The city of San Francisco can't afford to give up pricey real estate for cemeteries, so not far from that grand city hundreds of acres of land are dedicated to massive cemeteries in the little-known city of Colma (1.98 square miles and 73% of it is cemeteries). Several years ago I was involved in sales in the Bay area and I discovered these cemeteries provide a serene place to eat lunch.

Senator Ted Kennedy is recovering from surgery today--and is still alive, thanks to a doctor that anticipates problems. A routine check revealed that Mr. Kennedy had an "asymptomatic" blockage in his left carotid artery. Gratefully for Kennedy, his doctor knows that what looks innocent today can become deadly tomorrow.

Four hundred companies recently provided insight into the current state of our knowledge-driven economy and the demands that market will place on our educational system in the future. The Society for Human Resource Management (www.shrm.org) teamed up with three other organizations to assess the growing skills gap among high school graduates, two-year college grads, and those people with four-year degrees.

Problems that wont go away usually dont win you any prizes. A guy in Puerto Rico turned his repeating problem into a win when his nine year-old mare lost its 125th race, achieving the distinction of having the longest losing streak of any horse in racing history. The best place Dona Chepa has ever touched is second and she has finished out of the money 90 times during her career.

It is pretty sad when a corporate culture rewards dysfunctional behavior. In too many companies, managers build their careers around their ability to put out fires--to jump from one near disaster to J0402370 another, applying superficial and temporary solutions and getting high praise (or a bonus) for saving a project or operation from going down in flames. By the time the quick-fix comes apart, enough time has passed to allow people to safely blame the recurent problem on another set of circumstances--or another manager.s, and anticipating problems before they happen.