Rich Borglum - Richway Blog

CreteFoamer blog

nospam@example.com (Rich Borglum) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:55:25 -0500

If you are here to find the CreteFoamer blog, you need to go to http://blog.cretefoamer.com

It is a much more active blog and you can learn about the world of cellular concrete. Try the main site too! www.cretefoamer.com

HELIUM Shortage

nospam@example.com (Rich Borglum) — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 12:08:16 -0600

Click on this link to learn more.

World Helium Shortage in November

Recent Visitor to Richway

nospam@example.com (Rich Borglum) — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 07:24:40 -0500

We were pleased to have Patrick Briones of Specialty Sales in Chicago in our factory on Thursday October 12. They are an important supplier for us and Patrick and Carol, our Purchasing Manager (shown with Patrick) have worked closely together for several years, but had never met.

A few weeks ago, I ran into Patrick at a trade show and issued a special invitation to come visit, even though he does not normally travel to see customers. He had intended to bring his wife too, so they could enjoy our beautiful fall leafdisplay, but scheduling was a problem. It is just as well, our fall colors are nearly gone and it was a snowy, cold and windy day.

Shark Attacks

nospam@example.com (Rich Borglum) — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 16:23:07 -0500

File

Just now I received email form Tony with the following note:

I did actually come across this link when reading something related to
work............................
The link is to a "world shark attack file"...........

So I opened the link:

Shark Attack Spreadsheet Data

Homepage for Shark Attack File

You can purchase this image of a great white shark at allposters.com

http://www.sharkattackfile.net/spreadsheets/GSAF5.xls

and found a most interesting spreadsheet documenting shark attacks since the early 1900's.

What I found perhaps the most interesting was that a large percentage of these shark attacks seem to have occured during BROAD DAYLIGHT!!!! (Scroll to the bottom)

Whoa!!! ------------ In the last 20 years I have probably spent at least 100 to 150 days "on the beach" (mostly at Cocoa Beach, Florida--- adjoins Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center). Conventional wisdom, at least my conventional wisdom, says that most shark attacks occur in the early morning or a dusk, so stay out of deeper water then.

Not so, apparently. Swimming in the middle of the day is seemingly not much guarantee of safety. Even one to two foot water is not entirely safe.

Next year when I am at the beach, I'll either be more paranoid or have forgotten about the information.

Photos from North Korea

nospam@example.com (Rich Borglum) — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 06:01:40 -0500

Just a few minutes ago, I found this link n.k. pix on
bookofjoe.com which is one of my "must read" blogs.

This photo is one of several showing highway entrapments ---- big concrete blocks that can be pushed onto the highway to "trap enemy tanks."

The Airlines Will Getcha Every Time!

nospam@example.com (Rich Borglum) — Sun, 07 May 2006 05:28:10 -0500

Pay extra for an aisle seat? You think not? Oh Yes!!! Fly Northwestand pay extra. Read all about it TIME magazine storyhere

Back in the day....... You got a real meal while flying. Nowyou hardly get a small snack. What's next? Paying to have a seatbelt??

Myths of Iraq

nospam@example.com (Rich Borglum) — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 10:46:03 -0600

Iraq War 3rd Anniversary: A Factual Report from the Front

March 14, 2006

By Ralph Peters

During a recent visit to Baghdad, I saw an enormous failure. On the part of our media. The reality in the streets, day after day, bore little resemblance to the sensational claims of civil war and disaster in the headlines.

No one with first-hand experience of Iraq would claim the country's in rosy condition, but the situation on the ground is considerably more promising than the American public has been led to believe. Lurid exaggerations and instant myths obscure real, if difficult, progress.

Full article here

Comment by Rich---

I recall Dan Rather making a similar radio commentary a couple of years ago, before he was desposed. Coming from Dan Rather, you just knew it had to be true, because it was just not his style to report good news of that sort.

To me there is no doubt that "the press" blows things way out of proportion often. After reading the full story above, I likened the Iraq reporting to the "snowstorm of the century" type reporting we so often see here in Iowa and probably every other place it snows. Just this morning the local tv station I was watching had reporters outside, telling us how bad it is going to be, as well as a lot of "weatherman coverage" and tips for survival. All of this for what is expected to be from one to five inches of snow..... inches not feet!!! Hardly the storm of the century, but then news organizations need to validate their existance somehow, whether it is the storm of the century or their view of Iraq.

Thanks to area advertising executive Bob McCusker for this link. See his blog here

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/03/myths_of_iraq

Walter Mossberg

nospam@example.com (Rich Borglum) — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 09:17:09 -0600

If you are a reader of Smart Money or the Wall Street Journal and you have any interest at all in computers and related technology, then you have probably read Walter Mossberg's columns.

Here is his website.

Mossberg's columns are an easy read and he tests what he writes about. I have relied on his advice for years. Stephen Wildstrom who writes in Business Week magazine is another "must read" for me. You won't go wrong following their advice.

steves-digicams.com and cnet.com are also high on my list for reviews.

Ice Worms --- Are you kidding???

nospam@example.com (Rich Borglum) — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 04:37:26 -0600

Ice Worms???

Yep!! According this story here by Sandi Doughton in the Seattle Times they're real.

US Government Official Web Portal

nospam@example.com (Rich Borglum) — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 07:15:13 -0600

Right Here.... Click This
is the Web Portal to get to a variety of Federal Government Information.

This is a true snake story.

nospam@example.com (Rich Borglum) — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 09:34:01 -0600

Electric Fence....

Read story first!!!

An Australian sheep farmer was puzzled
at the disappearance of sheep on his farm.
After a few weeks of sheep disappearing the farmer decided to put up an electric fence.

This is what he found!
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Thanks to my friend Burt Gearhart for this story!

It is Friday

nospam@example.com (Rich Borglum) — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 09:28:15 -0600

According to our friend Bob McCusker, this is a new breed of quarter horse in Alabama. Sometimes this guy even runs. Close completely and re-open. Watch closely and you will see it running.

We were pleased to have a visit from Wayne Bast, who served in a number of leadership positions at Richway before he retired about 5 years ago, stopped in to see us this week. At various times, Wayne headed our mold making operation, supervised plastic molding and was our purchasing manager.

The Arrogance Of Ignorance

nospam@example.com (Rich Borglum) — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 07:28:30 -0600

This column was in today's Industry Week magazine on-line newsletter. It is thought provoking at the least.

******************
THIS WEEK'S COLUMN
*******************

Continental Drifter -- The Arrogance Of Ignorance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A new generation of the serenely clueless is ready, willing and able to destroy your company.

By Mark Gottlieb

Your livelihood and your future are both in peril.

The threat you face derives not from any external factors that may affect your company. Instead, it comes from your own employees.

The deadliest business hazard of our time is the result of a sea change in the American approach to education that occurred early in the 1970s. Across the United States, conventional educational standards were tossed out the window, replaced with feel-good theories like "whole-language learning" that emphasized personal fulfillment over the accumulation of hard knowledge. As a result, we now have two generations of men and women who expect gold stars not for succeeding, but simply for trying.

And, sometimes, merely for showing up.

In Great Britain, even primary school students can name all the monarchs of England. How many American children can name the capital of their own state?

In India, the study of mathematics is practically a religion. In the United States, how many retail clerks can make change without relying on a calculator?

In Germany, vocational education is a rigorous and honorable pursuit, producing highly qualified workers and tradesmen. In the U.S.A., people actually boast about their inability to deal with anything mechanical.

But sheer stupidity is not the greatest danger presented by the current crop of blank slates. It is the arrogance bred of ignorance that constitutes an unparalleled descent into goofiness.

In the long-dead past, incompetents generally recognized their own incapacity and behaved accordingly. Today, every jackass sees himself as a genius, and every fool fancies herself a philosopher.

Once, a young colleague at a major firm accosted me in tones of confusion and desperation.

"Mark! Mark!" she called as I walked past her office door. "When was World War II?"

I thought at first that she was joking, but, alas, she was not. The deadliest global conflict in human history had somehow escaped her notice. Yet if I had asked if she honestly believed she deserved her B.A. and felt qualified to perform her job, she would have been gravely insulted and likely kicked me until I was dead.

Like the pod people of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the arrogantly ignorant appear at first glance as normal as you or me. But beware.

The most profound risk they represent springs not from their cluelessness, but from their inability to recognize their own limitations. Such blind hubris can lead to monumental errors of judgment, grotesque mistakes, and the refusal to accept -- despite a mountain of evidence -- that the strategy they are pursuing may be leading your organization off a cliff. When people like that are in your employ, it is you, not they, who suffer the consequences.

These days, the arrogance of ignorance is so pervasive that I feel confident in making a small wager: Ten bucks says that the worst offenders will read these words and wonder, "Who is this joker talking about?"

If characters like that work for your company -- brother, you're in for a world of hurt.

Rate Or Give Feedback To This Column At:
http://nls.industryweek.com/t?ctl=1E4A8:37AD

Read More From Mark Gottlieb at http://nls.industryweek.com/t?ctl=1E4AC:37AD

New Printer at Richway

nospam@example.com (Rich Borglum) — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 06:04:59 -0600

Last Friday we got a new printer -- an Epson R1800 photo printer that will print as large as 13" x 19" sheets up to 13" x 44" from roll paper. We'll use it for creating tradeshow graphics.

Results --- Outstanding!! Several of us left the office Friday night with a print which we had printed. Easy to use, FAST printing, and estimated print life up to 200 years. We paid $491 at newegg.com.

The review summary below is from Steve's Digicams. Read it all here

If you need to make large, professional quality prints then this printer is sure to please. We had no problems printing very acceptable prints "right out of the box" and after a little tweaking the results were simply outstanding. Priced at around $500 USD (currently a $50 rebate is offered) at the time of this review, the Epson Stylus Photo R1800 is a very good value.

The Benefits of Sharing Family Stories of Hard Times

nospam@example.com (Rich Borglum) — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 16:13:36 -0600

In about a week you will be able to read the whole story here: CareerJournal A Wall Street Journal On-line publication

UPDATE!! Here is the direct link

Sue Shellenbarger writes a weekly column in "The Journal" entitled Work & Family. I have been getting the Journal for a long time and often don't read more than a couple headlines. But I hang on to them for awhile thinking I will get back to them. Then I end up taking a whole stack to our office recycling location.

Today I was skimming and on the front page of Section D I found Ms. Shelllenbarger's story. She notes:

"The tales you choose to tell, and the way you tell them, may play a bigger role than you think in shaping your children's self-esteem and their acdemic skills. What (researchers) are finding is that a sense of family history is linked to self-esteem and resilency in kids. And contrary to what adults may assume, happily-ever-after tales aren't always best. Instead, stories of relatives grappling with sad or difficult events may give children the wisdom and perspective they need to thrive."

When you go to the CareerJournal site, put Shellen barger in the search box. Then you may have to be sure you are on page one of the results. I am not sure when this story will show up on-line.