Paul Montecalvo

 

I try to pick up a piece of artwork or a poster as a souvenir when I travel, and I really love a couple of framed photos that I found in Newport.  The artist is Paul Montecalvo.  I was told that he works with his wife and that she handles the business end.  They travel quite a bit and he takes his gorgeous photos wherever they are.

Disregard For Civil Rights Act?

 

 

Does Mozilla disregard U.S. federal equal employment law?

 

A meeting of software engineers at Mozilla. Mozilla makes the Firefox Web browser, and has been expanding their work force.  Surprisingly (given this picture) a woman, Mitchell Baker, chairs the company.  Photo from nytimes.com.

 

The Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Law seemingly being flouted at Mozilla (as evidenced by the above picture) is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on sex.

John Lilly, Mozilla’s chief executive is quoted in the Times as saying, “As Americans we’ve lost the sort of civic engagement, the participation in making the world what we want and what we think it should be.”  From his evident hiring practices, Lilly doesn’t appear to think equal opportunity is something he would want in the world. 

C’mon John, the law has been in place for 45 years – hire some women already.  And not just one or two, not just for the secretarial pool, and not just to give demos.

LBJ signing the Civil Rights Act

 

Appraising Alessandra

 

Many were displeased with Alessandra Stanley’s patronizing “appraisal” of Farrah Fawcett in a recent New York Times piece.  Below, the lengthy corrections the Times had to print as a result of Stanley’s article on Walter Cronkite.

Correction: July 22, 2009 An appraisal on Saturday about Walter Cronkite’s career included a number of errors. In some copies, it misstated the date that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and referred incorrectly to Mr. Cronkite’s coverage of D-Day. Dr. King was killed on April 4, 1968, not April 30. Mr. Cronkite covered the D-Day landing from a warplane; he did not storm the beaches. In addition, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, not July 26. “The CBS Evening News” overtook “The Huntley-Brinkley Report” on NBC in the ratings during the 1967-68 television season, not after Chet Huntley retired in 1970. A communications satellite used to relay correspondents’ reports from around the world was Telstar, not Telestar. Howard K. Smith was not one of the CBS correspondents Mr. Cronkite would turn to for reports from the field after he became anchor of “The CBS Evening News” in 1962; he left CBS before Mr. Cronkite was the anchor. Because of an editing error, the appraisal also misstated the name of the news agency for which Mr. Cronkite was Moscow bureau chief after World War II. At that time it was United Press, not United Press International.

Adoption Studies

 

Study results on adoption from NYT :

The Christian Alliance for Orphans orphansdeservebetter.org, has a section of statistics, which include:

• Adopted teens scored higher on indicators of well-being such as school performance, friendships, volunteerism, self-esteem and optimism.
• Adopted teens scored lower on indicators of high-risk behavior such as depression, alcohol use, vandalism, and police trouble.
• Compared to their non-adopted siblings, adopted teens showed no significant difference in their perception of similarities between themselves and adoptive parents in terms of interests.
• Children adopted transracially showed no differences in terms of identity formation and self-esteem, attachment to parents, or psychological health.

Many other studies have reached similar findings:

• Adopted children are well-integrated into their families and schools and show good psychological outcomes. There are few differences between children who have been adopted and their non-adopted peers (Palacios and Sanchez-Sandoval, 2005).
• Long-term outcomes are positive for adopted children, and generally show little or no difference compared to non-adopted children (Benson, 2004).
• The vast majority of adopted children show behavior patterns and emotional and academic adjustment very similar to those of non-adopted children (Palacios and Sanchez-Sandoval, 2005, Vrand and Brinich, 1999, Brodzinsky, 1987).
• Numerous studies indicate that adoptive parents report high levels of satisfaction with their adoption (Barth and Brooks, 2000).
• People who were adopted fare significantly better than those children who remain in negligent, abusive birth families, or in foster care or institutions (Maughan et al., 1998, Brodzinsky et al., 1998).
• If adopted individuals did experience adoption-related struggles, most of these struggles significantly diminished or disappeared by young adulthood (Feigelman, 1997).
• People who were adopted reported more confidence in their judgment than non-adopted persons, viewed others more positively, and saw their parents as significantly more nurturing, comforting, and protectively concerned and helpful (Marquis and Detweiler, 1985).

In Error

I just put coffee in the coffee-maker without putting the filter in first. So I was really mad at myself. So then, I transferred the coffee to the filter, rinsed out the filter container, and then RINSED OUT THE FILTER that contained the coffee that I had just put into it. What the heck is wrong with me? Today’s Times has a clue.

　

Some info on errors from today’s paper:  

 

 

Daniel M. Wegner, a Harvard psychologist says: When the pressure is on, the unconscious attempt to avoid errors consistently increases their likelihood of occurring. Tell someone, “Don’t think about a white bear,” and you can almost be guaranteed that for the next 10 minutes, white bears are all the person will think about.

 

Under stress, the problem becomes worse. If you tell people not to think of a given word, then give them a word association test under time pressure, they are likely to blurt out the forbidden word as a response. The concentrated attempt not to think about it becomes just another way of thinking about it.

 

In one experiment, researchers put eye-tracking cameras on soccer players and instructed them to avoid a particular part of the goal in making a penalty kick. Guess which part of the goal their gazes most often fell?

 

Whatever the treatment, there is little reason for optimism. Tom House, the pitching coach at Southern California has a PhD in psychology. He says he is convinced that talk therapy or persuasion will never solve the problem.

So I’m doomed to waste more coffee. The NYT article here.

 

Experts Schmexperts

A quote from today’s Times:

And addiction experts agree, marijuana does not pose as serious a public health problem as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Its hazards pale in comparison with those of alcohol.

I don’t know who these “experts” are, but they’ve apparently never met a pothead. I’ve known potheads, cokeheads, and drunks. And I can tell you there is absolutely no difference in the level of disruption in one’s life, regardless of which of these is their drug of choice. I’ve seen people who really can’t get through the day without smoking marijuana. And their level of anxiety when smoking is delayed, can be so off the charts that they are unable to function or think of anything other than getting stoned.

Hey New York Times, are you high?

 

Rattner Resigns

Steven Rattner, architect of the auto bailouts (which could cost taxpayers up to $100 billion) is leaving his post. He is a former partner of the private-equity firm Quadrangle Group. Rattner’s goal of a larger political career has been cut short for the immediate future. Rattner is a big fund-raiser for Democratic candidates; his net worth is at least $188 million and possibly as much as $620 million.

Quadrangle is involved in a probe by the New York State Attorney General into alleged kickbacks to New York State’s pension fund. Rattner leaves as Andrew Cuomo is stepping up the investigation. This could have complicated White House efforts to appoint Rattner to a bigger post. Rattner has been described as having arranged at least $1.1 million in pay-to-play money to middleman Hank Morris. Morris has been criminally charged. In addition, investigators believe that Rattner gave money to the producer of a low-budget movie (“Chooch”), who is the brother of the chief investment officer of the New York State pension fund, to access business with the fund.

Jack Fitzgerald, a dealer who was made to close showrooms, said Rattner failed to grasp the nature of auto retailing. “They’re cutting back services to domestic car buyers,” he said, referring to the decision to slash thousands of dealers. “The task force simply looked at the number of dealers Toyota had…without grasping what a dealer really does,” he said. “They just did everything wrong.”

Rattner worked to keep a low profile during his five months in D.C., rarely granting interviews. Rattner, on behalf of President Obama, personally demanded that GM’s chief executive, 32-year G.M. veteran, Rick Wagoner, step down. Later, Rattner handpicked GM’s new president.  Wagoner is retiring with a $10 million package.

Cuomo is pushing Rattner to a settlement; Cuomo does not want to press criminal charges against Rattner. In a statement, Tim Geithner said that Rattner has decided to spend more time with his family.