Month: March 2016

Spamming and Photo Journalism

My latest post was a photo blog. I showered friend and followers with 15 photos. I received a complaint.

First let's try to understand what my project is not. It is not a MLM. It is not a program that requires a distribution network nor do I have a product or service to sell, a seemingly contrary position relative to the typical Markethive pursuit.

My project is a humanitarian project about the unseen and unattended menace of waste and as such it needs to provide education and attention.

Now about the photos.

I have discussed the image situation with the tech center and with Tom. Markethive does not handle images like WP does, no media library or storage to call from.

A comment from Tom about this; “When we upgrade the News Feed to work like Facebook with Images and Video the necessity of single posts for a large cluster of Images will improve as well”.

In order to use photos in your blog post on Markethive, the image must not be wider than 550 px and uploaded to your profile page. If you want it on your news feed,you post to you profile page and that's exactly what I wanted.

When I assembled the photo blog, I embedded these photos in the post using the link to that image on my profile. When I push this post to my social network every image links back to my Markethive profile. When the search engine scans the post it is obvious that where it came from and who. That to me is beneficial to me and Markethive.

The complaint called it spamming and me not understanding what I am doing on Markethive. The claim is that I am trying to “dominate the newsfeed”. On the contrary I was just setting up my post.

There are other ways to do this for sure. I could have uploaded the images to one of my blogs and then linked the images form there. Or, I could have uploaded to one of my groups, but only the members of that group would have seen them. None of these options were what I wanted.

My program is centered in and around Markethive and always will be. It is a “social” site and everyone is welcome to have an opinion but I try to understand first before casting my opinion.

It is obvious that the one who complained did not observe the content just the number, a rather shallow observation, me thinks, nor did they go to the actual blog post, they just wanted to pontificate.

Markethive is somewhat of a social anarchy, in that there are no rules except be respectful. There is no boss and there is no police.

Just one more thing. The value of a relationship (friend) is relative. There is no relationship that has the value to be leveraged as a threat. If a member in Markethive threatens you with the loss of a friendship in order to effect you activity, take the loss.

If you are discomforted by my activity, you have your options.

David

Elon Musk is From Mars

A business magnate – His mission is to be the first entrepreneur on Mars with the purpose of setting human civilization on the path to the colonization of the solar system.

SpaceX: Dragon 2 will look like ‘a real alien spaceship
SpaceX: Dragon 2 will look like a real alien spaceship

Elon was born an entrepreneur into a family of entrepreneurs. His mother, Maye (Haldeman), a model from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada,was a dietitian and a beautiful fashion model. His father, Errol, was an electromechanical engineer and what a family member described as a "serial entrepreneur." Yes, Errol was from Mars and Maye was from Venus, you might guess as to how it was going to work out.

From these parents he was cast into society a virtual “stranger in a strange land”.

A nerd, yes a NERD, carefully schooled and coached by his parents into exceptionalism.

An “exceptional” nerd living in a South African culture which at the time was a “manly man” type of culture. As you might expect, he was abused and beat by his school mates, finally thrown down a flight of stairs and hospitalized for a week.

A nerd, at twelve, he used an artifact of a computer, Commodore VIC-20, wrote his first game and sold it for $400. The beginning of his own path of being a"Serial entrepreneur."

He finished schooling in a private school, then ran away on his own to Canada and enrolled at Queen's University in Ontario and lived in a dormitory for foreign students. He graduated with degrees in economics and physics and went to Stanford on a full ride for two days, quit to start his first business Zip2, a web software company.

It sold and Musk received $22 million for his share.

Is he from Mars?

He grew up in South Africa without ever really considering himself South African. Like the rest of his family, he was just passing through.

The Musks were a race nearly as much as they were a family, with a specialized awareness of themselves as wanderers and adventurers. Every Musk is able to tell the story of forebears whose accomplishments serve as an inspiration and whose energy endures as an inheritance — a grandfather who won a race from Cape Town to Algiers; a great-grandmother who was the first female chiropractor in Canada; grandparents who were the first to fly from South Africa to Australia in a single-engine plane.

An inside point of view.

"Without sounding patronizing, it does seem that our family is different from other people," says Elon's sister, Tosca Musk. "We risk more." They risk everything.

Well, maybe Mars.

Entrepreneurial success at the top

“I am the Alpha Man in all relationships.” “Am I insane?” Elon Musk

Elon Musk is one of America's top entrepreneurial successes. He is one of the most remarkable billionaire entrepreneurs in America. As of January 2016, he has an estimated net worth of US$12.4 billion, making him the 39th wealthiest person in the US. [Forbes]

As an entrepreneur, most of Musk’s wealth came from starting and owning companies, rather than salary. He is Tesla’s biggest shareholder, with a 23 percent stake, runs closely held Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and is chairman of SolarCity Corp.

Entrepreneur Elon Musk is a man with vision. The founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors, SolarCity and SpaceX – all extraordinary companies in four completely different industries.

Musk somehow delivered the biggest advantage that these industries have seen in decades and he did it in what felt like one Fell Swoop.

Is he really preparing to rule Mars?

Here is a look at the character of Elon Musk through the lens of the PayPal episode.

The PayPal War

More than any other executive today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast Fortune to inventing a future that is as rich and far-reaching as a science fiction fantasy.

That's what separates Elon from mere mortals, he's willing to take an insane amount of personal risk. when you do a deal like that it either pays off or you end up in the bus shelter somewhere.

Musk continually asks, “what do you think, am I insane?”

The creation of x.com would ultimately reveal a great deal about Musk's creativity, relentless drive, confrontational style, and foremost his leadership. Musk would endure the experience of being pushed aside in his own company and the pain that accompanies a Grand Vision left unfulfilled.

In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company, with US$10 million from the sale of Zip2. One year later, the company merged with Confinity, a company which had a money transfer service called PayPal

The merger was never harmonious., Management did not agree, the engineers didn't agree. It reached a tipping point in which his partners staged a coup to try to throw him out.

What followed was one of the nastiest coups in Silicon Valley's long illustrious history of nasty coups. The opposing management and employees gathered one night at Fanny and Alexander, a now defunct bar in Palo Alto, to brain storm how to push Musk out.

They decided to sell the board on having the old CEO return as CEO. Instead of confronting Musk directly with this plan. This conspiracy decided to take action behind Musk's back.

Musk had been married in January 2000 but had been too busy for a honeymoon. Nine months later in September, they planned to mix business and pleasure by going on a fund raising trip to Indiana and ending it with a honeymoon in Sydney to catch the Olympics.

As they boarded their flight one night, X.com Executives delivered letters of no-confidence to the board asking for their support.

He heard about what was happening while he was in flight to Sydney. When he landed he immediately hopped on the next plane back to Palo Alto.

It was shocking and underhanded but here was how he handled it. For a brief period he challenged the board to reconsider its decision. In that brief period, he realized that the “force” was not with him. He relented the CEO position quietly.

Musk relented, but started talking to the new management, and said it wasn't so much that he wanted to be CEO but had determined there were some pretty important things that need to happen and he was not sure they were going to happen. After discussing these, they agreed that they would make these things happen.

Concluding the situation, he says, “I mean, it's not the end of the world.”

He showed incredible restraint. He embraced the role of being an advisor to the company and kept investing in it, continuously increasing his stake as PayPal's largest shareholder. You would expect someone in Elon's position to be bitter and vindictive but he wasn't.

In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for US$1.5 billion in stock, of which US$165 million was given to Musk. Before its sale, Musk, who was the company's largest shareholder, owned 11.7% of PayPal's shares.

At the end of all this, Elon would say that this is not a normal business environment, and you have to suspend normal business thinking.

“Life is to short for long grudges.” – Elon Musk

Near Death

After PayPal, while considering the state of the universe, he decided to go on vacation, his first. He and His wife traveled to South Africa. While there he contracted the most vile of the strains of Malaria.

The symptoms only started showing after their return back to the US. Thinking it was only the flu they waited until he couldn't get out of bed before taking him in to the emergency room.

Of course, he was misdiagnosed and hospitalized. After a few days, his signs were very bad, very bad indeed.

He was near his end when a visiting doctor casually strolling down the hallway passed his room and leasurly noticed his chart. The doctor recognized the condition immediately for what it was and administered the correct treatment.

Elon spent 10 days in intensive care and recovered. The visiting doctor was never mentioned again.

I guess the doctor dropped in from Mars for a stroll down a hallway?

Shortly after his recovery, he commented “vacations are not healthy and I never plan on taking another.” As far as anyone knows, he never has.

Space-X Mars and Beyond

“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” Elon Musk

Here's a sign. At the headquarters of SpaceX in Hawthorne California, visitors will find two giant posters of Mars hanging side-by-side on the wall leading up to Musk's cubicle. The poster on the left depicts Mars as it is today, a cold Barren Red Orb. The poster on the right shows a Mars with a humongous green land mass surrounded by oceans. The planet has been heated up and transformed to support humans. Musk fully intends to try and make this happen so he has a place to retire.

Turning humans into space colonizers is his stated life's purpose. “I would like to die thinking that Humanity has a bright future in space.”

Mars in his own words

“You need to live in a dome initially, but over time you could terraform Mars to look like Earth and eventually walk around outside without anything on… So it's a fixer-upper of a planet.” Elon Musk

“I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.” Elon Musk

“Mars is the only place in the solar system where it's possible for life to become multi-planetarian.” Elon Musk

“My vision is for a fully reusable rocket transport system between Earth and Mars that is able to re-fuel on Mars – this is very important – so you don't have to carry the return fuel when you go there.” Elon Musk

“Land on Mars, a round-trip ticket – half a million dollars. It can be done.” Elon Musk

“In order for us to have a future that's exciting and inspiring, it has to be one where we're a space-bearing civilization.” Elon Musk

Elon Musk is from Mars.

Today, he demonstrates the great drive of American Entrepreneurship, he takes and manages risks without concern and he does this daily. He witnesses his own failures almost every day and keeps moving forward.

Failures are those events that guide him on his path.

Is he remarkable? Yes, in a billionaire sort of way. He is obsessed with succeeding. His mission is to succeed in manifesting his “ideas”, not success in and of itself and not the money, its the act of succeeding. Money is just another tool for chasing his ideas to successful completion.

I have read great science fiction authors my whole life, 100's of them. These authors create the future in stories. When Elon Musk “writes” science fiction it appears before your very eyes.

He Channels Mars. He is a Martian and really wants to take us home with him.

Resources:

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, by Ashlee Vance. A biography.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk

http://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/, Forbes “The Worlds Billionaires”

The Chronicles of Musk, the first Mayor of Mars City. Mars City Library 2075 edition

And news article to numerous to list, there are about 5 new ones a day.

Note: Just in case you may have missed any of my previous blog posts, I post here on one of my active projects. It is a new social network for entrepreneurs, completely free, and very unique. It could be a great thing for your business. It is called MarketHive. Just click —-> HERE <—- to find out more.

If you are interested in participating in this effort to lift these children to inspiration, please join me in the Markethive group “Green Fire”. It is from here that we will start a crowd funding campaign to aid Green Fire in its mission – The Children of the Landfill.

 

David

My Gmail was just attacked – Steps I took

This is the message I received from Google this morning.

Someone has your password

    
 
   

Hi Michel,

Someone just used your password to try to sign in to your Google Account _________@gmail.com

 

Details:
Sunday, March 20, 2016 10:52 AM (Eastern Daylight Time)
Quebec City, QC, Canada*

Google stopped this sign-in attempt, but you should review your recently used devices:

 
 

 
 

Steps I took

I did a review and adjusted the permitted accounts, as suggested.

Next I went to the website http://passwordsgenerator.net/ and generated a 16 character password and then changed the account password..

It is becoming more important to be secure. I try to follow the suggestions on the same website.

Passwordsgenerator.net site security suggestions:

To prevent your passwords from being hacked by social engineering, brute force or dictionary attack method, you should notice that:

1. Do not use the same password for multiple important accounts.

2. Use a password that has at least 16 characters, use at least one number, one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter and one special symbol.

3. Do not use the names of your families, friends or pets in your passwords.

4. Do not use postcodes, house numbers, phone numbers, birthdates, ID card numbers, social security numbers, and so on in your passwords.

5. Do not use any dictionary word in your passwords.

6. Do not use something that can be cloned( but you can't change ) as your passwords, such as your fingerprints.

7. Do not let your Web browsers (FireFox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, IE ) store your passwords, since all passwords saved in Web browsers can be revealed easily.

8. Do not log in to important accounts on the computers of others, or when connected to a public Wi-Fi hotspot, Tor, free VPN or web proxy.

9. Do not send sensitive information online via HTTP or FTP connections, because messages in these connections can be sniffed with very little effort. You should use encrypted connections such as HTTPS and SFTP whenever possible.

10. When travelling, you can encrypt your Internet connections before they leave your laptop, tablet, mobile phone or router. For example, you can set up a private VPN on your own server( home computer, dedicated server or VPS ) and connect to it. Alternatively, you can set up an encrypted SSH tunnel between your router and your home computer( or a remote server of your own ) with PuTTY and connect your programs( e.g. FireFox ) to PuTTY. Then even if somebody captures your data as it is transmitted between your device( e.g. laptop, iPhone, iPad ) and your server with a packet sniffer, he'll won't be able to steal your data and passwords from the encrypted streaming data.

11. How secure is my password? Perhaps you believe that your passwords are very strong, difficult to hack. But if a hacker has stolen your username and the MD5 hash value of your password from a company's server, and the rainbow table of the hacker contains this MD5 hash, then your password will be cracked quickly.

To check the strength of your passwords and know whether they're inside the popular rainbow tables, you can convert your passwords to MD5 hashes on this MD5 hash generator, then decrypt your passwords by submitting these hashes to an online MD5 decryption service. For instance, your password is "0123456789A", using the brute-force method, it may take a computer almost one year to crack your password, but if you decrypt it by submitting its MD5 hash( C8E7279CD035B23BB9C0F1F954DFF5B3 ) to a MD5 decryption website, how long will it take to crack it? You can perform the test yourself.

12. It's recommended to change your passwords every 10 weeks.

13. It's recommended that you remember a few master passwords, store other passwords in a plain text file and encrypt this file with 7-Zip, GPG or a disk encryption software such as BitLocker, or manage your passwords with a password management software.

14. Encrypt and backup your passwords to different locations, then if you lost access to your computer or account, you can retrieve your passwords back quickly.

15. Turn on 2-step authentication whenever possible.

16. Do not store your critical passwords in the cloud.

17. Access important websites( e.g. Paypal ) from bookmarks directly, otherwise please check its domain name carefully, it's a good idea to check the popularity of a website with Alexa toolbar to ensure that it's not a phishing site before entering your password.

18. Protect your computer with firewall and antivirus software, download software from reputable sites only, and verify the MD5 or SHA1 checksum of the installation package whenever possible.

19. Be careful when using online paste tools and screen capture tools, do not let them to upload your passwords to the cloud.

20. If there are important files on your computer, and it can be accessed by others, check if there are hardware keyloggers( e.g. wireless keyboard sniffer ), software keyloggers and hidden cameras when you feel it's necessary.

21. If you're a webmaster, do not store the users passwords in the database, you should store the salted hash values of passwords instead.

 

David

FBI warns automakers, owners about vehicle hacking risks

FBI warns automakers, owners about vehicle hacking risks

Friday, 18 Mar 2016 | 6:22 AM ET

vehicle hacking risks

The FBI and U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a bulletin Thursday warning that motor vehicles are "increasingly vulnerable" to hacking.

"The FBI and NHTSA are warning the general public and manufacturers — of vehicles, vehicle components, and aftermarket devices — to maintain awareness of potential issues and cybersecurity threats related to connected vehicle technologies in modern vehicles," the agencies said in the bulletin.

In July 2015, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles recalled 1.4 million U.S. vehicles to install software after a magazine report raised concerns about hacking, the first action of its kind for the auto industry.

Also last year, General Motors issued a security update for a smartphone app that could have allowed a hacker to take control of some functions of a plug-in hybrid electric Chevrolet Volt, like starting the engine and unlocking the doors.

In January 2015, BMW said it had fixed a security flaw that could have allowed up to 2.2 million vehicles to have doors remotely opened by hackers.

"While not all hacking incidents may result in a risk to safety – such as an attacker taking control of a vehicle — it is important that consumers take appropriate steps to minimize risk," the FBI bulletin said Thursday.

NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind told reporters in July 2015 that automakers must move fast to address hacking issues.

Ida Mae Boyd
MarketHive Alpha Founder
Skype me at imboyd681
please include in the Skype Contact message "Market Hive"

David

Ryan says open GOP convention ‘more likely’

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday it’s looking “more likely” the Republican Party will face an open convention in July – meaning, a floor fight to pick a nominee – and that Donald Trump and the party might want to accept that “reality.”

Ryan discussed the possibility with reporters as he noted he’s the chairman of the convention and will have to “bone up on all the rules.” He openly acknowledged that – even as Trump puts away another round of primary victories – a convention where no candidate has reached the necessary 1,237 delegates could actually happen this year.

“Nothing has changed other than the perception that this is more likely to become an open convention than we thought before,” Ryan said. “So, we're getting our minds around the idea that this could very well become a reality, and therefore those of us who are involved in the convention need to respect that.”

He said his role as speaker is to be “dispassionate and to be Switzerland,” and ensure that delegates abide by the rules in making their decisions

P.S.

Ida Mae Boyd
MarketHive Alpha Founder
Skype me at imboyd681
please include in the Skype Contact message "Market Hive"

David

Trump has No Respect for Presidency Hefner

Trump has 'no respect' for presidency: Hefner

Cooper Hefner, son of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, has grown tired of self-proclaimed "family friend" Donald Trump.

The 24-year-old Hefner argued Thursday that Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner, has "absolutely no understanding or respect" for the presidency. Earlier this month, Hefner called on young people to try to better understand politics and Trump's campaign.

"He sort of is rewriting the playbook for how every individual has gone about running their campaign. Most importantly, I think most of his policies are backed and supported by racist notions," Hefner, chief creative officer at media company Hop, told CNBC's "Closing Bell."

Cooper Hefner, son of Hugh Hefner

Tommaso Boddi | WireImage | Getty Images

Cooper Hefner, son of Hugh Hefner

The bombastic Trump has rolled to the lead in the GOP primary elections, racking up 683 delegates so far versus 422 for his nearest rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, according to NBC News. Along the way, he has proposed policies that have irked minority groups, like building a wall along the Mexican border and temporarily banning Muslims from entering the U.S. due to terror concerns.

Hefner said Trump was one of many celebrities and business owners he met at his father's home growing up. While he knew Trump when he was younger, he has had little interaction with the mogul as an adult.

Hefner, who identifies as a Democrat, acknowledged that Trump is more popular with older Americans than people near his age. Regardless, he said he wanted to encourage young people to "start actually having a real dialogue and conversation about politics."

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

Jacob Pramuk | @jacobpramuk  CNBC

P.S.

Ida Mae Boyd
MarketHive Alpha Founder
Skype me at imboyd681
please include in the Skype Contact message "Market Hive"

 

David

Could this delegate plan blow up the GOP?

Could This Delegate Plan Blow Up The GOP?

 CNBC

The Republican nomination process may be flipped on its head if a proposed amendment is passed just days before the convention, an amendment that is showing some support among party members.

Curly Haugland, a member of the GOP's standing rules committee, sent a letter to all GOP presidential campaigns and Republican National Committee members in November that he plans to present an amendment that essentially will allow any candidate who received a delegate to be placed back on the first ballot.

That means even candidates who have dropped out of the race could be considered for the nomination.

A voter receives a ballot at a polling place in Falls Church, Virginia.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

A voter receives a ballot at a polling place in Falls Church, Virginia.

"There will be eight candidates on the first ballot for the 2016 nomination for president," said Haugland, an unbound North Dakota delegate. "Those candidates worked very hard to win their delegates, and the voter deserves to have their vote count."

Haugland's amendment would replace Rule 40, which was passed during the 2012 convention that made it mandatory for any candidate who sought the GOP nomination to have the support of the majority of the convention delegates in eight states or more.

But Haugland said of his proposal: "This amendment would do the best job of honoring the votes of every voter participating in primaries or caucuses, because every vote that resulted in the allocation of a delegate to a candidate would be represented at the convention."

And Haugland has allies.

"Curly is right on this.The delegates have the power and ultimate authority in nominating the candidate. Not Priebus (RNC Chairman Reince Priebus) and the RNC," said A.J. Spiker, past state chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa and former senior advisor to Sen. Rand Paul's presidential campaign.

"The delegates can write any rule they want and pass it. They have that power. It's really a lie the Democrat and Republican establishments have pushed that the caucuses and primaries mean something. They don't. Just like the Electoral College decides who is the next president. It's the delegates who decide who the nominee is."

Haugland tells CNBC he did not write this amendment because he is "anti-Trump." It's about fairness and eliminating the big money influence in the nomination process. Haugland said the RNC lusts for money and is "hooked" on the primary process. "Big money wins primaries, and the RNC is selling these primaries and caucuses like commodities. We're talking about a half a billion dollars being spent in these contests. The money is going into the pockets of pollsters, pundits. … It's not right."

The RNC declined to comment to CNBC.

"The whole nomination process has been put on super steroids." agreed Gary Emineth, former chairman of the North Dakota Republican Party and an unbound delegate. "Curly's correct in that the process has been hijacked by big donor money and has broken away from the grass-roots movement. I can see why he wrote this amendment. We have become a party of special interests and money.

People are buying their way into office and they are blowing off the grass-roots organization which is what the Republican Party was built on. The party of Abraham Lincoln started out with people walking door to door and neighbor to neighbor encouraging people to join a philosophical belief to change their city, state, county and country."

Haugland stressed to CNBC,the rules to receiving the nomination are straight-forward, "There is no winner take all. No 1237. Republican rules forbid that. The nomination power rests in the hands of the delegates."

Riker agreed, saying the rules give the delegates the ultimate authority in deciding who the nominee would be, not the primary results, "If Trump fails to get the delegates by one delegate or even if he gets the so-called 'magic number,' the delegates can get together and throw him off the ballot if they wanted,"

Riker said. "If Trump is short that number I can guarantee you Trump will not get the nomination. He won't make it past the second ballot because he does not have the ground game at the convention."  

P.S.

Ida Mae Boyd
MarketHive Alpha Founder
Skype me at imboyd681
please include in the Skype Contact message "Market Hive"

    

David

US Secret Service regrets delays to Gerry Adams’ visit to White House St Patrick’s event

US Secret Service regrets delays to Gerry Adams' visit to White House St Patrick's event

 

The American Secret Service has said it regrets delays which meant Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams did not attend a St Patrick's Day reception at the White House.

Mr Adams was told there was a security issue when he attempted to attend the event in Washington DC on Tuesday night.

He waited for about 80 minutes before deciding to leave. The US Secret Service said administrative errors were to blame.

In a statement, it expressed its regret that the issue had not been resolved in a more "timely manner".

"Unfortunately, an administrative input error received by the Secret Service was not able to be rectified promptly," the statement added.

'Unacceptable'

Mr Adams had been invited to the annual shamrock ceremony which was hosted by President Obama.

He said he was subjected to "unacceptable and unprofessional" treatment.

As he tried to check in to the event, he was told a security issue had arisen.

His party colleagues, Martin McGuinness and Mary-Lou McDonald had already entered the celebrations.

"He (Mr Adams) stood to one side and he waited around, he waited around and he waited for something like between 80 and 90 minutes," said BBC News NI economics editor, John Campbell, who is covering events in Washington.

White House

Image captionWhite House staff stopped Mr Adams over an 'issue of security'

"By that stage I think people inside the room texted him to say President Obama had started speaking and at that point Gerry Adams decided that, well, he was going to leave.

"He wasn't technically refused entry but he was left hanging around for the best part of an hour and a half and then decided it wasn't worth his while staying any more, so he left."

'Treated differently'

Mr Adams said that he had been invited to the event and was "pleased to accept".

"When I arrived the staff at the White House informed me there was an issue of 'security'," he said.

"After two decades of travelling back and forth to the USA and countless meetings in the White House with successive US Presidents, this is an unacceptable development.

"It is obvious that there remain some within the US administration who seek to treat Sinn Féin differently."

Mr Adams added that Sinn Féin representatives had been denied entry or had to go through extra searches when travelling to the USA, while the State Department had also initially refused to meet him last year until "protest from US political leaders".

'Resolution'

"Sinn Féin will not sit at the back of the bus for anyone," he said.

"I am hopeful that the controversy around my White House invitation will help lead to a resolution to all these matters."

Gerry Adams

Gerry Adams said being stopped from entering the White House was an 'unacceptable development'

Mr Adams told the BBC that Sinn Féin representatives often face enhanced security checks but they normally do not "broadcast" it.

He said what had happened was "bad manners and not a good way to treat guests".

He said he had not been embarrassed by the incident, adding: "I just deal with this in a non-personal way."

Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said it was "ludicrous" for Mr Adams to be stopped at the White House for unspecified security reasons.

The White House has not commented.

This article is from BBC NEWS

P.S.

Ida Mae Boyd
MarketHive Alpha Founder
Skype me at imboyd681
please include in the Skype Contact message "Market Hive"

David

Entrepreneurship – The Exalted and The Diminished [video]

Entrepreneurship is about being remarkable.

This is an examination of how entrepreneurship is really viewed. This article will examine an individual from America and how he is seen as an entrepreneur. Then we will look at entrepreneurship at the very bottom, the landfill entrepreneur. We will look at the characteristics of both to see what we discover.

Entrepreneurial success at the top – The exalted

Elon Musk as one of Americas top successes is one of the most remarkable billionaire entrepreneurs in America. As of January 2016, he has an estimated net worth of US$12.4 billion, making him the 39th wealthiest person in the US. [Forbes]

As an entrepreneur, most of Musk’s wealth has come from starting and owning companies, rather than salary. He is Tesla’s biggest shareholder, with a 23 percent stake, runs closely held Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and is chairman of SolarCity Corp.

Entrepreneur Elon Musk is a man with a vision. The founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors, SolarCity and SpaceX – all extraordinary companies in four completely different industries. Here is a short profile of the life of Elon Musk.

He grew up in South Africa without ever really considering himself South African. Like the rest of his family, he was just passing through. The Musks were a race nearly as much as they were a family, with a specialized awareness of themselves as wanderers and adventurers. Every Musk is able to tell the story of forebears whose accomplishments serve as an inspiration and whose energy endures as an inheritance — a grandfather who won a race from Cape Town to Algiers; a great-grandmother who was the first female chiropractor in Canada; grandparents who were the first to fly from South Africa to Australia in a single-engine plane. "Without sounding patronizing, it does seem that our family is different from other people," says Elon's sister, Tosca Musk. "We risk more."

Elon was born an entrepreneur into a family of entrepreneurs. His mother was a dietitian and a fashion model (and still is today) and his father, Errol, was an engineer and what a family member described as a "serial entrepreneur."

Today, he demonstrates the great drive of Entrepreneurship, his greatest asset is his will to succeed.

He takes and manages risks without concern and he does this daily. He witnesses his own failures almost every day and keeps moving forward.

Failures are those events that guide him on his path.

Is he remarkable? Yes, in a billionaire sort of way. He is obsessed with succeeding. His mission is to succeed in manifesting his “ideas”, not personal success and not the money, succeeding. Money is just a tool for chasing his ideas to successful completion.

Entrepreneurial success at the bottom – The Diminished

The most diminished of all Entrepreneurs

The Remarkable Landfill Children.

They are inspirational. They inspire because they too are born into entrepreneurship but they don't have entrepreneurial parents or homes or schools or safety or security. They have nothing but their own creativity and drive and their will to survive.

For those of you that are not familiar with what a landfill entrepreneur really is, let me introduce you to the members of the Landfill Harmonic, as an example.

“Their Instruments May Be Garbage, But the Music Will Bring Tears to Your Eyes.”

Ever heard of a town built on a garbage dump? We hadn't until last year when I discovered a community on the outskirts of Asuncion, the capital of the tiny, impoverished South American country of Paraguay.

It's called Cateura and there is trash everywhere — in its streets, its rivers, in people's backyards — but I decided to take you to Cateura tonight, not because of the poverty or the filth, but because of the incredible imagination and ingenuity of the people who live there. This story is also a reminder that, ultimately, music will triumph everywhere and anywhere.

Garbage is the only crop in Cateura and the harvest lasts 12 months a year. It is Cateura's curse, its livelihood and the only reason people live here, providing hundreds of jobs to peasant farmers who were kicked off their plots by large land owners.

They are the Trash Pickers. It is their profession. They sift through the stench 24 hours a day, scrounging for anything they can sell — 10 cents for a pound of plastic, five cents for a pound of cardboard.

Cateura didn't exist before Paraguay's capital Asuncion started dumping its trash here. The town grew up around the garbage and became one of the poorest places in South America.

Twenty-five hundred families live here now. There is hardly any electricity or plumbing. The drinking water is contaminated. Many of the children move from broken homes to crime and drugs.

The residents of Cateura, Paraguay, don't just make a living from the massive garbage heap in their town. They also make music and the instruments to play.

You'll be amazed at what else people here are doing with this trash…just look and listen.

The "Landfill Harmonic"

(Landfill harmonic – La armonía del vertedero – Orquesta de Instrumentos Reciclados de Cateura)

An orchestra for kids with instruments made from trash?

A cello made from an oil can and pieces of wood, that were thrown in the garbage; a saxophone made of spoons and buttons. These instruments are crafted by Nicolas, a 'recycler' with no previous experience making musical instruments, who is living 'hand-to-mouth' by the garbage dump in Catuera, Paraguay.

Inspired by this initiative and creativity, Maestro Luis Szaran, director of "Sounds of the Earth," formed the 'recycled orchestra,' with children living near the dump. "Our main goal isn't to form good musicians, but to form good citizens." Now 30 members strong, (and looking for more, for a full orchestra) listen to the sweet sounds of these 'recycled' instruments and the hopes and dreams of the children who play them. … Be Amazed and Inspired!

 




 


As demonstrated, entrepreneurship when viewed from this perspective, is a common essence that exists in all man kind and it is inextinguishable.


Elon Musk, the exalted, the remarkable, sees it as a step by step path to accomplishment, failures are just another step on the path to succeeding.


The landfill children, the diminished but remarkable, see no path nor do they have options to a path. The options for these children are very limited. Once in a great while an opportunity presents itself and is taken immediately and completely.


The children work hard each day to succeed as well, only they call it survival.


Both ends of this spectrum have the same qualities; inspiration, creativity, imagination, action, vision and risks. The Children of the Landfill are the most remarkable because they succeed in the most ”basic” way, through the veils of waste.


One attribute all successful billionaire entrepreneurs have in common is that they are willing to put everything they have on the line any time of the day. To them its all luck and risk. Its the same with the landfill pickers every day they put everything they have on the line, their survival.


Green Fire has a mission to improve the lifestyle of these amazing people and this amazing community.


Green Fire is preparing a crowd funding campaign for the implementation of Children of the Landfill – Village Project.


Note: Just in case you may have missed any of my previous blog posts, I post here on one of my active projects. It is a new social network for entrepreneurs, completely free, and very unique. It could be a great thing for your business. It is called MarketHive. Just click —-> HERE <—- to find out more.


If you are interested in participating in this effort to lift these children to inspiration, please join me in the Markethive group “Green Fire”. It is from here that we will start a crowd funding campaign to aid Green Fire in its mission.

 




David

	


	





	

		
		
Christine Lagarde: Thinking globally, speaking locally
	


	
	
	

		
IMF managing director calls for new technology, shifting policy to meet population growth.


Peter Dizikes | MIT New Office March 7, 2015


Original article, MIT Press


The relentless rise in world population during the century ahead means we must develop new technologies and policies to spur economic growth, said Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), while delivering MIT's Karl Taylor Compton Lecture on Friday.


In a sweeping overview of global demographics and their effects on our civic structures, Lagarde highlighted the many challenges of living on an increasingly crowded planet, including fiscal and environmental stresses. But she emphasized that a growing population need not portend a kind of doomsday scenario, as some have envisioned.


“We need to re-frame the debate about demographics,” Lagarde said. “I believe that this challenge can be met. But it requires the right policies, political resolve, and strong leadership. … The fiscal policy responses and technological innovation are especially important parts of the solution.”


The world population is currently around 7.5 billion people and is projected to grow to 10 billion about 40 years from now.


As Lagarde emphasized in her lecture, "Demographic Change and Economic Well-being: The Role of Fiscal Policy," population growth is bound up with some distinctly positive changes, such as greater life expectancy and a growth in per-capita income around the world. Globally, life expectancy has increased from 47 years to 71 years since 1950, and per-capita income has quadrupled since the end of World War II.


Yet having more people on the planet may also be associated with a slowdown in economic growth, Lagarde noted, because an aging population is less able to work and may be fiscally burdensome for states, due to larger costs associated with health care and retirement security.


Lagarde cited technology as a countervailing force to these trends, which spurs growth and lessens the costs embedded in our shifting demographics. She heralded MIT for its focus on “technological innovation,” saying it was “essential to raising living standards over the long term.”


Lagarde also unequivocally emphasized the need for robust government investment in scientific research and development (R&D). New IMF economic research, Lagarde noted, indicates that if governments of the world’s advanced economies took steps that increased private-sector R&D by 40 percent, they would improve long-run GDP in those countries by 5 percent.


Lagarde delivered her address before a capacity audience of around 1,200 people in MIT's Kresge Auditorium. The Karl Taylor Compton Lecture Series, which dates to 1957, is MIT's most prominent lecture event. It is named after MIT’s 10th president, who served from 1930 to 1948.


MIT President L. Rafael Reif introduced Lagarde, praising her “remarkable ability to bring the right players together” when addressing fiscal crises, in order to “keep the global economy on track.”


Reif also observed that Lagarde has demonstrated a distinctively “broad view of what topics should concern the head of the IMF,” from fiscal policy to “an aging population, to discrimination, to income inequality, to climate change.” And he heralded Lagarde’s groundbreaking accomplishments as the first woman to lead the IMF and the first woman to be finance minister of France, among other things.


“Our” alma mater


The IMF, founded in 1945 and now comprising 188 member countries, is an international organization that works to develop monetary cooperation, fiscal stability, and economic growth around the globe.


As Lagarde observed, there is a long-lasting intellectual connection between her organization and MIT. The last five chief economists of the IMF — Kenneth Rogoff, Raghuram Rajan, Simon Johnson, Olivier Blanchard, and Maurice Obstfeld — all received their doctorates at the Institute, a fact Lagarde termed “remarkable.” From the IMF’s point of view, she quipped, MIT could virtually be regarded as “our alma mater,” too.


Lagarde also praised MIT as a place that values “intellectual honesty and openness and relentless curiosity.”

In prescribing solutions to the demographic challenges of the 21st century, Lagarde listed a series of “game changers” that she said would be essential to grappling with the changes ahead.


One, she said, would be alterations to health care and retirement systems to manage costs. In health care, Lagarde suggested, we will need “more targeted spending, paying more attention to primary and preventive health care, promoting healthier lifestyles, and making more effective use of information technology.”


As part of this effort, Lagarde also asserted that governments would likely have to raise the retirement ages of workers to ease pensions expenses, although she acknowledged that “policymakers need to put in place a proper safety net for those who might not be healthy enough to work longer.”


Secondly, Lagarde said, the world needs better tax systems and more efficient public spending. She recommended expanding the use of value-added taxes, wider enforcement of taxes on multinational corporations, and more effective tax compliance in general.


And thirdly, Lagarde asserted, we need to promote economic growth in a variety of ways, from helping women participate in the work force to technological innovation.


“Higher growth means a fuller public purse and a more potent fiscal policy response to this demographic challenge,” Lagarde explained.


Energy in the room


As part of her second “game changer,” pertaining to taxes and spending, Lagarde put a notable emphasis on energy policy.


"Energy pricing is key, not only for the public purse, but for the planet," Lagarde said. She added: “This means more emphasis on energy taxation and less reliance on energy subsidies.”


Lagarde pointed to new IMF research estimating that global energy subsidies were $5.3 trillion in 2015, equivalent to a whopping 6.5 percent of GDP worldwide.


"This staggering figure, I believe very strongly, needs to come down," Lagarde said.


And after her lecture, Lagarde responded to follow-up questions from Reif, including one about energy and climate change. Today’s youth, Reif observed, constituted “the first generation to truly feel the impact of climate change, and the last that can do something about it.” He added: “What … are the most important steps to take now, and what can the next generation do?”


In response, Lagarde emphasized, "We strongly believe that if subsidies were removed and a carbon price properly set … that would go a long way toward addressing the climate change issues the world is facing.”  

Such policies, in that view, would limit the damage from fossil-fuel emissions, while helping the world experience the continued economic growth it needs to in light of its increasing population.


"Everything is better with growth," Lagarde said.


Reprinted with permission MIT Press.

MIT News homepage


Note: Just in case you may have missed any of my previous blog posts, I post here on one of my active projects. It is a new social network for entrepreneurs, completely free, and very unique. It could be a great thing for your business. It is called MarketHive. Just click —-> HERE <—- to find out more.


If you are interested in participating in this effort to lift these children to inspiration, please join me in the Markethive group “Green Fire”. It is from here that we will start a crowd funding campaign to aid Green Fire in its mission.




David