What are the causes and effects of teacher retentions?
Probably too much salt in the diet.
Saturday 17 January 2009
Friday 16 January 2009
A great, big harrah!
goes out to Seagate. As one of the largest manufacturers of hard drives in the world, and having fallen on hard times, Seagate has announced that it will reduce its workforce by 3,000. No, that's not the part that needs to be applauded. It also said that various executives' salaries will be reduced between 15% and 20%. Now, we're getting warmer. The CEO will take a 25% salary hit. Applause!
Why does the reduction of someone's pay require applause. Simple. Very quietly (to some) the gap between CEO's pay and that of the average worker has widened exponentially over the last few decades. You're probably thinking "Vin, you must be exaggerating when you use the word 'exponentially', aren't you?" Au contraire, my friend. It is almost beyond belief how the wage gap has turned into a veritable chasm.
In 1965, the average Joe's pay envelope contained only 1/24th of what The Big Kahuna's did. Back then, that difference almost sounded reasonable. But greed being the hallmark of the rich, by 1979, that difference had grown to 35. By 1989, it was 71. 1995 was a banner year--it hit the 100 times milestone. Unbelievably, it was at this point that Chief Executives' salaries really took off. By the year 2000, they were making 300 times more than Joe Lunchpail!
If you were making $40,000/year, The Grand Poobah was pulling down about $12 million. And that's not counting the myriad of stock options, bonuses and benefits which can add millions more. Baby, you're a rich man! The tech wreck caused executive pay to be reduced...but it was short-lived. The gap between the poor and the rich continued its relentless, ever-widening journey.
This graph gives a visually-startling picture of the enormity of this untenable situation. Unfortunately, it only shows data up until 2005.
On behalf of all the little guys, a hearty congratulations, Seagate, on taking a gutsy stand on executive pay. Here's hoping your peers follow your sensible and ground-breaking stand.
The Story.
Why does the reduction of someone's pay require applause. Simple. Very quietly (to some) the gap between CEO's pay and that of the average worker has widened exponentially over the last few decades. You're probably thinking "Vin, you must be exaggerating when you use the word 'exponentially', aren't you?" Au contraire, my friend. It is almost beyond belief how the wage gap has turned into a veritable chasm.
In 1965, the average Joe's pay envelope contained only 1/24th of what The Big Kahuna's did. Back then, that difference almost sounded reasonable. But greed being the hallmark of the rich, by 1979, that difference had grown to 35. By 1989, it was 71. 1995 was a banner year--it hit the 100 times milestone. Unbelievably, it was at this point that Chief Executives' salaries really took off. By the year 2000, they were making 300 times more than Joe Lunchpail!
If you were making $40,000/year, The Grand Poobah was pulling down about $12 million. And that's not counting the myriad of stock options, bonuses and benefits which can add millions more. Baby, you're a rich man! The tech wreck caused executive pay to be reduced...but it was short-lived. The gap between the poor and the rich continued its relentless, ever-widening journey.
This graph gives a visually-startling picture of the enormity of this untenable situation. Unfortunately, it only shows data up until 2005.
On behalf of all the little guys, a hearty congratulations, Seagate, on taking a gutsy stand on executive pay. Here's hoping your peers follow your sensible and ground-breaking stand.
The Story.
Thursday 15 January 2009
Public Service Announcement
If you discover that your bank has erroneously credited your account with a large sum of money, don't spend it. In fact, report it immediately before you get some cockamamie idea in your head.
Case in point: A Pennsylvania couple is behind bars after police say they failed to call the bank when a glitch put an extra $175,000 in their account. What did these normal, hard-working people decide to do instead of reporting the error? Why, they both quit their jobs, moved to Florida and were in the process of buying a new home when the law caught up with them. Now, they each have a new home. With a courtyard. I mean an exercise yard. I think it's best that they're segregated from the general gene pool, anyway.
What's even more remarkable (there's always something more remarkable in cases like this) is the woman's defence. She said her husband, who is a roofer, often gets big pay cheques and she was unaware of any error. I guess quitting their jobs and buying a new home is pretty routine for them.
The Story.
Case in point: A Pennsylvania couple is behind bars after police say they failed to call the bank when a glitch put an extra $175,000 in their account. What did these normal, hard-working people decide to do instead of reporting the error? Why, they both quit their jobs, moved to Florida and were in the process of buying a new home when the law caught up with them. Now, they each have a new home. With a courtyard. I mean an exercise yard. I think it's best that they're segregated from the general gene pool, anyway.
What's even more remarkable (there's always something more remarkable in cases like this) is the woman's defence. She said her husband, who is a roofer, often gets big pay cheques and she was unaware of any error. I guess quitting their jobs and buying a new home is pretty routine for them.
The Story.
Wednesday 14 January 2009
I'm an old geezer
It's official. I am losing more hair--wait, it's not what you think. It was decades ago when I first started seeing large amounts of hair going down the shower drain every morning. It was painful to watch at first, but eventually, I came to accept its inevitability. This was especially difficult for a guy who once did not get a haircut for three and a half years, easily reaching behind my back and grasping my hair, which was half way down my back.
Now that my hair is very sparse, it seems that I am losing less of it to the drain, but something more sinister and distressing is occurring. Each morning, after showering, I stand in front of the basin and mirror, shaving, brushing, primping, spraying, etc. The other day, as I started to clean the area, I noticed that there were an assortment of hairs all about. That's not the distressing part.
To a third party, it might not have been given any notice at all, but as the owner of all those precious hairs, it meant a lot. What I witnessed were hairs of every possible origin. There were hairs from my head, perhaps a moustache hair, there may have been a nose hair or two, I saw at least one eye lash and I was fairly certain a thick and outlandishly long eye brow hair sat in the sink. It's anyone's guess whether a hair from an ear had joined the others just to make sure all sources were represented.
Maybe it shouldn't bother me so much. About six to eight months ago, I bought a battery-operated ear/nose hair trimmer and I've been very happy with it, relieving people of having to nervously look away after spotting the unsightly and embarrassing growth. Oh, I had tried my best to trim it with very small scissors, but it was always a job badly done and not without its dangers. On one occasion, a sudden sharp pain in my nose signalled I had cut something I shouldn't have. Half a tissue shoved up my nose became almost entirely soaked with blood before the stream subsided.
So, perhaps losing all this "extraneous" hair isn't such a bad thing--maybe soon, I won't have any hair left anywhere that I need to be concerned about removing...and risking my life in the process.
Now that my hair is very sparse, it seems that I am losing less of it to the drain, but something more sinister and distressing is occurring. Each morning, after showering, I stand in front of the basin and mirror, shaving, brushing, primping, spraying, etc. The other day, as I started to clean the area, I noticed that there were an assortment of hairs all about. That's not the distressing part.
To a third party, it might not have been given any notice at all, but as the owner of all those precious hairs, it meant a lot. What I witnessed were hairs of every possible origin. There were hairs from my head, perhaps a moustache hair, there may have been a nose hair or two, I saw at least one eye lash and I was fairly certain a thick and outlandishly long eye brow hair sat in the sink. It's anyone's guess whether a hair from an ear had joined the others just to make sure all sources were represented.
Maybe it shouldn't bother me so much. About six to eight months ago, I bought a battery-operated ear/nose hair trimmer and I've been very happy with it, relieving people of having to nervously look away after spotting the unsightly and embarrassing growth. Oh, I had tried my best to trim it with very small scissors, but it was always a job badly done and not without its dangers. On one occasion, a sudden sharp pain in my nose signalled I had cut something I shouldn't have. Half a tissue shoved up my nose became almost entirely soaked with blood before the stream subsided.
So, perhaps losing all this "extraneous" hair isn't such a bad thing--maybe soon, I won't have any hair left anywhere that I need to be concerned about removing...and risking my life in the process.
Tuesday 13 January 2009
Q & A's from around the web
Im axin a question fo da nіggaz. Do u like KFC or Churches Chicken betta?
Editor's note: Ironically, immediately following the question above, was this question...
Does racism still exist?
Editor's note: Ironically, immediately following the question above, was this question...
Does racism still exist?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)