I've received some very nice comments about what I've done here in Knews Not News, and it has taught me the value of this kind of writing. I wish I had the time to do it justice. There certainly is a market for this. But...
The options for continuing this blog are clear: rearrange my schedule to permit continuation, redesign on a different platform, more content, steady updating, guest posting, create a destination. All excellent suggestions and very appreciated. But I unfortunately don't have that last critical element that is required for this blog: hours 25 and 26 packed into a regular 24 hour day.
I will be taking those suggestions, just not for this vehicle. My other blog, Turning Springs, will utilize most of the suggestions I've received about this blog in the coming year. And I'll continue to highlight some of the weirdness I encounter in my journey through life in a section of the Turning Springs updates called The Wind-Up. So it's not all the way gone.
But, as Yogi Berra said,"It ain't over till it's over." And Knews Not News is. Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Is This Working for You?
At the beginning of the year, one of the things I promised myself was to review Knews Not News to determine whether it was worth it to the readers to keep it going.
So do me a favor: review some of the past posts and let me know if the snarkfest is working for you. Bad or good, let me know in the comments for this post, but let me know soon. I'll make the decision February 15th whether to adios this blog and save us all some time or keep pointing and scoffing.
Thanks!
So do me a favor: review some of the past posts and let me know if the snarkfest is working for you. Bad or good, let me know in the comments for this post, but let me know soon. I'll make the decision February 15th whether to adios this blog and save us all some time or keep pointing and scoffing.
Thanks!
Monday, November 14, 2011
We Knew We Weren't Alone
We here at Knews Not News were raised on certain rules in our formative years. One of those rules was that honesty isn't just the best policy but the only policy in the majority of situations we would encounter in life. If you're embarrassed or could be charged by a truthful account of your behavior, you're doing it wrong, whatever it is. And it needs to be fixed. ASAP.
Such a desire for decent behavior is a frequent motivator for many of our previous posts. We know, much more money can be made acting like jerks, but it's our lance and we can point it where we want, thank you. So we ride off again. But on this issue we are not alone.
Al Lewis of the Wall Street Journal asks the question The Truth, Your Honor? in his column for November 13. It's a question we have long demanded an answer to: how do we stop any crime from happening over and over again if 1) there is no open and personally identified recognition of guilt and 2) the penalties/remedies provided are easily reached?
It's a question we've often wondered while driving. Someone who can afford an SUV roughly the size of a dump truck can afford a triple-digit speeding ticket much more easily than someone who makes considerably less money. A setback like that can be met with a shrug instead of the questions "how am I going to make the rent?" or "what am I going to feed my children?" It's an uneven burden, but we know the poor aren't going to get a pass from anything because they're poor. No lobbyists, you know. And we get that. But the wrong-doer in traffic violations can at least be identified.
But not, as Mr. Lewis explains in the column linked above, if your crime is part of the 2008 ham-stringing of the United States economy.
But they should be identified. Someone, at some early point in this financial disaster, said, "Yes, let's do this" or "Okay, go ahead." Someone did. And it wasn't some communally designated flunky who can't even take their lunch without permission from a higher-up. It was someone with a big office and a big paycheck and enough authority to set a plan in motion that earned millions of dollars for the company and wrecked the US economy and millions of lives in the process. Someone took credit for this. Someone got the big bonus for the increase in the bottom line. And someone is protecting them, even while the US economy continues to founder. We, including Mr. Lewis, we imagine, would like to know those names. So we ask again, because no one in business or government will tell us.
Please.
Such a desire for decent behavior is a frequent motivator for many of our previous posts. We know, much more money can be made acting like jerks, but it's our lance and we can point it where we want, thank you. So we ride off again. But on this issue we are not alone.
Al Lewis of the Wall Street Journal asks the question The Truth, Your Honor? in his column for November 13. It's a question we have long demanded an answer to: how do we stop any crime from happening over and over again if 1) there is no open and personally identified recognition of guilt and 2) the penalties/remedies provided are easily reached?
It's a question we've often wondered while driving. Someone who can afford an SUV roughly the size of a dump truck can afford a triple-digit speeding ticket much more easily than someone who makes considerably less money. A setback like that can be met with a shrug instead of the questions "how am I going to make the rent?" or "what am I going to feed my children?" It's an uneven burden, but we know the poor aren't going to get a pass from anything because they're poor. No lobbyists, you know. And we get that. But the wrong-doer in traffic violations can at least be identified.
But not, as Mr. Lewis explains in the column linked above, if your crime is part of the 2008 ham-stringing of the United States economy.
But they should be identified. Someone, at some early point in this financial disaster, said, "Yes, let's do this" or "Okay, go ahead." Someone did. And it wasn't some communally designated flunky who can't even take their lunch without permission from a higher-up. It was someone with a big office and a big paycheck and enough authority to set a plan in motion that earned millions of dollars for the company and wrecked the US economy and millions of lives in the process. Someone took credit for this. Someone got the big bonus for the increase in the bottom line. And someone is protecting them, even while the US economy continues to founder. We, including Mr. Lewis, we imagine, would like to know those names. So we ask again, because no one in business or government will tell us.
Please.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Are You Listening, Boat Anchor Manufacturers?
Check out this Des Moines Register article about how boat engines are being destroyed by using E15 gasoline in them (E15 is gasoline with 15% ethanol instead of the usual 10%).
So, let us get this straight...the government wants to offer a fuel that can't be put in small engines or any vehicle manufactured before 2001? In order to placate the oil companies and the farmers? Really? How would this make sense to anyone but Congress (whose approval rating dropped to 9% last week because of stunts just like this)?
But, on the bright side, you could use your wrecked boat or car motor as an anchor. Until the boat anchor industry wises up and starts chuckin' some cash around DC...
So, let us get this straight...the government wants to offer a fuel that can't be put in small engines or any vehicle manufactured before 2001? In order to placate the oil companies and the farmers? Really? How would this make sense to anyone but Congress (whose approval rating dropped to 9% last week because of stunts just like this)?
But, on the bright side, you could use your wrecked boat or car motor as an anchor. Until the boat anchor industry wises up and starts chuckin' some cash around DC...
Monday, October 31, 2011
A Few Kind Words about Kindness
We tend to be a snarky bunch here at KNN. We see a lot of bad news about a lot of if-not-bad-then-silly,-thoughtless,-or-avaricious people. And it wears on us. Frankly, all that grinding can cause sharp edges on anyone's psyche (and teeth).
Still, all too infrequently, we do find ourselves treated to our favorite part of human nature: kindness. A church in our region went out into the community on October 30th offering to do, well, whatever needed doing. It sounded like it was too good to be true and, shrugging, we assumed it was.
We were completely and pleasantly wrong. Those, like us, who availed themselves of the service found themselves treated to a crowd of people ranging in age from the very young to people of retirement age, doing whatever needed to be done, from lawn work to minor plumbing. For us, it was days worth of work done in just a few hours. They asked for no payment or any sort of recompense. It was amazing.
But the thing that rendered us speechless was the response from young and old when we tried to thank them for all their hard work. To a person, they thanked us for the opportunity to serve. Every one.
As referred to above, we are a snarky bunch here, but we are not so far gone that kindness and extraordinary effort of that sort fails to effect us. We dare not give the name of the church no matter how rightly they deserve their acknowledgement; kindness is the sort of thing that gets abused easily, and the people who practice it don't always count the costs they should, because it isn't in their nature to do so.
To be sure, though, there was one overwhelmed couple who so very appreciated what was done for us that it's hard to express. So we close with this: thank you, and through your generosity, we are reminded that the true benefit of kindness is not what was done for you, but that you will take up the practice of it elsewhere. And we will.
Still, all too infrequently, we do find ourselves treated to our favorite part of human nature: kindness. A church in our region went out into the community on October 30th offering to do, well, whatever needed doing. It sounded like it was too good to be true and, shrugging, we assumed it was.
We were completely and pleasantly wrong. Those, like us, who availed themselves of the service found themselves treated to a crowd of people ranging in age from the very young to people of retirement age, doing whatever needed to be done, from lawn work to minor plumbing. For us, it was days worth of work done in just a few hours. They asked for no payment or any sort of recompense. It was amazing.
But the thing that rendered us speechless was the response from young and old when we tried to thank them for all their hard work. To a person, they thanked us for the opportunity to serve. Every one.
As referred to above, we are a snarky bunch here, but we are not so far gone that kindness and extraordinary effort of that sort fails to effect us. We dare not give the name of the church no matter how rightly they deserve their acknowledgement; kindness is the sort of thing that gets abused easily, and the people who practice it don't always count the costs they should, because it isn't in their nature to do so.
To be sure, though, there was one overwhelmed couple who so very appreciated what was done for us that it's hard to express. So we close with this: thank you, and through your generosity, we are reminded that the true benefit of kindness is not what was done for you, but that you will take up the practice of it elsewhere. And we will.
Monday, October 24, 2011
What We Kept From the Last Three Months With No Posts
Good grief! Will someone please grasp this year, as it is behaving like a two-year-old on a caffeine and sugar fueled tantrum, hold the blasted thing down, and staple it to the floor? We much prefer our years to be gentler and quieter and we won't stand for this any more. How can anyone hear us complain over all this ruckus?
So, some short posts so that we may clear our mental palates and physical notebooks:
Why didn't Wile E. Coyote just go buy a hot dog?
Many newspapers reported in July that the wealth gap was widening due to the recession. Excuse me, Fourth Estate? If ever there was an example of knews, this is it.
Justice without her blindfold is greed.
The IBM Selectric typewriter turned 50 in late July. Who cares, you ask? Why, we do, of course. We miss the one we used to use. There was something reassuringly mechanical about striking the keys, not like the anemic tap of a computer keyboard. Although you can buy a keyboard with that sound to it, it's not the same, and we miss it. Its example reminds us that it was a machine, designed to do a thing, and that was all it meant. It was not a status symbol or a means of ignoring our fellow human beings or a success marker. It was a tool that meant less than the work done with it and rightly so.
(And, while we're at it, we understand completely that the iPod changed the world of entertainment. We also understand that it allows us to be served exclusively by our own desired music and video. Did we really need a device that allows us to communicate less, and thereby know each other less? Did we really need help with that?)
Being blind does not keep justice from also being vain. (Evidently justice was on our minds a bit the past three months.)
When prayer is the final realistic hope, society has failed.
Overheard at our day job: when we run away from danger, we protect our internal organs. Yes. Quite.
Finally, read this article about Ford workers essentially becoming migrant workers. Now, go get your copy of "The Grapes of Wrath" and re-read it.
We'll be back on schedule soon. Thanks for reading!
So, some short posts so that we may clear our mental palates and physical notebooks:
Why didn't Wile E. Coyote just go buy a hot dog?
Many newspapers reported in July that the wealth gap was widening due to the recession. Excuse me, Fourth Estate? If ever there was an example of knews, this is it.
Justice without her blindfold is greed.
The IBM Selectric typewriter turned 50 in late July. Who cares, you ask? Why, we do, of course. We miss the one we used to use. There was something reassuringly mechanical about striking the keys, not like the anemic tap of a computer keyboard. Although you can buy a keyboard with that sound to it, it's not the same, and we miss it. Its example reminds us that it was a machine, designed to do a thing, and that was all it meant. It was not a status symbol or a means of ignoring our fellow human beings or a success marker. It was a tool that meant less than the work done with it and rightly so.
(And, while we're at it, we understand completely that the iPod changed the world of entertainment. We also understand that it allows us to be served exclusively by our own desired music and video. Did we really need a device that allows us to communicate less, and thereby know each other less? Did we really need help with that?)
Being blind does not keep justice from also being vain. (Evidently justice was on our minds a bit the past three months.)
When prayer is the final realistic hope, society has failed.
Overheard at our day job: when we run away from danger, we protect our internal organs. Yes. Quite.
Finally, read this article about Ford workers essentially becoming migrant workers. Now, go get your copy of "The Grapes of Wrath" and re-read it.
We'll be back on schedule soon. Thanks for reading!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
A Judge Judged
For those of you who've been following the Judge Mark Ciavarella case in Pennsylvania, there's been an entirely appropriate development. Find it here.
He's the judge who was sentencing young men (sometimes without justifiable cause) to serve time at a local for-profit detention center in exchange for a kickback from the center's owners. Though this won't make up for the suicides and wreckage made of these young mens' lives, it's more than the salutatory slap on the wrist KNN usually sees.
Now, if someone would just take a similar stance on the 2008 Economic Collapse....
He's the judge who was sentencing young men (sometimes without justifiable cause) to serve time at a local for-profit detention center in exchange for a kickback from the center's owners. Though this won't make up for the suicides and wreckage made of these young mens' lives, it's more than the salutatory slap on the wrist KNN usually sees.
Now, if someone would just take a similar stance on the 2008 Economic Collapse....
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
The Complexity of Simplicity
KNN grew up on a steady diet of The Brady Bunch. First-runs and re-runs both. There. It's out.
In our defense, it was harmless enough. Except for the eye-searing wardrobe. And Alice. Never got Alice. And the singing jumped the shark long before Happy Days. Hey, it was the 70's. Silly was the norm.
But, as it turned out, we had better taste than we thought, as described in this article from the Boston Globe. Even when their lives were at their most mundane, it just flat out mattered what was going on. Mattered to us.
Why? That's where the complexity comes in. You have to have a sound story, as lived by sympathetic characters, who say and do things that are in keeping with both the point of the story and the revealed traits of those characters. Stakes with personally high investment from the focus character. A few yuks to make the medicine go down well. Complementary subplots that reveal other points of view or considerations, but come together with the main line of storytelling. A beginning. A middle. An end. A surprise or two. A point. And here's the greatest complexity of all: it's not life, but everyone expects it to be just like it, whether you're talking about hobbits or rabbits or revolutionaries. Or a blended family.
"That's the way they became the Brady Bunch." (We hear the music, don't you?)
In our defense, it was harmless enough. Except for the eye-searing wardrobe. And Alice. Never got Alice. And the singing jumped the shark long before Happy Days. Hey, it was the 70's. Silly was the norm.
But, as it turned out, we had better taste than we thought, as described in this article from the Boston Globe. Even when their lives were at their most mundane, it just flat out mattered what was going on. Mattered to us.
Why? That's where the complexity comes in. You have to have a sound story, as lived by sympathetic characters, who say and do things that are in keeping with both the point of the story and the revealed traits of those characters. Stakes with personally high investment from the focus character. A few yuks to make the medicine go down well. Complementary subplots that reveal other points of view or considerations, but come together with the main line of storytelling. A beginning. A middle. An end. A surprise or two. A point. And here's the greatest complexity of all: it's not life, but everyone expects it to be just like it, whether you're talking about hobbits or rabbits or revolutionaries. Or a blended family.
"That's the way they became the Brady Bunch." (We hear the music, don't you?)
Monday, July 18, 2011
About E-Publishing
KNN has run across a couple of interesting articles about the e-book phenomenon. People in very high-profile sources are talking about electronic publishing, but we aren't sure they're thinking about it very much.
Amanda Katz's piece in The Boston Globe from July 17 is fascinating in many ways. The thing that concerns us is that the structure of the piece seems to feature an implied or expected conflict between electronic and printed material. Why is that necessary? Does it have to be all or nothing? A no-holds barred cage match? Can't we have both?
Likewise, the piece in the New York Times on July 15 about how the structure of a non-traditional summer class introduction to the publishing industry is changing because of e-books is interesting as well. The focus is the course, but KNN has a concern. It's the blase nature of the business concern for the publishers that e-books create. Of course, they're not going to come out on stage in front of a bunch of students and yell the business equivalent of "FIRE!!" But no one quoted in the article wanted to make any sort of pronouncement about the future effect of e-books on their business. Or what their businesses plan to do about it.
It seems to be too soon to do much open thinking about this phenomenon, at least for publishers. The sense we've gotten is that the publishing industry just wants e-books to go away and they are ready for them to do that. But the Katz article shows that people are using e-books in a variety of ways, from sampling a book that they'll later want to buy a paper copy of because of ownership issues, to full replacement of paper works. Businesses of all stripes will need to get comfy with e-books or they'll inadvertently provide their competition with a technology gap that can be exploited for little or no hard investment.
KNN would like to state for the record: electronic books will not completely replace paper books. Nope. Not ever. Bank on it. But the time is now to prepare for the loss of market share that publishers will face as a result. It's coming. E-books are too convenient and too adaptable to individual choices to just go away. The market won't stand for it.
Amanda Katz's piece in The Boston Globe from July 17 is fascinating in many ways. The thing that concerns us is that the structure of the piece seems to feature an implied or expected conflict between electronic and printed material. Why is that necessary? Does it have to be all or nothing? A no-holds barred cage match? Can't we have both?
Likewise, the piece in the New York Times on July 15 about how the structure of a non-traditional summer class introduction to the publishing industry is changing because of e-books is interesting as well. The focus is the course, but KNN has a concern. It's the blase nature of the business concern for the publishers that e-books create. Of course, they're not going to come out on stage in front of a bunch of students and yell the business equivalent of "FIRE!!" But no one quoted in the article wanted to make any sort of pronouncement about the future effect of e-books on their business. Or what their businesses plan to do about it.
It seems to be too soon to do much open thinking about this phenomenon, at least for publishers. The sense we've gotten is that the publishing industry just wants e-books to go away and they are ready for them to do that. But the Katz article shows that people are using e-books in a variety of ways, from sampling a book that they'll later want to buy a paper copy of because of ownership issues, to full replacement of paper works. Businesses of all stripes will need to get comfy with e-books or they'll inadvertently provide their competition with a technology gap that can be exploited for little or no hard investment.
KNN would like to state for the record: electronic books will not completely replace paper books. Nope. Not ever. Bank on it. But the time is now to prepare for the loss of market share that publishers will face as a result. It's coming. E-books are too convenient and too adaptable to individual choices to just go away. The market won't stand for it.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Evolutionary Biologists Should See Someone About That
From BBC: Worms' Sex Life Yields Advantage Over Parasites
Our favorite quote from this story is "Sex has long troubled evolutionary biologists." KNN subscribes to the following corporate policy about such matters: live and let live, but spare us the details.
Subscribes. Really. We can show you the receipts. Money reeeeeally well spent.
Our favorite quote from this story is "Sex has long troubled evolutionary biologists." KNN subscribes to the following corporate policy about such matters: live and let live, but spare us the details.
Subscribes. Really. We can show you the receipts. Money reeeeeally well spent.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
The New Export: The New Boss, Same as the Old Boss
From NPR: Transcript
When taking up the mantle of business, even if it's for the US government, it isn't necessary to treat your employees like they're nothing. Human trafficking, sexual abuse, ridiculous working conditions...KNN asks why there isn't some sort of law that obligates US companies to follow the basic tenets of US law when operating overseas? Surely it can't hurt the bottom line that much to be civil to people. It's bad enough that we have to be greedy; do we have to be feudal?
When taking up the mantle of business, even if it's for the US government, it isn't necessary to treat your employees like they're nothing. Human trafficking, sexual abuse, ridiculous working conditions...KNN asks why there isn't some sort of law that obligates US companies to follow the basic tenets of US law when operating overseas? Surely it can't hurt the bottom line that much to be civil to people. It's bad enough that we have to be greedy; do we have to be feudal?
That paid how much?
Every organization, no matter its purpose, or success at that purpose, is susceptible to the metaphorical thirty pieces of silver. It isn't about the amount or the metal: it's about placing personal concerns over the necessities for success of the organization. That's true from the leader to the lowest foot soldier, which is why true leadership, both from the top and bottom of an organization, is so rare. It takes patience and mentoring and discipline and forethought to gain success and security for an entire organization, qualities sadly unfamiliar in the business world today. When a change in heading toward personal concerns is complete, there is no going back, because pure self-interest has been allowed a seat at the table. And it never yields the floor when it speaks and it only speaks to its own agenda. And it will never settle for less. Kinda sounds like the Terminator, doesn't it?
Monday, May 23, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
I've uploaded a copy of cover for Turning Springs as a .pdf file to my Public Access file. Check it out at http://ping.fm/ZC9uz
Monday, May 9, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Can't find my book on Amazon?
You can download it directly from Smashwords dot com by downloading the .MOBI copy. The CEO of Smashwords said it works.
Monday, May 2, 2011
The new links list and the first entry
Check it out! I've set up a new Public Access file in Google Docs! Just check the side bar!
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