Public Enemy - Arsenio Hall 1993, Chuck D Interview, A Framework For Sucess

Public Enemy - Arsenio Hall 1993 , Chuck D Interview

A message from the pass that is still unfortunately quite relevant. Afro America must start within building a foundation for tomorrows success today and beyond.

Cool watches, real jobs: How makers are reshoring American know-how - Quartz

Cool watches, real jobs: How makers are reshoring American know-how - Quartz

Knowledge Is Key

Comcast, Verizon Wireless, and Time Warner Cable. When Will the Rest of Us Get Google’s Gigabit-per-Second Service? | MIT Technology Review

Comcast, Verizon Wireless, and Time Warner Cable. When Will the Rest of Us Get Google’s Gigabit-per-Second Service? | MIT Technology Review

"The cable distribution giants like Time Warner Cable and Comcast are already making a 97 percent margin on their “almost comically profitable” Internet services, according to Craig Moffet, an analyst at the Wall Street firm Bernstein Research. As Levin points out, “If you are making that kind of margin, it’s hard to improve it.” And most Americans have no choice but to deal with their local cable company."  | MIT Technology Review

Knowledge Is Key

Understanding Your Multigenerational Team of Talent

Understanding Your Multigenerational Team of Talent



Knowledge Is Key

Where ideas come from in the modern workplace - The Future of Work

Where ideas come from in the modern workplace - The Future of Work

"... conceiving ideas is something workers can do as well at home as at work. But doing it this way doesn’t mean ideas can’t be swapped. Perhaps you could create a Google doc or have a Hangout to refine them. The more introverted team members could benefit hugely from brainstorming on their own and sharing things remotely. It means they don’t get that instant but maybe unconscious negative physical feedback from others – the eye-rolling or sighs that can push them right back into their shells. And everyone can do this in their own time (East or West coast), probably with better results. By working this way, whatever they need to do to come up with ideas – indulging in a bit of transcendental meditation, or consuming heroic quantities of coffee and muffins in the latest hipster eaterie – they can do that. To everyone’s benefit.

... it’s possible for people to run an entire company from countries separated by oceans and for them to maybe only meet in person once a year. It’s not just a flexible way of working it’s today’s way of working. And keeping everyone together – staffers and freelancers – up there in the Cloud means it’s also a friendly way of working."  - The Future of Work

Knowledge Is Key

Nurturing collaboration at work - The Future of Work

Nurturing collaboration at work - The Future of Work

"...There are many ways to create serendipity in the office and foster collaboration, but companies have to strike a balance. There are times people must do contemplative work and need privacy. The workspace should be customized to fit the needs of the people working in that particular space, which may include a mix of private settings and open space. Collaboration will flourish in a space that naturally supports the way people work when the space is combined with the right technology, company policy, and culture".- The Future of Work

Knowledge Is Key

The Jonathan Gruber Controversy and Washington’s Dirty Little Secret - NYTimes.com

The Jonathan Gruber Controversy and Washington’s Dirty Little Secret - NYTimes.com

Excerpts; Straight to the point 

Suppose that Congress decides that everyone in America should have an iPhone. There are two ways it can do this:

1) The government could allocate money to buy all Americans iPhones.
2) The government could require that everybody buy an iPhone but create a tax credit equivalent to the price of the phone.

To an economist, these things are pretty much identical. To a politician, they are very different. The first is a big-spending government giveaway. The second is a tax cut. And in that distinction lies the heart of the firestorm around comments by one of the intellectual godfathers of President Obama’s health reform law.

… This kind of gamesmanship is very much a bipartisan affair. President George W. Bush’s expansion of Medicare in 2003 was carefully designed so that its costs were backloaded, rising sharply just after its 10-year mark.

… To economists, it doesn't matter whether our hypothetical iPhones are bought directly by the government or “bought” through tax cuts. It doesn’t matter whether Obamacare’s subsidies happen through a tax credit or a check in the mail. It doesn't matter whether the costs of Bush’s Medicare expansion were projected over a 10-year time horizon or 15.

In business school, they teach that there are two types of accounting. Financial accounting must follow the strict, and frequently arbitrary, rules of generally accepted accounting principles in preparing the financial statements released to investors. But a different approach, cost accounting, is for managers trying to understand the true economics of their business, such as whether a given business line is profitable. In cost accounting, the goal is less about following some set of rules to report to outsiders and more about understanding what is really in the company’s best interest.

Essentially, Congress is obsessed with the government equivalent of financial accounting standards (with the C.B.O. as the rule maker) instead of cost accounting. It structures the laws in ways that might not be very efficient but sound good on the stump. Mr. Gruber was, in an infelicitous way, expressing frustration with that state of affairs.

Knowledge Is Key

The Collapse of the Confederacy: Charles H. Wesley, John David Smith

The Collapse of the Confederacy: Charles H. Wesley, John David Smith: 9781570034107: Amazon.com: Books

Juxtaposition today's 2014 reality of a rise in southern philosophy overtaking the nation and that which lead to the rise and ultimate fall of the confederacy.  Past analogies are not definitive predictors of future results but given a number of historical and present data point one could achieve a measure of predictability

"In 1937, in his groundbreaking The Collapse of the Confederacy, the African American historian Charles H. Wesley (1891-1987) took a bold step in rewriting the history of the Confederate South by asserting that the new nation failed because of underlying internal and social factors. Looking beyond military events to explain the Confederacy's demise, Wesley challenged conventional interpretations and argued that, by 1865, the supposedly unified South had "lost its will to fight." Though neglected today by scholars and students of the Civil War, Wesley ranked as one of the leading African American historians, educational administrators, and public speakers of the first half of the twentieth century. This edition of Wesley's The Collapse of the Confederacy includes a new introduction by John David Smith that examines Wesley's interpretation of Confederate defeat, contextualizes it within contemporary writings, and analyzes its significance for modern scholarship on the experiences of African Americans in the Civil War."- The Collapse of the Confederacy

Net Neutrality: Ford, UPS, Visa, and BofA Lobby FCC in Secret - Businessweek

Net Neutrality: Ford, UPS, Visa, and BofA Lobby FCC in Secret - Businessweek

Ford, UPS, Visa, and BofA aka Ad Hoc Telecom just to name a few, ...take an interest in Internet rules by advocating for Net Neutrality . 

Here’s how the group explained that dynamic in a filing with the FCC back in July: “Every retailer with an online catalogue, every manufacturer with online product specifications, every insurance company with online claims processing, every bank offering online account management, every company with a website–every business in America interacting with its customers online is dependent upon an open Internet.” ...- Businessweek

Fred Jones - Inventor of the Refrigerated Truck, Movie Soundtrack and owner of Thermo King

Fred Jones - Inventor of the Refrigerated Truck | The Black Inventor Online Museum

Love the ice cream truck? Thank inventor Fred Jones | Marketplace.org

Jones invented the refrigerated semi-truck. Together, Jones and Numero started what’s now known as Thermo King—one of the biggest commercial fridge companies in the world.

Fred Jones took out 60 patents in his lifetime, 40 of them in refrigeration -- and he was self-taught.
Growing up, Jones figured out how to fix watches, then cars, and eventually made his way to Minnesota, where he invented a cheap way to synchronize sounds and pictures in movie theaters while working as a projectionist.

In addition to installing the Thermo King refrigeration units in trucks and tractor-trailers, Jones modified the original design so they could be outfitted for trains, boats and ships.During World War II, the Department of Defense found a great need portable refrigeration units for distributing food and blood plasma to troops in the field. The Department called upon Thermo King for a solution. Fred modified his device and soon had developed a prototype which would eventually allow airplanes to parachute these units down behind enemy lines to the waiting troops.

AfrocatioN - Knowledge Is Key

Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014, In-State Tuition Provision – Section 702

Colleagues and Fellow Veterans,

This is a note providing you an update on Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 (“Choice Act”) as it pertains to the in-state tuition provision – Section 702.

The in-state tuition provision requires VA to disapprove programs of education under the Post-9/11 and Montgomery GI Bill programs at public institutions of higher learning if the schools charge qualifying Veterans, spouses, and dependents tuition and fees in excess of the rate for resident students for terms that begin after July 1, 2015.  As such, any schools that do not meet the requirements will be disapproved for Post-9/11 GI Bill and Montgomery GI Bill benefits.     

Students Eligible for In-State Tuition under Section 702 are:  

• A Veteran who lives in the state in which the institution of higher learning is located (regardless of his/her formal state of residence) and enrolls in the school  within three years of discharge from a period of active duty service of 90 days or more.
• A spouse or child using transferred benefits who lives in the state in which the institution of higher learning is located (regardless of his/her formal state of residence) and enrolls in the school within 3 years of the transferor’s discharge from a period of active duty service of 90 days or more.
• A spouse or child using benefits under the Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship who lives in the state in which the institution of higher learning is located (regardless of his/her formal state of residence) and enrolls in the school within three years of the Servicemember’s death in the line of duty following a period of active duty service of 90 days or more.
• The following is a link providing additional information; http://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/school_resources.asp

The law affecting in-state tuition charges is effective for terms starting after July 1, 2015. Our initial review of all states and territories indicate that none are fully compliant with the law – some are more compliant than others.  We are making every effort to ensure all states understand the requirements to comply.  We have reached out to all state Governors, our State Approving Agencies and a wide variety of others to ensure they know the ramifications of not complying with the Choice Act.

Public institutions must offer in-state tuition and fees to all eligible individuals identified above by July 1, 2015, to be eligible to receive payments for training on or after that date.  It is anticipated that VA will not issue payments for any students eligible for VA benefit payments until the school complies. Much can/could happen between now and July 1, 2015 but we like to provide what we know for the moment.

V/R

Curtis L. Coy
Deputy Under Secretary for Economic Opportunity
Veterans Benefits Administration
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs