Are Carnivals Really the Heavy Here,Our Reliance on "The Grid," Or Does $H1T Just Happen?

Of course, this is a rhetorical question -- at best -- if not a silly one.  And no disrespect is meant to those killed or injured during this terrible accident, or to those left to pick up the pieces.  

But it's difficult not to ask: how can this happen?

Well?  I'm not the only one asking the question.  Certainly, at the very least, the understandably distraught families of those lost, the men and women whose significant others are left tending very-open wounds, the children now without a loved one to kiss them goodnight before bed, and the cast of uncounted others left with only a void -- a void once filled by a friend, a confidant, or even a smile on an anonymous face passing in the croud.  I'm sure each of them have at least considered the question.

But year after year, Carnivale proceeds as though it is just a day on the calendar -- it happens without anyone's permission or assistance.  But in fact it does happen, and with the input and assistance of the hundreds of individuals without which Carnivale would be little more than an unscripted party, a large gathering of people who, by their own doing, would have no better chance at ensuring everyone's safey than that of the very well-scripted effort the Brazillians provide us, year after year.

Accidents happen: even the worse of them.  And accidents happen without assistance, and with the randomness of any one drop of rain in a rainstorm, and with the likeliness of occurring tantamount to that of that any one drop hitting any one specific person.  And whether you believe in a God, or in the many gods, or place bets on the randomness of chance: S#1T happens.

Carnival accident kills 16 in Brazil

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AFP/File – At least 16 people were killed at a carnival in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais when one of the floats …

By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press – Mon Feb 28, 10:28 am ET

SAO PAULO – At least 16 people were electrocuted when a power line fell atop a packed pre-Carnival street parade in rural Brazil, police said Monday.

Witnesses reported a high-voltage power line sparked and fell on the dancing crowd after it was hit by metallic streamers commonly tossed during Brazil's Carnival or by fireworks, police said, though the cause remained under investigation.

"We have at least 16 dead, among them teenagers," said a police spokesman in the town of Bandeira do Sul in Minas Gerais state, north of Rio de Janeiro, where the accident happened Sunday night. "Most were hit by the line but it's possible the current passed from person to person because the crowd was so dense."  At least 54 other people were injured ...

Run For The BORDERS

http://www.wthr.com/story/14041646/three-borders-bookstores-closing-in-central-indiana



Well, we all wanted low-cost books, magazines, etc.  I've heard people say that they love to go to Borders, have a coffee, and you can spend the entire day just reading the first 30 or 60 minutes of most periodicals entirely free!

Wow! What a deal!  Really?

Now we can just surf to Amazon, drink our own coffee, and reflect on the incomparable smell of beautiful books lining the walls, and the way it used to be.

Financial Analysts vs. Soothsayers

Unisys Downward Momentum Looks to Continue (UIS) - Comtex SmarTrend Alert

I really love analysts, even more so the ones that look at computer models as though they mean something. A trendline on its own means very little. Even within its own channel it has little meaning.

How much does this one mean? In the face of what it doesn't tell you, not much, less even.

Sarah Larson 'Devastated' After Getting Dumped by George Clooney

Thoughts: FOXNews.com - Sarah Larson 'Devastated' After Getting Dumped by George Clooney - Celebrity Gossip

It should have come as no surprise, at least not to Ms. Larson, that George Clooney would made his hallmark "getaway" before things went beyond the point of no return.

Not that there's any real "point of no return," and though there are those who think Clooney's personality-type would make it difficult for him to just rollover on the $100,000 bet he has with Nicole Kidman on his marital state before he turns 50, that figure pales by comparison with what the divorce courts would do to him this time around.

Married once before to Talia Balsam, Mr. Clooney had little to lose in divorce courts; however, today even a reasonable prenuptial agreement could cost him millions.

But I doubt that losing a bet or the [monetary] price of divorce would scare George away from true love. After all, he's a man -- a man's man, really -- and there's a lot more to him than meets the eye. In his 40's, George has a lot of living to due, a lot of things to experience, and -- should he choose -- a lot of women to help him do just that. Handsome, talented, driven, and wealthy, who could possibly fault him for the choices he makes?

As for Sarah Larson, I'm sure he loves her dearly, just as I'm certain she's had an incredible year of memories to look back upon. And if she plays her cards right, she'll probably have a friend for life in George, and many more opportunities to share in his life -- just not as Mrs. Clooney. Or at least not any time too soon.

George Clooney has the combination of raw talent and nearly incomparable good looks. Though they would never be mistaken as family, one can appreciate the similar great looks that George Clooney and Sean Connery share, asthe photographs below suggest. It leaves one asking the obvious question, "George; will you be our next James Bond?"

Tags: relationships

IT Organizations Focusing on What Outsourcing Still Can't Provide

A recent Gartner survey apparently shows that IT Organizations are finally starting to "get it" when it comes to the topic of outsourcing.

Once seen for its promise -- albeit failed promise -- of lower cost resources, IT organizations are finally focusing on the golden carrot -- increased productivity and flexibility.

It's unfortunate, but completely understandable, that today's outsourcing doesn't provide the few things that IT organizations should have been striving for from the very beginning -- productivity increases, flexible workforce, and technological centers of excellence. But standing back from the oh-so-pretty PowerPoint presentation developed by some management sycophant that suggests when you take x-number of cut-rate resources, include his or her own Word document making claims of extraordinary expertise, and then there's a puffy cloud, and poof, you have productivity and expense savings! Wow!

But somewhere in the superfluous equation the years of real experience, experience with teeth, experience within one's company and their experience with the customers, and experience that could never be translated to procedural documentation even if exiting employees' remembered it when asked. Yes; that puffy cloud has a lot to live up to.

But at least corporate IT organizations are finally striving for the right thing.

Tags: outsourcing, corporate-ignorance, corporate-arrogance, human-resources,

Google's 'BLOGGER' -- Broken or Hacked?

OK; no one, or nothing, is perfect, ... well, at least not all the time.

Until today, I've been able to count on Google's Blogger site as my primary blogging site.  And why not?  It's got a fairly simple interface, and it integrates well with other applications, the least of which is not the many other applications with which Google's fine developers have provided us.

Until today.

But today I am "greeted" by a cold, impersonal 403 error message, or with a partially obscured "Google Error" display at the top of the page.  And that's when I realized that it is apparently impossible to contact anyone directly about a problem with their services.

OK; I know the service is free, but for those of us that have come to count on things such as blogger, it really sucks.

Tags: google blogger broken 403Error

India Gets Cut-Off

So an underwater cable gets cut and parts of India -- along with all the sheep who have outsourced their business to India -- are incommunicado.  Oh well, at least it wasn't Pakistan lobbing a nuke at them. ... yet.

Tags: Outsourcing, Internet, India, Business, sheep