Thursday, December 30, 2004

A New Sports Business Simulations Front Page

Hey folks. SBS has a new front page! Visit http://www.sbs-world.com
and if you've got tickets to sell, go to http://www.sbstickets.com

The price you pay for visiting my blog; an occasional corporate plug!

MoveOn's Call For More US Aide to Tsunami Area

For those of you who want to get involved via The Internet, there's a rising swell of compaints regarding the President's initial offer of $15 million. Even though it was increased to $35 million, the call is for more money. Damage estimates are well into the billions. My personal feeling is that the one best fiscal solution will be something like a Global Marshall Plan.

But for the present, there's MoveOne.Org

Visit their site's call to action at: http://www.moveon.org/tsunamirelief/

Tsunami Death Toll at 116,000

This is unbelievable. Let's put this number in perspective: 116,000 is more people than the population of Berkeley, CA (110,000); more people than the total attendance for 2004's Michigan v. Notre Dame game (105,000). It's larger than all rural towns. And the scary part about this, is the death toll continues to grow.

People try to place The Disaster in biblical perspective. My parents think that some of the countries are being punished for something. I still think that it's the price we pay as a Global community for the misapplication of technology. We lack a global warning system for these occurences, and it's not as if there hasn't been a good reason to have one. It's just that no one cared to push for the development of one.

Why in the heck do we have to be so stupid as a people? We seem to do "what's right" only after a crisis. And isn't it interesting that doing "what's right" involves saving the lives of many people?

Can I get an Amen?

I hope. I pray. I wish that this is the last time we permit such scenarios to develop. I'll bet there's some computer modeler / policy analysis somewhere sitting back and saying "You should have listened to me." As a person who's one of them, I can tell you that politicians in general don't listen well, and society itself is not far ahead of them.

Wake up!

The Zennie (A Libation)

OK. About just over a month ago we created a libation called "The Zennie" as part of an experiemental online promotion for The Zennie Band.

I write "experimental" because if the overall strategy didn't work, I was going to analyze the heck out of it and try it again. But it worked. The band actually made about $500 that night (not subtracting the $50 Peter Van Kleef took for "door help") and someone -- actually many people -- saw the Zennie idea and actually ordered it.

Then one person, Florence, sent me a nice e-mail stating that she like the libation and the band rocked.

Folks, I did all this from Atlanta; Cafe Van Kleef is in downtown Oakland, California. Cafe Van Kleef became an Internet-famous bar because of my strategy, which I will not yet reveal.

Anyway, it's a damn good libation, which consists of equal parts of:

1. Orange Juice
2. Tequila
3. Coca Cola
4. Malibu Rum

Go to your favorite bar and ask for "The Zennie"