Comments for Ben Turner's Blog

Comment on State of the Nation After 9/11/09 by On the Health Care Debate « Ben Turner’s Blog

On the Health Care Debate « Ben Turner’s Blog — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:36:52 +0000

[...] the Health Care Debate Jump to Comments [read my previous post on this subject for more [...]

Comment on Reorienting National Security Priorities by Ben Turner

Ben Turner — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:53:22 +0000

Note: okay, so Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) is a federal law. So Commander-in-Chief Obama wouldn’t be able to just repeal it. Congress would have to do so. My error.

Comment on Tenleytown Row by Ben

Ben — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:10:27 +0000

Tenleytown sure is a nice neighborhood. It could use a bit of redevelopment, though.

Comment on Surpluses and Shortages by Ben

Ben — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:33:58 +0000

Here’s some more on this:

http://www.bitcurrent.com/free-reputation-for-everyone-the-three-non-traditional-economies/

These three economies are inextricably linked.

Converting money to attention is simply advertising.

Trading reputation for money is selling out. When someone cashes in their good name, they lose reputation. That’s one reason Western stars often promote products in Asia they’d never consider speaking about in their home countries. It’s also why William Shatner and Adam West have managed to do it well, by sprinkling a heavy dose of irony and self-deprecation. Indeed, Shatner’s new celebrity is that of shameless pitchman.

Converting attention to reputation is trickier. If you have the eyes of the world and you don’t screw up, you gain its approval. In many ways, humility is the ultimate reputational tool, but heroes and athletes live in this world. Good corporate citizenry builds reputation. This is the “top shelf” philosophy: if you see several well-known brands of vodka on the top shelf of a bar, and one that’s unfamiliar, you’ll assume it’s of the same caliber as the others. Similarly, if a popular Twitter user converses with someone you don’t know, you’re more likely to assume they’re peers.

Comment on Surpluses and Shortages by justin

justin — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:49:16 +0000

compelling stuff, man, thanks for the business card… i’ll be checking up on your stuff from time to time

Comment on Surpluses and Shortages by stacy

stacy — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:07:42 +0000

this was a very long, but thoughtful post. i think i will be writing a post re: the networking aspect in due course.

i would like to hear more about hte carbon markets bubble that is emerging.

Comment on Casualties of Stock Market Warfare by jason palmer

jason palmer — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:55:39 +0000

Have you seen my poem or heard of John Ruskin ?

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/coniston-peace/

I know where your coming from, humans are just not designed for modern living, well,some are, it is a natural selection thing, some of us just have to change jobs or get wiped out from the gene pool.

Comment on Job Hunting by maja

maja — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:33:48 +0000

hello :) i’ll be looking for one pretty soon hahahahah and i expect it to be a long, long, long and long process :)

Comment on We Want No Taxation, No Representation by Tracie

Tracie — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:06:32 +0000

I agree with your statement about losing our will to collaborate and national identity in a purely privatized world. It seems to me that the goal of the Republicans (who’ve had more influence than Democrats in the shaping of our country) is to dismantle the social safety nets of the New Deal. But, by doing that, we’re getting away from a “shared sacrifice” that we were once proud of.
For example, it was a good thing to pool our money for future generations’ education. We saw it as an investment. The advances of charter schools is a step away from that, albeit with tax help, and toward a further divide between have and have-nots, in my opinion.
Pooling our money through taxes has brought good things: libraries, roads, etc. Republicans realized that gutting government from the inside and making it inefficient proved their point about its inefficiency to the public. Voila. So, since we have no respect for our government we don’t consider it patriotic to pay taxes to support it. That’s where we’re at: we love our country, but hate our government. Crazy. How ’bout restoring trust in government and building it up instead of tearing it down? I know, rhetorical question.

Comment on Big, Interesting, Mysterious Pragmatic Problems by Job Hunting « Ben Turner’s Blog

Job Hunting « Ben Turner’s Blog — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:08:20 +0000

[...] Job Hunting Jump to Comments So a lot of my friends and recent graduates are looking for jobs now. That process is miserable, as I wrote about earlier. [...]