Finally! Sync my BBY and Google Calendars

Hooray for the gmail-bby sync!  And with a Google product, even better.  Sure, it syncs with my Outlook, too, but considering I try to avoid Outlook as much as possible, that part has little value for me.

http://www.google.com/mobile/blackberry/sync/index.html

16 Secrets The Restaurant Industry Doesn't Want You to Know

No wonder America has an obesity epidemic!

http://health.msn.com/nutrition/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100187534&GT1=31036

The OC is Bank Owned

Looks like the number of foreclosures/short sales in Orange County is around 40% overall, some areas and price levels a bit higher.

http://mortgage.freedomblogging.com/2008/06/15/1st-drop-in-08-for-oc-distressed-homes-for-sale/

Exercise: It's an hour a day, people. Seriously.

So says the LA Times:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2008/07/exercise-its-an.html

We sure like to eat out!

About 49% of our money is spent on food away from home.  133 million people are food-service patrons on any given day.  Good business to be in?  I sure hope so!

Grist: Voluntary programs not so effective, says gov't watchdog

[ Normally I'm a hands-off government guy, but environmental protection is one thing that I think actually needs regulation - which this article seems to imply. ]

Shocker: Voluntary measures to reduce greenhouse gases don't work so well, the U.S. EPA Inspector General's Office said Thursday. Despite the Bush administration's adoration of the word "voluntary," such programs have "limited potential" to actually address pollution and climate-change concerns, said the report. Too often, industries decline to spend money to participate in such programs; when they do, the data they offer can be unreliable. The U.S. has 11 voluntary pollution-reduction programs, 10 of which were launched during the Clinton administration, aimed at reducing emissions from aluminum smelters, landfills, coal mines, and agriculture operations. Those programs will reduce pollutants by no more than 19 percent by 2010, says the report, adding, "If EPA wishes to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions beyond this point, it needs to consider additional policy options." source: Associated Press

China Building Rate

Stats I saw said China is building the equivalent of two New York Cities every year.  Think that'll suck up some industrial commodities?

Couple other stats:
- Putting 25,000 cars on the road every day
- Their middle class is 300 million people (although middle class is a pretty low standard compared to US, $6k-$30k per year)

Income disparity precedes depressions?

According to a recent WSJ Article Richest Americans See Their Income Share Grow, the richest 1% of Americans pulled in the highest share of gross income since 1929, at around 22% of the nation's total.  So if that also happened in 1929, is that bad sign for things to come?  In the old days, a rich noble class led to revolutions.  Now do we just have economic revolutions?

Firing Non-Elected Public Officials

In San Diego, these redevelopment agencies wield huge amounts of power, and are essentially beholden to no one but themselves and stocked with non-elected officials.  Voice of San Diego shed some light recently, and now they're dropping like flies.  Do other cities put their hands in control of people and agencies that voters have no control over?  Or are we the only stupid one?

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2008/07/25/news/01graham072508.txt

China says has more people surfing the Web than US: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

With a 56% increase in on year!

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080725/china_internet_boom.html

Bureaucrats

A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants.
--Alben W. Barkley

D.C. School District Proposes Merit Pay For Teachers : NPR

Awesome!  Pay the teachers more, see what happens.  I've been a fan of the "trickle up" model: start paying the people at the bottom more, and see how much they think the administrators are really worth that siphon off the budget and apply ridiculous policies.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92663976

Ants and Grasshoppers

OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long,
building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and
plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

-------------------------------------------

MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and
plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and
demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed
while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the
shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable
home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp
contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor
grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody
cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where
the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Jesse
then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's
sake.

Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that
the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call
for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act
retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green
bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home
is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a
defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel
of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of
single-parent welfare recipients.

The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of
the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens
to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't
maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the
house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize
the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2008

Biggest Fear

"High tech = supersonic speed. Business models = Porsche speed.
Organizations = bike speed. Policymaking = snail speed." - David
Bosshart, CEO, Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute

Better than "Washing your feet with your socks on"

"Knitting a sweater for a dead squirrel"

--Dilbert

Powered by innovation | The Bulletin

Seems like this wouldn't actually be a net positive?

http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080630/BIZ0102/806300329/1041/rss

Good Article on Electric Cars

By Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel:

http://www.american.com/archive/2008/july-august-magazine-contents/our-electric-future

Smart Investing by Buffet

Looks like both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are insolvent and in line to be taken over by the US government. If so, their stocks will probably be worth zero. Interesting -- everybody talks about what Warren Buffett is buying, little is said about what Buffett is selling. A while back Buffet (Berkshire) had a very large position in Fannie Mae. Quietly, with no fanfare, Buffett sold his whole position in Fannie. Smart move, and a very quiet move at that. Warren, you clever devil.

--Richard Russell, Dow Theory Letters

OpenLaszlo: Cool AJAX/Flash interface?

http://www.openlaszlo.org/front_page

Depressing Article about For-Profit Fundraisers

You've heard this before: Fundraising companies take a big cut.  But these stats make it look even worse.  So is the answer that if you can't do it yourself, you shouldn't do it.  Course, we all know that often events take a lot more work than they net.  If a for-profit company that specializes in this can't be more efficient and effective than individual organizations, that's very sad - or are the companies just scamming the NFP's?

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-charity6-2008jul06,0,6668563.story

FT.Com Article: Invest in the Best to Make an Impact

Great article in the Financial Times about demanding more from non-profits, while at the same time supporting the efforts required to meet the demand.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8f6425f8-44a7-11dd-b151-0000779fd2ac.html

Why "Rambling Dogs"?

Because that's what we like to do, the dogs and I: go rambling. And when you're out hiking for hours, the thoughts tend to wander, so now I've got a place to put them all down. Yes, this is a personal brain-organization project.

Rambling: Definition