Kids Get an Eyeful

The results of this survey featured in eMarketer are truly amazing. Although it's from the U.K., it probably portends a trend here in the U.S. as well.

The "UK Children Go Online" study, for which over 1,500 young people between the ages of 9 and 19 and more than 900 of their parents were surveyed, found that among those young people who go online least once a week:

* 57% have come into contact with pornography online (compared with 16% of parents who say their children have seen porn online)

* 46% say they have given out personal information online (while only 5% of parents realize it)

* 33% have received unwanted sexual or lewd comments online (though only 5% of parents are aware of it)

If seeing is believing, then seeing porn is certainly having an impact on our young people. I remember the effect that a single issue of Playboy had on me in 1976. (And I know where things went from there.) I cannot fathom the depth of the impact that online porn would have had on me at that age.

Today's kids are seeing things that they can never "unsee" just like I did, but they are seeing this stuff with greater frequency and in extremely graphic detail. It is inevitable that this is affecting our cultural values. Porn seems to have permeated our society so much that it has almost ceased to carry any stigma at all among much of the population. I'll never forget the first time I saw a teenager proudly wearing a "Porn Star" t-shirt. Think about what had to happen before this could become even remotely acceptable.

There has been much discussion this week concerning Family Video and the alleged adult section inside their new store in town. Assuming that they really are renting porn videos, should we really be surprised? Before the BlockBuster/Hollywood Video oligarchy, many local video stores in the area had an "adults only" section. Folks, if the statistics are true, then the video store is a yawner compared to what's going on in your living rooms!

This is something we have to deal with in our families and in our church. It's in the community, and I don't think that's going away -- maybe ever. If we're going to petition this retailer, fine. Maybe it is justifiable. But let's at least couple that with a look inside. We have much optical lumber to remove when it comes to pornography!

Lost electronic records from '02 raise '04 concern

This post on Boing Boing and the related news stories really make me wonder how they are ever going to get this whole mess straightened out.

Punch card ballots = hanging chads (i.e., subjective evaluation).

Electronic and touch-screen voting systems = likely crashes from time to time.  It just happens. We all use Microsoft Windows. We know it's going to happen. (Shut up, Mac users. You're in denial! Your computers crash too. I've seen it happen.)

So what are we supposed to do?

Here's an idea:

1) Use both systems -- simultaneously. The electronic votes count first since they're easier and more efficient to tally. If there is a problem such as a super close outcome, then the punch cards get used for the re-count only. (Obviously, this requires a device that records two identical votes at the same time, but that seems doable.)

2) All voters are responsible for auditing their own ballots before they leave the polls. You scan your own punch card in a reader, and then you receive a paper receipt showing how both methods were recorded. It's your responsibility to report any discrepancies on the spot. Otherwise, what you turned in is what stays in the system. Period.

Is this constitutional? Who knows. Half the eligible population, more or less, doesn't even bother to vote anyway, which makes me shake my head even more.

Skunk Gel repellent

I wonder if Dad would have used this when we were kids to stop us from getting into his toolbox (and not putting things back). I can think of all kinds of possible uses. The practical joke opportunities are endless!

Throw Away that Nose Hair Clipper

You know those weird news stories you read on Yahoo! from AP and Reuters? Well, here's a true story that would fit right in.

My large-nostriled brother just went through quite a scare. He has always harbored a deep rooted concern about excessive nose hair. But his efforts to trim the problem had some unexpected consequences this week.

It seems that one of his nose hair follicles became infected early this week. After a couple days, the bugger started to swell. By Wednesday it had developed into a full-blown staph infection and required urgent hospitalization. Oral antibiotics just weren't doing the trick, and his face was literally looking like the elephant man. 

The pain was so severe that morphine wasn't even taking the edge off. By Thursday night the IV antibiotics were winning the battle. All that's left now is a large pustule that requires an occasional Q-tip dredging.

Upon returning from the hospital, the first thing my brother did was throw out his nose hair clippers. It's just too risky to keep on using them.

Testing Hello from the Office

It works, even through the big firewall. I don't know whether to be thrilled or scared. (Don't give me a hard time. It's lunch hour.)  

Blogs Not Hotter than Hotbot

Seth Godin makes an excellent observation about how perception isn't always reality.  When it comes media coverage, by nature we assume that the more coverage something gets, the bigger it is. If it's being reported all over the place, then it must not only be a big deal, it must be a bigger deal than the things that are not being reported. Of course, this is not the case.
 
Although the Alexa data Seth cites may be flawed, it's still interesting that one of the web's most obscure search engines generates traffic tantamount to the entire universe of blogs. Of the dozen or so people with whom I've discussed my blog, only two knew what a blog is, and only one actually reads blogs. Forbes, Fast Company, Business Week -- they've all got articles about blogs and blogging. No one is writing about Hotbot.
 
News is what it is -- news. It is not a comprehensive barometer of actual trends in human behavior. Just look at the number of things on the Yahoo! Buzz Index or the Google Zeitgeist that make you scratch your head. Most of the stuff there is what's showing up in the media, but there are usually a few things on these lists that didn't make any mainstream headlines.

Testing Hello again

One last test.
If you're wondering what this is all about, click this icon ---> 

Testing Hello

Testing Hello. 

Most layoffs not due to offshoring

While I'm no fan of sending jobs overseas just because it's supposedly cheaper, this news story really puts all the current hype in perspective. Only 2.5% of the jobs lost in Q1 were from layoffs due to offshoring.

Leave it to the media to blow things way out of proportion. I understand that it's news and ought to be covered, but it's equally newsworthy when we learn that the trend isn't as prevalent as the quantity of coverage led us to believe.

As with so many things, offshoring your customer service department or your IT staff is the latest fad. Most companies will recognize it for what it is and will avoid it suspiciously. Many of those that try it will find that they dramatically overestimated the savings or underestimated the difficulty of managing customer relationships across two languages, a dozen time zones and other red tape.

The 7th P

For decades our CEO has expressed a list of guiding principles for our company that he refers to as the "Six P's." They are:

• Purpose
• People
• Products
• Process
• Patience/Perseverance
• Profit

Though it requires some elaboration to explain how they are applied at our company, they are pretty fundamental. It's easy to remember them once you hear the speech, but I won't go into that right now. That's not the point of this post.

What's new and interesting (and cool) is that recently Tom talked about the "Seventh P" -- Prayer. In over twelve years working with him, I've never heard Tom talk openly about this.

In Tom's words, "No major decision is made at this company without prayer." Like the other six P's, that's not exactly a revolutionary concept. But the fact he said it to the whole office staff is remarkable. Why the coming out? Why did he suddenly decide to add it to the list publicly, assuming that it has been on the unspoken list for some time?

Here's my theory (and it's just a theory at this point)... Tom added it to the list because what was an assumed principle to many in his generation -- a given -- is something that needs to be taught to younger managers raised in post-modern America. It's part of an untold legacy, one that now needs to be communicated more overtly.

Faith is personal for everyone, but for many of the people I've known in Tom's generation, my parents included, it is intensely private as well. While they'll probably stop short of outright evangelism, I think we're going to start learning more about this part of the lives of many business leaders who are closing in on retirement. If my theory is right and this develops into a trend, then I welcome it.