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opinion is the raison d'etre of wut. it is reflected in our decisions about what we see as important that is expressible in our medium.

even just to judge something important is before all else to judge it.

we try to opine as a service, but we do it because its what we believe.

we don't talk our own book. Well, sometimes we may. we are not shy of our own open interests.

 
 * dane2010
 * publisher

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where does the money go?
"OMG the governments of the world have run amoc and now can't continue the promises they have made." How is it that we are surprised that this is happening?

This has become a season for "reform", though like "change" from another season, it is not univocal. in s spirit of reform then we have a modest and swift proposal for change. Please Chairman Ryan hear our call!

Require all governmental units to, beginning in the first quarter after the enactment of The Government Reporting Act, report to the public in the same form that public companies follow, including:


 * quarterly and annual reporting, incorporating financial statements, income statement, balance sheet and statement of cashflows, according to FASB GAAP not GASB GAAP


 * proxy statements, including all personal financial disclosure, including all post-employment obligations and pensions, all material contracts

Compliance can be enforced by a group within the SEC reporting to a Special Master, an presidential appointment confirmed by the Senate. Breach of these responsibilities will be treated exactly as in the case of public companies. A trip to the big house. Rooming with Bernie.

Who is responsible for the financial/economic mess in nations around the world today?

We are. Citizens and voters. Time to change our behaviour. Demand clear financial reporting accessible to anyone who can read financial statements. Now. Before any more of this continues. Establish where we stand and make a mechanism to measure and track from this day forward.

And pay attention. why were you surprised by this mess?

It's worth it. It would be beyond price to the citizens in their efforts to control government. And for that matter for governments to learn to control themselves. What help the federal government is willing to give to the smaller units should be conditioned on these terms. It makes good banking sense.

_____________________________________________

GASB: governmental accounting standards board

FASB: financial accounting standards board

Securities Act of 1933 - the most successful federal regulation in history. why are governments exempt?


 * wikipedia summary of the '33 Act - Securities_Act_of_1933


 * the law itself

what apple should do - the elevator pitch
any child anywhere in the world is an education away from his or her dreams.

a lot of people on the street buzz about apple's treasure chest and what should be done about it. some dream of the cash being used to goose one of the dreamer's existing positions - like apple buys time warner. i doubt it. $50 billion deals involve swarms of board room maneuverers, sleek cruisers (remember john scully - steve does).

i expect jobs is restless to add some new dimension to the great game. something that would further burn apple into the consciousness of the human race. to that end i have a modest proposal.

apple has a service that grows out of itunes. itunesU. it is on the apple store home page. a little tab past music and videos and movies. it is a growing portfolio of podcasts of courseware from k-12 through graduate schools in discipline after discipline and topic after topic, from languages to cosmology to gardening and poetry. courses from Stanford, MIT, Cambridge, the University of New Mexico and more and more. they are free. they can be downloaded on any pc or mac anywhere in the world. they ride on ipods and ipads and iphones. they are a staggering resource.

build on it.

fund a new apple branch. call it theLearningTree for the moment. it is a project/business segment that creates and fosters the creation of learning materials for the human race. all of us. and as a side effect makes apple an intimate trusted friend of humans everywhere henceforth. it creates enormous incremental wealth for its customers.

the first thing theLearningTree does is create, in parallel, a cutting edge software platform for learners(theBook), the gui for learning from the perspective of the student, and a cutting edge learning ware authoring environment (thePen) to optimize the process of creating and maintaining and replacing and saving pieces and gobs of knowledge.

once a stable revision of theBook and thePen are available (target 1.5 yr from go), theLearningTree launches content production projects for k-12 and the core of undergrad and grad education ( the union of 4 years of course catalogs of a major university). In English, Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic and Swahili to start. Suppose there are 500 course units and they have to be translated into 4 languages.there are many diverse jobs here and they pay well. people will beg for these jobs and be honored by them.

suppose each course was budgeted for $500,000 for the first year and $200,000 for annual maintenance and update. $250 million in the first year and $100 million per year thereafter. for translation assume $100,000 and $50,000 per year per language. another $200 million and $100 million in the outyears. peanuts. it will create staggering wealth.

what can be done by an educated world? anything.

it will allow apple to co-evolve the general computing environment, hardware, software, system software and other tools at a pace that gives them the technological advantage of being the innovation leader.

the learning systems will be available to children. they are the first and most natural reciepients of learning because in a sense it is their full time job. kids need facts. they also need skills. and habits and civic virtues. kids need training too. to read, write, calculate, communicate. humans want things better for their kids.

but the nature of our times is change. inescapably. it is what the struggles in the world are about.

with change comes massive dislocation of adult populations. populations that have largely demonstrated their abilities to master some set of skills. that the past is indeed past need not deter such men and women from adapting to change. They can learn what they did not know before, by mastering what has never been mastered before.

Boomers can learn. we invented much of this stuff in the first place. read nelson's essay in the first whole earth catalog. the new world is new. it will become a succession of changes, improvements to the lot of all men and wommen we hope and promise. let the help the parents walk with their children into the new world. we can all learn if we but will it. theLearningTree is a tool to that end.

make it cheap. free would be best. you are manufacturing brand with this.don't kill the goose. feed it. grow it. create cashflow by innovation.

a key part of theLearningTree is continuous improvement. each year theLearningTree makes it better inch by inch. inovating content, pedagogy, technology. til the end of time. each generation learning, the best we can make it, and always getting better.

make it insanely great and way cool. make learning so much fun some get addicted. learning interventions. learners anonymous.

doable. easily.

staggering impact on the human race in the next century. for the good.

the learning tree. get back to me, steve.

apple and apple store and itunesU and apple stock

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Advice to the Um'mah
Crusaders in North Africa.

Another Muslim land under attack.

Imperialist fingers.

or

A sickness ignored by its neighbors til the stink draws Western Europe.

Solution:

drive off the madman and hope for the best.

You break it you own it?

Nah.

It was broke when we got here.

Just put out the fire.

They own it.

They decide.

They fix it.

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