meta-roj

long, long, ago… it seems when i was putting more thoughtful pieces together in this space, i bounced off transparency as a business advantage, and did so in a typically oblique sort of way.

i’m a fan of transparency, in general, and the story about vw’s phaeton factory [car and driver] provided a tangent, but i never really got back to it as a thinking piece. this probably won’t be either, i just want to move the thread up many months, with a nod to fred, who left me this hook to hang myself on….

i’ve explored the problems with lack of transparency here in some gory detail – mostly related to diebold and the electronicification of elections (theme song: elections should be transparent) and government, most particularly the department of justice, under the fearless and righteous leadership of john ashcroft. and that brings me full-circle, since i stumbled into fred’s blog via jon stewart and john ashcroft, and i was so moved, i even left a comment.

so, fred is a vc, and i try to be a positive kinda guy in general, so this post may not have a lot of original thought in it, but i’d like to wrap up on a positive note, and remind everyone that transparency is working (or so it seems) for magnatune, and i did just dig into that again.

barry, fred… fred, barry. i think you guys are neighbors.

Grapefruit-Sized Meteorite Smashes Through NZ Home [reuters]

A grapefruit-sized meteorite smashed through the roof of a New Zealand house, hitting a couch and bouncing off the ceiling before coming to rest under a computer.

good thing the sky is only falling on the other side of the planet, i guess… there’s still plenty of time to plan your doomsday…

senator joe biden [D-DE, June 8, 2004]

there’s a reason why we sign these treaties. to protect my son in the military. that’s why we have these treaties. so when americans are captured, they are not tortured.

the full transcript of the hearing is available from the washington post.

[this is a follow-up on a previous post here].

in the news section of the boss’s site, you’ll find a copy of the speech al gore gave at nyu on may 26 – with this introduction:

A few weeks ago at N.Y.U. Al Gore gave one of the most important speeches I’ve heard in a long time. The issues it raises need to be considered by every American concerned with the direction our country is headed in. It’s my pleasure to reprint it here for my fans.

kinda odd that bruce springsteen would make the meta-roj blog on politics and not as part of the music business tirades… but, hey… rock on, bruce.

i won’t be able to follow this very closely (busy day here at the rojidojo), but you might… less than 8 hours to go for 24hdc.

[via suw]

educator

bass

in the tradition of rafe esquith, katherine and stephanie and most of all, hope stout, i take some time to share with you the story of alexandra scott.

diagnosed with neuroblastoma at about age one, alex scott is now eight years old, still battling her cancer and on a mission to raise $1 million to fight the disease. she’s doing it with a lemonade stand.

to date, she’s raised over $200,000.

so, it’s summertime, and that means it’s lemonade time, and the big around-the-country (and even a little in canada) lemonade stand event is june 12.

visit the site, read the stories, and find some way to participate. the philadelphia fund page is here.

the ap is running a story [via abc], and you can get some recent news on alex from caringbridge.

so, let run off on a trip around the net to pick up the news about alex….
Stars of Spider-Man 2 and Real-Life Superheroes [oprah]
Alex’s Lemonade Stands Planned In 50 States [wbal, june 10, 2004]
Outpouring of volunteers takes a stand for children with cancer [the star ledger, june 11, 2004]
Robinsons to set up lemonade stand near dome [redwood falls gazette, june 4, 2004]
Fighting Cancer With Lemonade [cbs news, september 1, 2003]
Hope By The Cupful [cbs news, july 21, 2003]
Buy lemonade, fight kids’ cancer [arizona daily star, june 9, 2004]
Pa. Girl Hopes to Raise $1M for Cancer [guardian unlimited (uk), june 11, 2004]
Lemon Aid [the new american, october 6, 2003]
Lemonade for life [spot on, germany]
Lemon-Aid [guidepost for kids]
living generously, a sermon preached by the rev. dr. gary a. wilburn [first presbyterian church of new canaan, november 24, 2002]
Making Lemons from Lemonade [catawampus, may 4, 2004]
Children’s Cancer Fundraiser Set For June 12 At Co-op [university of connecticut, june 9, 2004]
Lemonade stand to raise funds for cancer research [houston chronicle, june 2, 2004]
Lemonade Sale Funds Girl’s Wish [technewsworld, june 12, 2004]
Alex Continues Lemonade Crusade Against Pediatric Cancer [nbc10, june 2, 2004]
Alexandra Scott [time for kids, may 2, 2003]
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Fund [dreams alive magazine]

some charity involvement…
The Elsevier Foundation [$5000 grant, 2003]

some political involvement…
Leach urges Pennsylvanians to support ‘Alex’s Lemonade Stand’ and help fund pediatric cancer research [pennsylvania state house representative daylin leach, march 16, 2003]
Leach hosts Alex Scott at Capitol in effort to gather support for pediatric cancer research [pennsylvania state house representative daylin leach, may 11, 2003]

and some corporate involvement…
All About Alex [coffee blend named for alex]
Sunkist’s Pledge to Alex’s Lemonade Stand
philadelphia sixers, november 9, 2003

Delaware Valley Volvo Retailers Honor Local Hero Alexandra Scott With Month-Long Fundraiser
Volvo for Life Awards [translated by google]
Charity Basketball Tournament to Benefit Alex’s Lemonade Stand Fund [holy family university, march 30, 2004]
wkrz 98.5fm

and the darker side – let no good deed go unpunished, and let no bad news go unaddressed:
Girls’ sweet deed comes to bitter end [st. petersburg times, july 23, 2003]
Lemonade girls taste a victory [st. petersburg times, august 3, 2003]

i hope you had a nice journey…

you can donate via paypal through the philadelphia fund online donation page.

as for the meta-roj blog, i’m adding alex over there on the right next to hope.

thank you for your attention.

update (2004.06.12): for the remainder of today, alexandra scott gets the top slot on the meta-roj blog, and i fixed all the missing “read more” links and added a few fresh ones from today.

update (2004.06.12): alex has even been farked.

update (2004.08.02): alex died on her favorite couch. the lemonade stand effort has raised about $750,000, with pledges to continue the work until the $1 million goal is reached. please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments here, or at the memorial post for alex

update (2004.08.02): as i bring the second of august to an end here (technically, at least), i thought i’d take a moment to acknowledge the more than 750 visitors to the meta-roj blog today that came looking for alex in some form or another. i’m sorry the news that brought you were was sad, but thanks for dropping by and doing whatever you did that was inspired by alex and her efforts.

am i finding all these scary stories this week because i’m ignoring the big funeral scene? am i the only one getting a feeling of “let’s get it out there now, while reagan drives the news cycle”?

State Dept.: Terror Report Incorrect [ap via fox news]

The State Department acknowledged Thursday it was wrong in reporting terrorism declined worldwide last year.

Instead, both the number of incidents and the toll in victims increased sharply, the department said. Statements by senior administration officials claiming success were based “on the facts as we had them at the time. The facts that we had were wrong,” department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

i wonder if this’ll have much traction on funeral day?

looking back a few weeks… someone knew the report was “faulty” at best back in mid-may…

Faulty Terror Report Card [washington post, may 16, 2004]

“You will find in these pages clear evidence that we are prevailing in the fight,” said Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. As evidence, the “Patterns of Global Terrorism” report says that worldwide terrorism dropped by 45 percent between 2001 and 2003. The report even boasts that the number of terrorist acts committed last year “represents the lowest annual total of international terrorist attacks since 1969.”

….

So how did the report conclude that international terrorism is declining?

It accomplishes this sleight of hand by combining significant and nonsignificant acts of terrorism. Significant acts are clearly defined and each event is listed in an appendix, so readers can verify the data. By contrast, no explanation is given for how nonsignificant acts are identified or whether a consistent process is used over time — and no list is provided describing each event. The data cannot be verified.

the report is available in both html and pdf formats.

Correction to Global Patterns of Terrorism Will be Issued [us state department, june 10, 2004]

At our request, the Terrorist Threat Integration Center is revising the statistics for calendar year 2003. While we are still checking data for accuracy and completeness, we can say that our preliminary results indicate that the figures for the number of attacks and casualties will be up sharply from what was published. As soon as we are in a position to, we will issue corrected numbers, a revised analysis, and revisions to the report.

if this keeps up, will the american intelligence services ever get their credibility back? it’s one thing to miss a call about the future, but this is reporting with hindsight – isn’t that supposed to be, i dunno… easier?