Hasta La Gadget!

Most people have a modest two-octave vocal range when they sing, but some rare talents can manage five octaves or more. Think the late great, Freddie Mercury of Queen, or Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose, although composer-singer Tim Storms holds the Guinness World Record for the largest vocal range: a whopping 10 octaves.

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Local Motors has taken the wraps off a new self-driving bus named Olli. The bus is said to be the first autonomous one of its kind to use IBM’s Watson technology, and it is currently on the road in Washington D.C. Local Motors introduced the bus this morning at the Grand Opening of its new facility in National Harbor, Maryland; … Continue reading

I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am guilty of corruption. . . .
Francis Bacon, On being charged by Parliament with corruption in office.

Brazil to the rescue! I am not referring to the Olympics which will, if successful, serve as a distraction from other world events that are singularly depressing. Brazil is riding to the rescue by reminding us that as corrupt as some leaders in our political system may be, Brazil beats us hands down. For being made aware of the difference, we are indebted to the year 2016 and three separate but equal, at least in some respects, events. The events described are not exclusive but merely representative. The first, and most recent, is brought to us by an old favorite, Wayne G. Hubbard of Alabama.

On June 9, 2016, Mr. Hubbard was the Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives. He attained that post when, in 2010, the Republicans took control of the Alabama House for the first time since Reconstruction. Following that triumph, Mr. Hubbard wrote a book entitled “Storming the Statehouse” in which he explained the Republican victory. That happened, he said, because: “Ethics was a subject that set Republicans apart from the Democrats.” The “setting apart” to which he was referring came about because prior to the election there had been a number of indictments and scandals involving Democrats. There had not, apparently, been similar events involving Republicans. Mr. Hubbard would eventually correct that. On June 10, 2016, Mr. Hubbard’s tenure as Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives came to an end. That was because on that day he was convicted of 12 felony ethics charges, a conviction that automatically caused his tenure as Speaker to come to an end. Instead of serving as Speaker of the House, he faces the possibility that he will serve up to 20 years in prison on each of the 12 criminal counts of which he was convicted. There is a bit of poetic justice in all this. The law that led to Mr. Hubbard’s conviction was passed by the Republicans when they took control of the House in 2010.

Mr. Hubbard is not the only state legislator who will look back on May 2016 as a particularly bad month. In New York State, Dean Skelos and Sheldon Silver both former New York legislators, found that to be a particularly bad month. Dean Skelos was the Republican majority leader of the New York State Senate. In December 2015 he was convicted of Federal corruption charges and on May 12, 2015, he was sentenced to five years in prison. He is no longer the Republican majority leader of the New York State Senate. Sheldon Silver was the Democratic Speaker of the New York State Assembly, and was convicted of, among other things, money laundering and extortion. Like Mr. Hubbard, the conviction cost him his seat in the Assembly. On May 3, 2016, Mr. Silver was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The good news to emerge from those examples is that there are good people available to replace the two former leaders who are not corrupt. For that, our friends in Brazil may well be envious.

On April 17, 2016, the Brazilian lower house of the Brazilian Congress overwhelmingly voted to impeach the president of the country, Dilma Rousseff. The impeachment proceedings were led by the President of the House, Eduardo Cunha. As he cast his vote in favor of impeaching President Rousseff, Mr. Cunha said: “God have pity on this nation.” God fell down on the job as far as Mr. Cunha was concerned. In early May, Mr. Cunha was ordered to step down from his post because he is charged with, among other things, having taken $40 million in bribes.

Following her impeachment, Ms. Roussseff stepped aside as president and was replaced by Michel Timer. On June 15, 2016, Brazil’s Supreme Court released testimony from a plea bargain that implicated Mr. Timer in a graft scandal that involved, among others, Petrobras, Brazil’s state oil company.

The lower house of the parliament has 513 deputies of which 367 voted for impeachment. According to a watchdog group in Brasilia, Congresso em Foco, more than 300 of the members of the lower house are under investigation for such things as corruption, fraud, or electoral crimes.

Mr. Cunha has been replaced as President of the lower house of Congress by Waldir Maranhão. Mr. Maranhão is also involved in the graft scheme pertaining to Petrobras. The president of the senate is Renan Calheiros. Tax evasion and receiving bribes are among the matters for which he is being investigated.

Brazil’s troubles help the United States in that it shows how things could be worse in Alabama and New York. There could be no one to replace the corrupt politicians who are heading off to jail. There is, of course, something positive that Brazil can look forward to. It can look forward to hosting the Olympics in August assuming construction of the needed facilities is completed and there is not too much adverse publicity from the polluted water in which some of the events will take place. Its political problems will not spoil the games for those in attendance-only for those who are citizens of that country. Christopher Brauchli can be emailed at brauchli.56@post.harvard.edu. For political commentary see his web page at http://humanraceandothersports.com

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This was originally published in Fortune.

The board room and the Oval Office are more alike than you think.

Corporate takeovers are high-wire acts requiring detailed preparation, an understanding of company cultures and organization, first-rate leaders and a mandate to create added value for stakeholders. Even in the best of circumstances, mergers and acquisitions frequently fail or fall short of expectations.

The same dynamics apply to the transfer of power from one presidential administration to the next – the largest, most complex and consequential takeover of any organization on the planet that will formally take place when a new U.S. president is sworn in on Jan. 20, 2017.

Just think about it. A candidate campaigns day and night for the presidency for more than a year, wins the big prize, and two and a half months later walks into the Oval Office as the CEO of a government that spends almost $4 trillion a year and has a workforce of 2.1 million civilian employees and more than 2 million active-duty military and reserve members. Now that is a test for even the most fearless or experienced leader.

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I have a toddler. When I look at him, and peer into his innocent brown eyes I see good, I see happy, I see naivete, and I see hope; hope that the ills and evils of our world will somehow be fixed.

Conversely, when I open up a newspaper, turn on my twitter feed, turn on the news, or listen to the radio, I see, read, or hear a completely different story.

I see anger.

I see hate.

I see evil and terror.

I see hostility.

I see greed.

I see torture. Torture of other humans and torture of sentient animals.

And I don’t know how to resolve these two starkly contrasting views of the world. The one view that is hopeful, and the one view that is hopeless. And this terrifies me.

As a species we seem to be very skilled at killing and/or decimating – populations. We kill animals, we kill each other, and for all intents and purposes we kill our planet.

Every day I read articles about the decimation of species, from elephants, to rhinoceroses, to whales, to certain species of dolphins and porpoises. Humans are destructive.

Our ways of fishing with trawling nets or gill nets kill hundreds of thousands of animals in by-catch. Some populations purposefully slaughter dolphins or other whales for sport. Other groups murder 5-ton elephants for a few pounds of ivory and greed.

Finally, certain groups murder other humans over resources, over religion, over culture or other life choices. When will it end? When will it stop? When will we learn to live peacefully on our planet without doing unnecessary harm to animals and to each other?

Given that my background is in public health, I try to frame this problem in the “public health” perspective, to find an upstream approach to solving some of these problems, to have the most impact efficiently and effectively.

However, I don’t know what the solution for hate is. I don’t know an upstream approach to stop hate. I’m not sure I know of any approach to stop hate!

And, this is what terrifies me.

I don’t want to raise my child in a world where I have to look over my shoulder. I don’t want to raise my child in a world where I’m afraid to take him certain places, because I never quite know who or what is lurking around the corner.

I want to raise my child in a world that still values life, not a world that values riches and “sameness.” I want to raise my child in a world that respects animals, and doesn’t treat them as “resources” for the killing. I want to raise my child in a world where we don’t need phrases such as: “Worth More Alive” (#worthmorealive).

In prehistoric times, our ancestors primarily killed for sustenance; killing only what was needed to survive. They were hunters and gatherers. Now we kill for “a treasure,” or for a “euphoria.” We kill rare things because we can, because they bring in a lot of money; not out of need.

We kill each other over differences of opinion, or differences in religion. But, why? What is so wrong with being “different?” Do we really know what we are “fighting” or killing over?

And, to add insult to injury, the general level of discourse around these problems is negative or discordance, or devolves into anger or the blame game, not solutions.

I by no means am perfect. But, I do know that we need to be more tolerant, more understanding, and less filled with hate.

This is our home, we all need to share it, all 7.4+ billion of us humans plus the billions of animals and plants on the planet. Neither Earth nor animals not need us to survive, but we sure do need them. We do not own Earth. We do not own the animals. We are merely one species among millions that are passing through time on this planet.

For the sake of our children and our children’s children, we need to find a way to live in harmony with each other, and with the other beings on the planet, before we destroy it or each other.

Without a doubt, I would really love to say I still have hope, and when I look at my son, I do, I get that warm and fuzzy feeling that everything will still be OK. But, when I turn on the news, it sure does make me question.

Twitter: recipe4survival

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