Originally posted July 29, 2013 @ http://patrick642.wordpress.com/ Change. Improve. Innovate. Be better.
~ Pressing issues, from cyber security, to strategy, to innovation, to improvements (self, others, organizations)
Today is the day that everyone needs to start changing their mindsets. There are too many problems in the world we need to focus on rather than ever so many individuals pointing to themselves and saying “look at me, I’m important – I’m the hottest thing going!”
There is health care, even if you are a 20something in super shape – are you prepared for an unknown catastrophic emergency that you cannot pay for? All because you believe you’re invulnerable. This is not about right now, but rather, it is down the road when you ‘will’ need health coverage. Are you willing to take that gamble of not paying for health care because you ‘believe’ you will not need it? Then when something happens, are you willing to grovel and beseech those around to give you a helping hand with health care….?
There is education, we have to improve education for all and ensure that the low end of the spectrum can access that education and catch up with others who were privileged from day 1 to have access to the best education.
We have low wage earnerswhen corporations are raking in profits fist over fist, to satisfy shareholders. Don’t get me wrong, shareholders should earn a profit for their investments. But don’t the workers also deserve to share in that bounty since it is their efforts that is making the business in question successful? It seems like we’re going back to the days of Henry Ford, when he had to look after his workers so they could afford to purchase what they were producing.
Fracking. Hydraulic Fracturing. It seems that natural gas drilling is spreading around the world. Now, I’m no expert but from everything I’ve been reading and viewing, we’re letting companies kill off communities and contaminate the ground water tables (from all the various chemicals being forced underground) and contaminating the air we breathe (escaping methane from well heads). At one point, I had believed that because the wells were being drilled so far underground that there would be no possibility of escaping chemicals. But, little did I know that the cement casings around the wells fail, and fail often, allowing chemicals to leak through at various depths. The oil and gas companies are forcing families and communities to sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) to keep a lid on the problems resulting from the leaking chemicals and gases. I don’t believe one needs to be an expert to see the dangers of this occurring around the world, all one has to do is look at the evidence. These companies are taking over vast acreages of our countryside to drill all these thousands of wells and bringing in water by truck to replenish families drinking water… Green land and tracts of trees are being destroyed so these companies can drill their wells. And we, the people of this country (or other countries) do not get to see a reduction in gas prices because they are shipping the gas outside the U.S. to other more profitable markets so they can increase their own profits (oh, and shareholders).
Cybersecurity– we have got to improve our country’s Internet security and those of our allies to stop cyber crime. How hard is it for ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to throttle or just kill off (drop in the bit bucket) traffic that should only remain within internal networks. That is, IPs with leading octet of 10. or 192. – any traffic beginning with that address range should remain within the internal network and should never cross the Internet at large. That would kill off massive amounts of spam and other malicious traffic. Having a national clearing house of malicious threats, in the cloud for everyone to pull from, would help everyone learn of malicious activity immediately and in turn allows for some smart individual(s) to get a fix and post it to the cloud to circumvent that malicious threat immediately. This is not a pie in the sky fix. There has been talk of cloud cyber security for some years now, starting with talk from college research students using a Beowulf network set up. This is catching on somewhat with companies like McAfee and Immunet(sp?).
Equality– women and minorities. We have to get to the point of paying everyone what they are worth and that starts with equal pay. If two people are doing the same job, they should be getting the same pay, especially if they have similar educational backgrounds and experience. Just because someone is a different gender, race or even sexual preference – that should not stop them from receiving the same pay. The days of any ‘ole boys network’ is over. It really should be over….
Innovation. We have individuals like Bill Gates who is willing to give up money to save the lives of others around the world. Why can’t we innovate in this country to improve our infrastructure (roads, bridges, power plants), or to lower the cost of energy. Why can’t some wind turbine (wind mill) company (somewhere) combine solar cell technology with the wind mills? If the nacelles around the top of the wind mill could house some of the more super efficient solar cells on the market (flexible and efficacy) – the wind mill blades could provide power all day. When there is no wind, the solar cells could provide the necessary energy to power the blades. There is wind, the blades spin. How hard could this be? Of course the blades should have the super-efficient lubricant that is used in the LBT (Large Binocular Telescope) that allows one person to easily move the LBT. And then too, the wind mill should have super-efficient gearing to allow for better torque. To me, this seems a no-brainer but this has to start with some wind mill/turbine manufacturer, someone bold enough to innovate this tech.
We also have to be innovative in how we work, in how we travel, in how we communicate. There is a great deal in we can successfully do to innovate and improve our lots in life.
Race. Well, on this topic alone I could go on for a while but I’ve put enough here for now. Suffice it to say, we have to move beyond race in our daily lives.
Society - Change. Innovate. Improve. Be better. 