Oh the HUMANITY!

Has it crossed no one's mind the many things we should be doing as an "intelligent species" for planning to survive even natural changes to our environment. Why did we rebuild New Orleans - I love the town but it's a miracle to have survived as long as it has. According to the scientists, it is only a matter of time before NO sinks from rising seas (assuming that is good science); never mind another hurricane...

Do you think that Native Americans perhaps avoided certain areas b/c of the weather? Consider Cape May, New Jersey the vast majority of the original Victorian Town was swallowed by the seas after decades of hurricanes. Over the last 15 years more than 100 $1m homes have been built but only after the beaches were rebuilt at great cost. There hasn't been a memorable NW hurricane is more than 30 years (probably 40) yet weather is more unpredictable and severe...really? It's going to happen just as it likely soon will in New Orleans. The Dutch seem to realize this all to well but they have an advantage...they have always thrived at holding back the sea and started taking action against potential rising seas years ago.

Fresh water is quickly becoming one of the most scarce and expensive resources in the world. Good water is more expensive than gasoline, on average, throughout the world.

Still we build, still we consume, with fewer people considering the long-term consequences of their action/inaction and no sense of human stewardship for our world. America is wandering around in a drunken, credit-induced stupor that is bankrupting us and we're trying to drag the rest of the world with us.

Road engineers and urban planners know bigger wider roads increase traffic congestion and the number of cars over time (the vast majority of which only have one person), yet we won't properly invest in mass transit, carpool and ride bikes.
This knowledge comes from good science where there is no relationship between the road builders and the academics. Unlike most other sciences where zeitgeist and funding predetermine outcome of course.

Why does Congress continue to mismanage Social Security and AARP merely endorses and proposes policies that exacerbate the situation? Why do we continue to allow 70% of welfare programs budget to support administration? There isn't a single thing our government is good (efficiently delivering value) at doing. We even spend to much money killing people...whether they are enemies or not.

Look around - we are suffering from a failure of ethics, a societal inability to postpone gratification (making proper management and good decisions nearly impossible), and a catastrophic inability to balance individual and corporate needs. The fast-food, drive-thru, college-for-everyone, culture of America that has equated networth with societal value. We have a systemic problem.

Perhaps the USA is irrevocably broken and will crumble like the Roman Empire. Perhaps with a bigger crisis than the financial one of the past two years we will be pressed to a solution. Or perhaps we will change on our own with our superior intellect - we are more than animals aren't we?

I think to resurrect America we must align our personal and federal actions with the spirit and thoughtfulness (strategically planning for the future) at the heart of this great country. Each and everyone of us needs to stop being so selfish and learn to play well with others. We, the whole country, need to build a sustainable economy in which people have hope in a future work-life and are connected to their community - where they live not their race or religion. From church to school to business, lives need to be more interconnected. How hard is it really to car pool with neighbors/coworkers to work? This builds friendships, saves gas/money/C02, reduces highway congestion & peoples' stress; yet people won't do it - reflecting pure selfishness & shortsightedness. Generally I don't even think people know their neighbors anymore b/c they are commuting so far and stretched so thin for time.

My point here is that we can change our lives and our world for the better with thoughtful and considerate action in our lives and community. This will help sustain the earth and our humanity. America can come third.

iPhone Revolution

The revolutionary development of the iPhone's design and market are detailed in the article. Jobs' foresight, while not quite awe inspiring, is remarkable and his timing impeccable. The biggest revelation is the negotiating power the Apple brand posses. Essentially, Apple is making $320 on day one of a purchase. While AT&T's payback is quite a bit longer. The article speculates that Apple might have revolutionized the mobile phone design process and importance of electronics firms.

Personally I question the ability of these firms to deliver a device with the elegance in form and function. Even if they were able to deliver something 200% better than the iPhone it's not likely to be as successful because Apple delivers the entire personal digital platform. Assuming Apple can find a model that works for the recording industry and themselves, they could easily dominate entertainment delivery for a long while. With convergence of entertainment and computing devices in both home theater and PDP sectors, Apple might grow to dominate home entertainment and become a rival to Sony.

The question might quickly concern who can mount some competition. Where can a competitive alliance emerge? Most of silicon valley firms with financial ability lack technical know how for consumer devices. And no one has the platform to do this. The two most likely fronts for competition are open source and Microsoft. Only MSFT has the platform and experience with consumer devices, though that experience is very mixed between the Xbox 360 and the Zune. Many might recall Microsoft's tabletop touch sensitive prototype from the Surface group.

Given the well documented shortcomings of Vista, Zune, etc., it's easy to doubt MSFT''s ability to execute; and what kind of lousy draw is the MSFT platform these days. What is more interesting is to consider and speculate where decent competition might come from. The most promising challenger in the open source (Free and Open Source Software - FOSS) is Ubuntu but Linspire failed (why didn't they form a partnership with a company like Sony or Panasonic - now Asus has filled the space); personally I think LG could deliver a solid platform...

The reality though is that the window has closed. RedHat opently admits they are abandoning the desktop for now and rightly so. Apple has taken the opportunity for unix on the desktop with their Darwin BSD based OS X. I think at this point we'll need some serious missteps from Apple or a genuinely unique approach to this market. It's quite conceivable that a consumer platform could arise out of China using Red Flag and local manufacturing know how to produce a rival personal digital platform. HOwever, Apple has no doubt created their offerings with multi-lingual capabilities that encompass Mandarin and these devices are relatively cheap - iPhones are being sold in Europe for $199.