About one-fourth of households rely on cellphones instead of landlines

Census Bureau data shows about 28% of households ditched their landline and now rely exclusively on a cellphone. For households in the 15 to 29 age bracket, the portion doing so is about two-thirds.

That info is reported by the Wall Street Journal – More People Say Goodbye to Their Landlines.

Households with a landline dropped from near 100% in 1998 to 71% in 2011, according to a nice graph in the article.  Households with a cellphone increased from 36% in ’98 to 89% in ’11.

That is a lot of change in just 13 years.

Workplace rules have changed – You need to take charge of your own career no matter where you work and no matter what your position

The rules for work have radically changed. The work world that existed when you started college, even if you graduated this spring, is gone. (Cross-post from my other blog, Attestation Update.)

If you are working, you need to take charge of your career and your reputation. This applies to brand new staff, experienced audit seniors, and especially partners.  People at every level of employment need to absorb that lesson.

Jenna Goudreau summarizes 14 Rules of the New Marketplace That Millennials Need to Master at Business Insider. My only disagreement with her is that these rules apply to everyone at every level, not just millennials.

Continue reading “Workplace rules have changed – You need to take charge of your own career no matter where you work and no matter what your position”

3rd blogiversary

Last week, August 28th, marked the third blogiversary of my lead blog. (Cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update).

Many thanks to those who have stopped by to read. By now you have sensed that I’m having a blast in this blogging journey.

In celebration, I’d like to provide a few stats for my three main blogs. I realize my sites are infinitesimally small in the overall blogosphere. Yet I hope in some small way stats from a small site might be an encouragement to current bloggers and others thinking of jumping into the fun world of blogging.

Continue reading “3rd blogiversary”

“How Many Servants Do You Have?”

That is the question posted by Joy Pullman in her post of that title at Values & Capitalism.

She explains:

In “The Wealth of Nations,” Smith points out that the number of people under your command is a measure of power and wealth. Continue reading ““How Many Servants Do You Have?””

You have millions of people working for you everyday

Really wish I’d thought up that idea, but I’m not that insightful. Don Boudreaux makes that point in his post at Café Hayek:  Everyday Millions of Strangers Are Working for You.

Here’s the question:

How much of what you eat, wear, drive, or use today did you make yourself?

For me, the answer is zero.

I didn’t make, grow, or construct anything I wear, eat, live in, or sit on.

For my father and his family the answer was a lot.

Continue reading “You have millions of people working for you everyday”

200 years of economics history in one editorial, which explains how we got into our current mess

World War I generated most of the horrible disasters we’ve seen in the last 100 years.

With the possible exception of the decline of the Roman Empire, World War I was the greatest disaster in human history.

It contributed mightily to the Great Depression, which fed the Nazi revolution. That in turn led to WWII.

The war unleashed the totalitarian ideologies of communism, fascism and Naziism, which very nearly destroyed Western civilization. Their poisonous legacy lives on in radical Islamic extremism. 

Continue reading “200 years of economics history in one editorial, which explains how we got into our current mess”

More good stuff on surveillance – 8-29-13

Here is my third list of good stuff that I’d like talk about but only have time to recommend with a quick comment.

Washington Post – Here’s how phone metadata can reveal  your affairs, abortions, and other secrets – the phone number you called, time of day, and duration can give away information you may not want to give away.

Continue reading “More good stuff on surveillance – 8-29-13”

“If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct itself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.”

That is a classic quote from Epictetus pondered in a post by the same title from Philosiblog.

The simpler cousin of that comment is the concept that if you receive criticism, you ought to evaluate which parts are correct and make the appropriate changes. You are free to ignore those parts of the criticism which are invalid.

When the comment about you involves lies, the above quote suggests you evaluate whether there is any truth in the comments. If so, then you have some work to do.

The difficult part is when the evil spoken of you is a lie.

Continue reading ““If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct itself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.””

Lots of blame for the financial crisis of ’08 falls on the federal government

There is a huge amount of blame to be spread for the Great Recession that started in 2008. While the recession technically ended four years ago back in June of 2009, most people in California and lots of charities here are still feeling the effects.

I see exquisitely little discussion of how intentional federal policies created the distortions that led to the financial crisis. An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Phil Gramm and Mike Solon help explain why much of the blame belongs to the federal government:  The Clinton-Era Roots of the Financial Crisis.

To make this non-partisan, I’ll point out that the flawed policies from the Clinton administration were ratified, continued, and extended by the Bush administration. Not to worry, both parties have worked lots of overtime to earn their share of blame.

While you can argue on the proportionate blame between the two parties, I’ll point out that regardless of the allocation you determine, 100% of that particular allocation falls on deliberate federal policy.

Initial efforts to persuade private pension plans to fund low-income housing failed. The administration forced Continue reading “Lots of blame for the financial crisis of ’08 falls on the federal government”

Technology making relationships more difficult?

Do social media and cell phone technology lead to shallower, more fragile relationships or deeper, more intimate relationships?

Yes.

That seems to be the answer from Professor C. J. Pascoe in her article, Romancing the Phone.

I don’t talk romantic issues or dating stuff here, but her article helps understand what is going on around us.

She offers several stories of hurt that flows from use of technology. On that general trend: Continue reading “Technology making relationships more difficult?”

Eagle Ford output passes 600K bopd in June – another prediction for 1M bopd in Bakken and Eagle Ford

Carpe Diem summarizes great news that “Eagle Ford June oil output increased 60% from a year ago to a new record high; will likely surpass Bakken next summer.”

Initial report shows production in Eagle Ford was about 621,000 barrels a day during June.

I haven’t figured out how to either track or understand the reports on Eagle Ford oil. The initial data is revised higher as additional companies report their data. For example, from my notes the initial reports rise anywhere from 26k bopd (9-12) up to 90k bopd (1-13) when all the data is in. That means that final tally for June is likely to be anywhere from 650k to near 700k.

The production race, million barrel prediction

Continue reading “Eagle Ford output passes 600K bopd in June – another prediction for 1M bopd in Bakken and Eagle Ford”

I’d be worried about Peak Oil if… (#30)

If exploration of the third shelf of Three Forks had been completed instead of just started,

if exploration of fourth shelf were done instead of *not* started,

if price increases didn’t make economically unrecoverable oil economically recoverable,

if new technology didn’t make technically unrecoverable oil technically recoverable,

Continue reading “I’d be worried about Peak Oil if… (#30)”

4,000 years of history in 1 chart – superb visualization

(Cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)

Think you could map out the history of the world over the last 4,000 years, showing the relative power of all the major governments and people groups, and then put all that info into one chart?

John B. Sparks did just that back in 1931. His five-foot-long chart can be seen at Slate – The Entire History of the World – Really, All of It – Distilled Into a Single Gorgeous Chart.

Very cool to look at the ebb and flow of the people groups discussed in the Old and New Testament – the Egyptians giving way to the Babylonians and Assyrians. Then the Persians and Greeks and Romans. Then the Ottoman Turks, then British & other European powers. The map stops in 1931, at the start of the Great Depression and between the two world wars.

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The printed book industry looks like the dying honeysuckles in the park. And I’m okay with that. Not the plants dying, but the industry.

Daily I walk past a large group of honeysuckle plants that used to be about 30 feet long and about 12 feet wide. The aroma is wonderful while they are in bloom.

Over the last couple of months, something has happened to the plant bed. There are three big areas where there is now only dirt. The number of honeysuckle plants is about half what it used to be.

The ones left are pretty, growing, and fragrant.

However, that bed of plants is dying.

What is happening to those fragrant plants is happening to the book industry.

Continue reading “The printed book industry looks like the dying honeysuckles in the park. And I’m okay with that. Not the plants dying, but the industry.”

More good stuff on surveillance – 8-15-13

There are a lot of articles discussing the surveillance world we now live in. I would like to comment on many of them in a full post. Alas, time does not permit.

Here is my second list of good stuff that I’d like talk about but only have time to recommend with a quick comment.

Here’s two new phrases for you:

  • Localized cloud
  • “Patriot-Act proof” – a new promo for cloud storage sites that aren’t in the U.S.

Continue reading “More good stuff on surveillance – 8-15-13”