that imply that the app will eventually convert between English and Metric, which I never quite got to.) Again, this is the kind of thing that happens in all the time in real projects, but is hard to smoothly redirect when there's all that pre-existing text describing the earlier plans.Sometimes, the sample app has more features than a real app would, rather than less. Since the book tries to cover multiple plugins or ways to accomplish things, Soups OnLine wound up with far more plugin load than a normal app would -- a regular app wouldn't normally have RSpec and Shoulda and Dust, or RMagick and MiniMagick and ImageScience. Inevitably some conflicts happened between multiple plugins trying to cover the same space, making the final code somewhat wilder than I'd really like. (If you've read the book and want to experiment with the outstanding code, it's probably easiest to work with around chapter 9, before Globalize and the image plugins are added...)Ultimately, of course, as Fields concludes, it's the author's fault if the example doesn't help the user understand the issues at hand. It's my job to understand the constraints of the form and still try to present as realistic an application as possible while explaining how to to build similar applications.

Two stories from Kadiolo

Tom & Lisa with Ernie and Jan. Story 1: A lady and her husband came to see Ernie and Jan. He explained that they were from a village about 15 min away. He said they were family (Aunt and Uncle) to one of our village pastors. This aunt has been sick a long time, and neither she nor her husband are believers. (in fact there are no believers in this village as far as we know.) They have been seeking treatment from a witchdoctor who is in their village. Finally they decided that was not working, so had come to see Ernie & Jan, explaining that they've decided to give the Christian God a try, and if He could heal her, their whole family would turn to Christ. So Pastor Youssouf prayed for her, and they went back to their village.We received another note from Ernie and Jan about 3 weeks after the first. The aunt was really showing improvement. Keep praying for this lady. It would be so neat for the village to see a miracle of new creation if this family does trust Christ.This is the drama team all dressed up for their competition theatre piece.Story 2: We've talked several times about the drama team. They do radio theatres, and record them, and they are played on 55+ radio stations. 3 years ago, they performed theatre in the Mali national competition. They did not win, but were asked for perform for the president of Mali. This year, they entered the national competition again. They won the local and state levels. They went to the nationals, and did very well. They did not win, but Lydie Konate was given the award of best actress in the competition. This is a pic of Lydie. (FELICITATIONS LYDIE!!) The competition IS a great opportunity for evangelism. Not only the audience, but also the other performers. Performers for orchestra, dance, choral, instrumental as well as theatre all represented our region (state) Sikasso. All the performers lived together for more than a month during all the competitions. Last time they held services every morning, and attracted others to join them. We'll hear more stories of how they influenced them. From the competition 3 years ago, one man accepted Christ, (he was a drummer in the instrumental groups) he moved to fourou, and was baptized.We are here in Michigan, doing what we can to help Lisa re-establish what she can. It is a bit hard to be away from the ministries going on in Mali. But we know God is at work there, and rejoice when we hear news like this...Thanks for stopping by,Tom & Lisa Seward

Sears Annual Meeting: Internet and Brands

Sears Holdings (SHLD) annual meeting was a bit anti-climactic yet reassuring. Note to Chairman Lampert, stop having it around Berkshire (BRK.A) weekend, you get drowned out by the Buffett extravaganza in Omaha.Onto the meeting. As we have discussed here countless times Sears need to leverage its brands and improve it internet presence. Both seem to be a priority and even better, both are seeing signs of real progress.From the WSJ:While Mr. Lampert expects that most Sears sales will continue to occur in brick and mortar stores, he said he would increase investment in Internet experiments. His goal, he said, is to capture the attention of shoppers at the crucial moment when they begin to discuss purchases with friends on social-media Web sites and to research buying choices online."We want to make sure we don't become completely irrelevant as people's way of making decisions changes," he said, adding, "The goal is not just survival, it's progress."Note: Sears Web sites will offer more than 3 million products in 2009, up from 500,000 in 2008It continues:But there were hopeful signs, including a spike in the company's already leading share of the appliance market last year to 34.6% from about 30%. That share continued to increase in the first quarter of this year, company officials said.Mr. Lampert said he expected Sears's exclusive Kenmore appliance and Craftsman tool brands to leverage their size better by developing innovative products."Historically, we have been way too passive," he said. He added that he didn't see Sears's lack of production ability as a hindrance. "Nike doesn't own manufacturing," he said.This is a telling quote because it possibly signals brands like DieHard, Craftsmen and Kenmore might possibly be sold in outlets other than Sears or Kmart. The constant debate is whether selling them outside of Sears owned properties would lead to further erosion of foot traffic. Too some extent it would but, would that be offset by the increased sales of merchandise? For Craftsmen, it think having them in Home Depot (HD) and Lowe's (LOW) is a no brainer. Drills, screwdrivers and pliers are more of a commodity purchase than a $1000 appliance. For that reason, people will make the special trip to a Sears to get the washer/dryer but probably not to get a socket set that can be purchases around the corner at another location.The lower the price point, the less "shopping" in involved and the need to market saturation of the product is necessary. Let's hope they are moving that way. For Craftsmen and DieHard. Let's see results for those two before we do anything with appliances. Regarding acquisitions Lampert gave the typical "we'd consider it" answer. One must not expect anything of major significance given Sears cash levels, credit markets and the uncertainty about the future. I would not be surprised to see more tech buys like the recent Delver one.Lampert also highlighted "mygofer", which opened its first store last week in the southwest Chicago suburb of Joliet. Shoppers go online, select items and receive curbside delivery at the location right away. The store, which operates more like a warehouse than a retail location, features few displays, think of it as a Sam's Club drive-thru."We think that's going to be a better way for people to shop," he said. "This is not just about there being a new store experience, it's about there being a different way for people to shop", said Lampert.Anyone who was at the meeting and has more detailed notes, you can email them and I will post for you.. (valueplays at gmail dot com)Disclosure ("none" means no position):Long SHLD Enter your Email Preview Powered by FeedBlitz

Airport Check-in: San Francisco may add hotel in terminal

WHAT'S NEWTravelers in Europe and Asia are familiar with hotels in airport terminals, but the trend has been slow to take off at U.S. airports, where non-aviation real estate is mostly dedicated to shops and restaurants.Now San Francisco International says it'll explore the idea by possibly building a new sleeping facility in the international terminal. It has issued a request for proposals from vendors that specialize in small sleeping units, similar to pods found in Japan or hourly rental capsules in Europe. Targeted at international passengers with ample layover time, the airport's proposal calls for a 900-square-foot facility with units offering a work surface and electrical outlets. Officials hope to open the hotel by January 2010. Europe's Yotel chain operates capsule hotels at London's Gatwick and Heathrow airports and AmsterdamSchiphol. Seattle-Tacoma International is turning to local resources to help combat laser-pointing at aircraft, an illegal and potentially hazardous prank. Port of Seattle Police Department has partnered with local citizen group Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound and a local TV show to aid the investigation into finding those responsible for pointing lasers at aircraft. Since Feb. 26, at least 30 arriving aircraft have been targeted with lasers, including 14 in one half-hour period. The red and green lasers can temporarily blind pilots.Crime Stoppers will offer a reward for information that leads to an arrest, and the investigation has been highlighted on a recent segment of Washington's Most Wanted. Punishment for pointing a laser at an aircraft is up to five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine. The average domestic airfare in the fourth quarter of 2008 was $347, the highest for any October-December period on record, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Fares generally rise in the winter from the third quarter due to holiday travelers. But with the economy slowing rapidly in the fall of 2008, fares in the fourth quarter actually fell 3.7% from the record average fare of $360 in the July-to-September period.Cincinnati, a Delta hub, continued to report the highest average fare at $554, followed by Grand Rapids, Mich. ($459), and Knoxville, Tenn. ($447). The averages include round-trip fares and one-way tickets purchased without the return. Not surprisingly, the lowest fares were reported by airports with a heavy discount carrier presence, such as Dallas Love Field ($241), Long Beach ($254) and Las Vegas ($261).France has joined other European Union countries in waiving the requirement for air travelers who have already been screened at another European airport to be screened a second time when making flight connections. The so-called One-Stop Security, already allowed in the majority of EU countries, will be rolled out at French airports throughout 2009, says the International Air Transport Association.IATA estimates that this will affect 6 million passengers and save $30 million a year. "It is a waste of time, effort and resources to ask passengers to stand again at security if they have already been checked by a competent screening authority a few hours earlier," says IATA's CEO Giovanni Bisignani, in a statement.The United Kingdom and Ireland have yet to join the pact. ROUTE NEWSAlaska adds flights to HawaiiAlaska Airlines is expanding service to Hawaii from the West Coast. Beginning Nov. 9, it will start four-times-weekly service between Oakland and Kahului, Hawaii, on the island of Maui. It will begin thrice-weekly service between Oakland and Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii, starting Nov. 10. The airline will also expand its Seattle-Honolulu schedule from one daily flight to two, beginning July 2. The start of its Portland-Maui service will be moved up to July 3 from Aug. 7.Alaska will also start non-stop daily service between Seattle and Houston, beginning Sept. 23. Its new Seattle-Atlanta service will start Oct. 23. On May 5, AirTran launched new daily service between Milwaukee and Minneapolis-St. Paul.Every Monday, we report on the latest news in airports across the USA. See something noteworthy in your travels? E-mail your suggestions to ryu@usatoday.com.

Lisa to Bloggers: In the absence of a repressive milieu your societal nature’s been co-opted.

So I get this question from my friend: 'Brij, what's up with blogging slogging?' This friend got hit by news will find you trap and found this I-quit-blogging announcement by Jason Calacanis unnerving. There have been rumblings of sorts on where this whole blogging slogging is going. Today also on Techmeme I saw two posts analyzing this same topic from two different, and apparently honest, angles. David Risley rightly thinks we are in a change phase and little bit of 'community humility' will go a long way in bringing back the fun: Yes, it is changing. A super saturated niche like tech blogging is evolving into a conversation that takes place as much on social media like FriendFeed and Twitter as it does on the blog. Not all blogging niches are like that, but tech is particularly saturated as a niche. The guys who end up being leaders in todays tech blogging are the people who offer real value on all of their communication lines (blog + social media outlets) and who are personable and actively interact with others. Any tech blogger who is looking at it as a competition or who worry incessantly about the so-called "a-list" is just not going to do really well. If you cant change with the community, then I guess it might be easier to bow out and start blogging about something else. Loren Feldman has a very revealing take on overall technology world. Emperor has no clothes but he is more right than lot of people out there. Now my answer to my friend was rather boring. I told him blogging phenomena is evolutionary, some A-listers now need to work on their family, some are just burned out, adsense economy is a welfare economy and you can't pay your bill with it etc etc. Short answer was that people will continue to need car (blog), they may or may not like going for Hummer or Porsche (star blogs). Though I wasn't very pleased with my answer, felt I should have been deep and used some difficult to understand words! Later on I managed to dig up this conversation between Bart Simpson and his high-IQ sister Lisa. I think this conversation captures the dilemma faced by these rebellious blogger Barts. I have taken liberty with emphasis and link. Enjoy - BART: Lis, everyone in town is acting like me. So why does it suck? LISA: It's simple, Bart: you've been defined yourself as a rebel, and in the absence of a repressive milieu your societal nature's been co-opted. BART: I see. LISA: Ever since that self-help guy came to town, you've lost your identity. You've fallen through the cracks of our quick-fix, one-hour photo, instant oatmeal society. BART: What's the answer? LISA: Well, this is your chance to develop a new and better identity. May I suggest .. good natured doormat?' BART: Sounds good, sis. Just tell me what to do. Blogged with MessageDance using Gmail Reply On Twitter

Heart flavor soap

Can England win World Cup? Patrick Barclay responds

In his latest debate Patrick Barclay asked if England could win the World Cup in 2010. Here our Chief Football Commentator responds to a selection of your comments:
Pros: England on paper look strong. There can't be many centre backs in the world better then Ferdinand and Terry. Along with Iniesta, Gerrard is probably the best midfielder in the world. Lampard is also a great midfielder. Rooney is one of the best strikers in the world. The Premier League is considered the best league in the world and most of England's players are in the starting line-ups of the Big Four - this must count for something. And Fabio Capello seems a good tactician.
Cons: This side lack chemistry and its rare they find any fluency in their game. As the old cliche goes, the game isn't played on paper. This could cost England. Spain are arguably better then England on paper but it was the way Spain's players connected with each other that made the real difference between the sides when they met. The young players except Rooney don't tend to perform at a high enough level for their country either.Overall: England have a good team but I do not think they have what it takes. Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Italy and France may not always play well but when these teams go into fifth gear they will overcome England as England never seem to find fifth gear. England will need a hell of a lot of luck to win the World Cup. They will have to rely on the opposition making mistakes. Robert Edders
PB: Your ''con'' makes sense, Robert. Togetherness is very important at tournaments, as Croatia and Turkey as well as, of course, Spain proved in 2008. But England are getting there. The other countries you mention, with the exception of Italy, have let themselves down in tournaments from time to time. And Spain were deficient until 2008.
For the people who are obsessed with other countries being better than us, in 2002 Germany made the final. Their run? In the group stages they were paired with Saudi Arabia, Cameroon, and Ireland (England would qualify from that group), the second round saw them face mighty Paraguay (England would beat them), the quarters was a match against the legendary America (England would beat them), the semi was a titanic tussle against the great South Korea (England would beat them). Only in the final did they meet, and lose to, quality opposition in Brazil. This shows all you need is good fortune to make a final, and anything can happen in a one-off game. Can England win the next World Cup? With the luck of the draw, of course we can!Darren PB: Of course you can! The example of 2002 is a good one. England beat Germany 5-1 in qualifying and, like the Germans, lost to a very good Brazil.
If we pass the ball as poorly as we did on Saturday in 2010 then we will finish bottom of our group without scoring a goal. For all the hype around Capello's England, we have only had one good performance. That was against Croatia. Our other good result was against the Germans, but that was an average /poor peformance at best. We are not that good. James, Croydon
PB: No, I was in Berlin and saw a very good performance by an England reserve side (Michael Carrick ran the match from midfield). Also England were good in Belarus. And they will get better. As you say, they'll have to, because they were pathetic in the first half in Almaty, I agree. They should have played a few short passes to get their rhythm going instead of hitting Hollywood balls that ended up looking more like Ealing comedy.
Perhaps for the first time we have a coach who can manage the expectation as much as the men under his charge. The feeling has to be that this is the first genuinely professional coach since the days of Alf Ramsey. A man not fazed by media and supremely confident in his own capabilities. The English style of play is not inferior to any other although many think so. The problem is (and always was) a lack of mental discipline. Played at its best "English" football is dynamic and powerful and has the potential to blow away the opposition. In many ways it is more entertaining and exciting than possesion football.Capello knows what he has got and how best to use it. The players are eager, but not mentally disciplined. If he can get them to engage such intellect as they have England could be unstoppable. This time it's serious. Dan
PB: I gather you approve of Capello. So do I in terms of his ability (though I don't think England should have a foreign manager). I also agree that he is slightly reminiscent of Sir Alf Ramsey (even though Alf must be spinning in his grave at the thought of an Italian being in charge).
Of course we have a chance. We're ranked sixth in the world and we have a top-class manager, some very good players and a 100 per cent record in qualifying (including a 4-1 away victory over the team ranked eighth in the world).Naturally, to win it England would need some luck, but so would any side. Even if Spain won it, it would hardly be a walk in the park for them. Writing England off is totally nonsensical. Let's remember that as recently as 2004 a rank outsider won a major international football tournament. Chris PB: Yes, I think the example of Greece is relevant because they did it with tactics and teamwork. Capello reminds me of Otto Rehhagel in that he's crafty, secretive and aloof - to just the right degree - from his players.
Patrick, you suggested England would win the last World Cup and look what happened...England are light on quality up front, the midfield isn't strong enough either. For these reasons I can see the team boarding the first plane home after the first found of knockout games. Mark NolanPB: Yes, I did think they had enough to win the last World Cup - I curse your excellent memory, Mark - but injuries to Rooney before the tournament and Owen during it (though he should never have been in the squad) make that look a pretty sick forecast. Sven-Goran Eriksson trusted the players too much. Capello will not do that. And they will go to South Africa, most of them, knowing it is their last chance to avoid going down in history as international failures. In 4-2-3-1 formation they can avoid both of the flaws you detect. Lampard has settled in nicely as a semi-holding player in midfield and, as for up front, what's wrong with Rooney and Gerrard supporting Heskey? Or even Crouch?
Capello has worked wonders with the same basic team that were so useless under Steve McClaren. Can Capello carry the England team on his back all the way? England has a propensity to self-destruct, especially on the big stage. So, Capello may be limited by this major failing.However, they should get to the quarter-finals. And if they meet Spain, Capello will make them win. It takes more that technical skill to win the big ones. It takes, guts, pride, true grit, and a never-say-die attitude. England, the country, has demonstrated this in spades on many occasions. They would need to call on this deep reserve of absolute bulldog toughness, but they could do it! C. Elder
PB: If England are such a bulldog breed, why do they run off and buy a foreign manager at the first sign of trouble? And England weren't useless under McClaren. Not all the time. They beat Hiddink's Russia 4-2 on aggregate, remember. I don't agree with anything you say, in fact.
England won't win it. There are several things going against them, not least the array of teams that are more complete units, such as Spain and Holland to name but two, plus the likes of France and Argentina, who with a change of coach could go all the way. Other than opposition, add the media pressure and hype that will be placed on the team from the day they qualify and once again a major championship will come and go. Chris
PB: We'll have to differ on that one. What makes you think France and Argentina will change coaches? France will change only if they fail to qualify and, as for Argentina, we'll have to wait and see. To Holland and Spain, incidentally, I'd add Italy, who truly do know how to make a gritty unit and keep proving it in tournaments. Plus Russia, my dark horses. But England are as good as any.
It is easy to say that Spain are favourites, that there are loads of teams that are better than England and that we have no chance. I know, because like a lot of people I too don't really believe in my heart of hearts that England will win the World Cup. My dark horses to win are the Russians.But as long as we are in the hat then there is a chance. You don't have to be the best to win it, you just need luck and belief. What I would say is that, like Stefan has said, the media should hold back on the over-hyping of our lads and let them go out and play their game without the weight of expectation, without the stupid bookies odds that always say we are one of the favourites. Then maybe, just maybe, we might surprise a few people.Richie Woodcock
PB: Sorry, Richie, but the job of people in the media is to say what they think and not hold back in the interests of the England team's psychology. I mean: we're talking a football tournament here, not wartime! So dare to dream - and I'm interested to note that, like me, you have a fancy for the Russians. They have youth on their side and an excellent tournament manager.
Why are we assuming that Spain will not improve in the next 13 months too? Sure Capello may be able to close the gap. From huge to just big. Let's stay realistic and maybe lower expectations will get them to outperform this time. For now enjoy the fact that they will qualify with ease. StefanPB: Why will Spain not improve? Because Marcos Senna, a key man in front of the back four, is ageing. There's no other reason, I confess. If they do improve, they will take some beating. But I saw them a lot during the European Championship and their defence, if probed, can be dodgy. That's why Senna matters so much. Spain without him will be a bit like Real Madrid after Claude Makelele.
Can England win the World Cup? No, Spain will. How many England players would get into Spain's team? Casillas is one of the world's best three goalies. Ferdinand, Terry and Cole would perhaps make up three of the back four (Ramos is far better than Johnson). That's where it ends. Would Rooney displace Villa or Torres? No. Would Gerrard get into midfield ahead of Xavi, Iniesta, Silva or Senna? No. All things being equal (of course we know they aren't) Spain should win the World Cup. Here's hoping they don't and we have a chance. Patrick Moore
PB: My Spangland team would be: Casillas; Ramos, Ferdinand, Terry, Cole; Xavi, Xabi Alonso; Iniesta, Gerrard, Rooney; Torres. But don't forget that the cool weather in South Africa (like an early English summer in most places) will suit England.
Yes and why not? Who could have believed Italy would win the World Cup in 2006 apart from the most ardent Italian supporters? They proved that the form book gets thrown out the window in the knockout stages and it's anybody's game. Luck also plays its part. With a favourable draw in the early stages, any of the top six or seven Fifa-ranked teams could win it. England are sixth at the moment. Most importantly it's the players who have to believe and we as supporters need to back that belief all the way. That's the least we can do. Subba
PB: Very pragmatic. But you are absolutely right. For the reasons you give, it's hazardous to make any forecast, but I just have a hunch about England. Maybe, just as the law of averages helped Spain in 2008, it will be of assistance to England in 2010.
Yes of course. A bit of luck is always needed. We have decent players and just need to learn how to take penalties. Spain favourites, but we are as a good as Brazil, Argentina, Germany etc.Gavin
PB: Penalties could be crucial. They must practise, practise as the tournament approaches. I agree that England are as good as Brazil and I think they are much better, at the moment, than Germany or Argentina. Their target is to become as professional a national side as Italy - fortunately, they have an Italian to show them the way!

St. Louis Blues Team Report at：2009-05-12 22:45:02 Click: 0 The Blues were disappointed, of course, when they were swept by the Vancouver Canucks i

The Blues were disappointed, of course, when they were swept by the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the playoffs, but the fact that they were in the postseason showed the strides the organization is making. The Blues ended a three-year playoff drought by finishing the regular season with a record of 41-31-10. "That's the way the Blues play," coach Andy Murray said. "We set a standard this year for the way we work, for how hard we play, for how hard we compete. I think we put hockey on the market here in St. Louis. People outside of St. Louis have a great appreciation for what we've done here, too. It's our responsibility that we uphold that standard next year." But the Canucks' four-game sweep of the Blues in Round 1 also shows that the team has some adjustments to make. While the team's power-play unit ranked eighth in the NHL in the regular season, it was just 1-for-24 in the Vancouver series. "The only way that we got exposed was our power play didn't score," Blues president John Davidson said. "Other than that, we were pretty good. When we look forward with Paul (Kariya) here next year, and Erik Johnson here next year, those are things that make power plays better." Some would argue, however, that the inability of the Blues' defense to move the puck and score points also has hurt the team. Defenseman Erik Johnson will be a big help after missing the 2008-09 season with a knee injury. "I think E.J. is going to be a huge boost," defenseman Jay McKee said. "Obviously, we found a way to be successful without having any real big names. Carlo (Colaiacovo) put up 20-something points on the power play, which was a huge help. But E.J., he was the first overall pick for a reason. Right there is going to be a huge boost for the back end." Davidson added: "If (2008 No. 4 overall draft pick Alex) Pietrangelo is good enough to play here, that's going to help us, too." SEASON HIGHLIGHT: The Blues couldn't have scripted the night of April 10 any better. In order to make the playoffs that night, the Blues needed their third straight win over the Columbus Blue Jackets in 14 days, and they needed Minnesota to knock off the Nashville Predators. As the Blues were capping off a 3-1 victory over the Blue Jackets, it was announced on the Jumbo-Tron at Scottrade Center that Minnesota had demolished Nashville 8-4. The sold-out crowd in St. Louis went berserk as the Blues ended a three-year playoff drought. TURNING POINT: The Blues had a record of 17-23-4 heading into their game at Boston on Jan. 19. In a wild affair, the Blues led 2-1 with less than five minutes left in regulation, but trailed 4-2 with 1 1/2 minutes to play. RW David Perron scored a power-play goal with 1:20 left, and then C David Backes scored with one second left in regulation, tying the score 4-4. After a scoreless overtime, former Bruin Brad Boyes helped the Blues to a 5-4 victory in a shootout. Starting with that victory, the Blues finished the regular season 24-8-6 and qualified as the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference. NOTES, QUOTESThe Blues finished with a record of 25-9-7, the second-best winning-percentage (.695) over the final 41 games in team history. Even though the Blues were swept in four games by the Vancouver Canucks, their fight to get into the playoffs and the experience they gained in the postseason were invaluable. "We worked hard for this," Blues goaltender Chris Mason said. "You could say it was like playoffs the last half of the season, but the reality is this is different. I think now we have a taste of it. Obviously, our expectations are going to be higher next year, and we'll know a little bit better if we're going into this situation again."The Blues have 19 players under contract for next season, including LW Andy McDonald, who signed a four-year, $18.8 million extension during the season. McDonald was one of the Blues' best players during the postseason, with a team-high four points against the Canucks in the first-round series loss. "People are going to ask, 'What are you going to do July 1?'" Blues president John Davidson said. "We've already signed Andy McDonald. That's a big key for us. You saw the way he elevated in the playoffs. If we would have lost Andy, it would have been a very different world for us."QUOTE TO NOTE: "It was even harder than I thought it was going to be to get in because there's so many good teams in this conference. And these teams are going to be even better next year. It's going to be even harder to get in next year. That's how good this conference is." Blues president John Davidson on his club squeaking into the playoffs as the No. 6 seed in 2008-09.ROSTER REPORT MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: G Chris Mason, acquired in a trade with Nashville last summer, went from being a potential bust in St. Louis to being the team's MVP in 2008-09. Without Mason, who started the season 3-13-1 but finished 27-21-7, the Blues had no chance of making the playoffs in the second half of the season. Mason finished the year with a 2.34 goals-against average and a .916 save-percentage, and while he was 0-4 in the playoffs, his individual numbers were similar in the first-round loss to Vancouver. MOST DISAPPOINTING PLAYER: G Manny Legace had a record of 13-9-2 through January with the Blues. But in early February, the club put him on waivers because of off-the-ice issues they had with the goalie. Legace cleared waivers and was assigned to the Blues' American Hockey League affiliate, the Peoria (Ill.) Rivermen. Legace was a model teammate in the AHL and helped lead the Rivermen into the playoffs, but his

Facts About New Car Service Contracts

Abstract: buy used car Tag: Buy Used Car Auto Service Contracts 101: The Need-to-Know Facts Today, buying car is not just simply buying a car. This is because when a person wants to buy a car, there are many additional services that tag along. One great example of these so-called extras is the auto service contract. These auto service contracts are not necessarily required by most car dealers. However, most car buyers are enticed to get one in order to protect themselves against unforeseen circumstances such as expensive car repairs. Generally, auto service contracts are pledges made by the agency, usually the car dealer, responsible to provide the necessary services or repairs that the buyer or the contract holder is entitled for. The problem with some people is that they categorize auto service contract as the same with extended car warranties. What they do not know is that car warranties are normally included in the price of the new car bought while auto service contracts can be obtained any time even if the person did not buy a new car. Moreover, auto service contracts are always an additional cost for the car buyer meaning he may or may not obtain an auto service contract. However, just like the other financial decisions, careful deliberation is extremely important before making some final decisions. This is because not all auto service contracts are made equal. Here is a list of the factors that need to be considered when getting an auto service contract: 1. Buyers should be aware of the terms and conditions stipulated in the auto service contract. In every agency or company that provides auto service contracts, each has its own terms and conditions. Hence, it is important for every buyer to know first the terms as stipulated in the contract so as to know what kinds of details are included and what are those that are not included. 2. Buyers should know the specific entity who will perform the required services. In this way, the buyer would know what goes on when a certain service is required. In this way, the contract holder would know where to ask for the repairs and to whom they should ask for the needed services. 3. Know the reputation of those who will provide auto service contracts. It is extremely important to know how long the company or the dealer has been in the business. Along with it comes the reputation that has been built for so many years of reliable services and performances that the customers were able to testify. The important thing here is that people should be aware of what they are paying for. After all, its their money that is at risk. About the author: Jay is the web owner of http://www.new-cars-in.com New Cars, a website that provides information and resources on searching for new cars, new car pricing, loans, and dealers. You can visit his website at: http://www.used-cars-in.net Used Cars North Park orders CompleteAutos automotive-listing softwareBizjournals.com, NC - 2 hours agobased Rocket City Automotive Group Inc. (Pink Sheets: RCAU). CompleteAuto develops software that dealers can use to market vehicles. .Thursday Morning Stock Watch: RCAU! April 5, 2007 Market Wire (press release)RCAU Announces: Ford, Lincoln & Mercury Dealers Nationwide Joining . Business Wire (press release)RCAU Announces: General Motors Dealerships Provide Highest Number . Business Wire (press release)Phoenix Business Journalall 22 news articles

Business Intel

This Saturday, my team will be competing in the UH-Victoria MBA Case Competition. It's the culmination of the Strategic Management course, which is itself the capstone course of the program. Fourteen teams will be competing, presenting the results of fifteen weeks of research, analysis, and developed recommendations for company strategy. Along the way, our team has learned and reinforced some interesting lessons about the business world and people in general. This semester's target company is PetSmart, Inc., the leader for the pet product and services industry in the United States. I will be posting the results of the competition, and details of our analysis and recommendations on Stolen Thunder after the competition is over, but for now I want to note that the company was remarkable for its combination of smart moves and missed opportunities, of keen insights and odd missteps. This is generally because like all companies, PetSmart is made up of its people and is the combination of their talents, efforts, and inspiration. In their specific case, most of PetSmart's strategic decisions reflect the fact that all of the senior management were hand-picked by CEO Philip Francis. When you do that, you get a group which is loyal, almost always in agreement, and committed to the CEO's strategy, but you also lose the perspective of differing opinions and the chance to test assumptions, or in PetSmart's case especially, the follow-through to make sure your strategy is fully effective. PetSmart is generally in good shape and is being run pretty well, but even so my team found several areas where the company could maximize its advantage or avoid potentially critical problems - and in most cases these opportunities seemed obvious to us from the company and industry environment and resources available. Sometimes it comes from a proprietary way of thinking, a desire to make sure that a company keeps control of its plans and operations, so that open discussion is lost in the interest of protecting company strategy. Other times, though, it's an unfortunate exercise of human pique, of refusing to consider alternatives or suggestions in the misguided belief that no additional perspective is needed or useful. And that attitude is mighty common. What amazes me after studying business at the macro level for a couple years, is not that some businesses get into trouble, but that every business will sooner or later face a crisis that was largely avoidable, or miss an opportunity that could have significantly improved its financial health. This does not happen through lack of ability, but is the result of strategic choices made but not revisited. People outside business often imagine that they understand the theory and practice of high-level corporate strategy, or at least they believe the talking heads in government and the media who tell them that they understand business better than people with decades of industry experience and top-level education in the field. This is just one reason why Op-Eds and government plans are generally not able to effectively resolve business strategy problems; they are making assumptions and jumping to conclusions. This of course would give the reader pause when considering my own column, as this would reasonably challenge my own statements and judgments, which brings me to my general recommendation for businessmen and anyone interested in financial health, whether for an individual, a company, or for the nation. Use your own mind and experience in making decisions, but it's generally important to consider as many relevant contributions as you can find. The common factor in the situations at GM, Chrysler, AIG, Merrill Lynch, and so many other companies which have run into serious trouble of late, is an insular culture that self-promotes, increasing confidence in its own strategies but ignoring potentially vital warning signs and alternatives that a simple Deming loop process could have provided. Come to that, such behavior is all too common, and the results from such assumptions all but unavoidable.

Guest Appearance

Even though this is my blog I feel like I'm making a guest appearance of sorts. I've pretty much given up on this "space" for "Jen". You know, I named my blog well before MySpace, but it makes me blush to think that maybe that's what people think I'm referring to in my blog name. I always just meant that it's a space for me to go to be me. But who cares anyhow.I've had a handful of people tell me that they miss me writing here and would like me to continue so I thought I would oblige that request since I have some stories to share. Maybe it will just be one story as my computer keeps acting up and turning itself off. In fact, I'm just going to keep publishing over and over till this little diddy is complete and hopefully nobody is out there reading as I type wondering what the heck is going on over here. OH, tomorrow I'm getting a new mac book and kissing this miserable pc goodbye. It will be more of a gentle, "we're letting you go" until I get all my pictures off the hard drive. Once that has been accomplished I'm taking a bat to the MoFo.When this post is truly complete, I'll write THE END, so you'll know that you've read the complete post. And hey, if you would be so kind as to say "HI" if you've dropped by. I miss you all and would like to be able to say "HEY" if only for one more time.Hrrrmmmm. I just realized that I might need to password protect my blog to write about all that I want to write. Hmmmmmm. OK, the meat will have to wait until later when I have that taken care of. If you want me to share the password info let me know and I'll do so when I complete that post. In the meantime.....The past two days we spent in Jeremy's hometown of Bakersfield. We had a family photoshoot to be in, which I will write about later. I can tell you that Emily was such a good girl, eager to please. Audrey was shy, but at the same time somewhat strong willed in nature. Molly was a complete ham and I think she stole the show. One of my biggest concerns about this visit was sleeping arrangements for the kids. After a LOT of discussion. Why must there be SO MUCH TALKING???? Jeremy and I decided to put Emily and Audrey in one room on Roo Beds (these are so cool) http://www.daysendproducts.com/camping.html while Molly would be in a pack n play in the room that Jeremy and I would be sleeping in. This was a kind of a huge big deal because normally Audrey and Molly sleep in cribs. Audrey has never slept free range and Molly has never slept in a pack n play either. Audrey was a little wary about her sleeping bag style bed but got over that once I allowed the light to stay on in the room she shared with Emily. Molly was somewhat OK with the pack n play and succumbed to sweet sleep after about 10 minutes of roaming around the pack n play. It was kind of like watching a little pup wind down for the night.I wasn't too surprised that the girls all fell asleep fairly quickly. The day had seemed to go on forever and nobody had a nap. Cocktail for disaster but it was all taken in as much stride as I could muster. I find that I'm perpetually tired and I think I come off as being aloof when really I'm just too tired to string a sentence together. This is a sad state of living and I'm working on improving it. THE END for now.

Edmonton Oilers Team Report

General manager Steve Tambellini says the hunt for a new head coach to replace Craig MacTavish, who was fired at season's end, won't bear fruit anytime soon. He plans an exhaustive search that won't be fully complete until the playoffs are over. "I'd say we're in the early stages of it," Tambellini said of the search. "We talked as a group about some of the things we're looking for, and now we need to go through the process. "We'll have a coach in place when we get the right guy. Unfortunately, we have a few months to watch hockey here and to think about potential people and people that become available. "When we're confident that we've got the right guy in mind, we'll act. If it happens soon, great. If not, we'll take our time." The Oilers are looking for a coach who favors an attacking offensive system. "My preference is I'd rather have a team that's more to the aggressive side than sit back," said Tambellini. "The best teams are the most proactive in transition, being aggressive at the right time. It's an aggressive mindset they have." SEASON HIGHLIGHT: Hard to find one in a season this disappointing, but the play of netminder Dwayne Roloson tops the short list. At 39 years of age, he played 36 games in a row down the stretch and was Edmonton's most valuable player. TURNING POINT: The Oilers were in seventh place with a few points of breathing room with three weeks left in the season. A 2-7 swoon later they were out of the playoffs. Simply put, they choked when the pressure was on.NOTES, QUOTESAssistant coaches Charlie Huddy, Bill Moores and Kelly Buchberger are waiting in limbo to see if they'll still be with the team when the new coach arrives. GM Steve Tambellini says he'll leave that decision to whomever he hires. It's believed that a new coach will want to bring in his own assistants, people he's comfortable with, but management isn't making any moves with the current assistants until then.Jaromir Jagr has one year left on his contract in Russia, but the 37-year-old says that if he ever did return to the NHL the Oilers would be his first choice. "I was pretty excited when I heard that Edmonton pushed pretty hard for me to get (there)," Jagr said recently at the IIHF World Hockey Championship. "I really appreciate it. "If I ever go to (the NHL), they would be my No. 1 pick because they showed the interest first. I never forget that and I respect that. They would be my first pick."QUOTE TO NOTE: "I don't think anybody is terribly surprised. We knew changes had to be made throughout the organization and I think this is the first one. We (the players) are the first people to realize that, and we have to take responsibility. We have to get better in a lot of areas, and it starts with the players. Now we're looking forward to accepting that challenge and that responsibility." Oilers captain Ethan Moreau.ROSTER REPORT MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: Dwayne Roloson was the team's runaway best player this season. Without him in goal, the Oilers would have been out of playoff contention by February. MOST DISAPPOINTING PLAYER: Shawn Horcoff didn't deliver as much as a first-line center should. FREE AGENT FOCUS: G Dwayne Roloson is unrestricted this summer and the Oilers will offer him a one-year deal, but Roloson is looking for something longer say, three years. It remains to be seen if they can meet in the middle. Ales Kotalik has showed great chemistry with Ales Hemsky and will be in Edmonton's plans if it doesn't think it can hit a home run in free agency on July 1. PLAYER NEWS:G Dwayne Roloson and RW Ales Kotalik, both unrestricted free agents, are at the World Hockey Championships and won't begin negotiations with the Oilers until the tournament is over. Edmonton would like both players back; it's just a matter of term and money. "I spoke to Rolie and Ales and we all agreed to let them finish the World Championships and talk to their families and see where they stand," said GM Steve Tambellini.C Shawn Horcoff will begin his offseason training program shortly, and he'll have to work as hard as he ever has before to live up to a contract that peaks at $7 million. Fans were all over him this year at $3.6 million, suggesting he wasn't pulling his weight as a first-line center. He'll be in a hornets' nest next season if he starts as slowly as he did this year.RW Ales Hemsky says he'll have a lot of soul-searching to do in the offseason after stalling down the stretch, when the Oilers needed him most. He played his worst hockey of the season in late March and early April as Edmonton missed the playoffs for the third straight year. "I think I did everything that I could. I just wasn't happy with my last month," Hemsky said. "Up to then, I thought I was playing well, I was feeling good. Maybe I got tired or something. I don't know what happened. It's a tough question to answer." MEDICAL WATCH: No Oilers are scheduled for offseason surgery.

“I’m a Complete Idiot”

Well, ok, so that isnt a direct quote - but its close: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted Friday that she was briefed only once about the enhanced interrogation techniques being used on terrorism suspects and that she was assured by lawyers with the CIA and the Department of Justice that the methods were legal. Pelosi issued a statement after CIA records released this week showed that Pelosi was briefed in September 2002 on the interrogation methods. The briefings memo appeared to contradict the speakers claims that she was never told that waterboarding or other enhanced interrogation methods were being used. Iowahawk translates from the liberalese: &After a thorough review of these notes, it appears I was unaware this meeting was with the Central Intelligence Agency. Instead I was under the impression that it was a coffee chat with Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an important constituent group from my home district. In their description of waterboarding, fuzzy caterpillars, etc., I simply assumed they were speaking of new Castro District trends in sexual foreplay. Had I known the real truth  that they were describing the grim tools of a sadistic torture regime beyond the worst imaginings of Mengele himself  I would have vigorously objected, and would have never cheerfully told my briefers, play safely!& When will you liberals call for Pelosi to resign? From cripes sake, you were after DeLays blood for far less than this

e we here on Mylot because we DON'T like people?!!

In a discussion I made the comment that I like it here because although I like people I really only like them on my terms....you know.. when you're in the mood to have a conversation with them. When you can listen to an opposing point of view without commiting a felony.... I also find that people here are amazing in their ability to communicate...by that I mean that we all seem to be intellectual enough to tackle the tough questions about life..and are willing to bare our souls for awhile. I never realized how advantagous it is to be able to have a heated debate and then just walk away with little consequences to what I said....except that I wouldn't want to hurt my friends here...that is surely a consequence.... Do you feel that you are a bit "antisocial" in your daily life and that is why you are here...making friends you will maybe never see in real life? Are you maybe the kind like I am where you only want a small dose of "real life" because it's just too tedious to do? Or are you out there in the hustle and bustle of life and just use Mylot as a comfort zone to unwind?

Pierce it!

Today's Potluck Friday Challenge at Stamp TV is a piercing challenge! (not to be confused with piecing!) We have some friends who have a little "Laila Bug", one birthday party they had for her everything was ladybugs, so cute! These stamps are all from "Wee Tees". I used my new Scor-Bug* (how appropriate, LOL!) and zipped along up, down, up, down in the Scor-Pal tracks without needing to move my paper and left off at different intervals so I could go back in my ladybugs and stamp them at the trails ends. I added a little black safety pin and red grosgrain, then adhered it a scalloped square cut card base. Love how the little scalloped bumps aroudnt eh side look like ladybug shells. Bugs are colored with red Copics, and I popped up the onesie after cutting it out. I love using an accent color on the ribbing and sleeves, the contrast really makes it pop! I added a little gray Copic to the inside of the collar and leg holes to make it look even more dimensional.Upload your card that incoporates piercing somehow in the design** to StampTV with the tag STVPF11 for a chance to win! You have all next week to play, hope you'll join in! * You don't have to use a Scor-Bug, but gosh it makes it easy! Try a piercing tool and a template (did you see the cute circle frame Theresa made??) or even a straight pin, just be sure to place something underneath to protect yourself and your work surface. ** you don't have to pierce as much as I did here, it could be a frame, part of the design like a bug trail or flower stems, a few well placed pokes in a corner, you choose! Just make sure the piercing can be clearly seen, thanks!

0bama n ow sees the need for Iran's nuke program.

Is anyone paying attention? 0bama is giving Iran, who openly declared its
intention to wipe Israel off the map, permission to do exactly that while
warning Israel not to defend itself.
And if you are stupid enough to think that's not exactly what's happening
here then you probably voted for 0bama and think he's doing a great job.

Darlington sweep solidifies Hendrick, Stewart-Haas bond

When Tony Stewart became a driver-owner this season, Jimmie Johnson gained a de facto teammate, but the three-time Sprint Cup champion wasn't sure he gained a valuable ally. "Everybody thought Tony was crazy," he says. Fortunately for Johnson, his car owner didn't share the same opinion.Rick Hendrick has promised since the outset that Stewart-Haas Racing's alliance with Hendrick Motorsports could turn both teams into championship contenders, and Saturday night's Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway was proof he might be right. Led by Mark Martin, who captured his second victory with Hendrick three days after confirming he'd return full time with the team next year, Hendrick and Stewart-Haas swept the top five on a treacherous night at the 1.366-mile oval.A record 17 caution flags for 73 of the 367 laps took a toll on fellow powerhouses Joe Gibbs Racing, Roush Fenway Racing and Richard Childress Racing, all of which had finishes outside the top 30. The resultant points shake-up solidified the Chase for the Sprint Cup bids of the top five finishers. With 15 races left until the 10-race, 12-driver championship run, Martin moved up four spots to 11th, joining teammates Johnson (second Saturday, fourth in points) and Jeff Gordon (fifth, first). Dale Earnhardt Jr. (18th) is the only full-time Hendrick driver outside the top 12.Stewart (second in points) and Ryan Newman (eighth), driving Chevrolets with engines and chassis supplied by Hendrick, already were in firm Chase territory despite Stewart-Haas seeking its first win."Just have got to give everybody at Hendrick Motorsports props," Stewart said after a career-best third at Darlington. "The chassis and engine department, they have just got us rock solid right now."Newman finished fourth and has three top-fives in a row for the first time since October 2005. "We are knocking on the door, and we're going to get there," he said. "We're improving every week."Few expected the growth would come so quickly when Stewart was granted a 50% stake in a team that had one top-five in 284 starts from 2002 to 2008 as Haas CNC Racing.Haas' affiliation with Hendrick started several years ago, but Johnson says it's been buttressed by the addition of Stewart, a two-time champion, and Newman, 13-time winner. "The information flows (in) different directions," Johnson says. "We're not teammates, but to talk about race cars a little more in-depth with Ryan and Tony I'm excited."Alan Gustafson, crew chief for Martin, also credits a smooth transition to Darian Grubb, who left a Hendrick management position to become Stewart's crew chief."This is as good as I've seen us in some time," says Gustafson, a Hendrick employee since February 2000. "There's an incredible amount of talent. It's hard to keep that talent and keep a budget, and the reason that happens is Rick Hendrick. There's nobody else I'd rather work for. There's 500 people at Hendrick Motorsports who say the same thing."

Playing in the sandbox

I was feeling lost for a little while there. My mojo wasn't working, the Force was not strong with me, etc. I'm back in the swing of things now, however. I tried to break my habit, and move on to pastures new with Lord of the Rings Online, but it seems that I'm a one-game kind of guy, and I ended up back at World of Warcraft. Before I settled back in to routine however, I did do some exploring and thinking. Listening to my colleague's advice, I spent some time with MMOs that I otherwise wouldn't have bothered with. I even dipped my toes into the waters of Second Life. I've tooled around in Second Life more than once, trying to get a good handle on it. Try as I might though, it never seems to gel with me, never seems to click. That's probably more down to me than any identifiable fault with the game. That said, any game which, if I recall correctly, used to offer a furry as an option at character creation automatically scores low in my book. That was a joke, hold off on the flames please.

Junior Support Engineer 1st 2nd Line Support Helpdesk Urgent

Company Conosco Job Location Chelsea London SW3 Salary £16000 22000 per annum depending on experience Job Description Vacancy Description We have an exciting opportunity for a junior desktop and server support engineers to join the support team in our vibrant fast growing company. We are an " outsourced It department" for Smes with a blue-chip client list including high-street brands financial institutions and multinational companies. We supply and maintain a complete range of It equipment and services working to demanding fixed-price contracts with best-of-breed tools.We succeed by standardising and automating then applying intelligent engineers to what remains. We invest heavily in R& D and combine the cutting-edge with reliable professionalism. The right candidate will gain great experience across a wide range of software and hardware and will have the potential to progress swiftly within the company as we always aim to promote internally. You will be working on the frontline of the Support Desk but this is a very technical team so you will have the opportunity to gain experience troubleshooting a wide range of issues. You may also get the opportunity to work on client sites from time to time or on short term placements. We are looking for candidates with strong technical skills excellent telephone manner and a willingness to put the customer first. You should be able to demonstrate the ability to support the following desktops and laptops running Windows Xp Windows Server 2003 Exchange Active Directory Lan Dsl and general networking You must have recent experience of working in an It Support environment or else your application will not be considered. It would be advantageous if you can demonstrate experience in any of the following Working on a helpdesk to an Sla Use of remote tools for support Cisco support Group Policy administration Voip support Windows Vista Mac support. You must also live within a commutable range of Chelsea (nearest tube is Fulham Broadway) and be able to speak and write English fluently and clearly.