NewsBytes... RSS reader, government and business, and obits

A bunch of interesting items, so I thought I would just round them up.

* Thanks to Tom Shoop over at GovExec who recommended the BlogLines RSS reader. I'm using it now and it is much better then the client software I was using before. I don't know if others use RSS feeds. They are both good... and a pain because you get even more overwhelmed with information, but...

* Government and business?
The Boston Globe has an editorial on the creation of a government business program.

HARVARD'S graduate schools of business and of government have decided that a marriage is in order. The two schools have just announced that they will offer two joint master's degrees, one in public policy and business administration and the other in business administration and public administration/international development.

Harvard's motive is that the world needs leaders who can understand both public needs and private interests, who can lead in both worlds, using insights from both.

Two powerful forces - globalization and the coming wave of baby boomer retirements - are transforming the world of work in Silicon Valley and across the nation. In response, California needs a comprehensive workforce investment strategy with the same energy and commitment as we are now devoting to the state's physical infrastructure.

Global competition is affecting a greater number of jobs here at home. Globalization has moved beyond manufacturing to areas such as call centers, tax preparation, advertising and even hip surgery. One set of answers is well-known. We need to increase innovation and expand into new ventures, such as alternative sources of energy, where Silicon Valley companies can generate new jobs and new investments for the future. To support this, we must address the educational and fiscal challenges of equipping more workers with 21st-century science and engineering knowledge and skills.

[California Secretary of State] Bowen has until Aug. 3 - six months before the February primary - to impose them. The goal should be to make electronic systems safe and reliable, not look for justifications to throw them out.

Howard Bernard "Reds" Arrington, the former White House plumber who for more than three decades kept the plumbing humming and the fountains splashing through seven presidential administrations, died of cancer March 24 in Annapolis, Md. He was 79.

Arrington, who was on call virtually around the clock, seven days a week, was chief plumbing foreman at the White House for 19 years. He retired in 1979, having served every president from Harry S. Truman to Jimmy Carter.

Technological advances never really startled James L. McKenney, who always seemed to see around corners and anticipate change, from the advent of e-mail and the Internet to compact discs replacing vinyl records.

"In 1975, my Dad comes back from visiting Japan and says, 'All your records are going to go away,' " said his son Bill of Lexington. "So, I told my friends what he said, and they looked at me like I was from Mars."

The McKenneys, father and son, were not from another planet, but Dr. McKenney's intellectual orbit curved years ahead of most.

He created the first online computing facility at Harvard Business School and introduced a computer-based simulation exercise, known as the Business Game, to the graduate curriculum in 1961.