Got Meat?

Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler (NYT).
Udderly amazing.

January 30th, 2008

Bernanke profiled in NYT

Check out “The Education of Ben Bernanke” on the New York Times website when you have a chance. It dives into the history of the central bank leaders and concludes that Ben may be in over his head. A fascinating read from Roger Lowenstein.

(Mr. Lowenstein, incidentally, also gave us When Genius Failed, the story of Long Term Capital Managment hedge fund. As far as brainy books go, it’s one of my all-time favorites.)

January 17th, 2008

So long Tangerine’s

Renaissance hotel plans event center (Austin Business Journal).
Tangerine’s is the club that’s being displaced by the new events center. Not that it was very popular, or even respectable. Its replacement is definitely higher and better use.

January 11th, 2008

Downtown Austin Plan

The city finally released the Downtown Austin Plan. If you’re interested in the future of Austin’s downtown, it’s worth a read.

Also, some background reading on the fight over Austin’s Capital View Corridors.

January 10th, 2008

OLPC Keeps Sliding

Intel Breaks Up with OLPC (Wired.com).

This is really tough to watch. I invested a lot of time in OLPC, knowing full well its potential benefits as well as the critical weaknesses. The Wired article just points out more of the obvious, that entrepreneurs with cash motivation can run circles around a nonprofit when it comes to marketing and innovation. (The defection of the display maker is a real problem — after all, they cannot milk the existing technology forever.)

Therein lies the problem. In my opinion, the OLPC project never intended to provided its member companies a big enough carrot. Had there been financial incentive, the money spent by those companies would have been serious investment dollars. As it is, that money is what it is…goodwill expense.

Negroponte is on record as saying the project is already a success — and who can argue, with all the new entrants vying for the emerging computer market. But maybe hindsight tells us it all could have been done much cheaper.

January 4th, 2008

I beat the market

Well 2007 has come and gone, and the annual reviews are trickling in. The S&P, for one, finished up 3.5% in 2007.

Personally, I made 5.05%, and I didn’t even have to manage it actively. I just invested in a high-yield checking account, and spent 2007 watching the interest deposits flow in.

That means in a one-year time horizon, I beat the market.

Congrats to me! Where’s my bonus check?

January 2nd, 2008