Wow - following up on the Bono-O'neill trip - here is a great article by my aforementioned favorite economist Paul Krugman - gotta love his use of numbers - yes im still a dork. You have to read this to the end! Heart of Cheapness
Best quote from the article:
"Faced with a proposal that would save the lives of eight million people every year, many of them children, we balk at the cost. But when asked to give up revenue equal to twice that cost, in order to allow each of 3,300 lucky families to collect its full $16 million inheritance rather than a mere $10 million"
And we go on and on about 3000 or so people killed last year in this country while we watch 8 million die in Africa each year - as usual white american lives are at least 2,500X more important than brown foreign ones. Bleh.
Wait a second...this sounds an awful lot like something we developed at Vicinity Corporation 4 years ago. Google Programming Contest
Amazon is having a real hard time focusing these days. They are great at customer experiences though. I just don't see how things like this are gonna make them any money.
Sometimes a funny quip writes itself...President Bush's gas?
Change the world with 3 chords
Well it seems that Treasury Secretary O'Neill and Bono's trip to Africa is going well. One cannot imagine two more different people traveling Africa together - one an old conservative republican bean counter-ex-ceo-old skool-business guy - then there's Bono. This picture pretty much sums it up - you gotta see this! Bono and O'neill
You know - I saw U2 in concert back in '87 and I remember Bono saying some rock and roll comment about changing the world with 3 chords and a red guitar or something or other. You have to give the man credit - he really is working hard on behalf of the world's poor - and has been doing it for a long time. Whats really interesting is that he goes beyond empty plattititudes and 'im a do-gooder' appearences at certain events - he really understands the economics of debt relief and foreign aid - he has spent time all over South America and Africa - in the remotest spots. And now in his greatest coup - he has managed to drag the Treasury Secretary of the wealthiest nation on the planet to Africa so that he can see the needs and requirements first hand. Remember - this is the holder of the heaviest purse strings around. It's an amazing move actually.
Anyways - for more detail - go read this if youd like....
Good Spirits Despite Differences (washingtonpost.com)
And now for the awww how cute pic of the day...Yahoo! News - Photo
Ever heard of Mimetic Management? I hadn't either.
mi·met·ic
adj.
1. Relating to, characteristic of, or exhibiting mimicry.
Did you now that in the former Soviet Union, women had to undergo OB-GYN exams before being issued driver's licenses? I can't think of anything witty to say here...nothing that won't make anyone reading this groan anyway.
Malcolm Gladwell is one of those guys whose words I read no matter what the subject matter. Great writing transcends it's subject. And so, even though I don't have time right now to read this because duty calls, I hereby link to this article for later reference. Thanks you, and good day.
This guy's got too much time on his hands...but then again, I did read the whole thing.
Good indie music site...what a breath of fresh air.Pitchforkmedia.com
My friend from Google called me yesterday to tell me they'd rented out a theatre in Santa Clara and were showing the new Star Wars flick. I couldn't resist. It was good but then I'm a sucker for Star Wars. And besides, the whole thing was worth it to see Yoda kickin' butt. Apparently my friend from the New York Times does agree though since he thinks "it is not really much of a movie at all, if by movie you mean a work of visual storytelling about the dramatic actions of a group of interesting characters.
"He also can keep a company-issued desktop computer."
You know, that somehow pales compard to receiving $1.5MM a year the rest of your life for not working.
Well - I think another most likely lame Star Wars movie comes out today. We will all go see it because Star Wars is an integral part of our childhoods and we are all so curious about the backgrounds of the charaters we loved when we were five years old. I'm sure the effects will be great - and the dialogue most likely sacherine and cheezy. In the meantime - the whole truth about Enron screwing California while the Fedral government stood by and watched is just coming to light. What do these two subjects have to do with eachother? Come here for some lighthearted fun: May The Farce Be With You
"Thus, we are all more alike than we are different."
So we bought a house. More on this later as it does provide blog fodder to be sure.
Weird and hilarious, it's Crazy Drunk Guy.
This one's been floating around for a while but I had forgotten about it. The guy obviously knows a thing or two about the Martial Arts. You know it's it's good when even Ariane digs it.
The music industry, suffering from dismal year to year sales numbers, has been looking for excuses to lay blame. Peer to peer networks, or the sons of Napster (Kazaa, Morpheus, Gnutella), have been prime targets for the music biz. Blaming kids with bandwidth seems a better excuse than admitting their catalogue of artists sucks. Well, time to come up with another excuse gang. Report: File Swapping Boosts Music Sales
There's a pretty good article on a couple of best song-writers Generation X ever knew. Paul Westerberg we've talked about quite a bit around here but another great'un is Bob Mould from Husker Du. Here's another article about Paul from the Houston Chronicle.
I was willing to get satellite service just to get the World Cup matches but it seems I won't have to as the games will be shown on regular old standard cable according to this schedule. Hmmm, some of those times are a little whacky though...maybe it's time to finally get TiVo?
For those francophiles that can't get enough of the last World Cup - here is a nice desktop image for you to grab and make your desktop during the upcoming round. Sorta like how the French always try to cling to their former glory ummm Any takers? Jay? Mr. Bertrand? World Cup 1998 Desktop. Oh - and dont forget to follow the action and get the latest news here at 2002 FIFA World Cup.
i was munching obliviously on a spam and tomato sandwich the other day whilst surfing the web, when i was suddenly enlightened by the history behind such an invaluable addition to the world food chain (as well as to the lingo of cyberspace). i bought myself another case of spam just as a token of respect to the hormel food corporation.
