Lahini is leaving New York, and our hearts break at the prospect of not having her around all the time. You win this time, Silicon Valley.
For a nice kick in the pants, take a look at Merlin Mann’s blog – he posted two recent videos that are super entertaining and insightful.
Merlin Labs! – 5 Surprising House Hacks! from Merlin Mann on Vimeo.
Makebelieve Help, Old Butchers, and Figuring Out Who You Are (For Now) from Merlin Mann on Vimeo.
Filed under Uncategorized
Instead of writing a huge paragraph gushing over how incredible Bobby McFerrin is (I’ve been on a bender for him lately), here are some videos.
First, his amazing technique.
Now, his amazing understanding of people’s relationship with music.
He can also make the musical equivalent of sex, with a little help of course.
Filed under Fanciful Musings
Comic Con was a bucket of fun. I was expecting to have a good time but I wasn’t expecting to reconnect with an old friend and get to know so many cool people.
Jowene Wong is the coolest girl in the universe. I said it. It’s true.
I met a guy in line named Guy. He was wearing a JPL t-shirt and he looked like Garth from Wayne’s world. His knowledge of Star Trek: TOS was unparalleled.
I hung out with a young lady named Taylor who was dressed as Raven from Teen Titans. Never before have I met the perfect balance of geekiness and beauty.
Kevin Smith was hilarious, John Lassitar gave a great show, and of course… Pikachu.
See all of my pictures here.
Filed under Meta Nonsense, Shameless Consumerism
“We choose to go to the moon by the end of this decade, and do the other things – not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Filed under Uncategorized
They don’t make actors like him anymore. Sorry the quality is so bad on the video, but it’s a great scene, especially the way Paul Newman says “retards” with that growl of his.
The movie is called Slapshot. It’s not high brow or anything, but it’s very entertaining and it’s certainly one of the best sports movies ever made.
Filed under Fanciful Musings
Let’s get the corporate nonsense out of the way first. I do not in any way speak for or act as a representative of Goldman Sachs Co. or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. The views expressed here are completely and independently my own. Everything I say about the GS is just speculation, based upon information that is in the public domain.
Goldman Sachs has been painting the headlines lately, mainly as a result of an unexpectedly strong second quarter earnings announcement. According to the Paper of Record, GS made Q2 profits of $3.44B. The compensation pool set aside from Q2 earnings alone amounts to about $225,000 per employee. The annual compensation pool will likely come out about $750,000 per employee when all the accounting dust settles.
Please resist the urge to yell profanities at this point. The Internets are populated by an opinionated sort of folk, and I just wanted to respond to some of the things I see written a lot.
Goldman took bailout money, and now they are shitting on the proletariat with their huge wall street bonuses! They robbed us blind!
Goldman Sachs did indeed receive TARP funds, which were recently paid back in full with interest and dividends on the preferred stock that the government owned. The story here should be that the taxpayers won. In fact, Tim Geitner prevented GS from paying back the money even earlier because he thought it would make the other banks look bad. If the complaint is that the US government should not be in the business of loaning money to banks in the first place, I don’t think the heads of Goldman would even care to protest. Goldman took TARP funds because it was forced to. They were fully capable of raising necessary capital from private investors this whole time. They borrowed $5B from Warren Buffet and raised an additional $5B in newly issued equity during the midst of the financial crisis.
But what about the money they received as a result of the AIG bailout?
The answer in two parts:
1. The whole point of the AIG bailout was to make sure that it could repay all of its creditors, GS included. Failing to do so would have forced it into bankruptcy, effectively ending half of the life, medical and disaster insurance policies for people in the United States. It was always in taxpayers’ interests to make sure AIG could honor its debts and wind down its business slowly.
2. Even if AIG had gone under, it would have not made any difference to Goldman. The firm undertook great expense to protect itself from that very outcome. Lucas van Praag puts it very clearly in a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal. This is one of those issues that makes a good soundbite but doesn’t hold water under scrutiny.
Goldman Sachs is evil, and it secretly runs everything and is responsible for all the bad stuff that has ever happened.
No. Well… ok. GS is just as evil as Morgan Stanley/Microsoft/GM/GE/Apple/AT&T/whatever. Their goal in life is to make as much money as inhumanly possible and to drive their stock price through the roof.
GS does have/had alumni in high places, notably, Hank Paulson, Jon Corzine, Robert Rubin, the list goes on – I’m sure you can find an extensive one on Wikipedia, so I understand where the ‘secretly runs everything’ notion comes from. I don’t have any evidence for or against that; there may be secret agreements and backroom dealings going on, but I personally doubt it. These men are all rich to the point where it doesn’t matter anymore. They have more money than they can reasonably spend in their lifetimes and they are not in range of people like Bill Gates or Larry Ellison, so it’s not a glory thing. There was a recent Rolling Stone article about how GS has been responsible for every bad thing that happened since the Great Depression. It’s an interesting read, and if you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth your time.
Goldman is certainly bound to be connected to every major financial and economic event, good or bad, due to its size and market penetration, but you run into a kind of chicken and egg discussion. Some people will assert that GS looks to create abnormal market conditions that it can abuse to make large profits for itself at the expense of everyone else. I don’t doubt that this occurs on occasion, but the magnitudes are small, the timescales are counted in minutes if not seconds, and frankly, everyone does it. The more realistic scenario is that GS is very good at assessing a situation, optimizing for it, and executing. I am not arguing that what they do is always moral, (a common practice is to find something with an inflated price, go with the flow and pump it sky high, then short the hell out of it) and it might exacerbate existing problems, but no one in the firm is waking with the intention of drowning babies with puppy blood to reduce the supply of babies and cause a run on blood banks, all the while shorting blood banks and holding a large reserve of babies.
This has been my third major blog post, and a huge one. Someone post a comment, dammit.
Filed under Righteous Indignation
Business school makes you stupid.
If you find the previous statement disagreeable, you probably went to business school. You were probably smarter on the day you arrived than on the day you left. You were definitely a better human being. You are also making more money now.
Firefighters solve problems by risking their lives and confronting burning buildings. Engineers solve problems by applying math and science to original designs. Farmers solve problems by turning dirt, water and time into food.
MBAs don’t solve problems. They can’t. They aren’t skilled enough. They spend their time finding people who can solve problems and even more time finding clever ways to under-compensate them. They call this leverage.
Example usage: “I am leveraging the IT department to streamline our operational processes”.
Translation: “They way we push papers around is inefficient because we are dumb. Let’s get some computer guys to write a software package that automates it, so we can just hit a button and look like geniuses to our bosses/clients. Also, we will never take the time necessary to understand the software, so if the initial button press doesn’t work, we freak out and send threatening emails to IT and bitch a lot. Lastly, whatever cost savings this generates can go directly into our bonuses, since this year’s budget already accounted for our original stupidity.”
I could relate some firsthand encounters with this nonsense, but that would likely embarrass a few folks and get me fired, so let’s attack this from a different angle.
Cows are interesting creatures. They are delicious, so we cultivate them and eat them. People have been herding cattle for ages and everything has gotten along just fine. Round’ comes the 21st century and suddenly, the B-tards get involved (the B is for business, in case of confusion).
“We can do it better,” says the B-tard. “You see, stupid farmer, you are letting all these cows roam free and eat whatever they want, which happens to be grass. Well, I got all this excess corn crop due to B-tard instigated agricultural subsidies, so why don’t we feed them that instead? They would never eat this stuff on their own, but cows are stupid. I am a smart human, so I know best…
What!? cows that eat corn get sick and make people who eat them sick too!? No problem! All we have to do is leverage some doctors and ask them how to control killer E. Coli infestations. What’s that you say doctors? Antibiotics would do the job, but would be a bad idea? Well, in B-school, they taught us to ‘get the job done’ and ‘cover your ass’. So I will ignore your strong objections, since antibiotics do get the job done and no one can possibly sue you for breeding new strains of superbugs in cattle.
This is the same kind of thinking that saddles us with the consequences of drop-in gas tanks, DDT, and of course, subprime mortgages and the general collapse of the United States economy. They coined the phrases, leveraged buyout (using a ton of borrowed money to kill your competition) and human resources (treaing people like shit) . One day, we will make fun of business majors like we make fun of communications majors. Today, if I hear you say the word leverage, I will slap you.
Filed under Righteous Indignation
One of the reasons that I moved to West Village recently is that it provides me with an opportunity to bike to work. The west side of Manhattan has a long bike road that offers a safe, flat route for people to get up and down the island. I’ve been a little obsessed with single-speeds (not fixies) lately and here’s what my research has come up with.
Aristotle by Republic Bikes
http://www.republicbike.com/
Wow. That. Is. Pretty. With completely custom colors on components made-to-order, these bikes are a pretty cool way of expressing yourself. The reviews on the bike forums haven’t been stellar, citing a heavy frame and gummy hand grips, though at least the crank set is decent. I have seen a couple of these walking around Williamsburg (surprise, surprise), and they are stunning to behold. For $400, not a bad deal, though the recent collaboration with Urban Outfitters severely reduces its street cred.
Dahon Mu Uno
http://www.dahon.com/us/muuno.htm
As far as folding bikes go, this is the only one that I’ve come across that I wouldn’t be totally self-conscious about riding. Aesthetics matter to me, and I really don’t want to be skating around on a clown-cycle. I love the minimal styling on the Mu Uno, though the coaster brake is slightly disconcerting. It’s like I am in third grade again. The form factor allows me to carry it into the office with me, so would not have to worry about it being stolen while I am at work, and it will also pay dividends during my daily treks up and down the 6th story walk up in which I currently reside. At over $500, it’s definitely on the expensive end of my budget.
Mercier Kilo TT
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/mercier/kilott.htm
I think when it comes to value, this guy takes the cake. It’s a well reviewed bike for $350 shipped to your doorstep. It looks decent, rides smooth and will last forever. If I was living in California still, I think this decision would be a no-brainer, but I live in the land of style obsessions, tiny apartments and maurading hoards of bike thieves (and I love every minute of it).
Filed under Shameless Consumerism
