A 36% failure rate on innovation doesn't faze Google

Interesting read from MediaBistro. Let's put it this way: How many companies would handle a 36 percent failure rate for its innovations? Without getting all panicky, that is? Without committing hara-kiri?

Then there's Google:

Thoughts On Innovation, By Google - MediaJobsDaily

Excerpt:

" ... at any rate, Google, one of the most successful tech companies in the world, has a lot of failures. More than a third of their product launches fail, according to The Next Web ... out of 251 Google projects or add-ons since 1999, 90 have been canceled. Out of 22 major product launches, eight have been huge flops."

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Ink-stained wretches can still dream

Not long ago I started corresponding with an old friend, a fellow survivor of the newsroom wars. I hadn't seen him in 20 years, and he had an idea that caused the printer's ink in my veins to flow a little bit faster ... this idea was, why doesn't he buy an old struggling newspaper, call all the old reporters who haven't drunk themselves goofy yet, get them all together in one newsroom, and show the world what real journalism is all about ... stop me if you've heard that one ...

(You know there's more. Read it in HubPages!)

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Holding the secret to life?

I wrote this about a co-worker of mine, because it is suspected he really does hold some valuable life secrets without knowing it. Or caring. As reported in Hubpages:

"These days velocity trumps size and quality, and the whole objective to living seems to be just hanging on instead of winning -- or even finishing -- the race. You merely try to cope. But someone with Alan's mindset seems to cope better than most. As I once said with tongue firmly implanted in cheek, Alan holds the secret to life. We even have a key phrase around the shop: 'What Would Alan Do?' "

Check it out. Y'all might learn something.

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Sort of a bear encounter: Hiking trip

As published in HubPages:

That's when the manager of the lodge announced that there was some recent bear activity on the property, and we should move all our baggage from our porches. Some folks moved right away to take care of their gear, but none of my group bothered. Recent bear activity usually means it could happen. So could being struck by lightning or winning the state lottery ... what the manager didn't say was that there was some bear activity going on right this very moment. Now, that's a whole 'nother thing ... we finished dinner and went back to our cabin, and all of our stuff was moved inside. And this ranger was still running around, with a dart gun in his hand ...

So? Don't just sit there. Read the story!

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Some wonderful truths to ponder late at night

As if I don't have enough distraction in my life, Mom sent this email of questions for me to ponder. And since I'm always trying to stimulate good thought and to open people's minds (sometimes with a wrecking bar), I thought I'd pass this along to y'all.

So, if you're lying awake at night for no reason, grab one or two of these questions and turn them over in your mind for a while. It may not help you get to sleep, but at least you'll have a reason for this insomnia.

Thank me later.


1. Is it good if a vacuum really sucks?

2. Why is the third hand on the watch called the second hand?

3. If a word is misspelled in the dictionary, how would we ever know?

4. If Webster wrote the first dictionary, where did he find the words?

5. Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack?

6. Why do "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing?

7. Why do "fat chance" and "slim chance" mean the same thing?

8. Why do "tug" boats push their barges?

9. Why do we sing "Take me out to the ball game" when we are already there?

10. Why are they called "stands" when they are made for sitting?

11. Why is it called "after dark" when it really is "after light"?

12. Doesn't "expecting the unexpected" make the unexpected expected?

13. Why are a "wise man" and a "wise guy" opposites?

14. Why do "overlook" and "oversee" mean opposite things?

15. Why is "phonics" not spelled the way it sounds?

16. If work is so terrific, why do they have to pay you to do it?

17. If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?

18. If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?

19. If you are cross-eyed and have dyslexia, can you read all right?

20. Why is bra singular and panties plural?

21.. Why do you press harder on the buttons of a remote control when you know the batteries are dead?

22. Why do we put suits in garment bags and garments in a suitcase?

23. How come abbreviated is such a long word?

24. Why do we wash bath towels? Aren't we clean when we use them?

25. Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

26. Why do they call it a TV set when you only have one?

27. Christmas -- What other time of the year do you sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of your socks?

28. Why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway ?  (This last one was something the late George Carlin wondered about, too.)

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Some reading while waiting to see what happens next

Today's required reading:

The Federalist Papers, by James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton. Download from Project Gutenberg. A series of essays on what the Constitution is all about. Whatever it is, it's not the way PrezBo or Nancy Pelosi see it.

Democracy In America, by Alexis DeTocqueville. Download Volume 1 and Volume 2 from Project Gutenberg.

It Can't Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis. Download from ? -- h'mm, good luck free downloads from the United States, imagine that. But try the Australian Gutenberg site and Books @ Adelaide, another Aussie site. Well worth the search, though. It's a fictional work, from the 1930s, about the United States going totalitarian. Total fiction, but based on a true story. And it happened a year from now.

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Satire: Writer takes a look at future air travel

While researching for my article on the Nigerian bombing suspect, I kicked up a piece in The Huffington Post about what may go on at airports in the future.

This article, written by Bob Geiger, has to be satire. It's too freaky to be real. Reading it now, it's a hoot. I'm not discounting the possibility that it may not be so funny later, though.

But in the meantime, read the article. Here's an excerpt:

... at Los Angeles International Airport a suspicious toddler was recently subdued by alert Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents while creating a disturbance when asked by TSA employees to empty her SpongeBob SquarePants sippy cup ... "She was babbling in some foreign tongue," said TSA agent Fritz Warton, a hardened veteran in the war on terror. "It was either 'want juice' or 'death to America' and I damn sure wasn't waiting to find out which it was." ... authorities arrested the child's parents when they defended the young girl by claiming their 18-month-old daughter had not yet learned to speak. Todd and Wendy Jensen are being held without bond at L.A. County Jail pending transfer to Guantanamo Bay where they will face a military tribunal ... "It's just a shame so many parents are raising their children to hate America," sighed Warton, as he returned to frisking a wheelchair-bound elderly woman ...

Borrowing a disclaimer Edward Abbey used in "The Monkey Wrench Gang," all these incidents are real, and they happened three years from now.

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Raising pork to a whole new level: Stimulus report

So how's that stimulus working for you?

Check out this report, made public by Sen. Tom Coburn's office. The Oklahoma Republican says most of the projects funded by the stimulus package are ... well, pork isn't a strong enough word.

Read it (it's downloadable, in pdf format). It's a hoot.

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Rainy day reading: Health Reform Bill text available

Any of y'all who have a) a lot of time and b) much patience with the half-breed English they use in the halls of Congress may find this interesting reading. It's the text of Senate Bill 1796, the Senate's version of the health reform bill.

A couple of tidbits about it:

• It weighs in at 1,502 pages.
• A bunch of lobbyists wrote it.
• If you read it, you're probably ahead of any of our senators. So far I have yet to hear from one who actually read the whole thing, cover to cover.

If you're able to make any sense of it, let me know. Enjoy.

And if you want to scream at your senator or congressman (or to ask him if he read the bill, heh-heh), this website lists their phone numbers and email addresses.

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Recession creates banner business for job scammers

I've mentioned it's a jungle out there, but few things are as tasty and succulent to the predator as the unemployed person.

And as times get tougher and unemployment rates are flirting with double digits, there's plenty of game out there, and consequently, lots of hunters.

Some of the sleaziest are using job promises as bait, according to Time:

Over the summer, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a wave of cases, including one against Job Safety USA, a front company that targeted people seeking maintenance and cleaning work. The ads claimed that for $98 Job Safety would send a credential called a "certificate registration number" and then help the registrant find a job. But the credential was bogus and there were no jobs. "When the economy is down, scammers take advantage of people who are anxious about their financial position," says FTC attorney Karen Hobbs. A growing area of concern: unemployment-insurance scams. (Make a note now that you should never have to pay anybody money to collect unemployment benefits.) Certain frauds are easy to sniff out once you know to look for them. A lot seems wrong with an ad to make $500 in two days that explains "the world have gone to the extend on make money with every means you can get you hand on" and then asks for "Status Of Job You Into." Less blatant red flags include e-mail addresses with domains like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! and Rediffmail (an Indian outfit) — most legitimate hirers have e-mail addresses from their companies. A company or recruiter that asks for your bank account or credit-card number is a huge warning sign. True, plenty of companies use bank information for direct-deposit paychecks — but that comes after you're hired.

On The Workbench: Twitter and Hotmail phish tales

New post on The Workbench, Reloaded:

Phish tales: My Twitter, 1000s of Hotmail accounts hijacked

I'm fairly new at this Twitter thing, and I'm still prone to rookie mistakes. And for a few days, I was paying for one ... I occasionally get worthless tweets from folks about quick-and-dirty ways to build my traffic. Most of them are pure crap, by the way, but while some are harmless crap, others are more nefarious. I came across one -- GET 1000's OF FOLLOWERS, with a link. OK. I could smell the crap all the way from here, but I thought I'd take a look at it to, well, see what was going on. Research purposes, you understand ... I clicked on the link ...

Check it out.

'It Can't Happen Here' more relevant, though harder to find

Back in the 1930s, while the economy sat in the tank and a few bad-news dictators left little jackboot prints all over the globe, folks were saying we were still reasonably safe in the USA. That it couldn't happen here.

Novelist Sinclair Lewis wrote a novel that said, oh yes it can. And "It Can't Happen Here" created something of a stir. I discovered the book quite a few years ago, and am rereading it now, as if I need something to make me all paranoid about things.

I understand he based the lead character (Buzz Windrip) on Huey Long, the populist politician who ruled Louisiana any way he wanted.

I'm big on history, mostly because it gives a been-there view of the future.

I downloaded it some months ago from the U.S. Project Gutenberg site. I looked at that site again today, and while quite a few other Lewis books are available for download, this one is not. What's up with that?

I did find it at the Australian Project Gutenberg site. It'll load into your Web browser, and you can save it from there as an .html or .txt document. Or you can read it or download it from the Adelaide site, also from Australia. Get 'em while they're hot, folks!

Or, you can get the actual book from here.

Grab it and read it. And if you're a thinking person, it should scare the pants off of you.