We don't say they travel in herds, but there are plenty. Humans, lions, dolphins, Harris Hawks, wolves and ants come to mind.

ahead of the curve.

As a serial processor, the left side of the brain is an "assembly line." While as a parallel processor, the right side of the brain is a "network."

A clock and a thermostat might be more fundamental descriptions.

Check out Complexity Theory as well.

I didn't quite get what this had to do with auto manufacturing drastically changing. The proposal still uses mass produced cars that are sold to individuals. If the American auto makers can figure out how to make those vehicles well and efficiently, they would fit nicely into this scheme. I'm crossing my fingers about whether the Volt will live up to the hype, but its success basically depends on having this infrastructure in place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Wild_Dog

Quite fascinating beasties. Every time I have seen them I have left with the thought, those things are actually unnervingly clever beasties... I wonder how clever?

We are always pleased at displays of intelligence from dogs. But possibly higher intelligence in packs of a carnivorous species that owes no allegiance to man is slightly disturbing...

"The first rule of holes is when you’re in one, stop digging. When you’re in three, bring a lot of shovels."

Its great, because the first part of it makes some sense but then he throws in the 'Friedman-aphor'* about being in three holes and having lots of shovels and it just completely throws any consistency or logic out the window.

Same deal with his "world is flat" stuff--it makes some sense to say that the world is more interconnected and that this has positive effects in traditionally disadvantaged places, but to then go ahead and use the metaphor of a flat world...! First, points on a flat plane are less connected than those on a sphere. Second, 'flat world' connotes ignorant medieval beliefs, the opposite of what he's trying to say. Or maybe its the same, given his 'rah-rah globalization is the best' ideas. Or not. I don't know.

*Definition: Any metaphor or part of a metaphor that Thomas Friedman creates which completely destroys the logic of his own argument and befuddles any reader willing to think about it for more than 1 second. Caution! Has been known to cause strokes and temporary amnesia.

Not only this
"our bailout of Detroit will be remembered as the equivalent of pouring billions of dollars of taxpayer money into the mail-order-catalogue business on the eve of the birth of eBay. It will be remembered as pouring billions of dollars into the CD music business on the eve of the birth of the iPod and iTunes."

But the face that GM "snubbed" this new model and chose not to participate is stunning. I wonder what the fuller story is to this,
but this is going to make taxpayers' skin run -- when they realize they are paying for a sickened, dying animal's ego (the sicker the bigger?), it seems...

"Under the Better Place model, consumers can either buy or lease an electric car from the French automaker Renault or Japanese companies like Nissan (General Motors snubbed Agassi)"