Grannies used to be old with grey hair, but nowadays grannies can be quite young

Since November 3rd I am a grandmother.
I never really understood the meaning of that word, I even hated the idea of becoming one, that is something you begin to realize the moment you become one.
So what really is a grandma?
A grandma is something who looks old on the outside, but is still young on the inside.
Or better, is a mother who has a second chance, may be is somebody who feels younger playing with children.
Whatever she is, she certainly has to rethink and view again the ways and supplies to bring up children.
In my times things used to be a little bit more complicated and there were not so many baby slings to carry a baby.
When my daughter decides to go shopping she doesn’t need to prepare the baby one hour in advance as I did, she uses the easy and practical way modern mothers use, and she can easily carry the baby everywhere.
What is nice is that my grandson loves it.
I always thought it was quite uncomfortable for the baby, but, as a matter of fact, it isn’t.
But they invented (or just got the idea from the old way of carrying babies)even a faster and easier way: the moby wrap, with no strings, no straps.
They say babies who are carried cry less on average than those who are not, also when they are very little.
They feel the safety to be close to the mother and in the same time they have the chance to see the world and learn new things.
Also, this is the way to improve the baby’s emotional development and trust while providing him with the security that he feels being in direct touch with his mother’s body.
Well, grandmas are delightful things that date back to the last century, but they certainly know children...

The miracle man

Will he be able, or won´t he?
It depends on which sort of miracles you´re epecting.
If it is the kind of "surge et ambula" said to a dead corpse, that surely won´t happen.
There is just One who was able of that and we are not even so sure about it.
If you, more realistically expect miracles like "if you work hard and in the right way you´ll get somewhere", that is the kind I am sure he will be able to do.
And this is the only possible kind.

How long it will take it is hard to say, it depends how hard and how well one goes on the right road, how much one is willing to accept in term of exchanging useless things for valuable efforts.
It is like in a diet.
If you eat too much and you get a lot of weight, than you have to eat less than what you consume or consume more than what you eat to get to your ideal weight.
It is hard, but not impossible.

Good Luck Mr. President, the World expects a lot from you, don´t delude us.

The US must become an e-nation

"The US must become an e-nation. Network economics means that even those locations that already have decent communication gain by subsidizing the locations which do not. Everyone gains from a universal transportation or communication network; even those who already have local transportation and communication. Remember Metcalfe's law: the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of endpoints. Even if you are already connected, you gain by having the network you are connected to become universal." Tom Evslin

I agree with you.
Communication and good infrastructures are essential in a modern society.
But, isn't i peculiar that in USA, the mother of capitalism, these kinds of thoughts are nurtured?
As you said "Public financing, any financing where there is lots of money involved, is tough to get right and keep honest. ", look at Communist countries, or just at countries ( like Italy) where the Trade Unions and the left parties had great influence, all what is "Government ruled" is a complete disaster.
Corruption, inefficiencies, lack of new technologies...may be the States ( which in principle means the men who rule them) have in mind more the next votes than the efficiency of their infrastructures.
May be US is different, but, believe me, men are the same all over the world, and they do not miss any chance of gaining power and money...

Opportunity lies on the edge of depression

They say Humorism is born from extreme despair and I agree.
In principle the Renaissance, one of the lightest moment in Italian History, was born in the Middle Ages.
And we are, no doubt, on the verge of a modern Middle Age.
But, on the contrary of what universally believed, the Middle Ages were a period of intense cultural activities, what brought later to the Art and cultural explosion of the Renaissance.
Wars bring destruction (and I really do not believe in them), but certain people, too bad, the majority of people, need destruction to be able to rebuild.
So does Nature. After a big fire there is new life growing and, from the ashes, even better.
May be we need failure and bankruptcy to grow a new society, where ideals are ot just words and nice images, but reality.
So, welcome depression, if that means a better future.

The world is fast changing

"The World Wide Web and peer-to-peer networking have effectively dismantled the business models of Old Media: newspapers, magazines, publishing, music, network TV and Hollywood. As all media becomes either free, shared or low-cost, there is no way high fixed-cost Old Media can survive."
"These trends are accelerating. Newspaper circulations are plummeting; few citizens under the age of 40 subscribe to a "dead tree" newspaper. Why pay $250+ a year for a subscription when all the valuable content is on the paper's website for free?
Magazine circulations are falling, as are ad pages and the sums advertisers are willing to pay for an advert.
Now comes the really bad news: standard advertising/marketing no longer works very well.
There will always be a place for print books and media, but the assessment of value when digital resources are free has shifted.
But the days of people paying $300/year for a newspaper subscription, $25 for a hardbound novel that offers two hours of distraction, $15 for mostly mediocre music on a CD or $16 for a film DVD are passing.
The markets are priced according to the costs of manufacture, distribution and size of the markets. Downloading an entire 100,000 word novel takes only a few moments and a few pennies of electricity and disk storage; it is as close to "free" as is possible. "

Yes the Media World is changing, but not only.
The whole producing and consuming world is changing.
What is in stock for the next future?
The very next will be a preface of the long term.
It is the whole business plan that is changing and the ones who didn't realize it yet will suffer most.
Goodbye middle men, middle companies, middle whatever.
The Market of the Future will be a direct Producer-Consumer.
The Middle will be something like a Portal where you find in a relatively short time and relatively easy way the producer you need.
The Middle will cost almost nothing so that the producer will earn more and the consumer will pay less
That is what it is happening on Websites like eBay, where you contact a digital supplier and you save.
But in the Media world you will contact the singer or the writer or the DVD or whatever producer and get better prices.
We will pass from a employees world to a free lancers world.
More difficult, but more rewarding.
You will produce, promote, sell.
And this will be the only way to fight against the "free lunch".
Usually when you find a good cheap lunch, you prefer it to a bad free lunch.
Or you should.
As for "There will always be a place for print books and media"
"Printing and shipping a book (or DVD, CD, Sunday newspaper, ad-larded magazine, etc.) costs much more and hence it must cost more.".
That is. We'll have something like a "virtual printed book or magazine or newspaper" and when you finish to read it, you just delete or you keep what you want and you have back a blank screen where you can store the next...cheap, good, readable, may be with sounds and beautiful colours...
The world IS changing and I love it...