Nine Shift

LERN Celebrates Record Setting Year!

It's Fiscal New Year's Eve for LERN. And we have just hit an all time record income.

We've waited 40 years to hit $3,000,000 income.  It's not just money, it's what we do with it: serve learners, serve nonprofits, serve education. 

With the field of continuing education and lifelong learning under attack (being eliminated), it's all the more impressive.  Thanks to fellow Senior Management Team members Julie Coates and Greg Marsello for making LERN the largest continuing education association in the world, and the leading organization in education.

Photo: LERN Co-Founder and CFO Greg Marsello has one margarita for each million.

Why U.S. Business Needs Obamacare

While business protests, it actually needs Obamacare to prosper in this century.

The big Supreme Court ruling today is a victory for the 21st Century.  Business needs more universal health care, because business must be flexible in its workforce, and portable health insurance is key to flexibility for both employers and employees.

U.S. business will not be able to compete globally without the best, most productive, workforce at any given time.  Health care is essential for making that happen.

The struggle between the 21st century and the last century continues, but every win helps.

Artwork: is Obama the Teddy Roosevelt of this century?

Generation War is in full mode now

A symbol of the young protest: wearing the bandana that young people wore in the Mideast Arab spring uprisings. These kids are not trying to hide their identity, but identify with their fellow young people in the struggle.

Generation War is in full mode now

The war against the young is in full gear now. 

Society's response to the student debt crisis:  1) pepper spray your children; 2) have the police beat on them a bit.

Let us count how society is smacking the children down. If one has student debt:
-The kid can never receive social security.
-Even if one declares bankruptcy, the kid still owes the student debt.
-Even if the young person dies, his or her father still owes the student debt.
-Wages are garnished to pay off the debt. 

This bubble is going to burst soon.  Photo: Kids, some of them from DePaul University, tell their stories about student debt and hardship before their peers.

 

Revolt Against Student Debt

GenWar is in full mode now. Nine Shift co-author Julie Coates talks to the demonstrators.

The young man sitting next to her says his wages are garnished to pay for student debt.
The government can bail out Wall Street, Detroit, and home woners. But our own children and future? No way.  GenWar is in full mode now.

Photo: Julie is in white to the right in the photo.

 

Revolt Against Student Debt

Julie and I finish were in Chicago last week doing a seminar for administrators in higher education, telling these folks that colleges have to lower tuition and increase graduates, and that the student debt of $1 trillion is not sustainable.

The seminar ends successfully. They love it.  We are elated.

We walk outside and immediately see in Grant Park
this student protest against student debt in action.

Nine Shift Photo: A girl shows the policeman the bruises she got from police on the previous day’s protest against student debt.

Car sales down 20% in Germany

Source: New York Times, June 14, 2012

Will Cars Fly?

The driverless car fiasco reminds me of people asking me as a futurist whether cars will fly. I used to say No, but I found out that's the wrong answer. The correct answer is that they used to.

Yes, Henry Ford created a car that flew.  The test pilot flew it from his house to his office at the Ford plant.  Charles Lindbergh flew it, but it was so bad not even Lucky Lindy would fly it a second time.

Then the flying car crashed, killing the test pilot.  End of flying cars.  Will the driverless car end up the same way? 

Can the Driverless Car Detect a Deer?

Here's a real life example of the challenges Google's driverless car faces.

100 people die every year when their car hits a deer.  Can the driverless car detect a deer?

For you city folks, it's not about detecting motion.  Once a deer is moving, every rural driver knows it's too late.  You have to slow down when you see the deer, before it starts to run across the road.

And it's not about the shape of a deer.  There are numerous statues of deer sitting in people's front yards.  Is the Google car going to slam on the breaks every time there's a deer statue? 

Really, Google can detect a deer?  Test drive please.

Driverless Car Useless

Instead of working on a useless driverless-car, why couldn't Google work on something useful?

If they can create a driverless car, why can't Google:
-Detect whether an 80 year old grandmother at the airport has a bomb on her.
-Detect when a woman is getting paid less than a man for the same work.
-Detect when your child is being molested or bullied.
-Detect when you are getting spam.
-Detect when Google Chrome is going to crash.
-Detect when your retirement fund is going to become worthless.
-Detect when your identity has been stolen.

Google could be spending its time, and your money, doing something useful.