Higher education is a self-serving cartel that is failing students, the economy and the nation.
That which is unaffordable is unsustainable and will go away. The current system of higher education is profoundly unaffordable: it exists on an immoral foundation of student debt–$560 billion of which is Federal. Enormous expansions of student debt are required to keep the current system of higher education afloat. This chart shows the insane trajectory of Federal student debt:
The more fragmented (or widely dispersed) a company’s data is, the harder it is to control who can access it. The problem lies largely in the cloud, but also with information distributed across a company’s network. Complicating the issue are workers who skirt their IT department and its fussy rules, storing data however and wherever, they see fit. Revden explains:
“Ultimately, the employee is at the heart of this issue; using multiple applications and devices, often without the IT manager’s knowledge. You can understand why they do it; they want to be able to use the same applications and embrace the same ‘sharing’ culture at work that they do in their personal lives. They also sometimes feel forced to use consumer-grade tools because of the restrictions placed on them by IT, including the size of files that can be sent via the corporate email system. Of course, most employees are not conscious of the risk – they just want to use a fast and easy service which will help them get their job done. As well as identifying the potential third-party services used, IT managers need to educate users on the risks involved, in order to ensure corporate policies are respected.”
The interview discusses the business and security risks of fragmentation, the roles cloud services and email play, and steps businesses can take to fight the problem (including educating workers to the importance of the issue). It even touches on the responsibility of cloud vendors. The piece does conclude with a plug for Mimecast, but that should not deter one from reading the article. Check it out for more information on this uniquely modern issue.
Have you heard…. “Strategy is a waste of time.”
“The agenda is just like last year where we achieved nothing.”
“We got no real direction, and nothing we agreed was ever implemented afterwards”.
Sound familiar? The typical company strategy planning process involves a few days at a remote retreat where delegates pretend to listen to reviews of last year’s plans and performance and lists of next year’s goals. Delegates use the time to read emails, tweet to friends on phones, laptops or iPads or leave the room for “urgent” matters. Everyone has totally switched off.
At the end of 2 days of presentations or questions and answers, everyone pretends that “strategy has been done” for the year. The CEO ticks off “strategy planning” as completed. People comment on the venue and food whilst organisers are pleased that everything ran smoothly – even though no strategy has actually been developed.
It seems everyone is a pretender – delegates, the leaders and the facilitators.
We are now within two months of what may be humankind’s most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
There is no excuse for not acting. All the resources our species can muster must be focussed on the fuel pool at Fukushima Unit 4.
Fukushima’s owner, Tokyo Electric (Tepco), says that within as few as 60 days it may begin trying to remove more than 1300 spent fuel rods from a badly damaged pool perched 100 feet in the air. The pool rests on a badly damaged building that is tilting, sinking and could easily come down in the next earthquake, if not on its own.
Some 400 tons of fuel in that pool could spew out more than 15,000 times as much radiation as was released at Hiroshima.
The Navy Yard shooter could have been relatively sane in the past, but driven insane later, if there is any validity to his filings with the Rhode Island police. If so, what were the objectives of those who tormented him?
“Officials involved in the investigation of the Navy Yard shooting, have come forward with new insights on the weapon that was used in the shooting. Alexis had carved the words ‘My ELF weapon’ on his Remington 870-Express-Tactical shotgun. ELF stands for ‘extremely low frequency’, and usually refers to communications or weather. For those who are familiar with this technology, it is well understood that this is used in programs such as H.A.A.R.P. It has also been reported by several government whistle blowers, and even political activists that they suspected a ‘ELF weapon’ was being used on them. The report about the carvings is most interesting, because it seems to confirm the claim made by Alexis that 3 men were following him using an ELF weapon while he was in his hotel room. He even filed a report to the Newport, Rhode Island Police stating these claims. Aaron stated he had to change his hotel 3 different times because these people were using the microwave machine on him.”
Last night, a reporter on NBC's “Nightly News” admitted to the the existence of the ELF carvings on the Navy Yard shooters gun. The reporter, who seemed to be genuinely sincere, professed complete ignorance on what the the letters “ELF” meant. This reporter from a mainstream news organization is like most of them, and knowing nothing about perfectly true and valid information appearing in so-called “alternative media.”
