What to say to employers when you're looking for a job

I can think of no earthly reason why companies would refuse to even interview someone who currently has no job. Maybe they think that the currently unemployed are the dregs of the earth and that the collapsed economy was entirely their fault. If you can't tell already, I have no respect for HR personnel. ... especially those who have been unemployed themselves for any period of time. (And there are LOTS who fit in that category!) The HR person may make lame statements such as: "That's the direction we got from the boss and there is nothing we can do about it." My answer to that: "Total bullshit." YOU are the one tasked with filling the position with the best possible candidate. How do you know that the unemployed person you just rudely turned away was not the perfect fit for your company? You didn't even look at his resume."

I found this article on the InterTubes and thought it was a good answer for a bad situation. Try saying this the next time an HR person stuck in the Middle Ages asks you if you are currently employed:

"I'm not working now. But if you'll tell me what you want a new hire to accomplish in the first six weeks on this job, I'll outline right now how I'll do it for you. Of course, I welcome you to shape my approach. And if you hire me and I don't succeed in six weeks, then I'll quit. I'm willing to make a commitment to deliver the work you need to have done."
(from: Ask the Headhunter: The Right Way to Search for Jobs When Unemployed | The Business Desk with Paul Solman | PBS NewsHour | PBS:)

If the HR person STILL says, "I'm sorry but you don't meet our requirements", you can end the call by saying: "BULLSHIT".

Good Luck and Good Night
da penguin

The Power of the Ocean Powers Homes in Maine

First Tidal Power in U.S. Starts Flowing to the Grid

The ocean is a wonderful place, full of life! I'm happy to see that my home is able to help people, too.

An offshore turbine is finally spinning in the United States! It's not the kind you're imagining, but this is a milestone nonetheless: The Ocean Renewable Power Company announced that its TidGen tidal turbines have started providing power to a utility grid owned by Bangor Hydro Electric Company. This marks the first time that any offshore power generation facility has fed electricity back to a utility grid in the United States.

ORPC completed installation of one of its tidal power devices earlier this summer in Cobscook Bay, part of the bigger Bay of Fundy, off the Maine coast. The TidGen has a peak power output of 180 kilowatts, enough to power around 25 to 30 homes. The company plans on installing another two turbines in the same location in the fall of 2013, possibly scaling up after that to 5 megawatts of power. That would be enough to power around 1200 homes.

MAKE THE BANKS LEND MONEY AGAIN!

The Penguin's answer to the recession/depression woes? Make the banks (and other lending institutions) LEND MONEY!!

I'm extremely distressed that the money-holders (banks, etc.). They are the main reason we are all in trouble: we can't get credit. No one can lay their hands on money. We can't get houses, small businesses can't improve themselves, we can't buy new cars, we put off buying consumer products. It's difficult for new businesses to start up, and established businesses can't expand, so jobs are hard to find.

We are in a period of economic stagnation. Banks made some incredibly stupid mistakes and say they have been burned and are afraid to lend money, lest they get burned again. They forget that the situation was of their own making! The banks are loathe to lend money again until/unless they get free money or guarantees from the government! Banks created this huge, historical mess and no one has gone to jail over it. (Sarbanes-Oxely in not being enforced.) This ludicrous situation has created a new class of the population: The Entitled. They are "entitled" to their money and everyone else be damned. They are sitting on huge stockpiles of money. Did you know that CEOs of financial companies make greater than 300% more than their average employee?? That's more than any other industry, at any other time in history, in any country in the world.

Consider this scenario: Imagine that the H/VAC industry created and developed a new product that was going to revolutionize air conditioning. However, the CEOs and other principals within the industry knew there were huge problems with the new product. But they promoted and sold the hell out of it nonetheless. Everyone, everywhere bought the new product. The product was touted in everywhere, by everyone, and people clamored for it. H/VAC companies jumped for joy as untold amounts of money started flowing in.

But, the flaws in the product were exposed and they were bad - really bad. 

Lawsuits loomed large and the industry knew they had to pay the piper. H/VAC companies lost huge amounts of money and faced the enormous backlash from people who were duped. However, the companies would be able to write off a certain amount of their debt on their taxes. The industry knew that asking for a government to bailout would be unacceptable, so they did not ask for help. It was their mistake that created the problem, plain and simple, so why ask others to shoulder the blame? They took their chances and they lost. Yes, they made lots of money in the beginning, but they had to pay out when the problem couldn't be solved. There were congressional inquiries and new regulations imposed so this wouldn't happen again.

Yes, there are huge differences between the financial industries and air conditioning technologies, but didn't the lending institutions do the same thing (created a new product that was extremely flawed and they knew about it)? But, instead of having to pay for their mistakes, the banks have gotten away with murder. They are holding America hostage and no one (save for the Occupy Movement) is making a fuss about it.

If you look at any other period where the country experienced huge downturns in the economy (the Great Depression included), it was the ability for people to obtain credit that made the difference. Why isn't that happening now? There are any number of academic papers on the subject that bear me out, but no one is paying attention.

(See 

http://www.clevelandfed.org/research/workpaper/2012/wp1214.pdf) As much as I hate for the banks to get away with what they've done, the government needs to create incentives for banks to make the money flow again. I see no other solution. Not that I believe in trickle-down economics, but it's true that, when people have money, they spend money. And, when people spend money, businesses and the economy flourish.

This is what I learned in high school economics and it's a solid model:
* Joe's Schmoes is a company employing 10 people.
* The bank increases Joe Schmoes' line of credit so it can increase production on a product that is quite popular and selling well.
* Joe's Schmoes can afford to hire ten more person to help with the increase in production, due to the help from the bank.
* Adam is one of the new employee at Joe's Schmoes.
* With Adam's job, he and his wife can finally have the child they've wanted so long, but felt they couldn't afford it.
* With a steady income, Adam can buy the baby furniture he needs.
* With a steady income, Adam can trade in his old car and buy a new one.
* With a steady income, Adam can now buy more products at the local grocery store.
* With the increase in sales from the new employees at Joe's Schmoes, the grocery store can hire a new stock boy.
* With the increase in sales from the new employees at Joe's Schmoes, the local Wal-Mart (where Adam bought the baby furniture) can afford to hire a new employee.
* With the increase in the number of people living in Adam's town (due to the increase in employment opportunities that started with Joe's Schmoes), a number of apartments are rented that had been empty for almost a year.
* With the increase in the number of renters, more property owners are able to pay their mortgages and not go into foreclosure.
* With the increase in renters, the property owners can now afford to pay their property taxes.
* With the increase in property taxes, the town can fix the streets.
* The streets need to be fixed, so the town hires a local contractor to do the job.
* Since the contractor needs new hires, more people have jobs, which increases the amount of money flowing directly into local businesses.
* With the new money flowing, the banks are optimistic and approve loans for new businesses, business improvements/expansions, new homes, and car sales.
* ... and so on, and so on, and so on...

This is not just the American Dream, it is an economic certainty. Make The Banks Lend Again!!

NSA Doin' Some Crazy Ass Shit

NSA - Secret Program
I am not a crazy person. I am not standing on a street corner, yelling at passersby. I don't seek the spotlight. I do not believe in conspiracy theories. I don't believe in alien abductions and am not part of a crazy militia.

I am a patriot. I worked for the government and have kept it's secrets secret. But, there is an unspoken secret that I feel people need to understand. The NSA is building Timelines of us that is much more insidious than Facebook's Timeline. The NSA is actively spying on Americans who have done nothing wrong.

Their program, referred to by some as "Stellar Wind", is something that the KGB, STASI, and various dictators of the world would have loved to have had: a complete snapshot of everyone living in this country. You think your credit reports are examples of gross invasions of privacy? Don't like Google tracking your web browsing? Does Amazon's "recommendations" creep you out a bit? That's nothing.

NSA's program builds profiles of you, what you do, who you interact with, and draws in connections to everyone around you, creating profiles of building residents, neighborhood connections, and representations of entire communities, cities, and regi

ons. If your community was identified (for whatever reason) as "danger" to the government, by association you would be included in that profile. This type of collection of intelligence and the level of granularity has always been ILLEGAL in America - until now. I cannot stress how much like "Big Brother" our government is becoming, by allowing the NSA to collect and assemble this data.

I know you are saying to yourself that there is nothing secretive about you; that your life is an open book, that you've done nothing wrong. I say that to myself at times and it's a natural reaction. However, you need to ask the question from a different perspective. Ask WHY, if you've done nothing wrong, does the government/NSA NEED to have all this data about you? What do they hope to accomplish by keeping files on you?

Remember J. Edgar Hoover's infamous secret (FBI) files on people? Those files were used indiscriminately to badger people. Information in those files were used to destroy people; to tear their lives apart, even when the files were full of lies, mistruths, misconceptions, and downright common errors. If it was scary for a single person (J. Edgar) to have such files and to wield such power, then WHY IS IT OK for the NSA to keep even more detailed files on people who have done nothing?

I know if I continue this diatribe too much longer, you will stop reading this. (Hurray if you've already gotten this far and Thank You!) The "legalities" of the NSA's program are due to expire in December of this year. You can help to start the ball rolling by contacting your Senators and asking them to vote NO - no more NSA Stellar Wind (or anything similar)! Sixteen Senators have already signed up to say NO. (I will post more about them later on.)

You can watch this video about of an NSA whistler blower to get a better idea of what's going on and what we need to fight against. I personally know some of the people in this video and can state that they are good, upright, honest citizens. They are trying to get our attention. So am I. We apparently have so little power to change anything nowadays, so the only thing I can see to do is to start small and to try to keep the ball rolling.

Please repost, retweet, respond:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/opinion/the-national-security-agencys-domestic-spying-program.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

New Oklahoma Law Will Put Details Of All Abortions Online

New Oklahoma Law Will Put Details Of All Abortions Online: 
A new Oklahoma law will require the details of every abortion to be posted on a public website. Proponents say this will prevent abortion — apparently by shaming and burdening women and doctors.


The law (HR 1595?? Need verification.) mandates that a 34-item questionnaire be filled out by abortion providers for each procedure. The questionnaire doesn't include the woman's name or "any information specifically identifying the patient," but it does ask for age, race, level of education, marital status, number of previous pregnancies, and the county in which the abortion was performed, information which opponents of the bill argue would be enough to identify a woman in a small town."

Electronic Voting Easily Hacked. And You're Surprised???

Why the hell are states such as Alabama going out of their way to make it difficult for poor illiterate voters to vote? Looks like it's a lot easier to just hack all their votes anyway!


The H Security - US e-voting system cracked in less than 48 hours:"Within 48 hours of the system going live, we had gained near complete control of the election server"

Long Live The Queens in Britain

Mary Ann Sieghart: Be glad you live in Britain, not the US, if you're gay or a woman "Contraception is free and uncontroversial, sex education sensible and gay relationships are becoming normalised"


(I'm hoping the headline is enough to make Congress-Pimples and Senate-Whores to stay away from one of my favorite island-countries! Long Live The Queens!)

Soldiers Forgetting About OpSec??

Geotagging Poses Security Risks: "A deployed service member's situational awareness includes the world of social media. If a Soldier uploads a photo taken on his or her smartphone to Facebook, they could broadcast the exact location of their unit, said Steve Warren, deputy G2 for the Maneuver Center of Excellence, or MCoE."

Porn Site Hacked - Users Exposed!

BBC News - Porn site breached in hack attack: "The Consortium claims some of the credit card data was stored in plain text form"


... and thousand and thousands of men who have visited the site are busily coming up with excuses they think their wives will accept....

Techno Boobs Shouldn't Legislate!

Mozilla CEO: Don't Understand The Internet? Get Out Of Government - Josh Smith - NationalJournal.com: 


"If you don't understand the Internet, you don't have any place in government," he told an audience at the annual South by Southwest conference in Austin.


Given the impact of the Internet on daily life, Kovacs said, he is amazed when members of Congress express a desire to hire staffers who "understand" the Internet. "It's not something you learn, or hire someone for. It has to be the way you live your life," he said.


And The Penguin Adds... Techno Boobs Shouldn't Legislate an industry (and technology) they don't understand!


We wouldn't accept farmers legislating how medical instruments are made, so why do stoopid Congress-Pimples tell high-tech companies what they can and cannot do on the Internet? Why do people accept that, just because a guy got himself elected, that his ideas on stuff he knows nothing about are GOOD IDEAS???


What's really scary is that soooo much goverment business is conducted on the Internet ... and is REQUIRED to be conducted on the Internet ... yet Congress-Pimples and Senate-Whores can't seem to get their heads around the stuff. Why is it that six-year-olds understand the Internet better than our elected officials? What does that say about our elected officials?


I needs me some fish....

It's Tax Time, So Expect Phishing Emails

This time, the bad guys want your tax accountant: "The tax-phish appear to be from organizations such as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants(AICPA), Better Business Bureau(BBB), and Intuit tax services."

Doonesbury and the Texas Abortion Battle

http://www.doonesbury.com/

I will be watching for the Doonesbury cartoons every day to watch the drama over abortion build up. I think women, especially YOUNG WOMEN, need to march in the streets, like their  mothers and grandmothers did, to keep MEN from creating legislation that gives them control over WOMEN'S BODIES.

No religion has the right to impose their beliefs upon anyone.

Five Free Tips About Facebook...

Five free tips to take from Nato’s top dog fake Facebook account | Naked Security: "When you receive a friend request, don't just blindly click on it because you recognise the person's photo. Think of how easy it is to grab a picture of someone from the internet."

Cartier + CBS Sunday Morning Show = WTF???

I watch CBS Sunday Morning religiously. Have watched it for decades. It's one of the few things I do every week, without fail. I think it's great TV and I'm glad it keeps going because I'm sure it's expensive to produce and it probably doesn't get ungodly high ratings like stooopid reality TV shows. I love the reporting. It's "real" journalism without sensationalism. Love it. Love it. Love it. I even learn something new every week.


But this morning I watched something that fried a few brain cells. It wasn't one of the segments or the reporting; it was a COMMERCIAL. For CARTIER, no less! WTF????


Here's a link to the 3 1/2 minute spot: http://www.odyssee.cartier.us/#/home

It's beautiful and mysterious piece of video, but I don't get it. I don't get what a jewel-encrusted leopard coming to life has to do with anything. Why does the leopard seem to visit Tzarist Russia? And WHY would Cartier want to associate itself with a regime that starved millions and caused a bloody revolution? I don't get the leopard talking to the Chinese Dragon, which becomes the Great Wall. (Are they courting the Chinese nouveau riche?) I don't get what Cartier has to do with early Sunday morning TV. Is Cartier seriously that hard-up for $$$ that they're courting the average American to buy more diamonds? (Naaawww. That can't be - because this commercial must have cost the moon to produce!!)


It's a beautiful bit of video, but I don't get it. Maybe someone from the Cartier family just finished Film School and this was his/her graduation project? Nope. Just don't get it. (Although I wouldn't say NO to the gorgeous colored gold rings to go on my toeses!) 

Does God Tell You What To Do??

I think this quote says it all.


Rick Santorum, please take note.

Do Christians Have an Undeniable Right to Wear the Cross?

Government's Legal Fight AGAINST the Right to Wear a Cross at Work Brings Accusations It's "Sidelining" Christianity (link)


Oh, Dear! Oh No! Let's not crucify the CHRISTIANS!??


The European Court is set to defend the right of Employers to BAN the CROSS as it is NOT a ‘requirement’ of the Christian faith to wear it!! Bosses could then sack workers who insisted on wearing the symbol.


I LOVE it!! Finally. A respected authority (the Court) has grown balls and is taking on Christians!! Woohoo!


Let me make a point here. I'm not really talking about REAL Christians. I'm talking about FAUX Christians. REAL Christians exude love. They do NOT thump on their Bibles. They do NOT scream in your face. They do NOT prevent you from doing something because THEIR (not your) religion says it's wrong. I'll say the same for REAL Muslims, and REAL Jews, and REAL Buddhists. When you are in the presence of a real holy person, it can be awe-inspiring. In this posting I'm going to reserve the "Capital C" for REAL Christians and faux-christians get a "lower-case c". That's what they deserve.


I believe in the Almighty Penguin (Me) and I take offense at the Holier-Than-Thou-So-Thou-Must-Put-Up-With-Me type christians!! They wear their crosses with attitude. It's an ugly attitude that says "I'm better'n you". It's an attitude that says their "rights" are the only rights that exist and everyone else be damned. Their rights are sacrosanct and ALL must bow before them. Where, Oh, Where are the supposed christian attributes of Humility, Tolerance, and Love?? Faux christians are worse than the devil himself. They give all religions a bad name and I'm deeply religious about my atheism!


Are we supposed to accept that, because a person is a christian, employers have to go along with all their shenanigans? Hopefully not. This court case will be closely watched, I'm sure. Heaven forbid that an employer say "No, you can't wear your cross to work".


You see, these christians are all about image. Heaven forbid that they should actually HELP a mentally-ill homeless woman trying to raise 4 kids on her own (she couldn't afford contraception and christians closed down the local Planned Parenthood....) No. These christians won't help, but they'll SHOW that they are thinking about helping by flashing their CROSS in your face.

Zoroastrianism is some GOOD shit!

Please, christians, stop acting like you're entitled to special privileges simply because you've got a powerful religious symbol! Personally, I'm tired of looking at crosses. Booooring! Even your christian "fish" symbol makes me wince (and I LOOOVES FISH, don't ya know!!!!)  I'd really rather everyone be required to wear the Zoroastrian religious symbol and I wouldn't argue against having one of their Sacred Fire Temples at the South Pole. (Sure would make the nesting season a bit more bearable!)


If this rant went a little off the rail here and there, please forgive me. In fact, if you're a christian, I think you HAVE to forgive me! I'll be looking forward to those prayers and good works coming my way, too. Byyyyeeee!

San Diego likes Hackers!

More cities ought to promote hacking skills like San Diego does. I caught this bit from a friend's blog... kids have a high school vs high school "capture the flag" contest. Nice prizes, too. Would like to see more of the gentler sex involved, though.

San Diego Mayor's Cup (Cyber Challenge) — San Diego Science Alliance: "The San Diego Mayor’s Cup invites all San Diego high schools to participate in a three-phase cyber defense competition."

I rant. I bellow and scream and stomp my flippered feet and I rant. Things piss me off and, try as I may, I can't stay quiet. I must rant. I must rant or I'll explode.

I noticed that some guy named Linus took my image a long time ago and associated it with a computer operating system he had created. He took my image and his name and made Linux a big deal. I didn't get anything out of the deal and he never asked me for permission to use my image, but No Big Deal. I'll just focus on computer security stuff - because I like to hack - with the occasional foray into more interesting stuff. Like politics and how the world is going to hell in a hand-basket and all that sort of shit. Like I said, No Big Deal.