Prescription drug abuse is now more common than street drug abuse — by far! And yet Big Pharma rakes in huge profits from all the patient addictions to their opioids. And by “opioids”, what I mean is narcotics. They are, in fact, one and the same.
So of all the drug addicts in America today, you can divide them into two camps: 1) People addicted to street drugs. 2) People addicted to prescription drugs. The people in group #1 (street drugs) are taken to jail where they are given prison sentences. People in group #2 (prescription drugs) are taken to their doctor where they are given prescription refills. It’s all really the same narcotics, it’s just that one group is legal and the other is illegal.
And what really determines whether a particular narcotic is legal or illegal? Whether or not Big Pharma profits from it. If Big Pharma makes money off the narcotics, they’re considered legal.
Big Pharma, you see, earns tens of billions of dollars each year from drug addicts. And just by coincidence, it turns out that their prescription narcotics are extremely addicting, guaranteeing repeat business. The business model is so dang lucrative, you might think they were drug dealers…
Why do you think the main sponsors for the Partnership For A Drug-Free America are the drug companies themselves? It’s because Big Pharma is trying to eliminate the competition. By keeping up the so-called “War on Drugs” front, the pharmaceutical industry can make sure it dominates the market for narcotics. After all, if you’re going to feed narcotics to a nation full of junkies, why not make a hefty profit on it? That’s the thinking of drug companies, it seems, as they have done basically zilch to effectively stem the abuse of their own prescription narcotics.
Much like the tobacco companies, drug companies secretly want people to be addicted to their products.
Perhaps we should prevent passengers from sitting in window seats, because the man who attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 sat in a window seat. Or at least keep people from sitting in window seats one hour before landing.
That silly notion seems to make as much sense as some of the “security” steps taken in response to the Christmas Day terrorism attempt. We all want air travel to be safe, no doubt. To ensure that, we need rules that are smart and effective. The Transportation Security Administration may be trying to reassure the public that it is on the job and thwarting terrorists, but turning off the route-tracking maps on airplanes and keeping people buckled up without blankets just seems ridiculous to most frequent fliers.
A review of some of the new rules, which, travelers should hope, are temporary:
I am mystified. Why can't people in power understand the strategy of AQ?
It's simple - do things that cause the "immune system" of the enemy to over react. This is why people often die of the flu. Their immune system goes into over drive and kills the host.
911 = not only wars that last decades and that cannot be "won" but also use up the treasure of the state. Worse, it makes it easy to make moral lapses that erode our ethics and our standing. Worse it gives the state the power to erode our liberties.
The new TSA regulations are an extreme form of this kind of knee jerk response.
Who made these ones up? Who approved them? What were they thinking?
I am reminded of Britain in the Blitz. At first all clubs, theatres and restaurants were closed. But after a short period, it was acknowledged that life had to go on. In the face of a real threat - Britons had a life. To huddle was to have lost.
It is clear to any thinking person that most of the security measures already in place are useless. Think about it - if you wanted to bring down a plane would it take you long to think of a way?
It's all a charade.
If we go to the logical conclusion we will all have to fly naked in chains!
With a payment a day late on a $1.4-billion loan, ski-resort operator Intrawest is continuing negotiations with its lenders.
The $524-million payment was due Wednesday, after the company reportedly received a two-month extension in October.
“Intrawest continues to be in active dialogue with our lenders regarding refinancing a term loan,” chief executive officer Bill Jensen said in a statement.
Intrawest is owned by private-equity firm Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG-N4.540.010.22%) , which acquired the company in 2006 for $1.8-billion. Fortress also assumed $950-million in debt in the deal.
Fortress paid a 20-per-cent premium over Intrawest's share price to get its hands on the company, whose well-known resorts include Whistler Blackcomb in Whistler, B.C., which will be used in the 2010 Winter Olympics for ski events.
A large portion of Intrawest's business depends on the sale of ski chalets and vacation properties, a segment of the real estate market that has been hammered by the recession. Fortress marked down the value of the Intrawest investment to 29 cents on the dollar in August, it said in a letter to investors at the time.
When money is free, it’s hard not to borrow it, even if the lender keeps warning you to be vigilant against debt. That’s exactly what Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has been telling Canadians while at the same time keeping their cost of borrowing as low as it’s ever been.
The obvious question, of course, is, if caution is warranted in borrowing, why is the cost of money so cheap? Since no one wants to pay more for their loans, particularly mortgage-holders, it’s a question no one bothers to ask Governor Carney.
But ask you should. Because the Bank of Canada’s free-money policy may lead you to places you’d rather not go.
A financial bubble is built on an unsustainable premise. Tomorrow’s bubble in the Canadian housing market is constructed on the premise that today’s record low mortgage rates will remain in place. And that, in turn, is based on the idea that inflation will continue to dissipate in the face of a slack economy.
Jeff Rubin is I think one of the smartest folks around - the Canadian big city housing market is on fire - just as it was in the US 3 years ago - for the same reasons! Money is in effect free.
There is even more risk than Jeff describes. Yes rates will go up as will energy costs. But at the same time, a new recession will chop at jobs.
Most of the buyers of houses will have used their joint earnings as the pivot for their mortgage.
What could be the risks that one of you will: be unemployed, under employed, have a baby, get ill in that scenario?
Free money and the bubble are pushing prices way offline with earning. Most are stretching to the limit with both salaries and a long am. You are going to be sorry.
If you can't put down 25%, use a 20 year am and cover most of the costs on one salary, you are taking too much risk.
This is not the 1970's. This is the top of the mountain.
It is long - a 90 minute talk with slides - but it is the whole deal - the Dreadnought Architecture and Engineering.
I found this gripping and I watched it all in one go - Avatar for the mind
It is all about Public SERVICE Media - we can also see how far we have gone and what we will have to do to go into the future.
It is complete - the context, the forces, the challenges, the opportunities, the actions to take and the how to do them. It's the complete guide to what can be done to make your station viable.
It includes:
The new digital bandwidth issue + what to do
The growth of Wireless - context for all the change
The new disruptive tools
How we use them to put on 40 hours of content a week with 2 staff!
Update on NPR, PBS and CPB
Public Insight Journalism
The "Collapse" of Trad Journalism
The Growth of the online community - what are the issues
Social Media explained and contexted - showing the key growth areas
What are the new economics? What is scarce and so what is the new value
THE BIG IDEA - The Context is the Public Ailment (Unemployment - Disease - Education etc) - so the scarce thing is to serve the public in solving these ailments
What to do to offer PUBLIC SERVICE
How we will get paid and by whom
Public Service Media - the overall idea
What is news and journalism in this context - a detailed plan of what to do
The need to change the organization - Innovators Dilemma - the reaction of the legacy group who will fight tooth and nail to kill the disrupter
John nails the essence of what is truly disruptive - ON DEMAND WEB
Then shows us the choices - what will make the best days behind or before us - in detail
The Future is public SERVICE media!
He makes the step by case as to why "broadcast" will not do it and why "Service" will
Ford is making its cars into mobile Wi-Fi hot spots.
The next generation of the Sync in-car entertainment and information system will use a USB mobile broadband modem to establish a secure wireless connection capable of supporting several devices simultaneously. The system will be available next year on selected models — no word yet which ones — and you won’t need a subscription or hardware beyond the modem.
“While you’re driving to grandma’s house, your spouse can be finishing the holiday shopping and the kids can be chatting with friends and updating their Facebook profiles,” said Mark Fields, Ford president of the Americas. “And you’re not paying for yet another mobile subscription or piece of hardware because Ford will let you use technology you already have.”
Several automakers already offer in-car internet access — Japanese drivers have been using it since 1997 — and many others are rushing to bring it to us. Ford’s announcement follows General Motors’ promise last week to make in-car connectivity available in seven models of trucks and SUVs. They’re the latest automakers to bring the infobahn to the autobahn.
Ford is taking a decidedly different approach, opting to allow consumers to plug in their own USB modem to get connected. General Motors, on the other hand, offers a dealer-installed system called Chevrolet Wi-Fi by Autonet Mobile. It creates a Wi-Fi hot spot 300 feet in diameter around the vehicle, and GM claims the 3G network achieves speeds of up to 1.5 mbps. The hardware costs $199 after the $200 mail-in rebate, and the service costs $29 a month.
Given how connected we are, it makes sense for automakers to put the internet in our cars. The number of iPhones and other mobile devices being used to connect to the internet jumped 75 percent in the third quarter of this year, according to JiWire Mobile Audiences Insights Report.
Letting people log on from the road will be a big selling point among 20-something buyers, the so-called Millennials who have propelled much of Sync’s success. Millennials will make up 28 percent of the driving population next year, a nine-point increase from 2004. Kids aside, Ford says interest in in-car connectivity is high among the general public, with one-third of people surveyed by the Consumer Electronics Association expressing interest in being able to check e-mail or surf the web from the car.
This is HMS Dreadnought - launched about 1906 - the first capital ship to make the entire transition from the age of sail and the culture of Nelson.
This is HMS Inflexible launched in about 1876. Let's look at her and see why most media organizations are the same kind of compromise.
Note how the guns are set up and what kinds of guns are used.
Most are small and face outward just as in the age of sail. The intent was to get close to the enemy. The 2 turrets are set onto the side again for use as broadside weapons. The main guns were 16" but were muzzle loading. They were not to used for long range anti ship fighting but for pounding ports and forts.
Note the masts - still a legacy from sail. She could be sailed - the RN still did not really trust steam!
This picture was taken in 1896! One of the signs of a good captain was a clean ship - so whenever possible they would use sail. Real sailors sailed - common men knew how to use machinery. Not really officer class!
We can smirk at this - but are not most TV and radio stations and most organizations of all types in the same place as Inflexible?
We have merely added on as extras the new. The new features are all meant to support the old mission. At a pinch, the new is discarded - after all a good CEO and Board likes clean and tidy. Most of all, we are not going to let those common new media types have a real say in what we do. They are after all just common technicians.
Look how new Dreadnought really was compared to this hybrid.
It's all about the new mission of long distance high speed ship to ship combat.
All big gun - no vestige of sail - all engineering.
She was so powerful that all the existing capital ships became obsolete overnight. There was huge fear in Britain that by launching her, they would have to get into a race to build a new fleet. But Fisher had no choice. Several navies were on the verge of the same plan.
So this will be in media and in all organizations.
Some still "sail" in wooden ships. The school system comes to mind.
Some have hybrids - most of media comes to mind.
A few have gone all the way - Google is the exemplar. Look at how Google has pulled ahead of everyone.
We all wait for media.
Now a few stations like KETC are about to launch their own Dreadnought.
Once a few have been launched, the race will be on.
In the 19th century, navies all over the world experimented to find the new model for the capital ship.
Like most organizations today who are trying to find the new model for the enterprise in the pub media context, so steel, steam and big guns meant that the wooden capital ship had to go.
So over the century, designers added these new features in a piecemeal fashion - wooden hulls were replaced by iron and then steel. Sails were reduced and then fully replaced by steam - reciprocating engines by turbines. Gun size increased. Turrets were introduced.
The ship on the left in the image above was the great capital ship of its time - about 1860 - it was called the Inflexible - no pun intended. It's captain was Jackie Fisher who went on the be the First Sea Lord who commission Dreadnought - the ship on the right in about 1906.
Inflexible looked modern. It had all the new bits in some form - like many Pub Media stations or organizations. It had a Facebook account, Twitter, a blog etc.
But in reality Inflexible was not modern at all.
Here is HMS Victory in 1805 at the Battles of Trafalgar. Why Inflexible was not modern was that while she had all the new stuff - she was a prisoner of the culture of the Nelsonic tradition.
The core of her mindset set was that war was an heroic activity where the main point was to get as close as possible - many times touching the enemy and to use training and discipline to pour it on. Part of this culture demanded that the officer corps were men of character - read class was the key.
What Fisher saw that made Dreadnought so much a disrupter is that it had at the core of its design an entirely new mindset.
Battle was to be done at a distance - miles apart. All the smaller guns of Inflexible meant for close engagement could be disposed of. The key relationship was different. Dreadnought could sink the entire German fleet at the time on its own!
Secondly, engineering and technical ability was more important than class. Fisher set in motion events in officer recruitment and training that would open up the service to people who could offer this.
I fear that most organizations are doing an Inflexible. They pride themselves that they have all the bells and whistles but they have not put it all together AND they have not made the organizational changes to make the new WHOLE work as en entity.
But KETC in St Louis is building its Dreadnought now - building a new organization based on the values and the technology that changes the core relationship with the people outside and the people inside.
The Nine Network is the Dreadnought - a physical realization of all the new relationships and tools of the new.
More than a plan - the Nine Network will be ready in March 2010.
So what is in this room and why?
Community News Pro - KETC is one of a handful of any Pub TV stations with a "News" function. The Beacon is a group of professional journalists - many from the Post Dispatch - who have come together into a network and who share premises with KETC. The Beacon have been recognized by the Knight Foundation as a key pioneer. They are also the only Pub TV partner who are using Public Insight Journalism. The Beacon represent the future of post newspaper local news.
The Community itself - You see here the Community Room - KETC has pioneered convening the community to come together and to thus get stronger in dealing with pressing issues. The Facing the Mortgage Crisis Project not only helped bring together a wide range of St Louis Community organizations such as the United way and Beyond Housing but also helped nearly 70 other stations in 30 plus of the worst hit cities do the same in their cities. Meeting face to face with community organizations has become commonplace. Our Community Room is more than just a meeting room - it is a fully equipped media room. KETC has given the communities of St Louis a voice and a place to come together. Intractable issues such as diabetes, education, jobs etc can all be worked at here at the ground level.
The Nine Network - A working "school" that helps the community get the skills to broaden their voice and power. The space just up from the Beacon is the Nine Network space. Here KETC will train interns and young St Louisans how use the new media to tell stories - for it is not just knowing how to use the tools but how to use them to effect that is the key. The focus of the Nine Network is not to teach the skills on their own but to use projects such as stories on St Louis, News items for the Beacon. The "students" will be like Midshipmen of the RN back in the time of Trafalgar - treated like grow ups with real jobs to do that help the whole "ship". All the online world of KETC and the sweet spot where the online world AND TV come together will come from this full integration of the On Air and the On Line world.
New Values of Community First - The Nine has TV, Web Video, Community and Journalism all in one space all feeding off and supporting each other. Most importantly the POV is to listen first to the community and to bring the community into everything that we do. This more than any other part of the Nine is the most important. Just as for Dreadnought - distance and technical skill were the values shift. The Nine, like the Dreadnought, brings it all together in one human space.
Classes will begin in January.
With the launch of the Nine Network's physical space - KETC - will have a de facto new organization that does the Dreadnought - that embodies the new culture and that brings all the new and the old TOGETHER!
Facing the Mortgage Crisis, a multi-platform community outreach project spearheaded by KETC/Channel 9 in St. Louis, has become a model for public broadcasting stations nationwide.
Launched July 1, 2008, with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the project connects financially struggling residents with appropriate resources. St. Louis was hit hard by the mortgage crisis, and this, along with KETC's proven track record of community engagement, led CPB to select KETC as the project's producer.
The project embraces a strong community engagement approach, bolstered by KETC's partnerships with local online news publication the St. Louis Beacon and 26 community organizations. KETC also hired consultant Robert Paterson, who provides another layer of insight on the project on severalblogs.
According to the project's site:
Public media is in a unique position to have a profound impact on critical issues such as the mortgage crisis. By raising public awareness, mobilizing networks of trusted community partners, and by aggregating community resources, public media organizations can make a significant difference in the communities they serve. Collectively, the impact will be felt across America.
This video also provides an overview of KETC's accomplishments with Facing the Mortgage Crisis:
Expanding into Other Markets
In light of KETC's success with this project, CPB provided additional funding for public broadcasting stations around the country to replicate KETC's model. The new projects are targeted to reach 32 markets identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as being severely affected by the mortgage crisis. KETC is managing the wider initiative. (Participating stations are mapped here.)
The participating stations' project websites show varying levels of sophistication in the content they're creating. As a result, it may seem as though stations have different levels of commitment to the project. Amy Shaw, KETC's vice president of education and community engagement, said the websites are not always reflective of their success with community engagement. While leveraging social media is a part of the project, she said an even larger part involves "facilitating grassroots dialogue" and "forming networks of trusted community partners."
In many locations, the project's success relies on collaboration among public broadcasters, in addition to community partners. For example, in hard-hit Detroit, Michigan Radio and Detroit Public TV created a comprehensive site with a frequently updated blog. Cleveland's ideastream also includes comprehensive television and radio resources, and has had great success with community outreach.
Some stations also teamed up with commercial outlets. South Florida's WUSF and Bay News 9 worked together to put a human face on the mortgage crisis. Their site emphasizes independently produced videos of local importance to South Florida residents. Dayton's public television station also partnered with a local commercial station and actually won their local ratings the night their mortgage crisis special aired. This is an incredible achievement, although Shaw was quick to point out that ratings aren't always the most accurate measure of success in a public media project.
Facing the Mortgage Crisis also partnered with United Way's 2-1-1 service, a call-in number that connects people with the resources they need, including emergency services, financial assistance, and health-related information. Many of the local station sites feature a prominent link to regional 2-1-1 centers. (For example, KETC's site links to United Way of Missouri.)
In a blog post, Paterson explained some of the metrics KETC used to measure the project's success. Notably, 2-1-1 calls increased 400 percent after KETC began the mortgage crisis initiative. Shaw also noted that an extremely effective campaign in Cleveland resulted in a "2-1-1 deluge."
New Model of Participatory Public Media
Developing appropriate metrics for this kind of engagement projects is a challenge. The national project is currently being analyzed, both internally and by two outside assessment firms. The results of these reports won't be released until February, but Shaw was able to provide some interim takeaways.
Most notably, the project has found that in order for public media to thrive, "stations need time to build internal capacity." Stations that are used to being "the voice out" to the people need to adjust to a new model of participatory public media. Stations also need to work on building internal competencies, placing an intentional focus on outcomes, and allowing relationships to drive work in the future.
Here's what KETC President and CEO Jack Galmiche wrote in a letter to CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison:
Stations are making the breakthrough in understanding that they can leverage Web 2.0. The costs of going here are not financial, they are cultural. Through Facing the Mortgage Crisis, there is a core group of stations who are discovering how to use the online space to amplify the value of our traditional content and to use it to offer a voice to the American people.
Stations are learning by experience how to connect social media and digital content in all that they do -- making it possible for the public to have a much deeper relationship and an identity connection with the station, while at the same time having a "safe and trusted place" to ask questions, have conversations, and build connections. The stations that are making this possible are also learning how to use their online space to converge national, local and public content on the web and are beginning to understand how to use the web to listen to every whisper in their communities and to reflect back what they have heard.
The project officially ended last month, but some stations have made a significant commitment to press on and transition to the next level of the project. Ideally, Shaw said, Facing the Mortgage Crisis will serve as a "gateway to a broader conversation."
"This is a concerted, national public media effort," she said. "It's not just about the mortgage crisis, it's about how to make the public see public media as significant, relevant and worth supporting."
In many ways, said Shaw, the project has spearheaded participating stations to "make the transition from public broadcasting to public media."
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