Islay, or the Queen of the Hebredes, is a magical little island for many reasons. Known worldwide as the source of such peaty malt whiskys as Laphroaig and Lagavulin, Islay history reaches far deeper and broader. It is not an island all about whisky, and even for the staunch whisky enthusiast, it offers opportunities for an amazing vacation.
I first visited Scotland in May 2012 primarily to visit the distilleries of Laphroaig and Lagavulin on Islay. After spending the 90s drinking the “Indian” favorites of Johnnie Walker, Glenlivet, and Chivas, adding Dalmore, Balmore, and Glenrothes, I’d been introduced to the intense taste of Lagavulin by my friend Kraig in early 2000s, and finally I’d found a way to get to Islay. The resulting experience driving around parts of Scotland and the few days on Islay had been so beautiful that I found myself wishing to return to the island. Kraig and I talked about it often and finalized plans to truly (and fully) explore the malts of Islay.
Kraig and I were joined by a colleague in conversation, Andrew Kirpalani, in the early part of 2013. As is typical of such group vacations, several others exhibted interest but waned during the year. Kraig and I persevered and outlined an itinerary on a Google Map. We began with a rudimentary travel schedule that would take us from Glasgow to Speyside distilleries, then the highlands, over to Skye and finally down to Islay. We consciously decided to forgo Campbelltown.
Not much happened over the summer but in early August we finalized plans to fly to Scotland for the week of September 14th. We quickly found a connection from Des Moines to Glasgow via Philadelphia and booked it. Finding lodging was going to be a different challenge; one that would make us change our driving schedule to take us from Glasgow to Speyside, then the Highlands, down to Islay and back up to Skye before returning to Glasgow.
We are lovers of Islay malts so we knew that the island would be our core destination. That meant that we’d need to plan our vacation around three key items – B&B on Islay, ferry availability from Kennecraig to Islay, and availability of the Water to Whisky tour at Laphroaig. I’d done that tour in 2012 and learnt so much about the process and Laphroaig that I wanted to repeat the trip with my compatriots. Islay is a small island with a handful of hotels and quite a variety of bed and breakfasts that cater to the large number of tourists April to September. Unlike the US, Islay and much of rural Scotland is devoid of large hotels. In my first trip, we’d easily found Richard and Hilary’s Coultorsay B&B but this time around the beds were much harder to locate. After dozens of emails and phone calls, we landed upon Kilmeny House B&B in the middle of the travel week that necessitated the jigsaw travel scheduled mentioned earlier. I’d emailed Laphroaig for reservations and had seen sufficient availability on the ferry earlier, so wasn’t worried much given that we were traveling in low season.
A typical trip to Islay will originate from Glasgow, with the three-hour, 100-mile drive snaking its way up A82 and then down A83 until you hit the town of Tarbert for a meal/drink before embarking on a 10 minute drive to Port Kennacraig for the ferry. The ferry is a two hour leisurely journey on a well-appointed vessel, complete with a snack bar and comfortable lounges. You’ll disembark at Port Askaig (near Caol Ila or Bunnhabhein) or at Port Ellen (near Lagavulin, Laphroaig, and Ardbeg). Finding your way to the B&B or hotels will be a 0-30 minute drive, tops, except for the naturally occuring stops you’ll cause for yourself to take in the awesome sights.
For anyone traveling to Islay, especially in late May or September, I’d recommend starting early – very early as the Islay Festival of Malt and Music (Feis Ile) in late May and the Jazz festival in mid September can exhaust lodging options very quickly. I will be writing about this entire trip in more detail, dedicating a post to each location and linking/updating this post with the individual locations/attractions. Until then, please note that Scotland is a unique place for tourism – untouched for the most part and small, and you must plan your trip around the key sites you want to guarantee.
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite images from Scotland – from Islay, of course.
Author: Tej
Machines need TLC too….
My 11-year old snowblower began making harsh, jerky movements during its most recent use. Though I ignore the jerkiness for a bit, knowing oil etc. were freshly checked and replaced, I made a mental note to check it out once done. I was dismayed to find, once back in the garage, that the metal beneath the auger blades was ripped-up, bent, broken, and destroyed. The shave plate was still there but the body behind it was gone.
I had to make a decision on whether to buy a new snowblower and trash this one, call a repair shop and spend a couple of hundred bucks and wait two weeks, or just slice off the metal and hope for the best. Being American in the 2000s, I was heavily leaning toward the first option.
It was then I remembered my neighbor’s son who had asked me last winter about any odd-jobs related to small engine repair items. It is his hobby and he dabbles in all sorts of machines. Jake came over to look and instantly suggested that we buy a new shave plate and skid shoes for the blower and he’d cut the bent-up and rusted portions of the body, cut a new piece of metal from his stock and weld it to the body. He’d then drill new holes and attach the shave and skid plates. All I’d need to do is paint the new surfaces. Again, being a member of the ‘new’ economy of throw and re-buy, I distrusted him, but the old green-cred and the desire not to throw away two hundred pounds of metal and engine won. I had him check out the machine, buy the parts locally and take my snowblower late Thursday evening.
I was surprised, then to find the snowblower sitting outside my garage FRIDAY morning. Jake had taken it Thu evening and spent a couple of hours cutting, welding, shaving, drilling and returning my snowblower to usable status. Bent edges were fixed and the machine was good as new. I simply owed him for the parts and labor. But before giving me an invoice he went a step further and told me exactly what I needed to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again – rebalance my snowblower prior to storage. Though the steps are well documented at Sears, Lowes, etc. (see here), I’d never bothered reading or following. Stupid Stupid Stupid.
I might have to give this repair thing a shot more often. And not forget that there are real skills still being learnt by young people in this country who love machines – making them, repairing them, using them, and modding them. We need them!
Now, to dig out similar maintenance sheets for my camera, lawn mower, trimmer, and other machines I rely on regularly. And to move Jake’s number to my speed dial!
My article on open records and Government contracts in the DMRegister
This article appeared in December 1, 2013 issue of the Des Moines Register’s Business section. It is encapsulated here and the original article is here to discuss my opinion on open records/FOIA as they relate to government contracts and the innovation economy.
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The massive debacle that is Obamacare’s website launch is the latest example of what happens when you shut out the innovation economy from government contracts.
As the largest buyer in the country, the U.S. government spends amounts as mundane as a few hundred dollars for goods to hundreds of millions in technology for its various agencies. The services are procured using requests for proposals, or RFPs, multiple award master contracts and, in many cases, no-bid contracts.
These are meant to inject transparency and equal footing for service providers. But they do not.
As a former government contractor, one of the greatest challenges was even finding RFPs to respond to. In the world of public sharing of information, federal, state and even local governments hide behind a labyrinth of systems when they file their requests. Registration systems pre-screen vendors and respondents while creating bond and insurance requirements only a chosen few can meet. This filters out the innovation economy.
It is no surprise that innovation centers of the U.S. aren’t home to government contractors. Innovators don’t have, or don’t spend time developing, lobbyists who simultaneously act as salespeople. Innovators are usually first to market with new ideas and products and are, thus, not often able to provide three or more customer references for people who have used the products.
While Obamacare’s website is the latest technology solution to fall victim to a lack of innovative solutions, it’s certainly not the first. Between 2000 and 2005, the FBI spent $170 million on an ultimately abandoned software application that ended up being “incomplete, inadequate” and “unusable under real-world conditions,” according to a Washington Post report. The job was done by an American defense contractor.
We must demand more public access to how our dollars are being spent and give innovators a chance to help.
What if someone like the NRA defended the fourth amendment?
Almost as old as the United States of America itself, this particular portion of the Bill of Rights known as the fourth amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. It states –
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
As many who are vigilant against the activities of the US Government and its intelligence network have pointed out since late 2001, the police state is growing in its clandestine watches against its citizens. It took the audacious acts of Edward Snowden in the early 2013 to actually wake a few more Americans to the issue. Though a bit more familiar, we remain woefully clueless and apathetic about our eroding privacy. And the Government continues to expand its reach.
Unsurprisingly, there is a neighbor of the fourth amendment under a similar onslaught. Though I happen to fall on a different side of the debate, I find it admirable that the proponents of gun ownership have attached themselves so tightly to the second amendment which, according to the text, merely states –
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed
Though its various words and phrases are perpetually in question, the second amendment is seen nationally as sacred and not to be infringed upon. It is considered sacrosanct enough to be attributed to the founding fathers who must have intended American’s to always have the right to bear arms. Yet, we forget that the fourth amendment too is a creation of the same founding fathers (introduced by James Madison and announced by Thomas Jefferson).
What is obviously lacking isn’t patriotism or some sense of right or wrong. What I believe is lacking is the mean marketing machine that is the benefactor of the second amendment (and incidentally the beneficiary). If the NRA didn’t exist, would the general public alone be able to protect its right to bear arms?
Many of us in the tech world expressed outrage, chagrin, and outright anger at Snowden’s revelations. We teamed up against SOPA and PIPA (and for a short time, won), we rallied against ACPA, immigration laws etc., but always went back to our keyboards, expecting our lives to remain normal and untouched by the bureaucrats. How wrong we were. We need an organization, national in scope, mean in execution, persistent and tenacious. We need an NRA like entity to protect the citizenry from unlawful search and seizure, illegal and warrantless data collection by the NSA, and the propaganda unleashed by Congress and its minions daily.
It turns out that we do have such an organization that is equipped to do many of these things but needs every ‘gun owner’ to join the battle – that is anyone utilizing a computer, a smartphone, a telephone, or a tablet to support the EFF. Follow its writings, its protests, and its campaigns to get to Congress. Support it with your cold hard cash so it can fund the fight, Distribute its links on social media. NSA spying isn’t all the EFF monitors, but the simple history and timeline will get you on your journey.
Join the EFF here.
Past Performance is not a predictor of future results…but sure helps filter bullshit
“Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance.”
Though the disclaimer has become so oft-repeated footnote in financial disclosures that it has become ignored by the very people who should pay close attention to its hidden meaning. Its shield is the hidden wall that any new investor is bound to hit as they spend money on investment advice, hand-holding, and account management fees. As I open dozens of reports and disclosures weekly, I can’t bit smirk at the warning above.
I was chatting with an old friend the other night as he went through his 401(k) asset-allocation. He was simply seeking help on the pie-chart of equities vs. bonds, domestic vs. international, and fund selections. As we looked past the marketing names and details, the discussion quickly shifted to fees, when I noticed a sales load on some of the funds doing something has trivial as attempting to track the market (a S&P 500 index fund!). He seemed to be trading the company match just to pay the ‘entry’ fee to the fund! What utter nonsense, unless I thought, the manager was beating the index consistently. No surprise, however, when I saw that the returns were abysmal despite the asset purchase and asset management fee due to the advisor ‘actively’ managing the fund by timing certain purchases/sales.
Since an investor is expected to pay for active management of their funds and asset management fees are often withdrawn at the beginning of the period, shouldn’t the investor expect a certain level of return. After all, the father of modern investing, Ben Graham wrote of what defines an investment in “The Intelligent Investor” –
“An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative.”
When we go to a doctor, we have a reasonable expectation of becoming healthy in the near future. When we hire a lawn mowing service, we expect the grass will be cut. When we hire software developers, we expect the product to be developed to our needs. So, why is it, that when an investment advisor allocates our assets into the market, their own asset is not on the line? Why is it that, when the market has returned historical data for almost a century and we have predictable market movement, advisors who claim superior strategy, research, active management and tactics, have no responsibility when they don’t deliver?
I’m calling bullshit on the cop-out served by ‘past performance is not a predictor of future results”
Do we care enough to buy-fresh-buy-local?
There has been a movement underway to return to buy-fresh-buy-local. Whether initiated as a corporate gesture with Des 
Moines’ campaign for “Buy into the circle” or through the various farmers markets, it urges us (consumers) to connect with the product we buy. When we buy a corporate product (i.e. mass-produced product), we lose our connection to the soul of the product – regardless of what the product may be.
I once argued strongly on this position with the then CEO and Chairman of a large insurer in Des Moines who was initiating a offshoring undertaking. My position was that the company’s bread and butter business came from small businesses – a fact the company touted in its marketing. Yet, through the very act of offshoring, it was going to disconnect from the small businesses – the consulting and IT shops in Des Moines, and lose not only their insurance business as their profits dropped, but potentially because the firms themselves would be out of businesses in short order. It went against Thomas Friedman’s “The World is Flat” journal, and it went against bottom lines of the insurance company, but I argued, that it would be better for the community if the company were to continue nurturing its local economy to the fullest. The landscape is markedly different today, with the mid-sized firms mostly non-existent from the software and services marketplace, replaced instead by the mega-outsourcers or those with tiny groups of developers with rare exceptions buying the company’s products (from my informal email surveys…).
Though I am not as well traveled as many, I do see the spirit of supporting your community alive in UK, Italy, and now Germany. Pick up a tiny plastic watering can and turn it over – Made in Germany. See the cars on the road – German, bread and rolls sold in a gas station – being baked by the cashier behind the counter (Casey’s style!), hotel checkout receipts with the name of the proprietor who owns it – in today’s case “The Armatowski Family”. It was alive in London and Cornwall, Rome and Florence, and just as I remember from the city of New Delhi. You can’t help but have a different connection with the product you’re using or buying when a human being is attached to it.
I think it will take a lot more than us buying some fresh produce from the seasonal farmers markets – if we want a true buy-fresh-buy-local, we will need to seek out the people who sell us everything from food and lodging to our goods and services, software, insurance, lawn care, pest control, car repair, office supplies, and much more.
If we don’t know who we are buying from, do we really connect with them enough to care?
A teaching moment on violence against women
For my friends with whom I’ve sparred over the Violence Against Women’s act, a little bit of background that drives my passionate response might help —-
I was brought up in a loving, strict, religious, traditional Hindu family. Dad worked long hours to make sure the best available education was available to both my sister and me. He was (and is) fairly strict in his beliefs and does not shy from scolding us for our transgressions despite our 40+ years of age. When I was 10ish, we went on vacation from Delhi to southern India. We were to ride the train south, and on the way back, my dad, an employee of the US Embassy, would pickup one of the incoming cars from Bombay consulate and drive us back to Delhi. Dad’s uniform included US Army style boots and a belt with the massive buckle with a bald eagle and he preferred those two over everyday wear.
The second class seat cars on Indian trains then had three berths facing each other with the middle berth folded down during the day. People sat on the lower berth with luggage and overflow seating on the top. My mom, sister and I on the lower berth in the train, and dad up top. A few other passengers were mulling about, seated where they could or standing. The train began to move and a gruff looking guy walked up toward us and, with a verbal assault, harshly pushed my sister (then 7ish) aside to try and sit. Before he could grab the spot, however, I saw the inch or two high heel of dad’s shoe swing from above me and hit the guy squarely in his chest. As the guy tried to recapture his breath, dad jumped down and grabbed him by the collar, dragging him away in anger.
For those who know my dad, know that his life exists through the life of his daughters and granddaughters. His normal gentle demeanor is a cover, one I saw disappear that day when he dragged the guy to the door of the moving train, opened the door and said – “Madarchod, remember this day when you think about lifting your hand on a female“, and threw him out of the moving train. He had no fear, no remorse, and certainly no ego as he walked back to the seat, hugged his daughter and sat back down.
Why is Immigration Important to Iowa?
I was asked this question recently on a visit to DC by Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS). Senator Moran is an outspoken supporter of skilled immigration and the author of the Startup Act 2.0 and I met him at the Kauffman Foundation’s State of Entrepreneurship launch event. Sharing the presence of immigrants at many critical junctures of our State’s launch, and our continued presence and inflow into the State’s economic drivers – our businesses – made the case to him and he shared a few anecdotes from Kansas. Returning from DC, I had the opportunity to submit an editorial to the Des Moines Register with two leaders of our community – Lori Chesser of Davis Brown Law Firm and Jay Byers of the Greater Des Moines Partnership. The editorial lays out many of the important items for our cities and State and is duplicated below.
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Seize the day. That is our recommendation to Iowans — including our congressional delegation — regarding immigration reform.
Our outdated system has long hobbled economic growth nationwide, but nowhere more than in Iowa. Immigration reform is a critical element in building a strong economy and a vibrant culture both now and in the future.
Iowa’s economic success depends largely on our ability to enhance international connectivity to compete in the global marketplace. This includes increasing exports, facilitating foreign direct investment, and attracting top talent.
But the current system impedes growth on all fronts.
Potential trading partners cannot visit the U.S. — or establish branch offices — because of restrictive visa policies. Potential investors are stymied by lack of visas or overly restrictive interpretations of the few visas categories available. Talented students educated at Iowa’s universities — including coveted “STEM” graduates — leave because of a random H-1B visa “cap” and painfully long waiting lines for legal residence.
Entrepreneurship is another key element of a healthy economy, and immigrants have proved to be highly entrepreneurial. A recent study by the National Foundation for American Policy found that almost half of the top 50 venture-backed U.S. companies had at least one immigrant founder. An immigrant-founded venture-backed company creates, on average, 150 jobs.
Again, our current immigration system has few options for company founders, leaving this resource largely untapped. Meanwhile, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and Chile have all created programs to attract immigrant entrepreneurs.
Iowa is also an agricultural leader, responsible for the safe production of food both in the U.S. and around the globe. Reliable estimates indicate that 75 percent of the agricultural workers in the United States are immigrants — most of which are not authorized to work. The main reason is that the current system does not allow for non-seasonal temporary labor.
This restriction also hampers processing and service industries, which often cannot find reliable workers because of the preference for — and accessibility of — post-secondary education.
But a robust economy is only one measure of success. Surveys of students and young professionals show that quality of life, including diverse cultural, food and entertainment options, are important to their decisions about where to live and raise a family.
Immigrants — including German, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Mexican and Laotian — are Iowa’s cultural heritage. Immigrants — including Burmese, Iraqi, Sudanese, Bosnian, Vietnamese, Indian, Pakistani, Guatemalan, Nicaraguan, Liberian and many others — are our cultural future.
Recent announcements by both President Obama and a bipartisan group of senators, along with the bipartisan introduction of the Immigration Innovation (Isquared) Act, and a day of thoughtful hearings on immigration reform in the U.S. House of Representatives last month encourage the hope that real change could happen.
To secure a bright future for Iowa, we must make it happen. The right immigration reform will spur economic growth, create jobs and foster a cultural richness that has made America what it is today. Iowans particularly will benefit from these changes. Let’s seize the day.
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill In Senate
I guess I was wrong in guessing it would take Congress forever to get anywhere with Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Senator Harry Reid has introduced S.1 in the Senate, where it was read and sent to the Judiciary Committee for review. The official bill isn’t visible on Thomas.gov yet, but the text per The Oh Law Firm states –
S. 1
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.: This Act may be cited as the “Immigration Reform that Works for America’s Future Act”.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF THE SENATE: It is the sense of the Senate that Congress should–
(1) create a roadmap for immigrants who are here without legal status to earn citizenship, provided they pay taxes, complete a background check, learn English, and show a commitment to America;
(2) allow students who came to America as children to earn citizenship by attending college or joining the Armed Forces;
(3) protect the sustainability of the American agricultural industry, including the dairy industry, with a stable and legal agricultural workforce;
(4) encourage those who seek to invest in the United States and create American jobs;
(5) permit and encourage individuals who earn an advanced degree from one of our world-class universities to remain in the United States, rather than using that education to work for our international competitors;
(6) fulfill and strengthen our Nation’s commitments regarding security along our borders and at our ports of entry;
(7) strengthen our Nation’s historic humanitarian tradition of welcoming asylum seekers and refugees and improve existing policies that support immigrant victims of crime and domestic violence;
(8) create an effective electronic verification system and strengthen enforcement to prevent employers from hiring people here illegally;
(9) implement a rational legal immigration system that promotes job creation by converting the current flow of illegal immigrants into the United States into a more manageable, controlled, and legal process for admitting immigrants while, at the same time, safeguarding the jobs, rights, and wages of American workers; and
(10) adopt practical and fair immigration reforms to help ensure that all families are able to be together.
So, Items 1, 2, 3, and 8 address illegal immigration, #6 is a hattip to southern border states, 4, 5, 9 and 10 address legal, highly skilled immigrants and #7 is humanitarian.
The bill’s sponsor and co-sponsors are all democrats, so I am both frustrated at the likelihood of bickering (hoping I’m wrong again) and the likely death of the STEM Jobs Act.
Importance of the STEM Jobs Act
The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Jobs act, H.R. 6429 was introduced in the House by Rep. Lamar Smith on September 28, 2012 and passed on 11/30 in the house 245 to 139. Iowa Representatives Braley and Loebsack voted No while King, Latham and Boswell voted in favor. The bill was referred to the Senate and was read on 12/3 and 12/4/2012. I spoke with Jens Krogstad of the Des Moines Register on this topic recently, and read the article and accompanying citizen commentary today. I am disappointed in the direction the article took, as it focused on an individual’s plight instead of the larger problem surrounding the STEM worker shortage.
As the Governor and Lt. Governor of Iowa have outlined via their multi-year, statewide STEM initiative, there is a need for this state to grow the population able to fill open STEM jobs. A University of Iowa survey in 2012 documented that 61% of Iowans agree that there aren’t enough skilled workers to fill STEM jobs in Iowa (slide 14 of the UNI Study). The Iowa Workforce development projects the need for STEM qualified workforce to grow from 57,830 in 2008 to 67,330 jobs by 2018, especially in the priority economic sectors of bio-science, information technology, and advanced manufacturing. These industries are prominently represented by employers large and small – names like DuPont/Pioneer, Monsanto, Rockwell Collins, Vermeer, Pella, and others in all corners of the state.
Our pipeline of homegrown talent, however, is leaking. Our 8th graders, at the top in 1992 nationally, have fallen to 25th in Math and 13th in Science. Only 51% of Iowa ACT test takers in 2010 were college math-ready, and only 11% of them were actually interested in a STEM major. To top off the data, 93% of Iowa’s population growth comes from Latino/Asian/African-american populations who are half as likely to pursue a career in STEM fields than their white counterparts.
So couple the increasing need for workers in our STEM industries (from ~58000 to ~67000) with a decreasing population of potential homegrown STEM workers (STEM-interested high school graduates now at about 4000) , and we have a deficit. Since it takes at least 22 years to take a newborn through college, and our STEM agenda is working hard to grow the number from K-16 within the 22 year constraint), our deficit will naturally grow over time until we fix our production problem. The choice is to export the jobs or import the people.
Importing individuals may sound petty and trite, but economically it is a choice. Without the oceans, mountains, temperate climate, and activities, we know that our government officials’ desire to import new Iowa citizens from the coasts will be minimally fruitful. So, why not figure out a way to keep talented, STEM-ready, young people here? BTW, this problem isn’t localized to Iowa – Brad Feld has shared his frustrations via his posts, Vivek Wadhwa through his book, the Immigrant Exodus, and numerous others, our industry titans are hurting for qualified individuals and unable to find them.
That’s what the STEM Jobs Act is designed to do. The democrat representatives and President I voted for killed that movement to protect a silly diversity lottery. A lottery that brings people with no eye for what they bring to the country. More partisan politics that bears little benefit for the country’s citizens. There is a chance I might get to discuss this with the President himself in a few weeks. Hopefully I can deliver the message more concisely for political consumption by then.
Please hit your employees in DC to tell them we need the STEM Jobs act. Here are the links –
Bruce – http://braley.house.gov/contact
Dave – https://loebsack.house.gov/contactform/default.aspx
Barack – http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
–Tej