Author: Paul Handover

Senator Edward Kennedy, a big loss for all of us.

Veteran US Senator, Edward Kennedy, dies at the age of 77.

Senator Kennedy had been battling a brain tumour for a long time; his death makes this a very sad day.

The BBC has a good tribute to him.

James Kwak of Baseline Scenario makes his tribute personal, and all the better for it.

I have nothing new or insightful to add, but it feels wrong to go back to blogging without paying respects to Ted Kennedy. When I was younger and perhaps more idealistic, I used to carry around a copy of his speech at the 1980 Democratic National Convention. He was a man who cared about the poor, the unemployed, and the sick, even as their cause became less and less fashionable over the past four decades. He believed that justice went beyond formalistic legal rights and extended to economic and social conditions as well. The Senate needs another person like him, but sadly will not find one.

Senator Edward Kennedy.
Senator Edward Kennedy.

By Paul Handover

STS-128 Mission

This always gives me a thrill.

Hopefully, by the time you read this Post, shuttle Discovery will have had a successful and fault-free launch.

Here was how it looked at the time of writing (13:30 MT/20:30 GMT on the 24th)

Shuttle Discovery awaiting launch
Shuttle Discovery awaiting launch

Awoke to find that poor weather has delayed the launch.  Here’s a pic of the bird standing out in the rain last night.

Shuttle in rain

By Paul Handover

Selling change – Part Two

Understanding the process of change – Upsetting the Homeostasis

In yesterday’s Post on this topic we left the reader with a ‘flow chart’ of the process of change within a business and, slightly tongue-in-cheek, how that compared with change at a personal level.

What is the role of the salesperson in facilitating this process?

Well, firstly the salesperson should have established that the potential client ought to have a need for the solution.  (That, at least, ups the odds of an effective use of sales time.)  Whether that is from knowledge about the company or its business, a referral from somewhere else, or a solid sales reference from another customer, i.e. another of the salesperson’s customers is a good example of using the solution.

Continue reading “Selling change – Part Two” →

Selling change – Part One

Understanding the process of change is vital in selling.

When a potential customer is considering a solution on offer from the sales person, it is almost inconceivable not to think that your contact is going through a change process. In business-to-business selling most new solutions require the acceptance of change.

With that in mind, it would be wise to consider the change process. Now the challenge is that the author may have a few decades experience as a salesman but zilch experience or qualifications as a psychologist.  Thus this Post looks at a salesman’s understanding of what appears to take place.

Change cartton

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More on that Vulcan

Vulcan XH558 and Red Arrows, Dawlish, Devon, England, August 20th 2009

A few weeks ago, a Post featured the Avro Vulcan, a Cold War nuclear bomber returned to flying condition.  Well here it is again, with friends.

Dawlish is a lovely, typical sea-side town in the county of Devon in the SW of England.  It is less than 15 miles away from Totnes in Devon which, for many years, was my local town.

Dawlish
Dawlish

The weather in Dawlish can be delightful – sometimes!

But the setting is perfect for an air show.

Read more about the Dawlish Airshow

“You campaign in poetry but govern in prose.”

Edward Luce in the Financial Times reflects on Obama’s miserable August

Obama healthcareWho would ever be a leading politician?  It must be a hell of a job.

Edward Luce has a fascinating and, well, touching, commentary in yesterday’s (21st) Financial Times.

Whatever one’s political leanings it’s difficult not to get a feeling for the toughness of the job of leading the Nation.

The quote?  Attributed to Mario Cuomo, the former Governor of New York.  And Edward Luce is the Washington Bureau chief of the Financial Times.  A graduate of Oxford University (politics, philosophy and economics) he is no stranger to the world of politics as his father was the British conservative politician Richard Luce, a noble Lord no less.

By Paul Handover

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Health care.

Being healthier seems too obvious!

Not being either a US Citizen or even a resident takes away my right to contribute an opinion.  The matter is entirely a domestic one for those living in the USA.

But my life-long Californian buddy, Dan, recently sent me an article published in the Wall Street Journal on the 12th August.  The article was written by John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods Market Inc. so this isn’t an impartial perspective.  (And see an important foot-note at the end of this Post)

But the last part of the article is good common sense, as you can read:

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Hitler’s 787.

Imaginative versions of the film Downfall

My son, who is a commercial pilot flying with a company that have a number of Boeing 787s on order, sent me a YouTube clip that is a re-subtitled version of the film Downfall.  That film, by the way, is an excellent portrayal of theHitler last days of Hitler in 1945 and well recommended.

Anyway, it appears that the art of substitution is alive and well because a YouTube search reveals film clips of Hitler learning about Michael Jackson’s death, Hitler being banned from playing XBox Live, Hitler loves his waffles and more.

This particular clip is about Hitler learning of delays in the delivery of the Boeing 787.  It’s funny (but does include some minor vulgarity).

Continue reading “Hitler’s 787.” →

The stuff of life?

The amino acid glycine is found on a comet.

There’s a fascinating article on Reuters, published on the 18th.  It is that scientists have finally proved that an amino

Comet Wild 2 from 147 miles away
Comet Wild 2

acid found on a comet is extraterrestrial in origin and, therefore, supports the theory that life came to Planet Earth from the stars.

Microscopic traces of glycine were discovered in a sample of particles retrieved from the tail of comet Wild 2 by the NASA spacecraft Stardust deep in the solar system some 242 million miles (390 million km) from Earth, in January 2004.

Samples of gas and dust collected on a small dish lined with a super-fluffy material called aerogel were returned to Earth two years later in a canister that detached from the spacecraft and landed by parachute in the Utah desert.

There’s a fuller and more scientific description of the NASA Stardust spacecraft mission here. That site is well worth a visit if you are in the slightest way interested in space.

Comet Wild 2 from 147 miles away!
Comet Wild 2 from 147 miles away!

Stardust completed its 2.88 billion mile round-trip journey to a comet and back, bringing comet and interstellar dust particles back to Earth on January 15, 2006.

So when you next look into the eyes of your loved one,

and see starlight there,

it may not be entirely a romantic notion!

By Paul Handover

Doing nothing!

Freedom and justice needs active participation.

Let me start with an extract from the Henrik Hudson School District Library Media Centre:

Perpetrators, collaborators, bystanders, victims: we can be clear about three of these categories. The bystander, however, is the fulcrum. If there are enough notable exceptions, then protest reaches a critical mass. We don’t usually think of history as being shaped by silence, but, as English philosopher Edmund Burke said, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.’ (My source for this is here.)

So what has prompted this Post?

Continue reading “Doing nothing!” →