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Double Cross, 1941, b&w. Albert H. Kelley (dir.), Kane Richmond, Pauline Moore, Wynne Gibson, John Miljan. 1:02.
One of those hour-long programmers that keeps right on moving. This time, a cop's gotten friendly with a hard-edged woman who co-owns (?) a nightclub/gambling hall. He's visiting her when he should be on duty. When the cops raid the joint, she manages to grab his gun, shoot another cop, and shove the gun into his hands as the cops shoot him. That's just one double-cross in a movie that has its share.
The bulk of the plot involves another cop (friend of the first one), his fiancée (who takes photos at the club), his father (a police captain who's about to be named commissioner), some semi-undercover work, the backer of the club who sees to it that it keeps reopening (big surprise here), and a surprisingly effective movie. Nothing really special, but this one works. Given the length, I'll give it $1.
Ellis Island, 1936, b&w. Phil Rosen (dir.), Donald Cook, Peggy Shannon, Jack La Rue, Joyce Compton, Bradley Page, Johnny Arthur, George Rosener. 1:07.
This oddity is really a semi-slapstick comedy about a park ranger who cheats on his long-time fiancée, gets caught at it, wants his buddy ranger to bail him out by lying (saying it was the buddy's cousin and the ranger was just meeting her at the train as a favor)…and eventually Gets the Girl. Which is a little sad, actually.
The movie's "mystery" plot is about a ten-year-old bank robbery (one that suggests Federal Reserve guards are worthless) that yielded $1 million, with the trio of robbers—all immigrants—captured and put away for ten years. Now they're out and being deported (through Ellis Island, where part of the action takes place), with a deportation process that seems to assume nobody's ever going to put up a fuss or try to escape. Various shenanigans happen, with hoodlums trying to find out where the money's hidden, a phony Treasury agent also trying to find the money, the niece of one of the bandits involved, and a moderately clever twist.
Not great, not terrible, but an unsettled blend of semi-mystery, romantic comedy, slapstick comedy and more (there's a stereotypic farmer-with-shotgun, the "get offa' my land, you chicken thieves!" type). It does not help that the cheating boyfriend is an incredibly annoying character. I can't really give it more than $0.75.
Exile Express, 1939, b&w. Otis Garrett (dir.), Anna Sten, Alan Marshal, Jerome Cowan, Walter Catlett. 1:11 [1:09]
Another one that's part slapstick, part murder mystery (with a spy story and an evil chemical formula thrown in), part romance. And partly seems as though they're making it up as they go along.
The plot: A beautiful Ukrainian immigrant is a chemist's assistant, on the eve of getting her citizenship. She's being courted by a handsome young rogue she doesn't really love. The chemist has combined a number of specific pesticides to create a super-pesticide that's sort of a permanent Round-Up: It not only kills all the pests and all the crops, it makes the land useless for years to come. He plans to turn it over to the Feds…and when a spy shoots him, he manages to spill acid on the formula before he dies. (The assistant, having been approached by a spy from her homeland, calls him and warns him—and as he's about to put the formula in his safe, he gets shot.)
The cops assume that the woman had something to do with it and send her off for deportation after she's acquitted (I guess—it's just a bunch of headlines). Since she's in San Francisco and you can only deport people from Ellis Island, she's put on the "exile express," a four-day train ride, along with a tax evader/big-shot criminal who's happy enough to be going home. And a dashing young reporter who's looking for some story, although it's not quite clear what. Oh, there's also a bedraggled Bolshevik; after anybody talks to him, they start scratching themselves.
Anyhoo…the young rogue sees to it that she escapes from the train with the story that she'll get married to some American chump, go across the border to Canada, then come back as the wife of a citizen—but, of course, the young rogue's really the spy's boss. Without going into the rest of the plot, let's just say that she winds up happily (I guess) married to the reporter.
All a little helter-skelter. OK, it's a mess. The print's mixed, but the sound's worse: It fades in and out, possibly due to some automatic attempt to reduce background noise (it's dead silent except when there's dialog or sound effects, at which point there's lots of background noise—and sometimes the fade-in misses a line of dialog). I suspect this kind of mixed-genre short movie was enormously popular at one point, but it's hard to make work well. $0.75.
Hollywood Stadium Mystery, 1938, b&w. David Howard (dir.), Neil Hamilton, Evelyn Venable, Jimmy Wallington, Barbara Pepper, Lucien Littlefield, Lynne Roberts, Smiley Burnette.
Based on the description, I was expecting another variation on the "Who in this big crowd pulled the trigger?" theme—but this nonstop flick isn't quite that. There's a murder in the first two minutes, but that's not the crime. We have a beautiful female mystery writer and a handsome male DA who meet cute, are immediately antagonistic to one another, and of course are going to wind up married by the end of the movie. We have a couple of actual murders—one of them the challenger to a boxing title, murdered in a way that involves an odd scent. We have a comedian playing himself, doing a little act to distract people being held for questioning. We have a murderer who seems like an unlikely candidate. There's humor, some misdirection, and generally almost too much plot for a short film. All in all, fun and well done. Based on the sleeve's "66 minute" timing, the movie's missing 13 minutes. In any case, I'll give it $1.00.


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Karina is ever Hightide with me & a subject most remarkable to anyone.
Some Good, Clean Fun!
Some Good, Clean Fun!
It's time for some good, clean fun with Karina, who strips out of her bikini and steps into a luxurious bath tub. The sight of Karina's boobs hanging onto the ledge of the tub is one we'll never get tired of, and we love the way the bath water frames Karina's big, beautiful butt. She makes good use of that big, pink dildo, too, and if you haven't noticed, the girl likes 'em big. We asked Karina if she's a wild girl, and she said, "I guess some people might say I am, but I don't think so. I mean, I have always enjoyed sex since the first time I had it, and I think about it a lot, but I do not jump into bed with every man I see. I guess I am wild compared to many other girls because how many girls take off their clothes and masturbate in front of the camera?" Karina does, and we're grateful for that.

subset: commoncrawl


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Charles "Charlie" Leroy Hammes
Cambridge – Charles"Charlie" Leroy Hammes, age 89, passed away of natural causes on January 3, 2013 at Our House Senior Living assisted living facility in Cambridge, Wisconsin.
Charlie was born in Cambridge on July 24, 1923 to Frank and Mabel (Johnson) Hammes. His childhood was turned upside down when at age 5 his father died in a train accident while delivering ice in London, Wisconsin. Throughout his school years, Charlie worked many jobs to help his mother and siblings. He also found joy in playing sports that would last his lifetime. He graduated from Cambridge High School in 1941 where he was an exceptional athlete. In 1941, Charlie was named Southern Wisconsin's highest scoring high school basketball player in addition to securing the individual scoring title for the Madison Suburban League. Charlie and his lifelong friend Don Rumpf led Cambridge to win the 1941 district basketball championship trophy. Charlie was also a stand out football player who helped his beloved coach and mentor, Jim Knoblauch, and teammates win numerous conference football championships.
Charlie married Louise Elizabeth Johnson, the love of his life, on June 19, 1956, and became a stepfather to teenager Robert Johnson. In 1964, Charlie and Betty added to their family by adopting Ross Wayne Hammes.
Charlie enlisted in the Army Air Corps on June 18, 1942. Thirty two years later on January 1, 1975, he retired from the Air Force with the rank of Senior Master Sergeant. Charlie's military career started as a ball turret gunner on a B-24 Liberator in the Western Pacific Campaign during World War II and ended following his love of sports as an athletic director. His military career took him to Japan, Morocco, the Philippines, Phu Cat Viet Nam and many U.S. bases. Betty accompanied him on many of his postings, volunteered in Family Services and received accolades for her compassionate work with families. Charlie was a natural diplomat and enjoyed getting to know and work with people from many cultures and walks of life. He played on and coached many winning and championship Air Force basketball, football and volleyball teams and excelled at running athletic tournaments. Charlie received numerous commendations for the outstanding work he and his staff provided in recreational programs and special services. After retiring from active duty, Charlie worked another 17 years as an Athletic Director for the U.S. government in New Mexico and California.
After returning from Viet Nam, Charlie and Betty lived primarily in Davis, CA. He was well known and loved in his neighborhood and could be seen walking 2-3 miles a night after supper up until a few years before his death. He took great pride in assisting Betty in growing beautiful roses. He loved to travel in his Lincoln Town Car and visit friends and family in Oregon, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. He and Betty especially loved getting together with their dear Air Force friends in an annual trip to La Vegas.
Charlie was full of good humor and a kind and generous person. Charlie often said it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown. He smiled and laughed often and had a gift for coaxing a smile or laugh from everyone he met. He gave generously of his time and talents and was a mentor to countless people.
In 2011, stepson Bob and nephew Oren helped Charlie move back to his hometown of Cambridge where he continued to be immensely popular with family and friends and enjoyed making new friends.
Charlie was preceded in death by his parents; wife Betty; son Ross; brothers Oren, Clifford, Oliver, and Douglas Hammes; sisters Frances L. Hammes, Elizabeth Hartman, and Frances G. Christianson; nephews Stanley and Kenneth Hartman; niece Elyse Ann Hundley; brothers-in-laws Jim and Owen Garner; and sisters-in-law Ida Mae Johnson and Lillie Hammes.
He is survived by stepson Bob (Joan) Johnson; nephews Oren (Patty) Hammes and Michael Christensen; sisters-in law Gretel Hammes of Kusel Germany and Kathryn Wathen of Lawton Oklahoma; grandsons Michael and Craig Johnson; great grandsons Corbin and Zane; nieces Donna Fitzwilliams, Charlene Graphman, and Sylvia Hall; and many other loving family members and friends.
The family extends a deep heartfelt thank you to Our House Senior Living staff for the excellent compassionate care Charlie received and to the Cambridge Emergency Medical Services EMTs and staff of the VA Hospital in Madison.
A memorial service will be held on Friday, January 18, 2013 at OUR HOUSE SENIOR LIVING, 201 W. Madison Street in Cambridge at 3:00 pm with Reverend Jerry Amstutz officiating. A visitation will be held on Friday at Our House Senior Living from 2:00 pm until the time of services.
Charlie will be interred at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery outside of Dixon CA where he will receive full military honors.
Those wishing to express their sympathy through a memorial may consider contributing to Cambridge Volunteer EMS, 271 W. Main Street, P.O. 272, Cambridge WI 53523 or Our House Senior Living, 201 W. Madison Street, Cambridge, WI 53523.
Cress Funeral & Cremation Services
1310 Emerald Terrace
(608) 837-9054
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I held onto these Meatloaf sized handmade Poison jackets (that I imagined once belonged to the toughest, brutest Bret Micheal fan girls ever) for as long as reasonable. But, as we purge for our baby's arrival, they were donated to Beacons Closet but not before I took copious photos to share with you all, of course. Let these images inspire you to make your own homemade fan wear. It's an art we tend to abandon after adolescence, but it would be kind of awesome to see thirty-somethings on the train wearing studded and puff painted This American Life or Chris Ware jean jackets.
Do you still have any hand made clothing or accessories? Please share in the comments!
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Control system failure survival strategies
When bad things happen to good control systems, it's best to know in advance which of several strategies will be used, why, and how.
What happens when control systems fail? It is not so much the response, but the response planning that is crucial to failure situations. Like all other fields of engineering, control systems require careful planning and design to deal with every foreseeable situation, including failures, whenever feasible. No technology is perfect, so possible failure types must be identified and strategies developed for the handling of each one of significance. This is not to say that an engineered approach is required every time, but factors such as how the system is monitored, alarm system capabilities, availability of operators, process uptime requirements, probability of occurrence, possible consequences, and process safety, just to name a few, must always be considered.
Why? Control system robustness and reliability have come a long way in the last 30 years. The automated control system is now considered to be a vital part of the infrastructure that helps ensure the smooth running of plants, pumping stations, utilities, and processing facilities. In all but the most specialized and small scale processes, the days of operators routinely turning valves, starting and stopping pumps by hand, and monitoring mechanical gauges are over. Low-level tasks are now typically handled by automated control systems.
Certain approaches are commonly used to deal with control system failures.
1. Manual operator shutdown: Perhaps the simplest response to a control system failure is to have an operator (staff person) shut down the process manually. In some systems where there are no significant safety concerns, operators are always available, and there is a way the operator can easily notice a problem, an operator-initiated approach is sometimes used. If using a manual shutdown approach, careful consideration has to be given to how the operator would notice a failure and what the consequences would be if there was a time delay before the operator was able to shut down the process. For facilities without personnel and/or plants with limited alarm system capability, this approach can be difficult to use effectively.
2. Emergency stop: In many jurisdictions, processes must have emergency stop and/or process stop buttons installed. In the case of a control system failure, these can provide an easier method for an operator to quickly shut down a process. The downside is that these types of buttons typically initiate hard shutdowns, which may not always be the best response for certain types of control system failure. For example, in some water pumping applications having an operator start an auxiliary pump is preferable to an operator-initiated shutdown. Like the previously mentioned manual shutdown method, the manually initiated emergency/process stop approach also depends on the operator noticing the problem and being able to react to it in a timely manner.
3. Automatic to manual: Another option is to have an operator switch the process equipment from automatic to manual mode and then continue to run the process in manual mode. Depending on process design, this may or may not be possible. While this approach may seem attractive for a process uptime perspective, simply running a process manually without the aid of the automated control system should only be considered with great caution. The process must be simple enough that an operator can run it manually without become overwhelmed, and the operator must be able to deal with any process upsets without the aid of the now-disabled control system. Furthermore, any potential safety risks must be carefully identified, evaluated, and managed. Likewise, any potential impacts on the alarm system and/or reduced data logging capability also must be carefully considered before attempting to run a process manually. For some processes, the approach of having an operator run them in manual mode might not be acceptable due to the potential risk involved.
4. Safety system shutdown: In processes that warrant automated independent safety systems, the safety system is another way that control system failures can be handled. For processes that use them, the safety system is typically designed to generate a hard shutdown. Safety systems can range from simple emergency stop circuits to highly redundant ISA84-style SIS (safety-instrumented-systems) that use multiple automatic shutdown techniques. The caveat with relying on the safety system to handle a control system failure is that the process often has to get out of control for the safety system to be activated. It is also a reactive approach rather than a proactive method of dealing with control system failures. The end result of a safety system being activated is almost always a hard shutdown, which has obvious impacts on process uptime.
The approaches above react to the results of a control system failure, rather than the control system failures themselves.
5. Redundancy: An alternate method to dealing with control system failures is to make the control system less prone to failures by using redundancy. Redundant components such as backup power supplies, multiple processors, fault-tolerant I/O cards, dual-trunked networks, and backup instrumentation, along with automatic fail-over logic, can significantly reduce the chance of control system failure. By handling failures with built-in redundancy in the primary control system, costly hard shutdowns can often be avoided. This approach does come with a cost since implementing redundancy into a control system can often be an expensive undertaking. Implementation challenges may exist in some primary control systems to provide for bumpless transfer among redundant system components.
6. Secondary redundancy: When having a fully redundant primary control system is not feasible, a slightly different approach is to have a secondary control system as a backup. Use of secondary control systems can be particularly well suited for applications where the cost of a fully redundant primary control system is prohibitive. A secondary control system is typically designed to "take over" the process in one or both of the following situations: (a) when a process value (such as a tank level) exceeds a value that the normal control system would prevent it from reaching, or (b) when a system health signal from the primary control system indicates that the secondary system needs to take over. Secondary control systems often have their own sensors, which have the benefit of being unaffected by instrumentation failures in the primary control system.
A secondary control system can also be triggered by a wired "failsafe," often an electrical signal, that indicates a failure in the primary control system. For example, a sewage pumping station with a sewage holding tank could use a PLC with a level transmitter for its primary control system, and a set of float switches with electric relay logic as its backup control system.
If the PLC or level transmitter fails, the float switches and relays would then take over control of the pumps. In many systems, a well-implemented secondary control system can result in significant uptime improvement at an attractive price-point. However, implementing secondary backup control systems can present challenges when designing how output devices, such as pumps and valves, are to smoothly transition from primary to secondary control when required. Being able to transition output devices and final control elements in an automated fashion requires careful planning and system integration.
Choose among options
In general, when a control system failure occurs, it is usually preferable to rely on control system redundancy and/or backup control systems. When no redundancy and/or backup control systems are used, control system problems typically result in shutdowns. Furthermore, the response of having an operator continue to run the processes in manual mode is not always an option due to staffing levels and potential safety concerns. Systems that can auto-recover from minor control system problems are almost always preferable to ones that require operator intervention each time a problem is encountered.
Effective plant design requires a diverse team of professionals and a multifaceted approach. Starting with knowledge of the process itself, the design team must consider the individual characteristics of the process and control system characteristics. Control system failures are a possibility that we all have to be aware of—the key is to make sure that when they happen, there is a solid plan and strategy in place on how to deal with them.
– Graham Nasby, P.Eng., PMP, engineer, Eramosa Engineering Inc., Guelph, Ontario, Canada, is among Control Engineering Leaders Under 40, Class of 2011. Posted by Chris Vavra, Control Engineering, www.controleng.com
Nasby, a licensed professional engineer, has worked in various industries ranging from IT and software development to pharmaceuticals and semiconductor manufacturing. He designs automated control and monitoring systems for the municipal water/wastewater sector at Eramosa Engineering Inc. Graham is also a contributing member of the ISA18, ISA101, and CSC/IEC TC65 standards committees.
Eramosa Engineering Inc, is a CSIA member as of 3/1/2015
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Stories in the Washington Post and U.S. News & World Report mean the Snuggie is big time. But when my friend Workhorse decided he wanted to have a Snuggie party, he ran into some issues:
Workhorse had an idea to order a bunch of Snuggies, invite people over and have everyone decorate them. The following is the IM chat we had regarding his phone call to the manufacturers of the Snuggie:
dodai: ok so what happened? you called the snuggie people?
workhorse: yes i called the snuggie people and after hitting 0 about 15 times to the recorded woman
workhorse: it prompted me to call another number!
workhorse: i waited on hold for 20 minutes.
workhorse: there was severe classical hold music playing
workhorse: a woman picks up and sneezes
dodai: oh dear
workhorse: i say, gosh are you sick?
workhorse: she says: it's really cold in here
workhorse: i say, do they give you all snuggies to wear
workhorse: she says: no.
dodai: HA
workhorse: so i ask what the snuggies are made out of, because i want to iron-on some iron ons on them…
dodai: haha
workhorse: and she says they're made of "thick luxurious fleece."
workhorse: and i say yeah, i know, but is it like, a poly cotton blend?
workhorse: she says: hold on. i'm on hold again. she comes back and says "it's thick luxrious fleece."
dodai: haha
workhorse: so then i say that i'm looking to buy about 50 snuggies 'cause i want to make the united states of snuggie, because there's not red snuggies and blue snuggies, there's the united states of snuggies
dodai: omg. what did she say?
workhorse: nothing. so i say that i know that it's $7.95 to ship each snuggie, and that the PO box is in connecticut and i was wondering if i could just drive to the snuggiefactory and pick 'em up and save whatever 50 times $7.95 is.
workhorse: she says: hold on.
workhorse: she comes back and says: no.
dodai: so wait. did you order snuggies or not?
workhorse: no! she also said the shipping time is like six fuckin weeks, so it'll be SPRING before we get the fuckin snuggies.
workhorse: we're gonna feel stupid and i'm gonna have like $1000 tied up in snuggies.
dodai: but what about the snuggie party??
workhorse: i got two on eBay.
Meanwhile, Richard from Gawker sent me the following message:
The Slanket is the original. I'm told.
New Prime-Time Ads Act Now! [Washington Post]
Snuggie Blanket Captures National Attention [U.S. News & World Report]
Earlier: A Blanket. With Sleeves.


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Google paid Apple $1 billion in 2014 for the right to be the default search provider on iOS devices, including iPhones and iPads, according to a report by Bloomberg Thursday.
"Is that a steal? Absolutely," said Will Stofega, an analyst with IDC, in an interview today. "Given as much as Apple has captured the high end of smartphones, [iOS users] are the people with more money." And so they're of great interest to any search provider whose revenue depends on ads, like Google.
The news service quoted a transcript of a Jan. 14 hearing in a four-year-old lawsuit in which Oracle accused Google of copyright infringement when it allegedly used Java to build Android.
During the hearing last week, an Oracle attorney spilled the beans about Google's payment to Apple. Although the transcript was available until mid-afternoon Thursday, Bloomberg said, it has since been scrubbed from the federal court system's document database.
The $1 billion was payment for using Google's search engine as the default in iOS, Apple's mobile operating system, the Oracle attorney claimed. She also told the court that "at one point in time the revenue share was 34%." It wasn't clear, Bloomberg noted, whether that share was the amount retained by Google or paid to Apple.
Both Google and Apple filed motions Wednesday asking the court to reconsider an earlier decision to not seal the transcript.
"This information is considered confidential and commercially sensitive," wrote Leslie Fithian, the senior director of the software products legal team, in Apple's Jan. 20 declaration of support for Google's motion to seal. "Apple does not disclose this information to the public. Moreover, Apple restricts knowledge of this information to only a subset of Apple employees on a need-to-know basis.
"If this information is disclosed ... third parties seeking to negotiate terms of a business relationship with Apple might leverage this information against Apple, thereby forcing Apple into an uneven bargaining position in future negotiations," Fithian added.
Apparently, the Google and Apple briefs were convincing, at least in the short term. Computerworld confirmed that the Jan. 14 hearing transcript has been removed from the court case's document list.
The billion dollars was likely only a portion of what Google paid Apple two years ago, said Jan Dawson, principal analyst at Jackdaw Research. "What exactly does that [$1 billion] represent? Is that an incentive fee or also the payment for additional royalties?" asked Dawson in an interview.
For Dawson, the $1 billion was the entry fee, but royalties paid to Apple on Google's search revenue -- perhaps the 34% mentioned by the Oracle lawyer last week -- added significant amounts to the total annual outlay.
"I think [the $1 billion] is not the only cost, but just the cost of getting into the door on iOS," Dawson continued. "It's likely the total was quite a bit more than that."
Google reports its audience acquisition costs, but does not break those down by vendor. The bulk of acquisition costs, Dawson said, were to browser makers -- to Mozilla, for example, until late 2014 -- and to Apple.
A billion dollars or more annually may be real money to people playing Powerball, but to Apple, it's just a small fraction of its money-making efforts, Dawson said. Even if it gets half a billion quarterly from Google, that's a pittance compared to Apple's total income.
In the last four quarters, for example, Apple's revenue averaged $58.4 billion in each. Half a billion would represent less than 1% of each quarter's take.
"In the grand scheme of Apple's revenue, half a billion each quarter is not exactly moving the needle," said Dawson. "But Apple would like to keep it. It's not nothing."
Apple includes payments like Google's in its "Services" reporting line, which for the September 2015 quarter reported $5.1 billion in revenue. "Apple's never given any kind of indication what proportion of [Services] revenue the Google payments may represent," Dawson added.
As Apple's Fithian noted in her filing with the federal court, the Cupertino, Calif. company would very much like to keep it that way.
Other search providers, notably Microsoft (with Bing) and Yahoo, were probably pleased at the disclosure: It gave them an idea of how much it would cost, at a minimum, to convince Apple to replace Google on iOS with their search engines.
Neither Stofega or Dawson thought it likely that Apple would, assuming contracts allow, drop Google as iOS's default search for Yahoo or Microsoft. "At the end of the day, Apple does want to do right by its users," said Stofega. "Therein lies the rub."
His point: Google was both the popular and technological leader in search, and Apple would be unlikely to foreswear its engine for another -- risking user dissatisfaction -- simply because a Google competitor threw more dollars at Cook and company.
"Apple could switch, but at the end of the day Google has proven itself to be the leader in search," Stofega concluded.
Dawson, who two years ago discounted speculation that Apple might switch the default search engine in iOS's Safari browser, agreed.
"Apple's not purely coin-operated on this," Dawson said. "It's not who is the highest bidder. Apple's not going to let some unknown search engine come in here. They want to make sure that it's a good deal for [iOS] users."
A federal court hearing on revisiting the transcript sealing is slated for Feb. 25, when lawyers for Oracle, Google and perhaps even Apple will make oral arguments.


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What makes a great book for kids? I'd say it's a book that makes them want to read more, a book that makes them smile or wonder, a book that makes them think about it after they close the page. It's a book that inspires kids to create their own stories and feel the power of their own words. Neon Aliens Ate My Homework is a collection of poems from comedian, musician and actor Nick Cannon that did just that.
Neon Aliens Ate My Homework and Other Poems
by Nick Cannon
illustrated by Nick Cannon, Art Mobb, and more
Scholastic, 2015
Your local library
ages 6-9
*best new book*
Cannon shares a collection of poems that range from giggle-inducing to gross, thought-provoking to full of bravado, and this variety was very appealing to my students. They loved how one minute they were laughing about neon aliens eating up Nick's backpack to the next minute thinking about how they can believe in themselves and stand up to bullies who spread hatred.
Throughout, Cannon shows kids the power of words -- the words they read, and the words they write or say themselves. He starts by honoring Shel Silverstein, still a favorite among my students. This lets us talk about the power of books, both their staying power (their kids might read these same books!) but also the escape that they can provide during difficult times.
|"He changed my life with just his words.
The utmost respect is what he deserves.
He made me smile in my tough times,
He encouraged me to live life through my rhymes."
|"She can multitask with lightning-fast hands,
And the brightest of lights shines wherever she stands.
She goes to work in the morning, conquers school at night.
She can read minds and knows how to break up a fight."
©2015 Mary Ann Scheuer, Great Kid Books


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A game developer's catalog recently disappeared from Steam after the company decided to sue 100 Steam users who were leaving negative reviews.
Digital Homicide co-founder James Romine, the game developer in question, is seeking damages of $18 million from the commenters for a variety of claims, including harassment, stalking, criminal damage, and criminal impersonation, according to a copy of the complaint posted to Scribd by Kotaku.
Steam owner Valve confirmed to Motherboard that it had removed Digital Homicide's games from the platform for "being hostile to Steam customers." Valve stopped short of mentioning the lawsuit as its reason for dumping Digital Homicide. Digital Homicide's titles include Starship: Nova Strike, Krog Wars, and Wyatt Derp.
For its part, Digital Homicide said it was being treated unfairly. Responding to Valve's comments on its website, the company said Valve had failed to properly moderate Steam comments, the result of which meant that Steam users were "making personal attacks, harassment…on not only us but on other Steam customers who were actually interested in our products."
Digital Homicide's response includes some of the comments it found objectionable. As you might expect from anything related to the Internet, these included comments with threats of murder, entreaties to commit suicide, and personal attacks.
Digital Homicide is now seeking counsel to take legal action against Steam in addition to the 100 Steam users.
Why this matters: With all the games now off Steam it's not clear how many of the comments from the defendants included hateful or violent speech. Nevertheless, Digital Homicide does have a point that comments such as "I want to murder everyone responsible for this [game]" should not be tolerated on Steam or anywhere else online. There are no heroes in this situation.
Bad apples everywhere
True, the game developer does not have the best reputation. Many critics and users say the company produces endless amounts of shovelware that flood Greenlight—Steam's crowdsourced catalog curation system. In 2015, the company was accused of a shady tactic of using different developer names for its various games, as reported by MMO Fallout. Ostensibly, the company did this in order to avoid too many bad user reviews tainting its name.
This is not the only lawsuit Digital Homicide has going, either.
Romine is also suing game critic Jim Sterling, after filing since-overturned DMCA claims in order to have Sterling's video evaluations of Digital Homicide games taken down. In that case, Romine says Sterling has made false claims and that the critic's viewers have also left nasty and harassing comments on Digital Homicide's game forum pages, according to Romine's GoFundMe project page. Romine says the harassment has also gone offline. In one case, Romine says he received "a pile of feces in the mail."
Despite all that, however, threats against the company and the people behind it are not deserved. At the same time, a lawsuit attacking the very people you want as your customers isn't a productive strategy either. In fact, it's already had a negative result for Digital Homicide since its catalog is now absent from the most important retail platform for PC games.


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In Brief
The Challenge
Meetings are supposed to improve creativity and productivity—but they do the opposite when they're excessive, badly scheduled, poorly run, or all three. These problems take a toll on the whole organization, and they require systemic fixes.
The Solution
Groups must first figure out what kind of time their meetings tend to waste—group, individual, or both. They can then follow a five-step process for change: (1) collect impressions from each member; (2) interpret those together; (3) choose a group goal for improving meetings that feels personally relevant and motivating; (4) measure progress; and (5) regularly check in to make sure people don't revert to old patterns.
Poking fun at meetings is the stuff of Dilbert cartoons—we can all joke about how soul-sucking and painful they are. But that pain has real consequences for teams and organizations. In our interviews with hundreds of executives, in fields ranging from high tech and retail to pharmaceuticals and consulting, many said they felt overwhelmed by their meetings—whether formal or informal, traditional or agile, face-to-face or electronically mediated. One said, "I cannot get my head above water to breathe during the week." Another described stabbing her leg with a pencil to stop from screaming during a particularly torturous staff meeting. Such complaints are supported by research showing that meetings have increased in length and frequency over the past 50 years, to the point where executives spend an average of nearly 23 hours a week in them, up from less than 10 hours in the 1960s. And that doesn't even include all the impromptu gatherings that don't make it onto the schedule.
Much has been written about this problem, but the solutions posed are usually discrete: Establish a clear agenda, hold your meeting standing up, delegate someone to attend in your place, and so on. We've observed in our research and consulting that real improvement requires systemic change, because meetings affect how people collaborate and how they get their own work done.
Further Reading
Yet change of such scope is rarely considered. When we probed into why people put up with the strain that meetings place on their time and sanity, we found something surprising: Those who resent and dread meetings the most also defend them as a "necessary evil"—sometimes with great passion. Consider this excerpt from the corporate blog of a senior executive in the pharmaceutical industry:
I believe that our abundance of meetings at our company is the Cultural Tax we pay for the inclusive, learning environment that we want to foster…and I'm ok with that. If the alternative to more meetings is more autocratic decision-making, less input from all levels throughout the organization, and fewer opportunities to ensure alignment and communication by personal interaction, then give me more meetings any time!
To be sure, meetings are essential for enabling collaboration, creativity, and innovation. They often foster relationships and ensure proper information exchange. They provide real benefits. But why would anyone argue in defense of excessive meetings, especially when no one likes them much?
Because executives want to be good soldiers. When they sacrifice their own time and well-being for meetings, they assume they're doing what's best for the business—and they don't see the costs to the organization. They overlook the collective toll on productivity, focus, and engagement.
For one thing, time is zero-sum. Every minute spent in a wasteful meeting eats into time for solo work that's equally essential for creativity and efficiency. For another, schedules riddled with meetings interrupt "deep work"—a term that the Georgetown computer science professor Cal Newport uses to describe the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. (In a recent study, managers across the board in the United States and China told us that this happens "far too often!") As a consequence, people tend to come to work early, stay late, or use weekends for quiet time to concentrate.
Another issue is the stiff price companies pay for badly run meetings. For example, Simone Kauffeld, of Technische Universität Braunschweig, and Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock, of the University of Amsterdam, found in a study of 20 organizations from the automotive supply, metal, electrical, chemical, and packaging industries that dysfunctional meeting behaviors (including wandering off topic, complaining, and criticizing) were associated with lower levels of market share, innovation, and employment stability.
Happiness at work takes a hit too. A study by Steven Rogelberg, of the University of North Carolina, and colleagues showed that how workers feel about the effectiveness of meetings correlates with their general satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their jobs, even after controlling for personality traits and environmental factors such as work design, supervision, and pay. Instead of improving communication and collaboration, as intended, bad meetings undermine those things. Consider the executive who stabbed her leg with a pencil. Did that staff meeting advance teamwork or set it back? A few positive experiences a week cannot make up for a lot of excruciating, wasteful ones.
The good news is, we've found that changing the way your team and your organization approach meetings is possible. In this article we describe a five-step process for that—along with the diagnostic work you'll need to do in advance. Often the results can be dramatic and extend far beyond the conference room. At a financial and regulatory consultancy we studied, for example, three months after managers began to rethink the firm's approach to meetings, a survey showed that employees perceived significant improvements in team collaboration (a 42% increase), psychological safety to speak up and express opinions (a 32% increase), and team performance (a 28% increase). Other aspects of organizational life improved as well, and respondents' ratings of satisfaction with work/life balance rose from 62% to 92%.
We have seen how much organizations can benefit when they focus their energy on transforming meetings instead of just tolerating them. Here's how to identify and address the meeting problems your group may face.
How Is Your Group Vulnerable?
Problems ensue when meetings are scheduled and run without regard to their impact on both group and solo work time. Often groups end up sacrificing collective or individual needs—or both—by default. Balancing those needs effectively is ideal, but few organizations do that. In a recent survey we conducted with nearly 200 senior executives from diverse industries, only 17% reported that their meetings are generally productive uses of group and individual time. Other respondents said their meetings fall into one of these categories:
Wasters of group time.
Some organizations have relatively few meetings but run them poorly. As a result, individuals have sufficient time for solo tasks and deep thinking, but group productivity and collaboration are weakened because each meeting is inefficient. About 16% of the executives in our sample said this is true where they work.
A team at a global e-commerce company we studied had just one or two meetings a week, but they still felt like a waste of group time for several reasons. First, hours and locations often changed at the last minute, so many people arrived unprepared or didn't come at all. Second, the agenda was often vague or redundant with side conversations that had already occurred, so the meetings felt like a rubber-stamping of decisions made elsewhere. Third, when new issues were raised, next steps were usually left unclear, leading to more sidebar conversations outside the room. One software developer told us that he kept showing up for the meetings even though he rarely got anything out of them, because his attendance was expected by his manager and everyone else. As a workaround, he covertly did his own tasks during meeting time. While this may seem like a harmless way to maintain individual productivity in the short term, it causes group productivity and camaraderie to deteriorate over the long term. When people don't contribute to the discussion or pay attention to what's being said, the team fails to reap the full benefits of convening, and the meeting wastes everyone's time.
Wasters of individual time.
Sometimes meetings are relatively high in quality and therefore technically a good use of group time—but individuals' time dissipates because the sheer quantity of meetings crowds out solo work, and poor scheduling disrupts critical deep thinking. In our survey of executives, 13% said that their organizations struggle with this particular problem.
Here's an example of how it plays out: One private equity firm we examined had a rigorous protocol for running effective meetings. For each session, prework was sent out with adequate notice, clear goals were established, and meeting time was managed against an agenda. Group updates and decisions were consequently handled efficiently. However, as the firm grew over time, more and more meetings were added to the weekly calendar. Although they were well run, their sheer volume interrupted work flow and took away time that the investment staff could dedicate to critical individual tasks, such as sourcing new opportunities and deepening relationships with managers at companies the firm owned or sought to own. As this firm's experience demonstrates, excessive meetings force people to make trade-offs concerning how and when to accomplish their solo work. Sometimes tasks get dropped or shortchanged. But more often people steal from their personal time to get that work done, a sacrifice that research and practice have shown can lead to burnout and turnover—steep prices for both employees and organizations.
Wasters of both individual and group time.
Many organizations we have worked with endure the triple whammy of meetings that are (1) too frequent, (2) poorly timed, and (3) badly run, leading to losses in productivity, collaboration, and well-being for both groups and individuals. This is the worst-case scenario—and, unfortunately, the most prevalent. The majority of our survey respondents—54%—put their meetings in this category.
How Are Meetings Affecting People in Your Organization?
One manager at a pharmaceutical company described finding herself in a one- to two-hour "market readiness" meeting every other week because the organizer really wanted her to attend, claiming that everyone's input was extraordinarily valuable. However, the group also typically sent out slide decks for the team to review in advance and then just walked through those decks during the meetings. As this manager asked herself and her team, "Why would you need to get one person from each subteam from every department into a room just to go over each slide individually when you've already sent us the entire deck?" Her team members commiserated, reporting that they each attended scores of similarly wasteful meetings that left them with little or no time for their "real work" throughout the day. In situations like this, group time is wasted and individual time is obliterated.
Striking the Right Balance
Unfortunately, individuals can't solve these problems on their own. Just think how many times you've tried to reduce the number of meetings on your calendar—probably with limited success. Because so many people are involved in scheduling and running the meetings we attend, it takes a collective effort to fix them.
However, with a structured approach to analyzing and changing meeting patterns throughout your team or unit, you can make significant improvements. We've seen groups escape the meeting trap by working together to follow five basic steps:
1. Collect data from each person.
To get a clearer view of how meetings are affecting your group, use surveys or interviews to gather data and impressions from every individual. That will help you gauge the full extent of the problem: You'll learn how much resentment is bubbling under the surface and how much work isn't getting done during the day.
2. Interpret the data together.
Next, it's critical to come together as a team or a unit to digest everyone's feedback and analyze what is working and what is not. This must be an open, nonjudgmental discussion of the survey or interview findings. Neutral facilitators can help keep the conversation constructive. However, delegating the data interpretation to an outside consultant—or even just a subset of the team—can undermine success. You'll need contributions and analysis from all team members to generate the widespread understanding and buy-in required for the remaining steps.
At the financial and regulatory consultancy we studied, for example, exploratory interviews revealed that meetings were chopping up calendars so badly that very few two- or three-hour blocks were left for deep-thinking work. Without enough quiet time to concentrate, the consultants felt that their creativity and productivity were being sapped. These disclosures served as a wake-up call for the managers who had been scheduling meetings without a full awareness of the impact they were having.
3. Agree on a collective, personally relevant goal.
We have found that personally benefiting from the group's initiative is a great motivator. For example, you might designate a certain amount of time each week for people to focus on independent work—whether in the office or at home. Giving them such flexibility and freedom can provide necessary relief in their schedules, along with an incentive to make the arrangement work. Declaring "meeting free" periods also forces the whole group to reevaluate meetings that were normally scheduled during those times and to ask who really needs to attend. As a result, we find, teams hold fewer meetings overall, and fewer people go to each one. The additional "white space" in everyone's calendar increases individual productivity and reduces the spillover into personal time.
Here's how this approach worked at a technology consultancy we examined: Members were based in the United States and India, so a handoff meeting was held each day—early in the morning for some and late at night for others to accommodate the 12.5-hour time difference. The long days were causing significant stress and fatigue on both sides: Early-morning calls were required, family dinners were missed, workdays were more than 12 hours long. Once the team had collected survey data from its members and realized the magnitude of the problem, it altered its approach: Each person was given one workday a week when he or she didn't have to participate in the handoff call.
In order to ensure the appropriate information exchange, team members had to find ways to cover for one another and keep everyone updated. Learning how to do that gave individuals the break they needed, but it also resulted in more shared knowledge and versatility in the group. Furthermore, people gained a deeper understanding of their colleagues' work, which led to better-integrated offerings for customers.
4. Set milestones and monitor progress.
As with any change effort, it is important that concrete and measurable progress be assessed and discussed along the way. Small, tangible wins provide something for people to celebrate, and small losses provide opportunities for learning and correction. Consider this example: At a global e-commerce company, a team of 30 employees spanning the United States and China told us that their weekly all-hands meetings were a pain point. Attendees were often on their phones or laptops. Because people were continually distracted, those who spoke had to repeat themselves frequently, making the time spent not only longer but also much less effective. To help address these problems, the team decided on a simple, tractable goal: Allow no outside technology at the meetings.
At first several vocal engineers and even the team leader were resistant, feeling that they should have the right to use their devices, especially when meetings became boring or turned to topics outside their purview. For a while after the initiative was launched, friendly reminders ("No tech, man!") were necessary. But over time the new norm took hold, and even the manager self-corrected when he instinctively started to check his phone. The team began to see the benefits of this experiment. Meetings became more productive, and people were more engaged. As one engineer said, "This no-tech rule is fantastic! Now that people are more focused on the meeting, it's more efficient." Another team member started bringing a notebook to jot down thoughts rather than playing games on her phone. This small victory opened the door to setting other new norms, such as preparing materials more thoroughly ahead of time, keeping meetings as brief as possible, and ultimately reworking meeting cadences to better fit the team members' schedules.
5. Regularly debrief as a group.
Finally, we have found that it is critical to regularly and openly take stock of how people feel about the meetings they attend and about their work process more generally. Frustration, resentment, and even hopelessness are signals that people are falling back into bad patterns. Moreover, changing protocols and behaviors takes time, and sustaining momentum requires consistent attention and contact.
At a pharmaceutical company we worked with, the global medical-affairs division established two regular "pulse checks" to monitor the progress of an experiment it was conducting with meeting-free days: one check within the subteam and one across the division. At the beginning of each pulse check, participants answered four questions: How are you feeling? How valuable are the ways in which you are spending your time? How well are you working as a team? Is this sustainable?
The answers to these questions triggered substantive discussions, rich in emotional, strategic, and tactical content. Early conversations focused specifically on the meeting problem, but over time they increasingly addressed how team members approached their work—and one another. One manager said, "I'm impressed with how these meetings have allowed people to open up, particularly with [the manager] listening….Pulse checks are really insightful—they give me a good dose of reality…and they surfaced issues that resulted in more cross-coverage, people development, and teamwork. It sounds crazy that this little experiment could create these sorts of results, but it has profound implications far beyond the initial goal."
We suggest brief weekly check-ins for a few months, until the new norms, processes, and attitudes are in place. After that, every other week should do it. Regardless of the frequency of pulse checks, people should have regular, structured forums in which to express their frustrations and surface problems as well as to improve how the team works together.
Further Reading
For all these steps, leadership support is critical—but it doesn't necessarily need to come from the C-suite. We have found that a group can change its approach to meetings as long as the team leader has the authority to encourage people to raise issues, take risks, make mistakes, and discover new ways of working together. This can happen even if the group is closely connected to other groups in the organization. For example, the global medical-affairs division's refusal to attend interdivisional meetings on meeting-free days was met first with consternation, then with curiosity, and ultimately with change throughout the organization as norms were shattered and new ways of working were modeled.
A Conduit for Change
As we have witnessed at multiple companies in a range of industries, altering something as basic as meetings can have far-reaching implications. One manager reflected, "We started communicating more openly and honestly, which enabled us to better help each other….We helped each other prioritize, we helped each other find access to other resources, and sometimes we reallocated tasks or simply helped each other do the work."
Meetings do not have to be a trap; they can be a conduit for change. A process like this one can improve productivity, communication, and integration of the team's work, not to mention job satisfaction and work/life balance. In the end, better meetings—and better work lives—result.