Jeremy's World

Saw this on fark.com one time and it cracked me up.  I’ll probably burn in hell for posting it and it may provide another reason to run me out of my church.  But I did LOL…

Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree…yeah, makes perfect sense.

I use the Facebook app on my Blackberry as my primary interface for updating my status and keeping up with my friends.  It’s great, and very much aids the crack addiction that is Facebook.  However, it has some limitations.  It doesn’t give you all those nice invitations and stuff that people post on your profile.  Maybe that’s a good thing?

I logged into the regular web interface last night and found this.  Holy crap, have I neglected so much of my Facebook experience.  That said, am I really missing out?  I mean, I like to think I’d fair well in a “Nicest Person Contest,” and I suppose I could use a “(lil) Green Patch” (though it sounds like there’s probably an ointment for that).  I could probably join the “Save the Gay Baby Whales for Jesus” cause…But is all that stuff a good thing?  I can’t seem to find the time for it.

So, I guess I am a Facebook loser.  I should probably update my status accordingly.

I received this recently in an email from a friend of mine.  You’ve seen these before, often propagated by opponents of the current administration, etc.  For some reason, I actually found this compelling and thought I would post it here.  Particularly the comment about how the current representative structure may no longer be relevant given advances in technology.  Anyway, an interesting idea…

When a company falls on difficult times, one of the things that happens is that they reduce their staff and workers. The remaining workers need to find ways to continue to do a good job or risk that their job would be eliminated as well.  Wall street, and the media normally congratulate the CEO for making this type of "tough decision", and his board of directors gives him a big bonus.

I feel our government should not be immune from similar risks. I therefore am recommending the following cuts to be implemented by the president.

Reduce the House of Representatives from the current 435 members to 218 members and Senate members from 100 to 50 (one per State). Also reduce remaining staff by 25%. Accomplish this over the next 8 years. (two steps / two elections) and of course this would require some redistricting.

Some yearly monetary gains include:

$ 44,108,400 for elimination of base pay for congress. (267 members X $165,200 pay / member / yr.)

$ 97,175,000 for elimination of the above people’s staff. (estimate $1.3 Mil in staff per each member of the House, and $3 Mil in staff per each member of the Senate every year)

$ 240,294 for the reduction in remaining staff by 25%.

$ 7,500,000,000 reduction in pork barrel ear-marks each year. (those members who’s jobs are gone. Current estimates for total government pork earmarks are at $15 Billion / yr)

The remaining representatives would need to work smarter and would need to improve efficiencies. It might even be in their best interests to work together for the good of our country?

We may also expect that smaller committees might lead to a more efficient resolution of issues as well. It might even be easier to keep track of what your representative is doing.

Congress has more tools available to do their jobs than it had back in 1911 when the current number of representatives was established. (telephone, computers, cell phones to name a few)

Note: Congress does not hesitate to jump on a train for home when there is a holiday, even when the nation needs real fixes for real problems. Also, we have 3 senators that have not been doing their jobs for the past 18+ months (on the campaign trail) and still they all have been accepting full pay. These facts alone support a reduction in senators &congress.

Summary of opportunity:

$ 44,108,400 reduction of congress members.

$ 282,100,000 for elimination of the reduced house member staff.

$ 150,000,000 for elimination of reduced senate member staff.

$ 59,675,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining house members.

$ 37,500,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining senate members.

$ 7,500,000,000 reduction in pork added to bills by the reduction of congress members.

$ 8,073,383,400 per year, estimated total savings.

Big business does these types of cuts all the time.

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of North Carolina.

With that out of the way…

Maintaining a consistent corporate brand is generally obvious as being important in the business world.  We all know Coca-Cola is dominantly red with that fancy script font.  We know Microsoft simply has their name as a logo and in a specific/custom tilted font.  The company you work for likely has standard letterhead and business cards.  What about looking beyond logos, color schemes and printed media?  Specifically: Is it important to maintain a brand on the web?

I think the simple answer is probably yes.  People should have a similar experience with your organization regardless of the medium, no?  Here’s where it gets even more interesting (to me anyway)…

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