We don't normally see people lining up in Iowa to vote early. This time around, Barack Obama's crew is holding "early voting" rallies Thursday morning, the first day Iowans can vote at their county auditor offices. I don't remember this happening in 2004. I haven't seen any indications John McCain's camp is planning on doing anything similar.
Today Iowa Sec of State Michael Mauro told us absentee ballot requests are down so far (nothing concrete really. Just anecdotal from talking with county auditors). But registered dems have requested more than three times as many absentee ballots as repubs.
Although I've often been critical of the French trend towards putting food in silly little glasses, called verrines, once again, I find myself eating my words around here.
On a recent trip to Ikea (I know...I know what I said...) I saw these great little glass candle holders and thought they'd be perfect for servings of something...like, say...individual portions of Tiramisu. Which are great for those of you, if you're anything like me, who will forage around their apartment all all hours, desperately searching for something to eat. I am like an aspirateur for food and will eat anything, but have a strong preference lately for this chocolate spread I bought in Nice with bits of caramelized pears in it, crunchy organic peanut butter, and Chex party mix.
Leave it to two knuckleheads, who tend to just do things rather than planning. The result is often something other than what was expected, sometimes you get bitten on the ass for your actions. Jevon and I both jumped the gun, showing you why entrepreneurs need help with logistics, legals and trademarks. Apparently there was a trademark registered with the previous name of our conference. We loved the name. While we’ve been in informed that our use does not infringe on the existing trademark, we decided it was just easier to change the name of the conference.
We bounced around ideas including:The League of Extraordinary Startups; StartupUnion; Her Majesty’s Canadian Startup; among others. Ultimately we’ve settled on StartupEmpire!
It’s a little audacious. Entrepreneurs need to start thinking big.
A lovely small town with a few schools tucked in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. The sweet pungent smell of North Carolina’s finest filled the air during the concert. The county also harbors a lot of money — a Vanderbilt mansion is open for tours at $47 a head, so we gave that a pass. Instead, a group of us — Natalie, Jenni, Lily, Steven and I — went for a bike ride on a road that goes through Biltmore Forest, passing one large house or mansion after another. A beautiful old one was for sale; we found an open basement window and took a look inside.
The Detroit Lions have finally done what they should have done about three years ago — sacked Matt Millen.
Apparently, Bill Ford Jr.’s public outburst was the last straw. Funny how William Clay Ford Sr. won’t listen to an entire city, its newspaper and every football pundit on the planet, but he’ll listen to his boy.
You can weigh my intellectual dementia quite well with the following confession.
I watched that fresh new BBC Four gameshow ‘Only Connect’ - a show in which a vast depth of knowledge is only eclipsed by the ability to laterally think - earlier and all I could do, because I didn’t know what the hell was going on, was imagine having nasty, depraved sex with the exquisitely filthy host, Victoria Coren.
I knew she was a goer back when she presented some other show I didn’t understand: Balderdash and Piffle, a programme granting me my first ever wordhunting adventurist inspired erection, but now she’s something else entirely.
"According to market research firm iSuppli, the newly released PS3 game console costs Sony $241-$400 for each console sold. This is not the cost of the system - this is the net loss to the company after subtracting the price of each console from the cost of the components.
Game console makers like Sony and Microsoft take an initial loss for each system sold so they can provide the very best product to the customer. Of course they wouldn’t do this unless they believed that the initial loss would eventually yield a net profit. They make up for the loss in two ways. First, they take advantage of accelerating technology to get cheaper components. For example, while Microsoft initially took a $126 loss for each Xbox 360 sold, it now makes a $75 profit due to the cheaper cost of the components. It’s probable that some of the cost decrease comes from manufacturers who compete for the console maker’s business. Second, they take a cut of the price of every game sold for their system."
"I remember back when the O.J. Simpson trial was going on, sentiment as to O.J.'s guilt or innocence was sharply divided along racial lines. Polls overwhelmingly showed what I witnessed firsthand: Whites overwhelmingly believed Simpson was guilty (the numbers were even higher among white women), while African-Americans believed that O.J. was innocent in equally large numbers. Fortunately for me. I was undecided at the time, so when a person of a different race asked me what I thought of whether Simpson was innocent or guilty, I could honestly say that I was unsure, thus avoiding unwanted and unintended racial tensions.
Nowadays, I've changed my tune and I am not afraid to say it: I think O.J. Simpson is guilty as sin, and it is a shame that he cannot be tried again (Granted, I believe in the Constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy). Simpson is now acting in the same way that guilty people act, publishing a book called If I Did It. Simpson's publisher at HarperCollins, Judith Regan, said she considers the book to be 'O.J.s confession.' This has to make a person wonder if Simpson has lost his marbles, because if I am in my right mind I wouldn't be writing and publishing a book that might single me out as guilty. "
"The real question is why we need an Information Commissioner in the first place. And the answer is that government is far too big. Instead of pretending that politicians and bureaucrats can somehow become 'accountable', let's recognise that the whole state sector is unaccountable by its very nature. If we want accountability, turn things over to competitive suppliers serving paying customers who can take their business elsewhere. That's real accountability."
"As hinted at in the subject line of this entry, I have left scenic Las Vegas and am currently on a plane somewhere between there and New York City. I am generally wiped out and hungover (I say this not to suggest that I lead and/or condone the “party” lifestyle. It’s just that I got really hammered last night) and feel like a great big fat person after eating and drinking in the Vegas style for the past five days. As you can probably tell from the photo above, I am feeling less than excellent, something that I am trying to express with a facial expression. That’s me sitting in the Las Vegas airport totally waiting for the airplane people to let me get on the airplane so I can go home. If you look closely you can see one of those luggage-loading carts in the background. It was a pretty incredible experience for everyone."
