Weekend Digest: The Star Wars, Pluto pictures and Michael’s ‘Thriller’ (moon walk) edition

TV PREVIEW
On this week’s TV edition of Talk Business & Politics with Roby Brock, which airs Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on KATV Ch. 7.

The state of Presidential politics. Columnist John Brummett sits down with Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin and TB&P contributor John Burris. What has led to the rise of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz’ recent momentum? Does it complicate Republican chances of taking back the White House? How does that represent Arkansas and what does it portend for Mike Huckabee?

Back home, lawmakers recommend changes to health care in Arkansas. How much savings do they want to find? Is there a consensus for what should be done?

On the business front, the Feds raise interest rates. Will it affect the economy? What else is at work on the jobs front? Contributors Wes Brown and Steve Brawner discuss.

Tune in to Talk Business & Politics with Roby Brock on KATV Ch. 7, Sunday at 9:30 a.m.

A NEW KIND OF WHITE HOUSE SUMMIT
Fast Company says, “The White House thinks the U.S. can dramatically reduce its water use, and announces a ‘Water Summit’ to unleash innovation in a stagnant sector.”

“Water isn’t a national security issue inside the U.S. But water folks have been warning for years that the U.S. water system is brittle—dependent on investments from 50 and 100 years ago. And fresh stress is coming: Most of the impact of climate change turns out to show up most dramatically and most immediately in the form of water—too much, too little, the wrong kind in the wrong place.”

That’s why the White House, in its first attempt to start a national discussion about how the nation uses water, may be getting ready to suggest a bold goal: Cutting the nation’s water use by 33%. That would save not just water, but all the energy used to move and treat water across the economy. On Tuesday, the White House hosted a Roundtable on Water Innovation—the first time any White House has convened such an event—and released a paper making the case that such a dramatic reduction was in reach without the need of any technological breakthroughs.

For more on this story and how “the benefits of this reduction would cascade through the economy,” go to this link.

BRAIN CANCER MADE ME A BETTER LEADER
Vice president of business intelligence at Bellhops, Nathan Sexton says June 4, 2015 is a day he will never forget.

“It is the day I entered a life of seemingly countless rounds of chemotherapy and a drastic reshuffling of home life responsibilities for my young family. It was also, though I never would have imagined it possible, a day that made me a better leader.”

Fourteen months earlier I had traded in my successful, albeit unfulfilling, financial services career to work at a budding startup company in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was odd timing. My wife and I had just become first-time parents and the ink was barely dry on our mortgage papers when I revealed to her that I wanted to make a professional switch that would cut my pay roughly in half. She was hesitant (who could blame her?) but supportive, so I joined a team of 13 employees as the director of customer eExperience for the startup, a tech-based moving company called Bellhops.

I dove into the new experience ready to lead. But there was one big problem: I had never managed anyone, and aside from a little banking gig right out of college, I had no customer service experience. I was excited but also extremely nervous.

Sexton had a right to be nervous. Actually he says he had never managed anyone, but he did great. But then one day he got the diagnosis.

Click on this link to learn how surprisingly his battle with cancer gave him a surge in his managerial and leadership skills.

CHINA’S ECONOMIC CONDITIONS DETERIORATE
BloombergBusiness posts, “China’s economic conditions deteriorated across the board in the fourth quarter, according to a private survey from a New York-based research group that contrasted with recent official indicators that signaled some stabilization in the country’s slowdown.”

National sales revenue, volumes, output, prices, profits, hiring, borrowing, and capital expenditure were all weaker than the prior three months, according to the fourth-quarter China Beige Book, published by CBB International. The indicator is modeled on the survey compiled by the Federal Reserve on the U.S. economy, and was first published in 2012.

The world’s second-largest economy lacks the kind of comprehensive data available on developed nations, making it harder for investors to get a clear read — particularly as China transitions from reliance on manufacturing and investment toward services and consumption. Official data on industrial production, retail sales and fixed-asset investment all exceeded forecasts for November, while consumer inflation perked up and a slide in imports moderated.

For the complete story plus analysis, click here.

HOW DOES COMPANY CULTURE ACTUALLY LEAD TO SUCCESS
A contributor to Entrepreneur says, “The importance of “company culture” is getting a lot of attention these days, especially in the startup world. Tech giants like Google have made a name for themselves by offering unique, sometimes luxurious benefits to their employees, while small, nimble startups are changing the rules of office culture, with perks like unlimited vacation time and flexible hours.”

Even simple cultural components, like a set of common values or a mission statement, can align workers under a single, identifiable banner.

Culture is heralded as one of the most important factors for a business’ long-term success – second to the overall business model, of course. But what is it, exactly, about company culture that makes it such an impactful institution?

Find out at this link.

MIKE HUCKABEE CUTS SALARIES OF SENIOR STAFF
POLITICO reports, “Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign, struggling with its low standing in the polls and underwhelming fundraising, slashed the salaries of senior staffers amid the departure of its top communications aide.”

“The salary reductions took place over the past few weeks, according to multiple Republican sources familiar with the Huckabee campaign’s operations. The reductions were limited to senior staff, according to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the candidate’s daughter and campaign manager.”

The abrupt departure of Alice Stewart, Huckabee’s communications director, was partly due to disagreements within the communications shop about the direction of the campaign and partly because of the salary cuts, several Republicans inside and outside the campaign said.

“The campaign is being run by the family and it’s going nowhere. It’s a dead campaign,” said Republican strategist Ed Rollins, who ran Michele Bachman’s 2012 presidential campaign, was the campaign chairman for Huckabee’s 2008 bid, and who also talked to the former Arkansas governor about running in 2012.”

If the Huckabee campaign does poorly in Iowa is that the end? Follow this link for the inside scoop.

WHAT ARE SOME REPUBLICANS HOPING COULD FINISH TRUMP?
The Washington Post reports, “For six months, Donald Trump has defied the expectations and hopes of Republicans who want his poll-dominating drama to end. No gaffe has brought him down. No lackluster debate performance has peeled voters away. But a new theory has emerged, bringing some hope and calm to the party’s establishment.”

If Trump loses Iowa – even if it’s to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, whom the establishment views as a problematic nominee – his magic will fade. One loss and he’s a loser.

Or is he?

Still, Trump has defied so many predictions of political demise that few campaigns want to make another one. Strategists for two campaigns suggested that the Iowa-and-out chatter was overblown, and that Trump would clearly be a player through the March 1 primaries at least. Even one New Hampshire Republican who has tried to ostracize Trump – and Cruz – refused to let himself belief that the front-runner would fall so easily if Iowa rejected him.

Link here for the complete details here.

‘DEMOCRACY FOR AMERICA’ MAKES ITS CHOICE
And it’s Bernie Sanders.

The Washington Post says, “Democracy for America, the progressive group that helped lead the move to draft U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to run for president, threw its support firmly behind behind Sanders on Thursday.”

The decision to endorse Sanders followed a survey of the organization’s national membership in which the Vermont senator was the choice of 88 percent, while Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton received 10 percent and former Maryland governor O’Malley registered at less than 1 percent. More than 270,000 votes were cast, according to the group.

It is the first time in the organization’s 11-year history that it has opted to back a presidential candidate. And the decision is at odds with the preference of Democracy for America’s founder, former Vermont governor Howard Dean. He’s backing Clinton.

Get the full story at this link.

WHY WASN’T SAN BERNARDINO PREVENTED?
Vox asks, “…why didn’t the U.S. detect the San Bernardino plot before it happened? Why didn’t the government know Farook and Malik had radicalized?”

“This question gets to a very wide and meaningful distinction between how people think radicalization works — the process by which a normal person decides to take up terrorism — versus how it actually works.”

I have bad news: This understanding of radicalization is just not accurate. While it would be comforting to imagine there is a black-and-white distinction between radicalized and non-radicalized people, and that there is some straightforward checklist by which we can identify both the radicalized and the at-risk, that is just not the case.

My colleague Jennifer Williams, who has long studied terrorist radicalization, explained that the process of deciding to take up terrorism is so highly individualized to each person who does it that scholars say no real “model” for radicalization exists. There is no standard road map or universal set of risk factors, try as scholars might to find one. Nor is there typically a single moment by which some switch gets flipped.

That makes detecting an individual person’s decision to take up terrorism extremely difficult – perhaps in some cases even impossible. Those are internal motivations that no amount of NSA monitoring can detect.

For the full read, go to this link.

STAR WARS WEATHER
You have to be living under a rock to not know the new Star Wars film, “The Force Awakens,” now is in theaters. And if you haven’t seen enough hype or commercial connections to the movie, then here’s a new one posted by CinemaBlend.

It’s Star Wars week here at CinemaBlend and in other parts of the world, and everywhere you look people seem to be getting into the Star Wars spirt. (Just yesterday, I saw a road sign that said “I find your lack of seatbelt disturbing,” but I digress.) This week Channel 5 weather reporter Sian Welby put together a weather report featuring some of the best and most groan-worthy Star Wars puns she could possibly shoehorn in.

The Force is strong with this woman and her weather map. Check it out here.

NEW NASA FINDINGS TELL US MORE ABOUT PLUTO AND ITS MOONS
NASA posts, “Five months after NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto to take the first images and measurements of this icy world and its system of satellites, knowledge about this distant system continues to unfold.”

“We’re much less than halfway through transmitting data about the Pluto system to Earth, but a wide variety of new scientific results are already emerging,” said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.

Geological evidence has been found for widespread past and present glacial activity, including the formation of networks of eroded valleys, some of which are “hanging valleys,” much like those in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. “Pluto has greatly exceeded our expectations in diversity of landforms and processes — processes that continue to the present,” said Alan Howard of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, a scientific collaborator with the New Horizons’ Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team.

Key to understanding activity on Pluto is the role of the deep layer of solid nitrogen and other volatile ices that fill the left side of Pluto’s ‘heart’ – a vast, 620-mile (1,000-kilometer) wide basin, informally named Sputnik Planum.

Go to this link to learn more about what has been revealed about Pluto and its moons in the last few months.

MICHAEL JACKSON’S ‘THRILLER’ HITS MAJOR MILESTONE
Forbes reports, “The King of Pop has added another jewel to his crown: today the RIAA certified Thriller as the first 30x-multiplatinum album, reaffirming its status as the bestselling album of all time.”

“RIAA has awarded Gold & Platinum records on behalf of the music business for nearly 60 years, but this is the first time an artist has crossed the 30X multi-Platinum plateau,” said RIAA chief Cary Sherman in a statement. “We are honored to celebrate the unique status of Thriller in Gold & Platinum history.”

Produced by Quincy Jones and Jackson, “Thriller” won a record eight Grammys and spent more than two years on the Billboard album charts. It also spawned some of the most influential videos of all time, namely “Thriller,” “Billie Jean” and “Beat It,” which revolutionized the medium–and paved the way for black artists to become MTV mainstays, cementing Jackson’s status as the Jackie Robinson of pop music.

For a closer look at “the foundation Jackson built in life (that) has served him well in death,” moonwalk to this link.