Friday, April 01, 2011

Silent No Longer by Dan Leahy

Check out this vimeo video of Dan Leahy reciting his poem "Silent No Longer."

He wrote the poem after becoming fed up with the American Left's silence regarding Obama.  This is a poem that asks for us to speak out, and push for and support a vibrant working class movement that doesn't allow the Obama brand to keep us silent any longer.

The arguments defending him are done.  He is no longer "doing the best he can."  No one buys the idea that he is compromising now in order to be able to start changing and hoping down the road. This is the Obama we voted for, the one we have right now.  Bombing Libya, stripping Bradley Manning, funding nuclear development, raiding pot dispensaries.  This is what he's done all along, and its what he will continue to do. 

Watch the video.  Share it.  Think about it.  Write back.  Criticize it.  Lets work on this.

 
Silent No Longer from TrickleUp Films on Vimeo.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

What about a Marine Claims Adjuster?

While looking for different ways to break in to the marine accident investigation world, my mom sent me a link to a job opening at Travelers insurance in Seattle. The opening is for a position called "Claim Rep, Liability - Ocean Marine." A number of the required duties seem to parallel the duties of an accident investigator. They list the following duties:
Investigate each claim through prompt contact with appropriate parties such as policyholders, accounts, claimants, law enforcement agencies, witnesses, agents, medical providers and technical experts to determine the extent of liability, damages, and contribution potential. Take necessary statements.
Of course a difference between being a claim rep for an insurance company and being an investigator for the NTSB is that at NTSB you are trying to learn what happened so that it doesn't happen again. At Travelers you are trying to figure out what happened so that you can reach the "fairest" monetary settlement with your claimant.

I did a little reading into the business of marine claims representatives. I found a short article, linked below, encouraging marine claims reps not to underestimate the importance of using experienced marine surveyors. I guess one of the positive aspects of this job is that you could enter the field with minimal experience in the maritime world, and through interacting and employing various marine experts as contractors, you could learn a lot about the marine accident field.

I applied for the job with Travelers in Seattle. Their employment website is a complete disaster, but I was able, after some struggle, to get some form of my resume send off into that great internet abyss. A phone call back would be quite interesting. I'd love to talk with someone at their office about who they are looking for, what people actually do in this position, among other things.