Nice doggie. However the choice of blurring the background with presumably a large aperture was I think unfortunate. With a clear sharp background this picture would’ve been a masterpiece.
i on the ball patriot
I disagree. Its a great photo as is. The sharpness of the subject is perfect, and, both the nicely balanced less sharp background and the less sharp foreground emphasizes the subject and adds to the dream quality of the composition.
The muted analogous earthy colors in the foreground, background, and the dog’s coat, also add to the harmony and peaceful quality of the shot.
It could also be the Yellowstone. Wolves were reintroduced to the park some 10 or 15 years ago, and I don’t think they exist anywhere else in the lower 48.
Vinny
dsawy
Wolves are spreading rapidly throughout the west. They’re confirmed in the following states, outside of Yellowstone:
Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, sightings in Washington.
There are sightings of Mexican wolves in Arizona and New Mexico.
Or wolf-dog as the matter runs. The collar may well be a tracking collar, if those are still used or the photo dated from when they were.
The picture is laden with symbolism, if one is inclined to go that route; maybe something of its charm.
kevinearick
in the best to let sleeping dogs lie catagory:
Enterprise Architecture 201: Prosecuting the Status Quo
When the bosses “think” they want a real reorg, they call in someone like me. Naturally, everyone is expecting another round of reorg-in-a-box (filtering in the politicians, replacing half the workforce with MS & Cisco, booking the non-recurring cost savings, and ignoring the recurring, structural losses; rinse and repeat as write-offs and capital investment, and backfill with suppliers / temporaries), so that’s exactly what you give them, to start.
You interview someone from each function in the preliminary round, asking each exactly what they expect to be asked, watching the click patting each other on the back and telling each other how smart they are, and how gullible you are. Of course you recognize the politicians, hard but oblivious worker, and smarter not harder types the first time you walk across the organization. You’re new; they all have typical responses.
Your objective is to make the click comfortable, then watch as it reveals its hierarchy. You already have the entire economy in your head, where this organization fits, and what the options are, given the top-down, command and control economy the organization is operating in. You also have a bag full of tricks to get each member of the click to bite, and reveal themselves. One of mine is to take my notes in real ugly printing, and then turn in a preliminary finding in the same print.
It doesn’t take long; the click now has points to draw a line through – this guy’s an idiot, and the piranha are already jumping out of the water. Unbeknownst to them, you are simultaneously running operations in the organizations surrounding and controlling the target organization, watching everyone’s change in behavior as the process proceeds. At this point, you have a map in your head of all the political articulations, where all the chokepoints are.
In round two, you go around and interview all the smarter-not-harder types, because experience tells you that all the solutions already exist, either within the organization, or real close to it. Sometimes, it’s an individual or group that was just terminated in the last reorg-in-a-box, to avoid the increasing pressure for change. About halfway through, the piranha stop jumping, and start wondering. If you keep your eyes open, one person will constantly be shuttling messages to the click members, the gopher. That’s your target.
Your new, but everyone in the organization knows that the gopher is the “keeper of the secrets”, and so has no real job but to protect the secrets, and propagate vicious rumors, usually leading to the exit of anyone threatening the click. You are going to make an example of that gopher, by eliminating the gopher’s job, in a smart, two-page, preliminary plan, resembling an executive report, including all the “power” words this organization loves so much.
As you continue interviewing, the piranhas begin to careen off the walls. After much silent fanfare, and meshing of teeth, they calm down again, which is a signal that they have found external support.
You turn in a plan to the local bosses, which really want an insignificant change document that can be presented as the next coming to their supervisors, to obtain continued or additional funding, with colorful guru language, which simultaneously says something very important, in language beyond the scope of anyone in the organization, and nothing at all. The nothing at all part will match its reorg-in-a-box cousin, and the other part will appear incomprehensible.
The big day arrives; it’s show and tell time. You walk into the room and see the primary click members, hardly containing themselves from attacking, because they have gone over that report with a fine tooth comb, and each has their special attack planned. At this point, you pull up the memory from the first such meeting, in which you were crucified. That’s all it takes; the piranha smell blood.
Then you look over at their benefactor, from the controlling organization, and act surprised. You walk over, introduce yourself, look him straight in the eye, and just give him a flicker of the flame that is about to be unleashed.
It doesn’t take but o few sentences of introduction before the piranha start biting, weakest first, working their way up to the chief piranha. Having run this show for a few decades, and with complete knowledge of all their weaknesses and tendencies, gleaned from others during the interview process, you are naturally prepared to slice each to the marrow of their bones, and succinctly demonstrate how the report articulates an effective path forward.
About this time, they are all looking to their benefactor to save them, which is about the time that everything clicks, and he realizes that he is likely to be removed shortly after you leave the room.
The point is this: problems and solutions travel in pairs. All you have to do is identify who has to be fired in order for the solution to catalyze itself. It’s a heads I win, tails you lose situation. Either the appropriate people get fired and the organization self-corrects, with reverberations in all directions, or they don’t get fired and the organization becomes a vegetable. Fire congress; don’t fire congress.
After not a few years in the business, I can tell you that it is Groundhog Day, each and every time. The show is the same, the actors are the same, and the only thing that changes is the clothes misdirecting the reality. Everything important is learned in kindergarten, and everything else is like high school, where the spoiled brats are supremely confident in how little they know, that daddy will bail them out.
Funny what happens when bullies get their noses smashed in with a crowd watching, their supporters scurry back into their holes, and life goes on, until next time. All circuits are potential bombs, but they are quite safe, unless you jump the safeties, put there for your protection. Don’t jump the safeties, and keep your distance from people that do. Sooner or later, they are going to short the wrong safety, because that is their nature, and that bomb is going to blow up in their face.
Don’t play with FIRE, and expect not to get burned.
F——- kids is seriously f——– up, and it crosses the line, but solving that little problem is a matter of teaching the kids to defend themselves, by shorting the short, to make the economy go boom. Strap into the fuselage or remain strapped to the bomb underneath it. Everyone has a choice.
When the staus quo is bypassing the safeties, there is only one possible outcome. Make your bet.
C
?? how stupid could the administration be to try to spin things this way????
Thanks, but no need to comment here.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Nice doggie. However the choice of blurring the background with presumably a large aperture was I think unfortunate. With a clear sharp background this picture would’ve been a masterpiece.
I disagree. Its a great photo as is. The sharpness of the subject is perfect, and, both the nicely balanced less sharp background and the less sharp foreground emphasizes the subject and adds to the dream quality of the composition.
The muted analogous earthy colors in the foreground, background, and the dog’s coat, also add to the harmony and peaceful quality of the shot.
Super photo, where was it taken?
It looks like Alaska.
It could also be the Yellowstone. Wolves were reintroduced to the park some 10 or 15 years ago, and I don’t think they exist anywhere else in the lower 48.
Vinny
Wolves are spreading rapidly throughout the west. They’re confirmed in the following states, outside of Yellowstone:
Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, sightings in Washington.
There are sightings of Mexican wolves in Arizona and New Mexico.
No idea, and it’s apparently a wolf!
Courtesy http://www.naptiem.com.
ADORE this picture, thank you. If you look closely, you can see a collar. Oh to live in the moment each day.
Today is market reversal day according to this:http://financialtraders.blogspot.com/2010/04/stock-market-reversal-days-nasdaqqqqq.html
And there I was, expecting a Red lion.
One of my favorite pictures, ever…
Wolf recumbent on flowers of field.
Or wolf-dog as the matter runs. The collar may well be a tracking collar, if those are still used or the photo dated from when they were.
The picture is laden with symbolism, if one is inclined to go that route; maybe something of its charm.
in the best to let sleeping dogs lie catagory:
Enterprise Architecture 201: Prosecuting the Status Quo
When the bosses “think” they want a real reorg, they call in someone like me. Naturally, everyone is expecting another round of reorg-in-a-box (filtering in the politicians, replacing half the workforce with MS & Cisco, booking the non-recurring cost savings, and ignoring the recurring, structural losses; rinse and repeat as write-offs and capital investment, and backfill with suppliers / temporaries), so that’s exactly what you give them, to start.
You interview someone from each function in the preliminary round, asking each exactly what they expect to be asked, watching the click patting each other on the back and telling each other how smart they are, and how gullible you are. Of course you recognize the politicians, hard but oblivious worker, and smarter not harder types the first time you walk across the organization. You’re new; they all have typical responses.
Your objective is to make the click comfortable, then watch as it reveals its hierarchy. You already have the entire economy in your head, where this organization fits, and what the options are, given the top-down, command and control economy the organization is operating in. You also have a bag full of tricks to get each member of the click to bite, and reveal themselves. One of mine is to take my notes in real ugly printing, and then turn in a preliminary finding in the same print.
It doesn’t take long; the click now has points to draw a line through – this guy’s an idiot, and the piranha are already jumping out of the water. Unbeknownst to them, you are simultaneously running operations in the organizations surrounding and controlling the target organization, watching everyone’s change in behavior as the process proceeds. At this point, you have a map in your head of all the political articulations, where all the chokepoints are.
In round two, you go around and interview all the smarter-not-harder types, because experience tells you that all the solutions already exist, either within the organization, or real close to it. Sometimes, it’s an individual or group that was just terminated in the last reorg-in-a-box, to avoid the increasing pressure for change. About halfway through, the piranha stop jumping, and start wondering. If you keep your eyes open, one person will constantly be shuttling messages to the click members, the gopher. That’s your target.
Your new, but everyone in the organization knows that the gopher is the “keeper of the secrets”, and so has no real job but to protect the secrets, and propagate vicious rumors, usually leading to the exit of anyone threatening the click. You are going to make an example of that gopher, by eliminating the gopher’s job, in a smart, two-page, preliminary plan, resembling an executive report, including all the “power” words this organization loves so much.
As you continue interviewing, the piranhas begin to careen off the walls. After much silent fanfare, and meshing of teeth, they calm down again, which is a signal that they have found external support.
You turn in a plan to the local bosses, which really want an insignificant change document that can be presented as the next coming to their supervisors, to obtain continued or additional funding, with colorful guru language, which simultaneously says something very important, in language beyond the scope of anyone in the organization, and nothing at all. The nothing at all part will match its reorg-in-a-box cousin, and the other part will appear incomprehensible.
The big day arrives; it’s show and tell time. You walk into the room and see the primary click members, hardly containing themselves from attacking, because they have gone over that report with a fine tooth comb, and each has their special attack planned. At this point, you pull up the memory from the first such meeting, in which you were crucified. That’s all it takes; the piranha smell blood.
Then you look over at their benefactor, from the controlling organization, and act surprised. You walk over, introduce yourself, look him straight in the eye, and just give him a flicker of the flame that is about to be unleashed.
It doesn’t take but o few sentences of introduction before the piranha start biting, weakest first, working their way up to the chief piranha. Having run this show for a few decades, and with complete knowledge of all their weaknesses and tendencies, gleaned from others during the interview process, you are naturally prepared to slice each to the marrow of their bones, and succinctly demonstrate how the report articulates an effective path forward.
About this time, they are all looking to their benefactor to save them, which is about the time that everything clicks, and he realizes that he is likely to be removed shortly after you leave the room.
The point is this: problems and solutions travel in pairs. All you have to do is identify who has to be fired in order for the solution to catalyze itself. It’s a heads I win, tails you lose situation. Either the appropriate people get fired and the organization self-corrects, with reverberations in all directions, or they don’t get fired and the organization becomes a vegetable. Fire congress; don’t fire congress.
After not a few years in the business, I can tell you that it is Groundhog Day, each and every time. The show is the same, the actors are the same, and the only thing that changes is the clothes misdirecting the reality. Everything important is learned in kindergarten, and everything else is like high school, where the spoiled brats are supremely confident in how little they know, that daddy will bail them out.
Funny what happens when bullies get their noses smashed in with a crowd watching, their supporters scurry back into their holes, and life goes on, until next time. All circuits are potential bombs, but they are quite safe, unless you jump the safeties, put there for your protection. Don’t jump the safeties, and keep your distance from people that do. Sooner or later, they are going to short the wrong safety, because that is their nature, and that bomb is going to blow up in their face.
Don’t play with FIRE, and expect not to get burned.
F——- kids is seriously f——– up, and it crosses the line, but solving that little problem is a matter of teaching the kids to defend themselves, by shorting the short, to make the economy go boom. Strap into the fuselage or remain strapped to the bomb underneath it. Everyone has a choice.
When the staus quo is bypassing the safeties, there is only one possible outcome. Make your bet.
?? how stupid could the administration be to try to spin things this way????
http://www.benzinga.com/media/wall-street-journal/218984/bailouts-not-as-expensive-as-first-thought-fre-fnm-aig-c
Dammit!
I just typed a whole long message, but when I hit the submit button my FireFox crashed.
Did it come though or do I need to redo it?
The color of the flowers is beautiful. Any botanists in the crowd who recognize what they are? Which could help locate the area of the photo.
So lovely, so intriguing.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/balancing-the-books-why-most-executives-say-its-time-to-raise-taxes/article1515433/
Yes, in Canada C-level executives of big companies think it’s time to raise personal income taxes. More proof Canucks are NOT TO BE TRUSTED.