It's a strange new world, and good lord willing, the past will go away.

I have been somewhat perplexed by the failure of media in general to embrace the new world of content distribution. Then I found Tray Ratcliff.

He is a photographer who is succeeding in a large way by thinking in terms of what the real mindset of America is. Right now.

He breaks it down. For instance, he shares his work freely with anyone who visits his blog, stuckincustoms.com, and does so willingly. For the record, his photographs are surreal, perhaps some of the best photography you’ll see in your life. He is widely followed, and in art circles, he is a name.

But he makes his money by being realistic. He knows that of the 100 percent of people that will find his work, 5 percent are businesses, mainly PR people, who will pay him to use his work in their advertising. There are .05 percent of people who will steal his work outright. The rest, he is just glad they enjoy his work so much, that they are willing to share it. This is refreshing, not to mention that it’s working. Unbelievably well.

And this is what a lot of sticks in the mud don’t get. Old business models in the digital society are worth what they were when they were relevant. Which after you factor in the inflation they cause, amounts to nothing at all.

The failure of America to embrace the fact that new concepts, new ideas, CHANGE, can be wildly beneficial, especially now, given the rapidly changing face of most anything that can be consumed in this era, is depressing.

The music industry still thinks physical media is state of the art, despite the fact that iTunes is the country’s leading music retailer. The fact that photographers complain that digital pictures and movies are rapidly stunting their sales and allowing other people to under price them. It has finally come to the surface that those who seem to rule the art world, are blind to its nature.

The cushion is gone. And here’s the deal: The era of entitlement is over.  The plush insured lifestyle of the entitled is going away. Everybody who has talent can now be recognized, and this is discomforting to families who thought they would dominate media and business based on name alone. The gentleman’s club is fading into obscurity.

Sure, there will always be corporate america, and god only knows why. The small business owner continues to support the corporation, blindly ignoring the fact that the corporation’s sole purpose for existence is to eliminate the small business.

I am anxiously awaiting the time when the concept of benefitting the few and falsely entitled is removed from our mindsets, and the success of us all is the focus. Only then will the world be at peace.

It will always be a pipe dream however. As long as business as usual exists in this world, greed and corruption will prevent it from happening. The gain of one will always crush the gain of the many. God bless capitalism?

Sad isn’t it that the same people who base their lives on thinking only of their own success, claim to be members of the religious right, calling themselves pure christians. Sometimes I wonder how clouded their minds must be, since they seem to lack the ability to stand back and view their clear hypocrisy. To think that these conservative think tanks claim that they have vision is laughable at best.

And thus ends my  thoughts on the rancid state of business in a post conservative era.

This was on the front page of my Outlook today.

Beaver Operators save Disoriented Woman

In the frigid, early morning hours of Jan. 3, operators Rick Hoopes and Cheryl Salamone were plowing drifted snow from routes in their section.

While traveling, Salamone thought she saw something very odd; a woman walking along the roadway—in only a swim suit!  Knowing that Hoopes was nearby, Salamone radioed for assistance noting that the air temperature gauge in her truck indicated 4 degrees with a road temperature of -9 degrees—bitter cold. And with winds predicted at 15-25 mph, she knew this was a life-threatening situation.

Salamone turned her truck around and located the woman on the side of the road walking around incoherently only partially dressed with no shoes on. Hoopes arrived in his truck, as did others in a crew cab vehicle. Together, they helped get the woman inside, giving her their jackets and vests along with extra outer clothing from the crew cab’s back seat. They wrapped the woman in the clothing, attempting to help warm her.  Beaver County 911 was contacted to dispatch an ambulance and police to the location.  Upon the arrival of medical personnel and the police to take over care and transport of the woman to an emergency facility, both operators returned to their respective routes, knowing that they probably averted a tragedy this frigid night.

All in a day’s work for these dedicated public servants.

Note: Details about the woman or why she was walking along the roadway are not known.