Whole Foods CEO Flips out at FTC

Wouldn't it be nice if the financial guys did the same thing when they were being questioned by congress?  I am filled with joy when I read articles like this - there is no reason people should be afraid of the government.  If anything, we should be on the attack as is the Whole Foods CEO.  All this being said, I still am not shopping there - prices are still way too high.  I'll leave it to those who drank the organic food kool-aid.

 

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200812091413DOWJONESDJONLINE000597_FORTUNE5.htm

Blagojevich Charged with Fraud

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/rod.blagojevich.charged.2.883170.html

Illinois governor charged with conspiracy and corruption.  As are all things with politics, it's not about who is corrupt, it's how well they disguise it as public service.  This guy just wasn't all that successful.  I suppose these are the consequences for not being good at your job - going to jail.

Rush's Website Features Churchill Dinner Address

Yes, I went to school there and was fortunate enough to see this live.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com

You have to get there today or tomorrow before 4:30 or so pm.

Why I am migrating to Google Chrome

A picture says a thousand words.  This is with just one tab open.  Chrome definitely has some annoyances, but my machine is a little older (1.4Ghz Centrino w/512RAM), so I'm trying to conserve all I can.

Powers Catholic Recruitment Video from 1979

Courtesy of the Flint Expatriates blog. www.Flintexpats.com



So many people I recognize, and a number of parents of classmates are in here. Wow.

Rush Limbaugh to speak for Hillsdale College

FINALLY!!!  Hillsdale College booked Rush to give a public lecture.  Though the college has by far the largest endowment per student in the state of Michigan, I'm sure he wasn't cheap.  Unfortunately, I always contended that he would be an incredible commencement speaker (he's speaking for Hillsdale's annual Churchill Dinner in DC).  Rush gives the most inspiring monologues about the greatness of the country and of the individual that I've ever heard - the stuff that graduating seniors need to hear.  I'd much rather have graduating seniors hear someone tell them to go out and conquer the world than listen to someone plugging his/her book (or worse).  How awesome of a day would it be for the air traffic controller at the Hillsdale airfield to land Rush's private jet!  Oh well, I guess you can't get everything you want.  Now that I think about it, I didn't much care for the students either when I worked there.  Those buggers slowed down the internet so much, it was unbearable!

Credit Crunch not hitting the responsible

I just bought a car, and because I didn't have all the cash up front, I did what most people did - financed it. When talking with the salesman, never once did he mention that because I am young it might be tougher to get approved or get a good rate. He simply asked if I have good credit. I told him "not sure what the score is, but I pay all my bills on time." I got approved, no problem with a very good interest rate in about a day. All this nonsense about normal people not being able to get loans seems silly to me.

Oh, it's a 2007 Monte Carlo. This gets me thinking... what happens to my warranty if GM doesn't last the year?

Price of Oil vs Price of Dollar

Let's play a game.... looking at this graph, try to guess which year we went off the gold standard.

The other item to note is that an oz of gold buys just as much oil today as it did back in 1946, the year where this graph starts. I had gold prices going all the way back to 1800, but was too lazy to try to dig up oil prices that far back. Anyway, it illustrates pretty clearly what out monetary authorities have done to our dollar. Enjoy. I still can't figure out how to upload a good image here, so you might need to click on the photo to get a clearer view of the numbers.

Rafa has a girlfriend

Rafael Nadal has a girlfriend!  Much cuter than Federer's Mirka.  I don't know.. have any of you seen a hot girl from Switzerland?  Didn't think so.  Have any of you met any Spanish girl who wasn't hot?  Didn't think so either.  I guess each did what they could.

http://www.hola.com/famosos/galeria-de-imagenes.html?imagen=/famosos/2008/10/27/rafa-nadal-paris/imgs/nadal-xisca-a.jpg



--
Joe Petrides

Silicon Valley and the Financial Crisis

http://calacanis.com/

I hate linking to things, but this is a fantastic piece by Jason Calacanis, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and CEO of Mahalo.com.  It addresses a start-up guy´s view of the current financial crisis. It is long, but is an excellent read.

I´ll post more of my own work I promise.  In the meantime, I suggest looking up more Jim Rogers videos on YouTube.

Worthy Magister

http://www.peterkrupa.com/archives/404

Check out Peter Krupa's post about Venezuela and Hugo Chavez. Bottom line... he's just a clown that should be of very little worry to us.

Why I am voting for John McCain

It seems like I get more comments when I make lists, so I'm going to create another gem of a list. After watching the debate last night and the following punditry, I decided to cast my vote for John McCain. Thus, you can consider Joe Petrides fully endorsing John McCain for president. I encourage my vast international readership to vote for him, and I hope that this endorsement at least secures me a cabinet position. It certainly is necessary to thank some people for making my decision easier, and it is absolutely necessary to list them below.

1. CNN, specifically Anderson Cooper, Soledad O'Brien, and Wolf Blitzer. The post-debate punditry also convinced me to vote McCain.
2. ABC News
3. CBS News
4. Silicon Valley
5. Harvard Law School
6. Digg.com
7. Hollywood
8. Rolling Stone Magazine

Lists are much better when they reach a nice round number like 10, but 8 is sufficient. Before I explain, I have to admit that my vote is based on emotion rather than reason or logic. I strongly believe that this makes me much more credible as I better represent the average voting American. Reasonable people don't vote since they realize it doesn't matter. Ok, so here we go...

1. Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer and Soledad O'Brien (hot), mask themselves in the disguise of professional journalists who are really out there to find the truth. We all know they aren't, but what bugs me is that it is so obvious to all of us that they are plugging for Obama! They even plugged for him in the primaries which caused Hillary to soften up to Fox News. I have incredible respect for those who can hide their personal leanings, but these guys just don't have that talent. CNN's studio is filled with huge screens, and the anchors constantly show off cool technology they have such as google maps, and glorified smart boards. It's like their studio's focus is to look sleek and advanced when in reality it is all too much. Ditto for the post-debate punditry. They have this table of pundits (about 20 of them) all with laptops out and Anderson Cooper standing in the center asking questions that make him look journalistic while we are supposed sit in awe at how cutting edge CNN is. Give me a break. And why do they always have to talk so fast? Is this some sort of marketing ploy to always make it look like the world is on the brink? You guys are pathetic.

2. ABC News has always leaned liberal and it bothers me.

3. Ditto for CBS News.

4. Obama is a corrupt scoundrel just like everyone who looks at his past knows. However, he has developed incredible star power within the Silicon Valley elite community. It's trendy to vote for Obama out there and everyone is just going nuts because they think he is some sort of cool, tech savvy guy that is going to green the country and pull us out of Iraq. Of course, the truth doesn't matter. We all know that presidents do not do in office what they promise in their campaigns, so why should we believe that Obama is any different?

5. Who screwed up the financial system? Ivy League elites. Which politicians have the attitude that THEY know how to run your life better than you do? Ivy League elites. Who has run this country for the last 16 years? Ivy League elites. Come on folks, have you ever met an Ivy League grad who was a nice, down to earth regular guy who you never felt held you in contempt even though he/she is far smarter than you could ever dream to be? I know only one - he's a Princeton PhD who teaches philosophy at Hillsdale College. Still looking for others....

6. See #4. Obama's "cool factor" turned Digg.com from a Ron Paul fight the system group to a bunch of Obama robots. I used to like that place.

7. Hollywood is especially annoying. Obama is now so "cool" that everyone out there was fighting to see who could have the best attended Obama party. Do you all remember how in high school there were the "cool kids," but then there also was that group of kids whose parents were extremely wealthy? These kids somehow floated above everyone else and had that aura about them that they were above everything? They always had the parent-sponsored mansion parties with alcohol and the occasional recreational pharmaceutical. This group wanted everyone else to know that it went on but kept it enough under wraps so that you knew they were cool and did cool stuff, but you didn't know enough to be in the group. It helped them maintain a feeling of superiority. THAT's what these guys are, and Obama is an excuse for them to throw more parties like that.

8. I just got back from Buenos Aires where magazine kiosks are literally everywhere. Rolling Stone put Obama on the cover with this elitist pose. I had to look at it every damn day.

John McCain will not make a very good President, but he DID give a personal F-U to the commies out in Vietnam even as they tortured him. Anyone willing to do that for his or her country surely loves this place, even if he has bad policies.

New Blog

I started a new blog called Venga Franco.  This means "come on, Franco" in Spanish.  For those of you who want to read commentary in Spanish, I will try to translate my English posts as well as write some original work in Spanish.    This is mostly for my own benefit and practice, but for those of you who want practice reading badly written Spanish, feel free to peruse.  The link is vengafranco.blogspot.com.

The Dow was up almost 1000 points today.  What an incredible time to be interested in all things economics.  My advice is to buy yourself some gold if it gets into the low 800s or even dips into the 700s range.  We are going to have a serious inflation problem in about 5 years or so.

When do WE get to riot

An interesting monologue from Rush Limbaugh.  Love him or hate him, he is VERY entertaining to listen to and is incredibly talented.  I think he brings up a good point here.  I can't include myself in the "we" that he talks about because I'm not rich, but I certainly can understand where he is coming from.  You can see the entire monologue at http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_101008/content/01125110.guest.html.

RUSH: We always hear about riots.  We're going to have riots if that happens, going to have riots if that happens.  Who are the people rioting?  Who are the people protesting?  Well, when you look at who they are the vast majority of them are supported by those of us who play by the rules, we go to work every day, and we pay our taxes.  What do they have to riot about?  When do we get to riot?  Look at what we've had to pay for.  We've had to pay for the second New Deal.  The Great Society, LBJ comes along with the war on poverty, the Great Society.  Now we're learning that we had to pay for a totally corrupt mortgage housing scandal in which Obama and ACORN are deeply embedded.  

We have people who were given loans who had no way of paying them back, they weren't even asked to state their income.  And when we hear about all those foreclosures, people losing their homes, and we think, “Oh, my gosh, our fellow citizens are being thrown out.”  No!  It's the people who shoulda never been given the loans in the first place.  It's the people who weren't paying them in the first place.  It was people who were put into these homes when they had no business being put in these homes.  It's not a brief against them.  But this was a scheme and it was a tactic employed by the Democrat Party exclusively to create a never-ending and growing percentage of our population that was totally dependent and owed everything to the Democrat Party.  Now their candidate and their guy, James Carville, “Going to be very traumatic out there, very, very traumatic.”  We know what he means.  

When do we riot?  When do we stand up and say, “We have paid for all of this; we have played by the rules, and now you come to us and you tell us that the whole reason this happened is because we are unfair and we are too advantaged and we are too lucky, that it's not right that not everybody can win life's lottery?”  I'm not suggesting riots, don't misunderstand, folks, I'm just suggesting here that the people who are going to riot are the people who ought to be getting down and thanking every damn one of us, because the New Deal number two -- and, by the way, I think we're in the midst of the New Deal number three here.  And why do we need a New Deal number two if the New Deal number one didn't work?  The New Deal number one did not work.  

New Look Coming for Flint, MI

Now that I am back in my hometown of Flint, MI, I am starting to pay more attention to what is going on. I have long argued that Flint would be a great place to live but that the people are what is holding it back. Flint is much like Detroit in that the politics are dominated by racial tensions and corruption. We don't seem to care much since we keep voting clowns into office. This is partly because good people are either too busy being productive to run for office or simply too lazy. Of course, the quest for some false sense of power and importance propels the wrong people to be aggressive in seeking office which they ultimately win.

All that aside, I really want to be excited about the downtown development. I took a stroll down Saginaw street last week and was surprised to see construction going on. Readers can see the plans for downtown at www.whatsupdowntown.com. The reason I want to be excited is because I want to see the city I grew up in succeed. The reason I am not excited is because of the list of investors I see on the website. Normally, a sign of good things to come is indicated by a large number of private investors realizing that property and opportunity in the downtown area is significantly undervalued thereby resulting in a flood of investment. Unfortunately, I don't see names of many private investors. I see a list of government funds and community foundations which tells me that the private market largely does not see much profitability in downtown investment at this point. So why is any money being put into downtown? Well, it is because of pride in the city and a want to see it succed. This is all fine and well, and it speaks volumes for those involved - they are true patriots of the city. However, as much as we hate to admit it, the profit motive is the ultimate signal that an investment is worthwhile. This "community patriotism" always works temporarily, but I will be a believer when foundations and governments are no longer needed to make Flint a great place to live. We need private investment in Flint in the form of a new industry, plant, etc. This will be the building block of a productive, profitable Flint. To get this, we need better government and more of the "right" people. Which residents will step up?

That all being said... those loft apartments look really nice....

Dumb Americans are smarter than you think, Washington

I was not going to write about this bailout, but Jim Cramer pissed me off so bad, I just have to rant a little bit here. What did he say? He was a guest commentator on one of CNBC's afternoon shows last week and was asked, "If you had to pitch this plan to the American people, what would you say?" Jim's response was more or less like so, "Listen America, you are not as smart as me or my friends on Wall Street, or my friends in Washington. You don't understand what is going on. We do. Please, just shut up, get out of our way, and let us smart people take care of this problem." My response -"go to hell, Jim Cramer." Why should we let the people who caused this problem come up with a solution? They should be FIRED and replaced with others who DIDN'T cause the problem.

So, this bailout thing went down last week. It was not voted in the first time around because of the typical Washington infighting. It went around the second time once the Senate and House filled it up with pork projects. However, there is another reason the bill did not pass the first time around. Constituents were calling like mad to their representatives demanding a no vote. It must have been a bad day to be a congressional staffer fielding all those angry phone calls.

All of this makes me wonder. Congress said we need to do this. Wall Street and all of the mainstream press said we needed this, but the American public, for the most part was really pissed off and wanted nothing to do with a bailout bill. So, what did Washington, Wall Street and the media do? They resorted to scare tactics, telling us we would lose our jobs and our homes and the the economy would go into a deep recession. This was all reminicent of what we were told before the Iraq war. Did the American people buy it? Not really. We aren't financial wizards, we don't know how to work all the numbers and what exactly this bailout entails. But that doesn't matter because we knew what this was all about. Sure, we don't know the details and we can't prove anything, but everybody knows this is a bailout and not a rescue plan. We all know that Congress and Wall Street is a good ol boys club and it was a way for Congress to funnel money to their campaign donors. This is no secret to anyone, and the American public has a right to be pissed off about this. They are literally taking our money and giving it to a bunch of rich guys. Sure, CNBC pundits will try to explain to us that it is not "technically" a bailout, but we all know the truth. After following this whole saga, I have come to these undeniable facts of life. If you disagree with any of them, or want further detail, please comment and let's talk about them.

1. Barack Obama will not change anything.
2. John McCain will not change anything.
3. Sarah Palin will not change anything.
4. Joe Biden will not change anything, but he has a crush on Sarah Palin.
   
5. There is virtually no difference between Barack Obama and John McCain.
6. Barack Obama and John McCain will do very little of what they promise if elected.
   
7. The Washington elite considers the American public stupid.
8. The public reaction to the bailout shows that regular Americans are not stupid. We just lack access to inside information.
9. There is no place to find an objective media source. Not CNN, not Fox News, not ABC, NBC, MSNBC or anywhere else. You are better served by following your own instincts.
   
10. This bailout bill speeds up our approach to European-style socialism.
11. This financial mess has nothing to do with capitalism. It was the fault of the government and the Federal Reserve system.
12. A recession is not a bad thing and the government can only make it worse.

There you all go, let me know what you think!

Keyboard Layout

Well, folks. I made it back to the United States only to see banks crashing all over the place just as I saw from afar. I also am witnessing without a doubt the dumbest thing our government has done in my lifetime happen right before my very eyes. Anyway, this post is not about that.

I write this in English only because I´m short on time. BUT, have you ever wondered how to put accents like this áéíóú and tilde´s like this ññññ into your Spanish papers easily? Or how about writing in Greek like this ηελλο, τηισ ισ ξοε σπεακινγ... or any other language?? Well, follow the steps below and you can change your keyboard input language to any language in the world. Now, remember, you have to be accustomed to the layout of the keyboard. I grew knowledgeable of the Argentine keyboard layout at work and at the internet cafes, so I can use it without a problem. Ok, here is how you do it.



First, go to control panel and select Regional and Language Settings

Click on the Languages tab on top.. then click details
In the settings tab, select "add"
Select the keyboard layout you want. If you travelled to Mexico, you are probably familiar with the Mexican layout. I was in Argentina, so I know the Argentine layout.
Select your input language and the keyboard layout will automatically adjust.

Then click on the button labeled "language bar," and make sure these items are checked.Then click ok. A language bar should appear on your desktop. You should be able to drag it onto your taskbar to get it into a less intrusive place. You can change the language by clicking on the button and selecting the language. You may have to re-change the language if you move from Microsoft Word to Firefox or any other area where you may be typing. If you want to know what the keyboard layouts are, go ahead and google "keyboard layouts" and you will see them all there.
Happy typing!

Vino

El vino en este pais es divino. La compre una BOTELLA a un restaurante para solo $10. No tengo tiempo para escribir mas ahora, pero cuando hay tiempo, postare mas.

Ciao

Iguazu Falls

Si piensas que las cataratas de niagra son lindas, no son nada comparado a las cataratas de Iguazu.  ¡Holy cow fueron impresionantes!  Voy a poner fotos en facebook mañana.  Ahora hay una problemita con mi tarjeta de memoría de mi cámara.

¿Qué más?  Ahora, mi tobillo está mucho mejor y creo que voy a jugar tenis en una cancha de polvo de ladrillo.  Son el mismo color que las canchas del abierto francés de Roland Garros.  ¿Con quién voy a jugar?  Conocí a un chico, Sergio, en el website tenisargentina.com.  Él respondió a mi post sobre encontrar un compañero para jugar.  Vamos a ver.  Ojalá que no sea mucho mejor que yo.  Hace más que una mes que jugué tenis.

Hay que ir.  Más mañana.

Iguazu aquí vengo.

La semana que viene (si nada cambia) salgo por un viaje a las cataratas de Iguazu. Yo leí que son como las cataratas de Niagra multiplicada por 100. Hay que asegurar que la batería de mi cámara está cargada. Creo que voy a tomar más que 100 fotos. Cuando regreso, postaré los más buenos acá en el blog y la mayoría de los restos en facebook. Si querés leer sobre Iguazu y ver fotos puedes googlear "Iguazu" o hay un website acá que es el oficial.

Esta noche, Argentina va por el oro en fútbol - el deporte más importante en este país. Juegan contra Nigeria a la 1 por la mañana. Los bares van a ser loco, y por eso hay que ir! La gente son loco de este deporte. A mí me parece que los mejores deportes de argentina son 1. fúbtol, 2. Basquet, 3. Hockey sobre césped, 4. yachting. Interesante, ¿no?

Para ver más fotos

Esto es un blog. Un blog es para escribimiento y compartiendo pensamientos. Por eso, he decidido postear la mayoría de mis fotos a través de facebook. Voy a continuar postear acá los fotos más importantes, pero es más fácil subirlos a través de el sistema de facebook. Entonces, yo he subido más o menos 50 fotos en mi cuenta de facebook con descripciónes y todo. ¡Disfrútenlos!

Unos Fotos... por FIN!

9 de julio... la calle mas ancho del mundo... creo que en partes, hay 10 files cada dirección
La tumba de Eva Perón. La aman la gente en Argentina, pero me parece que era bastante socialista. Fuí al museo Evita y era una cuota de ella que dijo "donde hay una necesitad, hay un derecho." La verdad es lejos de esto (para mí).
Bryce, su novia, y yo a un bar en la recoleta (un barrio). Bryce está enamorada con la cerveza en este restaurante es un oktoberfest microbrew.
Bryce y yo en la isla "tres bocas" cerca de salta. Tomabamos un barco a la isla. La discribí la experiencia en otra post.
El teatro colón. Puede ser que es el teatro más famoso del mundo porque de sus acousticas naturales. Hay mucho construcción y la compleción es muy muy tarde. Una problema de las renovaciónes es que los planes origionales del teatro están perdidos y nadie sabe por qué las acousticas son tan buenas. Si hacen un error con las renovaciónes, es posible que las acousticas lleguen a ser destruidos. La meta es completar las renovaciónes en las 2010.
Estación Retiro. Es donde tomemos el tren hasa Tigre.

Arte contra los EEUU en la calle. Lo tomé esto foto la noche en que dos chicos trataron de robarme.
Una marca de nike con Manu Ginobili. Es muy popular acá y ademas, llevó la bandera de Argentina durante los principios ceremonios de los olímpicos. Significa "live ginobili." La gramatica acá es argentino. Se llama "vives" en otras partes fuera de Buenos Aires
Las marcas son en pares. Hay un que dice viví ginobili y a lado de, encima de, o detrás de hay el otro que dice jugá Ginobili. También, jugá es el conjugacion de la forma "tú" que usan en Buenos Aires. Creo que es jueges en otras partes.
La gente que vivieron conmigo durante las primeras tres semanas.

Por Suerte!

Llegó mi computadora.  Yo tenía miedo que los trabajadores de la oficina de aduanas me perdieron pagar un impuesto de 50% del valor declarado.  Algunas personas me dijeron que los trabajadores les dijeron estas cosas a turistas en casos en que no tienen que pagar en realidad.  Pero, pasó fácil porque me llamó mi numero y yo fuí, sacó mi caja, firmó algo y me fuí. 

Otra cosa interesante.  Para poner accentos en las palabras, es fácil cambiar la programación de su tecla.  Es así... vaya a "control panel ' regional and language settings - details - add - acá, se puede añadir qualquier idioma que quieres.  Si no está acostumbrado al formato de la tecla español o argentino, sólo haga una busqueda en Google para el formato.  Será un foto que lo mostrará.

Las cosas en Buenos Aires son buenas.  Hasta ahora, yo no he hecho mucho en mi trabajo.  Ahora, estoy leyendo un tésis de vinivitícula escrito por una persona con quién yo trabajo.  ¿Qué hace mi empresa?  Pues, es bastante aburrido, pero trataré de explicarlo un poco.  Hacemos audítorias para casas de cambio para asegurarlos que están cumpliendo con las reglas y reglamentos sobre el peligro de algunas personas están usando la casa de cambio para el lavado de dinero.  Además, hacemos consultas de finanza en general.  Bastante aburrido, sí, pero para mí todo es interesante.

Una cosa interesante.  La semana pasada, mi amigo y yo fuimos a Tigre, un area bastante turistica.  Toda la gente acá me dijeron que Tigre es muy linda y increíble.  Cuando ibamos, descubría que el norte de Michigan es mucho más linda que esta área.  También fuimos a una isla y pensaba que sería muy linda porque es una isla en Argentina.. ¿no?  En realidad, era sucia, todo del agua era marrón.  Es bueno que yo iba, pero en realidad, prefiero el norte de Michigan.  Me parece que a través de todos mis años viviendo in Michigan nunca me día cuenta qué suerte tenía para vivir en un lugar como eso.  Pues, voy a iguazu en dos semanas y después los diré de eso.  Ojalá que por lo menos vaya a ver un poco agua azul.  Me dijeron que es unas de las vistas más lindas del mundo.  Como Niagra Falls multiplicada por 10.  Vamos a ver.

ok, la batería de mi laptop está muriendo.  ¡Adiós! 

Una pausa

Lo siento por el pausa de entradas en mi blog.  Ahora, estoy esperando mi computadora.  Es posible que sea en brasil, mexico, texas, argentina.  USPS internaciónal priority dice que solamente pasa 5-10 días enviar un paquete por correo en esa manera.  Hoy (martes) es el quinto día.  Me parece que llegará pronto porque Buenos Aires debe ser un centro de distribución para el correo.  Si viviera en Rosario, Mendoza, o otro ciudad más pequeño, me parece que llegaría más tarde.  Suerte!   Cuando llega la computadora, Uds. tienen una promesa que escribiré más sobre mis tiempos acá.  Ahora, estoy escribiéndolos en un cuaderno y las cuentas más interesantes, ridículos, divirtidos, tristes, y avergonzados serán publicados en mi blog pronto.

 

Ojalá que todo sea tranquilo para todos en los Estados Unidos.
 

Hola numero 2

Cosas son buenas acá en Buenos Aires. Terminé mis clases de español y
el lunes, empiezo mi trabajo. La empresa se llama "Banking Consulting
Services." Soy un poco nervioso porque mi comprensión de la lengua
aún está en desarollo, pero todos me dicen que necesito tener
paciencia. El sitio web es acá --> www.bcs.com.ar. Tienen un versión
en ingles.

Observations interesantes de la ciudad...
1. No hay espacio para nada. Es como viviendo en Manhattan, NY. Hay
parques (plazas) con verde, pero hay gente en todas partes. No hay
descansos en este ciudad.
2. La hora de cenar empieza más o menos a las 8.45 no a las 6 como en los EEUU.
3. No hay grandes cafés acá. Un café es approx. 5oz.
4. Hay mucha arte de la calle que es muy extraño. Empieza más o menos
después de la crisis de 2001 porque muchas personas no tenían trabajo,
y los emociónes estaban muy fuertes. Arte es una manera en que la
gente expresa sus pensamientos. Pero, como puedes ver, no tengo
ningún idea lo qué provocó esos pensamientos. Puedes ver mis fotos
--> http://picasaweb.google.com/joe.petrides
5. Los "boliches" (nightclubs) están interesante si no quieres hablar
y solamente bailar. Sin un gran dosis de drogas fuertes y peligrosos,
después de una hora o dos, me aburren. Ponen música electonica por
toda la noche. Por una razón, Madonna electronica es muy popular.
Los boliches cerran a las 6 o 7 de la mañana.
6. Hay marchas o protestas casi todos los días. Algunos marchas
bloquean toda de la calle 9 de Julio, la calle más ancho del mundo.
El tránsito tiene que mover a otras partes. Eso es MILES de coches
cada día.

Hay muchas más observaciónes que yo tengo en un cuaderno. Publicaré
las que son las más interesantes y después de mi viaje, yo publicaré
todos los más importantes para mí en ingles.

Ojala todo sea bien para todos mis lectores. Más fotos pronto.

Hola de Buenos Aires

Hola todos.  Yo he vivido en Buenos Aires para 2 semanas y es una ciudad muy interesante.  Hay muchas cosas para hacer, pero el accento aquí es muy difícil comprender.  Supongo que no sabí tanta español que pensé.  Se me olvidé traer el cordon para mi cámara, pero voy a tener fotos pronto. 

 

La semana pasada yo tenía clases con dos brasileños y una chica de Los Angeles que solamente tenía 17 años.  Está en Buenos Aires sola, viviendo en un Hostel.  Todos en mis clases son muy amables, pero va a ser difícil hacer amigos porque la más de las personas solamente se van a quedar en Argentina por 3 o 4 semanas.  Ellos van a salir y yo podré buscar en otras lugares para amigos por que no voy a tomar clases después de este semana.

 

Vivo con un madre de 4 (hijos(as) se han mudado de la casa).  También estudiando español son 2 mujeres de Bélgica (belgium) y un hombre de Denver.  Es interesante porque yo puedo hablar mejor que los otros, pero ellos pueden entender mejor que yo.  Por eso, los conversaciónes durante la cena son muy interesantes.

 

¿Qué más?  Los bares son lugares muy interesantes.  Sí, se llaman "bares" como nosotros.  Yo voy a un bar que se llama "bar duck" (el sonido "barduck" en Hebrew significa "caos") en que los dueños son de Israel.  Desafortunadamente, no es un buen lugar para practicar español, pero los hombres son amables y es solamente una cuadra de mi apartamento.  También hay clubs que se llaman "boliches."  He ido a dos y son ridículo.  Todos son barrachos y todos bailan por toda la noche. Ellos cerran a las 7 de la mañana. Es normal salir a los 4 o 5.

 

Pues, tengo que ir por ahora.  Esperen más comentario en las días siguientes.  Y, lo siento sobre los fotos.   Los subiré cuando tengo una cordon.


¡Salud!
 

El viaje ha empezado

Después de un vuelo de 12 horas, estoy en Buenos Aires. Voy a incluir fotos tan pronto como descubrir un locutorio en que puedo usar mi tarjeta de memoría en mi cámara. Pero ahora, necesito una siesta. Más luego amigos!

Spanish Translation

My blog will change to Spanish soon, though I expect the posts to be mainly comments on the photos I post. Here is how you translate it. Download google toolbar for either firefox or internet explorer. There should be an option to add a page translation tool. I've used this to translate some English pages into Spanish and it works pretty well. This should convert all my Spanish text to English for your viewing pleasure. If the translation is horrible, that's probably because my Spanish grammar needs serious work.

See ya later, Hillsdale College

As most of you know, I recently left my job at Hillsdale College to move on to other things such as money, women, power, and the occasional acid flashback (kidding). I intended to work there for 2 years which is exactly what I did. Now, this is the time where former employees burn bridges by lambasting former bosses, co-workers and/or the executives in the company, but as much as I think about it, I can't really complain about much and here's one reason why.

As a student, I thought I knew some glaring weaknesses that the school either chose to ignore or simply denied the existence of. After "working for the man" for a year, I learned many more weaknesses the school had. However, whenever I voiced my concerns in these areas, I found myself surprised that just about everyone that works for the school was fully aware of these issues and was just as concerned as me. Hillsdale is by no means a perfect college, but it is remarkably self-aware regardless of what bantering students (including me) may think.

I do have several good things to report about the school. I truly do believe that its students learn better stuff than the students of any other school in the Midwest. While the University of Michigan or Kalamazoo College or some of the other highly ranked colleges may have bright students that change the world, I think that Hillsdale students learn better because the environment of the place helps them understand the purpose of their education. Because of this, Hillsdale students tend not to float around lost for 4 years. ..... It does bother me, though, that many of these bright students end up working for think tanks instead of Wall Street, silicon valley, and other places where they can really make a difference. I dream of the day when I hear of a Hillsdale grad raising 40 million of venture capital to start up some cool new firm. I suppose that's my responsibility...... Moving along, if you throw in the fact that Hillsdale teaches in a conservative environment and all the "good" colleges in the Midwest are far off to the left (Oberlin, Kenyon, Michigan, MSU, Kalamazoo, Macalester, even Notre Dame and U of Chicago to some extent), then there really is no other choice for the household that wants a Midwest college for its child and doesn't want the status quo of academe which seems to be intolerent of folks who believe the "old way" of doing things still holds water. I do fear that the Hillsdale College employees who see this blog will look at the last sentence and wonder how I got through Freshman English. Well, I got an A- and B, so trust me, at one time, I was able to write.

Another good thing about the college. It has a TON of money. Calculated per student, Hillsdale's endowment is nearly twice that of any other college in the state of Michigan. This includes the University of Michigan's 7ish billion dollar endowment. The endowment is only going to go up as donors continue to pour in money. Hillsdale's sales pitch is pretty easy since almost no other college says the things we say. If a donor agrees with Hillsdale's message, there is nearly no competition and next thing you know, we have a new student union.

Next, "it's the people." That's the sign that greets comers on M99. I really can't describe how great the people there are, but let's just say I will be very lucky to meet and work with better people again in my life. The students there are a unique bunch, and they are pretty much all conservative, but the students there bring so many different personalities and experiences to the table, it's impossible to keep up.

I could go on, or maybe even edit my prose a bit to make it worthy of a Hillsdale College graduate, but I won't for two reasons. The first reason is, I majored in Economics and subsequently forgot most of the words I once knew. I was thinking a while ago and realized that I really only know about 30-40 words, so I can only write for so long. The second reason is, I'm headed to Buenos Aires in a couple days and I have a few final affairs to get in order. This is a blog after all, not an essay so why make it pretty? The bottom line is that despite its inevitable problems, attending Hillsdale College and working there were two of the best decisions I've ever made.

ok, there are my nice (and truthful, mind you) compliments - now GET A TENNIS TEAM

Greatest Wimbledon Final Ever?

Yesterday, I may have witnessed the greatest Wimbledon final ever in the history of tennis. Roger Federer, the world's #1 lost to #2 Rafael Nadal 6-4; 6-4; 6-7; 6-7; 9-7. It was the longest match in the history of Wimbledon, spanning 4 hours and 48 minutes. It symbolized the changing of the guard as Rafael Nadal is probably the world's best tennis player after finally beating Federer on his turf after losing to him the last 2 years. Truthfully, Nadal dominated the first two sets because he won the most important points, converting over 50% of his break point opportunities as opposed to Roger going 1-13 for the match on break points. The one break he did get in set 2 was squandered as he was subsequently broken twice later in the same set. Then, I had to leave. We conceded that Nadal would probably win the match, so we hit the road from my friend's cottage, a 2.5 hour drive. About an hour into the drive, we checked the score on a cell phone and found that Federer had just recently taken the third set in a tiebreak. A rain delay bought us an hour and a half. We raced home and followed the match on a cell phone seeing Federer win the 4th set in a tiebreak. We rushed into her home in Grand Rapids only to see another rain delay. When play resumed 20 minutes later, an epic battle of two heavyweights, two champions in their own right battle it out. The shotmaking was incredible. Both held serve until the 15th game since there is no tie-break in the 5th set in Wimbledon. Darkness began to fall over London as the match spanned 7 hours including rain delays pushing the match to 9pm. Both players admitted that it was very difficult to see going into those last few games. Talk about a scene! It was one of those few moments in sports where I knew I was witnessing something historic.

There are few other situations in sports that create this kind of pressure. Think about being down by one with nothing left on the clock while you sit on the free throw line. It's all over in about 25-30 seconds as you shoot your free throws and the result is known. This match had that sort of constant tension every single point in the 5th set. In 24 years of watching sports on television, I've never felt my heart beating this hard for such a period of time and this includes all those Michigan-Ohio State games. I can't imagine what these guys felt.

So what does this all mean for tennis? Well, maybe a few more people will become interested in the sport, but unless these people watched the match, I really doubt it. The United States drives popularity in professional sports and unfortunately, our attention spans are too short to digest tennis. What happened yesterday will be forever etched in tennis lore and will never be forgotten by even the moderate enthusiast. So what does this mean for tennis? It provides great satisfaction for those who appreciate the sport. These enthusiasts can sit with quiet satisfaction, knowing their fanhood is not wasted and they caught a glimpse of something great to which the mainstream doesn't give the necessary credence.

He's still the No. 1, He's still the best. He's still five-time champion here. Right now I have one, so for me it's very, very important day. -Nadal

Probably later on in life, you know, I'll go, 'That was a great match,'" Federer said. "But right now it's not much of a -- how do you say -- a feel-good thing, or a positive thing to end this match. … I'm happy we lived up to the expectations. I'm happy the way I fought. That's all I could really do.

Farewell USA on July 12

I sent an email to all my college friends and other associates of many sorts shortly after I graduated from Hillsdale, bidding them all farewell and thanking them for their friendship. I really meant it. It ended up being a waste of time since about 2 weeks later I took a job at the college and came right back. Well, I really enjoyed my work these last two years at Hillsdale despite the desolate location. I've learned so much on the job, and I've met some incredible people.

I'm headed off to new things now. One of those new things includes a trip down to the Paris of South America, Buenos Aires. I will intern at a banking consultancy for 10 weeks and then spend a week in Santiago, Chile. For those of you who remember me planning to do this two years ago then backing out... I actually AM going this time. Yes, I bought the plane ticket and everything.

My cell phone will be gone by the end of the week, so don't call it. You can get a hold of me via email, and I will try to find a way to call you back. I don't plan on getting a new phone since I fly down to Argentina on July 12th. If you need to get a hold of me via phone, you can try my parent's home phone at (email me for this #... don't want to put the rents' number down publicly). I will be there from July 1 - July 12.

I will blog (in spanish) periodically during my time down there. I plan to post photos and commentary about the situations I come across. For those of you who don't know Spanish, Google has a pretty good translation tool - look it up. I hope to see some of you before I leave, and for those who I don't, I hope to see you when I get back. My contact information is below.

There are some email addresses that I was unable to find. Go ahead and forward this to whomever you please.

e.) joe.petrides@gmail.com
blog.) comeonfranco.blogspot.com

Cheers!

Joe

French Open Tennis

Yes, I know, Roger Federer suffered the most lopsided defeat probably in the history of Grand Slam finals 1-6, 3-6, 0-6. Rafael Nadal is just so far above the competition on a clay surface - it was painful to watch my sports hero get absolutely manhandled. It was even more painful to see his body language, language that displayed resigning defeat well before the match was over. Come on, Roger, true champions fight all the way to the end. One aspect of Roger's game I do have great admiration for is the way he treats victory and defeat. Post championship interviews are treated by Roger the exact same way whether he wins or loses. Nadal even noted this. Roger's demeanor changes so little making his emotional control remarkable. It was Kipling that said in that overly-quoted poem,

"If,"... If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same ...

I also noticed that both Roger and Rafael addressed the crowd in multiple languages, Roger in French with a little English (he's fluent in 4 languages) and Nadal in Spanish, French, and some English. What happens if an American wins the French Open? We tend to not bother learning alternate languages even in these sorts of situations. Personally, I view someone who takes the time to learn English very respectful of what American has to offer. I wish Americans would do more of that. Maybe some other countries just need to create an economy so strong that it forces us to learn their language. Hmm.. maybe it's time to start cracking open a Chinese textbook?

Blogging is hard work

Blogging is difficult to maintain as a hobby.  I've found that it's easy to post when there is absolutely nothing going on and one is bored, but when things get busy, activities such as blogging take a back seat.  I guess this is how a blogger loses his reader base.

I have been busy lately - trips to DC and to Arizona coupled with training the new guy at work make neglecting a blog easy. 

I did find time to buy a plane ticket to Argentina.  It's nice to live in Hillsdale where expenses are low enough to save for big purchases such as these - I almost feel Chinese and definitely not American.  I also found out where I will be working for 2.5 months during my time in Buenos Aires.  It is a banking consulting firm - you can check out their website here --> http://www.bcs.com.ar/company_profile/company_profile.htm.  I really look forward to this experience.

Speaking of saving, Americans are probably the worst savers in the world.  I really feel this is why I cannot relate to the common man since the common man racks up huge credit card debt, spends countless dollars on items he cannot afford just to maintain a phony status in the community or to feed his addiction to material possessions (or whatever else).  Blame certainly lies in the individual, but when politicians, economists, and presidents worry so much about "consumer spending" it makes me think that these guys are making us feel guilty for saving!  I say that if consumer spending plummets, it's time to celebrate the fiscal responsibility of individual Americans.  The more individuals save, the more banks can lend out to folks who need investment vehicles for business loans, mortgages, college costs, and, if they're feeling frisky, the occasional leveraged buyout (kidding... sort of).  The money is put to use whether the consumer spends it or not, and I think we know which side has the spending problem.

Starbucks just doesn't get it

Starbucks announced that in return for signing up for their rewards program and/or purchasing a $5 gift card, its customers will have 2 free hours of AT&T wifi. Am I missing something here? I do a ton of traveling for work, and I never go to Starbucks because the internet is not free. If I am in between appointments, I scour the city for a Panera Bread because I know they have free wifi at all their stores where I can catch up on my email. What I can't understand is why doesn't Starbucks do what every other coffee shop does and offer ABSOLUTELY FREE WIFI. This is a major reason that sales type businessmen like me do not go to Starbucks. I really can't fathom why this is such a difficult concept for them to grasp.

Just back from DC

I just got back from my 5th trip to DC in 2 years. I like DC much better than I do New York, but maybe that's just because I know more people there. Either way, I'll have a post about it soon.

The French Open is taking place right now. It is one of the 4 major tennis tournaments each year (similar to the US Open, British Open, Masters and PGA Championship in golf). The event is the only of the 4 majors played on clay, a surface suited to slower, more strategic players verses power players. The Americans these days do not do well at the French since power has come to define the American game. In fact, Pete Sampras, the individual with the most major championships of all time never won the French Open.

These days in tennis, we are witnessing perhaps the greatest clay court player in history. If he's not the best ever, he's certainly second to Bjorn Borg. Rafael Nadal from the island of Mallorca off the coast of Spain has never in his life lost a match on the clay of Roland Garros (in Paris and the site of the French Open). At 21 years old, "Rafa" is 3-time defending champion. Currently No.2 in the world, Nadal has no other major championship victories. To give you perspective of how good he really is on clay, world No 1 Roger Federer has a 1-8 record vs Nadal on clay two of those being French Open finals. Within the last 3-4 years, Roger displayed absolute dominance over the sport of tennis on all surfaces except on clay with Rafa on the other side. This year, it looks like those two will once again meet for the final, and once again, Nadal will likely be the victor. He is on an absolute tear this tournament - none of his opponents are even threatening him. The statistics paint a picture of complete domination. If you are a sports fan, you should try to see this guy play on clay sometime before his reign over the surface ends. Notice that he hits forehands that loop high over the net - he does this with incredible topspin making the ball bounce very high creating awkward shots for his opponents. The clay makes the ball bounce higher than other surfaces giving Rafa's game a huge advantage. His competitiveness is unmatched in the sport - he hustles to every ball including many that others give up on. He's the sort of guy you like to see out there.

You can catch the French Open on ESPN2, NBC, and the Tennis Channel. If you only watch one match, try to see the men's final if it turns out being Rafael Nadal v Roger Federer - it will certainly be a classic.

Google Ads

Why do all my google ads talk about sex offenders? What is going on here? Maybe it's because of the article I posted from the Economist.com.

New York Photos

Alongside the Wall Street Bull in Bowling Green Park. For good luck, investors must rub the nose, horns and, yes, testicles. In case you doubted me, I did all three.













A shot of Grand Central Station. Commuters from Jersey and Connecticut, and the outer New York Suburbs arrive here every morning. I got my tennis racket strung at a shop here. Hint - click on the linked text "Grand Central Station" above for a really cool social project.



















Me in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Spooky to think that over a trillion dollars changes hands here every business day.


Here I am in front of Times Square.

New York is rather annoying

I recently visited New York for work and was really looking forward to the visit.  I'd been there twice but never for more than a couple hours.  This trip was to be nearly three days including plenty of down time.  As a disclaimer to this post, I know that there is much more to New York than I saw; these are simply observations I had based on my limited time there.

New York, as I saw it, can be summed up with three words: culture and marketing and people. 

I stayed at the Grand Hyatt located at Grand Central Station about 8 blocks from Times Square.  Every language imaginable could be heard there and around Grand Central and throughout the rest of the city for that matter.  I later learned that some 40% of New Yorkers speak some language other than English as their primary tongue.  I met an old law school pal of my father's about 8 blocks south of the hotel in a neighborhood filled with about every type of ethnic restaurant imaginable.  There are different neighborhoods for the Polish, Chinese, Italians, etc..  The languages I heard and people I saw were much different from my home in Hillsdale, MI - a town with 1 culture.  It was quite an experience I must say and I'd never seen anything like it in any of the other big cities I've been to in the last 2 years with this job.

Marketing was everywhere and was really annoying.  Everything is big, flashy, and in your face with no breaks from the millions of people.  Visiting Times Square is a pretty sickening experience.  I strolled down there one evening by myself and was completely turned off.  There were tweens running around everywhere screaming and taking photos.  Tourists from every country were jockeying for position to take photos or to get to the next destination.  Even down in the financial district, tourists were everywhere. The famous bull statue was completely covered in tourists taking photos and climbing on it.  My colleague and I took a trip down to central park to play tennis on their very well maintained clay courts and were surprised at how many people were in central park.  Bikes, runners, softball games taking up every field, booked tennis courts (40), and filled benches typified the central park experience.  It is a neat spot, but there is no escaping the droves of people.

All in all, New York seems like a very stressful place to live.  My guess is there are some really unique spots away from the hustle and bustle of midtown, but it probably takes some digging to find.  We did find a really nead placed called the Russian Vodka Room complete with many flavors of vodka.  This place had about 15 jars of vodka filled with different fruits and spices.  The menu included garlic and horseradish flavored vodka.  I stuck with cranberry.  There must be scores of unique places like this one around New York, but a couple days just wasn't enough to find more of them.

If nothing else, it helped me realize that the city in which I live isn't nearly as important as the relationships I have with the people living there.

Interesting observations:

1. I got a tour of the Opus Dei national headquarters.  Yes, this is the Opus Dei that was featured in the novel "The DaVinci Code."  The priest that took me around told me that when the book came out, every media company wanted to visit with them and talk with them including Good Morning America.  I was told that they were disappointed to find out that there isn't much secretive about Opus Dei.  The book's release was several hundred million dollars worth of free marketing for them and really helped them get their message out.  Opus Dei is really booming because of this book.  I also noted that their national headquarters building is plush with what looked like cherry paneling.  Polished brass was everywhere.  Someone with big money is helping fund that place.
2. I visited ground zero.  There is nothing there save for a hole in the ground.  I didn't see any sort of memorial, though I'm told it's located in a church across the street.  The whole area is fenced off and the fence has some sort of lining making it hard to see what is there.  Come on, guys, it's been 7 years since 9/11 and there is nothing to show for it.  Whoever is in charge of that property should be embarassed.
3. The subway system is great.  We never had to wait more than just a couple minutes.  It is a little more crammed than DC's metro, but it is clean and easy to use.  A ride costs $2 no matter where you go in the city.
4. Central Park's clay tennis courts are very well maintained and were an absolute joy to play on.  If you are a recreational tennis player, it is worth the hourly investment to play on the dirt once or twice.
   

A great time

A great time to be invested in commodities, that is.  I recommend GSG, a balanced commodities index, GLD, a gold index fund that is due to cross 100 soon - it's been lagging behind the other commodities and is a great play to hedge against inflation which, in my opinion, is much higher than the government is reporting.  Basically, if our economy collapses and we enter a period of hyperinflation, those invested in gold will have nothing to worry about.  Oil passed 132/barrel today.  There is no reason to whine about gas prices so long as you are invested in an energy index fund or even an oil index fund sticker symbol OIL.  How long will this run last?  Well all the major investment banks are reporting forecasts of 150+ per barrel oil.  Goldman analysts predict $200 oil on the horizon.  Get your money here and rising gas/food prices will be of no concern to you.

In other news, I just got back from a 2-day trip on college business to New York City.  Needless to say, I was not really impressed with the city.  I'm collecting my thoughts on it and will blog about it sometime later.  In fact, I've visited every major city along the eastern US through my job, so expect a 100 word blurb on each city sometime soon.

Big Day in Tech News

Carl Icahn is launching a proxy battle in an effort to oust the Yahoo board and re-negotiate Microsoft's bid for Yahoo. My take? I say the Yahoo board is shaking in their boots right now. This is a clear opportunity for Microsoft to low ball Yahoo and offer 29-30 per share. Microsoft eventually upped the offer to $33 per share before withdrawing it leaving Yahoo shareholders very irritated. Maybe the Yahoo board will cave and accept a lower offer to avoid battling one of the most legendary financiers.

CBS announced a purchase of CNET networks sending CNET's shares up 40+%. It's a bummer I didn't buy a few months ago since I've had the "hunch" that CNET was going to be bought out for a long time. I guess investors should worry about the future and use the past only as a learning experience. CNET owns a number of tech media internet outlets.

A tennis legend retires at 25 and Tiger Woods is a decent golfer

I am 24 years old. Justine Henin was in second grade when I was in first grade. I graduated high school just after she did. I probably could beat her in tennis up until I was 5 and she was 6 (maybe). I would still beat her in a bar fight. Justine won 4 straight French Opens and ended up with every grand slam save for the lawns of Wimbledon. She won nearly $20 million in prize money. She repeatedly dismantled the 6 foot plus Sharapova, Ivanovic, and the Williams sisters all in her short 5 foot 6 frame. Her technique was nearly flawless and her one-handed backhand made her game look like art. Except for a 7-week stint by Sharapova, Henin has been #1 in the world since 2006. She is 25 years old.

She is retiring.

Citing general fatigue and a failing will to win, Justine is putting away her racket for good. For those who follow tennis, it is unbelievable that someone at her height actually made it to the professional level. Watching her was almost funny since she was dwarfed by the top players. As someone who spent the better part of my life battling against those much taller and stronger than me, I have to salute her.

Success in individual sports requires a very strong and disciplined mind. Once the winning begins, constant pressure to keep winning emerges. Unlike a team sport, players can't be traded, presidents and owners can't change, and new stadiums can't be built to harness the possible success of a new environment. Also unlike a team sport, the pressure is focused solely on the individual - not dispersed across an organization. Roger Federer mentioned this pressure earlier this year when he lost to the Serbian star Novak Djokovic. I mention this because ESPN contributor, Mark Kreidler's article about Henin's retirement praises Tiger Woods' ability to keep winning year after year. He notes

By the way: If you haven't started appreciating Tiger Woods circa '08, now would be a good time. Through marriage, family, loss of loved ones and, recently, injury, Woods remains an almost implacable winner. Thank goodness he isn't human; it might be intimidating for the other guys.

Now, golf is a sport one can succeed in longer than tennis, but Kreidler's point is spot on. Aside from Michael Jordan, Woods is probably the most impressive competitor in the modern sports era because he keeps winning despite constant concentrated pressure to keep it up.

Microsoft did a really cool thing

Recently, Google maps crashed for me while I was trying to print directions for a business trip.  Luckily, there are several mapping services online, so I just headed over to maps.live.com and was pleasantly surprised with the ease of the user-interface and the less cluttered printout.  I honestly think that Microsoft's mapping product is better.  Microsoft also added a 3D dimension to their mapping which let's you see actual 3D renderings of cities.  It takes a fast computer and an equally fast internet connection, but holy cow is this cool.  I also noticed a new view called "bird's eye" which gives a view similar to looking at a 45 degree angle down on a city.

This is not the cool thing, though.  What is really amazing is their new worldwide telescope.  This program is like google earth or microsoft virtual earth except this is for the entire universe!  It combines hundreds of thousands of photos from various telescopes and lets you navigate the universe.  You can even go back in time and into the future!  The head up display let's you go right to various places such as planets, solar systems, nebulae, etc.  Tech blogger and former Microsoft employee, Robert Scoble admitted that it made him cry when Microsoft first showed it to him.

In full disclosure, I can't get it to work right on my computer.  I've read about the vast majority who use it and say it is absolutely spectacular.  It is a quick download and all the data streams off various servers.  I'd love to do this on a huge screen.

These people can only scam the world for so long

So, I've had a little to drink this evening. I have a moral question.... This country is pretty much a scam - politicians in general do a great job of rallying the populace to their phony causes in order that they get votes. These scammers care not for the "common man," but for some reason, we keep voting for these clowns. They just inflate our money and scam us left and right. It's got me thinking here. Is it better to just say "screw it" and join them to succeed in life, or is it better to just live a mediocre lifestyle and sit back and lament the guys on top while keeping a clean conscience? I don't know about you, but morality hasn't really gotten anyone anywhere. Please name one person who was principled who actually made something of himself without selling his soul once or twice along the way. Answer = zero people. Bottom line - if you want to make something of yourself and also make a MEANINGFUL difference in the world, there will be times where you will need to lay your ethics aside and engage in shady dealings. Damn.

On the bright side - once one is at the top and has power, the opportunity to set an example and inspire others to succeed in ethical practices is wide open. Once one is rich and famous, he/she has ample opportunity to inspire others to follow the rules, be ethical, and rise to greatness. Horrible advice if you expect to make it beyond mediocre in this world.

Speaking of those who will sacrifice all to achieve success - how about Larry Ellison giving a big f-u to the Justice Departmen prosecutors during the anti-trust trial regarding his acquisition of Peoplesoft. I know this happened several years ago, but come on, this is HILARIOUS....

Everyone loves a good show, and Ellison delivered. Besides the initial salt-of-the-earth musings and gunplay discussion, Ellison, the billionaire yachtsman, showed few executives can swagger like he can. When he testified at an eventual antitrust trial that could have blocked the PeopleSoft takeover, Ellison arrived in celebrity style (with cameras swarming outside the federal courthouse in San Francisco where the trial was held) in a natty charcoal suit with patriotic red tie. On his way to the witness stand, he swiped a bottle of water off the Justice Department lawyer's desk, sat down, opened the bottle, and took a deep, satisfied swig. It was a moment of pure arrogance. Classic Ellison.

BTW - Ellison and Oracle won this case.

Barack Obama = Luke Skywalker

I don't want to turn this blog into a link farm for YouTube videos, but this video is pretty funny. It is a Star Wars themed summation of the current democratic primary battle. Enjoy.

Shucks, it didn't work and Africa still sucks

Well, the experiment only got 3 people to bite on my facebook scam.  Oh well, I guess I'll have to make better use of my time.

I commented earlier about the atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and how China's investment is worth watching inasmuch as it relates to improving the stability of the country.  Well, the Economist Magazine published an article about the DR of Congo this week that truly made me sick to my stomach even though I knew all of this was going on.  The militia groups out there use rape and sexual intimidation as a means to cement their power.  I hate these gross reminders.  Notice that the article mentions the abundant presence of "blue helmets."  It doesn't look like they are capable of accomplishing much.  This gives me an interesting idea.  I now call upon my vast readership to send me 1 single example of where UN peacekeepers and/or NGO's have actually made meaningful progress toward resolving a situation.

The article is below - I wonder if I will receive an email from the Economist's lawyers telling me to take the "premium" content off my blog.

READER BEWARE - This article contains explicit material that may make you sick to your stomach.  Imagine the worst possible form of torture and intimidation and multiply it by 10.  That is what is described in this article.  This means that my mother and sisters should stop reading here.

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A barbarous campaign of rape

EVERYTHING in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country almost the size of western Europe, is on a scarcely imaginable scale—including the violence. Among the beautiful mountain vistas, terraced hillsides and lush tropical greens of eastern Congo, a bitter, decade-long civil war that officially ended in the rest of the country in 2003, and that has claimed several million lives as a result of fighting and disease, burns on in the eastern border provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu. A ceasefire signed in the town of Goma in January between the government and more than a score of militias has so far done little to ease the plight of civilians in the east. All sides—government troops, says the United Nations, as well as the militias—continue to use rape as a weapon of war on a barbarous scale.

Most victims, as ever, are women and girls, some no more than toddlers, though men and boys have sometimes been targeted too. Local aid workers and UN reports tell of gang rapes, leaving victims with appalling physical and psychological injuries; rapes committed in front of families or whole communities; male relatives forced at gunpoint to rape their own daughters, mothers or sisters; women used as sex slaves forced to eat excrement or the flesh of murdered relatives. Some women victims have themselves been murdered by bullets fired from a gun barrel shoved into their vagina. Some men, says a worker for the UN's Children's Fund (Unicef), have been forced to simulate having sex in holes dug in the ground, with razor blades stuck inside.

Sometimes the motive is revenge for attacks by rival militias, sometimes it is ethnic cleansing and on other occasions an effort to undermine the morale of the enemy by spreading shame, injury and disease. The trauma and appalling injury suffered by women and men who survive such assaults cripple families and whole villages. In eastern Congo up to 80% of reported fistula cases in women are thought to result from rape attacks. The epidemic of violence also spreads HIV/AIDS.

According to a report published in October by the UN secretary-general in an effort to get governments to do more to protect civilians caught up in this and other conflicts, in the first six months of 2007 there were 4,500 cases of sexual violence reported in South Kivu alone. As a rule of thumb in such situations, says the UN, for every rape that is reported, as many as ten or 20 cases may go unreported.

Rape in warfare is nothing new. Congo has long had a culture of violence and an almost non-existent judicial system. Though rape is supposedly illegal, often it is the victim who is shunned. Neither army nor militia commanders seem to see rape as a serious offence and so take no action against their marauding soldiers. Some fighters are said to believe that the rape of a virgin bestows invincibility in combat. But these are not random acts by misguided or crazed individuals, says the UN; they are a "deliberate attempt to dehumanise and destroy entire communities."
Kate Eshelby But the men with guns don't listen

That process is proceeding apace. Since early last year an upsurge in violence has displaced some 550,000 people from their homes and villages in eastern Congo. The sprawling, hellish camps for displaced people that dot the road from Goma north to Rutshuru, their shelters made from branches lashed together, leaves and plastic sheeting, offer little protection. Not even the UN's more than 17,000 blue helmets and military observers, and close to 1,000 police (together its largest peacekeeping operation in the world), can hope to put an end to violence in so vast a region that is barely accessible by road or air.

And the Goma ceasefire? Pressure to observe it would be a start, even though not all armed groups signed up. Among those that did not are Hutu rebels from over the border in Rwanda who helped perpetrate the genocide there in 1994 and caused it to spill over the border into Congo. On April 23rd, 63 international and Congolese NGOs signed an appeal urging the UN to appoint a high-level special adviser on human rights for eastern Congo.

The idea is to help draw world attention to the plight of civilians, whose suffering is at least as extreme as anything witnessed in the better-publicised conflict in Sudan's western region of Darfur. The hope is that outside governments, the African Union, the European Union and the United States may offer political and financial support. Since all UN members have promised to observe a fundamental "responsibility to protect" their citizens from war crimes and crimes against humanity, focusing world attention on such crimes in eastern Congo is perhaps the least outsiders can do.

This is the ultimate food fight

Forget everything you learned in grade school.



By the way, what's with the ad across the bottom of the YouTube video. Pretty annoying if you ask me.

A fun experiment

I recently changed my facebook status to "in a relationship."  I do not have a girlfriend right now, nor do I really want one.  It will be interesting to see what sort of response I get, especially since the facebook news feed will broadcast my recent relationship status change.  Facebook is such a goofy thing, but one has to admit its amusing aspects.  If enough people read my blog, I could set up a poll and ask my readers if I should tell my responders the truth.  But alas, I only get about 10 hits a day.  I'll let you know if anything interesting happens.

Maybe facebook needs a new relationship status, "effing disaster."  This is the reason I believe so.

China is not bad

An article by the BBC talks about China's $6 billion investment in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire for those who remember it from watching Carmen San Diego as a kid).  They plan to build hospitals, health centers, 2 universities, railways and roads.  In return, China gains the rights to harvest the Congo's abundant natural resources - namely copper and cobalt.  There are many human rights naysayers who argue that this is just a $6 billion exploitation and that the Chinese will end up winning more than the natives.  Winning?  If both sides win, who cares who wins more?  The DR of Congo is one of the most corrupt and dangerous places to live in the world - the argument can be made that it is worse than Sudan.  ANYTHING they can win is a vast improvement.  Of course, the Chinese are in it for their own gain - they're not pitching this as some sort of half business half humanitarian nonsense.  With the Chinese, it is strictly business.  So what you will see is a lot of warlords getting rich and a lot of shady dealings, but the end result will be on the plus side for the Congolese.  And eventually, this stuff trickles down to the poor.  When the warlords start getting really rich off of foreign investments like this, they will start to realize that there is no point to torturing and killing the lower classes.

Helping a war-torn country with a half business half humanitarian deal like the US and UN seem to enjoy always ends up with much of the humanitarian money floating its way into the wrong hands anyway.  Oil for Food anyone?  Why not just cut that part out?  The UN peacekeepers have been chilling in the African heat there for 5 years and every time I see a story about the atrocities that go on there, I am just about in tears.  So how about we try a different strategy - one that is all business?  This Chinese experiment is absolutely worth watching.

About the Oil for Food scandal - check out this podcast about it.  It blew me away.  The speech was held at Duke Law School and includes many of those who did some of the actual investigating.

Blogging from Crisler arena

I'm sitting in Crisler arena here watching my brother's College of
Engineering graduation ceremonies. I'll tell you what, the
commencement address was unlike any I've heard before at my alma
mater. What's the difference? Pretty simple if you ask me. He spoke
to the students! Imagine that! I never thought that at a college
commencement that the speaker would address the students. I always
thought it was a fundraising event.

The real point of this post is just to brag that I can blog from my
mobile phone from inside a sports arena.

--
Joe Petrides
comeonfranco.blogspot.com

Penis Theft on the Rise

I saw this story on Digg.  I don't know everyone who reads this, but you have to admit that this is hilarious.  Apparently, the worst part of living in the Democratic Republic of Congo is not child soldiers, mass rape, tribal battles resulting in torture and killing or any of that.  It seems a band of sorcerers are going around stealing penises.  Let's hope they don't make it to America.  It has me shaking in my boots.  If you think I'm kidding, I'm not.  It's a yahoo news story.

King Fed gets his first Title

So Roger Federer finally won his first title of the year knocking off Nikolay Davydenko.  Granted, Davydenko retired in the second set due to an injury - after breaking Roger.  Who knows what would have happened?  This is good news for this blog owner's hero and will certainly give Roger confidence heading into Monte Carlo and the French Open.