with Auren
Hoffman
Month of August,
2001
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Summation Push Auren Hoffman's Summation Push for August, 2001 This issue: * U.S. Homeland Security Agency is Unavoidable * Nanotechnology -- Revolutionizing Medicine and Materials * Book Review: Racial Equations -- Math Literacy and Civil Rights * Useless Fact * Reader Responses * Friends of Auren: Eileen Tso * Summation Push Pick Links * Hoffman Reading List -------------------------------- U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY AGENCY IS UNAVIODABLE
For 225 years, our democracy experiment has gone without an agency directly responsible for homeland security, protection, and response. Although there are over 40 agencies from FERC to the Coast Guard to the Border Patrol who work on internal security, there is no coordinating entity that can prevent or respond to terrorist activities on U.S. soil.
The occurrence of a major terrorist act on U.S. soil within the next ten years is almost a certainty. I'm not just talking about the attempted bombing of the Twin Towers. I’m talking about something more serious, something that would result in the killing of thousands of people, is inevitable. This is the dangerous world we live in.
Think of the public outcry after a major disaster. People are going to be clamoring for a homeland security agency and drastic measures to attempt to prevent a disaster from happening again. A homeland security agency is unavoidable -- the only question is will it happen before or after a catastrophe and how much of our civil liberties will it trample. We need to devise and institute an agency today -- before a disaster (so that the emotions of a disaster does not cloud our judgment). The clock is ticking. We cannot prevent all internal terrorism. There will be some terrible tragedies. But we can have an organization that does its best to prevent acts of terrorism and deals with these acts once they happen. Are we a country where something terrible has to happen before we act? Do we need another blow as devastating as the Oklahoma City bombing? How about something 200 times worse (in terms of human lives lost) -- that's the potential we are talking about. Not only are we subject to potential terrorist threat of weapons of mass destruction, but we are also subject to a potentially equally devastating cyber-attack which could:
A recent report from the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century (http://www.nssg.gov/PhaseIIIFR.pdf) highlights the need for one agency to coordinate in case of an emergency. It goes over many of our internal national security threats and what we might want to do about them. The commission consists of a distinguished task force that included people like Les Gelb, Lee Hamilton, Gary Hart, Newt Gingrich, James Schlesinger, and Andrew Young.
If you are at all interested in our national security, I highly recommend you read the report (if you don't want to read all 150+ pages, the report has a very good ten page Executive Summary).
(Your thoughts on our national security:
Write auren@summation.net) ----------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Send Summation Push to a colleague. -------------------------------- NANOTECHNOLOGY
Nanotechnology is the study and development of really small things that can accomplish really big things. A "nanometer" is one-billionth of a meter. To put the size in context, one nanometer is to the thickness of a human hair as a human hair is to one of those super-think redwood trees.
That's really small.
The Red Herring (www.herring.com) did a great report last month (June 15 edition) on the phenomena of nano and how it could affect our lives. Imagine tiny robots that go into your body and kill cancer. Imagine creating new materials as durable as plastic and as strong as steel. That's the potential.
(What are your thoughts? Write auren@summation.net) -------------------------------- Share Summation Push. Forward it
to Book Review: This is a very good book on how math literacy is the next civil right. The book discusses the Algebra Project, an organization founded by 1960’s civil rights leader Bob Moses, to teach algebra to kids in inner-cities and rural communities. (To see more book reviews, check out the Hoffman Reading List at http://www.summation.net/reading.html) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Send Summation Push to a colleague. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Summation Useless Fact:
Did you know that toilets injure 40,000 Americans every year? -------------------------------------------------------------------- The objective of Summation is to -------------------------------------------------------------------- READER RESPONSES: Regarding the commentary on " Standardization -- Can the world Adopt to Common Standards?", Ben Slick, Vice President of Business and Corporate Development at TimesTen, remarks: "Are you familiar with George Orwell? My God, man. . .standards are the anathema of creativity. . .ask Steve Jobs! since America is so in love with the English measurement system, why do we, as a consumer economy, live and breathe by the metric system for our money? How do you feel about school (or business) uniforms? I don't see you wearing suits. . . how do you feel about genetic standardization? While on the standards subject, are you ready to accept one world religion? One centered on Christ as the (only) Son of God?" ... and Kin Ng writes: "Regarding school uniforms... I wore them for many years and I hated them. But now I realize the importance of them. "Individuality" things like gang-like dressing, weird makeup's, short skirts, expensive shoes, etc can be distracting to the very main purpose of school: study. So my view on that is quite different than yours. Regarding metrics in the US... I remember somewhere I read in 1981 (that's the year I came to the US), that the US was going to standardize on Metrics in 1992. Whatever happened to that is still a mystery to me. I guess changing people's perception is tough. Believe it or not, I still convert Fahrenheit to Celsius in my mind to get an idea of how cold the temperature is."
Regarding Auren's "Car Rental Age Discrimination Runs Wild" article, Chris Barratt writes:
"Here in the UK there is a similar situation. All the major rental companies have a pretty much blanket policy on renting cars only to over 25s. A few drop down to 23 for renting out smaller cars (and a small car over here really is SMALL!). I'm 22 and trying to find somewhere who will rent a car out to me for a weeks holiday with four friends -so we need something reasonably spacious. I've done extensive searching and only found one place local to me that can meet my requirements. They have a policy of over 21s with two years driving experience. Strangely though, if I where to take my car in for servicing (my Volkswagen) all I have to do is show them my driving license (regardless of my age) and then they hand over the keys to a fully insured courtesy car. As you quite rightly point out, rental companies are missing out on valuable business." -------------------------------- Send Summation Push to a colleague. -------------------------------- FRIENDS OF AUREN [this section updates you an interesting person
that is a member of Auren Inc] Eileen Tso, high-tech executive and non-profit leader
I have gotten to know Eileen through the Silicon Forums that I run. Eileen is a terrific combination of tech executive, engineer, and big-world thinker. Most recently Eileen was doing business development for 12 Entrepreneuring (the Halsey Minor start-up), managing some of their key portfolio companies. Before that, Eileen was Director of Business Development for Phone.com (now Openwave). She was also group manager at Sun's Java Software division, product manager at Apple's Newton division, and a network engineer at GTE Mobilnet. Eileen is now heading the Learning Coalition (more on that in future Summations) -- a revolutionary non-profit promoting education and real learning. She graduated from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana with a BS in Computer Science.
-------------------------------- Send Summation Push to a colleague. -------------------------------- THIS WEEK'S SUMMATION PUSH PICK LINKS TO MAKE YOU THINK:
* US News Whispers
(http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/whispers/whisphome.htm) -- great political gossip. NOTE: Auren Hoffman works for BridgePath.com but the opinions expressed
herein are solely those of Mr. Hoffman. NOTE: You may reprint in full or in part (for
free) with permission from author. Auren Hoffman's bio can be found at:
(http://www.bridgepath.com/about/management.html/)
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