This is a stop-the-presses moment. According to today's NY Times, Raj Rajaratnam, the alleged mastermind of alleged insider trading at Galleon Group, actually lost money on the scheme. I'm now invoking my "I'm not good enough to make this stuff up" rule. To understand what an achievement this is, imagine that your phone rings and … Continue reading Play On!
Africa – Questioning My Own Values
Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending a terrific conference on Africa at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Naperville. The conference focused on ways that churches and individuals who have a passion for addressing needs in Africa can get started – translating passion into response. I found myself sitting next to a pastor … Continue reading Africa – Questioning My Own Values
Taming the Beast
Imagine that you have a life insurance policy that you no longer need. You could let it lapse or cash it in. You also could choose to sell it, perhaps to me. I’ll pay you a lump sum for the policy and agree to pay any remaining premiums. In exchange, I’ll get the payout when … Continue reading Taming the Beast
Next Up – OOEC?
A recent article in the New York Times says that environmental groups have started paying Brazilian farmers to not cut down trees in the rainforest. The article says that deforestation accounts for 20% of CO2 emissions, so stopping deforestation will help fight global warming. But there's more to it than that. Why? Because the flip … Continue reading Next Up – OOEC?
Car Sick (Vol. 2)
I had in mind to offer up some extensive comments on the state of the auto industry, who's to blame for what, and so forth, but I think those subjects have been pretty well beaten into the ground. So I’ll just offer these two personal experiences, both of which involved rental cars, which is just … Continue reading Car Sick (Vol. 2)
Car Sick – Vol. 1
According the NY Times, the debt markets are valuing the restructuring package for GM’s lenders at roughly $3.4 billion. The lenders will end up owning 10% of GM, which means the market is valuing the entire business at $34 billion. Meanwhile, the government is investing $50 billion in GM in exchange for a 60% ownership … Continue reading Car Sick – Vol. 1
At Least Now They Can Concentrate On Baseball
I shamelessly stole the title for this entry from my friend John Muller, who is one of the funniest people I know. For my part, I'm just glad I didn't see the hit-by-a-pitch incident that led to this unfortunate outage.
Does Waterboarding Work?
I heard on the radio this morning that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times during the month of March 2003. That's an average of 6 times a day. 8 times a day if they gave him weekends off. I can't work up much sympathy for him because I think he's a really … Continue reading Does Waterboarding Work?
Breathtaking
There's been a lot of noise in the marketing community over the past few months about Pepsico's "re-imaging" of its major brands. These efforts have ranged from puzzling to disastrous. Gatorade's rebranding of its classic product as "G" drew mild protests. Apparently, consumers were supposed to understand that a G with a lightning bolt represents … Continue reading Breathtaking
More Fun Photos
I came across these three images since my last post and thought they were worth sharing: Dumbing down - revisited It would be hard to dumb things down much further than this: Could you explain that again, please? I have my daughter, Julia, to thank for this one. It has "Jay Leno" written all over … Continue reading More Fun Photos
Carp Diem 