EVERY YEAR SINCE 1961, on the day before Thanksgiving the Wall Street Journal has published two pieces on its opinion page: The Desolate Wilderness, And The Fair Land. Since 1995 or so it's been a tradition of mine to read both, and take them as cause for reflection on our harvest, and the courage that forging into uncharted lands, personal or professional, literal or metaphorical, requires.

To this day, the sentiment of these pieces seems particularly apropos. Who would not, in reading this passage from Morton's diary, think of some part our world at this place in time?

Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men? and what multitudes of them there were, they then knew not: for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward object; for summer being ended, all things stand in appearance with a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hew.

But this is why in 1961 the editors of the Journal saw fit to publish the companion it Morton's entry. It reminds us:

But we can all remind ourselves that the richness of this country was not born in the resources of the earth, though they be plentiful, but in the men that took its measure. For that reminder is everywhere -- in the cities, towns, farms, roads, factories, homes, hospitals, schools that spread everywhere over that wilderness.

We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth.

So it remains, and so this year, I give thanks for the idea that is America, and remain an optimist about what together we may become.

In the event you don't wish to follow the links above, I post both below, and happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

******************

The Desolate Wilderness

Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford, sometime governor thereof:

So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits.

When they came to Delfs-Haven they found the ship and all things ready, and such of their friends as could not come with them followed after them, and sundry came from Amsterdam to see them shipt, and to take their leaves of them. One night was spent with little sleep with the most, but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse, and other real expressions of true Christian love.

The next day they went on board, and their friends with them, where truly doleful was the sight of that sad and mournful parting, to hear what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound amongst them; what tears did gush from every eye, and pithy speeches pierced each other's heart, that sundry of the Dutch strangers that stood on the Key as spectators could not refrain from tears. But the tide (which stays for no man) calling them away, that were thus loath to depart, their Reverend Pastor, falling down on his knees, and they all with him, with watery cheeks commended them with the most fervent prayers unto the Lord and His blessing; and then with mutual embraces and many tears they took their leaves one of another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them.

Being now passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before them in expectations, they had now no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain or refresh them, no houses, or much less towns, to repair unto to seek for succour; and for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search unknown coasts.

Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men? and what multitudes of them there were, they then knew not: for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward object; for summer being ended, all things stand in appearance with a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hew.

If they looked behind them, there was a mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar or gulph to separate them from all the civil parts of the world.

And the Fair Land

Any one whose labors take him into the far reaches of the country, as ours lately have done, is bound to mark how the years have made the land grow fruitful.

This is indeed a big country, a rich country, in a way no array of figures can measure and so in a way past belief of those who have not seen it. Even those who journey through its Northeastern complex, into the Southern lands, across the central plains and to its Western slopes can only glimpse a measure of the bounty of America.

And a traveler cannot but be struck on his journey by the thought that this country, one day, can be even greater. America, though many know it not, is one of the great underdeveloped countries of the world; what it reaches for exceeds by far what it has grasped.

So the visitor returns thankful for much of what he has seen, and, in spite of everything, an optimist about what his country might be. Yet the visitor, if he is to make an honest report, must also note the air of unease that hangs everywhere.

For the traveler, as travelers have been always, is as much questioned as questioning. And for all the abundance he sees, he finds the questions put to him ask where men may repair for succor from the troubles that beset them.

His countrymen cannot forget the savage face of war. Too often they have been asked to fight in strange and distant places, for no clear purpose they could see and for no accomplishment they can measure. Their spirits are not quieted by the thought that the good and pleasant bounty that surrounds them can be destroyed in an instant by a single bomb. Yet they find no escape, for their survival and comfort now depend on unpredictable strangers in far-off corners of the globe.

How can they turn from melancholy when at home they see young arrayed against old, black against white, neighbor against neighbor, so that they stand in peril of social discord. Or not despair when they see that the cities and countryside are in need of repair, yet find themselves threatened by scarcities of the resources that sustain their way of life. Or when, in the face of these challenges, they turn for leadership to men in high places -- only to find those men as frail as any others.

So sometimes the traveler is asked whence will come their succor. What is to preserve their abundance, or even their civility? How can they pass on to their children a nation as strong and free as the one they inherited from their forefathers? How is their country to endure these cruel storms that beset it from without and from within?

Of course the stranger cannot quiet their spirits. For it is true that everywhere men turn their eyes today much of the world has a truly wild and savage hue. No man, if he be truthful, can say that the specter of war is banished. Nor can he say that when men or communities are put upon their own resources they are sure of solace; nor be sure that men of diverse kinds and diverse views can live peaceably together in a time of troubles.

But we can all remind ourselves that the richness of this country was not born in the resources of the earth, though they be plentiful, but in the men that took its measure. For that reminder is everywhere -- in the cities, towns, farms, roads, factories, homes, hospitals, schools that spread everywhere over that wilderness.

We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth.

And we might remind ourselves also, that if those men setting out from Delftshaven had been daunted by the troubles they saw around them, then we could not this autumn be thankful for a fair land.

WE LOST A LION YESTERDAY. 

Walter Cronkite has done something with which I suppose he was never comfortable -- becoming the news, with his passing at age 92.

While he gave us his take on the facts night upon night, I, like most Americans, remember Cronkite's reporting related to two seminal events: the Vietnam war, and man's landing on the moon. Cronkite, having seen Vietnam first-hand from the field, famously offered an on-camera editorial stating he considered the war un-winnable. This was a bold and career-risking move for Cronkite, as the war was nearing its apex of human and financial cost, near a fulcrum of public opinion swaying for or against. When seeing the report President Lyndon Johnson is reported to have said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." In this Johnson was right, and so, we know now, was Cronkite.

Just two days ago I plumbed the depths of YouTube hoping to find archived footage of Cronkite's reporting during Apollo 11's descent to and landing on the Moon. I found it--it's here in several segments--and it's very worth watching, especially for the moment of touchdown, when the cool and factual Cronkite is reduced to speechlessness and tears. His humanity trumped his journalism, as it should have.

In the museum of my mind Walter Cronkite stands in the same wing as paternal grandfather, who for most of his life was a newsman and newspaper editor in Logan, UT. A man with grey hair and kind eyes, quick with a witticism and a passion for words, a man you could trust for hard work, candor, and the truth.

As I survey the landscape of American journalism today (and in particular, American television journalism), I see no equivalent -- near or far -- to either of them. That's not a bad thing; it's a terrible thing. While the Internet and World Wide Web have shortened the distance between us at our desks and the events in the world, it's still terribly difficult--in fact, in many cases, more difficult--to qualify facts and discern credibility without the direct voice of people who were there (like Cronkite at Hue), and the editorial guidance of people who can ferret meaning from meaninglessness (like Cronkite at his editorial desk all those years). 

While we now have plenty of the former (example: Iranian Twitter feeds over the past month), with the combination (and collusion?) of broadcast entertainment and broadcast journalism we also now have damn few of the latter. Does Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room leave you with confidence that you have not just a better grasp of the facts, but their essential meaning, than did a report by Walter Cronkite?

I thought not.

So, rest in peace, Walter, and Godspeed. I miss my grandfather often, and now as I cast about for a clear-eyed, hard-working, candid and trustworthy newsman among the 280 channels of blather coming through my living room coax, I'll miss you, too.

You told us how it was, but yours was the way it was meant to be.

GO HERE TO READ an interesting summary of the US Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's (DARPA - home | Wikipedia) 2009 strategic plan. A quick digest, taken from the post, (with my notations in parentheses):

• Accelerated Development and Production of Therapeutics: rapidly and inexpensively manufacture millions of doses of life saving drugs or vaccines in weeks, instead of the years required to ramp up today's manufacturing practices. (Make vaccines quick in the event of a pandemic or bio-weapon event)
  
• Blue Laser for Submarine Laser Communications: provide for timely, large area submarine communications at speed and depth, which no other future or existing system, or combinations of systems, can do. (Let submarines communicate underwater in a way nobody else can detect)
  
• High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System: novel, compact, high power lasers making practical small-size and low-weight speed-of-light weapons for tactical mobile air- and ground-vehicles. (Laser guns for aircraft and tanks)
  
• High Productivity Computing Systems: supercomputers are fundamental to a variety of military operations, from weather forecasting to cryptography to the design of new weapons; DARPA is working to maintain our global lead in this technology. (The next generation of supercomputing for ... well, everything, likely)
  
• Networks: self-forming, robust, self-defending networks at the strategic and tactical level are the key to network-centric warfare; these networks will use spectrum far more efficiently and resist disruption if the GPS time signal is unavailable. (Computer networks that can arrange, rearrange, and repair themselves -- including if the satellite system that coordinates their common time synchronization is otherwise indisposed)
  
• Quantum Information Science: exploiting quantum phenomena in the fields of computing, cryptography, and communications, with the promise of opening new frontiers in each area. (Using electrons and other sub-atomic particles for creating codes, storing information, and other things)
  
• Real-Time Accurate Language Translation: real-time machine language translation of structured and unstructured text and speech with near-expert human translation accuracy. (The real-time universal translator you remember from Star Trek)  

It's an interesting list, because it hints at what the Defense Department wants to do on the one hand (aircraft that shoot lasers) and what they're worried about on the other (the need to produce millions of vaccine doses quickly or the global GPS satellite system being knocked out of action) on the other. As I post this the link to the original report isn't working, but it may be later. In the meantime, you might go read some of Kurzweil's stuff on accelerating intelligence and the accelerating rate of change, or this description of Vinge's theory of technological singularity, and see, if in the context of the DARPA report, it makes you at all uneasy ...

THIS MAKES ME very, very happy.

I SAW THE DEAD LAST NIGHT at the Spectrum -- their true East coast home (sorry MSG fans), and their 54th consecutive sellout of that arena, the most they've played in any location. Having played the Spectrum in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s, this was their final Spectrum show, as Philadelphia is demolishing the Spectrum at the end of this year.

The show was fantastic. Amazingly tight, focused, tuned, and intense. Last night The Dead were a rock n' roll band in the true form: lots of distortion, lots of harmonics, lots of drums, and lots of volume. This was not a musing, meandering Dead: this was a band out to play and play loud. They all sounded great: Bobby had his voice all night, Phil was working the bass like he was 20 years younger, and Warren Haynes (lead of the Allman Brothers Band and taking Jerry's spot on lead for The Dead) was on fire, including his vocal roles. 

For those tracking set lists: 

(Set 1)

• One More Saturday Night (apropos, as last night was the last Sat night Dead show @ the Spectrum; also one of the few times they've opened with OMSN -- it's a traditional encore -- and the first time they've opened with it since 1989)
• Brown Eyed Women
• Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
• Althea 
• He's Gone> 
• Uncle John's Band>
• Mason's Children (this three-song jam must have lasted 30 minutes) 
  

(Set 2) 

• Good Lovin' 
• Cumberland Blues 
• Cryptical Envelopment>
• The Other One> 
• Drums> 
• Space> 
• Morning Dew (a massive jam - 40 minutes? - ending with Morning Dew, the first time they've played it on this tour) 
• St. Stephen
• Revolution (yes, Revolution, by Lennon and McCartney) 
• Help On The Way> 
• Slipknot!> 
• Franklin's Tower 

(Encore)

• Samson And Delilah (again apropos ... "If I had my way, if I had my way, if I had my way / I would tear this old building down" ... and they're going to) 

All in all, a great show, and I'm humbled to admit (given the fan I've become in the past 20 years) -- MY FIRST. This was a great way to cross that threshold, and I see them again at the final show of the tour at the Gorge in Washington State in two weeks. As for this show, I took some photographs. There's one below, and more here.

God bless the Grateful Dead.

I HOST AN ANNUAL CONFERENCE for corporate communication leaders, and each year have a special guest who both is our keynote speaker and spends several days with our group. In 2007 our guest was Dr. Mike Merzenich, a noted neuroscientist from UC San Francisco. His study is "neruoplasticity," which is how the brain learns generally, and more particularly, how the brain re-wires itself over time. It's a central issue, because ultimately ALL personal change -- habitual and attitudinal -- requires a re-mapping of the neural networks that run through your cortex. Which is why it's so hard to stop smoking, hit a golf ball straight, or forgive that person you've resented for all these years ... or to forget how to ride a bike.

I was happy to see he was a recent speaker at TED. A video of his talk is below, and it's well worth watching.

I JUST RETURNED from two days at the first GTD Summit, where I served as a panelist for summit organizer David Allen (disclosure: CRA has a strategic partnership with The David Allen Co.). It was a spectacular two and a half days, and I've returned with a long list of notes, people, and actions to process, but I thought I'd start with the books. It's clear that the currency of relational exchange among the GTD community is books -- I've not often been among more widely-read group of people, and the frequency with which folks would say "You've got to read ..." was astonishing. I came back from San Francisco with a short shelf of books to read, all of which I've already downloaded to my Kindle 2 or have coming to the office via Amazon. Here's what I'll be reading (thanks to the recommendations of Summit participants):

• Cradle to Cradle
• Elsewhere, USA
• The Limits of Power
• Tree of Knowledge

  I'll post reviews as (and if) I finish them ... 

I'VE JUST RETURNED from our annual dive vacation in Bonaire. I took my new point-and-shoot, a Canon G10 (I've lusted after the G line of Canons for years, and when my old point-and-shoot became unreliable this year, I decided to take the plunge; I'll likely post a review soon) and an underwater housing to try my hand at underwater photography. I've posted the best shots in a gallery here, and some shots of island life here. Samples below; click 'em to enlarge 'em.

WORTH WATCHING: The Crisis of Credit, visualized.

Part 1 ...

... and Part 2:

I RECENTLY TAUGHT a week-long elective on Leadership Communication for the current Executive MBA Class at Notre Dame. As part of my curricula I offered the students recommended, non-academic readings (beyond the assigned work) that embellished many of our core topics. I thought this list might be of wider interest, so I'm posting it below (along with excerpts where I could find them).

• The Management Myth: A nice article on the pop-culture (and intellectually questionable) nature of much management theory.
  
  "Why does every new management theorist seem to want to outdo Chairman Mao in calling for perpetual havoc on the old order? Very simply, because all economic organizations involve at least some degree of power, and power always pisses people off. That is the human condition. At the end of the day, it isn’t a new world order that the management theorists are after; it’s the sensation of the revolutionary moment. They long for that exhilarating instant when they’re fighting the good fight and imagining a future utopia. What happens after the revolution—civil war and Stalinism being good bets—could not be of less concern."
  
  
• Change or Die: An interesting Fast Company article that describes the challenges to bringing about personal behavioral change, many of which have neuro-cognitive roots.
  
  ""If you look at people after coronary-artery bypass grafting two years later, 90% of them have not changed their lifestyle," Miller said. "And that's been studied over and over and over again. And so we're missing some link in there. Even though they know they have a very bad disease and they know they should change their lifestyle, for whatever reason, they can't.""
  
  
• The Brain That Changes Itself: A book on neuroplasticity which expands greatly on the ideas in Change or Die. It turns out you CAN teach an old dog new tricks -- the trick just has to be relevant, the dog needs multiple attempts, and there must be treat after each successful try.
  
  "Neuro is for “neuron,” the nerve cells in our brains and nervous systems. Plastic is for “changeable, malleable, modifiable.” At first many of the scientists didn’t dare use the word “neuroplasticity” in their publications, and their peers belittled them for promoting a fanciful notion. Yet they persisted, slowly overturning the doctrine of the unchanging brain. They showed that children are not always stuck with the mental abilities they are born with; that the damaged brain can often reorganize itself so that when one part fails, another can often substitute; that if brain cells die, they can at times be replaced; that many “circuits” and even basic reflexes that we think are hardwired are not. One of these scientists even showed that thinking, learning, and acting can turn our genes on or off, thus shaping our brain anatomy and our behavior—surely one of the most extraordinary discoveries of the twentieth century."
  
  
• Words that Work, framing and the use of language from the conservative point of view, and Don't Think of an Elephant, framing and the use of language from the liberal point of view.
  
  
• Love is the Killer App: One of the best books on relationship management I've read. The chapter on how to read books is worth its weight in gold alone.
  
  
• The Tipping Point: A modern science-journalism classic about how ideas spread, this book is an excellent summation of a large amount of communication theory--about persuasion, relationship development, communication networks, the role of context in interpretation--I consider essential for leaders to know.
  
  "Consider, for example, the following puzzle. I give you a large piece of paper, 1/100th of a inch thick. (That's a typical thickness). I want you to fold it over once, and then take that folded paper and fold it over again, and then again, and again, until you have refolded the original paper 50 times. How tall do you think the final stack is going to be? ... [T]he real answer is that the height of the stack would approximate the distance to the sun. And if you folded it over one more time, the stack would be as high as the distance to the sun and back. This is an example of what in mathematics is called a geometric progression ... As human beings we have a hard time with this kind of progression, because the end result--the effect--seems far out of proportion to the cause. To appreciate the power of epidemics, we have to abandon this expectation about proportionality. We need to prepare ourselves for the possibility that sometimes big changes follow from small events, and that sometimes these changes can happen very quickly."
  
  
• Worst to First: Most CEO "how I did it" books are ego gratification in print. This one is not, and is rich in examples of the symbolic nature of leadership communication, and the effective communication of strategic direction, in particular.
  
  
• Influence: An academic classic that's entirely accessible in the main stream. Read this book and you'll never look at a car salesman or cult the same. On my "Top Books All Leaders Should Read" list.
  
  
• Three resources on design: Universal Principles of Design, which is a fantastic book on design generally (and a great coffee table book to boot), Slide:ology, which covers everything you should know about how to, and how not to, design an effective presentation, and finally, everything by Ed Tufte, who's a modern guru of information design (and who also writes books suitable for any well-appointed coffee table). (And while your at it, read this Bruce Nussbaum speech on how CEOs must be designers, not just hire them.)
  
  
• On Speaking Well: Peggy Noonan's slim tome on writing, preparing for, and delivering speeches. A great little book, although expect Ms. Noonan's conservative affections to shine through (pleasing some of you and slightly annoying others).
  
  
• Beowulf (the Seamus Heaney translation): I think there's much to learn about leadership from reading the classics. After all, the nuances of the human condition and the challenge of leading others were part of the human conversation long before Peter Druker put pen to paper. Beowulf is one of my favorite non-leadership-book leadership books, and has one of my favorite lines about leadership in print: "He went about things like the leader he was." (Which also means that if you want to change the leader you are, you must change how you go about things.) If you want a real treat, download and listen to the audio book read by Heaney in his native brogue.
  
  
• Once an Eagle: I'm still reading this book from the Marine Commandant's reading list, but it's already among my favorite novels. Truly wonderful prose, Myrer's talent for simile is remarkable, and great imagery and lines shine from nearly every page. What would Sam Damon do?
  
  
• Management of the Absurd: Another great management book most leaders have never seen, Richard Farson's view into organizational paradoxes (e.g., "Technology creates the opposite of its intended purpose") is worth reading and reviewing every few years.

THERE IS A WONDERFUL piece on Florence in today's New York Times. It's a favorite city of Kate and mine, and the article motivated me to post online some of the photos I took two summers ago. The curious may find them here.

THE NEWS that yesterday shoppers in Long Island trampled a WalMart employee to death is beyond disturbing. For plastic toys and cheap consumer electronics? There are many sets of bloody hands here: hundreds of clearly clueless and morally bankrupt people (I won't use the word "citizen," for they don't deserve it) who didn't find crashing through the doors of a business at 4:55 AM inappropriate, or consider stepping on another human being something to avoid, and retailers and marketeers who seek to work the populace into a frenzy each Black Friday. Well, this time: Mission accomplished.

Jdimytai Damour was 34.

ALSO AT THE BIG PICTURE, an extraordinary photo retrospective of the International Space Station's first 10 years.

AN INCREDIBLE PHOTO from Mumbai. More at The Big Picture (note: some of the images are quite graphic, although you can select not to display them).

EVERY YEAR SINCE 1961, on the day before Thanksgiving the Wall Street Journal has published two pieces on its opinion page: The Desolate Wilderness, And The Fair Land. Since 1995 or so it's been a tradition of mine to read both, and take them as cause for reflection on our grand harvest and the courage that forging into uncharted lands, personal or professional, literal or metaphorical, requires.

This year, the sentiment of these pieces seems particularly apropos. Who would not, in reading this passage from Morton's diary, think of our world at this place in time?

Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men? and what multitudes of them there were, they then knew not: for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward object; for summer being ended, all things stand in appearance with a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hew.

A wild and savage hew indeed.

But this is why in 1961 the editors of the Journal saw fit to publish the companion it Morton's entry. It reminds us:

But we can all remind ourselves that the richness of this country was not born in the resources of the earth, though they be plentiful, but in the men that took its measure. For that reminder is everywhere -- in the cities, towns, farms, roads, factories, homes, hospitals, schools that spread everywhere over that wilderness.

We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth.

So it remains, and so this year, I give thanks for the idea that is America, and remain an optimist about what my country might be.

In the event you don't wish to follow the links above, I post both below, and happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

******************

The Desolate Wilderness

Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford, sometime governor thereof:

So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits.

When they came to Delfs-Haven they found the ship and all things ready, and such of their friends as could not come with them followed after them, and sundry came from Amsterdam to see them shipt, and to take their leaves of them. One night was spent with little sleep with the most, but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse, and other real expressions of true Christian love.

The next day they went on board, and their friends with them, where truly doleful was the sight of that sad and mournful parting, to hear what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound amongst them; what tears did gush from every eye, and pithy speeches pierced each other's heart, that sundry of the Dutch strangers that stood on the Key as spectators could not refrain from tears. But the tide (which stays for no man) calling them away, that were thus loath to depart, their Reverend Pastor, falling down on his knees, and they all with him, with watery cheeks commended them with the most fervent prayers unto the Lord and His blessing; and then with mutual embraces and many tears they took their leaves one of another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them.

Being now passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before them in expectations, they had now no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain or refresh them, no houses, or much less towns, to repair unto to seek for succour; and for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search unknown coasts.

Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men? and what multitudes of them there were, they then knew not: for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward object; for summer being ended, all things stand in appearance with a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hew.

If they looked behind them, there was a mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar or gulph to separate them from all the civil parts of the world.

And the Fair Land

Any one whose labors take him into the far reaches of the country, as ours lately have done, is bound to mark how the years have made the land grow fruitful.

This is indeed a big country, a rich country, in a way no array of figures can measure and so in a way past belief of those who have not seen it. Even those who journey through its Northeastern complex, into the Southern lands, across the central plains and to its Western slopes can only glimpse a measure of the bounty of America.

And a traveler cannot but be struck on his journey by the thought that this country, one day, can be even greater. America, though many know it not, is one of the great underdeveloped countries of the world; what it reaches for exceeds by far what it has grasped.

So the visitor returns thankful for much of what he has seen, and, in spite of everything, an optimist about what his country might be. Yet the visitor, if he is to make an honest report, must also note the air of unease that hangs everywhere.

For the traveler, as travelers have been always, is as much questioned as questioning. And for all the abundance he sees, he finds the questions put to him ask where men may repair for succor from the troubles that beset them.

His countrymen cannot forget the savage face of war. Too often they have been asked to fight in strange and distant places, for no clear purpose they could see and for no accomplishment they can measure. Their spirits are not quieted by the thought that the good and pleasant bounty that surrounds them can be destroyed in an instant by a single bomb. Yet they find no escape, for their survival and comfort now depend on unpredictable strangers in far-off corners of the globe.

How can they turn from melancholy when at home they see young arrayed against old, black against white, neighbor against neighbor, so that they stand in peril of social discord. Or not despair when they see that the cities and countryside are in need of repair, yet find themselves threatened by scarcities of the resources that sustain their way of life. Or when, in the face of these challenges, they turn for leadership to men in high places -- only to find those men as frail as any others.

So sometimes the traveler is asked whence will come their succor. What is to preserve their abundance, or even their civility? How can they pass on to their children a nation as strong and free as the one they inherited from their forefathers? How is their country to endure these cruel storms that beset it from without and from within?

Of course the stranger cannot quiet their spirits. For it is true that everywhere men turn their eyes today much of the world has a truly wild and savage hue. No man, if he be truthful, can say that the specter of war is banished. Nor can he say that when men or communities are put upon their own resources they are sure of solace; nor be sure that men of diverse kinds and diverse views can live peaceably together in a time of troubles.

But we can all remind ourselves that the richness of this country was not born in the resources of the earth, though they be plentiful, but in the men that took its measure. For that reminder is everywhere -- in the cities, towns, farms, roads, factories, homes, hospitals, schools that spread everywhere over that wilderness.

We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth.

And we might remind ourselves also, that if those men setting out from Delftshaven had been daunted by the troubles they saw around them, then we could not this autumn be thankful for a fair land.

THIS SUMMER I picked up an Amazon Kindle, which is a bit of crow-eating given some of my first impressions, which I can best characterize as stodgy and dogmatic ("Oh please. Who would ever want to read an e-book, let alone do it on something that looks like that?") Well, I've been using it for about six months now, and I'm pleased to say that I enjoy my Kindle very much. The things I enjoy most ...

It's like reading a book. The screen has almost no glare, and often I forget that it's not a printed page I'm reading.

Many, many things to read on hand. The Kindle can handle literally hundreds of books, newspapers, and articles in its standard memory. I like to read five or six books at a time, and now they're always available.

Portability. It's small and light. Important given how much I travel.

Battery life. With the cell network on, it lasts a day or two. With it off, I can go weeks between charges. So I only turn on the cell network when I need to.

The Amazon store. It's always there, and most of the books I've wanted to buy have been available. Time to turn on the cell network, search for a book, buy and download it: maybe two minutes. The download itself takes about 20-30 seconds.

Wikipedia and dictionary lookup. Select any line in your book and you can instantly search the dictionary for definitions of all words in that line. If the cell network is on, you can do the same in Wikipedia. I've repeatedly used this option to follow a thread of info from something in a book into an entirely unexpected line of learning.

Easy highlighting and notation. One of the things I do constantly with physical books is notate them as I read, both with asides to myself and by marking lines I really love. Both are easy to do with the Kindle, and you can access those notations and highlights just by connecting the Kindle to your computer.

Cheap books. I'm not one to stick with a book that's not doing it for me, and I always feel a bit guilty when I pay for a new hardcover business book that loses my interest after the first few chapters. On the Kindle the books are typically between $2 and $10. If I don't get into a book, no worries. That said, I love having a physical library, and think of ours as an endowment to James. So when I do read a book on Kindle that I really like, I buy the physical book so I can add it to our collection.

What I don't like about the Kindle ...

Actually, there's hardly anything I don't like. While it's very appealing to think that you have a relatively high-speed and free connection to the Internet always on-hand with the Kindle (and you do), the fact is that the Kindle's browser is sufficiently clunky that I hardly ever use it. It's nice to know it's there in a pinch, though. The cover Amazon gives you didn't really turn me on, either, but I picked one up from a third party provider (M-edge) that is, frankly, sumptuous, and I like it very much.

In summary, the big insight that I've gotten through the Kindle, and that overcame my initial stodginess, was that the experience I love about reading books is the act of reading, not the act of turning pages. With the Kindle you can read with ease, and I've not once felt I've missed the sense of "curling up" with a book. It's not the container, it's the words. And the Kindle has the same words as the physical book. Word is that Amazon is coming out with version 2 of the Kindle any time now. If you've thought about getting one, I'd wait. And then I'd buy it. It's a great tool for anybody who loves to read.

I POSTED ON TWITTER that I'm currently reading John Medina's Brain Rules. Here's an hour-long talk he gave at Google, courtesy Google's YouTube channel.

Go Utah.

I TOOK A BREAK from blogging--about five months. The itch is back, though, so look for more in this space. I'm also again posting shorter entries via the Seat1A Twitter feed, which you may follow here.

THIS IS THE BEST thing on the Internets I've seen today: the new Where the Hell is Matt? video (via PZ). Great design, presentation, and I love the concept. A great reminder to extract something special from each place I visit. Enjoy.

DAVE WINER'S LATEST PROJECT is dangerous stuff for political news junkies. Available in web, RSS, Twitter, and FriendFeed.

FOLKS WHO SPEND TIME with me know I follow politics much like I follow the Phillies: With a combination of daily interest, fondness, and loathing. A favorite pastime of mine is making political predictions far in advance and seeing what the future proves and disproves (past proven predictions: A Kerry / Edwards ticket, predicted just after the 2004 NH primary, Obama winning the Dem. nominiation, predicted in December '07; a past disproven prediction: Gore as the 2008 Dem. nominee).

As a result I'm sometimes asked (or goaded) for predictions, and today I was asked / goaded into taking a position on Obama's VP selection. Here is the text of my email reply:

In terms of VP, a lot of people are saying Jim Webb, but I think a two-Senator ticket hurts him. Same issue for Biden. Others are saying Wes Clark. Would be a good move for Wes (even though he's physically grafted to the side of the Clintons), as he still wants to be President one day, but having a guy who has never held elected office on the ticket hurts Obama.

I think it has to be a Governor or a former VP. There are no former VPs who would help the ticket save Al Gore, and he's not going there again. So who are the Dem Governors that would help?

- Jennifer Granholm, Michigan (and a woman to boot)
- Bill Richardson (another prediction from the past)
- Ted Strickland, Ohio
- Ed Rendell, PA (too close to the Clintons, and I think he has no desire)

None of those folks. Expect Mark Warner, former Governor of VA and 2008 Senate aspirant. Centrist, popular, a southerner, and a history of creating useful, effective government in Virginia.

The dark horse, holy *&$%, can't believe he did that and he'll absolutely win the whole thing for the record books candidate: Colin Powell. It'll never happen, but I wish it would …

What Sabato has to say about it:  Jim Webb. He's wrong on this one. http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/article.php?id=GMP2008050801

Oh, and McCain is going to pick Romney. My prediction last year was Romney / McCain for the Republicans; I think I'll end up with the right names but the wrong order ...

LARRY SABATO:

Three indicators of the national political climate have accurately predicted the outcomes of presidential elections since the end of World War II: the incumbent president's approval rating at mid-year, the growth rate of the economy during the second quarter of the election year, and the length of time the president's party has held the White House ...

* snip *

In theory, the Electoral Barometer can range from -100 or lower to +100 or higher with a reading of zero indicating a neutral political climate. In practice, Electoral Barometer readings for the fifteen presidential elections since the end of World War II have ranged from -66 in 1980 to +82 in 1964. A positive Electoral Barometer reading generally predicts victory for the incumbent party while a negative reading generally predicts defeat.

I'll save you the suspense of following the link (although the full article is well worth reading): The current Electoral Barometer reading is -63.

The Electoral Barometer has predicted the winner of the popular vote in 14 of the 15 presidential elections since World War II ... An Electoral Barometer reading of -63 would predict a decisive defeat for the Republican presidential candidate. The only election since World War II with a score in this range was 1980. In that election Jimmy Carter suffered the worst defeat for an incumbent president since Herbert Hoover in 1932 ... If John McCain manages to overcome the triple whammy of an unpopular president, a weak economy, and a second term election, it will be an upset of unprecedented magnitude.

TradeSports currently has McCain futures trading at 36. I'll be shorting them.

I TOOK THIS in April as James was getting ready for his bath. Cute kid, no?

I'VE STARTED TO USE TWITTER. I plan to use it for microblogging -- the brief, remaindered links that I have usually stored up and then posted in bulk, leaving Seat1A for longer items. I've updated my blog template to include the five seven most recent posts to my Twitter feed, and if you'd like to follow my feed you may do so here.

While Twitter is a recent Web 2.0 rage, the user community is still comparatively small. Still, usage has increased dramatically of late, and I'm starting to notice more of the geeks in my circle using Twitter. One of these is Michael Hyatt, who is not a personal acquaintance but someone whose blog I follow. He recently posted a Twitter 101, which follows two other posts on the topic. The Wikipedia article on Twitter also is a nice primer.

Frankly, I just love the ability to post via a text message from my phone. I so often see random things on the road and think, "That's a great Seat 1A post." Now I can fire it off with a simple text. The 140 character limit is also a nice creative constraint, forcing a sort of blog haiku form.

KATE AND I HAVE BEEN READING the NY Times Magazine Green Issue from several weeks back, and it's prompted us to make another wave of changes in our habits (the first wave came after we watched An Inconvenient Truth: CF lightbulbs, insulated water heater, and wind energy from our utility). What we're doing:

• A set of changes as part of the renovation we're doing to our house this summer: New energy-efficient windows, furnace, and water heater. During the demolition we've also learned our home was not insulated (!) other than by its siding, so we'll be adding fill insulation throughout.
• Buying groceries that are as close to local, organic, and seasonal as possible, with a preference on seasonal.
• To help with that, joining a local produce CSA.
• Using cloth bags at the grocery.
• Buying products with the least possible packaging.
• Leaving off the furnace and aircon as much as possible (helped greatly now that, due to the construction on our home, we have no aircon!).
• Line-drying much of our laundry.
• Leaving the lights off as much as possible.
• Using cruise control in the car as much as possible, and leaving the current MGP monitors on so we can better judge our consumption.

There are other changes we hope to make soon: Walking to any destination within a mile's distance is one. I've also been toying with getting a bike or scooter (90 mpg!) for local trips. Next summer we'll be planting a large garden in the yard, and will begin composting as much of our garbage as possible (probably now) in anticipation of the garden (with one of these).

The real problem is air travel, and my personal carbon footprint is enormous as a result (over 50,000 lbs of C02). I'm not certain how I'm going to crack that, save via carbon offsets. But there has to be a way ...

WHAT A GREAT FIND: Goolge has created a YouTube channel for their "@Google" series of in-house lectures and presentations. There are 341 online as of this moment. Many authors, policy wonks, and nearly every 2008 presidential candidate (go here for Obama, Clinton, and McCain). I'll be watching Michael Pollan.

AND THEN THERE'S THIS.

IF YOU MISSED THE DERBY OR THE PREAKNESS, (I missed the Preakness), here are Big Brown's performances in each. Perhaps this is the year? If so, we'll call him Triple Crown Brown.

The Derby

The Preakness

IS URBAN VIOLENCE VIRAL? It might be according to experts cited in this New York Times magazine article. The essence:

CeaseFire’s founder, Gary Slutkin, is an epidemiologist and a physician who for 10 years battled infectious diseases in Africa. He says that violence directly mimics infections like tuberculosis and AIDS, and so, he suggests, the treatment ought to mimic the regimen applied to these diseases: go after the most infected, and stop the infection at its source. “For violence, we’re trying to interrupt the next event, the next transmission, the next violent activity,” Slutkin told me recently. “And the violent activity predicts the next violent activity like H.I.V. predicts the next H.I.V. and TB predicts the next TB.” Slutkin wants to shift how we think about violence from a moral issue (good and bad people) to a public health one (healthful and unhealthful behavior).

It seems plausible, and interestingly, very similar to our approach to stakeholder management at the office--except in that case, we're trying to foster the spread of behavior rather than hinder it.

Either way, the central issue is network effects, and in particular, the role of hyper-connected actors within the network. Think of it this way: If someone catches the cold, but only interacts with a few other people, the rate of transmission is likely to be low. If on the other hand the ill person shakes 100 hands a day, well, a lot of people are probably going to get sick. Substitute the willingness to enact violence, or support for your company's SAP implementation, for the common cold, and it's clear that not everyone in the network is equal in the effects they exert on the whole. It's all about dealing with the critical few.

For the seminal academic piece read Rogers; for the seminal popular piece read Gladwell (the book or the original article).

BEHOLD! A DUSTY ARTIFACT from the land before time! (via Kottke)

"DEHS HUNDREDS A PEOPLE frozen ever'whe ... id's wild!"

ONE OF THE GREAT but for most people unknown pieces of American Presidential rhetoric is Ike's "Farewell Address." It seems an awfully opportune time to revisit it, and you can read and listen to the text here (and yes, that's where the term "military-industrial complex" was coined).

SOME NEW PHOTOS at TAGD, including this shot of M42 / Orion Nebula from a week ago (which has a slight camera bump, but is a starting point as I learn to shoot deep sky objects).

 

"EAT FOOD. NOT TOO MUCH. MOSTLY PLANTS." Folks who have seen me speak know that I often invoke these lines, written by Micheal Pollan, as an example of a "sticky message": A message that quickly summarizes a complex topic in a memorable way. I first read that message in the opening to Pollan's NY Times Magazine article about food, and he's recently posted a manifesto about the same topic at ChangeThis. Very worth reading, and you may do so here.

Also, I've recently finished Pollan's The Omnivore's Dillema. Also very much worth reading, and if you do, you will likely make lasting changes in your eating and purchasing habits.

Finally, Pollan has a site on the Web here.

THE REASON I'm getting up in the morning:

THIS YEAR, you can put a Hillbilly in the Whitehouse!

WITNESS ENTREPRENEURIAL GENIUS, and a bit of history, too.

MELT YOUR HEART.