WELCOME ABOARD the Neverending Ocean Cruise!

Welcome to the deep end,
Glad To Have You Here
...where we find shorter spaces between us.
-- Bobby Ocean

Sunday, April 22, 2012

OUR IGNORANCE OF THE LAWS

Hey, Wake UP!

If, coming to consciousness, you notice you feel no weight, do not ask yourself if you are dead. You are alive, although, it could be that you will not be, very soon.

Here's what to do: Take an object from your pocket -  a coin, keys, a pencil, whatever - and hold it in front of your head at arm's length. Let go of it, pulling your hand and arm away. If the obect lingers in its place, in front of you, seemingly weightless, that makes the two of you, observer and observed, apparently floating in space. Probably not, though.

It is, much more likely both the object and you are falling.

Scientific observation suggests that you and the object are hurtling through space/time toward Mother Gravity at exactly the same speed, one one Newton's Laws of Universal Gravity.

Look for, locate and pull the ripcord, please. Then read on.

How many people of your own species can you name with interest enough enough in Gravity or its spin-offs to examine each facet deeply and render precepts? Newton (Sir Isaac of Britain) certainly was burning with such curiosity, personal tests and observations and, from these, certainty enough of his theories to be respected for them among his peers. And reviled; that's the way.

He published his theories on the subject. He had a catalog of subjects. He had a lot of Laws. Not just for the Star Trek Gen, either. He had rules even practitioners of Zen can appreciate and heed: Rules Of Motion, itself.


NEWTON'S LAWS OF MOTION ARE YOUR LAWS...
Law-1: Often called "the law of inertia," it states that an object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
Law-2: Acceleration is produced when a force acts on a mass. The greater the mass the greater the amount of force needed.
Law-3: For every action there is an equal and opposite re-action.

Each one is worth a thousand koans.

Motion itself implies a dualistic point of view, a Here and a There, a From and To, between which to travel. These simple two or more points of matter can easily take a visionary's leap from mankind with its sticks and stones to entire universes with their individual planets and their respective orbit math or magnetics. Sir Isaac was all over it, unifying that vision by helping the one he was explaining it to understand.

NEWTON'S LAWS OF GRAVITY BELONG TO YOU...
The simple look at Newton's law of universal gravitation states that any two objects in the Universe exert gravitational attraction on each other, with the force having a universal form.

Slightly less simple: What's true for two is true for all. Thus: every point mass in the universe attracts every other point mass with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

All of Newton's insights, which offered a unified description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time, or spacetime, and in particular expanded on the plausibility and further exploration of the curvature of spacetime, melded with Einstein's thoroughly envisioned Relativity Theory and they're still pulling the most delicious things out of the oven.

That should be a good thing, right? No such thang.

And we know it. At best, we get a good thing and a bad thing. So we, who with such bright-eyed enthusiasm, built or contributed or helped invent the wonderful New Thing, now make The Strictest Of Rules about using it, lest it be misused.

Those two Giant Steps In Perception, Einstein and Newton, led to today's extended practices of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Vacuum Systems Sciences, Electron-Ion Optics, Particle Beams, and Surface Physics, just naming a few. These "What If Sciences," and the Pandora Inventory of all their important local through astrophysical implications is now all part of our mutual Quantum Experiment. It was inevitable.

Part of our ongoing evolution turns out to be: we'll have to remain on the lookout for the bad as well as the good. We can't sleep through this.

THIS JUST IN:
They only recently found out that the chemical they were selling you as a Good Thing to keep ticks and fleas off your dog and cat (tetrachlorvinphos and propoxur) had residue levels so high that the pets weren't all that were at risk. Those chemicals also pose a risk of cancer and damage to the neurological system of children -- up to 1,000 times higher than the EPA's acceptable levels.

Children are particularly at risk from these pesticides because their neurological and metabolic systems are still developing. They are also more likely than adults to put their hands in their mouths after petting an animal, and so are more likely to ingest the hazardous residues.

FROGS AS CANARIES IN THE COAL MINE...
Recently a circular has been issued in my community outlining how another pet chemical - a different one entirely - has been responsible for all our missing frogs. That man-made family of chemicals is fatal to a whole slew of aquatic life, from the most miniscule up to fish and frogs. They just found out.

Wouldn't it be comforting to think all these different experiments were being shared with each other? Mixing spices and chemicals can have a tasty or decidedly ugly effect. And there are those with a taste for ugly. Their minds dwell in continually ugly places.

Accidents breed in environments of secrecy. Confusing labels can jeopardize the health of your pet, but safer flea and tick control methods are available. Full disclosure prevents free fall. Remain alert.

In the meantime, flash a smile and tell Sir Isaac when you see him that regular combing, bathing and vacuuming can reduce and control fleas. All pesticides should be used with caution and, only if he must, choose a safer treatment and avoid the most toxic chemicals.
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Saturday, April 14, 2012

(another) OCEAN RADIO RANT:

YOUR BUSINESS IS INSIDE YOUR AUDIENCE

I got into a thread (www.radio-info.com) that started with yet another regretful radio station decision, once again concerning yet another well known radio personality who, after years of garnering listeners and ratings, was recently sacked like so many groceries after a paper or plastic choice.

I've been through this myself and with friends in the biz so much I wasn't going to get into it but one of my buttons got pushed. I got into it, sensing the direction it was headed.

That bus took me all the way back to RKO fifty years ago, then back again through an ugly numbered area very near the top of my Personal Fit Parade. We recognize it as Human Cruelty and Apathetic Lack Of Concern among each other.

Some loving soul wrote it all off as the cost of doing business. His response in favor of that particular seven minute inhumane act of firing an employee neglected to even mention the canned guy's name and sounded something like "Business Statistics show that a leaner, overburdened staff works best, on paper anyway, and occasionally, staff torture is good..."

Well, at first, anyway. Then I read it more clearly. The wording was different but I was right the first time.

Seems it's easy for me to get impatient with alleged superior life forms on this planet that don't even try to live up to the magnificence of their own potential. What follows is inspired from one of my two responses. I am such a proponent of examined thought before action I went deeper, added a little history and made the adventure it was, and is, more dimensional.

Yes, while I, too, live by aligning with change, and even though it's a different audience and the styles have changed, I queried, why can't we be nice to each other? What happened to having fun? That's free. Why the scarey masks and misguided power trips from management, do you think? Those manners and patterns used to happen only in the penal systems in the rough side of the city. This is a freaking radio station, a place of entertainment, not a psycho ward. That bully behavior is such a neon pointer to spinelessness, why so much focus on what's wrong instead of plotting a forward course?

Yet, it's everywhere.

That corporations and business modes are changing is not the problem radio faces here. Operating in this new frontier's first stage is stepping into uncharted territory, yes, out of the comfort zone a few clicks but also an exhilarating once-in-one's-lifetime opportunity. But joyous expectation is not what I see and hear in the broadcaster's eyes and on the air. I see and hear overwhelming fear.

Fear leads to bad decisions and misguided choices. We learned this stuff in the 60s and 70s, c'mon.

So much good will goes out the window when a company gets stained as "ruthless." It's especially hurtful when that company is standing on an entertainment media platform called radio, unusually visible, online, on the air, in the public eye, ears and heart daily. The stupid radio station suffers and the whole industry gets a black eye.

I would think one of the first rules of broadcasting today would be to represent the company and its radio facility well. You don't want to see a cop's motorcycle parked in front of a bar and you don't want to hear a radio station without a heart. fear constricts the heart muscle. Managers of broadcast stations are aware of blogs by now, probably have a web site for each of their stations. Many have instructed their air staff, while they were still employed, to write a blog.

Now that the mid day jock gone doesn't mean she's forgotten how to blog. Smile, Broadcaster Number Manipulators, your actions have become blog fodder at the same time you are being recorded and measured somewhere. Most everywhere, really. Shouldn't have been caught frowning. Makes customers think what you got probably stinks.


Makes stockholders wonder about the two differing stories, the one you tell them every quarter and the one they see every day in the entertainment section or media gossip channel.

When the public gets a peek behind the curtain on the front page of the newspaper and learns of the less than human manner in which broadcasting's so-called leaders have been acting, and how once loyal employees are treated when dismissed - without so much as a "thank you," or "nice working with you," that sound effect you hear is a listener's balloon popping. Until you gave up the game, Mr. Cluster Operating Yes Man, they thought everything at their radio station was polished, professional and perfect. Now they know their station (yes THEIR station) is part of a chain of shops being run like a third world dictatorship. Now you have a brand new station image. And you've donated one just like it to the entire broadcasting industry. Good goin'. This won't go away easily at all.

On a positive note, you may be giving your listeners something they really like, Mr. Radio Station Cluster Manager. People love to hate the bad guy. Of course that's a stretch. Not the Frankenstein Monster selling kerosene to his torch-bearing pursuers part, but the notion that it's a positive thing to give listeners what they really want. I really don't think that even enters your design as this point.

By comparison to that ideal of broadcasting perfection, which is the mind's primal function - measuring the similarity or dissimilarity of its perceptions - radio today blows big time. Too many online stories exist concerning today's brand of radio station owners, their manager toadies and clueless, reciting DJs, painting them as pointlessly Cruel And Stupid, the stereotypical Idiot Bad Guys.

(They know they're not really evil Bad Guys, but at the same time, they do not know who they are beyond reciting name and occupation. And now they're too desperate to look for the answer in the right place. They're on the defense, their focus on trying not to be cruel and stupid instead of paying critical attention to what's on the air, their product. And, from this flood of fear plus the gaping vacuum where direction should be, the air substance they produce today suffers painfully and in public.)

"Cruel" because they are so preoccupied with their own performance that they forgo their ability to see the people they're working with nor their strengths. Thus the possibilities inherant in all those unique abilities are completely ignored; the employee is viewed as an obstacle to profits, nothing more. To be subject to such small-minded, misinformed profiling is a cruel fate.

"Stupid" because, as businessmen, they just overlooked The "Business Is Business Precept," and, blinded by negative concepts, failed to see one of their prime resources for bringing in revenue. What they saw as a large figure eating the Bottom Line is actually someone contributing to its growth. Without that person, less growth. That's Management acting with ignorance as the GPS and making decisions; stupid decisions.

They decided against the contributing person in favor of the Yes Man. A thoughtless disregard for the pain, frustration and suffering of honest workers. Karma will be exacted: their own Yes Men will contribute nothing and simply agree with their three-piece suited Lord all the way to the unemployment line. Didn't have to be that way. Unnecessarily cruel. Ignorant to the point of ridicule. (That's excellent fodder for me, I'm a cartoonist who just happened to find himself in front of a microphone and started drawing audio cartoons)

I am glad as hell I was in the radio carnival when the merry-go-round was well lubed, playing captivating tunes and spinning like a top. THAT was a few decades of big fun. A drug, someone suggested? Only if you allow yourself to be dependent on it, become attached, or integrate it into your imagined identity. Like everything else from action itself to inertia. And that has nothing to do with the lack of humanity in today's radio that we were looking at.

But, if you can appreciate the Big Motion as it is, you know ALL things must pass, and even the monotone Scrooge machines in charge of this ugly period of horrible clusters of cookie-cutter content they call broadcasting is on the way out. Soon gone, however with NOTHING of which to be proud, whereas the previous broadcasters, who invested in their audience and held Programming in high regard, set standards on excellence, have walls full of awards and listeners in the millions with fond memories beyond measure.

That broadcast corporations are heartless business entities is nothing new in this thread. Nothing is free but the Grace of God, "Business is Business" and, while it used to be operated on the principle that "as long as the employee is producing, they're valuable, keep them," now the rules have changed. Not for the best either, especially when we look at today's Sacred Bottom Line, which has become inconsistent, more fragile month-by-month and, by comparison, tinier.

Simply, they paid too much for the stations during the time loans were being floated on imaginary money. The economy was doubled over as we all know. Now, at the station, the money coming in is nowhere near enough to pay off that enormous debt and it's escalating. Owners that paid the disproportionately high prices cannot refinance viably for years yet. With the lack of direction, there is desperation in the hall ways. And fear. Everything is connected to everything and we can all hear it on the air.

Because of the new financial structures, management types have to deal with people over which they have no power, the stockholders. They don't know how to do this, so they must ask someone else on the approved corporate list. Higher ups and consultants all spout out the same format:  now we must appease stockholders by cutting costs. Why? Because they blew it and got rid of the creative people, the money makers. Now they have no individual means of earning money anymore. Desperate, they cut their losses, um staff.

Less overhead makes the thing easier to sell, BTW...

I am no stranger to corporations owning radio stations. In my career, I worked at every Drake/Chenault station on the West Coast, which placed me in more than one of the RKO General stations. Now THAT was a huge corporation.

RKO was also no gem of perfect corporate demeanor either. They were far from a model business operation overall, with shady dealing in foreign countries, ties to criminals in the elective government, bribes, slush funds and other unsavory activities such as dark doings offer, but -- they were a a great corporation for their roots team, the always fun radio broadcasters. RKO had too much show biz heart and experience to short-shrift it's entertainers in the budget department. They always invested in their radio stations.

When a piece of radio equipment wore out or started acting fidgety at an RKO station it was never fixed, even though we had the world's best techs, but was immediately replaced. They put in a new one of whatever it was - cart machine, EQ rack, studio monitors, whatever. RKO had a traditional understanding and respect for it's own and, in particular, it's program creators. It was business based and knew it was just a building full of equipment and people without the audience. We were reminded of this often.

"What's on the air right NOW is the most important thing in the world." That was our prime tenet, our core koan. This mutual regard for the quality of programming between management and performers, and willingness to procure for them what they needed to get the job done was a show-biz standard and point of pride at RKO, both for radio broadcastersas well as film makers.

As a corporation, RKO got into the same kind of trouble anyone with too much money can, and do, get into today. They weren't just broadcasters, or tire dealers. They were international players. Radio and rubber were just some of the things they did, although, in programming, with excellence enough to still be hail when remembered today. Sadly, RKO cannot boast of these high standards throughout its corporate business tale.

In 1965, as RKO General applied for renewal of its license for KHJ-TV in Los Angeles they were challenged with "reciprocal trade practices," the charge that General Tire conditioned its dealings with certain vendors on the basis that they would in turn buy advertising time on RKO General stations. Similar legal obstacles occurred with their operations coast to coast.

Ten years later, it was alleged that General Tire bribed foreign officials, maintained a slush fund for U.S. political campaign contributions, and misappropriated revenue from overseas operations...

The FCC stripped RKO of WNAC-TV's license in 1980, finding that RKO "lacked the requisite character" to be the station's licensee...

Eventually time ran out and RKO finally lost a critical, long-fought case for good, and, most damning, RKO's dishonesty was cited before the Commission.

In a coast to coast penaly involving properties in Los Angeles and New York city, the FCC finally found RKO "unfit to be a broadcast licensee due to a long history of deceptive practices." The FCC consequently found that RKO had displayed a "persistent lack of candor" regarding its own and General Tire's misdeeds, thus threatening "the integrity of the Commission's processes." That FCC ruling meant that RKO lost the KHJ-TV and WOR-TV licenses as well. The audiences never heard the slightest interuption of their continuous, streamlined entertainment.

All of which is to say - here's a corporation, as far back as twenty-five through fifty years ago, that was not a model operation. But they had FAR BETTER BROADCAST PROGRAMMING AND BUSINESS MINDS THAN THE LOCK-STEP LUMPS WE SEE IN THE MARKETPLACE TODAY. RKO, as awkward in high government as a one-legged thief on stilts, had a hard time in the courts, but never in the entertainment field. They knew their customers (listeners) well, and gave them what they wanted. The corporation supplied the talent and artillery necessary to win.

They invested in their companies and in those who they populated their radio stations. They made so much money doing radio the right way, that a different kind of temptation, associated with possessing both a huge treasure and character of less than equal magnitude, dogged them unmercifully. They ultimately paid the price for their indiscretions, but it turns out to be small footnotes next to the legends of wildly inspired, larger-than-life radio entertainment they practiced across the USA for such an extended period of our personal history.

And their stations were honored, extremely successful, most mythical in lore, even when being divested.

Compare to corporations that own huge clusters of radio stations in each town across our land today. Still heartless. But they sound two dimensional, immature and chaotic. And possess far worse business acumen than the Three Stooges.

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Friday, April 6, 2012

FREEDOM'S JUST ANOTHER DEFINITION...


WHAT IS A FREE CITIZEN?

A Free Citizen is unobstructed in choice, supported by a nation of We The People. Choice is our collective, selected national pride and pass time.

Freedom means we can answer the phone or not, free to make our own choices. I know more people than I expected who have no phone at all and are doing fine. Freedom allows that phones can even be turned off, or set to silent. It's an individual choice, one of many a Free Citizen may encounter.

Free member of Our Democratic Society, right? As in - cannot be forced to do anything against her will. Each state has laws protecting this freedom, ensuring this wonderful sovereignty, liberty.

She is "We the People" just as surely as you and I are. We are they, are her, is he, is you, are me and we are all together.

Together in freedom.

The government should not be able to and cannot force her to buy health insurance. Or Burial insurance, as has been considered very recently. Uh huh, our legislators have actually been talking about it, can you believe it?


Freedom means we, as U.S. Citizens, are Not REQUIRED to purchase a cell phone (and, really, the legislators have been seriously debating this issue, too, as if there aren't enough conspiracy theories and thriller movies rendering Big brother snooping ubiquitous.)

But this isn't a movie. This is the most essential ingredient of our life, freedom. Life is about reacquiring the full freedom of our Creator's intention. We, within our own psychology, have eaten away at this magnificent gift, hobbling ourselves. We cannot allow our governing public servants to further erode this precious gift, our liberty.

We are free, thus under no pressure to know what's coming up on the ballot much less take a stance on something like the Affordable Care Act. At the same time, we are at liberty to choose to learn more if and where we want. We are also free to choose WHEN we choose, or not, or both.

U.S. Supreme Court member, Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, author of the Affordable Care Act, had a question regarding freedom this week. He asked, during Tuesday’s oral arguments surrounding the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement, Affordable Care, “Can you create commerce in order to regulate it?”

He was speaking of an individual mandate within the package, a provision of the legislation requiring almost every uninsured American to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty.

The penalty is aimed at you, should you not comply. You DO have money for insurance, right? The penalty is intended to be ascribed to those who do not purchase an insurance plan under the mandate has been written, of course, as a tax. This falls well within Congress’s authority, the government has argued, even if the Court rejects the mandate under the commerce clause. Opponent fiercely disagree saying congress, that band of felons, has no such authority at all.

The opponents of the legislation comprise 26 states, the National Federation of Independent Business (an association of small businesses), and "several individuals," who have countered that this payment constitutes a penalty, not a tax. Well, duh. Right they are.

When Justice Anthony M. Kennedy spoke, his meaning came through. It seems he's skeptical that something like personal freedom can be regulated, legislated, and against people being  herded. “[W]hen you are changing the relation of the individual to the government in this… unique way,” he went on record, “do you not have a heavy burden of justification to show authorization under the Constitution?”

It would be quite heavy if it existed. There is no justification for enslaving your fellow being, None.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS FROM AROUND THE ROOM:
    Justice Clarence Thomas maintained his usual silence. As supportive of liberty as body hair on a can of soda.
    Justice Antonin G. Scalia defended BigBro corp. as if this constituent betrayal was that upon which all his mortgages depended. It could be said that he hates you personally.
    Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. presided in a lopsided manner, framing all questions in the government’s favor, never than tackling them head on. He doesn't care a fig about you, your spouse or your kids. He's in it for himself.

For the record, there IS NO relation between you and the government. We The People means we, you and I ARE the government. This doesn't mean we must go out and requisition a tank; just be well aware of it. U.S. Supreme Court member, Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, works for you, me and your whole town, us...we. He's on our side. He's practically alone in that den of scoundrels and jackals.

But there are many reading now who, heart-fully back this gallant man. We are called Opponents To Freedom Thieves.

Opponents to encroachments on our freedom, who have argued that by requiring free citizens to purchase insurance under the threat of a penalty, further say Congress has gone way overboard, far beyond the nasty portrayal of self interest and cut throat thievery of cable TV's lowest human denominator, Deadwood (I might mention Shameless but that a comedy; this is a democracy horror tale), betrayed our nation and breached its powers under the Constitution’s commerce clause by forcing people to enter into commerce.

YA GOTTA DO SOMETHING, SO...
I am now in one of the initial processes of our nations primal freedom, the vote. This means gathering signatures for upcoming ballot measures, informing and registering people in my vicinity to vote . . . standing right on the sidewalk in front of the grocery store and confronting our fellow citizens with their constitutional right to choose,  cold-call fashion.

I  do it because that's your silver bullet for these vampires, your vote.

Your Power Of Freedom: use it or lose it. Register to vote; then, vote. If you have moved since your last registration, or changed your name or residence since you last voted, register to vote. If I see you during the next few months, I will ask you if you're registered to vote in your county, and if not, be happy to sign you up for Your Power Of Freedom.

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