we are all French

Michelle Obama has been on an international book tour to promote her book, “Becoming”. On the week of April 15, she was joined in Paris with her husband, former president Barack Obama.


On the evening of April 16, moments after they bordered a sightseeing boat on the river Seine, a fire broke out in the attic of Notre Dame Cathedral, which allowed them to capture live images on their phones mere minutes later.


Almost immediately, people around the world expressed shock at the catastrophe, and donors from France and elsewhere quickly pledged money to rebuild. Although presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg expressed condolences to the French in their native tongue (it’s one of the 8 languages he speaks) the most eloquent comments came, as usual, from former president Barack Obama:


“Notre Dame is one of the world’s great treasures, and we’re thinking of the people of France in your time of grief. It’s in our nature to mourn when we see history lost – but it’s also in our nature to rebuild for tomorrow, as strong as we can.”


World sympathy for France came about for reasons that are totally unrelated to religion. 


After the World Trade Center was destroyed on 9/11, support came from virtually everywhere, and George W. Bush’s approval rating quickly reached the highest level of his presidency, at 90%. 


https://news.gallup.com/poll/116500/presidential-approval-ratings-george-bush.aspx


In October of 2001, the office vacancy rate in Manhattan was nearly 10%, so there was no compelling reason to put up another office tower on the site of the World Trade Center. The REASON that the decision was quickly made to rebuild was that the World Trade Center was a SYMBOL of America’s power and strength, which is precisely why the first attempt to destroy it occurred 8 years earlier, when a bomb laden van exploded in the parking garage of the North Tower on February 26, 1993.


https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/10/business/office-vacancy-rate-climbs-in-new-york.html


The replacement for the twin towers of the World Trade Center is called One World Trade Center, but it’s also known as Freedom Tower. It is now the tallest building in the United States, and it tops off at a patriotic 1776 feet tall. Construction of the building started in April of 2006, and was “topped off” on May 10, 2013, and the building officially opened on November 3, 2014. It cost $3.9 billion to build. 


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



Notre Dame is the most famous of the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages and is distinguished for its size, antiquity, and architectural interest. The cathedral was initiated by Maurice de Sully, bishop of Paris, who in about 1160 conceived the idea of converting into a single building, on a larger scale, the ruins of the two earlier basilicas. The foundation stone was laid by Pope Alexander III in 1163, and the high altar was consecrated in 1189. The choir, the western facade, and the nave were completed by 1250, and porches, chapels, and other embellishments were added over the next 100 years.

After the French Revolution it was rescued from possible destruction by Napoleon, who crowned himself emperor of the French in the cathedral in 1804. Notre-Dame underwent major restorations by the French architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc in the mid-19th century. The popularity of Victor Hugo’s historical novel Notre-Dame de Paris (1831), wherein the cathedral is the setting, was said to have inspired the renovations.  



https://www.britannica.com/topic/Notre-Dame-de-Paris


Before the French Revolution, Catholicism was the state religion of France. Due to the passage of the Declarations of the Right of Man in 1789, the Jules Ferry Laws of the 1880’s, and the 1905 French Law on the Separation of Churches and the State, France today is decidedly secular. Although Catholicism is still the dominant Christian religion, the main religion of France (at 39.6%) is “no religion”. Even among Catholics, only 5% attend mass on Sunday. Ironically, one of the effects of the 1905 law, which separated church from state, is that the state gained ownership of all the churches that were built before that year, which means that Notre Dame cathedral actually belongs to the nation of France and not to the archdiocese of Paris. 


According to a Eurobarometer survey conducted in 2010, 27% of French citizens responded that they "believe there is a God", 27% answered that they "believe there is some sort of spirit or life force", and 40% answered that they "do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God, or life force". This makes France one of the most irreligious countries in the world.



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


(In case you are wondering, the vast majority of the most religious countries in the world are in Africa, and the majority of the least religious countries are in Europe)


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/most-religious-countries-in-the-world/

The fire at Notre Dame  started in the cathedral’s attic, said Jean-Claude Gallet, commander of the Paris firefighters.

The attic is an oddly shaped space, seldom visited, that lies above the soaring stone arches visible from the floor of old European cathedrals. Diagrams of Notre-Dame and official descriptions of the space indicate that it is crisscrossed by giant, timber trusses that add structural integrity to the cathedral.

 “Once these massive timber structures start to burn, they almost never can be stopped,” said Jonathan Barnett, an international fire safety authority at Basic Expert in Australia. “We focus on their masonry walls and forget all the massive timber within.”

Each beam of the cathedral attic’s wooden frame is made from an individual tree — more than 1,300 in total — giving it the nickname “the forest.”

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/15/world/europe/paris-notre-dame-fire.html?module=inline

Notre-Dame De Paris/Maurice de Sully association 

A dry space like the attic tends to accumulate dust and debris, making it even more flammable. “That’s where your risk really is,” said Andrew Tremlett, the Dean of Durham Cathedral in the United Kingdom, which has a similar wooden vaulted roof like Notre-Dame’s.

After taking over the attic, the blaze quickly spread across the roof and engulfed the spire, a wood-frame structure covered in lead.

The attic of the cathedral was inspected 3 times a day, and French firefighters were well trained on what to do in the event of a fire. However, for a variety of reasons, fire at the cathedral was inevitable.

According to the Wall Street Journal article posted below, the cathedral suffered from decades of neglect, caused (in part) by the churches refusal to accept donations, which would have helped tremendously with its maintenance needs.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/decades-of-neglect-threatened-notre-dame-well-before-it-burned-11555624252  

Pictures of the cathedral have exploded in the last few days, but the best were provided by the Associated Press, and they appeared in the local Tucson newspaper, and other papers around the country, 

https://tucson.com/news/world/photos-a-look-at-the-damage-caused-by-the-fire/collection_de4e5dc5-ef1c-59a0-8b0d-07a3e9b9d9a4.html#32


There ARE people who question the wisdom of spending nearly $1 billion on the church, but they are missing the point. France's tourism industry is a major component of the economy, as France is the most visited destination in the world. Sophia Antipolis is the major technology hub for the economy of France. Paris is ranked as the most elegant city in the world, which propels the agglomeration of the fashion industry. According to the IMF, in 2013, France was the world's 20th country by GDP per capita with $44,600 per inhabitant. In 2013, France was listed on the United Nations's Human Development Index with 0.884 (very high human development) and 25th on the Corruption Perceptions Index. The OECD is headquartered in Paris, the nation's financial capital.


As a result, Notre Dame isn’t simply an old church, it is a symbol of France itself. 


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

At times like this, we are all still Americans, but we are also French as well.

(Never forget the fact that the statue below was a gift from France in 1875.)

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

the audacity of hope

The Audacity of Hope, the 2^nd book written by then-senator Barack Obama , was released in October of 2006. The public response to the book was so positive that it was one of the reasons he announced his candidacy for president a little more than 3 months after its release.

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

I was reminded of the book again today for reasons that are totally unrelated to politics, or to each other.

The first reminder came when we watched Tiger Woods win his 5^th Masters title at the Augusta National Golf Club. It was his first major tournament in 11 years, and it came 21 years after his first Masters championship at the age of 21. At the age of 21 years, 3 months, and 14 days, he was the youngest winner in the history of the tournament, surpassing Jack Nicklaus who had been the youngest player to win the Masters in 1963, at the age of 25 years, 2 months, and 21 days. Tiger won a little more than $2 million for his victory today, which will add a little more to his net worth of nearly $800 million.  

Jack Nicklaus still holds the record for the oldest victor in the Masters, when he won it in 1986 at the age of 46 years, 2 months, and 23 days. The 2^nd oldest winner of the Masters?

Tiger Woods. When he won the Masters this year, he was 43 years, 3 months, and 15 days old.

Tiger’s last major tournament win was in 2008. Since that time, he has had 4 back surgeries, and endured a painful divorce, but he never gave up his dream of winning the Masters again. His steely demeanor during the tournament was a clue to his determination to win, once again, but it rapidly disappeared after he sank the final putt:

The second reminder also came as we watched the Masters, but it had nothing to do with golf.

Part of Sharon’s breakfast this morning was a Chobani yogurt, which has recently become her favorite brand of yogurt. The history of the company itself, though, is why all of us can be hopeful about the future.

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

Like Google, Chobani was founded by an immigrant. In the case of Google, the immigrant’s name was Sergey Brin, and he was an immigrant from Russia. He and fellow Stanford student Larry Page started Google in January of 1996. Today, it has the 4^th highest market capitalization of any company in the world, at $818 billion. Sergey Brin is now 45 years old, and is worth $56 billion.

Chobani’s success is a lot more modest than Google’s but it is still impressive.

The founder of Chobani is an immigrant from Turkey named Hamdi Ulukaya. Chobani was inspired by Ulukaya’s childhood raising sheep and goats and making cheese with his family. Not impressed by the yogurt options available in the United States, Ulukaya made strained yogurt at his home in Upstate NY.  In 2005, after seeing an ad for a former Kraft Foods yogurt plant for sale in South Edmeston, New York, Ulukaya bought it with a Small Business Administration Loan^[ He launched the strained yogurt business with the help of a handful of the plant's former employees. His goal was to provide Americans with a more authentic, nutritious and accessible yogurt^[ In less than five years after launch, Chobani realized over $1 billion in annual sales and became the leading seller of Greek yogurt in America.

From a financial standpoint, Chobani is a successful company. More importantly, though, Chobani has been recognized as a socially responsible company.

Chobani Foundation[

Since the founding of the company, Chobani has donated a portion of profits back into the communities where its employees live and work. It’s charitable arm, the Chobani Foundation, was formed in 2010, and focuses on improving childhood nutrition, strengthening the communities near its plants in New York and Idaho, and supporting those in need after major disasters in the U.S

Chobani Incubator

Hamdi Ulukaya launched the Chobani Food Incubator in 2016 to support food entrepreneurs aiming to challenge the food industry, improve broken systems, and bring better food to more people. The program provides food and beverage startups with a nonequity investment, resources, mentorship and programming. 

Chobani shares

In April 2016, Chobani announced it was giving 10 percent of its ownership stake to its employees. The company allotted shares to its employees based on tenure, reportedly helping some of the company’s longest serving employees become millionaires. As of last June, Ulukaya himself was worth $1.7 billion.

Hiring refugees

In 2016, following reports on Chobani’s practice of employing refugees, the company received calls for boycotts and death threats. Approximately 30% of Chobani’s 2,000 employees are legally resettled refugees and immigrants.         

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

Mr. Ulukaya recently gave a speech at the TED conference. The CEO of Chobani would like to see an "anti-CEO" revolution, and his ideas make sense. 

https://www.fastcompany.com/90335533/chobanis-hamdi-ulukaya-wants-an-anti-ceo-revolution?utm_source=NationSwellfacebook&utm_medium=outreach&utm_campaign=NationSwellOutreach&fbclid=IwAR1Ln6YSBCyztUoiDUNjaV6iq-MF7BbEvIk9jdFrlI9i1ge_K_Gxnh6YXLE

All of us are reminded, practically on a daily basis, what’s wrong with America and large parts of the world. As a result, it’s important to focus on the positive elements of our society so that we have, once again, hope for the future.

the Nazi in the White Houe

Before you start to hyperventilate, please note that I did not say that Donald Trump was a Nazi. However, if you view this picture

or this picture, 

you would likely come to the conclusion that there IS a similarity between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler – and you would not be wrong. 


Donald Trump is NOT a Nazi, but he IS a fascist. The sign below is posted at the U.S. Holocaust Museum on Washington, D.C.:


https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/01/31/the-12-early-warning-signs-of-fascism/


Donald Trump qualifies on all 12 items. 


Trump is officially the worst president that our country has ever had – and that’s not just my opinion. Here are a couple of sources to back up that claim:


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/19/opinion/how-does-trump-stack-up-against-the-best-and-worst-presidents.html


https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/presidents-ranked-from-worst-to-best-presidential-historians-survey-2017/


On top of that, the majority of the people that he has nominated for various positions in his administration simply are not qualified for the position that they were nominated for. They are not necessarily evil people – they simply are not qualified for their position.


However, there actually IS one guy who really IS evil. If you wanted to quote scripture, this guy would be the devil incarnate, and he looks like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Miller_(political_advisor)


You may notice that he bears a striking resemblance to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, so let’s back up a step or two.

As a speechwriter for Trump, Miller helped write Trump's inaugural address. He has been a key adviser since the early days of Trump's presidency. An immigration hardliner, Miller was a chief architect of Trump's travel ban, the administration's reduction of refugees accepted to the United States, and Trump's policy of separating migrant children from their parents. On February 12, 2017, he appeared to question the power of the judiciary to limit the executive's role in setting immigration policy.

As a White House spokesman, Miller has on multiple occasions made false and unsubstantiated claims regarding widespread electoral fraud.

Joseph Goebbels was one of Adolf Hitler's closest and most devoted associates, and was known for his skills in public speaking and his deeply virulent anti-Semitism, which was evident in his publicly voiced views. He advocated progressively harsher discrimination, including the extermination of the Jews in the Holocaust.

To celebrate Hitler's appointment as chancellor, Goebbels organized a torchlight parade in Berlin on the night of 30 January of an estimated 60,000 men, many in the uniforms of the SA and SS. The spectacle was covered by a live state radio broadcast, with commentary by longtime party member and future Minister of Aviation Hermann Göring. (The picture below was taken in Charlottesville in 2017).

Goebbels was particularly interested in controlling radio, which was then still a fairly new mass medium. Sometimes under protest from individual states (particularly Prussia, headed by Göring), Goebbels gained control of radio stations nationwide, and placed them under the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (German National Broadcasting Corporation) in July 1934. (Today, trump just says it’s all “fake news”. )

ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels

The irony of Stephen Miller’s hard line immigration policy is that his family has GREATLY benefited from our county’s immigration policies. His uncle, David Glosser, goes into more detail in the link shown below.


https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/13/stephen-miller-is-an-immigration-hypocrite-i-know-because-im-his-uncle-219351


For that matter, Donald Trump has also benefited from our immigration policies. Both his first, and his current wife, were immigrants. In addition, his mother was an immigrant from Scotland, and his paternal grandfather was an immigrant from Germany. Since he is now opposed to “chain migration”, it is worth noting that his in-laws from Slovenia are now citizens due to the chain migration policy. 


On Monday of this week, Representative Ilhan Omar from Minnesota went on record as saying that Stephen Miller “is a white nationalist”.  Soon after her comments were made public, the right-wing hate machine -- including Donald Trump himself -- has pounced on her, accusing her of targeting and “assaulting” Jews. Here is Trump’s tweet:


I see that the head of the Farrakhan Fan Club, @IlhanMN, took a short break from spewing her usual anti-Semetic bigotry today to accuse a Jewish man of being a “white nationalist” because she apparently has no shame.

http://www.gopusa.com/?p=67723?omhide=true


She has already received death threats, which so far have led to the arrest of Patrick Carlineo of New York. 


https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/new-york-man-charged-with-threatening-to-kill-ilhan-omar


On Monday of this week, Trump told Stephen Miller that he was “in charge of his administration’s immigration policy. CNN reports Trump recently told border officials in Southern California to not allow migrants into the country because the U.S. doesn’t “have the room.” Along with Nielsen’s departure, the administration ousted Secret Service Director Randolph Alles and may force out the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Lee Francis Cissna.


https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-told-stephen-miller-hes-in-charge-of-immigration-policy-report 


Ironically, our government also told the passengers of the S.S. St. Louis in 1939 that we did not have room for them. As a result of our action, roughly 25% of the passengers ultimately perished in Nazi concentration camps. 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_St._Louis

The absence of a coordinated policy process has allowed the most extreme administration voices to fill the vacuum. Miller has all but become the face of the issue, a development that even supporters of Trump’s “zero-tolerance” position say is damaging the White House. “Stephen actually enjoys seeing those pictures at the border,” an outside White House adviser said. “He’s a twisted guy, the way he was raised and picked on. There’s always been a way he’s gone about this. He’s Waffen-SS.”

Miller's own family is furious over his policies. Nathan's uncle, David Glosser has been especially critical of the Trump administration. This is what HE had to say recently:

 “Despots divide and rule by blaming vulnerable minorities for all of society’s ills,” he wrote last month. “They promise prosperity, order, and a resumption of a mythical great past era from which they claim authority….’I am the only one who can lead the nation forward and make us great again!’ was the rant of Mussolini, Hitler, and a host of other tyrants since time immemorial.”

hmm..

A resumption of a mythical great past era from which they claim authority sounds a lot like this:

https://forward.com/fast-forward/403382/stephen-millers-family-is-furious-over-his-immigrant-family-separation/


Since Stephen Miller did not have to confirmed by Congress for his current position, he is likely to remain in his current position for the duration of Trump’s presidency.

If you squint real hard, you could probably envision Trump in a Nazi uniform (see below) which would not necessarily be totally accurate:

The picture below, though, is “right on the money”:

how to have a successful job interview

Since I started my first job (in April of 1964) I’ve been on numerous job interviews, but I don’t have a clue about how many I actually went through. I never really studied on HOW to have a good interview, since being relaxed and myself always worked well enough that I was gainfully employed in some type of job for more than 50 years. I’ve tried retirement a few times, but it never seems to stick. I don’t think that I’ll work until I am as old as Tony Bennett (still working at 92), but I’ll probably continue to be a substitute teacher for a few years yet. 


If you are actually LOOKING for a job, there are numerous sites that can help you prepare for a successful interview. However, this is what you do NOT want to do during an interview:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdTTjY8soVc


Although I am not opposed to having an occasional beer, I don’t believe that I have ever expressed my enthusiasm for this ancient beverage in a job interview. However, I DO share an affection for beer just like Brett Kavanagh. I’ve long since graduated beyond the “bottom dwellers” like Busch Lite, and generally stick with beers that are in the modest price range of less than $15 for a 12 pack.


However, whenever the lotto climbs to prize payouts that border on incredible, it’s always fun to fantasize some of the things that I would splurge on, and one of those things is beer. 


Believe it or not, one the world’s most expensive beers in Pabst Blue Ribbon. However, the expensive version is NOT the same stuff that you can buy anywhere for less than $1 a bottle. The GOOD stuff is Pabst Blue Ribbon 1844. It is sold ONLY in China, and it costs $44 a bottle.


http://mentalfloss.com/article/30987/10-worlds-most-expensive-beers


The most expensive beer that you can buy ranges in price from $800 to $1815 a bottle (it’s called Nail Brewing’s Antarctic Nail Ale), but the most intriguing beer is Brewdog’s The End of History, which is encased in a stuffed squirrel. 

Incidentally, if you are looking for a reasonably good CHEAP beer, the list below can be of help to you. (You’ll notice that Pabst Blue Ribbon is on this list as well).



https://vinepair.com/articles/11-cheap-american-beers-ranked-from-awful-to-drinabkle/





You’re free to drink any kind of beer that you’d like, but here’s one final piece of advice:


Don’t bring it with you to your job interview.

Remembering Lloyd Bentsen

The late Lloyd Millard Bentsen was a very accomplished individual, starting at an early age. At age 15, he graduated from Sharlyland High School in Mission Texas, roughly about the time that he became a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America.

After graduating from the University of Texas Law School om 1942, he trained to become a pilot. In 1944, he began flying combat missions in B-24’s, and was promoted to the tank of major at the age of 23. Almost immediately, he was given command of a squadron of 600 men, and he was promoted to lieutenant colonel before being discharged in 1947.

In 1948, he was elected to the first of his three terms in the United States House of Representatives. In 1970, he was elected to the United States Senate, and was re-elected in 1976, 1982, and 1988.

In 1988, Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts chose him to be his running mate in that year’s presidential race, and THAT was when his words became some of the most memorable in the history of politics.

Bentsen was responsible for one of the most widely discussed moments of the campaign during the vice presidential televised debate with fellow Senator Dan Quayle. In answering a question about his experience, Quayle stated that he had as much political experience as John F. Kennedy had when he ran for the presidency. Bentsen, at the age of 67, retorted, "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.

The Dukakis/Bentsen ticket lost to the Bush/Quayle ticket, but Bentsen still left an impressive legacy, as detailed in the link below:

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

Lloyd Bentsen came to mind this morning after I saw Steve Benson’s latest political cartoon:

https://www.gocomics.com/stevebenson/2019/03/21

After the Bush/Quayle ticket lost to the Clinton/Gore ticket in 1992, he largely faded from public life, but has done very well financially due to his involvement with Cerberus Capital Management, where he currently serves as Chairman of Global Investments. However, his accomplishments pale when compared to the legacy of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Donald Trump has never been a fan of John McCain, a man who most Americans (including most Democrats) still hold in high esteem. Trump derided him during the 2016 campaign as “not being a hero”, and McCain’s vote on the proposed repeal of the Affordable Care Act further drew Trump’s ire.

Shortly after Trump got elected, McCain  was attending an annual security conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where a retired a British diplomat approached him.

In his last book, “Restless Wave”, McCain discussed an incident that will eventually have profound consequences for Trump.

According to McCain, he didn't recall ever having a previous conversation with Sir Andrew Wood, but may have met him before in passing. Chris Brose, a staff member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and David Kramer, a former assistant secretary of state with Russian expertise, joined McCain and Wood in a room off the main conference hall.

After discussing Russian election interference for a few minutes, Wood explained why he'd approached McCain in the first place.

"He told me he knew a former MI6 officer by the name of Christopher Steele, who had been commissioned to investigate connections between the Trump campaign and Russian agents as well as potentially compromising information about the President-elect that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin allegedly possessed," McCain wrote.

Wood told McCain that Steele had compiled a report, while careful to note the information was unverified, which the former British spy "strongly believed merited a thorough examination by counterintelligence experts."

"Our impromptu meeting felt charged with a strange intensity," McCain wrote. "No one wise-cracked to lighten the mood. We spoke in lowered voices. The room was dimly lit, and the atmosphere was eerie."

It all seemed "too strange a scenario to believe" at first, he wrote, but the six-term senator felt that "even a remote risk that the President of the United States might be vulnerable to Russian extortion had to be investigated."

After further discussion, the group agreed to send Kramer to London to meet Steele. When Kramer returned from the meeting and told McCain that Steele seemed to be a reputable source, the Republican senator agreed to receive a copy of the dossier.

"The allegations were disturbing, but I had no idea which if any were true," McCain said. "I could not independently verify any of it, and so I did what any American who cares about our nation's security should have done. I put the dossier in my office safe, called the office of the director of the FBI, Jim Comey, and asked for a meeting."

Now that Trump is getting increasing pressure from a variety of sources, he does what he always does – he lashes out at those who he feels have wronged him.

Even though McCain has been dead since last August Trump has recently started to attack him again on Twitter. (Some of his supporters have also gone down the same path. If you don’t know who Tiffany Nicole is, consider yourself lucky.)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-17/trump-continues-tweet-attack-of-mccain-on-steele-dossier-leaks

The Steele dossier may not be the final coffin in the nail of Trump’s presidency, but it will be part of the mounting evidence that will do irreparable harm to Trump, both personally and politically.

It’s hard to say what the final outcome of the Mueller investigation will be, but one thing is DEFINITELY undisputed, and that is this:

Donald Trump is no John McCain.

Why I like voice mail

Three years ago, I predicted that voice mail use was gong to decline, and I also vowed to NOT set up a voice mail message on my personal phone:

http://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-death-of-voice-mail.html

Then events took an unexpected turn.

A few weeks ago, my 3 year old Samsung Galaxy 6 committed suicide. I took it to a Sprint service center, where it was determined that the battery was dead AND the motherboard itself was fried, leaving me no alternative but to buy a new phone. I considered getting either an LG or another Samsung, but the tech that I talked with recommended an I-phone because (in his experience) they were more reliable. Price-wise, the i8 is a tad more expensive than the alternatives, but not appreciably so. I opted for the i8+ since it had a slightly larger screen. If you paid full retail for the thing, it would be over $800. However, the tech recommended a reconditioned i8+, which still came with a warranty. Cash price was $449, but I could also pay $18 a month for 18 months and have it completely paid for.

My new phone has a number of features that I absolutely love. One is Facetime, which is literally a modern version of Skype. The phone also lets you send a text message by TALKING to your phone instead of having to type in all the letters.

It also comes with voice mail built in, which I have come to appreciate because it allows you to READ the voice mail without having to listen to the message, which makes it much easier to decide whether to call back or not.

I still don’t call back numbers I don’t recognize until I have checked them out on Google. A recent trend that I have noticed is that those “phishing” calls have figured out a way to use a local number so that you are less likely to ignore them.

Last summer, Apple (founded on April 1, 1976) became the first company in the world to hit a market valuation of $1 trillion, largely due to the fact that it has the most innovative, and useful, products. My sister’s house is “full Apple” since the household has 2 Macintosh laptops, 2 I-phones, and an Alexa (which is actually made by Amazon).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alapshah/2018/08/02/apple-hits-1-trillion-but-its-still-not-the-most-valuable-company-in-the-world/#1a269d852175

If you look at the list of the most profitable companies on the Forbes list, you’ll notice that ALL of them are tech companies. The big returns are no longer going to be found in oil and gas, steel, or mining companies, a fact that not all of our leaders understand.

Google, incidentally, is only 20 years old, but its market capitalization is $825 billion. One of the founders of the company is a Russian immigrant named Sergey Brin, who is now the 13^th richest person on the planet, with a net worth of around $50 billion.

Amazon was founded on July 5, 1994 as on online book store, but quickly expanded into other lines. The queen size bed frame that I assembled earlier this morning was delivered to us by Amazon. The company has a market capitalization of $841 billion, and founder Jeff Bezos is now the world’s richest man.

The message that this story should impart to you is that technology changes rapidly, so the decisions you make about technology today may be outdated in a few years, and the prime example of that is AOL.

America Online has its roots dating back to 1985, when it was part of a company called  PlayNET.  By 1995, AOL had 20 million active users. AOL was one of the early pioneers of the Internet in the mid-1990s, and the most recognized brand on the web in the United States. It originally provided a dial-up service to millions of Americans, as well as providing a web portal, e-mail, instant messaging and later a web browser following its purchase of Netscape. In 2001, at the height of its popularity, it purchased the media conglomerate Time Warner in the largest merger in U.S. history. AOL rapidly declined thereafter, partly due to the decline of dial-up and rise of broadband. AOL was eventually spun off from Time Warner in 2009, with Tim Armstrong appointed the new CEO. Under his leadership, the company invested in media brands and advertising technologies.

On June 23, 2015, AOL was acquired by Verizon Communications for $4.4 billion. In the following months, AOL also made a deal with Microsoft.

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

I don’t know ANYONE who still has an AOL account, but if you are pining for “the good old days”, this clip will bring back some memories for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFBLiHpkcOk