The study by American City Business Journals, parent of the The Business Journal Serving Greater Milwaukee, looked at 179 U.S. markets and analyzed the amount of personal income each region generates, among other factors, to measure the region’s adequacy for its current professional teams and any possible new ones in baseball, football, basketball, hockey and soccer.
Milwaukee’s total personal income of $75.7 billion, according to the report, is insufficient to support the addition of any more professional teams.
Political Observations From Michael Powell
via David Isenberg:
The Washington DC political process is more broken now than at any other time I’ve seen in my life. It has collapsed in on itself. I went home and asked my father [Colin Powell] if I was missing something, and he agreed with me that the process has collapsed into pure partisanship. The power of the incumbency has grown. People are not concerned with what’s right or what’s in the nations interest, they are purely interested in killing their opponents.
Powerbook Tattoos
Too Funny…. Laser Powerbook Tattoos. via Virginia Postrel
Wisconsin VC Investment
Wisconsin’s Venture Capital investments increased from $38M in 2003 to 68M in 2005, roughly 1/4 that of Minnesota and Illinois.
DRM Based Trusted Computing – Why We Should Care…
“We’ve always know that Trusted Computing is really about DRM, but computer makers always denied it. Now that their Trusted Computing chips are standard on most new PCs, they’ve decided to come clean. According to Information Week, Lenovo has demonstrated a Thinkpad with built-in Microsoft and Adobe DRM that uses a Trusted Computing chip with a fingerprint sensor. Even worse: ‘The system is also aimed at tracking who reads a document and when, because the chip can report back every access attempt. If you access the file, your fingerprint is recorded.'”
BMW Audio Books
Put on your seatbelt and prepare for highs, lows and plenty of twists and turns. BMW, in conjunction with Random House, brings you BMW Audio Books, a unique series of specially-commissioned short stories showcasing the work of some of the finest contemporary writing talent. Each gripping tale is yours to download for free and a new book will be available to download every two weeks. Listen to them on your MP3 player, your laptop or ideally, in the car. So sit back, hit play and enjoy the ride.
The Energy Outlook Changes
Thinking Different About the Car Sales Process
First, there were no cars. Why anyone selling an expensive product would want potential customers to contemplate a large number of them is beyond me; “pile ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap” is programmed into us on the genetic level. Second, Phaeton customers were isolated, indoctrinated and, most importantly of all, relaxed. The average car dealer’s showroom is more uncomfortably exposed than a public urinal and less relaxing than a dentist’s chair.
Muni WiFi Updates
Kristian Knutsen notes that Madison’s embryonic wifi service is planning to include a “walled garden” of free sites. I’d rather they not do this. The service should either be on or off, frankly. Rone Sege argues that we should not tax municipal wifi.
Surviving Globalism – Caterpillar
Caterpillar confronted the same labor costs and Asian competition that the auto companies did. But Cat is doing just fine. Why?
A Midwest manufacturing company, fat and lazy, heavily unionized, suddenly faces foreign competition. You know the ending: massive layoffs, closed factories, consolidation, rumblings of bankruptcy. That’s the familiar story of General Motors, Ford and lots of other big manufacturers over the last 20 or 30 years.
Great article, particularly in contrast to GM’s challenges.