About Edge Foundation, Inc.

About Edge Foundation, Inc.: "America now is the intellectual seedbed for Europe and Asia. This trend started with the prewar emigration of Albert Einstein and other European scientists and was further fueled by the post- Sputnik boom in scientific education in our universities. The emergence of the third culture introduces new modes of intellectual discourse and reaffirms the preeminence of America in the realm of important ideas. Throughout history, intellectual life has been marked by the fact that only a small number of people have done the serious thinking for everybody else. What we are witnessing is a passing of the torch from one group of thinkers, the traditional literary intellectuals, to a new group, the intellectuals of the emerging third culture.

John Brockman
1991

link: Who are the Third Culture Intellectuals?"

Pete's Points:
What I love about comments like this is the sheer arrogance of people in America.

Given their recent history of taking us to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, (ostensibly about terrorism but cynically about OIL!) and thereby sowing the seeds of another set of religious wars by means of that wonderful slip of the tongue by George Bush when he called his adventure a 'crusade', it is interesting that they can claim that "America now is the intellectual seedbed for Europe and Asia."

But I digress - I defy you to look at the link to the "Who are the Third Culture Intellectuals" Do not be surprised when you get a 404 error! I suspected initially that there are none, which is why the page cannot be found!

Then again I can be nice - so I went and hunted did I not? Thanks to the marvels of the internet you can find a URL that DOES work to bring up this list it is http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/who3c.html

Alas the people who provided the first link forgot to include the directory in which they placed their message.

Intellectuals? Perhaps. Attention to fine detail would seem to indicate a different title "careless"!

Now THAT seems to synchronize with the way in which the USA has been going about its dealings with the rest of the world.

The "City Slackers" - Sprung!

Pete's Points:

It is not often that I come across one article that I find fascinating, much less two in a row. However, there has to be an exception to every rule and Steve McKevitt's book, City Slackers, examines the phenomenon of people who never deliver anything but still seem to be successful. So how do they get away with it?

There are two articles in Management Issues which provide some excerpts from this author and they are worth their weight in gold as far as I am concerned.

Try the "Rise of the City Slacker" and "How to spot a City Slacker"

For those of you still in the work force who are working your backsides off trying to make a difference and wondering why it is that so much effort with effective outcomes is usually unsupported and often not valued while the lack of outcomes and far less effort seems to enable others around you to get their promotions without any accountability or seeming effort, these two articles are a revelation.

Just think about some of the people you know and love who "work" (I use the word loosely) around you who fit the descriptions provided. To know your enemy is to be at least a little better off!

Of course for those of you who may be reading this who can now be identified as part of the "City Slacker" crowd - too bad, so sad - let's hope you actually have to do some work for a living, for a change, instead of dining out on the work of others!

An interesting question of loyalty

I wonder how many people watched with interest the article on our SBS channel that concerned the travel of two Australians to Italy to take up their positions in the Italian parliament after the elections there recently?

It seems that electoral reform in Italy now means that people who are both residents and citizens of Australia but were at least born in Italy can now vote in the Italian elections.

Strange to say the least, but interesting considering the results on the larger picture.

Who are Australians of Italian extraction going to support when Australia meets Italy in the next round of the World Cup soccer?

Sine they appear to be citizens of both countries and able to vote in both will it matter? Will their support waver from one country to the other as the scoring changes so as to urge the side that is losing at some point to greater effort? Will the loyalties be so divided that fans cheer anyone on the field and feel good (or bad) regardless of who wins or loses?

I for one want to hear how Australians who are also Italian citizens are handling this situation.

Where will the loyalties lie and why?

The price of shopping

Went to a Coles supermarket today and saw a round of South Australian cheese selling at an extra ordinarily good price per kilo.

Imagine my amazement when the young person serving at the counter took the round of cheese and placed it on the scale where it weighed in at more than the kilo written on the front of the packaging and then charging more than the ticketed price per kilo.

If this is the way that this supermarket chain does business then I think the old cry of "caveat emptor" needs to be learned by all of the shopping public.

Incensed at the attempt to charge more than advertised I asked the young man to call his supervisor who on hearing the story and checking into matters delivered the cheese now rebadged with a new weight that was less than it states on the packet and appropriately re-weighed.

In other words we managed to get the cheese cheaper than the advertised price as it appears that on one scale used in the store it weighed MORE than the stated weight on the packet while on another scale it weighed less than the stated weight.

Has anyone actually checked whether different sets of scales in supermarkets actually do a more or less useful job in giving accurate weight?

If not you can either be lucky or unlucky but you may never get fair weight!

Come on consumers - it's time to make a stand and insist that stores can meet the standards of fair weights otherwise we are being ripped off!

Have you been slaving over a hot new CV?

I have been fascinated by the fact that in recent editions of "The Canberra Times" there are so many jobs available, especially in the Australian Public Service. I read information which details the operation of the current policies that enable people in different government agencies to obtain varying levels of remuneration for doing virtually the same kind of work and at the same level of classification.

This information would suggest that there is a new and interesting internal current of migration among departments and agencies of government as even semi intelligent operators realise that in order to milk the system to its fullest extent, you have to be highly mobile and continually spend (no doubt) hours of your employer's time scanning the newspapers, the Internet, the Gazette and anywhere else you can find information about the jobs that are going so as to maximise your opportunities. This of course does have one drawback.

Those who are even less intelligent than you are (or more dedicated - something that seems to amount to the same thing) are left to do most of the work. These poor fools actually work 10 or 12 hour days as they try to cope with the deluge of work while their 'colleagues" spend their time seeking ways out of their current situation and into one that pays more and offers even more time to plan the next set of steps to ever higher remuneration and conditions.

As a team of people in the APS is required by the pressures of the 'do more with less' philosophy, to work all of its members as fully as possible each working day there is going to be a natural form of attrition that takes place. This will most likely take the form of people who fall ill or are simply unable to cope with the stress. The results of this will of course be people who are unavailable to undertake the work that is urgently required and so force the remaining staff to come up with some solutions that fill the "need" gap.

One immediate solution is of course to hire some temporary or contract staff. These are people who sell their services to the highest bidder. Some of these actually do have skills and experience aplenty. However how can you tell? Another solution is to spend around one annual salary per job vacancy trying to hire someone who is a permanent staff member. Once again you will still have to undertake the recruitment process and use a CV that together with the person's application will enable you as part of a selection panel to select the best candidate or will it?

A recent set of information from the USA "Overload driving resumes to extinction" makes it clear that relying on this form of information is fraught with dangers. As reported by Nic Paton in "Management Issues" it states:

"A study by recruitment firm MRINetwork has found that, despite candidate shortages and the impending retirement of large numbers of baby boomers, the resume is no longer an effective tool for employers seeking to fill critical positions within their companies.

Human resources managers and recruiters are getting more resumes than ever before, but a significant percentage of them, often as high as a third to a half, are never reviewed.

"Like fast food, the resume deluge is fat and bloated," said Kent Burns, a partner at MRINetwork.

"Resumes are generally of poor quality and of declining interest to those interested in a healthier, leaner way of operating," he added.

Candidate awareness of employment opportunities, often through the internet, had led to the marked increase in resume submissions.

Before the job board era, passive candidates did not have easy access to the universe of job openings.

"Now candidates search openings via job boards 24 hours a day, 365 days a years," said Burns.

"With resume submission only a mouse click away, they often apply to multiple positions. It's not uncommon for me to contact candidates who confess to applying to so many job postings that they haven't a clue which one I'm calling about," he complained.

Compounding the problem with job boards was the lack of standardisation, which created a challenge with classification, storage, retrieval and comparability.

Employers have found that having hundreds of disparate resumes and a text search function is only marginally better than having hundreds of paper resumes.

"The lack of meaningful filters creates inconsistency and even chaos– while draining important HR resources," worried Burns.

There was also an inherent risk in relying too heavily on the resume as an indicator of talent and ability.

"Errors, exaggerations and even lies are all part of the resume landscape," said Burns.

"These tactics transfer the burden of validation to the company's interviewing process, and often the inaccuracies go undetected until the new hire is on the job and problems begin to surface," he added."

I have no idea what others can and do read from this information, but I manage to get the following:

• If you want to have a job - now is the time to get one.
  
• Buy a computer, connect to the internet, find all of the locations where jobs are advertised, and set up a search that selects all of the job ads that happen to meet your expectations for work conditions and at the same time match those with whatever claims you have to any experience and/or expertise.
• Get on to web sites that present templates for resumes and fill one in - any one will do. Hang on to this as your base document to which you can cut and paste relevant new information as it becomes available and of course adjust the text minimally to suit the job ad that you are responding to.
• Unlike the idiots that send out so many resumes that they cannot remember who they sent what to - try and ensure that you use the computer to keep a meticulous record of who you sent what to by using either a data base or at least a spreadsheet.
• In a spreadsheet for example, you can list in various columns all of the information about any given job and using hyperlinks actually have a direct link to the resume and the application you have submitted for that particular job. So that when someone calls you about a job you can immediately flick to the relevant line in the spreadsheet and pull up your application and your CV so that both you and the person calling are on the same page.
  
• If you want to do as little as possible for the most pay - now is the time to get a job. With the increasing number of people who seem to flit from job to job there is always an opportunity to find at least one job near your home that meets your basic requirements for the next step up the ladder of success. However do it now as this 'window of opportunity is likely to close as more and more people try and subvert the system and as the resistance to this becomes better coordinated and more discriminating. At present it costs around a year's salary to initiate a job advertisement and undertake the entire selection process for each new employee. This cost is made up not only of the costs of advertising and recruitmentnt, but also in the time taken by existing employees who have to read the dross that comes in the form of applications and resumes and then spend their time making a selection and of course training the new person to fit in to the organisation and actually be able to undertake the work for which he or she has been hired.
  
• If you want to maximise your opportunities - fill in as many resumes as possible and send them to the poor slobs that have the task of reading and vetting them and hope like crazy that you will be among those people whose jottings they have read and whose successful strategy of getting an interview will meet with a group of people who will take a punt on virtually anyone so that they can actually get their job filled and so hopefully reduce the amount of work that is being taken up by the recruitement process.
• If of course you do not succeed with one resume or one application don't fret - there are hundred more jobs out there you are responding to and if you have been following this strategy there are hundreds more of your applications that others are responding to.
  

With the desperation born of necessity those who are seeking employees may actually be desperate enough to select YOU - the chance is just one more application and resume away!

"Bush begins Hungary state visit"

Well at least that was the headline on the BBC news today.

Most people who write English would be appalled by the fact that either the English speakers in the BBC can no longer spell the word "hungry" or have no idea of correct grammatical usage in which case they should have written "Bush begins Hungarian state visit" or as the article more accurately notes a little later:

"US President George W Bush has begun a state visit to Hungary to mark the 50th anniversary of the country's uprising against Soviet occupation."

If this is what comes from the current generation of literary giants that are being allowed to write articles and /or conduct the proof reading at the BBC these days, then woe betide the future when all of those who are the recipients of good old English education pass their exams only to fail their readers and listeners!

Irritable Desk Syndrome

Researchers have come up with a new affliction to add to the list of woes endured by the modern office worker - Irritable Desk Syndrome.

Poor posture, cluttered desks and hours spent working on the computer can damaging the health of office staff, according to research carried out for NEC-Mitsubishi.

The problem is exacerbated by the length of time people spend at their desks - two thirds of those questioned said that they are more tied to their desks now than they were two years ago.

As a result, more than a third of office workers said they suffered from back or neck pain because of sitting at their desk in an awkward position.

One in three also said that they now ate lunch at their desk, a habit which, as we reported last week, brings its own health hazards since the average desk plays host to 400 times more germs than a lavatory seat.

"Extra desk-time coupled with more paper and clutter, poor desk set-up, bad eating habits and fewer breaks is creating a new threat to productive office-life in the form of Irritable Desk Syndrome," the research claimed.

Pete's Points

Published in 2004 it is amazing that nothing really much has been heard about this research or indeed the consequences for both employees and employers resulting from spending even longer hours at work

Amazingly in June 2006 the following was also published by Nic Paton:

Working from home may have become almost a mainstream activity in today's modern workplace but, increasingly, workers are also taking their home into work, according to a new British survey.

For time poor, commute heavy workers the notion of "home-ing from work" is becoming more attractive and commonplace, argued the research by recruitment agency Office Angels.

Lack of time, traffic clogged commuter journeys and hectic workloads are the main reasons why tasks traditionally completed at home are increasingly encroaching on the work environment, it said.

From showering and putting on make-up to paying household bills and sorting out our social life, it seems the office is a home away from home more than ever before.

The poll of 1,600 workers found that nearly three quarters of women hoarded a stash of make-up in their desk drawer, while a third did not hesitate to put it on in front of colleagues.

More than a quarter regularly applied their mascara en route to work – either on the train, tube or even in the driver's seat.

More than six out of 10 women and nearly a third of men keep a mini-wardrobe at work – with formal suits on stand-by for unexpected meetings, and for women, an average of two pairs of shoes kept under the desk.

A total of eight per cent shower in the office before they start the working day, while 22 per cent do a regular "office shop" each week – stocking up on breakfast cereals and sandwich ingredients.

A third only keep in touch with friends during work time, using email to organise their social lives.

A further quarter admit to relying on instant messenger for a daily natter with absent friends or family.

From arranging a haircut, to booking the car in for its MOT, 87 per workers use work-time to sort out personal chores, concluded Office Angels.

Paul Jacobs, Office Angels managing director, said: "People tend to enjoy work more when they're allowed to bring a touch of their personal life into their office space, but it's essential employers get the balance right when it comes to setting ground rules about the encroachment of home into the workplace.

"Too many home comforts can create a 'schizophrenic' office, provoking tension amongst colleagues who prefer a more defined working environment," he added.

This was a point backed up by the research, which highlighted problem areas where employees were getting a little too relaxed.

Nearly seven out of ten workers admitted to having been irritated by a neighbouring colleague's annoying 'home-ing' habits.

These included visiting children or pets in the workplace (18 per cent), loud or embarrassing personal phone conversations (45 per cent), festering gym kits left under desks (16 per cent) and being choked by deodorant or overpowering perfume (9 per cent).

Jacobs said: "While it's important people are comfortable in the office environment, it should never be at the expense of fellow colleagues.

"Like anything, apply a bit of common sense before you start importing the contents of your bathroom to office loo," he added.

Add to this the reality that is John Howard's new set of IR policies and you have a recipe where the Treasurer's injunction to workers to have children - "one for mum, one for dad and one for the country" becomes a recipe for a highly dangerous new life of virtual slavery to the new gods of money and productivity.

How long will people put up with all of this and when will they realise that they are shortening their life? Of course when they do realise what it really means to them what can or will they do about it?

Sometimes I think it is a good thing to be retired and ill. At least these are issues that I will no longer have to confront.

Aussie Victory

I suspect that for most people in Australia there was simply no way in which "Boston Legal" could compete with the first outing by the Australian Socceroos in their match against Japan.

Certainly this was the case here in my home. After the first goal scored by Japan (which I have to say I still think was due to a poor decision by the referee) it was almost painful to watch the Australian team until the last ten minutes of the game. In my case it was actually painful, but for reasons unassociated with the match.

The last 8 minutes were almost literally heart stopping. My partner kept making little cries of surprise and joy as each Australian goal registered. She had once again woken after telling me that she simply had to get some sleep so as to be able to function in the morning. No hope of that I am afraid once Cahill nailed that first goal.

I have been watching the matches of the other countries and have to say that I am pleasantly surprised and delighted by the level of skill, talent and determination of the members of the team. Frankly my mind went back to the 1950s when I first arrived in Australia and to the memories of the under 16 school boy's team where I participated in the schoolboy championships with my school. I kept thinking of the ridicule that I and others like me suffered because we were the people who played the Wog game and were not interested in learning rugby union or league. I am glad that we persisted.

Memories are nice - but these new ones are even nicer.

I was at my very best an insignificant even mediocre soccer player. However, I enjoyed the training and the games I played in. Watching those with real talent is a complete buzz. I still recall as one of the best memories of my life as a small child, kicking a goal against the then world champion goalie, Grosz, on Margaret Island in Budapest in the 1950's. It was a put up job of course, but what a sense of purpose and accomplishment it gave me. Coming to Australia only fostered that sense and enabled me to participate in however a limited way in a sport that I am delighted to say I have always enjoyed.

Half a century - amazing!

Congratulations socceroos - congratulations Guus and above all congratulations to all those people who have devoted a lifetime of effort to bring this game into Australia.

Death of a Terrorist

It is almost impossible to feel any sorrow or regret when it is announced that someone who has committed the sort of atrocities that are attributed to the chief terrorist in Iraq, has died.

Yet there is something that just does not feel right whenever I hear the news or listen the posturing of the world leaders who have been paraded across the screens of our media exhorting the death of this terrible person.

I am not sure what it is that causes me so much concern.

When I reflect on my issues I keep coming up with a picture of the old west as it has been portrayed by American movies and the sight of a "‘wanted dead or alive"’ poster is what springs to mind.

In todayÂ’s society I suppose we still have bounties that are placed on the head of people in every country including Australia. You can go to any police station and see posters that offer a reward for information about the whereabouts of individuals. However I have not seen the posters that promise a financial reward placed on the head of an individual whether it is alive or dead. That surely happens only in the movies.

Well, perhaps not any more.

The high school drop out who became the blatant terrorist and killer that led the insurgency in Iraq had a 300 million dollar bounty on his head. Dead or Alive. He apparently came from Jordan and I am sure we will discover in the days to come how his early life experiences influenced his rise to become a terrorist and fight for his beliefs, however mistaken some will feel these might have been.

The fact that he kidnapped innocent people and publicly executed them by means of a televised beheading is surely one of the more revolting and inexcusable crimes that one can imagine. So why is it that I feel such unease at what has happened? Why is it that I feel so squeamish about two F 16 aircraft being targeted to bomb him and his cohorts out of existence?

On the one hand anyone who engages in the sort of barbaric acts that are attributed to the terrorists in Iraq should not be permitted to continue to perform further such acts and if they are killed I guess I am not one who will mourn their demise.

On the other hand . . ..

Someone, no doubt, got rich identifying the hiding place of Saddam Hussein and his henchmen. When they were captured they were put on trial and are going through due process as we speak. Of course I am aware that when the war on Iraq commenced the first act of the war was a strike by US aircraft attempting to take out the leadership of Iraq. So there is some precedent for all of this.

In this case though there was no attempt made at capturing this individual so that he could face trial for what were undoubtedly heinous crimes. Instead, two F 16's with appropriate super accurate bombs on board were targeted to take out an entire building in which it was known he was and not only took him out, but also any sundry associates.

Looked at from one angle, —it was a military strike at the leadership of the opposing commander of a warlike group and it was successful. Similar strikes have been initiated by countries at war in the past and have been considered legitimate. One only has to see the strike on Erwin Rommel in the 2nd World War as an example.

So why do I feel squeamish about this strike?

I suspect that it is because those of us who are supposedly part of the civilized world are having to resort to the same level of behaviour that is being used by the terrorists. We are willing to hand out summary justice to someone who is a criminal and use all of the forces of the most powerful nation on the face of the planet to do so.

We do not try and arrest the man and try him we just go in and bomb him to hell and beyond regardless of what I am sure will be called '‘collateral damage'’, along the way.

Somehow I have this vision that in the future it might also be considered OK for a very rich person to offer a bounty on the head of someone he dislikes and thereby initiate a search and destroy mission that will eliminate the person in question. To go from the sublime to the ridiculous I can see a sort of '‘pay as you go'’ military where for a 'fee'’ you can engage to have an F 16 deliver your payload to eliminate anyone you deem fit.

The question is whether or not the principles are right or not. Once we agree that it is OK to do this to one person then how do we set the limits as to when it is OK and when it is not?

I honestly do not know the answer to this question and I suspect that we have some difference between what happens in a war and what happens in a normal civil society in which policing is more appropriate. What is Iraq and what are the terrorists? Are they and the civilian populations in which they operate part of a war zone or are they part of a civil society?

I am happy for others to comment on my sense of unease.

You have to be kidding!

ABC News Online - Home: "Nicole Kidman has allegedly banned fiance Keith Urban from having sex with her until their wedding night."

Pete's Points

I always knew that there was a reason for Nicole's surname - she is kidding her man - obviously!

Is what is happening in Dilli a 'Plague'?

Jacquie van Santen for ABC Science Online reports:

"Like an army preparing for battle, locusts instinctively wait until their 'battalion' is large enough before falling into line and swarming ahead en masse, researchers say.

The apparently leaderless group will fly around chaotically until the swarm reaches a certain density of numbers, when they immediately assemble and become an orderly, collective plague."

Pete's Points

If we did not know better, this description of real insect behaviour could well apply to the current behaviour of some people in East Timor's capital Dilli, who seem to have lost any idea of what it means to be civilized human beings who respect each other and each other's property.

Like most others I suspect, I have been watching people looting government warehouses and other people's property, torching homes and shops and killing each other. I am apalled at the behaviour that I am seeing on the screen and wonder what is going to happen to the people who have been so well photographed doing the deeds.

Talking about law and order and bringing some semblance of normal human behaviour back to Dilli is one thing and I have no problems with Australia going in to assist the government there. I do have a problem with people who lose all sense of what it means to be live in society.

People who behave like insects they should bear in mind how plagues of insects are treated and start to worry about whether their behaviour will result in similar consequences.

Violence breeds violence and lawlessness breeds lawlessness.

I look forward with interest to the next few weeks and months to see how the government in East Timor is going to deal with the people whose images have been so adequately been captured by film crews as they carry out their acts of vandalism, theft, arson and murder. If these people are NOT caught, tried ansd where found guilty punished then frankly I despair about the notion of law and oder being restored to this fledgeling country.

As for the other situation that I can forsee on the horizon - namely people who have left the bounds of civilized behaviour seeking escape from justice by claiming persecution and wanting to claim refugee status in Australia, let's just think about first!