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labor
Bracing for the Blow
I.B.M. has sent a holiday chill through its American employees with its plans to ship thousands of high-paying white-collar jobs overseas to lower-paid foreign workers. "Offshoring" and "outsourcing" are two of the favored euphemisms for shipping work overseas. I.B.M. prefers the term "global sourcing." Whatever you call it, the expansion of this practice from manufacturing to the higher-paying technical and white-collar levels is the latest big threat to employment in the U.S.
Years ago, when concern was being expressed about the shipment of factory jobs to places with slave wages, hideous working conditions and even prison labor, proponents said there was nothing to worry about. Exporting labor-intensive jobs would make U.S. companies more competitive, leading to increased growth and employment, and higher living standards. They advised U.S. workers to adjust, to become better educated and skillful enough to thrive in a new world of employment, where technology and the ability to process information were crucial components. The outsourcing of good jobs has been under way for years, and there is no dispute that the practice is speeding up. "Anything that is not nailed to the floor is being considered for outsourcing," said Thea Lee, the chief international economist for the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Most of the millions of white-collar workers who could be affected by this phenomenon over the next several years are clueless as to what they can do about it. They do not have organized representation in the workplace. And government policies overwhelmingly favor the corporations. Like the employees at I.B.M. whose holiday cheer has been dampened by uncertainty, these hard-working men and women and their families have little protection against the powerful forces of the global economy. They sure as hell won't find any protection from our government. I wonder who these Corporations plan to sell to when the US becomes a nation of unemployed?
panos Mina Sings in the Vatican Basilicas Welcome to a special project consisting of sixteen fullscreen 360-degree virtual reality panoramas of the Vatican’s basilicas and surroundings - including St. Peter’s, Santa Maria Maggiore, San Paolo Fuori le Mura and San Giovanni in Laterano - accompanied by Gregorian chants performed by Mina Mazzini, Italy’s legendary Diva. The Vatican granted VRWAY Communication special access that allowed an international team of photographers to capture the beauty of these wonders. These photographs have been converted into fullscreen 360-degree virtual reality panoramas, and are also available on VRWAY’s online magazine, VRMAG.
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pakistan Pakistani President Survives New Attack By Suicide Bombers Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, survived the second attempt on his life in less than two weeks on Thursday when suicide bombers in two pickup trucks rammed a motorcade carrying him through the city of Rawalpindi, Pakistani officials said. Musharraf was not injured in the attack, but 15 people, including four military policemen, were killed when the truck bombs struck vehicles at the rear of the motorcade. The windshield in the president's armored Mercedes-Benz was damaged as Musharraf and his military secretary ducked for cover, an aide said. Officials said the speed of the motorcade may have prevented the attackers from hitting Musharraf's limousine. "Apparently the two attackers were just outpaced by the presidential convoy," said Israr Ahmed, Rawalpindi's police chief. "Their calculations went wrong by only a few seconds." He said the convoy was traveling at about 80 mph. The attack occurred barely 500 yards from the bridge where a remote-controlled bomb exploded on Dec. 14, less than a minute after Musharraf's motorcade had passed. Pakistani officials said after that attack that the bomb might have gone off right under the presidential limousine if the vehicle's electronic jamming system had not delayed the remote trigger.
"After failing to target the president in their first attempt because of an electronic jamming device in his car, the terrorists went for direct action by deploying the suicide bombers," said a senior military official involved in the investigation. Don't forget that Pakistan is a nuclear power and that the Taliban was(/is?) supported by Pakistan. Musharraf's death could pave the way for fundamentalists to take over those nuclear weapons.
bathing suits
Basement Beauties:
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the destruction of a great american corporation
Boeing and Airbus: When Good Business Practice Just Doesn't Fly An all but perfect model of logical delirium” is how the eminent French political analyst and philosopher, Raymond Aron, once described a complex instance of 1960's nuclear deterrence theory. The phrase came to mind while reading the argument recently made in The Wall Street Journal by Holman W. Jenkins Jr. to explain why it is a good thing rather than bad thing that Boeing, one of the great, pioneering American aircraft companies, has fallen into grave decline. Unless I misunderstand this article - and I have carefully examined it for evidence of irony - the present condition of Boeing is the right and proper outcome of good business practice and enlightened management. Let Airbus make huge gambles on technological progress and future markets. If it fails, governments will bail it out. If Boeing makes such gambles and loses, stockholder return will suffer. The article concedes that in the past Boeing won its place as the world's greatest aircraft manufacturer by making and winning just such gambles. "Back in the 60's, when a director asked for future profit estimates on the proposed 747, he was told to go suck an egg." That, the author says, "doesn't fly today, nor should it." The article is prompted by Boeing's decision to abandon its project to build a near-supersonic Sonic Cruiser to compete with the 800-passenger super-jumbo A380 that Airbus is starting to put together in Toulouse. Boeing has chosen instead to explore the market for a new but essentially conventional aircraft, the 7E7, its first new design in a decade. Boeing now is an ideologically correct company. Its management mandate is to produce positive quarterly earnings and annual profit increases, so as to keep Boeing's stock price high. This is incompatible with betting the company on a visionary project. If the result of these good business practices is Boeing's eventual ruin, that's the way it is, you know. Investors will find another company to invest in.
You will understand why I quoted Aron on logical delirium. You ruin the company to save the stock price.
I worked at Boeing for 25 years (laid off once and quite four times.) This article is so true. I started at Boeing in 1965. The corporate culture then was that we built the most technologicaly advanced and the best quality airplanes. I watched that change in the 90s to being more concerned with shareholder value. On one hand they sent us to classes about Total Quality and World Class Competiveness. They taught us about making decisions for the long haul. On the other hand, it was clear that management was only making decisions that looked as far as the next quarterly report. I bailed almost 6 years ago and avoided the rush as the Comercial Airplane Division continued it's death spiral. They are betting the farm on defense pork. When that drys up there will be no more Boeing. Sad.
collage
 [more] thanks to consumptive.org
dean
Howard's Road They say that confession is good for the soul, so here’s mine: Howard Dean was not my first choice of candidates to face George W. Bush in the 2004 election. He is not as liberal as I am – and yes, conservative media pundits, calling Dean a far-left liberal is far from an accurate portrayal of the man’s record – and as this is primary season, I was afforded the opportunity to choose among a broad field of contenders. Had I been given my druthers, I would have seen either Dennis Kucinich or John Kerry run away and hide with the nomination. Which brings us to the old folk saying: “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.” In all electoral likelihood, it will be the former Governor of Vermont who will run away and hide with the nomination. No votes have been cast yet, and the official score in the primary race is still zero to zero to zero to zero to zero to zero to zero to zero. But if polling numbers in Iowa and New Hampshire are any indication, the front-loaded primary season designed by the folks at the DNC to pick a nominee as quickly as possible will be catapulting Dean into the driver’s seat well before pitchers and catchers report in for spring training. Dean’s campaign has been, for my money, one of the most remarkable electoral phenomena in recent memory. He has forever changed the face of American political campaigning with his use of Al Gore’s internet. His fundraising abilities have been second to none. He has captured the hearts of the ultra-liberal base, and pulled more than a few Greens along in his wake, while being a centrist budget hawk with a 100% approval rating from the NRA. Figure that one out and you’ve got a stellar dissertation for your Political Science PhD. Or maybe not. At the end of the day, there is one reason Howard Dean stands ready to grasp the brass ring in Boston. He stood up before the die-hard base of the Democratic Party before, and in the aftermath, of an unnecessary, criminal war. He stood up after two years of hide-the-ball from Bush and the boys regarding September 11. He stood up after that base had endured one of the most ruthless anti-liberal propaganda campaigns since Joe McCarthy held a key to the Congressional washroom. He stood up after this country got lied to again and again and again. He stood up within the confines of a mainstream news media structure that has done more to cover Bush’s backside than anyone could have possibly imagined. He stood up when too many of the other Democratic candidates sat on their hands and played it safe.
He stood up and roared, “I want my country back!”
fembot art Spiegel Catalog 1969 All color. All wild. If you are of the Austin Powers age you will likely think these images are "Groovey baby!" Others of you will gasp and turn try to turn away. But you can't. The horror won't let you go! Consider this your only warning. The pages before you are frightening stuff.
 [more] thanks to The J-Walk Weblog
blogs Two more blogs for the blog roll. First, a political blog... 'Just World News' by Helena Cobban Her most recent post (check out her other posts about her trip to China)... China, and the 'meanings' of Christmas In many of the places I went to during my recent visit to Beijing--and certainly, throughout the whole of Incheon airport, in South Korea--I found massive, very obtrusive manifestations of a certain view of "Christmas". In the Wangfujiang shopping district of Beijing there were huge inflatable Santas. Tinsel hung from every eave. In the lobby of our hotel, the smell of industrial-strength glue rose endlessly from a specially constructed little Christmas "hut", topped off with the requisite sheets of cotton-wool "snow". At its door, quite inexplicably, one or sometimes two young Chinese women stood in a glamorized version of a "Santa" outfit-- red satiny mini-dress, Santa hat, black boots-- doing as far as I could tell just about nothing except stand there self-consciously amidst the piles of pre-wrapped "Christmas presents" for hours on end. Were they also on offer as merchandise? Who knows? From the PA system, meanwhile, endless streams of Fa-la-la-la-la or Hark the Herald made up just about the entire repertoire of the week's muzak offerings. On one of my last days there, the CNN went out from the hotel-room cable offerings so I started flipping channels. Came on the local channel CCTV with a 20-minute rendering in English of local and world news. Quite well done, I thought. Afterwards, a magazine-type piece on the theme of "the growth of Christmas observance in today's China."
"More and more Chinese people are learning about the spirit of Christmas," the earnest announcer said, over shots of department store Santas, and of shoppers picking out red-and-green Christmas doodads from the shelves. "This enables us to learn more about western culture." And second, a new eye-candy blog... A link from life in the present...
Kodomo no kuni
 illustrated by Yasui Koyata Railway Bridge "Kodomo no kuni" 1931.12 [more]
safety art
Tegen Rampspoed en Risico
 [more] thanks to The Cartoonist
merry christmas, one and all
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What Are You Going to Do with 390 Photographs of Christmas Trees? I don't know. But it seemed the thing to do in that first week in January 1964, and I got two other people to join me. One of them wants to remain anonymous, and that's all right. I think we were still in shock over President Kennedy's assassination. Perhaps that had something to do with all those photographs of Christmas trees. The Christmas of 1963 looked terrible, illuminated by all the flags in America hanging at half-mast week after week in December in a tunnel of mourning. I was living by myself in a very strange apartment where I was taking care of an aviary for some people who were in Mexico. I fed the birds every day and changed bird water and had a little vacuum cleaner to tidy up the aviary when it was needed. I ate dinner by myself on Christmas day. I had some hot dogs and beans and drank a bottle of rum with Coca-Cola. It was a lonesome Christmas and President Kennedy's murder was almost like one of those birds that I had to feed every day. The only reason I am mentioning this is to kind of set the psychological frame for 390 photographs of Christmas trees. A person does not get into this sort of thing without sufficient motivation.
Late one evening I was walking home from visiting some people on Nob Hill. We had sat around drinking cup after cup of coffee until our nerves had become lionesque. I left around midnight and walked down a dark and silent street toward home, and I saw a Christmas tree abandoned next to a fire hydrant. thanks to consumptive.org
merry christmas Things have been crazy at Chez Coale. Zoe has been pretty pain free for that last month. Until Friday night when her stomach pains returned. This time, nothing has reduced the pain very much. This has kept me away from doing any posting and the next couple of days don't look any more promising. And it's kind of hard to be in a celebratory mood when you watch someone you love in that much pain. But here's trying... A Merry Christmas to all.
card art
 [more] thanks to Politics in the Zeros
christmas
Scenes From the Smith Family Christmas
 This is a picture of my father and me, Christmas 1980 or thereabouts. Across his chest and my bottom there is the faint pink, inverted watermark of postal instructions — something about a card, and then "stamp here." Hanging from the tree like a decoration is yet more mirror-writing, this time from my own pen. Does it say "Nothing"? Or maybe "Letting"? I've ruined this photo. I don't understand why I can't take better care of things like this. It's an original, I have no negative, yet I allowed it to sit for months in a pile of mail on my open windowsill. Finally the photo got soaked, imprinted with the text of phone bills and Post-it notes. I felt sick wedging it inside my O.E.D. to stop the curling.
But I also felt the weird relief which comes from knowing that the inevitable destruction of precious things, though done in your house, was not done by your hand. What is that? Christmas, childhood, the past, families, fathers, regret of all kinds — no one wants to be the Grinch who steals these things, but you leave the door open with the hope he might come in and relieve you of your heavy stuff. And my God, Christmas is heavy.
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