A Collection of Thoughts & Discoveries
Technology, Business, Giving, Etc.
- “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” Ernest Hemmingway
- “Judge each day not by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.” Robert Louis Stevenson
- “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” Gandhi
- “Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.” Blaise Pascal
- “A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.” Ayn Rand
- “If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.” John D. Rockefeller
- “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” Thomas Jefferson
- “Sense shines with a double luster when it is set in humility. An able yet humble man is a jewel worth a kingdom.” William Penn
- “There is a great satisfaction in building good tools for other people to use.” Freeman Dyson
- “You don't know what you can learn until you try to learn.” Ronald Coase
- “Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” Mark Twain
- “Create more value than you capture.” Tim O'Reilly
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E-mail MeWokai: Micro-loans for China’s Poor
Two young American women who studied Chinese in Bejing have created a fund for helping China’s poor who struggle even while the economy is growing there. The wealth being generated by the growth in China is said to not be trickling down to many of the country’s poor.
Wokai lends small amounts of money to entrepreneurs (micro-loans of a few hundred U.S. dollars) so that they can make changes in their businesses necessary to achieve their goals. The money is then returned to Wokai for distribution to others. Read more at the Wokai website.
The BBC has a brief video about Wokai HERE. Kudos to Casey Wilson and Courtney McClogen for setting this up. I hope they get the additional funding they seek to expand their project.
Chicago Tribune Off-base on Chronic Lyme
M.I.T.'s Knight Science Journalism Tracker has an interesting piece on the nature of journalism surrounding the controversial topic of chronic lyme disease. The article could apply to most topics as “real journalism” competes with or even gives way to commentary, rhetoric and the blogosphere. In this case the Trib is being taken to task for publishing material weighted in favor of the reporters’ preconceived bias. This is all-too-common today with the ease of publishing and speed of distribution on the web, “link-bating”, and use of sensationalism to get page views, readers or television viewers. Real, objective journalism certainly seems to be an “endangered species” these days.
If the topics of chronic lyme or quality journalism in science and medicine interest you, be sure to read the comments – and in particular those by Pamela Weintraub (editor of Discover Magazine and author of Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic). Part of my favorite comment:
I am saying, specifically, that, as in most science, there is a spectrum of perspective and considerable nuance among academic researchers as to what is going on with these patients: that the pathophysiology is complicated; and that the biomedicine to explain these patients has, in large part, yet to be done because we are still analyzing the genomics and proteomics of the pangenome –this is work out of Stony Brook, out of Robert Wood Johnson. We are still looking at the variability in the immune system of the human host. All this work is yet to be done…
Check out the article for context and the rest of the comment as well as the counter arguments.
Chris Anderson: Crowd Accelerated Innovation
Chris Anderson is the director of TED. In this inspiring video, Chris presents his take on how crowds contribute to more rapid innovation and provides great examples.
By the way, Chris’ wife, Jacqueline Novogratz, is the founder and CEO of the non-profit venture capital fund called Acumen Fund, which invests in entrepreneurial projects in poor and developing nations. I like what they’re doing and recommend that you take a look at them too.
[via: Josh Zúñiga]
WSJ: Arrests Made in Insider Trading Probe
The Wall Street Journal has an article today on the the case of outside "consultants" working for Apple, Inc., Dell, and AMD who were being investigated for supplying information used for insider trading schemes.
It appears that AMD is the victim of an insider-trading scheme. An A.M.D. spokesman.
The individuals involved in supplying "highly confidential" information to others were well paid "networking consultants". Compensation for such transgressions are said to be in the "hundreds or thousands of dollars". The FBI is claiming that the four arrested were paid around $400,000 over time for their information provided to "hedge funds and other traders". This is said to have gone on over a period of time.
It’s always amazing how someone will throw their career, their reputation, and their family’s comfort away for a few thousand dollars.
UPDATE: Today the WSJ published an article describing yet another insider providing information concerning insider trading events involving hedge fund managers. One wonders how widespread this problem really is (or maybe “wonder” is not really the word I mean here).
What’s in a Name? Allen, Allan, or Allyn?
If you’re human, there’s no need to read this post. It’s not for you, it’s for Google, Bing, and other search engines.
My last name, while not rare, is spelled in the far less common form of “Allyn”. When someone knows my name but doesn’t know the exact spelling or can’t recall it, they search on “Dale Allen” most commonly. The spelling of “Allen” is much more common and what typically comes to mind as someone attempts to spell my last name. So I’m making this post to help Google and Bing et al to know that someone looking for Dale Allen or Dale Allen Photography may actually be looking for me, but they just didn’t know the correct spelling. There are some sneaky methods for dealing with improperly spelled words or names for the benefit of search manipulation, but I’m interested in helping accuracy, so creating a post seems the most polite way to deal with it. This should help those looking for Dale Allen Photo or who misheard the name as David Allen, or maybe even a last name of Allan or Alan.
A New Beginning
Well, here we have it, a newly designed blog at my old domain. This had been mothballed for quite some time while I was working on other projects, including my photography website, among other things.
There’s a blog on my photography site, but that has remained rather focused on the subjects related to the art and business of photography. This site is intended to be more diverse in terms of topics, and mostly just a collection of items that I enjoy sharing and discussing, or which I wish to collect here for my later reference. With any luck, perhaps the topics will be of interest or help to others.
I’m still building a few bits of the blog portion of the content management, so there may be a few loose ends here and there. That will be remedied soon, once I finish building the necessary components to the ExpressionEngine portions of the site. Hopefully I’ll be getting that wrapped up in the coming few days. Please be patient and check back often to watch the progress. Thank you for visiting.