Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Preamble

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10.

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11.

(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.

(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15.

(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16.

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17.

(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21.

(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22.

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23.

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27.

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28.

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29.

(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.


Source: United Nations

Shakespeare and the Hiring Process

Mid-summer of the year 2000, after the excitement of the Subway Series I was finishing up a programming project which took a set of code built by George Washington University called "Blackboard" and retrofit it to build NYUOnline.com.

It was a great gig, but the working conditions kinda sucked.  My desk was more-or-less in a hallway between the operations office and their sales office with the door leading to the elevator behind me. And it wasn't really a desk, it was one of those small reading tables you might find in a library. If I was going to use a reference book or read some of the Blackboard documentation I had to put my keyboard on top of the monitor.

The location was a perfect place to learn about 'The Big Apple'. It was on the 500 block of Broadway, NY which is between Houston (pronounced 'how-ston') and Canal Streets which put me right in the middle SOHO near the neighborhoods of China Town and Little Italy. It is this area of the city where at 5 p.m. the sidewalks are packed shoulder to shoulder with people trying to get to their train or bus so they can go home.

Regardless of the working conditions I had to stick-it-out, I rented a house on Staten Island having made the move from Taylorsville, NC.

At the end of 2000 the "dot.com" bubble was about to burst and NYU decided to take the endeavor in-house, reducing the funding. When they had released half of their sales and operational staff I saw the writing on the wall and went to Monster.com to find another ColdFusion position in New York City.

I had two job offers fairly quickly. ColdFusion programmers who can also do database work (now called "full-stack" developers) were a rare breed back then. It was only a couple of days before I had two interviews both of which turned into job offers.

The first was MarthaStewart.com. This was the time when Martha was at the top of her game and a full three years before she reported for a five-month term in federal prison for lying to federal investigators. They had a large staff working on her web presence, the offices were nice and fully decorated as an homage to Martha with pictures of her and food too pretty to eat.

The other was LAWTRAC.com. Their offices were on the eleventh floor of an office building on Montague Street in Brooklyn.  Here I would be the only programmer taking an older application and converting it to a web-based offering.

With both offers being exactly the same dollar wise the choice was easy. I went to work for LAWTRAC where I would be 'the guy' with, more-or-less, a free hand to simply develop.

For the next fourteen years I was 'the guy'. Not only did I do all the application programming, but I designed the database, made the hosting and delivery decisions, added modules and functionality that no one in our industry of matter management software for corporate legal departments had or were even close to having.

I was in Hog's Heaven, working most of the time from my house on Staten Island, then moving to Brooklyn after a stabbing incident (another story) and finally to a neighborhood on Long Island called Carle Place.

I was fully engulfed in ColdFusion and database programming and the world of corporate legal needs and using the programming to meet those needs. I traveled the country doing product demos, working with customers, tradeshows and had speaking engagements on both corporate legal data management and ColdFusion programming techniques.

By 2009 we had hired two additional programmers. One had a focus on creating custom reports for clients and the other's forte was writing the data exchange packages so the legal and financial data could talk to other programs.

Life was great - I was THE big fish in a little pond, making great money and had earned five-percent ownership in the company, a reward for sticking around during the lean times when the company was struggling.

By the time we received our buy-out offer from Mitratech and Vista Equity Partners the software industry had completely recovered from the 'Dot.com' downturn. This recovery period ushered in more structure to the methodologies software companies were using to produce their products. The older method called "Waterfall" turned to piece-meal structure called "Agile". The industry incorporated things called Product Managers who worked with the clients to identify needed changes to continue to meet client needs. The Agile methodology also used positions called Scrum Masters who took the needed changes and broke the requirements down so the changes could be done in a structured, more modular method.

A far cry from what we at Lawtrac were doing. After all, with a programming staff of three we didn't need all that additional overhead because I was doing all the things Product Managers, Project Managers, and Scrum Masters were doing. And we were doing fine, we had clients like Oprah, United Technologies, all the major oil companies, health care equipment providers, Federal Express, even the American Bar Association used our software to track their legal matters.

The American Bar Association, getting them as a client was like getting the contract to provide the candles to the Vatican. To this day I don't understand why the new owners haven't leveraged that to boost their sales.

Mitratech is a 'best practices' company using the Agile method to produce software. So quickly I had to adapt; I took classes on Lynda.com, bought books from Amazon and by February of 2014 I was up to speed and had brought the Lawtrac development and support staff up to speed as well.

I realize now that during the time I was the 'big fish' writing the software I did so in a bubble. My world consisted of writing code, caring for customer needs, speaking at conferences, doing trade shows, generally helping to enrich my meager five-percent ownership. The industry of software production had introduced business processes I was unaware of and the handing-over of Lawtrac source code to Mitratech felt like landing on the moon.

But I had helped to build a software company. I fought the good fight and afterwards walked away with enough money to buy and furnish a house in Austin, TX. I moved there thinking that I would fit in at Mitratech and could continue working on what was more-or-less my baby and help it grow even more.

I eventually had to resign because the person at Mitratech (VP of Product Development) removed me from the role of being a programmer who worked with clients to continue to build a better product had placed me in a role of doing nothing more than support ticket changes and handed the day-to-day programming tasks to complete strangers.

Three years have gone buy, I'm still trying to fit in where I can use the ColdFusion and database programming skills I have to earn a living.

But I'm finding that software companies don't want learned programmers. The conventional hiring practice follows the acronym "HIPLE" which stands for 'High Potential, Low Experience'. Recently I interviewed with a company which does corporate patent and trademark software (which would be right up my ally) called iRunWay and they actually said during the interview that they were concerned how I would fit in with a staff made up of all younger people. Two months ago, I meet with a company called CoStar; I had gone through four interviews before they meet me in person and I guarantee you that the only reason they rejected me was my greying hair. I'm still getting calls from recruiters about that position, CoStar had no other reason to reject me.

Since leaving Mitratech I've worked to bring my skills up-to-date taking courses for my Project Manager Professional certificate and Amazon Web Services Architect certification.

Getting past the young recruiter staff software companies employ too has been a challenge. If I remove much of my work experience and the dates from my resume so my age is not as apparent I get calls, but once they begin to since I'm over thirty those calls go downhill very quickly.

The whole experience reminds me of Shakespeare's St. Crispin's Day Speech, the ending….

And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

Of all the start-up companies in Austin, TX you would think that one would like to have a seasoned programmer who would bring a 'been there, done that' attitude. One that has experienced programming pit-falls many on their HIPLE staffs will make.

But I really think Shakespeare was onto something. A recruiter or young hiring manager looks over my resume they experience their own feelings of having missed out on something, like the birth of the Internet and that history that has lead up to what the industry is today.


@TheCoStarGroup
@iRunwayInc

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey Announced as Keynote Speaker at Mitratech’s Interact 2017 Conference

The real story should be that Mitratech is paying John Mackey $75,000 to speak, he has little knowledge of what software his legal department needs or is using.

https://speaking.com/speakers/john-mackey/

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey Announced as Keynote Speaker at Mitratech’s Interact 2017 Conference

Bayer buying Monsanto

Source: http://tinyurl.com/hdxokfz




ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Monsanto Company (NYSE:MON) confirmed it has been engaged in constructive negotiations with Bayer AG, during which it has received an updated non-binding proposal for a potential acquisition of Monsanto for $127.50 per share in cash. Monsanto is continuing these conversations as it evaluates this proposal, as well as proposals from other parties and other strategic alternatives to enable its Board of Directors to determine if a transaction in the best interests of its shareowners can be realized.


Monsanto will have no further comment at this time. There is no assurance that any transaction will be entered into or consummated, or on what terms.
   
Morgan Stanley & Co. and Ducera Partners are acting as financial advisors, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is acting as legal advisor to Monsanto.

LAWTRAC and Teach for America

Mitratech Releases Getting to the Core of Legal Efficiency at Teach For America http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/mitratech-releases-getting-to-the-core-of-legal-efficiency-at-teach-for-america-2152837.htm