Monthly Archives: September 2008

Politics You Can Actually Affect – Act Now

Posted by Andy Boyer in Politics

Let’s be honest.  None of us know enough about Macro-economics to know if $700 Billion to make sure Wall Street doesn’t collapse is a good idea in the long run.  It’s just too complicated for us, and our voice is one of millions, unlikely to be heard.

But we can affect stupid decisions at home.  When the Sonics were abandoned by the Seattle City Council, I started subscribing to email lists from Council members.  I wanted to believe that they couldn’t really be as clueless and inept as they had been portrayed in the media.

Usually the email newsletters make me do nothing more than chuckle and be happy that these people are not in charge of building airplanes or elevators.  But Nick Licata can sometimes make me do something rash, like run to AndyBoyer.com and vent.

From this week’s newsletter: 

Time:           6:00-8:30   Doors open at 6pm with refreshments, presentation begins at 6:30pm 

Location:    Bertha Knight Landes Room, City Hall, 4th Ave and James

Date:           Monday, October 6

Presentation by Council Member Nick Licata

Councilmember Licata proposes redirecting a $43 million bond allocated to the Mercer Project to building new sidewalks in Seattle, funding the recommendations of the Bicycle Master Plan, Pedestrian Master Plan, and providing a long-term capital program for meeting our freight mobility needs.  

Reply to Presentation by SDOT:  The Seattle Dept of Transportation (SDOT) has been invited to explain why the Mercer Corridor Project is needed and the $43 million should be spent on creating a two-way Mercer Street and a narrowed Valley Street.

(Editor’s insertion: The Mercer Project is the one where they are widening Mercer Avenue into a two way avenue, so it’s easier to get on and off I-5 when leaving downtown, the Space Needle, Eastlake or Westlake.

Summary: Nick Licata wants to stop funding that I believe has already been approved, for construction on a road that will alleviate traffic, in order to build sidewalks and bike lanes.  Please people, it’s time we moved this guy back to another commune where he can cause less havoc to our lives.  I think it’s great that he wants a society where we can bike and walk everywhere – and maybe he should go build that society in Cle Elum, not a place where we all have cars and jobs.  

You can’t affect a $700 Billion bailout, but you can affect your commute home.  Let’s all start paying attention to what these guys are doing with your local tax dollar.

 

No Gas, Really

Posted by Andy Boyer in Politics

Way up here in the top left corner of the map, we tend to get a little isolationist in nature. Lots of people in Seattle never actually LEAVE Seattle for any length of time, and I have been personally shocked by how many people I meet here who have never ben to New York or Washington DC. Because of this, Seattleites tend to have a pretty narrow look at how the country works.

And with that soliloquy to set the context, I bring you a report from Charlotte, NC from the the Mid-Atlantic Regional Headquarters of Andy Boyer.com:

Wednesday evening I drove home from work looking for gas. I went to 22 gas stations and they were all out of gas. Yesterday morning I was waiting in line at a Shell station for 45 minutes. I was 5 cars away from getting on the property when they ran out of gas. I had abobut 1/8 of a tank left at that point. I found a Texaco station that around 50 cars waiting in line for gas. I waited for about another 45 minutes and was able to get gas.

About 10% of gas stations here in the Charlotte are have gas this morning. They are expecting to be back up to full capacity this weekend.

You may think you are having a bad day today because you have to replace your WAMU ATM card. Well, remind yourself of the good things you have going on while you fill up your tank at any of the gas stations here that you can stroll right into…..

Changing the Draft Order

Posted by Andy Boyer in Personal, Sports

Nothing about marketing here, really.  But I have a simple idea for the NFL, NBA and MLB to stop teams from throwing games at the end of seasons ot get a better draft pick.  Instead of making the draft based on worst to best record for the season before, why not define the draft order by worst to best record over the last THREE years.   

I have a few reasons for this suggestion:

  • This would stop events where a great team has a few key injuries in one season, ends up with the top overall pick, and builds a dynasty out of it (see Spurs, San Antonio.
  • It’s hard to tank 3 straight seasons, so individual games are less important for draft order. 
  • Teams that are that bad for so long need real help.  
  • You can make your draft choices with some “general” idea where you may end up in next year’s draft, and make some strategic decisions on free agents based on this.
  • Having a ridiculous string of unjustified good luck for 1/4 season doesn’t kill you.   

Anyway, that’s my big idea for the day. 

PETA Opens Its Mouth, and a Few More Independents Take a Small Step to the Right…

Posted by Andy Boyer in Human Behavior, Personal, Politics

You have to wonder what the people at PETA are thinking when they have “brainstorming” sessions.  It’s like they purposely come up with ways to alienate anyone in the middle 98% of mainstream thought.   From WNBC in New York:

VERMONT — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow’s milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.

“PETA’s request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow’s milk in the food he serves,” the statement says.

PETA officials say a move to human breast milk would lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health.

You may now insert your own jokes and analysis.

2 Big Numbers, and How They are Related

Posted by Andy Boyer in Big Businesses, Marketing

$20 Billion.  $16 Billion.  Two relatively large numbers that may be too hard to comprehend.  So here’s a funny comparison. 

According to Valleywag, the entire newspaper industry is now worth $20 Billion.  I suppose that seems right for a 100-150 year old industry with papers everywhere from New York to Wasilia.

But that number seems kind of small when you figure that Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s cofounders, are worth nearly $16 billion each according to Forbes.  So 2 men who have made it easier to search for online versions of newspaper articles, could essentially buy the entire industry they are destroying.   Does that mean personal fortunes are a tad over inflated?

Josh Howard, Mark Cuban, the National Anthem and a Blog – The Perfect Storm

Posted by Andy Boyer in Marketing, Social Media

I am unashamed to be a huge Mark Cuban fan.  American success story of a guy who hustles, has worked his rear end off, is always searching for the best opportunity for success, and cognisant of when to get out and start something new.  Now he has more money than he can ever spend and gets to run around thumbing his nose at other NBA owners.    (The only unfortunate thing is that you can probably make a case that David Stern’s officials are under orders to make sure he never wins a title.  See: Wade, Dwayne, 2006 NBA Finals).

Anyway, his blog is always worth reading.  And I was just having a conversation about transparency yesterday which makes this thread on BlogMaverick even more relevant.  The context of my conversation was whether anyone in the U.S. will be able to run for public office in 20 years, if hackers are going to be able to get to emails you sent and received.  

But here are people who use real email addresses to willingly spew stupidity and hate.  I would love to sit next to one of these guys in the office and get his reaction.  Good for Cuban for publicizing these.  Check out the post.