Decisions

Panetta's Qualifications — Here's former CIA deputy director John McLaughlin: "While intelligence experience is obviously desired, it is not absolutely essential. Other qualities are capacity to make decisions when there are no easy options and to take responsibility for them, situational awareness about the secondary and tertiary consequences of those decisions, good judgment about what is right, true, or advisable when presented with conflicting assessments -- a common situation in a field where you are almost always dealing with incomplete information.  An instinct for dealing with people -- at the core of the job.  The capacity to communicate clearly to a work force... [Tags: cia, cia deputy director, cia experience, consequences, continuity and change]

Confessions of a Man Who Does the Layoffs [Voices] — By Rafe Needleman, Chief Blogger, Webware Over the last few months, there have been countless stories of cutbacks at companies large and small. Real people are losing jobs. For some, that means losing their homes or being forced to change careers. Lately, we’ve been hearing the stories of many of the people on the receiving end of the hits recently sustained by the tech industry. But there is another side to layoffs that doesn’t get told very often. That’s the story of the people who do the laying off, those who make the decisions about who stays and who goes.... [Tags: confessions, decisions, derision, jobs, layoffs]

Confessions of a man who does the layoffs — It's easy to vilify the guy who hands out the pink slips. But contrary to popular notions, these aren't decisions that are taken lightly, at least with the executive we interviewed.... [Tags: confessions, decisions, layoffs, pink slips, popular notions]

Top transport plod to probe Tory leaker's arrest — 'Erm, whose idea was this?' The country's top transport police officer has been appointed by the Met to investigate the decisions that led to its arrest of Tory front bencher Damian Green last week for leaking Home Office documents to the media.…... [Tags: decisions, erm, leaker, office documents, police officer]

GigaOM Interview With Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff — Today Clearwire said it had completed the transactions that will allow it to build the first nationwide WiMAX network, to be known as Clear. CEO Ben Wolff took a few minutes to answer some questions about what the upcoming service will look like, how Clearwire might handle network congestion and how the recession might affect the speed with which Clearwire builds its network. Below is an edited transcript of our interview: GigaOM: How much will it cost to build the nationwide network and will the economy slow the buildout? Ben Wolff: Coupled with what we’ve spent, the $3.2 billion from... [Tags: ceo, clearwire, connecting to the internet, decisions, dense urban areas]

Google As Benevolent Dictator: The Gatekeeper And The Data Collector — Two separate stories in the NY Times provide fodder for those who view Google as the new scary borg. The first, looks at Google's sometimes slippery slope role as a "gatekeeper" of information within certain countries. For example, it looks at Google's agreement to help block access to certain YouTube videos in Thailand and similar decisions in other countries. The article plays up Google's reluctance to be involved in making these sorts of decisions (and highlights how the company hopes that more countries learn to accept free speech a bit more), but it still leaves you with this questionable feeling... [Tags: all sorts, benevolent dictator, borg, decade, decisions]

David Sirota: Our Dear Leader — Lots of folks are expressing concern over Barack Obama's appointments, and in my new newspaper column I offer three separate thoughts on the worries: 1) Don't worry so much, 2) Worry a little bit and make your worries heard and 3) What did you expect? This last point is arguably the most important. Because of the structure of the movement Obama built for himself, and because of the refusal/inability of an independent progressive movement to make concrete demands, he has more top-down power than any previous president. Whether you think that's good news or bad news, it is reality. We... [Tags: appointments, bad news, barack obama, concrete demands, david sirota]

Perino Disputes Reports That White House Snubs NYT — White House Press Secretary Dana Perino went on CNN Sunday to dispute recent reports that the White House has snubbed the New York Times. She argues that just because President Bush doesn't want to do a sit-down interview with the paper doesn't mean they don't get their questions answered: KURTZ: But you are not shy about making clear when you think the coverage is unfair, and in fact, "New York Times" has not had an interview with the president in at least two or three years and correspondent Sheryl Stolberg said in an online chat on the "Times" Web site... [Tags: bush doesn t, cnn, colleagues, correspondent, dana perino]

Big business working like small business in Social Media — Image via Wikipedia I was lucky enough to meet Beth Harte at PodCamp Philly this year. I sat in on a couple of Beth’s sessions and have been following her blog ever since. Beth wrote an interesting article on Social Media In Action on her blog that piqued my interest and really got me to thinking. She noted how she had a couple of problems with Best Buy after a purchase and through Twitter she was able to get it all figured out. Stories like Beth’s are becoming increasingly common much to the delight of the companies using the... [Tags: accessible medium, advocates, best buy, blog, chagrin]

Key Link In How Plants Adapt To Climate Discovered — How many mouths does a plant need in order to survive? The answer changes depending on climate and some of the decisions are made long before a new leaf sprouts. Stanford researchers have found that the formation of microscopic pores called stomata is controlled by a specific signaling pathway that blocks activity of a single protein required for stomata development. Stomata are found on almost every terrestrial plant on Earth.... [Tags: climate, decisions, earth, microscopic pores, mouths]

Daoud Kuttab: Obama Will Announce the Closure of Guantanmo on January 20th — President-elect Barack Obama will announce in his inauguration speech the intention of his administration to close down the Guantanamo prison. A source within the Obama transition team visiting Amman stated that the actual closure will take up to six months to complete because of the uncertainty of what to do with some of the more notorious prisoners held in the Cuban US base. The source who is involved in the national security team refused to be identified because he was not authorized to disclose the contents of Obama's inaguration speech. In addition to Guantanamo the Obama transition team is also... [Tags: 20th president, amman, barack obama, bush cheney, closure]

AboutMyPlace.co.uk - Find Local UK Information — What it doesHow well do you know the area where you live? Can you name every nook and cranny in your vicinity? In case you are based in the United Kingdom and want to have a better appreciation not only of the exact location where you dwell but also of other parts of the country a visit to a website like this one is a good bet. In essence, through the site you will be able to supply a search query and see all the related locations such as cities, towns, villages and stations. For example, if you key in... [Tags: aboutmyplace, aerial maps, bet, decisions, exact location]

WikiPik.org - Online Community For Comparing Products — What it doesAn online community that has the aim of letting its users rank every product and item that has ever surfaced, WikiPik is an open database that can be joined by anyone. The site is there to enable people make fast educated decisions, and let costumers and professionals alike connect and exchange insight and opinions easily. WikiPik employs a ranking algorithm that displays information taking into account how site users perceive quality differences instead of displaying an average that does not necessarily reflect the true nuances of each product. Moreover, there is a flexible interface that is grid-based, and... [Tags: aim, algorithm, breyer, comparing products, costumers]

Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 43: A Thanksgiving Pardon — From Serious Eats "Butter, cream, sugar, pie, stuffing, gravy, biscuits. These are the tools of the Thanksgiving eater's trade." I was all set to write a short post telling you of my decision to avoid the scale the day after Thanksgiving, that I was going to delay getting on the scale until Monday. Surely serious eaters would understand, was my instant rationalization. My daily interim weigh-ins leading up to Thanksgiving were not cause for alarm. As of Thursday morning I was even (236) for the week. I knew you all would understand if I took a pass today. Then I... [Tags: biscuits, butter cream, cream sugar, day after thanksgiving, decisions]

Should parents start policing their children more aggressively? — The National Institute on Media and the Family, a media watchdog group that has spent considerable time taking the gaming industry to task for continually churning out violent titles, turned its attention to parents recently. It gave parents an "Incomplete" grade in its annual report card Tuesday. According to the group, parents aren't paying enough attention to ESRB ratings and don't have any interest in using parental controls. The study poses an interesting question: "Are parents doing enough to protect their children from violent video games?" The answer, though, isn't simple. On one hand, we can say that parents haven't... [Tags: annual report, capitol hill lawmakers, decisions, developers, doom]

25 Unanswerable Questions About Apple — Everybody has two businesses, the old saying goes: their own business, and show business. It’s the same with technology, except everybody’s two business are their own business…and Apple’s. No other tech company on the planet is followed as avidly, nor is any so routinely second-guessed. And if anything, controversy over Apple’s decisions and dramas intensifies [...]... [Tags: apple, controversy, decisions, own business, show business]

Holiday shopping guide — The decisions you make with your hard-earned money this year will have more impact than ever before. So put your money where your mouth is. Here are a few ideas to consider:1. Buy handmade items from people you like. 2. Don't buy gift cards. It's lazy and sort of dumb. 3. Don't buy from big brands or big stores that don't care about you, or that act in ways you don't applaud. There are very smart alternatives in almost every category. 4. When in doubt, buy digital items. Even better, give a donation and make many people happy. 5. Realize... [Tags: amazon, charity, decisions, gift cards, hard earned money]

The Radicalism Of Gates — Yoni Applebuam explains:Keeping Bob Gates as Secretary of Defense was the most dramatic signal Barack Obama could have sent that he intends to implement major changes in defense policy. That may sound counterintuitive, but it has the virtue of being true.As Josh noted this morning, "cabinet appointees execute policy. They work for the president." So if Gates is tasked to take us out of Iraq and to redouble our efforts in Afghanistan, we can expect him to carry out both tasks with the same degree of competence he's exhibited thus far in his tenure. In a properly functioning administration, the... [Tags: afghanistan, appointees, autonomy, barack obama, bob gates]

Acruw.com - Track & Manage Your Points Online — What it doesAcruw can be described as a centralized resource that will let you know at a glance the status of your frequent flyer miles and any other reward system you employ. The site provides you with the resources for not only visualizing all your balances in the same place, but also to easily carry out conversions that compare existing programs and let you see where the best deals are. Moreover, the site has a notification system that will let you quickly realize about mile expiration, as well as informing you whenever a determined goal is reached. You can also... [Tags: amp, best deals, centralized resource, concise manner, conversions]

fring restructuring for growth — Hi guys, fring has experienced several months of unprecedented growth.  We are continuing to develop and grow the fring community and services way ahead of expectation, and even though the world is experiencing tough times, we are now adding 400,000 new fringsters every month, and have some very exciting product announcements to make very soon. However, in an attempt to continue to provide our award winning service to the millions of fringsters worldwide, and at the same time remain flexible to cope with any challenges the global economic slowdown throws us, we have restructured some of our operations at fring... [Tags: award winning service, challenges, co workers, communications service, confidence]