Rodent Regatta

There are some changes under way that stand to be fundamental to our lives during the coming two or three decades:

• Regulated telecom will fail in the face of VoIP.
• Bar codes will yield to RFID.
• Energy choices will become a matter of daily budgeting in our daily lives.
• Heathcare reform will become far more than a policy debate for every citizen.
• Insufficient savings and retirement resources will reach crisis proportions for millions of Americans.
• Personal and technical security will be a mounting issue for families and businesses.
• The fundamental choices about how we achieve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness will drive a new awareness of the importance of our right, responsibility and obligation to vote. We will once again address the notion of whether it is the government or individuals who are better suited to make the decisions.

Note: these things aren’t negative. They are simply changes. How we deal with them will determine whether they become positives or negatives for us.

Notebooks have long been the tool for original thoughts and building on knowledge. The Moleskine notebooks come with a history of their use included with each copy.

You can now subscribe to an RSS feed that will provide Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook a page at a time. There are 1,565 pages, but you’ll enjoy the way they are written and organized.

Mark Bernstein provides some thoughts about discovering and explaining important ideas. The blogosphere may have slipped quietly from this lofty goal. Mark points to ”Ten Tips.” He adds a few thoughts to that list. Civility is one thing that’s been lacking. I discovered as much yesterday!

This is one of those not-to-be-missed days for James Lileks, particularly if you have raised or are raising a family.

The proper style and methods for interviews have been lost in the hiring of ”pretty faces” and ”radio voices” in today’s 24×7 cable news people. One of the worst – and there are so many – is Jon Scott. Couple poor technique and bad manners with ”ninety seconds to tell two decades of history” and we’ll just talk over each other until…I’m sorry, we’ve got to pause for this commercial break.

Conjunctions are the worst enemies of today’s television interviewer. An interviewee who uses these words sends fear and trembling through the pretty faces who spend more time getting wardrobe and makeup correct than conducting serious interviews. ”I’ll give you a little of my airtime, but never lose sight of the fact that this news broadcast is about me and my airtime!

Oh, and everything isn’t ”breaking news.” They think all of us are dolts.