c) Art; Specializing in Art Pencil Drawings. Devotee of the High Renaissance (c. 1500–1520) centered around Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael
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RRNeal Portfolio Sample; Portraiture
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Weblog:
[06/2009]
The Arctic Tundra and run-away Global Warming
In the latest edition of Nature, research on the net effect of carbon exchange was analyzed when modeled against the cycle of
permafrost in the arctic tundra. The research showed that the theory of nominal net change taken place between cycles of thaw
and refreeze was incorrect. It seems the recapture effect from the thaw period enabling vegetation growth was only temporary.
The out-gassing of old carbon during subsequent cycles threw the net effect solidly in a carbon release category. This is very
troublesome when you add additional variables into the model, such as albedo (reflectivity) changes incurred during the two periods
(thaw-freeze) of the cycle as well as mean temperature increases (a la global warming) and even cloud physics or the effects of
dynamic cloud cover over a large geographic region. Taken together, this presents with a very disturbing hypothesis of what
could very well be our near-term future… that of a run-away warming drift initiated by man’s unrestrained activity (burning hydrocarbons
for energy).
(i) E.A.G. Schuur et al., The effect of permafrost thaw on old carbon release and net carbon exchange from tundra, Nature 459, 28 May 2009
[05/2009]
In keeping with the current movie theme, the flick "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" presents with numerous erudite quotes. I've included my favorite below.
"For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same,
there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before.
I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.
[02/2009]
Waxing philosophically about life from the movie, "The Edge". The movie's main character named, Charles Moore (played by my favorite actor, Anthony Hopkins) is one of the most interesting, dynamic roles I've seen in film in quite some time.
Charles Morse: Why is the rabbit unafraid?
Styles: 'Cause he's smarter than the panther.
[09/2008]
Investors in Panic Mode - Excerpt from Sept. 18th Business Intelligence Brief, Armada Corporate Intelligence: The panic that has gripped Wall Street almost defies logic, stemming from a mad rush on the part of investors to avoid financial damage by inflicting financial damage on themselves.
The investors are shredding their own holdings with these decisions and thus engaging in a self-fulfilling
prophecy. The banks are collapsing because the investors are pulling their money out because they think the bank is collapsing. The banks do indeed have some real problems with their debt obligations in some cases but not all of those that are under stress right now are facing any other crisis other than the one that is being manufactured by panicked investors. The investor is motivated to protect
their money now and to engage in activity that makes them more in the future. The reaction to the market at the moment is accomplishing neither of these goals.
One problem is that nobody quite knows how to stop. It must have occurred to somebody by now that patience would be a virtue. Take a deep breath, stop dumping stock like it was on fore, resist the temptation to abandon ship and wait for the economy to stage a recovery.
Another related problem is that an investor doesn’t know if everybody else will follow the same advice. If you are the only lemming that tries to wait and assess that cliff dive, you are likely to be carried over the edge anyway. This needs to be a mass realization that panic has become a
vicious enemy and that everybody needs to calm down and focus on a longer term plan – even just a month or two out as opposed to the next 30 seconds.
The two factors that will eventually halt this debacle will be the emergence of the contrarians and the exhaustion of the panic; but that is not something that will occur soon and it will not be all that coordinated and smooth. The contrarians see an awful lot of good stock
getting sold at ridiculous prices and they pay attention to the quality of the company. The banks that saddled themselves with bad debt aren’t so appealing but lots of good banks have been caught up in this chaos. At some point they think the bottom is close and they start
to buy. At about the same time the lemmings have lost enough and run out of steam. The price of gold will become prohibitive and investors will have lost so much that they can’t really go anywhere. They will leave a real mess behind and one that will drag on the economy for many months.
[08/2008]
Ehrlich's Dominant Animal -In humanity’s more than 100,000 year history, we have evolved from vulnerable creatures clawing sustenance from Earth to a sophisticated global society manipulating every inch of it. In short, we have become the dominant animal. Why, then, are we creating a world that threatens our own species? What can we do to change the current trajectory toward more climate change, increased famine, and epidemic disease?
Renowned Stanford scientists Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich believe that intelligently addressing those questions depends on a clear understanding of how we evolved and how and why we’re changing the planet in ways that darken our descendants’ future. The Dominant Animal arms readers with that knowledge, tracing the interplay between environmental change and genetic and cultural evolution since the dawn of humanity. In lucid and engaging prose, they describe how Homo sapiens adapted to their surroundings, eventually developing the vibrant cultures, vast scientific knowledge, and technological wizardry we know today.
But the Ehrlichs also explore the flip side of this triumphant story of innovation and conquest. As we clear forests to raise crops and build cities, lace the continents with highways, and create chemicals never before seen in nature, we may be undermining our own supremacy. The threats of environmental damage are clear from the daily headlines, but the outcome is far from destined. Humanity can again adapt—if we learn from our evolutionary past.
Those lessons are crystallized in The Dominant Animal. Tackling the fundamental challenge of the human predicament, Paul and Anne Ehrlich offer a vivid and unique exploration of our origins, our evolution, and our future. [excerpted from Amazon.com]
[07/2008]
Building an Enterprise (Large Organizational) Capacity for Ongoing Innovation - It has been my experience that within the multivariate, fluid environment that determines a corporation’s specific culture, a number of elements consistently stand out as static indicators in the overall equation dynamic. One of these core elements remains location. As a consultant, I’ve worked on both coasts as well as the central US. What I’ve experienced is a standard location-dependent coefficient illuminative of how reward mechanisms within large groups are constructed. For example, in San Francisco, this coefficient remains biased towards individualism and its varied expression. Whereas, in the Midwest, the promotion consideration process consistently favors a convergence to the mean. This holds as a truism when one considers the subjective cultural identifiers that are typical of these two distinct geographic locations. San Francisco is defined by it’s entrepreneurialism with a liberal-bent and Des Moines is often described as being derived of a population that is proud of their hard work, who self-identify as predominantly conservative.
There are flaws to both – alas, it is human to err. From the San Fran perspective, it is critical to build a culture that encompasses reinforcers promoting team over individual ability. Bold moves are required of scalable, innovative organizations but these must be established through a paradigm of (small) group efforts. As for the Des Moines model, the decree of “disagreement is needed in the construction of true innovation” is far more valuable a law than consensus can ever hope to achieve. Overall, the selection mechanisms within a large organization for formulating and instituting vetted ideas should take more time in development than the actual brainstorming and ideation cycles that will take place following them. Usually the opposite is true.
The best-case scenario is a multiple, small team-based topology running within an open organizational culture offering a model that champions/rewards competition based upon alternative concepts. One which senior leadership remains focused on constantly refining the environment for optimal hive learning.
[05/2008]
Alternative to Corn Ethanol - The current corn ethanol subsidies being employed by the United States Government are creating a speculative replanting of crops on finite farm capacities. This is having a negative affect on other food staples and causing an increase in food costs through these abnormal market-skewing forces. As a result, there is a growing voice in Washington to kill the EPA mandate on increasing the amount of biofuels placed into the American energy supply. Instead of the government killing the biofuel agenda which will help us meet a (future) mandate in curtailing carbon production (read: doing something about global warming), why not simply expand the foodcrop under the biofuel banner? Sugar. Sugar production can be efficiently ramped up with marginal costs in countries already offering a sugarcane crop (e.g.; Brazil). This also serves as a viable alternative to other forms of farming that have been underwritting the horrible cut-and-burn tactics in the Amazon forest. Presently, sugar as a commodity is at an extremely low price point. More importantly, sugar-based ethanol is a more efficient energy source than its corn-based cousin. By making the biofuel registry more diverse than simply corn (sugar, switchgrass, etc.) the costs involved with growing bio-energy are better distributed without causing the artificial market influences that are being experienced from the corn subsidies right now.
[03/2008]
Research Attempts to Define Happiness
and its Not Acquired Through Acquisition - A study published in
Science suggests that the acquisition of material things generally provides
little in the way of happiness while the altruistic giving away of money
triggered much more in the way of contentment and pleasure. The study looked at
a number of situations in an attempt to get a handle on what makes people
generally happy and discovered that in a wide variety of situations the act of
giving to someone or some cause engendered more pleasure and happiness than
spending the same amount on oneself. The study looked at people of modest means,
those with some wealth and students as well as people with significant degrees
of wealth. Granted, the measure of happiness was self-reported but even if
people were responding as they thought appropriate (ref. survey-bias) there
seemed to have been real improvements in self satisfaction and well being.
Analysis offered
by Lawrence, KS.-based Think Tank, Armada Corporate Intelligence (intel@strategic-briefs.com):
There are any number of conclusions that can be drawn from this study and
researchers have ventured some assessments as to why the level of satisfaction
goes up. One theory is that acquisition usually involves some degree of
disappointment in that what is acquired is somehow less satisfying than
anticipated while the act of giving can remain somewhat unsullied by reality.
What the recipient does with the money or gift seems to be important in that the
less one knows about what happens next the better. It has also been suggested
that giving money demonstrates that the giver is not as bad off as those
receiving, helping people maintain a sense of well being as compared to others.
Still another theory suggests that people interpret the whole process of giving
as protecting themselves in the long run. If they are generous and help someone
they assume that their generosity will be reciprocated when they need the help.
And maybe it is just that people really do want to help others. One interesting
side note – it was discovered that when the donations went to something
connected to animals the pleasure factor increased dramatically. (quoted from
Dr. C. Kuehl)
For true happiness,
consider donating to
http://www.wildaid.org and/or http://www.emergencyanimalrescue.org,
[05/2007] The world of Web 2.0 is still in its infancy. True digital sentience – defined as the ability to see or perceive your space in the online world in comparison with other spaces (or even the web as a whole) is still a novelty. Thus far, we’ve the functionality to understand user’s behavior on a website but no real perception beyond this. Advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Search in combination with increases in raw computational power have set the stage for a true understanding of ideas, thoughts and expressions (collectively known as “memes”) of online users. The ability to track the genesis of a meme, mark the exact tipping point when it derived systemic acceptance (or denial) coupled with understanding the evolution this took to reach critical mass is the underpinning of a new online search-related industry. Holistic sentiment can now be derived marking the onset of sentient technology. The potential impact within marketing, political campaigning, corporate identity valuation, crisis management and intranet/portal management remains great.
[12/2006] A Maturational Comparative: Human Biological Systems to Business Organizational Systems -- Most recently, I had the opportunity to be contacted by a small eBusiness company (<100 employees) looking for
project management and performance improvement. Happily accepting their friendly overture offering an interview, I learned that this company was in a heavy growth phase and was feeling the obligatory “[growth] pains” associated with this augmentation. I was instantly struck with the thought that the parallel between growth patterns in an individual (human) and that of an organization (company) are too similar to be casually disputed. An adolescent human being is caught in a systemic conundrum of reaching a high maturational level in some ways (sexual maturity) while remaining relatively immature in others (emotional, for example) - this is called "heterotopy" or development in an "other place". This has an uncomfortable effect on the individual not being truly cognizant of this discrepancy in maturation which easily lends itself as a logical reason why being a teenager is so often a trying time. The same can be said for this small eCommerce company. As the pineal gland signals the onset of sexual maturity, it has no way to correspond this growth to the amygdale (the seat of emotion in the brain). Similarly, as the more experienced personnel understand the requisite “next steps” (in this case it was HR) in the evolution of this organization, they often have no way to relay this critical data to the individual hiring managers who understand and perform at a more basic level of business (often illuminative of having a limited breadth of experience outside of small companies). From my observation, irrespective of the experienced HR team, this company’s current revenue generation has severely outgrown its maturational capacity to understand the need for organizational change in order to properly capture and accelerate said revenue generation. “Our processes/compensation model/knowledge development scale perfectly” was the repeated answer to my questioning around adjustments needed to meet the described growth. Interestingly enough, what was offered on how these elements scaled presented something other than perfection but rather illustrated cultural artifacts being grasped tightly (the common quip of "it worked for us in the past, why shouldn't it work for us in the future" instantly came to mind). Was this hiring manager simply reflecting his organizational customs (culturally communicated behavioral mimicry also referred to as "memes") or was there something more here? At this point, I didn't feel the need to press for any further descriptions. Whether the present, mounting conundrum being experienced is about confusion around growth or a simple case of resistance to change or a combination of both, gaining enough traction towards alleviating the heterotopic maturation is necessary to grow this company from a small organization to a medium-sized business. This will hinge solely upon leadership being able to make the necessary changes to organizational culture (& structure) - which is why this company's developmental phase is identified as experiencing endemic "growing pains".
[12/2006] The command-and-control configuration (having military origins spanning back centuries with popularity in the civilian workforce reaching an apex in the 1950s & 60s) is still prevalent in a few contemporary organizational structures. Primarily seen in very small, entrepreneurial endeavors where a single leader oversees all efforts as well as in very large, mature industries (and governments) where change remains slow – command-and-control techniques are seen and experienced by many in the new millennium. Unfortunately, this age old method often fails to meet the needs of modern-day business (specific to the larger companies still engaged in C&C). A recent case study of mine illustrated an established company in a market which had remained completely static for decades that suddenly found it competing against an increasing number of new-comers across the entire spectrum of the company’s product (service) line. Facing an environment of price commoditization brought about by a growing multitude of market players, this company remained stubbornly married (through sickness and in health) to its increasingly dysfunctional culture (summarily identified through an ingrained resistance to all change). An attempt to exert (more) control through increased financial metrics and motivational incentives haven’t yet triggered the intended behaviors. Employee engagement scores fell flat. Attrition has since begun to rise (slowly). Quarterly earnings warnings are becoming de facto. Most recently, leadership has visibly begun to switch to a visionary style of direction in an obvious attempt to push the cultural pendulum out of its present well-worn arc. A fundamental question remains - how much more external market pressure can this company take before engaging in a painful, requisite downsizing cycle?
:: "Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times." — Niccolo Machiavelli
[11/2006] In the field of organizational performance improvement, the theorem of Occam's Razor (the simplest answer is usually the best answer) rarely works towards creating or invigorating a healthy organization. Over-simplistic sound-bytes incessantly circulate about how to manage towards org excellence from a single dimension (IT, accounting, sales, etc.). However, even the worker-bees understand that any medium-to-large company requires a multivariate approach towards performance improvement by fully engaging all organizational resources (people, processes, budgetary, and management systems) as a requisite first step on the critical path towards meaningful change. These employees live in a hyper-matrixed work topology (concurrent multiple projects, multiple stakeholders - sometimes with opposing interests, and often while reporting to multiple managers) where it is easy to see the effects of cascading dependencies and the resulting shared critical risks at a most granular level. Unfortunately, the majority of Corporate America's thought leadership remains woefully ignorant to this fact. Ironically enough, the most simplistic answer for pursuing real organizational performance improvement can be defined via one word: holism.
Miscellaneous:
::Interesting tidbit - Recycling Opportunities Wasted.
What types of plastic is usually recycled by Municipalities in North America:
- Plastic bottles with a neck (carrying the #1 and/or #2 symbol)
Here is what is being left in landfills that COULD be recycled:
- #3 Vinyl – Recyclable as: Packaging, loose-leaf binders, decking, paneling, gutters, mud flaps, film and sheet, floor tiles and mats, resilient flooring, cassette trays, electrical boxes, cables, traffic cones, garden hose, mobile home skirting.
- #4 Low Density Polyethylene – Recyclable as: Shipping envelopes, garbage can liners, floor tile, furniture, film and sheet, compost bins, paneling, trash cans, landscape timber, lumber
- #5 Polypropylene – Recyclable as: Automobile battery cases, signal lights, battery cables, brooms, brushes, ice scrapers, oil funnels, bicycle racks, rakes, bins, pallets, sheeting, trays.
- #6 Polystyrene – Recyclable as: Thermometers, light switch plates, thermal insulation, egg cartons, vents, desk trays, rulers, license plate frames, foam packing, foam plates, cups, utensils
- #7 Other (usually some degree of a mix utilizing #1 - #6) – Recyclable as: Bottles, plastic lumber applications.
There is no excuse for this type of wasted opportunity to assist the environment.
:: Interesting tidbit - from famed Biologist E.O. Wilson during the 2007 TED Conference.
As E.O. Wilson accepts his 2007 TED Prize, he makes a plea on behalf of his constituents, the insects and small creatures, to learn more about our biosphere. We know so little about nature, he says, that we're still discovering tiny organisms indispensable to life; yet we're still steadily destroying nature. Wilson identifies five grave threats to biodiversity (a term he coined), using the acronym HIPPO, and makes his TED wish: that we will work together on the Encyclopedia of Life, a web-based compendium of data from scientists and amateurs on every aspect of the biosphere.
:: Interesting tidbit - from Steve Jurvetson, Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. He was the founding VC investor in Hotmail (MSFT), Interwoven (IWOV), and Kana (KANA) - "Wondering about gray goo"? (Jurvetson, 2006)
Here’s the conclusion from an analysis of the prospect of Global Ecophagy by Biovorous Nanoreplicators: ”The smallest plausible biovorous nanoreplicator has a molecular weight of ~1 gigadalton and a minimum replication time of perhaps ~100 seconds, in theory permitting global ecophagy to be completed in as few as ~10^4 seconds. However, such rapid replication creates an immediately detectable thermal signature enabling effective defensive policing instrumentalities to be promptly deployed before significant damage to the ecology can occur.” In summation, the analysis calculates that the max speed for which self-replicating nanobots could eat the planet Earth is 2.78 hours.
It must be noted that the analyst takes comfort in the notion that this nanobot feast generates a lot of heat, which could alert and trigger “defensive measures.” It is interesting to point out a speculative parallel between a rising global mean temperature and the outlined increase of nanobot-driven kinetic energy .... hmmm.
:: Interesting tidbit - Excerpt of Al Gore's comments around several important contemporary topics, captured at the X-Prize Executive Luncheon...
On Climate Crisis: “We have a global emergency. Our planet has a fever. If your child has a fever, you do something about it. If your child’s crib is on fire, you don’t ponder ‘is my baby flame retardant?’”
“We operate the planet as if it’s a going out of business sale.”
“We are putting 70 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere per day. 25 million of those tons are absorbed by the oceans, forming carbonic acid. The shell-making of zooplankton and coral depends on free-floating calcium carbonate. Since 1850, we have changed the pH of the oceans worldwide. If we continue at our current rate, the oceans will become so much more acidic that we will disrupt marine life. So, even if a future planetary ‘albino effect’ shields us from the sun, the CO2 will still poison the planet and lose its habitability for us.”
:: Interesting tidbit - from Dr. Howard Bloom, author of many excellent books (The Lucifer Principle, Global Brain, etc.). The following excerpt is from a recent paper offered by Dr. Bloom speculating on an evolutionary continuance upon modern human beings - ergo, Homo Urbanis. "The dominant view in today's evolutionary psychology is that our instincts were stamped into our DNA during the infamous EEA, 'The Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness.' This is generally reckoned as a roughly two and a half million-year hunter-gatherer phase that ended before the climax of the last Ice Age. Since then, our genetically preprogrammed heritage has supposedly been locked in stone (or better yet, in an amino acid code). We are, so says the current argument, tribal hunter-gatherers decked out in modern clothes. However a strong case can be made for the possibility that human biology has continued to evolve during the ten thousand years since Jericho's builders erected the first city walls. Genes change far more speedily than most evolutionary psychologists realize. Natural selection has had 400 generations to rework our bodies and our brains since the days when Catal Huyuk, Suberde, and Tepe Yahya joined Jericho's mesh of intercity trade. Four thousand years before the rise of the Sumerian cities of Ur, Uruk, and Kish, Stone Age metropolises from Anatolia to the edges of India were already rich in challenges and opportunities. These urban traps and niches may well have been selectors forming much of what we are today. Homo urbanis has not only arrived, he has long since elbowed Homo tribalis far off to the side."
Obviously, it doesn't take a great jump in reason to envision the parallels between a "caveman" pushing through a throng of his tribe attempting to grab a sizable chunk of the latest kill with that of a ill-tempered man pushing his way through a crowd eagerly awaiting the Christmas stock of a new video game at Walmart. The adage "what is old, is new again" takes on prehistoric context here. I agree with the overall points on current evolutionary changes with the knowledge that such change remains extraordinarily subtle in its present phase (and, no, this isn't a compliment to humankind).
:: Interesting tidbit - The Singularity is "technological change so rapid and so profound that it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. Some would say that we cannot comprehend the Singularity, at least with our current level of understanding, and that it is impossible, therefore, to look past its 'event horizon' and make sense of what lies beyond" (Kurzweil).
Ray Kurzweil, renowned techno-poly-author, defines a point in the intermediate future where the amalgam intelligence of humans is no longer consider of a "fixed capacity". In the future, intelligence is enhanced via upgraded biology (biotech - computer/mind fusion) which enables assumed processing limitations to be ignored - ergo, an hour of thought is equivalent to a century of cumulative thinking, etc. This overclocked intelligence evolves into a flurry of action pushing human advancement into a time/space singularity. Given the oxymoronic nature presented with most of human progress (Nuclear energy as Hyperion [light] and Acheron [death]) the singularity, in its present understood version, will most likely provide for a scenario reminiscent of our elemental, binary code of existence - 0 off/1 on. This abstraction carries a logical equivalence to eternal bliss or extinction synonymous with aged stories of Armageddon. ...fingers crossed for tripping the switch to 1.
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