My Country Tis of Thee…
I know it’s a bit early for casual dress Friday, but in light that it’s a long weekend and I’ve been sitting in sales meetings all week (more on that next week), I thought I’d close out the week a little early. And since it’s the 4th of July weekend, I thought we’d finish on a patriotic note.
As most of you know immigrants are required to take a citizenship test prior to becoming citizens of the US. Have you ever wondered what kind of stuff is on that test? Further, how do you think you’d do? Well, wonder no longer. MSNBC.com has published a sampling of the harder questions perspective citizens are required to answer. If you’re curious to see how you’d do, here’s the link to the citizenship test, good luck.
Btw, I scored an 85, which I was a little disappointed with, however some of my friends did far worse. How did you do? Have a wonderful and safe 4th!
Until next time…
Work From Home, Save the Planet
Most of you know that I’m an avid fan of tele-commuting. As fuel costs continue to rise, it just makes the whole work from home argument that much stronger. Recently I stumbled across a great post on the Rebel Dad (yeah, it’s a great blog name) blog that summarizes a recent study by Sun Microsytems, which essentially says that working from home, in addition to being great for employee moral, is also a very green way to work. Here’s the summary from the Rebel Dad himself. To read the entire article click here.
- Employees saved more than $1,700 per year in gasoline and wear and tear on their vehicles by working at home an average of 2.5 days a week.
- Office equipment energy consumption rate at a Sun office was two times that of home office equipment energy consumption, from approximately 64 watts per hour at home to 130 watts per hour at a Sun office.
- Commuting was more than 98 percent of each employee’s carbon footprint for work, compared to less than 1.7 percent of total carbon emissions to power office equipment.
- By eliminating commuting just 2.5 days per week, an employee reduces energy used for work by the equivalent of 5,400 Kilowatt hours/year.
- Working from home 2.5 days per week saved the employees in the study an average of 2.5 weeks of commute time (8 hours/day, 5 days/week).
I rest my case.
Until next time…
George Carlin Passes Away at 71
Sad news this morning as word comes that we lost one the comic greats this weekend. George Carlin has passed away at 71 from a long battle with heart disease. Carlin’s career spanned over 5 decades and the comic re-invented himself again and again. I first heard Carlin via his famous “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” and always appreciated is clever irreverent style. Over the years Carlin’s routines became the stuff of comic legend.
A mainstay on the Tonight Show, Carlin was also the host of the very first “Saturday Night Live” telecast in 1975. During the course of his career he produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, several TV shows and appeared in numerous movies.
He won four Grammy Awards, each for best spoken comedy album, and was nominated for five Emmy awards. On Tuesday, it was announced that Carlin was being awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which will be presented Nov. 10 in Washington and broadcast on PBS.
Love him or hate him, his comic genius is undeniable. Rest in peace George, we will miss you!
Until next time…
