Job Posting: University of Nevada, Reno

UNR is seeking a part time ombudsperson. No indication of salary.

Sloan Management Review: Hire Ombuds to to Resolve Board Disputes

In the Fall Issue of MIT's Sloan Management Review, Ralph Hasson suggests that companies create a “board ombudsman” to manage boardroom dipsutes through confidential, informal, independent assistance, and shuttle diplomacy. Hasson (a fellow of the Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution) argues that an ombuds would be able to “identify troubling patterns or trends developing within the board, or between the board and management, and to advise the full board of the need for changes in its policies and procedures.” Most compellingly, Hasson argues that the board ombudsman should be an external resource and not the in-house ombudsman.

Job Posting: Cal State Long Beach

CSULB is searching for a new director of the Office of Ombuds after the departure of Elizabeth Novack. Here's the posting. No information available on salary.

Compassionate Checklist

In the November issue of the American Bar Association Journal (subscription only), there is a short article by Steven Keeva, excerpting his book, Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life. Keeva presents a list of questions for attorneys that will resonate with ombuds:

At the Initial Meeting

• Why has the client come? [...]
• What does he expect of me?
• What role does he want me to take? [...]
• Am I listening as if he is the only other person on earth at the moment?
• Have I turned off the phone or made arrangements for someone else to answer? [...]
• Are my words consistent with my values?
• Have I made clear what I see as both his and my own role(s) in this relationship?
• Have I made clear where my loyalties lie -- to him, yes, but perhaps also to minimizing conflict, to the other side or to the community?
• Have I been clear about the range of options, both legal and nonlegal [ed.: or formal and informal], that may be available? [...]

After the Initial Interview

• Have I been clear so far about what I see as the merits and deficiencies in the case the client thinks he has?
• Does the client seem open to striving for a win/win solution?
• What might such a solution look like in this case? (Even better, ask the client this?)
• Is he willing to take any responsibility for the problem? If he is willing to forgo the role of the victim, what opportunities does that open up?
• Can he admit that there were things he coud have done that might have prevented the current problem? If so, can he take an active role in resolving it?
• Does the client need permission to let go of his anger, and would he accept that permission from me?
• How attached is the client to winning? Would anything short of it be interpreted as success? [...]
• Is the client deluding himself about any aspect of this case?
• What might be the best way to start a dialogue?
• What ways of looking at this case might locate deeper meanings and broader implications? For example, are there family implications that may at first not be apparent? Community Issues? Spiritual issues? How might these implications matter?
• Have I made it clear enough that I consider this relationship: Important to me? Worthy of my time? [...] A collaboration in which we each have much to contribute?

notes on vegetable oil powered computing.

We got dugg today and some people have some misconceptions.

We did not add the ghz of the various procs together to get our effective power. We ran a benchmark on a single machine and then ran the same benchmark on the cluster. compared run times between the two and then stated that it would take a 22.7ghz p3 to run the job in the same amount of time.

as for the people who claim that 30 amps is a useless measurment of power consumption:

Last I checked standard wall current is 115vac so please quit being obtuse.

As for the macrophilliacs out there. I am so sorry you spent a stupid amount of money for a crippled *nix box in a shiny package. But face it, you are running an expensive,poserific,drm loving piece of enviromentally damaging,disposable, x86 crap.

enviromentaly correct ways to blow oneself up

Started very simple pyrolitic gas production today (pyrex flask full of paper on a small electric burner) in an attempt to demostrate proof of concept. It worked and frankly better than expected

Paper works well as do wood chips. The real surprise was printer toner which really puts off the hydrocarbons (and is quite possibly the most expensive non-nuclear fuel source ever )

This has a huge don't do this at home label on it as it can be both toxic and explosive (and with my current reaction vessel would include flying glass shards) so I wear a welding mask in the lab.

Based on the wikipedia article on wood gas I should be able to run a straight reactor to engine system but i'd rather contain,filter and purify before feeding it to the lab rat (my 1969 lincoln)

on the other hand the idea of holding the world speed record for a toner powered vehicle is amusing, Maybe I'll do it to my hearse, build a coffin shaped reactor and name it cremetoria

Sunday,sunday ,sunday see the garbage burning funny cars.

thermal gasification?

propane works. Car drives, moved it in to take care of rotting vinyl and begin cosmetic modification.

Methane production is disapointing (read: slow) trying to digest almost pure paper. Still going will report back in 3-4 months.

Thermal gasification: process of extracting gaseous hydrocarbons from solid carbon compounds.

Apparently most prevalent product is methane.

Possible idea: fresnel lens from old bigscreen tv, old fire extinquisher filled with paper, some pipe, a valve= methane?


lye,water and aluminum production of hydrogen works better than expected. Containment is another matter


Still need pictures.