DISQUS

The trust drives the velocity now - a good idea can spread at the speed of light almost - if I see a RT from a trusted source - I will open it and I will likely RT it on so that that MY PART of the twittervese gets it

JP Morgan was coming to dinner at my Great Grandparents. My Great Grandpa kept drilling my Great Grandma not to stare at JPM's nose - which was not only vast but also red.

The moment arrived - as JPM entered the hall - My GG extended her hand in greeting and said "How nice to meet you at last Mr Nose". The family story ends there - his reply is lost

Sweeeeeeeeet!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rob

Nigella is so sensible - In the end entertaining is all about the time we have - if the host is beside themselves with stress - a recipe for a bad time.

More sensible food ideas please.

Just as Planet Money gets behind the headlines for money - more insight into food and the reality of hospitality might be good.

Ok now for the silly bit - With Nigella - More video please

How precious life is and how silly it is to waste a moment of it or to not see the great gift that life is - what a special person she was was - Rob

Dave
I just wanted to thank you for all your wonderful writing during the election - to use a PBS line - Dave Winer has become my source for news
Best wishes Rob

Thanks Dave - It's gloves off time now

Dave
Your time scale is too short. There is no risk of a major bounce other than a quick one that will enable you to sell more. It took until 1954 for the market to get back to 1929. It took from 1974 to 1984 for the market to get back to 74.

If you take a view back to 1965 - it seems more likely that the NYSE will finally end up at between 3000 - 4000.

The great loss of confidence is just beginning - Here is a long term chart
http://smartpei.typepad.com/robert_patersons_we...

Hugh is sad not to have made the list

After last week's convention - I found myself watching "Triumph of the Will" again. Shivvers - Germans has lost their confidence and the place in the world - along with their savings and their sons - how tempting it must have been to have been offered the idea that ONE BIG MAN would make it all better. All they had to do was to believe in him and in the Flag. I found myself wondering why at the end of of the Roman Empire reason went out the window and faith and not thinking became the way.

Is this what happens when your system collapses? Looks that way in Russia - Welcome back the Strongman.

I don't think I have the power to combat this directly - by say appealing to people to wake up and see what their real interests are - even my sister has fallen for Palin - no thought only emotions - have a look at the faces of the women as Hitler passes by - they adore him - they could not then or now see how their fears and hopes were being used.

So my big idea Stowe is not to waste my energy on the macro - our political system is controlled by an alliance of the Frightened and the Cynical - my big idea is to work in my community in that despised role of "Community Organizer" to help us find ways of helping us become independent of oil and the centralizing "factory model" for everything - food health and education. To take back work and the economy to the place that we live in.

To show that we can live better in a small way and hope that when people see what we have done - they may have real hope.

I think that we will get here no matter what - for don't all dreams such as Hitler's end in Gotterdamerung anyway?

So right Todd - a huge amount of costs are involved "going to work" the commute time, the car, the gas, the parking - lunch for the staff. Worse for families - daycare etc - time away from our partners the financial and economic costs are big

The office, the kit, the taxes, the heat and cooling the taxes etc for the employer.

All because we need face time. All because we don't manage by outcomes.

Social media gives us the social part of work - I hardly ever see my co workers or clients - when I do we tend to party and work very hard. This is much better.

Isn't most of your work on the PC anyway?

Come in for the odd meeting - but don't spend all your money on "going to work"

If we telecommute many parts of our lives get better

So even if you have a few good Twitter friends look at the reach you have - I have taken the Fibonacci numbers - that are also the Magic Numbers for optimal human relationships to the power of 4 here:

2 - 16

3 - 82

5 - 625

8 - 4,096

13 - 28,561

34 - 1,336,336

55 - 9,150, 625

89 - 62, 742,241

144 - 429, 981, 696

My bet is that the sweet spot is 8 -34 - so as the Twitter net strengthens, it is about a million users now, with 34 friends you can reach the whole group now. With 144 you can reach its potential.

So if Pub Media developed a Twitter AP with "Member/Stringers" we could cover the whole world easily

So cruel - the comment about "Do you know where your children are - Rex might"

It's a joy to have him on the CBC - soon I will have no hair of my own

I second the motion John
Rob

It's like having kids - there is no "good time" but if you have them young, you do pop out the other end still young enough to have a life.

For me now the question is university - you leave with youir BA and 30,000 dollars of debt and then what? Most jobs take you on a journey to no where - you earn just enough to keep the debt going and as J says - then the car loan, the mortgage and the kids.

But if I don't go to Univeristy I wont get a job? Good I say - why not have a business instead? Or apprentice yourself to a master and get a real education and leave with real skills, a network and customers?

Be a wolf and not a sheep

It's like having kids - there is no "good time" but if you have them young, you do pop out the other end still young enough to have a life.

For me now the question is university - you leave with youir BA and 30,000 dollars of debt and then what? Most jobs take you on a journey to no where - you earn just enough to keep the debt going and as J says - then the car loan, the mortgage and the kids.

But if I don't go to Univeristy I wont get a job? Good I say - why not have a business instead? Or apprentice yourself to a master and get a real education and leave with real skills, a network and customers?

Be a wolf and not a sheep

Hi Todd
Glad you feel the same - I think that Stephen makes a great point and is it not a start.

What if a few stations just started what Stephen suggests? What if Iowa and say 6 more did it?

What if Iowa and NPR plus a few others agreed also to do what you and I have ben talking about and what Jay K is already acting on?

So if we had these two then would it not drive all the rest?

Hi Todd

Nothing will affect the whole system as a few groups of stations like yours "going for it". My bet is that the real change will come from groups such as yours.

All the best to you and your team
Rob

The baaaaaastard also came up with podcasting as well!

What a tribute to you Robert - this outpouring of support - bless you
Rob P

I left more hopeful. My concern as you so accurately statede was that the work for the people there was to leave childhood and to become adults responsible for themselves and leave behind their old wounds.

In the closing open session I saw evidence of a shift in culture to a more self suffficient, confident and adult way of being

For me, the breakout sessions - all 49 of them - were the warm up. What I was waiting for and experienced in the closing last 90 minutes of the Open Space was the following:

1. That many made a decision to take responsibility for what was to happen

2. That no station alone and not NPR alone could do this unilaterally There was powerful affirmation that Public radio had to strengthen itself by coming together as a real system that had a structure that would help the parts and theewhole become healthier and more effective

3. That many acknowledged that NPR, including NPR itself, did indeed have a role in initiating the birth of such a structure. There was acceptance that the work of setting the principles for such a structure would be the work not intially of all but of a few. That such a design process would be open ansd transparent.

4. That as many who could would start to work to do things that would take us down the paths that have emerged from the NR process

Rob Paterson