Author: ryanvis

I saw the USA version of Iron Chef USA. Please God, please, don’t let this version be this camp.

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Interesting reading. Tom Peters posted 16 observations about outsourcing and the new global economy.

His conclusion: we need to train many, many more creative, risk-taking entrepreneurs. That will require a massive shift in how we educate our youth. The only reliable indicator of whether you will be an entrepreneur: you are the son or daughter of an entrepreneur. If that skillset can’t be transferred more generally, most people will be left behind.

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Must have been a slow news day. Good for you TV 8; nothing like bringing more shame and negative press to the area.

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This article from the O’Reilly Network is a nice, short read why Ralph Nadar’s run for President is more important than a Democrat winning the election.

I find it both amazing and unsurprising that the number one response to Nader’s entry is not about his ideas and whether they’re any good. It’s about how his entry impacts the (mostly imaginary) horse race.

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The importance of cynicism is not just that it’s true. It’s that recognising human selfishness gives us a chance to do something about it.

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I knew about the caste system in India, but I had no idea it was so depraved. And still in action. A Christian Science Monitor story details the Balmikis, or scavengers, who subsist by carrying away, by hand, the body waste of higher castes.

From the story:

“It is one of the astounding contradictions of modern India, and a fact notably missing from the ruling party’s current feel-good ad campaign, that this “inhuman” practice continues even today. At a time when growing numbers of urban and even rural Indians own mobile phones and drive expensive foreign cars, where Indian software engineers are busy creating the “next big thing,” and where Indian rocket scientists today are planning a joint US-Indian mission to the moon, more than three quarters of the nation’s citizens live without access to a simple toilet.”

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Does anyone else find this sad? Not in a nostalgic way, but the fact that as a society we’re so lazy/uneducated/litigious that NYC found it necessary to remove all worded instructions from intersections?

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Who was the poor soul that proposed this project; build a tunnel underneath Stonehenge. Coming soon, the Grand Canyon overpass.

Bonus points for anyone who gets the reference in the title.

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“It’s a marvelous demonstration by liberals, if you will, of censorship. Now mind you, running for political office is every American’s right. Running for political office means free-speech exercise; it means exercising the right of petition, the right of assembly. … To say `Do not run’ to anybody is to say, `Do not speak. Do not petition. Do not assemble. Remain silent.’ That’s just unacceptable, especially coming from people like the editors of The Nation.”
– Ralph Nader, Feb. 4 on National Public Radio

Isn’t this what they’re spearing Bush et. al. about?

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The Freep (our favorite Detroit Free Press) has busted the Detroit 2006 Super Bowl committee for doctoring a photo of downtown in their ad. “Doctoring” is a nice term, considering the that they not only added lights to buildings that are abandoned, they actually put roofs back on collapsing buildings. Check out the comparison PDF.

My favorite quote? “It is a picture of the Detroit we hope to show in 2006,” [Michelle Fusco, a spokeswoman for the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau] said.

Right. Soon, they’ll be importing hipsters to dress up downtown for the festivities.