Interesting reading, Bob Lutz talks about his recent visit to China and their growth prospects.
Feeding at the Trough: Sensenbrenner, Obey & Others
Bill Christofferson summarizes Wisconsin members of Congress who had their travel expenses paid for by private corporations & non-profits:
- Jim Sensenbrenner: 19 trips; 168K
- David Obey: 13 trips; 73K
- Paul Ryan: 6 trips: 25K
- Tammy Baldwin; 12 trips: 29K
Hard to see how any of this benefits Wisconsinites. Sensenbrenner’s trips were paid for by many special interests, including the Hollywood Lobbyists (Sensenbrenner’s committee has jurisdiction on copyright issues).
The Economist: Health Care & Information Technology
Fascinating and timely article from the Economist on health care & IT
The inability, and reluctance, of doctors and hospitals to use information technology more widely is killing thousands of people
IT is strategic – when used wisely.
Flight of Fancy – Dayjet
The idea behind DayJet is a lot simpler than the technology it takes to make it happen. Many regional travelers are spending whole days going to airports, sitting in airports, flying to hubs, changing planes, and sitting in more airports that they could almost drive faster to their final destination. By going point-to-point when the passenger wants to fly, DayJet replicates that driving experience, but with a chauffer and at over 400 mph.
The difference between DayJet and a traditional aircraft charter is that all you’ll be chartering is the seat you are sitting in. That means if you take a friend it costs twice as much, but it doesn’t mean that you are paying for seats you don’t use. And unlike a charter, DayJet won’t charge for sending the plane to pick you up — only for when you are actually in that seat.
Only time will tell if this concept is successful. I’m for it. Imagine skipping security lines and regional hubs and going right where you want to go.
Cullen Pushes Temporary Gas Tax Reduction
David Cullen (D-Milwaukee) plans to introduce legislation that would lower the state gas tax by 0.05 per gallon for the summer.
This seems unwise…
WaterPark Over Supply?
At some point, there will be too many (I’m not all that much of a fan). Ryan Masse dives in:
Noah’s Ark water park in Wisconsin Dells currently lies in a state of hibernation, a fact of life for any outdoor attraction residing in the upper Midwest.
When the park reopens next month, it will be greeted by new competition — although not in the Dells. Instead, the challenge will come from Six Flags Inc., which will unveil its brand new Hurricane Harbor water park on the grounds of its Great America Theme Park in Gurnee, Ill.
Who’s the Biggest Bell of Them All?
There appears to be an anomaly in the relative market valuations of SBC and Verizon due to differences in how they report wireless results.
I am challenging anyone to account for the 25% premium enjoyed by Verizon
shares over SBC.Everyone seems to think Verizon is the larger company, but SBC is larger by
revenues and customer counts for celluar, LD, DSL, and Data. The two report
the same number of total access lines. SBC has somewhat better overall
margins.
Microsoft’s Black Box for Windows
Yet another reason to move off of Microsoft Windows:
In a move that could rankle privacy advocates, Microsoft said Monday that it is adding the PC equivalent of a flight data recorder to the next version of Windows, in an effort to better understand and prevent computer crashes.
The tool will build on the existing Watson error-reporting tool in Windows but will provide Microsoft with much deeper information, including what programs were running at the time of the error and even the contents of documents that were being created. Businesses will also choose whether they want their own technology managers to receive such data when an employee’s machine crashes.
Newspapers & The Tipping Point: Memories of My Paper Route Days
I remember the first day of my Milwaukee Sentinel paper route. It was March, 5:00A.M. The 32 papers were dropped on a corner near my home. I drove my bike, picked up and counted the papers, placed them in my paper “bag” and slid up the hill while it was snowing that cold morning years ago.
I delivered them, biked home and enjoyed a warm breakfast.
I also remember my dad driving me around once each week (early!) with the extra large Sunday edition packed high in our station wagon’s back seat. 132 copies on Sunday.
I also learned about selling newspaper subscriptions and collecting money. The subscription game was, in hindsight rather classic. Give some young kids a prize (“whomever sells the most at tonight’s sales rally, gets a football”). The memory of that evening is clear. I won the football. I had to sell rather hard to get that last sale – the local sales manager drove me to a friend of my grandparents to make that last sale. It’s interesting to think about these things today, 30 years later, in 2005, the internet era.
At the time, I did not grasp the far reaching implications of that last minute sale that gave me a football. Paid circulation was everything. The football was a cheap bonus to motivate the kids in the field. Today, the newspapers offer deals via direct mail, if at all. They’ve lost the family ties (I don’t know how to get it back and I don’t think it’s coming back).
Years later, it seems that few young kids are delivering papers any longer. That income earning opportunity may have left years ago, gone to those old enough to drive cars (and cover a larger area faster than a kid on a bike). I wonder if this loss of a classic early job with its family/community ties (Sunday’s heavy paper required a parent’s support via a car) was one of the many 1000 cuts that is laying the newspaper gently down to die, as Jay Rosen says.
Paper Route links at clusty. Paper Boy Blues The Tipping Point
More on Desert One: The Crisis
Jim Greer sent along a followup to my link to David Hackworth’s comments on Desert One. Greer suggests reading “The Crisis” – views of the rise of militant islam in Iran from the Carter Administration.