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Wired: Saving the Earth? Good for You — Just Be Sure to Watch the Bottom Line.

Zwischen Umwelt und Profit - die Industrie, nicht nur die mit IT zu tun hat, bewegt sich auf einem schwankenden Pfad, und der wird nicht nur letztlich, sondern sehr prinzipiell durch das P-Word bestimmt. Aus einem Wired-Artikel, der sich u.a. mit Toyota und General Electric beschäftigt:

"Few companies represent the emerging ethos of green business better than Toyota, the acknowledged innovator in fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles. But sales of its flagship Prius model were slow to catch up to the car's enormous development cost. For profits, the Japanese automaker relies on conventional trucks, including its popular Tundra pickup. And to protect its cash cow, the company has strayed more than once from the path of environmental virtue."

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Cubicle Life: Social Networking

"When a voice rises from a nearby cubicle, a better question than "You talking to me?" may be "You talking to you?"

Susan Shapiro, a business-technology consultant, talks to herself constantly in what amounts to auditory to-do lists and step-by-step instructions. She calls herself an "idiot" at times, "brilliant" at others and occasionally says things out loud such as, "I can't believe I'm talking to myself out loud." She once discovered a colleague hovering behind her, waiting for her and her cubemate to finish their conversation. "We weren't talking to each other," she says. "We were each talking to ourselves."

Self-talking starts early, beginning as crib speech for the fun of it and becoming toddlers' repetition of rules they're learning to live by, researchers say. Late in life, you might say to yourself, "Why am I looking for my eyeglasses in the refrigerator?" only to discover -- holy cow! -- that's where you left them.

In between, in your cubicle-bound life, researchers say as many as 96% of people talk to themselves aloud ..."

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Wahnsinn! Rentenrevolution in Deutschland! 1,1 Prozent mehr für alle! 13 Euro mehr pro Monat!

Durchschnittlich. Das tritt eine der üblichen Debatten in diesem Land los: Experten beklagen den Ruin der Rentenformel, des Staatshaushalts, hehrer Prinzipien der Haushaltsführung. Andere Experten kontern und rühmen diesen mutigen Reformschritt. Getreu der Aussage von SPD-Chef Beck: Jetzt müsse man "die eine oder andere soziale Verträglichkeit wieder herstellen" (= Beck'scher Linksruck). Soziale Verträglichkeit! Genau. 13 Euro mehr im Monat. Da können sich die Rentner endlich wieder besaufen. 13 Euro, das macht 8 Flaschen Rotwein bei Aldi zu 1,59 Euro das Stück. Bleiben sogar noch 28 Cent übrig.

Stand-by-My-Man Appearances

"Perhaps as vivid as the lurid details of what the authorities have called Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s involvement in a high-end prostitution ring was the lingering image of the woman who was most personally affected by the revelation.
As Governor Spitzer apologized on Monday — then again on Wednesday morning in Midtown, when he announced his resignation — Silda Wall Spitzer, his wife of more than 20 years and the mother of their three daughters, stood before a bank of cameras. Her presence at the side of a faltering politician, caught up in a sex scandal, was merely the latest in a lengthening list of what might be called stand-by-my-man appearances.
They stretch back at least as far as 1987, when Lee Hart, the wife of the Democratic presidential hopeful Gary Hart, flew into New Hampshire during the campaign to profess her love amid reports of an extramarital relationship with Donna Rice. Last summer, Suzanne Craig held hands with her husband, Senator Larry Craig, under a brilliant Idaho sun as he denied reports of soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom."

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Die neue (business-orientierte) CeBIT

So sieht sie also, die neue business-orientierte CeBIT, die die Messegesellschaft und ihre Hilfstruppen von der Bitkom so unermüdlich propagiert haben:

Was sehen wir hier? Jugendliche Besuchermassen in Halle 22, nicht an dem für sie angeblich reservierten Wochenende, sondern am ganz gewöhnlichen zweiten Messetag. Atemberaubender Lärm in dieser Halle, Moderatoren, die die Businessleute von morgen zu rhythmischem Gebrülle anstacheln - und dann anschließend zur Belohnung ein paar Päckchen mit irgendwelchen Gadgets in die Menge schleudern.

Wer's nicht glaubt, sollte mal in dieser Halle vorbeischauen oder auch in Halle 18, wo ausschließlich Trekstor residiert. Der Unterschied zur alten CeBIT? Keiner. Außer, daß man die Kids in eigene Hallenreservate verbannt hat. Eben eine reine Businessmesse!

CeBIT brummt