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Ever notice that the AT&T Logo looks like the DEATH STAR?.
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Look At All these RUMORS...
So I got a few emails about the urban myth/rumor that the
Voting Rights Act signed by Lyndon Johnson in 1965 giving blacks (African Americans) the right to vote.
In 1982, Ronald Reagan amended the Voters Rights Act for another 25 years. Which means that in the year 2007 we could lose the Right to vote!
Camille Cosby supposedly had the nerve to say this at a function recently. I got a few emails about this and guess what.
The United States Department of Justice has a page up specifically to clarify this "rumor"
Click the "Read More" to read the official text.
U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division
Voting Section
Voting Rights Act Clarification
The Department of Justice has received numerous inquiries concerning a rumor that has been intermittently circulating around the nation for many months. According to this rumor, the Voting Rights Act will expire in 2007, and as a result African Americans are in danger of losing the right to vote in that year.
The rumor is false. The voting rights of African Americans are guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Voting Rights Act, and those guarantees are permanent and do not expire.
Here is a summary of relevant provisions of the Voting Rights Act:
* The 15th amendment to the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibit racial discrimination in voting. Under the 15th amendment and the Voting Rights Act no one may be denied the right to vote because of his or her race or color.
* These prohibitions against racial discrimination in voting are permanent; they do not expire.
* The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted at a time when for decades in some areas of the South blacks had not been permitted to vote, and blacks who attempted to register to vote or to organize or assist others to attempt to register to vote risked losing their jobs, their homes, even their lives.
* To combat this situation Congress included in the Voting Rights Act -- in addition to permanent provisions banning racial discrimination -- special provisions containing extraordinary remedies that applied in certain areas of the nation for a limited time period.
Among these extraordinary remedies are--
* the authorization of the U.S. Attorney General to send federal registrars (examiners) to register voters, in counties where the local registrar refuses to register blacks. [Section 6, 42 U.S.C. 1973d]
* the authorization of the U.S. Attorney General to send federal observers to monitor elections, to make sure that blacks who are eligible to vote are actually permitted to vote, and that their votes are actually counted. [Section 8, 42 U.S.C. 1973f]
* the requirement that specially covered jurisdictions gain the approval of the U.S. Attorney General before implementing new voting practices or procedures, to make sure that any voting changes that they make are not racially discriminatory. [Section 5, 42 U.S.C. 1973c]
* These special provisions containing extraordinary remedies were intended to be of limited duration. They were originally scheduled to expire in 1970, but they were extended in 1970, and again in 1975 and 1982. They are now scheduled to expire in 2007, if not further extended.
* Even if the special provisions are allowed to expire, they can be reinstated by court order if there is a renewal of discriminatory practices.
* The basic prohibition against discrimination in voting contained in the 15th amendment and in the Voting Rights Act does not expire in 2007 -- it does not expire at all; it is permanent.
The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. citizens have suddenly become quite thrifty.
Usually, frugality is good for individuals and for the economy. Savings serve as a reservoir of capital that can be used to finance investment, which helps raise a nation's standard of living. But in a recession, increased saving -- or its flip side, decreased spending -- can exacerbate the economy's woes. It's what economists call the "paradox of thrift."
U.S. household debt, which has been growing steadily since the Federal Reserve began tracking it in 1952, declined for the first time in the third quarter of 2008. In the same quarter, U.S. consumer spending growth declined for the first time in 17 years.
The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. citizens have suddenly become quite thrifty. Usually, frugality is good for individuals and for the economy. Savings serve as a reservoir of capital that can be used to finance investment, which helps raise a nation's standard of living. But in a recession, increased saving -- or its flip side, decreased spending -- can exacerbate the economy's woes. It's what economists call the "paradox of thrift." U.S. household debt, which has been growing steadily since the Federal Reserve began tracking it in 1952, declined for the first time in the third quarter of 2008. In the same quarter, U.S. consumer spending growth declined for the first time in 17 years. Hard-Hit Families Finally Start Saving, Aggravating Nation's Economic Woes...br clear="both" style="clear: both;"/
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a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=18b2be6193554457af806aea4d330413p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=18b2be6193554457af806aea4d330413p=1"//a
img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=18b2be6193554457af806aea4d330413" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/
Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, author of Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, tells the entertaining story of what it's like to be sucked into a black hole. Neil DeGrasse Tyson: Death by Black Hole (via How Good is That?)...br clear="both" style="clear: both;"/
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img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=0ee6eb30ed1d0ba21258adf036742904" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/
German Billionaire Merckle Commits Suicide - WSJ.com — Did he leave a suicide note? None is mentioned. The fact that he was in the cement business gives me pause as to what really happened. Not that I want to stereotype anyone.
The family of Adolf Merckle said the German billionaire committed suicide after his business empire [...]
Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard
While we properly view this as satire today, I would bet my 1940s rollerskates key that down the decades there will be an internet connective device like this. The world does go around and around, don’t you know.
Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard
While we properly view this as satire today, I would bet my 1940s rollerskates key that down the decades there will be an internet connective device like this. The world does go around and around, don’t you know.
Patrons at Cecil's Jazz Club in West Orange, N.J., savored one of the last nights for smoking in bars and restaurants. (Photo: Marko Georgiev/The New York Times)
A journalist writing for the Financial Times complains that Britain's indoor smoking ban has resulted in more pubs closing and a decline in beer sales of 10 percent.
I [...]
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Eric A. Morris is a researcher at U.C.L.A.'s Institute of Transportation Studies, concentrating on a variety of transportation issues including history, economics, and management. He weighed in here earlier on the gas tax. Here is his first of two posts on road tolls.
Why You're Going to Love Paying to Drive on Roads That Used [...]
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The Times (of London) recently reported that "The F.B.I. has been forced to transfer agents from its counter-terrorism divisions to work on Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud scheme."
This might lead you to ask an obvious counter-question: Has the anti-terror enforcement since 9/11 in the U.S. helped fuel the financial meltdown? That is, has the [...]
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PureSolo.com is a site and free downloadable software that enables musicians to play along to a wide variety of professional, original and well-known music tracks, then record and share the music.
According to the press release, PureSolo.com was founded by a mixture of entrepreneurs who included ex-Goldman Sachs financiers, and a professional trumpeter who has played [...]
PureSolo.com is a site and free downloadable software that enables musicians to play along to a wide variety of professional, original and well-known music tracks, then record and share the music.
According to the press release, PureSolo.com was founded by a mixture of entrepreneurs who included ex-Goldman Sachs financiers, and a professional trumpeter who has played with everyone from Ray Charles, to Kylie, and albums like Pet Shop Boys ‘Very’ and Tina Turner’s ‘Simply The Best’.
What do you think? Are these the backing tracks you’ve been looking for? Go to the site, download the software, mess about with it - and come back and report!
After seeing the post on Palm’s official blog about the airing of a new episode of the History Channel’s Modern Marvels featuring the Treo line of smartphones, I promptly scheduled a recording on my DVR at 4:00PM and 9:00PM (redundancy is to ensure that I would get it!).
It’s nice to see Palm products being featured [...]
Modern Marvels
After seeing the post on Palm’s official blog about the airing of a new episode of the History Channel’s Modern Marvels featuring the Treo line of smartphones, I promptly scheduled a recording on my DVR at 4:00PM and 9:00PM (redundancy is to ensure that I would get it!).
It’s nice to see Palm products being featured on TV, right? Click on the YouTube link to watch the clip!
Evan Chesler, presiding partner at Cravath, is the latest to raise his voice against the billable hour. In an op-ed piece he penned for Forbes magazine, Chesler says:
I'm a trial lawyer. I bill by the hour. So do the associates who work for me. I have lots of clients, so I can pretty much work, and bill, as much as I want. This needs to be fixed. Yes, you read that correctly.
Of course, partners and clients and even journalists have been calling for or predicting the death of the billable hour for years. As Chesler himself contends in his piece, nobody really likes the billable hour:
The billable hour makes no sense, not even for lawyers. If you are successful and win a case early on, you put yourself out of work. If you get bogged down in a land war in Asia, you make more money. That is frankly nuts.
Of course, there is a reason that the billable hour won't die. More on that after the jump.
Chesler indirectly makes the point for the billable hour, though he almost certainly doesn't intend to:
How much do I bill per hour? We don't make numbers public at Cravath, but you can assume I'm not cheap.
He then goes into an elaborate analogy about expensive contractors, expensive kitchens, and other expenses that I cannot afford.
But the fundamental beauty of the billable hour isn't really addressed.
"I'm not cheap." The billable hour still provides an excellent way for lawyer A to whip it out over lawyer B. "My firm is not cheap," or "the negotiated price point for high end litigation services accurately reflects my added intellectual value, and it's not cheap" doesn't have quite the right ring to it does it?
The legal profession is an adversarial system ... and -- to quote Herm Edwards -- "you play, to win, the game!" The billable hour is an easy "mini-game" to calculate.
Regardless of the efficacy of Chesler's article, it's still pretty interesting that he made the argument in the first place. AmLaw Daily offers this interesting information:
Client fees have been an issue for Cravath recently. In December, when the firm announced it was cutting its associate bonuses to roughly half of the 2007 payments, Cravath made a point of announcing that its fees would be frozen in 2009. This was not completely helpful to corporate customers as the firm refused to publish its fee schedule. The only publicly available fee information from the firm was filed in mid-2008 as part of a long-running employment discrimination case. In that matter, a mid-career litigation partner posted his billable rate at $875 an hour, a $205 an hour increase since 2004.
The billable hour probably isn't going anywhere anytime soon. But it is nice to dream.
The 5th Circuit has upheld the convictions of former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling, but they have determined that he should be resentenced. The AP reports:
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Tuesday denied Skilling's request that his convictions be overturned because they were based on an incorrect legal theory.
We don't have our hands on the 105-page opinion, but apparently Skilling's argument that Enron was just ahead of the curve on the whole global financial crisis thing wasn't enough to overturn his convictions.
I just downloaded the Slumdog Millionaire soundrack for $8.99 and it came automatically in Plus format. The files themselves are considerably bigger than the average previous iTunes download and the quality is quite nice. Most importantly, however, there is now a "create MP3 version" selection when you right click on the song.
I just downloaded the Slumdog Millionaire soundrack for $8.99 and it came automatically in Plus format. The files themselves are considerably bigger than the average previous iTunes download and the quality is quite nice. Most importantly, however, there is now a “create MP3 version” selection when you right click on the song.
As you see here, right clicking on an old iTunes song gives you a warning. Clicking on this song simply converts it and plays a sound - no rigmarole. My only hope is that there will be a conversion or DRM stripping system for older music.
This is decidedly a breath of fresh air and will actually put Apple in a position to compete with the burgeoning Amazon MP3 store. It looked like most of the newer music was already iTunes Plus compatible and I wonder when they’ll drop the Plus nomenclature and just call it iTunes.
D-Link is going the baby-sized auxiliary USB monitor route with the SideStage, a 7-inch 800x480 monitor due out "later this year" with a price that hasn't yet been set.
D-Link is going the baby-sized auxiliary USB monitor route with the SideStage, a 7-inch 800×480 monitor due out "later this year" with a price that hasn’t yet been set.
Later this year? These things are gonna start popping up all over the place in the next few months (see these MiMo monitors). It’d better be priced aggressively, but something tells me it’ll cost about $50 more than people are willing to pay for it.
Actually, it’ll be really interesting to see what people are willing to pay for any of these secondary displays. As a blogger, these are appealing because they’re portable and USB powered, which means one cord. However, they’re luxury devices, not necessity devices.
If they’re priced at, say, an average of $149 to $199 (which I think they’ll be) I’m not sure how many people are going to buy them just for traveling. After all, you can pick up a “regular” second monitor for your desk at home for around $100 if you look hard enough. Price them at $79 to $99 and they’ll look much more appealing.
Full press release:
D-Link Introduces "SideStageTM," a USB-Powered Monitor for Multi-Tasking PC Users
LAS VEGAS, NV–(Marketwire - January 6, 2009) - You’ve embraced interactive computing and your desktop proves it. All sorts of cool widgets, gadgets and programs keep you informed in real time. The problem is, you also need to get some work done.
D-Link, the end-to-end network solutions provider for consumers and business, has made it easy to move your desktop to a side monitor, freeing your main monitor for productivity with the introduction of the D-Link® SideStage™.
The Fountain Valley, Calif.-based company is introducing the SideStage, a 7" monitor designed for multi-tasking computer users who prefer to have their main screen for viewing Windows applications, and another smaller screen for extending their desktop to display instant messaging, watch videos, conduct video conferencing via webcams, display Yahoo® Widgets™ and Microsoft® Gadgets™, or house common tools from programs such as Adobe® PhotoShop®.
The SideStage is a stylish and compact USB 2.0-powered monitor with a 7-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) screen featuring 800 by 480 resolution with both landscape and portrait modes. Weighing only 1.34 pounds and housed in a sleek black frame, it is 7 inches wide, 4.6 inches tall and only 3/4-inch thick.
It will be on display this week at CES 09 in the South Hall Meeting Room S218 of the Las Vegas Convention Center and by appointment at off-site demo hotel suites.
"This latest addition to our family of digital home solutions is designed to add productivity to PC users while providing a convenient and friendly way to view smaller applications," according to Steven Joe, president and CEO, D-Link Systems, Inc. "The SideStage solves the problem of needing a bit more screen space, providing quick access to commonly accessed applications hidden behind larger Windows on the desktop."
The SideStage is compatible with virtually all CRT and flat panel monitors, has standard and wide screen aspect ratios, 32-bit True Color depth for high-quality images and ultra low power consumption, consistent with the D-Link Green™ initiative.
Price and Availability
Pricing for the SideStage will be announced when the product ships later this year to D-Link’s vast network of retail outlets.
Don't expect Tim Geithner to set any records when it comes to doling out the rest of the Treasury's bailout fund.img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/magazines_fortune/~4/ULBGK7xOyu0" height="1" width="1"/
So president-elect Barack Obama wants to make the deployment of broadband Internet networks part of a sweeping stimulus package that he hopes would create new jobs, update the nation's hospitals, schools and other facilities, and lift the United States out of recession.img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/magazines_fortune/~4/7l94XHQHhdg" height="1" width="1"/
I've been coveting these Nike SB 720° Dunks, fashioned after Atari's vintage skating-themed arcade game 720°, since they dropped this Summer. Thanks to eBayer jcnice08 who put a pair of size 13's up for competitive bid I finally got 'em, and for a sweet price to boot!
I fucking loved the 720° arade game back in the day and sunk many a quarter into it's boombox-bedecked, oddly-angled-joystick-having shell when I was a kid. Its groundbreakingly original subject-matter, sleek polygonal design, refreshing gameplay, killer-bee attacks and signature "skate or die" warning made for one addictive game.
The kicks themselves caught my eye with the combination of muted and bold colors and the checker-board patern interior. Now that I got I 'em I'm happy to report they look really pretty on my feets.
New York-based emcee Bisc1, who is down with the Embedded Records crew and friendly with Imageyenation homies the Nuclear Family, released his debut album 'When Electric Night Falls' early in 2008. Fresh for '09 he's back with a fancy remixed version of the album, called 'The Strange Love Project: WENF Remixtape,' which boasts remixes from Cassettes Won't Listen, Omega One and Nuk Fammers Scott Thorough and Snafu amongst others. It also comes with a collection of complementary artwork by a whole host of artists who were tasked with interpreting Bisc's music in a visual medium.
To download the "freemixtape" you'll need to give Bisc your name and e-mail address. And if your monitor's set to a low screen resolution you might have trouble viewing the download page which requires a lot of screen space and doesn't have any scroll-bars.
New Millennium ATLiens Hollweerd are back with the follow-up to this Summer's 'Edible Phat' project, another "mixtalbum" called 'Electricity Showroom.' Once again it's another 100% free album-length download, and just like their last one it's packed with eccentric Dirty South awesomeness.
German producer/remixer Kimono Kops has graced these pages with remixes of M.I.A. and Bloc Party, but he's ringing in the New Year with an original cut of his own called "The Trade."
It's sweet, catchy, coolly detached, and yet warmly passionate, and reminds me of Depeche Mode, The Blow, Joy Division, Architecture In Helsinki and The Chromatics all at once!
Los Angeles-based beatmaker Dert is a former member of Christian Rap crew Tunnel Rats who's produced for other vaguely Christ-friendly Rap acts including Visionaries member LMNO. These days he's qouting RZA, paying homage to Dilla and sampling the shit out of Björk for a free downloadable album called 'Talk Strange: A Beat Tape Inspired by Björk.'
The title is pretty straightforward insomuch as it's an 18-track beat tape built around samples of various original songs and remixes from the Icelandic weirdo's extensive catalog. It's also free to download, which is something I suggest you do since the Dilla-esque Boom-Bap beats it showcases are all pretty freakin' dope.
With all the support and encouragement I got to buy the team, I think its appropriate to share the decision making process behind what happened and why. Buying the Cubs was a unique opportunity to own one of the most storied franchises in sports. Its a team that represents so much to so many, with [...]
With all the support and encouragement I got to buy the team, I think its appropriate to share the decision making process behind what happened and why. Buying the Cubs was a unique opportunity to own one of the most storied franchises in sports. Its a team that represents so much to so many, with such a unique legacy, that when the opportunity arose, I decided to go for it.
I’m not going to get into the numbers, or the people, or much of the process other than to say that the person I worked with at the Trib was great. The person I worked with at the Cubs did a great job as well. Nothing about the process was anything but positive when it came to the people assigned to work with me.
During the entire process I thought I had a very strong chance of being able to buy the team. I thought I could offer a competitive price. I thought I had the experience to come in and improve the business so that I could continue to invest in the product on the field without having to squeeze every nickel from Cubs fans. I also thought I could win over Major League Baseball. All told, I thought my experience in owning a team and most importantly, my commitment to always trying to win, would give me an important advantage.
From my perspective, the Cubs being a winning team was important to the seller, the Tribune company, even after they sold. When the Cubs won, the newspaper sold more copies, more people watched the games on WGN and listened on the radio, which in turn meant those mediums could sell more advertising at a higher rate. On the flipside, if the new owner was purely about making money at the expense of a winning team, it could cause the value of the seller’s other assets to decline faster than they otherwise would. Not that this would compensate for significant delta in ds;rd price, but it could break ties.
On the flipside, my dedication to winning could also make my job of getting approval with MLB baseball much harder. Some people thought it meant that I would spend on players like I did in my early days with the Mavericks. Back before I learned that sometimes GMs put keeping their jobs ahead of trying to win championships. But thats another story for another time. I had no intentions of trying to outspend the Yankees or Red Sox. There was no reason to. I didnt have to beat either of those teams unless I made it to the World Series. The only teams I had to be better than were those in the National League, and more importantly, those in my division. There were no big spending rivals close to home, so the AL East could spend themselves silly. My plans were to spend to win, not to spend for spending’s sake. IMHO, the money I could save being in the 2nd tier of payroll could be invested in scouting and development. I made this clear to any and all of the owners that I spoke to across the league. Of course that didnt stop some from trying to convince some owners otherwise.
In particular, a lot of the “intelligence” that I would be a big time spender seemed to come out of Chicago. The “conventional wisdom” of people that I talked to around the league suggested that Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the White Sox was going to be my primary obstacle to getting approval from MLB should I buy the Cubs. Contrary to popular belief, I think I have a good relationship with Jerry. I know I have a good relationship with all the people I deal with at the Bulls. We are probably on the same side of NBA issues 99pct of the time. I honestly don’t know what if any information was coming from Jerry, or his position on my owning a team. He was very cordial to me and made it clear that he would be happy to talk to me about anything at any time, although we never did get the chance to chat.
My sense of the entire situation was that whoever the new owner of the Cubs would be, it was in the Sox best interest for things to stay business as usual. Published TV ratings and other published measures showed that the Cubs were more popular than the Sox, yet before I even started looking at the Cubs, I knew from my discussions with people in the NBA that the Cubs and Sox were treated as equals in their business dealings. That was great for the Sox, not so good for the Cubs. Im guessing the people in the Sox organization knew, that if I bought the team, particularly at the price point that was being suggested in the papers, there was no way I would just accept parity in future business dealings. I was going to have to try to negotiate the very best deals possible for the Cubs, even if it was at the expense of the White Sox.
In my conversations with owners around the league, they seemed to understand this point. But what was most interesting to me, was that a recurring theme was that they thought I would be good for baseball. Many had talked to NBA owners who explained that I did my homework and was a good partner. That in my areas of strength, in particular technology, I would make sure I tried to contribute and help the league how and where I could. It was pretty obvious that more than a few of the owners hoped I would come in and stir things up and stand up and speak for the owners when it came to digital rights and the future of technology and how it would impact the teams and leagues profitability. They were hoping I would be the new guy to come in and take the commissioners’ arrows. Which of course I would be fine with and happy to do if it got me their confirmation vote.
The obstacles seemed to be minor, the opportunity with the Cubs significant. It really was an opportunity that I thought I could be successful with on the field, and financially. More importantly, its something I could have a blast with. The Cubs had a strong organization, with strong management, so if I could do a deal, it wouldnt require changing the entire organization or culture like I had to with the Mavs. I felt I would have to tweak some things, but it was all manageable, which made me feel good that I could stay commited to the Mavs and lock in with the Cubs .
The hardest part was going to be the financial deal. I never thought it conceivable that it would be hard to spend a billion dollars on a sports team. In this case it was. Add me to the list of people who never want to participate in this type of sales process again. I tried every trick I knew to try to get them to commit to me. It reminded me of when I was 16 and selling magazines door to door “Do you mean to tell me Mrs Doe, that when you tell your husband that you spent 75 cents per day on the education and enjoyment of your family, he is going to get mad ? Of course not, he will be proud and excited for you and your family”. You name the trial close, I went for it. But I couldnt close them.
Then the credit crisis hit and hit hard.
All of the sudden, what seemed like a sane business decision, didnt seem so sane any longer. In particular, the financial participations I had been discussing with my bankers were for shorter term loans. Just refinance at the end of the term. Its what everyone is doing. Except that it no longer seemed like a safe bet that I could refinance in a few years. I didnt want to be caught with a Sumner Redstone margin call, and for better or worse, the banks were getting worried about staying in business and the idea of matching the asset to the term wasnt something they were ready to do, unless of course they could convince 30 other banks to do the same thing. I thought about writing to Congress to get a bailout…just kidding.
With the credit market on the fritz, the other option was to add investors and just pay cash. However, if we were going to pay cash, I was not going to bid anywhere near 1 Billion dollars for the assets. Once the credit crisis hit, the value of cash went through the roof. It was not just a matter of how much the Cubs were worth, it was also a matter of how much more money I could earn with that cash. Cash was and is king. Distressed investment opportunities were rolling in the door that could make me multiples of what any sports team could. I could not see any scenario where the Cubs were worth anywhere near the numbers that had been discussed in the media. There is one publicly owned team, the Atlanta Braves, that are owned by Liberty Capital. The market cap of ALL of Liberty Capital net of cash and debt got as low as $250mm dollars, and today trades for about $500mm dollars, and they own far more than just the Braves.
So there was the issue of valuation. There was also the issue of the economy. It was impossible to predict the full impact of these tough times on any sports team. That uncertainty created two issues. The first of course was valuation. How much would I be willing to pay for the team ? I wasn’t sure. More important to me was the cash flow. If the economy had a significant impact on future revenues, it would also impact how much I could invest in players. The absolute last position i wanted to be in was paying so much for the team, that if revenues fell off, I couldnt play to win.
So when it came down to it, I did what I thought was the only smart thing to do. I asked for an extension. I knew that if they got the money they wanted for the team, well my bid was not going to be high enough anyway. If they didnt, or the other bidders couldnt come up with their money, they would come back to me.
Since I got back from Massachusetts I’ve been slowly unpacking the heaps and piles of new treasures I brought back with me, since once again my family and friends pretty much outdid themselves in demonstrating how awesome they are and how well they know my taste.
As for what I gave out: this year in [...]
Since I got back from Massachusetts I’ve been slowly unpacking the heaps and piles of new treasures I brought back with me, since once again my family and friends pretty much outdid themselves in demonstrating how awesome they are and how well they know my taste.
As for what I gave out: this year in addition to the usual pile of books, music, and games, I also gifted some neat things from Etsy that were (I think) well-received. I’ll probably buy even more from Etsy next year if I can manage to get started on my shopping a little earlier.
For my mother I got this lovely hummingbird mug from PottersVision. The glaze on the inside of the mug is especially pretty, I think.
My grandmother got this hand-carved Canada Goose from SandraHealy, though I had a hard time choosing which one to get. The birds in particular were all pretty appealing, I thought.
I also picked up this bottle opener for my cousin – it’s made from part of a recycled bicycle gear and I think it’s pretty neat.
But my absolute favorite Etsy purchase this year has to be the custom red squirrel feltidermy I ordered for my squirrel-plagued dad from GirlSavage. It’s simultaneously adorable and a little bit sick, which I’m pretty sure means it’s awesome.
The only downside to doing my holiday shopping on Etsy is, of course, that I keep finding new things I want for myself. Perhaps I should just start dumping a percentage of my paycheck into PayPal - just like with my 401(k), only instead of nothing I’d get things.
Digital by Design: Crafting Technology for Products and Environments by Troika has just been released in the UK (US in Feb 2009). Buy online.
Text description from Thames & Hudson..
Troika is a multi-disciplinary art and design practice founded by Conny Freyer, Sebastien Noel and Eva Rucki. In “Digital by Design”, Troika presents the most exciting smart [...]
Troika is a multi-disciplinary art and design practice founded by Conny Freyer, Sebastien Noel and Eva Rucki. In “Digital by Design”, Troika presents the most exciting smart objects and their designers who push the boundaries of interactive technology and intelligent design, creating new realms of experience, customization and beauty for consumers increasingly looking for products that are much more than mere tools. This inspired and illuminating survey presents a world of design in which the latest digital technologies are ultimately placed in the hands of users, to enrich our lifestyles and experiences in new and unanticipated ways. No design professional will be able to ignore this innovative book.
Full review soon, for now the contents looks like this…
1 / Design Nouveau – Digital forms and Electric Beauty
Fredrikson Stallard / Paul Cocksedge / Joris Laarman / Hussein Chalayan / Ron Arad / Sam Buxton / Stijn Ossevoort / Christopher Pearson / Takeshi Ishiguro / Geoffrey Mann / Front / Moritz Waldemeyer / Loop.pH / James Clar / Simon Heijdens / Usman Haque / United Visual Artists / realities:united / Troika
2 / Augmented Art – Narrative Technologies and Immersive Experiences
Conrad Shawcross / Daniel Rozin / Mark Hansen & Ben Rubin / Rafael Lozano-Hemmer / Jim Campbell / Jeppe Hein / Max Dean, Raffaello D’Andrea, Matt Donovan / Thomas McIntosh / Julian Opie / James Carrigan / Michael Cross / Juliu
Tuesday, 06 January 2009
Usually, frugality is good for individuals and for the economy. Savings serve as a reservoir of capital that can be used to finance investment, which helps raise a nation's standard of living. But in a recession, increased saving -- or its flip side, decreased spending -- can exacerbate the economy's woes. It's what economists call the "paradox of thrift."
I just downloaded the Slumdog Millionaire soundrack for $8.99 and it came automatically in Plus format. The files themselves are considerably bigger than the average previous iTunes download and the quality is quite nice. Most importantly, however, there is now a "create MP3 version" selection when you right click on the song. 
D-Link is going the baby-sized auxiliary USB monitor route with the SideStage, a 7-inch 800x480 monitor due out "later this year" with a price that hasn't yet been set.
Even though it's sleeveless, we envision wearing two-tone frock by rag & bone year-round.
These fourteen-karat gold letterpress necklaces have a retro charm (and price tag).
Roku's new and improved Netflix Player is one of the most recession-friendly entertainment options around.
