Think on the run

A friend of mine just emailed, begging me to join him on the Urban Challenge. This month, Wired reported on this hi-tech scavenger hunt.

Teams of two race against the clock on foot or via public transit – right up my alley. The team must visit 12 checkpoints, solving puzzles and clues to get to the next location. Each team has 5 hours to complete the course, documenting each checkpoint with a digicamera.

Too bad I’ll be in Savannah.

Did anyone do this last year? Click here to find out when the Urban Challenge comes to your neighborhood.

Mixing business with pleasure

Early on in my career, I didn’t think twice about inviting the boss out to happy hour. At 23, I wasn’t concerned with making an impression, good or bad. I just wanted to have fun.

As I matured and moved on to another employer, I was more aware of my behavior in social settings. I’d still have fun, but wouldn’t go crazy the way I would with friends.

Next week will mark my 2-year anniversary with this employer. I’m the boss now and can count the number of happy hours I’ve been to with employees on one hand.

Does anyone else feel inhibited in social settings with co-workers? Do you drink with the boss after hours? Do you find it inappropriate? What’s your corporate culture like?

Who’s fault is it?

Most of you have heard about how US troops gunned down Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana after mistaking him for an Iraqi guerilla with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Reports state the troops shot first and attempted to resuscitate him later.

According to the Boston Globe:

Eighteen journalists have died in Iraq from hostile fire and accidents. Five have been killed by the US military.

Dana’s family wants justice. How do you punish the US troops in this situation? What is a reasonable expectation of justice? Should reporters be in Baghdad?

The pat-down and bag-check

It was September 6, 2001. I was in the hell known as Heathrow Airport, hopping from line to line, passing through endless security checkpoints, desperately trying to board my flight and return to the States.

I remember passing my third security check and thinking, “this inefficient mess would never happen in the US.”

Let’s fast forward almost 2 years. I encounter security everywhere. It’s become a part of our culture and my daily life….. to enter my apt. and work buildings, museums, civil buildings, the Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial Library, concerts, and movies.

Sometimes they’re looking to prevent another terrorist attack, other times they’re trying to protect corporate concerns. All I know is that, for better or worse, my behavior and packing patterns have changed.

I try to avoid carrying bags. If I’m lugging cameras and other equipment around, I’ll use a carrying case with minimal pockets/zippers/strappy things. I never check luggage at the airport (learning how to stuff 2 weeks worth of clothes into a carry-on has turned into a positive thing).

I take special care choosing a travel outfit for flights. You never know when you’ll find yourself stripping in front of a mob of strangers… especially since underwire bras and shoes always set off those bloody detectors.

I hate having strangers peek repeatedly thru my private property.

The lines, the wait, the voyeurism – it’s a necessary evil. But is it really making us more secure?

Cooties

Scientists have determined that humans developed a proclivity for clothing 70,000 years ago. By studying the three types of human lice, researchers created a molecular clock to find out when lice, or cooties, evolved.

What else will they discover through the genetic study of lice?

Atomic bomb aircraft rebuilt and in DC

The newly assembled Enola Gay, the plane that dropped “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, is going on display at the National Air & Space Museum.

I know scientists worldwide were racing to develop nuclear technology, and if we didn’t figure it out first, someone else would have. But just for a second – let’s wonder what life would be like without nuclear weapons? Would something worse have been developed?

Would we be a superpower today without the tactical policy of nuclear deterrence?

A European vacation

Most employers in DC provide 10 paid days of vacation leave per year. Some think tanks, like the Brookings Institution, start employees off with 5 paid weeks. And embassy employers follow the laws of the home country, providing employees with 6 – 8 weeks of paid leave per year.

Joe Robinson is lobbying for a national three-week minimum paid leave law. I can’t imagine what my life would be like without those three weeks off, and more often than not it’s not enough.

I traveled to Portugal with my parents last summer. My Portuguese family were appalled that I was only visiting for a week. After all, they had the entire month of August off. Why couldn’t I have taken off another week? They could not understand that had I extended my leave, I wouldn’t be able to accrue enough days to visit my family for a week at Christmas.

Joe Robinson writes in his Alternet piece:

“Vacations are being downsized by the same forces that brought us soaring work weeks: labor cutbacks, a sense of false urgency created by tech tools, fear and guilt. Managers use the climate of job insecurity to stall, cancel and abbreviate paid leave, while piling on guilt. The message, overt or implied, is that it would be a burden on the company to take all your vacation days – or any. Employees get the hint: One out of five employees say they feel guilty taking their vacation, reports Expedia’s survey.”

My time off is sacred. How many of you don’t take a vacation? Or feel guilty about taking one? Or don’t have vacation time to take off? Would you consider less pay for a more generous and flexible leave package?

The interview

Nick of What You Can Get Away With provided me with interview questions.

Here’s how it’s done:

1. If you want to participate, leave me a comment saying “interview me.”

2. I will respond by asking you five questions – each person’s will be different.

3. You will update your journal with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

This is what Nick asked me –

1) Hollywood calls and they want to make a movie of your life. What’s on the soundtrack?

American Girl by Rick Springfield

Only the Good Die Young by Billy Joel

Stripped by Depeche Mode

Vogue by Madonna

Sabotage by the Beastie Boys

Little Red Corvette by Prince

Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by U2

2) Who do you identify with most – Wile E. Coyote or the Road Runner?

The Road Runner

3) All the historical monuments, buildings and museums in DC are going to be demolished except one. Which one would you save?

This was by far, the most difficult question for me. My first instinct was to spare one of the monuments, The Jefferson Memorial. Then I thought of the buildings, the priceless artwork and irreplaceable volumes. What to do – save the National Cathedral but not the Folger Shakespeare Library? How does a person weigh the value of Ginevra de Benci in the National Gallery of Art with the documents stored in National Archives or Library of Congress?

In the end, I decided to save the U.S. Capitol Building. To this day, I stand in awe of the structure. I always cringe through the brief scene in Independence Day when the Capitol columns burst into tiny fragments.

I would rescue the Capitol Building with all of its history, artwork, documents, and magnificent architecture. It stands as the memorial to the ideal of government by the people for the people.

4) You can go to any place on Earth at any time in history for two weeks. Where and when do you go to?

I would travel to Florence, Italy, in 1492 and meet with Lorenzo de Medici before his death. Then I’d use the opportunity to solicit a dinner invitation from Leonardo da Vinci and laugh with the humanists over Christopher Columbus’ foolish quest to cross the Atlantic.

5) What’s the one question you wish science was able to answer definitively that it can’t already?

Where does time come from?