La Jolla Community Center Opera

Opera is still alive and kicking among the blue blooded class. It thrives because of donations and contributors. I had the pleasure of going to this Opera a few times in the past year. Trust me when I say I am not of the means that would put me into this class but when it is Free I like to go and enjoy the music. That is right, the La Jolla Community Center Opera is free a certain nights so you may want to check out their website!

You may want to view their Calendar. 

Mostly I like to just listen because the singers are amazing and have practiced their craft for some time. Their voices are loud and boom over the room. As you sit and listen you begin to understand the passion and the stories that are created from such music. This includes love, hate, betrayal, and bliss.

If you let your thoughts wonder you will come to realize the beauty of this music and its powerful message about life. Life and death with everything in between is present. Starting in the 16th century by Florine musicians and intellectuals as a return to simple tragedy so no doubt it is emotional.

In some ways Opera is slowly dying but may experience a renaissance much like polo did after the movie "Pretty Woman". While the general crowd is older there were enough young people around to show that it is not a dead art form and has a new generation following. Amazingly, the middle ages, didn't seem to be present.   As a supporter of the arts I hope such activities become more common in orientation.

Is There Still a Need for Family Business Education?

Business education is focused on larger and bigger things but sometimes skips over the needs to educate on small family business affairs. While global business is the name of the game today there is still a need to provide curriculum for small business. Most people in developing countries run family businesses but may not be maximizing their applied learning if curriculum isn't focused on their needs as well.

It should be remembered that the beginning of all business education was through family and apprentice training. Apprenticeships existed for hundreds, if not thousands, of years without the need for formal education. However, as business became more complex family business eventually needed to move to formal education and business schools were launched. 

While many schools have changed their core missions much of the world is still family business oriented. Many American small businesses were killed off by large corporations and poor legislation. The rest of world functions off of family business economics. The education is still as valuable today as it was 100 years ago. 

The family system is based on family orientation: tradition, stability, loyalty, trust, and interdependency (Lumpkin et al., 2008). These values are different than what would  be experienced from the perspective of someone expecting to work in a corporation. The perspective changes how they view business and its essential function. 

Let us look at a quick example. A family business ultimate goal is to maintain the family and has the need to produce wealth and opportunity for that family. One might hire relatives, make business deals based on family connections, and mix up their personal assets. A corporation seeks to make money for hedge fund investors, business deals are subject to a bid process, and personal assets are almost never mixed. 

This fundamental difference is important and it is argued that a family business curriculum should be created that focuses beyond systems (Burch, et. al., 2015). The authors suggest that while hard skills are needed additional soft skills need to be created to deal with the complexity of family-business socio-economic structures. 

It isn't likely feasible for every university to develop programs directly related to family business in the U.S.. Such family-business degrees are likely to have a greater impact in Europe and Asia. However, it would be wise to offer a specialization in such programs at the undergraduate level. There are still enough demand that the specialization will be helpful for small business entrepreneurs. 

Burch, et. al. (2015). Rethinking family business education.  Journal of Family Business Management, 5, (2), pp.277-293. Retrived https://doi.org/10.1108/JFBM-02-2015-0007

Lumpkin, G., Martin, W. & Vaughn, M. (2008). Family orientation: Individual-level influences on family firm outcomes. Family Business Review, 21 (2), pp. 127-138.

Creative Art and Expression in Science-Stem and Stream

Art and sciences are two facets of understand the world in which we live. I would like to call this Stem and Stream. Stem offers us the opportunity to think about science from a methodological viewpoint while Stream is more of an unconscious process. Recently, I engaged in a free art class at one of the local dining establishments as both enjoyment and a "Stream" process.

Of course there is nothing like a glass of wine to get the creative juices flowing.

While I cannot say that I am much of an artists, or ever will be, I can say that the process of art does help me think more scientifically. In this case such classes offer an opportunity to socialize in a non-stressful environment that allows you to see new forms in images and people.

In this case, it was a live model that held poses for about 5 minutes for a few hours. You don't get an opportunity to go into specific detail but just enough time to outline and put in a few features.

An important benefit of attending these events is that science is nothing without creativity. Drawing, painting, and other forms of artistic endeavors leads to greater scientific discovery. If you looked into the smallest and smallest components you would still discover nothing without the creative ability to think about things in a new and interesting way.

Isn't that the point of art? Art is a process of creativity which is one of the highest forms of expression according to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs but also a fundamentally important part of being a scientific thinker.

The Life of an Academic and Squeezed Budgets

The life of an academic is about using one's brain. There are long-hours involved but often the reward is to help people improve their lives and learn valuable skills they can apply in the workplace. If you are an academic engaged in scientific research there is the added benefit of offering new ideas and thoughts to the world.

The academic life is not for everyone. With squeezed state budgets and inability of many private colleges to meet budget shortfalls the "academic" is disappearing for short-term underpaid, and often ineffective adjunct work. Those with the most knowledge are finding fewer opportunities.

Knowledge is something that has been part of academic life all the way from early philosophers all the way to modern professors. This knowledge costs money and time. New knowledge doesn't come easily and often takes years of planning. It is hard to get a $$$$ out of it.

States often find that new knowledge is something they can't afford and push universities to adapt and change quickly. The easiest thing to do is get rid of full-time professors and the knowledge they offer. In the end, our nation becomes dumber with less prospects for future knowledge and innovation.

Therefore, academics should not expect "doors" to be open for them with plentiful opportunities. They should expect to work long hours, fight against diminishing wages, and be expected to produce more. Research becomes practical and profitable and professors do not have the luxury of often thinking about long-term solutions to long-term value that don't have market return.

The life of an academic is still a wonderful proposition for those who enjoy using their brains. It offers a chance to work on something that can impact society and it allows for one to influence the lives of their students. They are advancing their fields, their nation, and the people they come in contact with. How much is that worth?

Global Warming No Longer Fiction but Supported by Science

While no one can say that the global climate change is a fact there is compelling evidence that we are destroying our environment. A Climate Science Special Report, that has been peer reviewed by the National Academy of Science, found that we are indeed heading for global warming and there are no current viable options to this theory. At present we have already started the process of weather change.

The problem is that we as a species have only one Earth and have not found or advanced enough as a species to reduce the damage we have caused. Technology may some day get us there and we can serious reduce emissions and regrow forests, plankton and other needed "greens" to keep our environment living and moving.

Assuming that nothing changes we should be experience more extreme heat and rainfall. That includes wildfires, flooding, and sea rising. Things will change and our lives will change forcing us to adapt even more to the environment. Our "safe" world may become more chaotic for some as natural disasters become an increasingly common feature.

The Antarctic is also believed to be unstable which could cause our seacoast to rise. All those nice houses on the beach would be at risk of investing significant amounts of money to protect them. Building houses along the coast is likely to become a bigger insurance issue. The coast is expected to rise up to over 8 feet during the next 80 years.

While the report discusses a loss of 1.9 billion labor hours across the national workforce by 2090 in away that could be calculated as $160 billion annually to workers this is really not the major issue. there will be significant changes to our environment and how we live. That means cost to health, pollution, protective measures, new technology, more expensive manufacturing, etc... This is very difficult to calculate accurately.

As the impact of global climate change takes effect we will see a bigger share of our GNP going to resolve this issue. As a country it can be difficult to deal with these issues if other countries share in much of the pollution problem. International coordination will be needed to ensure that we develop the technology to save the planet as well as hold the biggest polluters accountable for their share of destruction.

http://www.globalchange.gov/about/organization-leadership

USGCRP, 2017: Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume I[Wuebbles, D.J., D.W. Fahey, K.A. Hibbard, D.J. Dokken, B.C. Stewart, and T.K. Maycock (eds.)]. U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, USA, 470 pp, doi: 10.7930/J0J964J6.