Leader Garden-Helping firms Cultivate and Grow their Leaders

http://polls.linkedin.com/vote/149419/ivwqp

With nary a sunbeam in sight, TVA and the Electric Power Research Institute on Tuesday unveiled a concept for charging the electric vehicles that are just beginning to hit the local highways.

Equipped with about 12 kilowatts’ worth of solar panels and a battery array with about five kilowatt-hours of storage, the six-parking-spot station will be used to analyze the potential impact of electric vehicles on the electric grid as well as ways to supplement that power. It is the first of two such stations to be built in East Tennessee and will serve as a research prototype to model how electric cars can be juiced up when they’re away from home.

via Solar Knowledge: TVA Unveils Electric Vehicle Charging Station Prototype.

Pretty fascinating technology that will support the upcoming launch of many electrical vehicle models.

A friend of mine passed along this list of text acronyms for seniors.  I found it to be humorous and thought you might enjoy it.

Texting

If you just got your iPhone and are “learning” to text, here is some VERY helpful information. Don’t thank me (DTM). This is a public service (TIPS).

Since more and more Seniors are texting and tweeting there appears to be a need for a STC (Senior Texting Code). If you qualify for Senior Discounts this is the code for you.

ATD: At The Doctor’s

BFF: Best Friend Farted

BTW: Bring The Wheelchair

BYOT: Bring Your Own Teeth

CBM: Covered By Medicare

CUATSC: See You At The Senior Center

DWI: Driving While Incontinent

FWB: Friend With Beta Blockers

FWIW: Forgot Where I Was

FYI: Found Your Insulin

GGPBL: Gotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low!

GHA: Got Heartburn Again

HGBM: Had Good Bowel Movement

IMHO: Is My Hearing-Aid On?

LMDO: Laughing My Dentures Out

LOL: Living On Lipitor

LWO: Lawrence Welk‘s On

OMMR: On My Massage Recliner

OMSG: Oh My! Sorry, Gas.

ROFL… CGU: Rolling On The Floor Laughing… And Can’t Get Up

SGGP: Sorry, Gotta Go Poop

TTYL: Talk To You Louder

WAITT: Who Am I Talking To?

WTFA: Wet The Furniture Again

WTP: Where’s The Prunes?

WWNO: Walker Wheels Need Oil

GLKI: Gotta Go, Laxative Kicking In

Here are one or two more to consider:

OOV:  Out of Viagra

WMWTMO:  Wake me when the movie’s over

DYHAC:  Do you have a coupon

Marriott International, one of the nation’s leading hotel groups, says it’s pulling access to adult movies from new hotel rooms it will open in the next several years.

Marriott says its decision coincides with a pending shift to new in-room entertainment technology for its new hotels. Traditional video systems, which included access to adult content displayed in the menu selection, will be replaced by Internet-based video-on-demand systems.

But the decision also comes after years of discussing whether the availability of lucrative adult films in guest rooms is appropriate and whether safeguards exist to prevent children from seeing it.

via Marriott decides adult movies have no place in its hotels | tennessean.com | The Tennessean.

I have to commend Marriott for having the guts to make this decision.  The pornography industry is a huge industry and having a major chain like Marriott pull the plug sends a loud signal to many others.

After several months of strong growth, the number of smartphones powered by Google’s Android platform surpassed the Apple iPhone in the U.S. for the three-month period ending in November 2010, a market research firm says.

61.5 million Americans ages 13 and older owned a smartphone in the period, and 26% had an Android-based phone, ComScore reported Friday. Third-place Apple followed with a 25% share and Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, led the pack with a 33.5% share.

via Google Android Surpasses Apple iPhone Market Share — InformationWeek.

Considering the number of “glitches” we have read in the newer iPhones this is not a surprise to me.  I suspect Verizon’s addition of the iPhone will help Apple climb back to #2, but the RIM devices are clearly a favorite of the business crowd.

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 9,400 times in 2010. That’s about 23 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 173 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 496 posts. There were 172 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 7mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was January 5th with 325 views. The most popular post that day was What is Symmetrical Leadership?.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were linkedin.com, facebook.com, humancapitalgroupinc.com, friendfeed.com, and mail.yahoo.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for vanderbilt, dan ryan, balance, facebook of 18, and tim tebow.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

What is Symmetrical Leadership? January 2010
1 comment

Are you frustrated with online application systems? March 2010
8 comments

Online Application Systems-People are fed up! March 2010
5 comments

Traits of Entrepreneurial Leadership: Confidence-Independence-Perseverance-Focus January 2010
6 comments

Gibson Guitar-Auto Zone make Worst Companies To Work For List December 2009
12 comments

The Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt will be competing for eco-conscious car buyers who don’t mind paying extra to cut back on gasoline usage. In the case of the Leaf, gasoline is eliminated entirely. The tradeoff is that the car must be plugged in and recharged. Charging stations are popping up throughout Tennessee, but the Volt enjoys the flexibility of taking its juice from both a charger and a gas pump.

Federal and state incentives knock $10,000 off the price, for now. Here’s a look at three key comparisons:

via Leaf vs. Volt: A comparison | Nashville Business Journal.

I’ll be curious to see the response to the electrical car market.

I think the market exists, but the price of petrol will rule the day and the timing.

via YouTube – THE DIGITAL STORY OF THE NATIVITY.

http://www.youtube.com/v/GkHNNPM7pJA

I don’t like to typically pass this kind of thing along, but I find it culturally relevant and the message is timeless.

I hope you enjoy.  Keep the spirit all year long!

Education is an issue that always weighs heavily on my mind and the current time is no different.  The reason I am writing this post is to compare two issues that are only casually related, but that both truly matter on the world stage.  These two issues are the education of women in Afghanistan and Pakistan and STEM education in the United States.  While they may seem like they are a world apart, there is an interesting parallel that I cannot get out of my mind.  I hope you too will see this parallel.

In June of this year I had the honor to attend the Rotary International Convention in Montreal and during this convention I had the greater honor to hear Greg Mortensen 

speak about his work educating young girls and now women in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Seeing this presentation has inspired me to read both Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools.  If you have not read these books, please do so as soon as possible.  It is simply amazing to see what can happen when one person, one man, chooses to make a difference.  I will not bore you with all of the numbers, but be aware that the number of girls being educated in these two countries has increased by over a factor of 10 as a result of Mr. Mortensen’s vision and the hard work of many within the countries.  The Taliban had worked to minimize, if not eliminate, the education of women because they understand the  value and power that women have in the household.  Even the United States military has gotten involved because they too see how the true long term power we can bring to that part of the world is education, especially the education of women and girls.

The parallel I see is that while one easily recognizable force, the Taliban, has impacted the education of women and girls, there are many factors that have had similar impacts on the education of young people in America.  The biggest obstacle I have seen to STEM education, especially Engineering education, is the deterioration of interest and proficiency in mathematics and the physical sciences in our country.  There are many reasons that young people lose interest in the sciences, but one of the most basic is that Engineering and Science is not viewed as “sexy” and “cool.”  There are some exceptions to this, such as the CSI series, but when was the last time you saw someone in the engineering field depicted as cool rather than as a “geek?”  Even the IT arm of Best Buy is know as the “Geek  Squad,” hardly a flattering name for a valuable group.

Statistics from the National Science Foundation show that while STEM graduates in America dropped during the 1990’s and 2000’s, there has been some improvement in the later 2000’s, a small glimmer of hope in my eyes.

Why is this an important issue?  Think about this; the professions that truly create value are usually the sciences, whether through new technology or drug discovery or a whole host of innovative ideas that are firmly rooted in the sciences and in engineering.  While meaning to offense to the legal profession, attorneys do not create wealth, they only redistribute it.  Accountants add no value, they only add up the results.

What can you do?  If you are a parent you can encourage your children to consider STEM careers when they think about  career choices.  If you are an educator, you can make your offerings interesting and contextually relevant for your students.  If you are a business leader, you can get involved in STEM initiatives in your region such as the ACE Mentor

program, an initiative that promotes careers in Architecture, Engineering and Construction.

Each of us can play a part.  You don’t have to go to a third-world country to make a difference.  You can do great things in your own back yard.

Auburn University is slated to receive $938,000 from a BP initiative that designated $5 million in rapid response funds for Alabama’s Marine Environmental Science Consortium, Auburn officials announced this morning.

The money is to be used for immediate state research programs in response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to an Auburn University news release.

Auburn’s funding is spread among multiple projects in the College of Sciences and Mathematics, Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, College of Agriculture and the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences.

via Auburn to get almost $1 million for Gulf oil spill response projects | al.com.

Congrats to Auburn for securing this grant from BP and kudos to BP for putting more money into research that will help with future oil issues in the gulf.