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Archive for the 'Miscellaneous' category

Does McLeland know what he’s talking about?

March 10, 2010 8:39am

Kansas.com Blogs

via Does McLeland know what he’s talking about?.

State Rep. Joe McLeland, R-Wichita, said at a forum Saturday that USD 259 had $252 million in fund balances as of December. “Schools have a lot of money,” McLeland claimed. But more than $242 million of that total, or 96 percent, is school bond and capital outlay money that can’t be used for other purposes. The remaining $10 million consists of student fees for textbooks and grants — which also can’t be used elsewhere. Either McLeland, chairman of the House Education Budget Committee, doesn’t know what these funds are for, or he was being deliberately misleading. Which is worse?

McLeland also said at the forum that he would introduce a bill this week to prevent districts from transferring general fund money into restricted funds. Most such transfers go to special education funds. State and federal statutes mandate that districts provide special education services, but neither government adequately funds them. As a result, districts are forced to transfer money in order to cover the shortfall.

How to Handle the Pessimist on Your Team

September 19, 2009 6:00pm

How to Handle the Pessimist on Your Team – Management Essentials – HarvardBusiness.org.

Every team has at least one pessimist.

Turning Negativity into Productivity
Dealing with a pessimist on your team can be a frustrating and time-consuming experience. Attempts to ignore or counter frequent negative comments may simply incite further negativity. Good news: by being proactive you can help the pessimist change his behavior and enable your team to achieve greater productivity.

1. Create awareness. This is best done by pulling the team member aside and explaining how his comments are received. The rule when giving this type of feedback, says Jon Katzenbach, author of Wisdom of Teams and founder of the Katzenbach Center at Booz & Co., is to “be at least as positive as you are negative.” Explain why the person is valued on the team and make clear the impact of his behavior. For example, you can say, “When you make negative comments, the team gets stuck and we aren’t able to move forward.” Kramer points out, “This kind of conversation can be useful from a diagnostic perspective.” Once you understand the underlying reason for the pessimism, you can provide additional support or information if it’s needed.

2. Reposition negative statements. Negativity can fester and eventually kill a team’s momentum and motivation. Don’t let negative comments linger. Ask for clarification or more information about what the speaker means. For example, if a team member says, “This project is never going to make it past Finance,” ask the speaker to explain why she thinks that. Better yet, you can ask for alternative solutions: “What can we do to make sure the project does make it past Finance?” You can also ask team members to use “but statements.” Ask them to follow skeptical or critical sentences with “but.” For example, your team member could say “This project is never going to make it past Finance, BUT it’s worth laying the groundwork now because next year, Finance is apt to approve more tech projects.” It’s helpful to model this type of behavior for the entire team. Offer your own constructive criticism while providing an alternative solution.

3. Involve the whole team. It can be damaging to single out a team member in front of the entire team. Peer pressure is a far more effective tactic. According to Kramer, “Sometimes social sanctions work better than leader sanctions.” Set team norms and ask everyone to observe them. Goldsmith suggests that individuals ask themselves before they speak, “Will this comment help our customers? Will this help our company? Will this help the person or team we’re talking about? Will this help the person we’re talking to?” As Goldsmith points out, “Honesty may be the best policy except when it’s destructive and unhelpful.” Once you’ve agreed on norms, ask the team to hold each other to them. This approach can be used when you’re not the team leader as well. If a fellow team member is regularly negative, you can appeal to what Kramer calls “the collective wisdom” of the team by modeling positive behavior and using peer pressure to show the pessimist a more productive way of contributing. Of course as a peer, your influence is limited and you may need to talk with the team leader if your attempts to redirect the pessimist don’t work.

Carrier cant stop hackers stealing customer info

August 20, 2009 1:57pm

Another reason AT&T sucks -

Boing Boing Gadgets

via Carrier cant stop hackers stealing customer info.

“They can’t seem to secure my account,” Mitnick told The Register. “And then instead of doing something about it, they try to kill the messenger and want to boot me off their network when all I want them to do is to secure my account so no one gets access to my phone records.”
Mitnick said the cellular account has been repeatedly breached over the years, despite a wide range of countermeasures he’s followed to prevent the attacks. In recent years, he’s committed the password to memory and has deliberately not shared it with anyone or kept it stored on a computer. …

“There are so many ways into these networks,” he said. “They have to take some responsibility, not just silence the people that are filing complaints.”

Health Care Hypocrisy on Facebook

August 17, 2009 10:11pm

The following debate took place on Facebook after I responded to a poll posted by my Facebook friend, Melissa. It quickly becomes humorous as facts are thrown out the window in favor of blind ideology. To this extent, it appears that some prefer to be ideologically hypocritical than informed. Note: some irrelevant comments were removed and poignant statements made bold in this copy to improve readability.

Melissa:
voted “I Oppose” in “The Health Care Poll.” I oppose his wide sweeping, deprivatization, health insurance is a right bill. I am just fine with reform, education, making a healthy life available to everyone. I am not ok with making abortion available to everyone at the tax payers expense.

Me:
Don’t worry, the bill doesn’t reverse the restriction of federal money towards abortions. http://tinyurl.com/r9v85d

Mark:
that’s true. regardless, there is a bill that funnels money to the government for abortions. don’t even need a good reason for abortions. be it kids getting pregnant, rapes, or unfit mothers. in most states, atleast. sometimes, teenagers don’t even need parent permission, sometimes, parents will jump at the chance to have their grandchildren aborted.

Me:
Which bill is that?

Mark:
mannnn, david. i was hopin noone would call me on that. i was tryin to sound like i knew what i was talking about. i have no real good answer other than king barack osama was instrumental in creating a bill that called babies that had not been born yet were not yet people exempting them from abortion laws. [SB 1082, Held in Health and HumanServices, 3/13/03; Session Sine Die, 1/11/05; BAIPA, Public Law 107-207] say that since kin osama claims that unborn children are not, legally, citizens, they are not covered by law

Me:
“There is a bill that funnels money to the government for abortions” and you cited the dead SB1082 (a defintion bill) and Law 107-207 which Bush signed into law in 2002. Again, what bill is that?

Melissa:
One of the really scary issues in this new Obamacare bill is the “end of life” counseling. Dr’s will be stronly encouraged and finacially incentivized to provide “end of life” counseling to persons over a certain age every so often – say every 5 yrs. Is that really necessary? Do we have lots of old ppl running around concerned about the end of their life? I mean – if we want to help out hardworking Americans who need healthcare then lets do that and stop rushing our elderly to the grave. I am not adressing this at anyone in particular and I really enjoy these disussions so please take this in the right spirit and add on.

Me:
The counseling is optional. But it’s included to benefit the elderly who can’t afford such consultation. Even the AARP wants the new system to extend Medicare to provide end-of-life counseling services, including hospice care.
http://tinyurl.com/r9v85d
http://tinyurl.com/mz7vjs
http://tinyurl.com/n859cs

Melissa:
The couseling is “optional” and physicians will “not be paid for services” if they do not offer it. The solution to the elderly is helping them decide to shorten their lives by not treating illlnesses, restricting IV fluids during hospice, refusing treatments that could bring them back to good health….
I am so tired of thinking the gov’t owes us. It does suck to incur huge bills w/o insurance. I have several friends who had babies w/o insurance and were still paying for the first kid when the sescond was born. They worked their ass off and paid their own bill.
There is some pretty convoluted wording about whether ppl will be able to keep their own insurance or not.
The gov’t is spending money out of control right now and does not have a good, sound track record running the programs they are in charge of, giving them such a huge chunk of our private lives does not make any sense to me.

Matt:
okay i gotta give my long winded weigh in as well ;) ….you guys have been warned.lol the “end of life” care is mentioned in one of the bills, but i heard this am that they are talking about taking it out as a measure to eliminate some of the stress it is causing…which i think would be a good thing because that is scary language, whether its intended or not. but think about this, (and this is purely opinion & speculation) but look at how obama voted on sb1082 in the illinois senate, he voted against saving the lives of babies who amazingly survived abortions, it boggles my mind that we have a president who voted AGAINST saving the life of a child who happened to survive an abortion! i mean, its hard to argue that thats not extreme. now judging the way he voted on that, i have a very hard time believing hes going to worry too much about some “unproductive”, “costly”, senior citizen who may have only a few good years left…when that 10 year old “future tax payer” needs the same surgery, which do you think makes more financial sense? it sounds extreme, but so does sb1082…and i have no doubts that even long after obamas gone, healthcare rationing will occur if this thing passes as it is.

Me:
Mel – “The solution to the elderly is helping them decide to shorten their lives by not treating illlnesses, restricting IV fluids during hospice, refusing treatments that could bring them back to good health”

These are not end of life services. (see the links I provided above for reference).

Matt – “healthcare rationing will occur if this thing passes as it is.”

That is what the bill intends to fix. It is not uncommon for insurance providers to deny payment for treatment that is costly or pre-existing (http://tinyurl.com/l45q29), leaving patients to die.

Mel/Matt – Are you opposed to the insurance overhaul because of something factual, or because you are ideologically opposed to Obama?

Are you willing to tell family, friends, and neighbors in your community that you don’t think they should have affordable access to health care because you don’t like Obama? Does your ideology seek to protect only the life of the unborn, or are you willing to extend your love of life to those who are living without proper medical care?

Matt:
david, i would say yes i am opposed because i am ideologically opposed to obama as well as it cannot be paid for, especially in this economic time that president obama, “inherited” ;) i will however, voice my support for this bill, IF and only IF our politicians forgo their gold plated policies and are mandated by law to accept the same public option…only when the senators and members of congress are willing to put their own rear ends on the line, will we have something worthy for the American people.

in a perfect world socialized medicine would work and we wouldnt have things like cost to worry about….but i have NO FAITH whatsoever that the government can run healthcare efficiently.

oh,,,and for the record, i am for healthcare reform. status quo is killing us too.

Me:
“i will however, voice my support for this bill, IF and only IF our politicians forgo their gold plated policies and are mandated by law to accept the same public option”

The FEHB plans for politicians is similar to most other insurance plans and premiums (http://tinyurl.com/qc7boj). Their out of pocket expense mirrors my own.

In addition, politicians can accept the same public option under the proposed bill since they are US citizens. They may choose to do so if one is cheaper than the plan they receive from the FEHB.

Regardless, your point now says that your friends, family, and neighbors shouldn’t have affordable insurance because you don’t like the insurance policies offered to politicians. Again, does ideology cast a cloud on rationality?

Melissa:
What Matt said…
I was actually reading parts of this bill yesterday, our exec director has been poring over it. I oppose this bill bc I oppose socialized medicine, I oppose the cost, I oppose the abortion and assisted suicide aspect, I do not believe the gov’t can or should be running our healthcare. I also have no confidence whatsoever that we will be able to keep our insurance plan that we currently have if this bill goes through. From what I can see Obamacare would have all of us, even those who are happy with their insurance, switch to his plan or pay.

Me:
So even though the facts show that this bill gives everyone greater choice and depth in health care for less (including keeping your own insurance), and despite the fact the bill has absolutely nothing to do with abortion or assisted suicide (http://tinyurl.com/kkprna), you still don’t want your friends, family, and neighbors to have good health care.

I must admit that further debate is moot when facts are not only ignored, but are instead replaced with outrageous falsehoods.

Google Reader Adds Social Sharing and Mark as Read Controls

August 13, 2009 12:45pm

Italy – Day 3

June 18, 2009 6:19pm

I don’t know if our old time zone crept up on us, or if the several miles of walking yesterday made us comatose. But somehow we didn’t leave our hotel room until about 4:30pm. I must admit that our aches and pains feel a lot better as compared to yesterday.

Seeing drivers in Rome makes me cringe. We saw a car slam into the back of a scooter yesterday evening. The scooter even had a little kid riding between the adult driver’s legs. Both the scooter and the car continued on their way, unfazed. Parking is rare, and cars are sometimes parked in two or three vehicles deep with bumpers touching. No one seems to mind.

Restaurants of all sizes don’t offer complementary water like they do back home. You have to ask for water, in which they will deliver bottled water to your table. Nicer restaurants have glass bottles instead of plastic.

We went to the Colosseum this afternoon and I was truly humbled by the experience. They say that Rome stands as long as the Colosseum still stands, and that when Rome falls so does the world. After seeing the Colosseum I have to agree. My entire life – no matter how well spent or what achievements I can ever make – will ever come close to the 2500 years of history of Rome.

We were literally the last people to leave the Colosseum as Jenny made the staff angry as she paused to take numerous photos as they shuffled us to the exit. Very cool. Most stores close at 7:30pm, so we spend the remainder of the evening at the Piazza di Spagna. The sun was going down so the entire area was flooded with tourists like ourselves. We then walked past the Gucci, Louis Vitton, and other designer shops. We took a bus back to our hotel, then went to eat at “Est! Est! Est!” The pizzeria claims to be one of the first in Italy and boasts several of the original wooden furniture since it opened nearly 100 years ago.

Now we’re finally winding down back in our hotel. We have asked for another night because there is simply too much we haven’t done in Rome. Tomorrow is shopping and probably a few museums. Internet here is downright terrible. I’m having a hard time finding open or free wifi spots and those are near dialup speeds. I finally broke down and paid 9 Euros for 2 hours of Internet from our hotel’s wifi – and it is still pretty crappy. Therefore, I’m uploading pictures to Flickr as best as I can and not spending valuable internet time adding descriptions or flipping pictures around. I’ll do that once I get home. Ciao!

Italy – Day 2

June 17, 2009 9:13am

We woke up at 9am, which is 2am local time. We have adjusted to the new time pretty well. We found breakfast across the street and had delicious cappuccino and unique breakfast biscuits. We stopped at a tourist information kiosk around the corner then and realized we are within walking distance to nearly everything we wanted to see in Rome: the Colosseum, Fontana di Trevi, Pantheon, Campo De’ Fiori, etc.

We have been walking and landed in a small sandwich shop called Bar Brasile which is right outside the magnificent Piazza Venezia. Everywhere seems to have Gilato, and Jenny seems tempted to try it all. We had an amazing Gelato that tasted like melon and wine called Zabaione.

After visiting the Fontana di Trevi, we stopped at Locanda Del Tempi for lunch. I had a salad and Jenny the spaghetti. We noticed that ice in drinks seem hard to come by and we learned the lesson that our cab driver told us when traveling from the airport yesterday: avoid ristorantes in the larger tourist areas. They are expensive and poorer quality than many of the restaurants off roads most traveled.

After visiting the Pantheon and several other historic sites, we decided to walk back to one of the more popular museums. We have stopped several times for small breaks because we know we will kill ourselves if we don’t. One places we stopped at was called Rossopomodoro. They have fantastic looking wood oven pizzas, but at 3:15pm in the afternoon it is too hot outside for such food. Instead, we ordered fresh fruit from the dessert menu and water. It was only 8:15am in Wichita, but I’m already well adjusted to our new timezone.

I have been looking for open wifi places frequently but found poor or costly service. Jenny and I stopped for a rest outside an unapologetically historic church – one of many such churches – and I just now discovered decent wifi coming from somewhere nearby. Ciao for now.

Italy!

June 16, 2009 11:21am

We’re in Italy! Click the photos tab up top to get the latest uploads from our trip. I’ll try to upload as often as I can. In a hurry, so I can’t stay long.

Earth Day

April 25, 2009 4:10pm

Stephen Colbert vs. Jason Chaffetz

January 7, 2009 5:16pm

One of the funniest interviews yet.