I’m surrounded by aging issues.  The CFCC Public Policy Institute is wrapping up its recommendations for a community response to access to health care.  The Gerontology Symposium speakers today spoke about the aging population, the Baby Boomers, and the “waves” of population shifts.  Baby Boomers (like me) will be a force to be reckoned with as we will be more educated, more demanding, live longer, be more likely to do more things after/in retirement, and the information goes on and on.  I’m turning 60 next year and I think ...

Today I visited teslamotors.com and was impressed!  Tesla Motors is an up and coming California startup developing and producing the first truly high performance electric sports car (see http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php?js_enabled=1 ). The car, the Tesla Roadster, is making quite a stir. The Tesla Roadster is capable of 0-60 acceleration in close to 4.0 seconds and has the completely cool sports car look, matching its world-class performance. The look and performance place it in the same rarefied strata as legendary $300,000 autos bu ...

In a recent online chat with our business school team, worldwide directors noted the importance of delivering both “hard” and “soft” skills knowledge to business students.  Many of the directors (who also happen to be in my generation) believed that we do not place adequate emphasis on the development of people skills in educating our future business leaders.   Younger directors didn’t particularly perceive a problem and thought we needed to place more emphasis on the hard skills courses (statistics, research, etc.)  To our d ...

I don’t need an alarm any more. With the promise of spring came an intruder in the early morning hours and continuing throughout the day. A bright red cardinal has taken possession of a particular branch of my trimmed crepe myrtle and gazes at my office window nearby. At random intervals the cardinal takes rapid flight straight into the window, strikes it sharply with his beak, then again, then again, and flies back to the branch. This three part attack on the window pane occurs for quarter and half-hours at a time. I’ve done the on-line research on this pesky bird and have tried the suggested remedies. Sheets of tin foil hang at random heights in front of the window, silhouettes of hawks are taped to the window pane, a plastic owl sits nestled in the knuckles of the same crepe myrtle. None of these has deterred the bird. It seems that the male cardinal, in a territorial battle, has discovered the male invader in my window. That primal instinct does not acc ...

Newscasters have commented abut how poised the Virginia Tech witnesses are in their accounts of the event.  Certainly they are courageous.  Some had the presence of mind to document with cell phone photos.  Others took desperate measures to survive.  No doubt, some of the quiet composure is the effect of shock and trauma,

But, I wonder if some of the objectivity of the accounts is fortified by the generation's exposure to violence, the media, and the plethora of crime scenes processed and autopsies performed on prime time television nightly.  I admit I am one who can watch every version of Law and Order and every city of CSI until I believe I could process a crime scene myself.

Is anybody with me?

Who hasn’t been to a garage sale? Until recently I had been to maybe a handful–although I held a few huge ones preparing for big moves. A newfound delight, I am deriving heaps of pleasure and finding wonderful treasures by going to yard/garage sales and flea markets. I don’t think Marion county is any different than many others when it comes to the reprocessing of goods and discards. What does surprise me is that second hand merchandise is the lifeblood of many, many "merchants." The professional buyers scramble to garage sales early Friday morning and scoop up anything they believe will resell at flea markets, thrift or consignment stores, or on ebay at a higher price.

As I see it, the business of second-hand goods serves many useful functions. It provides a source of income to people willing to buy and sell in what I would consider a precarious environment, made that way by the unpredictableness of the avai ...

The dentist’s office called today to remind me of my yearly  check up.  It’s one of many annual courtesy calls, letters, and emails I receive reminding me to get up off my copay and come on in.  Now, Charmin didn’t call to tell me I need toilet paper, Kellogg didn’t call me to see if my strategic cereal reserve was running low, and GE knows that I will know if I need a light bulb.  The practice of medical s ...

Maybe it is just me.  I’m suspicious of the motives behind the scenes regarding the latest Don Imus fiasco.  Is he a curmudgeon (as some people refer to him) gone awry or is he extremely good at what he does which is to stir controversy?  He knows the rules under which he operates.  I’m thinking ratings will shoot up, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will have a new venue and menu for debate, and talk show hosts will have guests debating for days about freedom of speech, FCC regulations, our values, etc.

One of the major problems that most employers face is not the ability to find employees that possess or are able to learn the skills needed to perform a job; but rather, the ability to find people who are able to engage in the appropriate behaviors associated with the job.  Employers are looking for workers with strong emotional and social intelligence; workers with good work ethics, commitment, pride, dependability, interpersonal skills,  respect, just to name a few.  If these are the traits and skills that employers are seeking, then why aren’t we teaching them as well instead of just concentrating on developing cognitive intellige ...