 by Flemming Funch
EarthDance - the global dance party for world peace - is happening on Saturday the 12th in 100 cities across the planet, including ... Baghdad, Iraq. Peace Troubadour James Twyman will be there, despite threats that he'll be arrested when he comes back to the U.S. He has quite a remarkable record, of showing up consistently in particularly challenged regions of our world, ..and then things tend to get better.
Great piece from comedian George Carlyn: Rockets and Penises in the Persian Gulf. Raunchy as usual, but spot on.
Article in The Economist: First will be Last about the myth that it has great economic advantage to be the first to do something on the Internet. Stan Liebowitz, a professor in economics, makes a good case for dispelling the myth of "lock-in". You know, that the first company that becomes known for doing something will tend to own the market, even if somebody comes along and does it better later. There seems to be no great evidence for that. And for that matter, the fact that most of the "first mover" companies in the Internet economy have gone under, backs that up. But there is inertia in the market. If people need to change to something new, whether from the same company or another, the new product has to be considerably better than the old. Not just a little better, or the pain of the transition is not worth it. People will stay with Microsoft as long as the alternatives are only 10% better, or 50% better. But if somebody provided alternatives that were 3 times as fast, 3 times as easy, with 3 times as many features, and it was free - of course people would drop Microsoft in a matter of months.
I caught the last part of an interview with Jamie Lee Curtis where she imparted this advice about life: Whenever you find yourself thinking "I have to ...", exchange it with "I get to ...". And whenever you would say "I can't ...", replace it with "I'm unwilling to ...". Oh, I'm sure she wasn't the first person to say that. It is good, simple, self-help advice. The kind of stuff people easily gloss over. Yeah, yeah, nice new agey kind of stuff to think about. But, actually, the most powerful changes you can make in your life are little reversals of orientation like that. Change your mind and realize that life is an opportunity, not a burden. You are in charge. If something isn't happening, it is because you aren't doing it. That's not just a nice positive affirmation. It is something huge, if you get it.
"What we do today, right now, will have an accumulated effect on all our tomorrows." -- Alexandra Stoddard
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