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Until There are More Women in Positions of Leadership and Influence… – More Reflections Prompted by Lean In
{I presented my synopsis of Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg yesterday at the Urban Engagement Book Club, sponsored by CitySquare. This book club deals with issues of social justice, poverty, equality. Lean In was a good choice. This post is prompted by the after-synopsis discussion}.
Even in places where equality seems to be taken seriously, women are still behind…
Here are short excerpts from Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg:
Women became 50 percent of the college graduates in the United States in the early 1980s. Despite these gains, the percentage of women at the top of corporate America has barely budged over the past decade.
A meager twenty-one of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women.
Women hold about 14 percent of executive officer positions, 17 percent of board seats, and constitute 18 percent of our elected congressional officials. …even worse for women of color, who hold just 4 percent of top corporate jobs, 3 percent of board seats, and 5 percent of congressional seats.
By 2010, women had protested, fought, and worked their butts off to raise that compensation to 77 cents for every dollar men made.
I was speaking to an associate minister in a large Methodist church – a female associate minister. She is gifted; talented, a fine preacher. Methodists seem to take gender equality seriously. I asked her how many of the larger, influential Methodist churches have female Senior Pastors (the "head minister" in such organizations). Her answer – practically none. Even though a large and growing percentage of ministers in the denomination are now women.
The progress is slow…
This underrepresentation at top levels is evident in most arenas, and if you will keep attuned to it, you will read that women are underrepresented in Silicon Valley, Wall Street, the heads of important committees in Congress… everywhere.
And, that's just the "equality" issue here in our country. Throughout the world, there are places where girls and women are abused, raped, killed… It is seemingly so common place that we almost "ignore" the news. In such places, forget equality, it's almost survival that is the issue.
I suspect that it will take a lot of women, in higher positions of authority and responsibility, throughout the world, in business and in government, to begin to be able to exert enough pressure to bring about needed change in such places where the "gender" issue can practically be an issue of life and death.
I don't have a solution to any of this. I have presented synopses of a number of books calling for the rise of women into greater positions of leadership and responsibility in the workplace – books like Lean In, and Womenomics, and Knowing Your Value, and others.
But, if we pay attention, we see that the progress on this front is so very slow. And so, the books need to continue to be written, and women and men should read them. You know the old formula – consciousness raising that leads to action…
After Lean In was published, John Chambers, the CEO of Cisco, after reading the book. required every senior to manager read it, and then actively promote women into senior management positions. If only a critical mass of CEOs in such influential positions took the same steps…
Footnote: in this month's New York Times Business Books Best Sellers List, two of the ten books are written by women. We have presented one of the two at the First Friday Book Synopsis, #GIRLBOSS, which Karl Krayer presented. We have presented synopses of most of the best selling business books written by women over the last few years. But, in business books, as elsewhere, women authors are underrepresented in the best sellers lists.
You can purchase my synopsis of Lean In, Womenomics, and Knowing Your Value, and Karl's synopsis of #GIRLBOSS, at our companion site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com. Each synopsis comes with our multi-page, comprehensive handouts, and the audio recording of our presentations.
Lin O'Neill Speaks at December 5 Book Synopsis
We are excited about our guest speaker at the December 5 First Friday Book Synopsis. Substituting for me will be Lin O'Neill, who has presented at our synopsis several times.
Lin is an effective and innovative consultant, trainer, speaker and coach with significant experience in strategy development and implementation, entrepreneurship, transition planning, cross-functional teams, change management and process improvement.
The book she presents is a best-seller by Seth Godin, entitled V is for Vulnerable: Life Outside the Comfort Zone (New York: Portfolio, 2012). V is for Vulnerable looks and feels like a classic picture book. But it's not for kids, it's for hardworking adults. It highlights twenty-six of Seth Godin's principles about treating your work as a form of art, with illustrations by acclaimed cartoonist Hugh MacLeod.
Godin is the author of 17 books that have been bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than 35 languages. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. You might be familiar with his books Linchpin, Tribes, The Dip and Purple Cow.
In addition to his writing and speaking, Seth is founder of squidoo.com, a fast growing, easy to use website. His blog (which you can find by typing "seth" into Google) is one of the most popular in the world. Before his work as a writer and blogger, Godin was Vice President of Direct Marketing at Yahoo!, a job he got after selling them his pioneering 1990s online startup, Yoyodyne.
In 2013, Godin was inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame, one of three chosen for this honor.
Don't miss this synopsis. You can register by clicking here.
Six Questions to Discuss with Your Leadership Team – Prompted by This Era of Perpetual Innovation
Sometimes, you just need to pull your team aside for a good discussion…
So, I was asked to help come up with some discussion questions about this era of perpetual innovation. These might be useful for any leadership team "let's think about things" discussion.
#1 – How have our personal lives changed because of new technology? What changes do you think are coming "right around the corner?"
#2 – How have our work habits changed because of new technology? What changes do you think are coming next/soon?
#3 – What kinds of jobs are in danger of being lost/replaced by technological innovations?
#4 – How does the "always on" technological reality endanger work-life balance issues?
#5 – What are our customers needing from us next that technological innovation might help us deliver in a better way? In other words, where/how do we need to innovate by adapting new technology?
#6 – So, if this is truly a perpetually innovating age, especially with technology innovation, is our company innovative enough? (Are we an innovative company? An "early adopter" company? An early majority, or a late majority company? A "laggard" company? Why do you put us in the category you put us in?)
You could probably come up with six better questions. Or, at least, add to or edit these. But, the discussion could definitely be valuable. And, I've got a hunch that this is a discussion to have on a pretty regular basis.
What questions would you use for your discussion?
The News is Filled with Stories of Incivility, and Worse – A Sad Reminder from M. Scott Peck
I wish to resurrect and redefine the meaning of civility. This is necessary for the healing of our society. What is civility? Politeness and good manners are designed to avoid hurting people's feelings. But I began to arrive at a better definition of civility…
Genuine civility is in part consciously motivated organizational behavior…
It seems we may live in a society that has almost forgotten the glory of what it means to be human.
We are in need of healing.
Scott Peck, A World Waiting to be Born: Civility Rediscovered
This is something of a sad rant…
I'm having trouble thinking about all this…
Do you ever feel like the world is filled with jerks? By people who missed their "be polite" training lessons? People whose mothers would be ashamed of them?
I'm not talking about people who "fail," who give in to weaknesses, but are ashamed of themselves when they do.
I'm talking about people who seem to have lost all sense of restraint, and who really seem to think that they can treat other people like… well, like they're not actually human beings worthy of respect and kindness.
What's wrong with these people?
At the moment, I'm reflecting not just on the genuinely, truly evil, who literally cut people's heads off. That's another whole difficult issue.
But, today, I'm thinking about stories like the one about the executive from Uber who really should be fired and go back to a multi-year "be civil" training program; and the growing mountain of allegations against Bill Cosby. Heartbreaking!
{Here's just a little slice of the current Uber problem, from this NY Times article:
Uber's latest scandal is a doozy: A top executive of the ride service reportedly described a Nixonian plan to dig up dirt on journalists who criticize it and sully their reputations.
But there is a bigger story here that goes far beyond Uber: With the power that comes from being a big, important company comes great responsibility. And the culture of technology start-ups sometimes has trouble recognizing that.}
And I get sick at my stomach at the tone and vocabulary of many who tweet and leave comments all over the web in words that would embarrass any mother around.
What's wrong with these people?
As M. Scott Peck put it, we are in need of healing…
A Short Update about our Monthly Event, the First Friday Book Synopsis, and our 15minutebusinessbooks site
Just a short update about our monthly event, the First Friday book Synopsis.
Karl Krayer and I have presented our book synopses at the First Friday Book Synopsis in Dallas every month since April, 1998. 24 books a year, over 16 years.
We read business books, create multi-page comprehensive handouts, and then present our 15-17 minute synopses, following along with our handouts.
We have presented most of the best business best sellers over the last 16+ years. For the past few years, we have recorded our presentations, and made them available on our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com. When you purchase a synopsis, you receive the handout, and the audio recording of our presentations. (You can, of course, listen on your smart phone or tablet, your computer, or in your car if you hook up your phone to your sound system).
Each synopsis costs $9.99. Or, you can purchase a subscription, which gives you all the new synopses for the coming twelve months, along with all of the archived selections. In other words, the entire collection is available with a subscription.
And, one of our regular participants, Doug Caldwell, makes video recordings of many of our presentations. These are not available for purchase, but he puts "snippets" (teasers) up on youtube. These will give you a taste of each synopsis, and a feel for our event. (We meet each month at the Park City Club in University Park in Dallas. Great view of the city; really wonderful full buffet breakfast, plus their made-to-order omelet bar). You can view these videos at:
Here is the playlist for FFBS.
Here is the playlist for 15 Minute Business Books.
(Thanks, Doug).
And, of course, you can attend our monthly event. (Register here). It is an early morning breakfast meeting, 7:00 am, the First Friday of every month (except, in 2015, it will be on the 2nd Friday in January and July – holiday conflicts on the first friday).
If you want to keep up with some of the key content in the best business books, give us a try.
Benedict Carey: Part 2 of an interview by Bob Morris
Benedict J. Carey is a science reporter for The New York Times who focuses on brain and behavior topics. He writes about neuroscience, psychiatry and neurology, as well as everyday psychology. The territory includes the large and the small, memory molecules and group behavior, narcissism and nostalgia, drug uses and drug addiction. From 2007 to 2010, he was the Mind columnist for Science Times, where he wrote about pranks, binge drinking, boredom, regret, perfectionism, study habits and Super Bowl anxiety, among other things.
Carey joined The Times in 2004 as a behavior writer. Previously, he worked at The Los Angeles Times, writing about health, medicine and brain science, where he won a University of Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Award for a story on drinking water. Before that, he was a freelance magazine writer, and a staff writer for Health magazine in San Francisco. He began his career at American Shipper, a trade book in New York covering the shipping trade. He writes frequently for the Review section of the paper and has written two books, both science mysteries for middle-school aged kids: Island of the Unknowns (previously titled The Unknowns in hardback), a math adventure; and Poison Most Vial, a murder mystery involving forensic toxicology due out this spring. His latest book, How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens, was published by Random House (September 2014).
Here is an excerpt from Part 2 of my interview of Ben. To read all of it, please click here.
* * *
Morris: When and why did you decide to write How to Learn?
Carey: I had covered the area – the cognitive science of learning – for years, and saw how counter-intuitive and little known it was. No one gets a course on How to Learn, and we all should. I realized I had the background and the access to deliver the story in all its pieces – biology, theory, experimental findings – and to tie it all together into one big idea: the brain as forager. I was excited about telling the story, and felt a professional obligation.
Morris: Were there any head-snapping revelations while writing it? Please explain.
Carey: Yes, the many dimensions of forgetting, that was wonderful. So often we think of forgetting as the enemy. But no, it's the greatest friend of learning, allowing us to acquire new skills while also 'banking' the old ones for future use.
Morris: To what extent (if any) does the book in final form differ significantly from what you originally envisioned?
Carey: It has more of myself in it than I expected. I thought I would let the science do the talking but in the end we are all experts on psychology and learning to some extent – and doing plausibility checks on the information put me in the book a lot. I was, in a sense, speaking for the reader.
Morris: Of all that you learned about how we learn, what did you find most surprising? Please explain.
Carey: Pre-testing was great. Take the final exam on the first day – and do better on the real final. The way front-loading information that is foreign and make it more digestible later on.
Morris: You provide a number of tools in this book. Which seems to be the most difficult to master? Why?
Carey: The most difficult to deploy may be perceptual learning – training up your instincts quickly, in sports, games, music, math. That takes some up-front work and it's the kind of thing we're used to doing very slowly.
Morris: You suggest that, "if the brain is a learning machine, then it's an eccentric one. And it performs best when its quirks are exploited. " Please explain.
Carey: The brain is a machine, a clump of cells. It has evolved to learn what is most valuable to survival, and just telling it, "Here, learn this," is not enough to deepen learning. It needs to be *shown* that something is important, by spaced use, by use in all environments, by continual self-testing – all the techniques in the book. The 'conscious mind' whatever that is, can't just give orders. *Using* information and skills is what tells the machine the stuff is important.
* * *
To read all of Part 2, please click here.
To read Part 1, please click here.
To read my review of How We Learn, please click here.
Ben cordially invites you to check out these websites:
The How We Learn Amazon link
New York Times link
NPR interview link
Scientific American review link
Buckle Up for the Exponential Organization – Insight from Salim Ismail (Global Ambassador for Singularity University)
So, there are times when I feel like a horse and buggy in a Tesla world. And, it's pretty scary.
I think I get the main point. The world is changing – a lot – fast! – faster than ever before.
And, the pace of change is only going to accelerate.
But, there are times when I feel like it is simply impossible to keep up.
I have presented synopses of many books on creativity and change and innovation. I know all about paradigm shifts (thanks to Thomas Kuhn, and his popularizer Joel Barker), and disruptive technologies and the inescapable disruption (thanks to Clayton Christensen).
But… it looks like we haven't seen anything yet.
That's pretty much the summary of a recent call from Jim Young. You'd have to know Jim to understand. He knows the trends as well as (better than!) anyone I know. He called to tell me to read two books. One, recently published; the other, coming in February. He had just been to a conference where he heard the two authors speak.
When Jim calls to tell me to check out a book, I pretty much have to drop everything else and check it out. And so I did. I immediately downloaded the sample pages of Exponential Organizations: Why new organizations are ten times better, faster, and cheaper than yours (and what to do about it) by Salim Ismail.
Here are a few quotes/excerpts from the sample pages:
Congratulations on the successes that got you to this point in your career, but let me forewarn you that those skills are already out of date.
In today's corporate world there is a new breed of institutional organism – the Exponential Organization – loose on Earth, and if you don't understand it, prepare for it, and ultimately, become it, you will be disrupted.
Today the constant is change, and the rate of change is increasing.
The 6Ds: Digitized, Deceptive, Disruptive, Dematerialize, Demonetize and Democratize.
That's just a sampling from the sample pages. The author, Salim Ismail, is one of the founding executive directors of and now Global Ambassador for Singularity University (building on the work of Ray Kurzweil).
In other words, this guy is on the cutting edge of the cutting edge.
So… here's my reaction. I think things are changing so fast that our organizational abilities are being outstripped. We don't yet know how to keep up with keeping up.
And, yes, now I have another full book to read to help me hopefully, at least partially, grasp just what is going on.
Thanks Jim – I think…
If The People You Lead/Serve/Lead Do Not Grow as Persons, You are Failing as a Leader
Crucial to good practice in leadership is the understanding that what we intend to be determines what we are able to do…
Larry Spears, in his introduction to his book of essays on servant leadership, Reflections on Leadership: How Robert Greenleaf's Theory of Servant Leadership Influenced Today's Management Thinkers
Here's an interesting observation. Robert Greenleaf was a member of the Religious Society of Friends (a Quaker). And, that Robert Greenleaf was the "father" of the entire concept, which became something of a movement, known as Servant Leadership. Who he was shaped what he became which shaped his leadership philosophy.
So, look at the quote at the top: "what we intend to be determines what we are able to do."
Do you ever wonder how people who traffic in some form of deception live with themselves? The other day, after about my tenth call in a month that began with the words "Hello, I'm from the computer department," I asked the nameless voice "what computer department?" I fairly politely told the voice that I wasn't interested, and hung up. But, this phone approach implies that somehow he was representing the computer department in my company, or some company that I have contracted with. It started with deception.
My wife recently fell victim to the latest magazine subscription scam. She was charged for magazines she did not sign up for, and now she is trying to get her money back. I think she will – but, it will take some time, and effort, and more than a little frustration. (Read about one version of this here).
So… what kind of person participates in this kind of work? What kind of leader hires and trains these people? How do they sleep at night? How do they live with themselves? (I wish they would bring me in to present my synopsis of Servant Leadership).
Now, these aren't close to the worst people in our society. (We sadly live in a world with the really bad… consider the actions of ISIS).
But, I spent some time reading more about Servant Leadership this weekend. I came away with a sense of sadness. I have too much exposure to leadership books and business books about building successful organizations that focus on winning, profits, dominance in a competitive arena, all with so little attention given to this kind of concern:
The best test is: do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, not be further deprived?
(Read my earlier blog post Servant Leadership – Start with Robert Greenleaf's Original; All that Follows is Commentary and Elaboration).
If our companies and organizations and institutions are not concerned, and concerned first and always, with helping the people they serve "grow as persons," then we've got a great and sad deficiency in our thinking, don't you think?
Frederic Laloux: Part 2 of an interview by Bob Morris
After I read Frederic Laloux's brilliant book, Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness, I was curious to know more about him and learned of his passionate commitment to helping leaders in almost any organization — whatever its size and nature may be — to explore fundamentally new ways of organizing resources (especially people) to achieve and then sustain excellence. One of the keys to that is creating a workplace culture within which personal growth and professional development are most likely to thrive.
Reinventing Organizations draws on two strands:
o Frederick's deep understanding of the inner workings of organizations, which he developed among other during the years he worked as an organization and strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company
o His longstanding fascination with the topic of human development and his own joyful journey of personal and spiritual growth.
He has worked intimately with people at all levels of organizations. He has witnessed how the organizations that make up the fabric of our modern lives (large corporations and small businesses, hospitals and schools, nonprofits and government agencies) are for the most part places of quiet and pervasive suffering, places inhospitable to the deeper yearnings of our souls. The intuition that more is possible—that we must be capable of creating truly soulful organizations that invite all of our human potential into the workplace—has led him to engage into groundbreaking research: how a currently emerging, new form of consciousness is bringing forth a radically more soulful, purposeful, and productive organizational model.
Reinventing Organizations was published by Kendall Parker (February 2014). It is based on extensive research and has been variously described as "groundbreaking," "brilliant," "spectacular," "impressive," and "world-changing" by some of the most respected scholars in the field of human development.
Frederic lives in Brussels, Belgium, where he is blessed to share his life with his wife, Hélène, and their two children.
Here is an excerpt from Part 2 of my interview of him. To read all of it, please click here.
* * *
Morris: Were there any head-snapping revelations while writing Reinventing Organizations? Please explain.
Laloux: A few. For instance, I was very aware of organizations that are values-driven, and that use this to empower people, to push decision-making as low as possible down the pyramid. This is what I was expecting to find in the organizations I was going to research. I didn't expect for a minute to find very large organizations that didn't just empower people, but operated entirely on self-managing principles, without layers of hierarchy!
I was still operating under the assumption that you can't run a large organization without power hierarchy. Now, of course, I know better! I've come to see that hierarchy can only deal with limited complexity. And that organizations that want to cope with the increasing complexity of our world will naturally shift to more powerful mechanisms than those based on power hierarchy, of some people holding power over other people.
Another insight had to do with strategy. The current paradigm concerning strategy still made total sense to me before I did the research. In this paradigm the role of leadership is set a vision, define a strategy, and then execute that strategy. Vision, strategy, execution. How else could you do it, right?
And then I came across the leaders of some organizations that I researched who said: No, that's bullshit (well, they didn't quite say it that way). Vision, strategy, execution makes sense if you consider the organization to be a lifeless, inanimate entity.
If the organization is like a boat, then yes, the boat needs a captain that charts a course, and then sailors that get busy setting the sails in the right way to go in the right direction. But we don't consider the organization to be a boat, an inanimate thing we need to direct.
We consider the organization to be like a living entity, we consider that it has its own sense of direction, its own energy, its own thing it wants to manifest in the world. So our role is not to arbitrarily set a direction. Instead, our role is to listen to the organization, listen deeply to where it wants to go. And then we dance with it to help it get there.
Morris: To what extent (if any) does the book in final form differ significantly from what you originally envisioned?
Laloux: There were a few unexpected insights, like the ones I just shared. But for the rest, the book in its final structure is very similar to what I had first sketched out on a piece of paper. Overall, the process of researching and writing this book has been surprisingly straightforward. In many ways, I felt like many things were falling in place naturally, like some forces were helping me to write the book.
Morris: In your opinion, from which organization's reinvention can the most valuable lessons be learned in terms of do's and don'ts? Please explain.
Laloux: As you know, I have come across three major breakthroughs in how these organizations operate. Now not all organizations have stumbled upon all three of them. Buurtzorg, the Dutch nursing organization, that grew from 0 to 8,000 people in 7 years, is in my opinion the one organization that comes closest to having implemented all three breakthroughs. So they might be a particularly good source of inspiration.
But then again, it all depends on what kind of organization you are. Buurtzorg operates in an industry with a very short process. Giving a patient a shot or changing a bandage is a much shorter process than, say, designing and manufacturing hydraulics valves. So if you want to implement some of these ideas in a factory, you might find inspiration with Sun Hydraulics in Florida, FAVI in France or Morning Star in California.
An organization like Morning Star has fine-tuned the breakthrough of self-management to a wonderful degree, but hasn't worked much on the other two. So what I've tried to do is to draw a picture that would be as complete as possible, using pieces of the puzzle from all the organizations I researched.
* * *
To read all of Part 2, please click here.
To read Part 1, please click here.
Frederic cordially invites you check out the resources at these websites:
Reinventing Organization's website link
Amazon link
Integral Life conversation with Ken Wilber link
LinkedIn link
YouTube link
Tony Schwartz review in New York Times link
Servant Leadership – Start with Robert Greenleaf's Original; All that Follows is Commentary and Elaboration
Randy, could you give me a few books or maybe the best book on servant leadership that you have come across?
That question came from a Dallas Police Officer, who has attended some training sessions we've put on for the DPD through the Caruth Institute. It's a very good question.
I recently heard a student speech on "Bullying." The student failed to include a critical piece of information. That information: a good definition of "bullying." After he finished, I read the definition of "bullying" from the dictionary to him and the class, and then the definition of "ridicule," and told him that his speech was actually more about ridicule than it was about bullying.
Words matter. Concepts matter. And the phrase servant leaderhsip has a history – a beginning point. A "definition."
So, I told the Dallas Police Officer to start with the book that started it all: Servant Leadership by Robert Greenleaf. To my knowledge, Mr. Greenleaf coined the term. You can buy the 25th Anniversary edition, published in 2002, at Amazon: Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness 25th Anniversary Edition.
Here are some key "foundational thoughts" excerpted from this book:
The servant leader is servant first. "It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first." The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types.
The best test is: do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, not be further deprived?
My hope for the future rests in part on my belief that among the legions of deprived and unsophisticated people are many true servants who will lead, and that most of them can learn to discriminate among those who presume to serve them and identify the true servants whom they will follow.
The very essence of leadership, going out ahead to show the way, derives from more that usual openness to inspiration. Why would anybody accept the leadership of another except that the other sees more clearly where it is best to go? A leader ventures to say: "I will go; come with me!" A leader says: "I will go; follow me!"
A mark of leaders, an attribute that puts them in a position to show the way for others, is that they are better than most at pointing the direction. As long as one is leading, one always has a goal.
And, from Greenleaf's The Institution as Servant, Greenleaf's "credo" –
"This is my thesis: caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which a good society is built. Whereas, until recently, caring was largely person to person, now most of it is mediated through institutions – often large, complex, powerful, impersonal; not always competent; sometimes corrupt. If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise both the capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new regenerative forces operating within them."
From the Center for Servant Leadership website Greenleaf.org, we read this:
Servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world.
Here are some of my thoughts.
First, if you want to understand a concept, go back to its roots. The book Servant Leadership by Robert Greenleaf laid the foundation, and in one sense, everything else written about servant leadership is simply commentary and elaboration building on Greenleaf's solid foundation.
Next, make no mistake — not all leaders are "servant leaders." In fact, some of our most revered and successful leaders, leaders who have built great successful companies, do not have/did not have much of a servant leadership understanding or approach.
In other words, one does not have to take the servant leadership approach to build a successful company. Nor does taking the servant leadership approach guarantee success (in the "profitability" definition of success).
And, a "danger" — "Servant leader" does not automatically mean "soft" or easy" leadership. If the best test of successful leadership is, as Mr. Greenleaf wrote, "do those served grow as persons?," sometimes a leader has to be tough, direct, challenging, to help people grow as persons. Servant – yes. Soft – not so much.
But, a servant leader is committed to the people he she is leading more than anything else. Yes, a company has to make a profit; yes, a company has to be successful in its competitive arena. But the servant leader is focused on helping the people he/she leads to grow as persons even as they seek the profitability and success of the company.
The book Servant Leadership, and its key principles, provide the starting point – the foundation. So, start here, and keep coming back time-and-again to these basic principles.
And, then, if you want to read more, I suggest:
Wooden on Leadership by John Wooden. Coach Wooden was a true servant leader.
And read Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson. He too, though different in many ways from Coach Wooden, was also a servant leader.
Here is a link to some Must-Read Servant Leadership Books.
And here are the Ten Principles of Servant Leadership by Robert Greenleaf. (I got these from this web site).
Ten Principles of Servant Leadership by Robert Greenleaf
- Listening – Traditionally, leaders have been valued for their communication and decision making skills. Servant-leaders must reinforce these important skills by making a deep commitment to listening intently to others. Servant-leaders seek to identify and clarify the will of a group. They seek to listen receptively to what is being said (and not said). Listening also encompasses getting in touch with one's inner voice, and seeking to understand what one's body, spirit, and mind are communicating.
- Empathy – Servant-leaders strive to understand and empathize with others. People need to be accepted and recognized for their special and unique spirit. One must assume the good intentions of coworkers and not reject them as people, even when forced to reject their behavior or performance.
- Healing – Learning to heal is a powerful force for transformation and integration. One of the great strengths of servant-leadership is the potential for healing one's self and others. In "The Servant as Leader", Greenleaf writes, "There is something subtle communicated to one who is being served and led if, implicit in the compact between the servant-leader and led is the understanding that the search for wholeness is something that they have."
- Awareness – General awareness, and especially self-awareness, strengthens the servant-leader. Making a commitment to foster awareness can be scary–one never knows that one may discover! As Greenleaf observed, "Awareness is not a giver of solace – it's just the opposite. It disturbed. They are not seekers of solace. They have their own inner security."
- Persuasion – Servant-leaders rely on persuasion, rather than positional authority in making decisions. Servant-leaders seek to convince others, rather than coerce compliance. This particular element offers one of the clearest distinctions between the traditional authoritarian model and that of servant-leadership. The servant-leader is effective at building consensus within groups.
- Conceptualization – Servant-leaders seek to nurture their abilities to "dream great dreams." The ability to look at a problem (or an organization) from a conceptualizing perspective means that one must think beyond day-to-day realities. Servant-leaders must seek a delicate balance between conceptualization and day-to-day focus.
- Foresight – Foresight is a characteristic that enables servant-leaders to understand lessons from the past, the realities of the present, and the likely consequence of a decision in the future. It is deeply rooted in the intuitive mind.
- Stewardship – Robert Greenleaf's view of all institutions was one in which CEO's, staff, directors, and trustees all play significance roles in holding their institutions in trust for the great good of society.
- Commitment to the Growth of People – Servant-leaders believe that people have an intrinsic value beyond their tangible contributions as workers. As such, servant-leaders are deeply committed to a personal, professional, and spiritual growth of each and every individual within the organization.
- Building Community – Servant-leaders are aware that the shift from local communities to large institutions as the primary shaper of human lives has changed our perceptions and has caused a feeling of loss. Servant-leaders seek to identify a means for building community among those who work within a given institution.


text:
Jarred A.G. - False Gods
Artist: Jarred A.G.
Featuring: YC the Cynic
Producer: Smoko Ono
Album: None (Promo Single)
Avg Rating: 4.3 ( 12 votes )
Diverse as their beliefs may be, the world's monotheistic religions can agree on at least one thing: worshipping False Gods has dire consequences. The question of course, is where to find the true one. For Jarred A.G., at least, the answer lies within. On this freshly-minted street single, the Windy City rhymesayer chronicles his struggle to see through Western civilization's lies and grasp his own divinity. YC The Cynic, an NYC repper known to have a bit of a God Complex himself, jumps on Smoko Ono's moody synth beat to deliver a thought-provoking guest 16. This joint isn't attached to a larger project (yet), but those feeling it are encouraged to check out Jarred's solo DJBooth debut, Barbarians.
Jarred A.G.YC the Cynic IndieStreet Banger
Written by richard on 11/25/13
Submit your Rating
Fifth Dimension Collective
First DJ Booth Appearance:
"Barbarians" (2013)
Total DJ Booth Features:
5 Songs
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Bitcoin - If the government hates it, don't you think you should at least consider learning about it?Submitted by haze on Mon, 04/16/2012 - 10:33
I just wanted to share this blog someone wrote about Bitcoin:
Bitcoin - The Libertarian Introduction
What it is, how it's used, and why you should care.
Erik Voorhees - April 11, 2012
"When a state currency is challenged, the state itself is challenged,
and market forces move swiftly around sickly, depreciating inhibitors."
1 Introduction
2 What is Bitcoin?
3 How does it work?
4 Why is Bitcoin valuable?
5 No really, WHY is Bitcoin valuable?
6 How does one obtain it?
7 Being careful with money
8 What can one do with it?
9 Bitcoin vs. The State
10 Bitcoin and Disruption
11 Useful Resources
There has been much talk about Bitcoin within libertarian and economic circles. It's becoming a buzzword, but like all new systems that break onto the public stage quickly, Bitcoin brings with it excitement, speculation, rumor, and downright confusion. To be sure, Bitcoin is complicated. After all, it's an entirely new global monetary system - both a currency and a payment network for that currency.
Like all powerful tools, it's important for those interested in using Bitcoin to spend some time engaging in the due diligence of education. Similar to a bicycle, once you know how to use Bitcoin, it will feel very easy and comfortable. But also like a bicycle, one could spend years learning the physics that enable it to operate. Such deep knowledge is not necessary to the actual rider, and in the same way one can enjoy the world of Bitcoin with little more than a healthy curiosity and a bit of practice.
This article is a primer on Bitcoin: an overview of the fascinating new phenomenon from the perspective of a humble libertarian who cares more about the ramifications for human liberty than about the technical protocol and brilliant science underlying the network.
The basics of Bitcoin are all covered here, ranging from a light technical overview to due diligence to monetary economics and theory. You'll also find an extensive list of resources to bring you up to speed on this most fascinating thing to happen in the realm of anarcho-capitalist technology since the internet itself.
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I agree.
In my comment below I made almost the same point. The critical issue for me is whether Labour has been applied to Land and something of value produced. This product is then taken to market and there it becomes money in the exchange process. The bitcoin meets these criteria.
The fact that the creators set out to mimic gold and silver to the point of using the gold market terminology and created not only the coin but also the payments system which is an integral part of the currency adds weight to this argument. They also built in a finite supply of the currency which will slowly be issued in decreasing quantities for the next thirty years I think.
Compare this with the present 'elastic" fiat system which also includes a payments system but has no limit to the amount of currency that can be created ex nihilo. This is a quite different concept from bitcoin and was clearly created to give the creators control and to enable them to buy up resources and enslave people through debt which is the foundation of the system. Bitcoin conversely is debt free, individually created, relatively indestructible, limited in issuance and very secure.
The major risk of course is that it depends upon an electronic teleconnection, not necessarily the Internet, in order to be useful.
"Jesus answered them: 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.'" (John 8:34-36)
after reading the white paper on the technology of bitcoin it appears to me that the true commodity in which it represents is electricity. Without electricity, nothing can happen (in regards to the bitcoins) -and in our world now, electricity is hugely important. It utilizes CPU power in block chains to "mine" the bitcoins, but ultimately the commodity in which it relies comes down to the production of electricity (where by almost everything else is developed) unlike gold or silver.
This is an interesting point because although you can't see, hear or hold electricity (it can be felt though, lol!) we still need it in our daily lives. Almost ALL of our industries require some form of electricity to function. Without electricity, we'd have to go back to human and/or animal labor (with the exception of gas powered engines I suppose however interestingly enough we use that to develop electricity as well.)
Either way, cool stuff. Thanks for the post!
The link to the white paper is :
I'm not economist by any means...just an interested guy reading.
It doesn't represent electricity! Electricity might of been used to create it by doing useless work, but it doesn't contain or transfer electricity! No amount of electricity wasted to create it transfers ANY intrinsic value.
What we SHOULD be doing, instead of playing politics.
Its not useless work. All
Its not useless work. All the computers are securing the network and verifying transactions that happen across the system.
This is what it takes to be decentralized. If it was a business.. they'd just have all these computers in one server room doing all the work. When it comes to something the government doesn't like this isn't the best route to take.
I'm not sure why you got
I'm not sure why you got voted down.
It is a FACT that the bitcoin network relies on the work of individual computers to check the blockchain for inconsistencies.
Bitcoins in some way do represent electricity, but more like a history of electricity rather than a storage device.
Demand, divisibility, distinctiveness
Bitcoins satisfy SOME of the definitions of money, and so have a utility in their particular realm. But beyond? That's arguable. As with gold or silver, if I lose a bitcoin at the beach, can someone else pick it up and use it? The value, the very existence, of bitcoins is contingent on a functioning internet. Gold and silver and wheat and alcohol will retain value WITHOUT artificial support, and have for generations.
I'll stick with metal, thanks. I'm too much the apocalyptic to trust in a cybernetic context to preserve my property.
dynamite anthrax supreme court white house tea party jihad
West of 89
a novel of another america
Ahh the allure of easy money
meets baby bernanke meets the matrix
Patriot Cell #345,168
I don't respond to emails or pm's.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution, inevitable.
Why "bitcoin" may not be "money"
The thing used as money must have been produced by the application of Labour to Land (in the economic sense).
If this is not the case, if the thing is simply an accounting entry given legal tender status as at present or is accepted by a community as containing the value of the commodity, good or service for which it was given in exchange, then it is not money and will rapidly lose exchange value since it can be produced without the application of Labour to Land. The exception to this rule is if the thing given in exchange is redeemable for real money at some agreed point in time. This would apply to Real Bills which are usually traded at a discount and are redeemable in 91 days.
The only thing that can be money must have been the result of the application of Labour to Land and it must then be valued by the market through usage. Historically, the commodities that have come to be accepted everywhere in the world for this purpose are gold and silver with the base metals serving the purpose for low value exchanges.
Pablo Picasso was an artist. His work was the result of applying his Labour to his Land, his innate talent as an artist. When this product was put into the market it became money. This money has increased in value over the years because it is in great demand. It is not however in general use. There were occasions when he would draw a simple figure on a table napkin, sign it and use it to pay for a dinner for many guests at an expensive restaurant. This is an example of how money comes into being.
"Jesus answered them: 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.'" (John 8:34-36)
one could argue that the
one could argue that the bitcoins are indeed derived from labor. people who "mine" them have to invest in thousands of dollars worth of equipment to generate their bitcoins, which does not even guarantee that they will get any in the end. so it is certainly not just an accounting entry. i think what sets back most people is that the product of this labor is not a physical asset.
Never forget:
To disagree, one doesn't have to be disagreeable.
- Barry Goldwater
Bitcoin is indeed money.
I wrote the above comment before I read the article and the bitcoin.org website. I did this deliberately since I wanted to lay down the foundation of how money comes into existence and what money is.
There is no question in my mind that the bitcoin is indeed money and harnesses all the features of gold and silver while wedding them to the Internet in a peer to peer payment system. The creators of bitcoin have used an analogy of gold and gold mining to create their system and this is justifiable I believe.
The Land in this case is the pool of talent within the bitcoin community and the Labour is the application of the efforts of the original source code creators and the "miners" who bring the blocks of bitcoins into existence. It is then easy to see that bitcoins are genuine money.
Now, there are other features that I find interesting and intriguing. There is another analogy that can be used to understand this phenomenon. This is the formation of a corporation with a block of "authorised share capital" and a block of "issued and outstanding share capital" . The authorised capital would be the c.21 million bitcoins that can be created over time. The issued and outstanding capital consists of the bitcoins that have been issued to date. The business of the corporation itself is the payment system that bitcoin facilitates and represents.
When one sees it in this way then it is obvious that by becoming an early adopter (shareholder) of bitcoin there is a very real possiblity that one couild profit as the payment system is used more widely and the value of the "corporation" and therefore the price of the "shares" increase. The fact that the number of "shares" that can be issued is finite leads to an even greater likelihood of appreciation in the price of bitcoins.
The same caveats as investing in a "venture" company apply but since the system is already up and running and there are more and more joining every day (61,500 bitcoins traded on just one exchange today) the risks are less than one might imagine. Of course one must be circumspect but it might be worth a flutter.
The other feature I liked was the potential link with gold and silver. I use a Goldmoney account and since last year they have stopped offering inter-account transfers under pressure from the government. Eric Voorhees advertises a website offering gold and silver coins for bitcoins and it may well be that Goldmoney will do the same at some point. Then one could use gold and silver as stores of value and "earn" bitcoins on various websites offering payment in bitcoins for filling out surveys, reading adverts etc. The bitcoins could be used to trade for goods and services and to purchase gold and silver to spread the risk and create a store of value.
All in all I agree that when Dr. Paul is President and the market is opened up to competing currencies, removing the threat of government interference, the bitcoin system will come into its own. There is no doubt it has been created for such a time as this. I am not too surprised that it is opposed by the von Mises Institute. They can be quite doctrinaire. They also oppose Professor Fekete's ideas on Adam Smith's Real Bills Doctrine. However they are free market advocates also so that will put everything to the test.
BTW Bitcoin also mentions fractional reserve banking being used to increase the money supply. This is not something I would agree with since I believe it to be fraudulent but it may not last long since in the first place a bitcoin/gold/silver system would tend to be deflationary and this makes all borrowing less attractive. Secondly the existence of fractional reserves would have to be declared and people would be unlikely to provide savings to such an enterprise since other safer options would be available. It would take only a couple of bank collapses to put an end to that way of doing business.
"Jesus answered them: 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.'" (John 8:34-36)
Bitcoin is not money!
Bitcoin ISN'T money because it contains no intrinsic value! Gold isn't worthy of being money just because it's scarce. It is intrinsically valuable, because it has genuine uses. Intrinsic value is a part of the form of money. Bitcoin does not satisfy that requirement. It is NOT money.
What we SHOULD be doing, instead of playing politics.
What is intrinsic value?
Bitcoin is the result of the application of Labour to Land in the economic sense and it is, at one and the same time, a secure means of exchange without any intermediary anywhere in the world instantaneously, and a system of payments. It is, given its finite design, a store of value and a unit of account divisible to 21*10 to the 14th. power. This is equivalent to the existing store of gold on the planet expressed in tenths of a milligram each equivalent to 0.001543 grain.
It also cannot be counterfeited due to its mathematical properties within the network of which it is a part.
All of these features mean it has intrinsic value as money created for that purpose just as gold was at one time mined primarily for its monetary value. It is already freely traded, is accepted in payment by many merchants and presently has a value in the neighbourhood of $5.
Bitcoin will not replace gold and silver and its value can be expressed in terms of these precious metals, or vice versa, when the present fiat currency system has collapsed. It is in my view an excellent candidate as universal money in the world of the near future.
I can also see the day when someone invents a point of sale device to accept bitcoin at local shops just as there is a system for accepting debit or credit cards. In the case of bitcoin there will be no need for a teleconnection since the memory device containing the bitcoin (the wallet) will already be loaded with the purchaser's store of bitcoin.
"Jesus answered them: 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.'" (John 8:34-36)
Intrinsic value is NOT a
Intrinsic value is NOT a requisite for money.
It is nice to have though.
Intrinsic value is a sine qua non for money.
If you read my other posts you will see what I mean by that.
"Jesus answered them: 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.'" (John 8:34-36)
Bitcoin is an Elegant weapon for a more civilized age...
Yes I know that it is not based on anything with inherent value, but there are no other arguments whatsoever that hold up against the bitcoin if you have looked deeply into it. (And understand the code.)
I'll get to a solution at the end for the inherent value issue, but I couldn't let this thread die without letting my fellow libertarians know what an elegant, BEAUTIFUL, almost godlike piece of code the bitcoin system is!
If your fear is that someone is going to be able to hack it, or that someone like the Fed is behind it all trying to trap us, then I assure you that I have seen with my own eyes proof in the code that these could not be the case.
The system is perpetually self-checking. Every last line of code, every last chance for someone to mess with it; the next 6 minutes will ALWAYS check over every move it's made and you can be assured no one has an unfair advantage in Bitcoin.
No Fed or spook could even THINK like this... They build systems AROUND a back door, meanwhile this thing is made the opposite way, and any doors are revolving doors that have security cameras facing it from 10,000 different directions!
Trust me guys & gals, you can drop ALL fears about the bitcoin. It's legit as legit can be.
If the Bitcoin were to catch on then the Fed and pretty much every country with the least bit of unfairness to their monetary system would CRASH 100% OVERNIGHT. Destroyed, forever, instantly.
It's the biggest threat that the USA has ever faced, by far... Excepting only that it isn't catching on that well.
Now; the reason why: In all of history, there have only been three kinds of money to hold popularity:
1. Money that actually is valuable because of inherent ability. (ex: Gold coins)
2. Money that Represents value stored by a large government, who can defend the valuable gold bars somewhere. (USD before 1971)
3. Fiat money, that doesn't represent either, but a THREAT OF FORCE temporarily holds it's perceived value in place... Despite that place slowly slipping away over a few years. (USD After 1971)
Bitcoin is neither of these kinds... So it is difficult to see how it can obtain critical mass.
The only argument I've heard that it could do so is based upon the worlds NEED for such a perfect form of money (especially the anonymity) to create the Value.
Do we need gold because it's worth $1800 an ounce? NO, we need gold because it is an excellent conductor and used in millions of applications. It is a precious commodity.
In a similar way, we don't need Bitcoin because it's worth $5.12 a BTC... We need it to be able to pay someone online without anyone knowing about it, including the government.
So... It's a waiting game. If you consider the ability to pay for something anonymously online and be assured that the currency won't inflate is WORTH something to you, then maybe there is hope for this beautiful, brilliant, and totally SAFE piece of code in your future afterall.
A Scam Pure and Simple
Secret Service is all over it like ShadowCrew. Believe it or Not. Besides, it's not really a free market system. What's it worth in the end? Nothing? A nickel on the dollar if your day goes right? I'd steer clear of this kind of thing because nothing but Anonymous and some hype back it.
Enjoy life and all wonders within. Wars on Drugs before declaration. Poor but freedom was near. Comedies of the man who used to toss joints to the crowd like it was legal. Let's play Paperball for Ron Paul: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydp2qMyVkbo
Go to the Bank to send money to Bitcoin?
Free includes debt-free!
Even more curious?
What is the exchange rate at your local bank for bitcoins I wonder?
If I disappear from a discussion please forgive me. My 24-7 business requires me to split mid-sentence to serve them. I am not ducking out, I will be back later to catch up.
bad to be left without a chair.
I missed the top of that pyramid scheme too. Now we gotta jump on the bottom. Thanks but I am already hedged against government collapse.
Check the charts.
This is not a pyramid scheme. The very first purchasers of bitcoins paid about $30 each. They now sell for about $5 and have been there for several months. You should read the material at bicoin.org and the links there to the charts etc. and you will see that it is anything but a pyramid scheme.
There is a finite number of bitcoins to be issued. In a pyramid scheme the idea is that the eventual number of participants required is infinite in order to support the pyramid. This is not the case with bitcoin. It bears no resemblance to a pyramid scheme at all. It is a completely flat system operating on a peer-to-peer model with no central bank of data. It is a perfect system for a free society. Of course it needs some electronic teleconnections to be viable and that may be its only real weakness as far as I can see.
Best to keep some physical gold and silver on hand in the event of a worldwide crash of all computer systems.
"Jesus answered them: 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.'" (John 8:34-36)
Hm this isn't true really
You need to send your chart back further.
Bitcoins used to be traded for pennies or less.
Bitcoin had alot of media attention last summer and shot up to 33 dollars in a very short period of time.
As all bubbles do, it popped I'm sure most of the "early adopters" got out. Since then its formed a solid base around 5 dollars, which is very surprising to me.
This december, the amount of bitcoins created per day will be cut in half. Will the price double? or is the price already factored in? who knows.
Good point. I missed that. Silly me.
I was really addressing the pyramid scheme question which the fundamental bitcoin certainly is not. As you said they started trading at pennies but ran up very quickly as all shares do when they get publicity. There must have been quite a volume of trading to take the price to $30+ so a lot of the early purchasers will still be sitting with expensive bitcoins. That was just a bubble as you observed so they were more like an early stage public penny stock. In time even those who bought at $30+ should be able to recover their investment I believe.
The system itself is still intact and the creators and early adopters have probably bought back in by now. The tendency over time I believe will be stable growth as the system becomes more established as a currency. This will lead to a moderately deflationary economy which I believe is a good thing for savers and less of a good thing for borrowers since the value of money will gradually increase as the economy improves and more transactions occur.
The decrease in rate of creation will simply decrease the additional bitcoins being created not the total amount outstanding. The price in FRNs will depend upon supply and demand. Since "mining" i.e. production is being slowed down it makes sense that the price should increase assuming that demand continues to increase.
This is why I think they will be a good hedge against fiat inflation all other things being equal. I will likely buy a few with that in mind. I am not interested in speculating in the other ventures growing up around them.
I live in Scotland and the government is holding a referendum in 2014 on the question of independence from the UK. The issue of the monetary system has not come in yet for any serious discussion and the assumption is we will continue to use the British pound. It would be a good thing I think to use the bitcoin and gold/silver and grow away from the fiat system entirely.
"Jesus answered them: 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.'" (John 8:34-36)
One thing that may very well
One thing that may very well have an effect on the price is the new FPGA mining boards that have recently been coming out.
Basically the cost of mining in electricity has alot to do with the price.
At first you just needed your CPU to mine.. and you could get lots of bitcoins.. as the difficulty rose.. people had to move to graphics cards. These cards take a good bit of power... I used to do it.
But these new cards.. take only a fraction of the power that the graphics cards take. So miners can sell their bitcoins at a lower price and still make a profit. Yes they cost more and it will be a while before everyone is using them.
The most important aspect of bitcoin to me is that the price stays relatively stable (which is has been doing). Back in the day if you made a purchase or someone bought something from you, your bitcoins could be worth a dollar or 2 less (or more) within a few hours.. noone really wants to deal with that. hehe
EDIT to add. I think once the gambling and adult industries grab hold of this, bitcoin will be unstoppable. :)
I am not a techie
so am not interested in mining. However I do have a friend who is a political prisoner in Bolivia and who is something of a computer whiz. He used to work at an Israeli research institute and may be interested in being involved in creating bitcoins. Do you have any information I could send him?
"Jesus answered them: 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.'" (John 8:34-36)
Even More interesting
Is the bitcoin stock exchanges that have popped up.
The GLBSE being one of them
Buying and selling stocks in bitcoin companies. There were alot of shady companies, but they have been cracking down on the verification process.
Usually the companies give out dividends weekly or monthly from their earnings. Gonna be big if its never shut down somehow.
I believe a bitcoin is itself a "share"
Of course this is an analogy and not a verity. Bitcoins will only be issued in a finite number so as the system is more widely used the bitcoins should rise in value based on supply and demand. So far as I can tell it is possible to use the same source code to create other bitcoin currencies but I would think they would have to use another name.
I would be loathe to invest in a bitcoin company since they can be easily manipulated by the promoters and shut down by the government securities regulators. The better course is simply to buy or earn bitcoins themselves and in time they should increase in value against the fiat currencies.
"Jesus answered them: 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.'" (John 8:34-36)
I agree
That things can be manipulated. Thats why most people dont invest in companies that aren't transparent. Usually each one has a thread on bitcointalk.org. I've invested in many and have made a very good return on my money usually (If you get in early especially)and they have a decent business model. Just a hobby for me, for fun.
If you truly believe in free markets.. I guess this would be it. lol
Is Bitcoin a relevant topic to DP?
Is Bitcoin a relevant topic to DP? Maybe.
Competing currencies is Ron Paul's Bread and Butter a long with economics; so, yeah, it may just be a worthy discussion whether you meat the topic with curiosity, animosity, or whatever.
When Ron talks about the gold standard, I think many miss the underlying foundation to his idea of money which is liberty. Ron Paul is not promoting the gold standard as much as he is promoting the idea that the market place should have the freedom to use the currency of their choice.
So, like it, hate it, or just plain don't now what to think, Bitcoin is a currency operating world wide without boundaries or support of government or any institution. It is working now and the people that are involved are there free of choice. Being mocked because we used our "liberty" to support bitcoin from a website about freedom is interesting.
I've learned that money is not just an economic issue, but it's a social one as well. Every time we use money to make an exchange for goods and services there is usually some type of social interaction. For some to decide to support and use another currency is a kin to leaving the social group. I think that is where a lot of emotions stir. I support the gold standard. I have a lot of PMs and I'm also a bitcoin enthusiast and supporter.
Is Bitcoin Fiat currency? Give me a very precise definition of Fiat and then we can discuss.
"I'm fully diversified. I've got some under the mattress, some under the floor boards, some in the backyard."
Nope, Bitcoin is not fiat.
Nobody will threaten to put you in jail for refusing payment in bitcoins.
Fiat currencies derive their "value" from the government's demand that the stuff be accepted as payment for all debts, public and private -- and from the threat of legal sanctions for refusing payment in fiat. Why else would anyone accept a currency that loses purchasing power, year after year? Fiat is simply not a good store of value.
Bitcoin does not have the intrinsic value of a commodity money like precious metals, but it does fulfill all the other functions of money (even better than precious metals, in many respects). Its value derives from its utility as money, and from its limited supply. It's sort of like trading in rare postage stamps. Supposedly there will never be more than 21 million bitcoins in existence. That's the one thing that makes me kinda doubtful: what's to stop the folks who issue the bitcoins from issuing the new bitcoins to themselves? Or issuing more bitcoins than the advertised limit? I've got to do some more reading to discover the answers to these questions, but on the whole, this is a VERY interesting idea.
Just exploring some of the links, I've discovered that one can buy or sell precious metals using bitcoins. One can buy all manner of illegal drugs -- I'm not into that, myself, but WOW, amazing. And one can buy credit to be used on Amazon and other major retailers. It's already looking better than credit cards and Paypal. And much, much better than the FRN/traditional bank monetary system with their fraudulent fractional reserves and potential for unlimited inflation. And best of all: government can't print it, and thereby use it to enslave us, as they DO with fiat money.
Recommended reading: The Most Dangerous Superstition, http://www.amazon.com/Most-Dangerous-Superstition-Larken-Ros...
No central entity issues new bitcoins
"Supposedly there will never be more than 21 million bitcoins in existence. That's the one thing that makes me kinda doubtful: what's to stop the folks who issue the bitcoins from issuing the new bitcoins to themselves? Or issuing more bitcoins than the advertised limit?" - dabooda
New bitcoins are issued by miners, with the consent of network participants. No central entity has the power to create new bitcoins or change the formulas at will.
When a miner finds a solution to the mathematical problem*, he submits proof of that to the network along with a transaction that gives himself new bitcoins (currently 50 BTC). Network participants verify that the solution is valid and from then on recognize the newly issued bitcoins as valid. If an invalid solution is submitted by a miner, the rest of the network ignores it and the miner's issuance transaction is as worthless as "50 BTC" written on a napkin.
That's one of the key advantages of bitcoin over most (all?) national currencies. We don't have to trust in a central bank or other single entity to not create new money at will and diminish its value.
* At the current difficulty factor (which adjusts based on total processing power being contributed to the bitcoin network), a miner calculates roughly 6800 trillion SHA256 hashes for each solution found. Solutions can be verified by other network participants relatively trivially. For perspective, a Radeon 5970 graphics card (most popular mining card) can calculate ~2.4 trillion hashes per hour, more if overclocked.


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More German Shorthaired Pointer Puppies and Dogs for sale.
SOLD!! 4 MOS OLD LIVER ROAN FEMALE ... Windchime Kennel in Chester, South Carolina
Repeat breeding coming soon GermanPointers.NET in Monrovia, California
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Versitale Champion Sired Puppies Best Gun Dogs in Beaver, Utah
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GERMAN SHORTHAIR PUPPYS IN KENTUCKY Holbrook Kennels in Winchester, Kentucky
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BEAUTIFUL GSP DINERO - German Shorthaired Pointers in Alvarado, Texas - Heritage GSP Kennels
This little guy is named Dinero. Dinero is a wonderful puppy with excellent disposition. This boy reminds me and is very much like one of his older brothers, Stealth. Dinero is a very quick learner and he will make a great family companion. He is obedience trained. He is very affectionate and he loves people. He gets along great with other dogs. Dinero also loves water. He is a natural retriever. He has a great nose and has a solid point. Dinero has retrieved dead birds and he has a soft mouth. He has a great bird drive and he gets super excited. He is always looking up for birds when guns go off. If you are interested in Dinero, please contact us. Serious inquiries only. Please visit our website for more pictures and information. Thank you for taking your time to look at our GSPs!
Ad location: Alvarado, Texas
Ad created: Dec 01, 2012
Contact Information
Contact Name: Arsenio Urbina
817-808-7299Contact breeder through email Click here to visit website
Heritage GSP Kennels Breeder Information


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This is actually the third book feature Harold Childe,"Image of the Beast" and "Blown" being the first two, but isn't done with the same focus on erotica. It's a pretty interesting read and if you ... Read full review
Review: Traitor to the LivingUser Review - Matt - Goodreads
Not the best Farmer I've read. A number of intriguing ideas come up but never get satisfactorily explored. Setting it in near-future America means the action is mostly generated from private-eye ... Read full review
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The recent Ebola outbreak
international | miscellaneous | other press Thursday July 03, 2014 19:28 by SavedByFerrets
The recent ebola outbreak is unprecedented yet little is being said about it in the media and little in the way of resources are being allocated to it's containment compared to what is being spent for example, in stoking up war in the middle east and Ukraine. The disease is highly contagious and kills 90% of those infected.
As you may be aware, an unprecedented outbreak of Ebola has happened in west Africa recently. Ebola is an extremely contagious and deadly virus strain with a very high mortality rate of 90% and no known cure or effective treatment.
West African health ministers meeting in Ghana to draw up a regional response mixed appeals for cash with warnings of the practices that have allowed the disease to spread across borders and into cities.
article here:
As you can tell, ministers donating their wages will not cut it in a serious situation like this and co-operative co-ordinated and decisive action by the international community is needed.
We have all experienced the hysteria and hype of the swine flu recently where every single media outlet was baying for action daily. Despite all this hype, the rate of spread of swine flu due to air travel etc was still breath taking once it got hold in large population centres. Measures to limit it's spread were completely ineffective. Now that was, as it turned out, a rather weak strain of flu with low mortality rates.
So how come when it comes to a highly transmissable virus with no known cure or effective treatment and a 90% mortality rate, that the world remains mute on the subject? Is it because the profit motive from Tamiflu or vaccination sales is absent and the pharmaceutical industry and it's hype machine is accordingly uninterested in promoting it?
But the real difference here seems to be that corporations cannot sell us anything. They have no cure, vaccine or effective treatment. Zip.
Or maybe the horrible deaths of African people just don't really matter at all to the west and only serve to open up areas of the continent for cynical resource exploitation in the future?
Even the wikipedia article on the subject is unintentionally tinged with racism:
We, as an international community need to get the finger out here and provide sufficient funds and resources to help to these affected countries immediately. We seem to have no problem when it comes to providing military aid to destroy countries like Syria, Afghanistan, Libya or Ukraine, so it's not as if we can't afford it.
Failing to do so may come back to haunt us far worse than a few Jihadists with rifles. It would do us good to remember that Spanish flu killed far more people than WWI did. An estimated 50 million died worldwide from flu as compared with 20 million from the war itself. And that was with a mortality rate of just 10% or so
Full story here:
Comments (1 of 1)
by SavedByFerrets Mon Jul 07, 2014 20:11
Goods article here on the outbreak


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Chris Clayton
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Monday 04/29/13
White House Pushes Food Aid Proposal
Despite push back from farm groups and U.S. shippers, the White House put another spotlight on food-aid reforms with a fact sheet on the impact of changing the $2 billion in international food-aid programs.
[Read Full Blog Post]
Posted at 8:47AM CDT 04/29/13 by Chris Clayton |
Post a Comment
Comments (3)
Why would Republicans want to save starving people?
Posted by Jay Mcginnis at 8:05AM CDT 04/30/13
Because Jay, Republicans are not secular humanoids and thus are compassionate. In fact, as a party, I do not think they even believe in killing their baby's, let alone letting people starve. Read party platforms before making derogatory statements. Do not understand what your statement has to do with a contribution to the subject matter of the article. Good grief!
Posted by Bonnie Dukowitz at 12:33PM CDT 04/30/13
I see very little of what you say Bonnie. Sorry, while this is a secular nation the Christianity that you people believe is not what your leader taught. Feed the poor, heal the sick, end violence. Not there in your party!
Posted by Jay Mcginnis at 5:47PM CDT 04/30/13
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April 2013
Horse Slaughter Making a U.S. Comeback
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Recent Blog Posts
ARC and the PLC Reference Price
Mon Nov 24, 2014 02:39 PM CST
There is still a little confusion on the relationship between ARC averages and the PLC reference price. While the Agricultural Risk Coverage program is based on a rolling five-year market-year average, the ARC average price floor is the same the Price Loss Coverage reference price in the 2014 farm bill.
RFS Decision Could Alter Biofuels, Corn, Soybean Markets
Fri Nov 21, 2014 12:43 PM CST
As a result of EPA's decision to delay the release of the 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard volumes until next year, an agriculture economist told DTN Friday that if the overall RFS volumes for 2015 jump to 15 billion gallons as outlined in the current law, there will be a gap between the so-called blend wall and the 2015 volumes.
Is Keystone XL Back to Square One?
Wed Nov 19, 2014 08:34 AM CST
Spinning the message following votes in Congress has always been a part of the American political scene, and that was no different Tuesday night. The U.S. Senate fell one vote short on a bill to force the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, 59-41, and of course both sides in the debate claimed victory.
Chevrolet Buys CO2 Credits from Working Ranch Grasslands
Mon Nov 17, 2014 10:49 AM CST
The work by prairie pothole ranchers to maintain grasslands in North Dakota is being used by a General Motors company to improve its carbon footprint, in a new partnership USDA announced Monday that led to the purchase of 40,000 tons of carbon dioxide reduction credits.
Sign up for ARC or PLC Next Week? Surely You Jest!
Tue Nov 11, 2014 10:53 AM CST
The Farm Service Agency also issued a news release on Monday letting everyone know farmers can rush to their local FSA offices on Nov. 17 to sign up for the new farm programs if they so choose. Perhaps the more important date farmers need to keep in mind is March 31, the deadline for making those program decisions.
Top Donors to House and Senate Ag Leaders
Mon Nov 10, 2014 11:14 AM CST
Who gives money to some of our agricultural leaders in Washington? Well here is a small rundown of some campaign contributors who I'm told have absolutely no influence on the outcome of past, present or future legislation. Nonetheless, these are the top donors to leaders of the Senate and House Ag Committees.
Farm Groups Want Tax Extender Legislation in Lame Duck
Wed Nov 5, 2014 01:43 PM CST
Now that the election bloodbath is over, will Congress be able to cobble together a tax-extenders bill in a lame-duck session?
Republicans Sweep Key Senate Races
Tue Nov 4, 2014 11:21 PM CST
Much like the 2010 midterm elections, Democrats got shellacked across the country in several key Senate races, ceding the Senate to a Republican majority after eight years of Democratic control.
Biotech Label Battles Continue at Ballot Box
Thu Oct 30, 2014 02:49 PM CDT
Vermont's legislature and governor adopted biotech labeling requirements earlier this year, but Colorado and Oregon mark another round of fighting for the hearts of minds of voters through ballot initiatives.
Cattle Industry, Land Group Presses Feds to Pull WOTUS Rule
Tue Oct 28, 2014 03:10 PM CDT
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the Public Lands Council asked the EPA to withdraw the proposed Clean Water Act rule in a 37-page comment letter submitted Tuesday, calling out the agency on a number of fronts including making claims that EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have not followed the Administrative Procedures Act during the public comment period that ends Nov. 14.
USDA Moving Ahead with Beef Checkoff Plans
Mon Oct 27, 2014 03:43 PM CDT
USDA is moving ahead with its plans to create a separate beef checkoff. A notice likely will appear sometime in early November informing cattle producers about the initiative.
Politicos Weigh in on USDA APH Yield Exclusion
Tue Oct 21, 2014 04:31 PM CDT
There was relatively limited reaction Tuesday from commodity groups and lawmakers about USDA's announcement to roll out the Actual Production History yield exclusion for crop insurance. Still, anyone who has some total crop collapses in their cropping history could see some benefits -- at the potential cost of higher premiums for that extra protection level.
Views in Congress Vary on COOL
Mon Oct 20, 2014 08:06 PM CDT
Congress declined to change COOL in the 2014 farm bill. House members blame the Senate for blocking any changes in COOL until the WTO completed its work. An appeal of the ruling on Monday likely could stretch out any possible retaliatory actions by Canada until late 2015. By then, either the Obama administration could draft yet another rule and leave it to the next administration to defend or Congress could opt to kill or change the rule. Some in Congress reacted to the WTO decision on Monday.
Vilsack Addresses Checkoff Controversy
Thu Oct 16, 2014 07:00 PM CDT
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the process could begin soon to start to create a new beef checkoff that would be in place by 2016. However, he's willing to pull the plug on that process if the beef industry could reach some consensus on changes to the current checkoff.
GAO: 'USDA Needs to Better Communicate Climate Plan'
Thu Oct 16, 2014 02:29 PM CDT
Although USDA has a plan in place to help U.S. farmers make adaptations for possible changes in climate, a new U.S. Government Accountability Office report said USDA is struggling to put together all of the pieces of its plan.
Offering Advice on Farm Bill Choices
Sun Oct 12, 2014 04:30 PM CDT
The menu of options for farm programs and the one-time, irrevocable decisions mean economists are now faced with laying out potential program choices for farmers. Those recommendations could help farmers stay afloat during the price downturn or could translate into lost income if the wrong counsel leads producers to make the wrong decision over the five-year lifespan of the farm bill.
Governors, Attorneys General say CWA Rule a Legal Threat to Farmers
Fri Oct 10, 2014 10:28 AM CDT
Since the release of the proposed waters of the U.S. rule, the EPA has maintained it is simply codifying those waters that already are jurisdictional, and that it narrows down the scope of those waters covered with new definitions, and farmers have nothing to fear if they don't already need permits.
Dem Senators ask President to Leave RFS Alone
Thu Oct 9, 2014 12:18 PM CDT
A pair of Democratic senators concerned that cutting the mandated production of biofuels in the Renewable Fuel Standard, have asked President Barack Obama to leave the 2014 RFS volumes in place. Their concerns are based on a recent analysis that said cutting biofuels production would lead to increased carbon pollution.
Senators Push for Withdraw of Endangered Species Act Rule
Wed Oct 8, 2014 03:44 PM CDT
A group of U.S. Senate leaders have asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to withdraw a rule that would allow the federal government to more easily designate land and water as critical habitat through the Endangered Species Act, in a letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Commerce Wednesday.
ARC and the PLC Reference Price
Mon Oct 6, 2014 02:14 PM CDT
I have to correct some bad information here. Last week, a farmer emailed me asking about the lowest price that can be used on Agricultural Risk Coverage in factoring the five-year Olympic average. I wrongly said ARC would always use the market-year average price and people should separate out the reference prices used for Price Loss Coverage.
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Most speaker companies now offer several subwoofers in their speaker lines going from the lowest amplification/smallest driver size to models rated at 1000 watts or more. Prior to the advent of home theater, subwoofers were few and far between. They were basically an esoteric product. Today, there are hundreds of models from numerous companies like Velodyne, Polk, JBL, Infinity, B & W, and many, many others. Virtually all companies that produce loudspeakers also produce subs.
Not all subwoofers are housed in squarish black boxes either, however. There has been some innovation recently from manufacturers like Sony, for example, that place their subs in a specialized base cabinet, in which a LCD TV can sit atop of. In Sony's case (RHT-G800), the company has included a complete speaker package. Other companies like Infinity with their Cascasde system, for example, completely re-designed the subwoofer to place it in a long, rectangular cabinet. JBL, for example, also offers a wireless subwoofer variant with some interesting results. Most speaker companies that offer in-wall variants, now also offer in-wall subwoofers as well. While many subs come in basic black, others come in white or wood variants. Some models are also paintable to more easily fit into any living room environment.
Shopping Tips
If you are in the market for a subwoofer, you can always start with a subwoofer from the same manufacturer who makes your other speakers so that it will be balanced with the other speakers of your system. If you need more than one speaker, you might want to consider several from the same manufacturer. Many manufacturers feature 2-piece, 3-piece and up to 8-piece systems that include a subwoofer that's timbre matched to their other speakers. These are available in several configurations: center + sub, L & R + sub, rears + sub, or fronts (L,C, R) + sub. Bose, for example, packages a powered subwoofer with several small cube-like satellites into their various LifeStyle systems. Obviously, if you live in an apartment or have a smaller room, a sub of reduced stature will probably do the trick.
When you crank-up your subwoofer, it should sound pretty awesome and impressive! If the sub is doing its job, it should feel like you're in the middle of a buffalo hunt from "Dances with Wolves," an animal stampede in "The Lion King," on the train tracks from "Spiderman 3," or even flaming skeltons in "Ghost Rider." Do you feel the action in your gut? That's what home theater should feel like!Facebook and Twitter.
Check out our recommendations for the season's best new TVs for home theater, living room or anywhere.
Home automation system helps wounded war veteran live more comfortably.
Check out our recommendations for the season's best new TVs for home theater, living room or anywhere.


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Heat Wave view
Eye Candy: California Love view
Eye Candy: Southern Sensation view
Yeah, we wish Derrek Lee and his fellow Atlanta Braves were still playing too. Do you...
Yeah, we wish Derrek Lee and his fellow Atlanta Braves were still playing too. Do you see how fine this man is? He's got us singing "Hey Batter Batter" like LeToya Luckett.
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Style Evolution: Joseph Gordon-Levitt
From '90s kid star to GQ cover star, JGL has definitely had his share of style ups and downs. We track his rollercoaster ride to sartorial stardom
July 17, 2012
11 of 13
The three-piece suit is spot-on...and maybe a moment of foreshadowing? However, we'd ditch the light tie on dark shirt thing—it's hard to think of a time when that's preferable to the traditional dark-on-light.
Food + Travel
- David Chang's Kitchen: Don't Get All "Fresh" with Me
- David Chang's Kitchen: Your Idea of Bologna is Total Baloney
- Chart: The Family Tree of Bourbon Whiskey
- Recipe: Semi-Summer Salad - Chef Jeff Taibe of Oak + Almond
- The Great Franco-Italian Pasta Experiment
- How to Pick from an Overpriced Restaurant Wine List


text: In Pictures: The 'Bad Boys' of open source The open source world's most notorious characters. Network World staff (Network World) 0 - - - - print email prev next Loading... Mark Shuttleworth Publicly, the man behind Ubuntu, Mark Shuttleworth comes across as a very reasonable chap. But don't let that fool you into believing Shuttleworth is just your average, run-of-the-mill nerd. This man may very well be the biggest bad boy of them all. I'll leave you with these facts so you can make up your mind for yourself.1) He is the only man on this list who has traveled into space.2) He is on a quest for world domination - pushing Ubuntu into every aspect of computing, including server, TV and mobile phones.3) He is responsible for the "Unity" project, Ubuntu's new user interface.He may not look much like Hugo Drax but, otherwise, there are an awful lot of parallels to Moonraker. Prev Next 8/10 Comments on this image There are currently no comments for this image. Comments are now closed. Close In Pictures: The 'Bad Boys' of open source 10 images


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