Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library brings back memories

WHile studying at Northwestern in the eighties I was fortunate to attend a talk by Kurt Vonnegut, at the height of Ronald Reagan's invasion of Grenada and the Iran-Contra affair. He was very interesting and thoughtful. Glad to see a library opened in his memory.

Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library will house a variety of exhibits on the late author's life and work. - chicagotribune.com: "In the new Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library there is an artifact that, despite being on display, will never truly be seen.

It's an unopened letter that Kurt Vonnegut Sr., sent his son Kurt Jr. while the younger Vonnegut was serving in World War II. But the note never reached Vonnegut Jr.

At the time, Vonnegut was being held captive in a German prisoner-of-war camp and didn't see the letter until after he returned to America. For unknown reasons Vonnegut never opened the envelope and, because of that, his children have requested that the letter remain sealed.

This letter is one of the many artifacts that were revealed at the Thursday opening of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in the author's hometown of Indianapolis. Vonnegut's daughters Edith and Nanette attended."

Putting Heads in the Cloud

The Hindu : Business / Companies : Google to set up centre of excellence: "Google, the internet search giant, has announced plans to invest heavily in cloud computing by setting up a centre of excellence.

The new centre, to be based in Hyderabad, would focus on cloud computing and develop applications for Google clients worldwide. The company has announced plans to significantly enhance its headcount in the coming days to meet its requirements.

“We will hire hundreds of engineers. They will be generalists, not specialists as it will suit our requirement,” Google India's head of engineering Peeyush Ranjan told reporters here on Thursday. Google at present has 300 engineers working on cutting edge products in its Hyderabad and Bangalore centres and the company's overall headcount in the country is close to 2,000."

Indian Hospitality, the Marriott Way

Marriott plans to have 100 hotels in India by 2015 - Yahoo! Finance: "Marriott International Inc. plans to boost its presence in India to 100 hotels by 2015.

The hotel operator, which currently has 11 hotels in the country, said Thursday that brands including Ritz-Carlton and Fairfield by Marriott will be used.

Marriott, which has worked in India since 1999, currently has 23 hotels under construction there. India, like developing economies including China, is experiencing rapid growth that many businesses are trying to help service.

'India has the second largest hotel development pipeline in Asia and is expected to double the number of branded hotel rooms over the next three years to approximately 120,000 rooms,' President and Chief Operating Officer Arne Sorenson said in a statement.

Marriott will have 41 hotels in India by 2013, creating more than 8,000 new jobs. Recently signed management agreements for seven hotels include five Courtyard properties, a Marriott hotel and a Renaissance property."

Scrapping taxes

Many deficit commission staffers paid by outside groups: "The leaders of President Obama's deficit commission sparked criticism from both sides of the political aisle Wednesday for proposing broad cuts to federal programs.

But the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has also come under attack for its unusual approach to staffing: Many of its employees aren't employed by the panel at all.

Instead, about one in four commission staffers is paid by outside entities, many of which have strong ideological points of view about how to tackle the deficit.

For example, the salaries of two senior staffers, Marc Goldwein and Ed Lorenzen, are paid by private groups that have previously advocated cuts to entitlement programs. Lorenzen is paid by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, while Goldwein is paid by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which is also partly funded by the Peterson group.

The outsourcing has come under sharp criticism from seniors' organizations and liberal activists, who say the strategy is part of a broader conservative bias favoring painful entitlement cuts over other solutions. The fears of some liberal groups appeared to come true on Wednesday, when the commission's two leaders recommended significant reductions for Social Security and other social-welfare programs.

Bruce Reed, the panel's executive director, defended the staffing arrangement as fiscally responsible and said the staff includes a broad range of views. Other staffers paid by outside entities include an analyst from the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute and a Clinton administration official who now teaches at Johns Hopkins University, he said.

"We've got wonks from across the spectrum who have been working on this issue for years," Reed said. "Every possible voice from left, right or center has a voice on the commission."

But Barbara B. Kennelly, a former Democratic House member from Connecticut who heads the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said the commission's staffing structure is "unprecedented" and casts further doubt on its fairness.

"Taxpayers fund the commission and they should work independently of Washington lobbyists and power brokers," Kennelly said. "This is the type of shenanigans that average Americans are so upset about right now - that money talks and everyone else is left out."