Wake up and smell the coffee!

I've just read a story about another meaningless study performed by some American university. This one focuses on the realization that teen boys and girls spend less time reading on school nights if they are playing video games. Do ya think?

We really must have some slow news days because if it isn't the mundane and obvious being reported it's something new about Britney. All of the cool science stuff gets pushed to the back burner and we can only take so much U.S. politics. I mean how long do presidential campaigns have to run anyway?

The enlightened among us know that the media's job is to keep us off balance and in a constant state of fear, so why do they slip up sometimes? If there is that much room, let's get to the 911 conspiracy theory, the Federal Reserve Bank control of the U.S. economy, the privatization of the U.S. government and let's not forget the profit taking by suppliers in the Iraq war. Let's keep the poking and prodding in the Afghan mountains alive forever and hope that the losses of U.S. personal freedoms don't make it up here to Canada.

Do Americans even care that high ranking officials in the U.S. administration have managed to retain and profit extensively from their financial holdings in firms deeply entrenched in the Iraq war. I am stunned. Wars have been started, and many brave soldiers lost, for the sake of profit.

I'd like to know when the American public is going to stand up and take issue with the fact that their government is supposed to represent their wishes. You don't elect a leader and then sit back and trust that he or she will do the right thing. Take the stand that government is corrupt going in and it is your duty to be vigilant and hold your elected officials accountable. Government by the people, for the people...

This is not to say that Canadian politics is free from corruption, but you can be assured that Canadians remain some of the most skeptical folks on the planet and our officials don't get away with much. The most powerful country in the world; however, certainly has a lot to answer for, and so does its citizens.

Life on the Edge

A few thoughts regarding a notion that is always with me but taken for granted by so many others. We put an inordinate amount of time into trying to save the ozone, identifying initiatives to counter global warming and being concerned about retarding the extinction of various animal species around the world. All of this presumes that it is somehow our responsibility, arrogance tells us so, to achieve these lofty goals.

In reality, we haven't got a hope. The world alone has spun on its axis for some five billion years. Species have come and gone, continents have shifted, islands and mountain ranges have appeared and disappeared. When an ice storm or hurricane strikes we shake our heads and still imagine we can divert its immense power next year. That is pure folly. Nature is the most powerful force that exists and it is by sheer coincidence, and chance that we are even here today... to think about this.

When you stand back and truly look at where and when you are, you can get a different appreciation for what is going on. Industrialized mankind has only been around for a few hundred years. Feudal and barbaric man for a thousand or two and ancient civilizations for thousands more. Man as a species for tens of thousands. Remember that five billion number?

Our memory on this earth may be but a spec in another ten thousand years. Nature will take care of the scars we put on the earth, otherwise known a highways and skyscrapers. It will initiate new species, replenish the forests, and recycle the seas. It will rip the airplanes from the skies, destroy the missile silos, and corrode the tanks. And that can start anytime.

Why? Because we live on the edge, in a truly temperate zone. The only reason that man lives in our present form at all is because the earth's current temperature range, radiation levels, gravitational forces and so on, permit our kind of life to flourish, and that it has the time to evolve is also a gift of chance. Just as a few thousand years is insignificant compared to five billion, so too is a comfortable 70 degree Celsius temperature band compared to all that space could throw at us. The species that exist, man included, do so at the whim of nature.

At any time, as has likely happened in millennia gone by, a resistant strain of bacteria, or an extra half degree tilt of the earth's axis, or a near collision with a comet, could wipe out all known species in the blink of a celestial eye. And we think we can fix the environment and so much more. Please, be thankful that it only rained 1 inch and not 21, that you could vacation in the Caribbean, ski in Banff and not open your front door to a blast of cosmic radiation powerful enough to render the flesh from your bones.

We only live here and now because nature has not yet closed this window of opportunity. We are merely the leftovers!

Can a white lie get you your dream job

Should a little white lie on your resume catch you your ultimate job? Maybe so. If that lie got through and you hung onto the job because you performed up to the job description and your employer's expectations, was that so wrong? Absolutely... well I suppose... I guess so... maybe not?

I take offense with an article published in the Christian Science Monitor entitled 'Fibs Flow on Job Applications' relaying that recruiters routinely discard resumes containing perceived fibs regardless of the candidate's overall qualifications. If they find an error, on some previous job or salary that appears over inflated, wham, the resume is filed under 'G'.

Alright, for those of us who are honest when applying, more room in the job market. However, when I read my own resume, since I've been around quite a while and been on many interesting projects, even mine sounds 'out there'! Would my words fall on deaf ears too?

My roommate in university had many unique traits but his resume writing was one of the best. We were in computer science, and if he had even touched an, as yet unknown, computer, say during a tour, then he noted that he had 'operated an IBM xxxx mainframe' or some such thing. If he had seen some code of a new language, then he had 'experience with APL' or 'PL1' or the like. I never agreed with the practice but he happens to be a successful lawyer today. Hmmm.

On a side note, if applicants are not to fib, then maybe the major job boards should scrutinize their job postings as well. Job descriptions from some HR folks are inflated to put out a net for the super-applicant. Anyone actually working to one of those job descriptions would be a paper pushing, bag of frustration, bent on suicide. Worse, many recruitment firms apparently cast their own net by posting jobs that do not exist, only to attract an inventory of candidate resumes. Then there are the postings that leave out that pertinent piece of information, like if there is a base salary (for a sales job), or an approximate office location.

I respect that recruiters and employers may have to scan up to hundreds of resumes a day, but the industry should keep in mind that job hunters, often emotionally distraught, must wade through hundreds of postings as well.

So if the job hunter occasionally or inadvertently embellishes a job history, at least give him or her a chance to be heard if the qualifications are sound.