An important trait of a Defender of Truth is absolute trust in the Three Pillars of the Faith. They trust in the Divine Nature of the Faith, they trust in the Divine Origin of the Scriptures, they trust in the Divine Authority of the Holy, Ancient and Apostolic Manichaean Church and they trust in all Divine Revelation that comes from Zurvan through the Third Messenger, the Aeons, the Tarendrans, the Angels, the Saints, the Elect and the Prophets.

They see it all as one entity, one offering from God to aid humanity in it hearing the Call and returning Home to Bahisht.

A person who focuses on the Holy Book but gives no thought to the Apostolic Traditions and Authority of the Faith or Divine Revelations is lost.

A person who focuses on the Church structure and rites but has now knowledge of the Holy Book or Divine Revelations is lost.

A person who focuses strictly on the Divine Revelations but never looks to the Holy Book or never follows the Traditions and Rites of the Faith is lost.

The Three Pillars are a symphony of spiritual revelation, awakening and realization, more than this, the Three Pillars, if implemented properly, lead to salvation of the soul and the reunion of the One Universal Soul.

I would say that Defenders are not lost on any one point of the Faith because they understand what all the Pillars are pointing to: Zurvan, Mihr Yazd, Mir Izgadda and Bahisht.

May Zurvan bless you,

Mar Innai Kharba

Research Infrastructure: The Three Pillars

The Canadian University Council of Chief Information Officers (CUCCIO) hosted the Digital Infrastructure Summit in June 2012 in Saskatoon to address the unclear future of research infrastructure in Canada today.  Concerns have been expressed about the lack of a vision for research infrastructure in Canada and the need for more coordinated planning.  For example, the current business models for CANARIE, the coordinating agency for Canada’s high-speed optical research network, and for Compute Canada, the organization for high performance computing, operate on funding cycles that are less than optimal and on brinksmanship review processes that seem to threaten the very existence of this critical infrastructure.  Borrowing from the National Data Summit format, the CUCCIO Summit invited around sixty leaders in research infrastructure to discuss how best to approach these concerns.  Coming out of this forum was the establishment of a Leadership Council with a mission to articulate a vision for research infrastructure and to organize a follow-up summit.

While Canada does not have a formally recognized national organization for RDMI (Research Data Canada and CARL are working to fill part of this void), CUCCIO recognizes data infrastructure as one of three pillars constituting Canada’s research infrastructure, along with a high speed research network and high performance computing. There are some important differences between the formal support for these latter two infrastructure pillars and RDMI.  First, different forces drive these three infrastructure pillars.

1. CANARIE provides top-down coordination and incentives, working with a group of Optical Regional Advanced Networks (ORANs) across the country.   The ORANs keep the operational delivery of the high speed network close to the researchers in their areas, while CANARIE works to weave the regional communication networks into a national research service.
2. High Performance Computing (HPC) in Canada has a similar organizational structure of regional services (WestGrid, Compute Ontario, Calcul Quebec, Compute Atlantic) with national governance provided through Compute Canada, although the regional services tend to operate with a tradition of independence.  Nevertheless, HPC has received top-down incentives, including financial support through the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
3. As already stated, RDMI does not have a formal national organization to represent its interests, although there are national coordinating roles for both Research Data Canada and CARL to play in data curation and infrastructure within their communities.  Unfortunately, no regional organizations for data infrastructure exist.

While RDMI has been embraced as an equal infrastructure partner by leaders in CANARIE and Compute Canada, the playing field is clearly unequal at this stage.  The good news is that Research Data Canada and CARL continue to be invited to participate in events organized by the other two infrastructure partners.

Second, the voice for RDMI is often ad hoc and diluted.  CANARIE and Compute Canada serve as single points of contact for their infrastructure.  Typically, individual researchers are called to speak on behalf of data infrastructure, even though they may represent only a narrow perspective on data management infrastructure.  A consequence is that the voice for research data often becomes haphazard.  The risks are that a data advocate may not be present at an important research infrastructure event or that the message is too narrow for today’s range of research data issues.

Third, RDMI is dependent on bottom-up initiatives, requiring a great deal of coordination and cooperation to be successful.  The organization of top-down initiatives typically depend on control and governance.  With bottom-up projects, the most important organizational factors are trust, collaboration, and cooperation.  These two different organizational structures also tend to result in different styles of internal politics.

Finally, the international peers for each of Canada’s infrastructure pillars are different.  Both CANARIE and Compute Canada see their counterpart organizations in the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, and the rest of Europe as their peers.  The models and practices for funding and planning are also similar among these peers.  Look at what is happening to RDMI within this same group of countries: the National Science Foundation in the U.S. provides grants for data curation projects through its DataNet program; the European Union supported the Global Research Data Infrastructures 2020 project to help chart the course for developing a global data ecosystem; Australia established the Australian National Data Service to support researchers with their data curation needs; in the U.K. JISC offers its Managing Research Data program, which funds projects in RDMI.  These examples are all top-down driven and involve incentive programs for data infrastructure.  At this stage, the development of RDMI in Canada has very little in common with CANARIE and Compute Canada’s international peers.  A subsequent Blog entry will address who the international peers currently are for Canada’s RDMI.

The next entry discusses RDMI components of technology, services and expertise and how they are organized locally or globally.

[The views expressed in this Blog are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my institution.]

“Ethics is concerned with the kind of values and morals an individual or society finds desirable or appropriate”.  So says Peter Northouse[i].  Our values and morals are internalized into our character as what we believe to be right or wrong.  They are expressed externally as our conduct, in terms of right and wrong.

Regarding ethical character, Stephen Covey wrote in “Principle Centered Leadership” that there are three traits of character that are essential to greatness: integrity, maturity and abundance mentality[ii].  I only considered one of these in my first post about leadership, along with four other, different traits.  However, I think Covey’s three traits are specifically relevant to a conversation about ethical leadership.

• Integrity – This is the trait of honesty in our words and trustworthiness in our actions.  Honesty and trustworthiness define ethical action.
• Maturity – Covey defines maturity as the balance of courage and consideration, the courage to take action while you are mindful of the impact of that action on the people around you.  Ethical choices are sometimes difficult, they definitely require courage and you need to consider the impact on other people.
• Abundance Mentality – To have the wealth mind-set, which is to be aware of blessings, assets and opportunities, is to operate from a position of strength.  The opposite, scarcity mentality, is controlled by fear and greed.  If you fear rejection, excommunication or losing your job, it’s too easy to start trading away your integrity to stay in the in-crowd or keep your job.

When you have a strong balance of these traits you have three pillars to support for ethical conduct.  This is most easily expressed as the Golden Rule: do to others what you’d have them do to you.  Treat people the way you want to be treated.  That is a good place to start to divine the difference between right and wrong.

If I would feel cheated by getting financial advice that would cause me to lose money on an investment then I can assume that others would too.  So, by giving bad advice, which makes my employers hefty fees but treats the client like an opponent to be defeated by any means necessary, then I would be acting unethically.

Sometimes it is not as clear and obvious as that, unfortunately.  Too often people cling to their careers and trade integrity for the security of a good salary (scarcity thinking).  To speak out against dishonest bosses invites retaliation, probably with the full force of the resources of the corporate legal department.  If you get to that point your choices are simple: walk away, role over and risk going to jail for them one day, or face a vicious legal battle when you blow the whistle.

When you get to the point that you are in a terrible ethical dilemma you may find that it could all have been avoided by making better decisions “upstream”.  And there may have been some warning signs of the trouble to come.  Pay attention now for warning signs and filter them through the eyes of integrity, maturity and abundance.  Stop and think how they would affect you if you were on the receiving end.

Making a difficult choice to turn away from trouble or to speak out is leadership.  It will give strength to those around you to stand up and follow you.  It may take a lifetime before you get the recognition you deserve.  But in this age of information and tight social connections the truth will probably come out.  Just ask the ghost of Joe Paterno.

There are three things that make an excellent man and in our words an extraordinary gentleman; truth, humility and righteousness. Truth is an eternity tested structure of knowledge that is needed to equip a man in his dealing with people (men, women and children), institutions (society) and invisible forces (divine and devilish) and gives him excellence in Marriage, Ministry and Money. When this truth is applied according to the will of God it yields divine wisdom and distinguishes a man in all his endeavours. Yet knowledge puffs up (1 Cor 8:1) and pride leads to shame, therefore, the blinding glory of truth must be covered with humility to prevent calamity. Humility is the weapon for fighting the greatest enemy of all success; pride. When a man begins to see the progress of becoming an extraordinary gentleman through his assimilation and application of truth, humility should be his closest companion. Humility however, is a fruit of love (agape) which is the nature of God and of all his sons. Righteousness is the fruit of truth that is nourished with humility through love. Therefore,

The extraordinary gentleman is built on three pillars;

Truth, Humility and Righteousness

Pillar 1: Truth –he enquires after truth, he listens to truth, he tells the truth and he practices the truth (1Co 9:27)(Truth on earth is in form of the written and the revealed word of God)

Pillar 2: Humility – he is humble in all matters no matter how great he is. Humility on earth is honest respect for others no matter the state they are in relation to us.

Pillar 3: Righteousness – he is saved through Jesus Christ, has put on the righteousness of God (2Co 5:21) and lives a life of righteousness. Righteousness on earth is demonstrated by bearing the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and      faithfulness (Gal 5vs 22).

“No, not revenue, conversions”.

She was right. Just last week, I talked about how critical it is to convert visitors into customers. Doing this in some businesses doesn’t mean that there is any revenue, but the goal remains the same.

Speed is the one everything thinks is the same as Web Performance. It’s not. It’s the don’t be that guy measure of Web Performance, the one that can be easily quantified and put on display. But performance for an online application is so much more than raw speed.

Experience is the hardest of the three to measure, because what it is depends on who you ask. Is it design, flow, ease of use, clarity, or none of these things? But a fast application can still make people cranky. There are online applications that are clearly designed to make the customer do things the way the vendor demands and these are the ones that make you go “Why am I here?”.

Now, can all the metrics that measure Web Performance be distilled to Speed, Conversions, and Experience? If you stepped away from the very product specific terms the Web Performance industry uses every day, what would describe the final, bottled, and served essence of Web Performance?

There is no Unity to Occupy Wall Street

The protesters taking part in Occupy Wall Street say they are a movement of “all leaders.”  They are not a Leader-Leader movement.  A key concept of Leader-Leader is that that organization is unified by a common objective.  We call this practice “clarity.”  Unless everyone knows what the organization is about, self-leadership will take them in a random number of directions. It’s the unity of purpose that comes from clarity along with divesting control that makes Leader-Leader powerful.

The Occupy Wall Street Movement may yet become a Leader-Leader movement.  We will stay tuned in to its development.

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

“The first principle  of good banking good energy is to have principles.” 

 Regarding this prefatory quote — it is just me toying around with the  hugely popular Citizens Bank advertising campaign in the US supporting much-needed  reform of the  banking industry.  You would remember the 2008 global recession has been  blamed widely on unethical business practices by some members of the financial sector. The  magazine Alberta Oil suggested if one were to substitute “good energy”  for “good banking” the fit would still be perfect.

Arguably the first official definition of  sustainability as given in the 1987 Report of the Brundtland Commission, Our Common Future,  sounds heavy on the moral and ethical responsibility side:

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs  [boldface emphasis mine]”.

Source: 123rf.com

In an earlier blog  I briefly traced the development of the concept culminating in the now more  widely embraced ‘triple bottom line” definition, also known as  “TBL” or “3BL”, which seeks to integrate the “three  pillars” of “people, planet, and profit” into one sustainability concept.

Triple Bottom Line -- An Integrated Concept of Sustainability

SAP, the  self-avowed “market leader in enterprise application software”, and which has
been devoting  a significant amount of its attention to  products and services for managing corporate sustainability challenges,  declares in its Special Report – Sustainability:

“Sustainability does and should occupy a moral high ground. Right now,  resource consumption is racing ahead of what the earth can sustain, and the  problem will only get worse as developing nations start consuming their fair  share. Sustainability is certainly an imperative to which our employees and   customers assign high value”.

A Sound Business Case for Sustainability

A report by the Boston  Consulting Group, in collaboration with MIT  Sloan Management Review, on a groundbreaking study conducted last year makes a strong business  case for sustainability.

In other words, the study gives ample evidence that to be sustainable  makes good business sense as it positively affects a company’s bottom line.

In its preface the report declares:

“Sustainability  is garnering ever-greater public attention and debate. The subject ranks high  on the legislative agendas of most governments; media coverage of the topic has  proliferated; and sustainability issues are of increasing concern to humankind”.

For a concise, straightforward treatment of  a sustainability concept that is not limited to the environmental idea of “going green”  here’s an excellent FAQ link: What is  Sustainability?  authored  by the  editor-in-chief of MIT  Sloan Management Review .

An excerpt, as given below, should prove illuminating:

[Q.] “Do you mean that it [sustainability is]about ‘going green?’”

 [A.] “Definitely not (though we will help you  learn something about that, too). We think that sustainability as a business  issue will be core to every organization’s strategy agenda. It will transform  management and strategy in ways that might appear to have little to do with  sustainability in its “going green” sense. We’ll move beyond mainstream  thinking to explore this frontier and its implications to the management  practitioner and executive.”

From the moral/ethical standpoint we can confidently say sustainability is the new face of corporate social responsibility. On the other hand, its business side is captured in the extended equation:  Sustainability = Waste Reduction (or Elimination)
= Increased Efficiency = Higher Productivity = Greater Profitability.

Let me go back to this theme in succeeding  posts. In the meantime, I wish to cite a perfectly good example of an oil sands  company that is making waves in its pursuit of technological innovations  resulting in efficiency.

 The  Signal Example of SUNCOR

I wrote previously,  in a personal favourite post  of mine (so far),  that “it’s not exactly an oxymoron to use ‘sustainable’  and ‘oil sands companies’ in the same sentence.”

And we do have documentations of continuing  success on how key companies operating in the Alberta oil sands are facing the  challenges and seizing the opportunities headlong. They do so in a manner that  treats sustainability correctly  –  not as a side-issue but as a core element of  their enterprise agenda.

When I mentioned in that post a blind item  about a company that has undeniably invested in water-use efficiency, and is  reaping the benefits of new technology for water recovery and recycling — I actually  had SUNCOR in mind.

I’d like to highlight now this company’s  truly ‘ground breaking achievement’ in  tailings management that promises to speed up process of tailings ponds  reclamation four times!

How important is tailing ponds reclamation?  Well, if there is one emotionally laden image that has projected the global  view of  oil sands as “dirty energy  resource” it is undoubtedly the tailing ponds. But beyond that legitimate concern for image-correcting and -rebuilding lies OUR obligation to the local and global community, and the posterity, that disturbed earth be reclaimed and returned to its natural life and functioning.

In the words of Dr.  James Hyne, Professor Emeritus, University of Calgary,  and a bitumen belt pioneer:

“Are we on ‘mission  impossible’? …… It’s the image. That was the significance of the ducks,” he  says in explaining why accidental deaths of a statistically tiny number of common birds in a waste tailings pond  riveted hostile global attention on the oil sands last spring. “It was the picture in  people’s minds. The migrating ducks flew 5,000 miles, almost got home, got  covered in oil, and didn’t make it.”[boldface type mine]

SUNCOR’s signal achievement is its  proprietary $470 Million (to-date) technology that has given birth to  revolutionary tailings management. Called the TRO_TM process it hastens  land reclamation from 40 years to about 10 years!

Watch this video and, better still, go to  their website and get more information on this excellent example of Canadian  technological innovations that, to borrow the thoughts of Dr. John  M. Deutch,  have yet to gain commensurate recognition.

*****

Variable pattern of foreign investment

Advisory logistics industry researcher Pong Hing Hung Hau told reporters: “The international logistics company to accelerate access to China domestic market structure will inevitably cause a huge impact. Industry analysts believe that although the entry of foreign logistics enterprises will inevitably rob the domestic logistics enterprises ‘rations’, but also brought foreign capital into the management of advanced technology, the domestic logistics industry can achieve today’s results, also contributed to foreign logistics enterprises. Meanwhile, in general, foreign investment is focused on high-end logistics market, while most of the domestic logistics enterprises are concentrated in low-end market, foreign investment impact on the domestic logistics enterprises is not large, at least for now. ”

Faced with this situation then, how to deal with foreign investment of domestic logistics companies? Hung Hing thick that on the one hand to continue to foreign study, efforts to narrow the gap between the two sides in order to have the strength in the future to compete with foreign direct; but we also need foreign capital to maintain sufficient vigilance. After all, to enter the domestic market, the strength of foreign logistics companies are extremely powerful, the domestic logistics enterprises, whether financial, management or technology, and can not compete with them. In such circumstances, the domestic foreign-funded logistics enterprises should be careful to snatch market through improper means. For example, Federal Express had to in order to grab market share, at a loss for several years.

The College of Wuhan University of traffic and transportation planning and management, logistics management, Professor Zhan Bin, then told reporters: “advanced logistics companies are coming in, and will definitely bring some good things, such as its philosophy, management techniques. In the more exposure, it may be a help to us. After all, we are now third party companies, not more diversified enterprise, and the strength is not strong, compared with the international business or a certain distance. So the impact of domestic enterprises, there are, but in the long run, or good. ”

Integrated into the inevitable small businesses

Now, with commodity prices, rising oil prices, in the face of the rising cost and domestic competitiveness of the local logistics industry, a number of domestic small businesses will inevitably be affected by different degrees of impact, how to protect themselves so they will make their own larger and stronger?

Hung Hing thick, said costs, in terms of all logistics enterprises are the same, this is not a single problem of logistics, it will only cause the entire community of logistics costs. So how domestic small business bigger and stronger? He believes that in two ways: “First, integration. At present, the salient features of the domestic logistics industry is ‘scattered, small, complex, chaotic,’ integration is inevitable. Meanwhile, the logistics of the network, the requirements of large-scale high Integration can be achieved just that. Second, the specialization of the road. small logistics company as weak and in a particular area of logistics so specialized, so fine and better, rather than ‘small but complete’. ”

Meanwhile, Zhan Bin, believes that often the face of rising oil prices, higher costs, most of the capacity of the logistics business that is there, he said: “a good business, it corresponds to the value-added are relatively high , so that the increase in transportation costs it is not affected, and those who simply do the impact of transport may be larger. The key now is to provide a solution, from which the entire cost of that decline to provide the value to adapt in this market. ”

The crux of the solutions of the logistics industry

“Logistics is the system of the soul, is the level of logistics technology, logistics is the key to management success or failure lies in the system of logistics.” Professor of Beijing Materials Institute of the Thai king’s remarks, tells the logistics industry, there is the current root of the problem.

In this regard, the same view held by Hung Hing thick. He pointed out that in fact modern logistics information through a high, high-tech logistics and equipment, “seamless” to manage the entire supply chain to achieve as much as possible to reduce logistics costs. “This shows that the supply of modern logistics is to get all the links in the chain of being integrated into a system, while the level of logistics technology, logistics management, will run on this system have a huge impact. In addition, the logistics system operation is also inseparable from a state of the logistics management system. a good management system will enable the logistics system is running smoothly, and vice versa.

But the logistics industry and is the integration of transport, warehousing, freight forwarding industry, information industry, composite industry, the state must form a good management system is extremely difficult. Coupled with the logistics management system in China is also a planned economy with a serious stigma, so the logistics management system of the serious fragmentation, the separation of departments, regional division has seriously hindered the development of China’s logistics industry. This is caused by the high cost of logistics, the logistics industry in developed countries far the most important reason.

Future development of logistics

With the growth of the overall national economy, optimizing economic structure and people’s living standards, will promote modern logistics industry expansion and restructuring at the same time, higher quality of logistics service requirements. Faced with this situation, the logistics industry, how will future trends?

“With economic development, market demand for the logistics industry will expand rapidly. Under the pressure of fierce competition in the market, more and more manufacturers will be more emphasis on integration and logistics business logistics functions separate outsourcing, thereby contributing to third-party logistics development. and logistics market segmentation will become increasingly the same time, in order to meet market needs, the logistics enterprises will be more professional, corporate reorganization and integration will accelerate between. “thick Hung Hing told reporters.

In addition, Hung Hing thick that logistics will accelerate the development of central and western regions. Along with coastal industries to central and western regions, central and western regions the pace of development of logistics will also be accelerated; green logistics will be taken more seriously. Because of the global climate and environmental considerations, the world of energy efficiency are simply attention. The logistics industry as one big carbon emissions, must be the focus of the government. This will inevitably lead to the development of green logistics.

At the same time, Hung Hing thick that the super-national treatment to foreign investors will be gradually eliminated. Since reform and opening, in order to attract foreign investment, the government adopted a number of preferential policies for foreign investment, making foreign investment in the country enjoying a super-national treatment. The same phenomenon prevalent in the logistics field, making the domestic logistics enterprises, especially private and foreign logistics enterprises can not be a fair competition environment. However, since the beginning of the first half of 2010, foreign investment has complained about China’s investment environment in the general deterioration. This is in fact the Government is entitled to the progressive elimination of super-national treatment of foreign capital. This local logistics companies, will mean a more equitable environment for development.

The future, China’s logistics volume will continue to maintain a rapid growth, accelerated restructuring, and infrastructure “bottlenecks” gradually eased to optimize the structure of logistics distribution, logistics enterprises to become bigger and stronger.

In an interview I had with John Neilson, the President of our Board, he mentioned the “Three Pillars” – 1) Health care, 2) Education and 3) Social Services. The three pillars are unfortunately lopsided in their visibility and represent different things to different people. Health care is an essential need for everybody, education is a need that’s wanted by most people, but social services is a marginalized niche often unrecognized. By being a part of Blogathon, I hope to promote the Developmental Disabilities Association, what we do, what a developmental disability is, the people we service, and why we are needed.