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February 29, 2004

More snowboarding

Another great day snowboarding at GP. It's awesome living 30 minutes away from a ski resort. Too bad the elevation is only 2,100 feet, the parking lot was muddy and the snow is turning slushy. Where's that horrible winter everyone complained about?

Breean has a great pic.

Posted by sam at 10:21 PM | Comments (3)

February 25, 2004

No, not Michael Moore

Forget Nader, Draft Moore - How Democrats can win back the White House [from Scripting News]:

Roy Moore, the Alabama jurist whose fight to display the Ten Commandments on state property drew national attention last year, is being courted by the right-wing Constitution Party as a potential presidential candidate. (The Constitution Party was on the ballot in 41 states in 2000, and retains a solid network of activist supporters nationwide.)

Posted by sam at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

February 24, 2004

Cali politics

I heard on NPR this morning that today is the Governator's 100th day in office. How are things going so far?

Other than repealing the VLF, eliminating driver's licences for illegal immigrants and borrowing $15b to pay off debt (hmmm... wonder why nobody thought of that before?) I haven't really followed Cali politics.

In other news: white-shoe consulting firm Bain & Co. calls California the worst place in the nation to do business. A UC Berkeley economist says the high costs of business in Cali are "symptoms of success, not failures." Interesting - are the high costs due to a history of success or unnecessary disproportionate regulation? Probably both.

Posted by sam at 08:58 PM | Comments (3)

February 22, 2004

Georgetown Ultimate Four

I spent the weekend in D.C. at the Georgetown Ultimate Four MBA basketball tournament. Six second-years and three first-years made up our squad.

The action started Saturday morning at 8 am against the Georgetown first-year team. And we lost by one! D'oh! They were horrible and we should have won.

The next game was at 10 am against Darden. They had four or five guys who had played Ivy League ball. Needless to say we lost. By a lot more than one.

And the last game was at 2 pm against Tuck. We were competitive in the first half, but our defense absolutely broke down in the last 20 minutes. 0 for 3 on the day. There's always next year.

Now I'm convinced more than ever that we study more than other schools. Everybody else seemed to be in so much better shape than us.

After the tournament the score was Cornell 0, Georgetown 1. But after Saturday night, the score was at least tied.

It's nice to come home.

Posted by sam at 09:53 PM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2004

Sightspeed

SAP Ventures gives BR Ventures portfolio company Sightspeed high marks. Now's probably a good time to pitch them on an EVC Club visit over spring break.

Scoble also likes Sightspeed. This is great publicity.

Posted by sam at 08:19 PM | Comments (0)

Free conference calling

Free conference calling. Just set up a call online, participants pay only long distance fees. Useful.

Problem: "they hope to make money on premium services, or maybe by selling ads in the future." Don't expect this to last long. If it does, expect the ads to become increasingly obnoxious.

Posted by sam at 08:04 PM | Comments (0)

Larry David on GWB

I know you've all been waiting to hear what Larry David thinks about Bush's service during Vietnam. Wait no more [thanks mom!]:

I couldn't be happier that President George W. Bush has stood up for having served in the National Guard, because I can finally put an end to all those who questioned my motives for enlisting in the Army Reserve at the height of the Vietnam War. I can't tell you how many people thought I had signed up just to avoid going to Vietnam. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, I was itching to go over there. I was just out of college and, let's face it, you can't buy that kind of adventure. More important, I wanted to do my part in saving that tiny country from the scourge of communism.

Posted by sam at 06:58 PM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2004

Green Monsters

A Shade of Green: S.U.V.'s Try to Soften Their Image: "This year, Ford and Toyota plan to sell the first two hybrid sport utility vehicles. With carlike mileage expected, the advent of the hybrid S.U.V. may change the uniformly visceral antipathy to sport utility vehicles among environmental advocates, even if automakers are unlikely to sell enough hybrids to significantly reduce fuel consumption or pollution any time soon."

Posted by sam at 08:57 PM | Comments (1)

I'm back

Wow, I guess it's been over a week since I've posted anything here. I needed a break.

We had a great weekend. Valentine's Day snowboarding at Greek Peak - I think Breean is really starting to enjoy boarding more than skiing. I'm happy about that.

I was pleasantly surprised with the size and terrain at Greek Peak. From the web site and things I had heard from other students I expected about one or two lifts and no challenging runs. It's not Heavenly by any stretch of the imagination, but it is only 20 minutes away and there are plenty of good runs.

Sunday I had practice for a b-school basketball tournament at Georgetown this weekend. Hopefully we'll come home with a trophy this year.

Posted by sam at 10:19 AM | Comments (3)

February 08, 2004

1984

Students for an Orwellian Society seeks "to promote the vision of a society based upon the principles of Ingsoc, first articulated by George Orwell in his prophetic novel, 1984." [from 0xDECAFBAD]

Posted by sam at 11:31 AM | Comments (2)

February 07, 2004

Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis, author of Liars Poker, Moneyball and other business classics, thinks that Alan Greenspan used Paul O'Neill's book to send a signal to GWB. [from The Big Picture]:

The character in this drama with interesting motives isn't O'Neill but his more shadowy friend, Alan Greenspan. It's evident that Greenspan helped with the book; his fingerprints are all over the thing.
Why would the Fed chairman grant an interview, even off the record, to a journalist he knew to be armed and dangerous to the Bush White House? Surely, not out of a sense of loyalty to his old friend Paul O'Neill. If Greenspan had that gene, he wouldn't have lasted as long as he has.

Even more surely, not out of ignorance that he was helping to explode a political bomb. Greenspan doesn't get out of bed before examining the political consequences.

The only good explanation is that he knew exactly what Paul O'Neill's book would say -- that the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush administration had been almost criminal and that the manner in which Bush made decisions was deeply disturbing -- and he was pleased to have it said.

If you've heard anything about the book, you'll know that GWB cannot be counted on to find that kind of subtlety. Maybe his people will, though.

Posted by sam at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)

Still no name

We spent all afternoon yesterday (well, Breean spent all day) at the hospital yesterday while Breean's cousin Felicia had a baby. It was really amazing to see Feli and her husband Jason go through the whole thing. And then to see their little baby boy! It was great. Congratulations to both of them!

Posted by sam at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)

February 05, 2004

Wisdom from Cheers

From an email that went out today to all Johnson students:

As explained by Cliff Clavin, of Cheers: One afternoon at Cheers, Cliff Clavin was explaining the Buffalo Theory to his buddy Norm. Here's how it went:

Well ya see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers.

Posted by sam at 03:54 PM | Comments (1)

February 03, 2004

At the church down the street

Icicles

Posted by sam at 10:59 PM | Comments (4)

As seen on TCAT

Tcatpoetry.jpg

Posted by sam at 10:58 PM | Comments (1)

Lazy students

Internships: Never More Important: "Once used mainly as a way for MBAs to get experience, they're now widely seen as the best way to get into a company that'll hire them:"

The real story is hidden in the middle:

Investment banking and consulting no longer appear as exotic as they did in the boom years, when upwards of 80% of newly minted MBAs would head off to jobs in those specialties. Today, fewer than 60% of students will enter or return to such positions. The percentage drop is partly because fewer consulting and investment banking positions are available, but it's also because those jobs still require brutal work hours and the seven-figure bonuses that made them so lucrative are no longer a given.

A professor today asked a class of about 70 students how many of us are workaholics or recovering workaholics. Maybe three people raised their hands. Sure this is a class on entrepreneurship and venture capital and not on i-banking, but I think there's a real trend here.

Posted by sam at 10:33 PM | Comments (6)

More anti-Bush propaganda

From that bastion of liberal thought, Business Week:

Bush's Cynical Immigration Gambit [sub req'd]: "Informed observers believe Bush does not really expect this legislation to pass. Rather, he wants to signal compassion to Mexican-American voters, many of whom have relatives here illegally, while appealing to corporations seeking low-wage workers."

Hail To The King -- Er, Chief [sub req'd]. Review of American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush by Kevin Phillips:

The former Nixon White House strategist, who 35 years ago, in The Emerging Republican Majority, correctly predicted a virtual Republican lock on the South, has a startling new thesis: The Bush family has systematically used four generations of old-boy networking, national security involvement, and political deception to establish an American family aristocracy of sorts.
...
Phillips gets right to the heart of why figures ranging from Ross Perot to Bob Dole, John McCain, George Soros, and most recently former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill all came to harbor a bitterness and distrust toward the Bushes. For behind their likable facade, he says, lies a "culture of secrecy, deceit, and disinformation [that] have become Bush political hallmarks."
...
From the 1890s right on through to the 1989 invasion of Panama, the Gulf War, and most recently the U.S. invasion of Iraq, no American family has "more fully epitomized and risen alongside the hundred-year emergence of the U.S. military-industrial complex," Phillips writes.

Team Bush's Wishful Budget Thinking: "A close look at the White House's fiscal 2005 version finds plenty of grossly unrealistic revenue and spending projections."

Posted by sam at 10:20 PM | Comments (3)

I've got a few suggestions

My microecon professor Robert Frank is quoted in the NY Times on the Democratic primary:

As long as the money lasts, however, the urge is to persist, said Robert H. Frank, a professor of economics at Cornell. "So they end up like Bruce Willis in `The Sixth Sense,' " Professor Frank said. "They're dead, but they don't know it yet."

Why did they talk to an econ professor? And why didn't they ask him the more interesting question of what better use to make of a dead candidate's money?

Posted by sam at 09:11 PM | Comments (4)

February 02, 2004

Skull and Bones

Nude Wrestling? Good Practice for Politics [from Dave]: " President Bush and Senator John Kerry are not only graduates of Yale but also fellow members of the university's most elitist secret society, Skull and Bones... it suggests that the old East Coast blue-blood establishment may not be as washed up as people imagine."

Good point. I want to see a president from a public school in California. 600,000+ combined enrollment at UC and CSU in 2002. How long can it take?

But wait, here's the best quote: "The two crossed paths at Yale, where Mr. Kerry was the ambitious president of the Yale Political Union and Mr. Bush was the somewhat less ambitious president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, otherwise known as the Animal House."

Posted by sam at 08:44 PM | Comments (0)

Note to the FCC

CNN.com: FCC to investigate Super Bowl halftime show:

(FCC Chairman) Powell told CNN he was watching the game Sunday evening with his two children and found the display of flesh during the halftime show "outrageous."

"I knew immediately it would cause great outrage among the American people, which it did," he said, citing "thousands" of complaints received by Monday morning. "We have a very angry public on our hands."

Unfortunately the FCC has yet to ask exactly what on tv makes me angry, so I'll give a quick list here:

Maybe I'll add more later. Getting mad over Janet and Justin's little stunt? That's just failing to see the forest for the trees.

Posted by sam at 08:11 PM | Comments (4)

"Let's say one cookie equals $10 billion..."

Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's explains the federal budget [from mefi]

Posted by sam at 07:55 AM | Comments (2)

February 01, 2004

Cola Wars

Okay mom (& Randy), here's the cola paper. Mom, your one sentence paper pretty much hit the head on the nail (or something).

Concentrate producers in the carbonated soft drink (CSD) industry are more profitable than bottlers because they hold a lock on product value. Though the raw materials for concentrate production are commodities - caramel coloring, other flavors and caffeine - the retail value of a can of Coke lies in the company’s long history and aggressive consumer marketing. As the owner of that valuable Coke trademark, the Coca-Cola Company holds all of the cards in its relationships with bottlers.

Concentrate producers in the carbonated soft drink (CSD) industry are more profitable than bottlers because they hold a lock on product value. Though the raw materials for concentrate production are commodities - caramel coloring, other flavors and caffeine - the retail value of a can of Coke lies in the company’s long history and aggressive consumer marketing. As the owner of that valuable Coke trademark, the Coca-Cola Company holds all of the cards in its relationships with bottlers.

Concentrate producers face a wide choice in suppliers, as the raw materials for most colas are primarily commodity food products.

In addition to concentrate, raw materials for CSD bottlers include packaging and sweeteners. Though packaging and sweeteners are generally thought of as commodities, bottlers are restricted to a single supplier for their most basic ingredient of concentrate. Because of noncompete agreements and historical ties to concentrate producers, Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) and Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) are each constrained to a single supplier for concentrate. This limited flexibility inhibits their ability to bargain with concentrate suppliers for better pricing.

CCE and PBG serve a variety of retail channels, none of which constitute more than 35% of sales. Customers of the bottlers may choose between Coke and Pepsi, to play them off of each other for greater savings. In 1999 Burger King used such a strategy to achieve 23% rebates on each gallon of Coke syrup.

The consolidation initiated by Coke in 1980 produced a single bottler with 70% of North American volume by 2000. By 2000 the Pepsi Bottling Group similarly owned outright half of Pepsi’s 200 North American bottlers and held equity positions in many of the others. The result of this consolidation is that both Pepsi and Coke each have a single customer for much of their North American volume. Though both bottlers are independent companies each maintains close ties to the parent concentrate producer, limiting freedom to select another supplier. Though Coke and Pepsi each serve their largest market through a single customer, those customers have limited bargaining power.

Though monetary barriers to entry in both the bottling and concentrate production industries are $25 million at minimum, a new concentrate producer faces more significant challenges than a new bottler. While an entrepreneurial bottler with unlimited funds could conceivably buy into the market, a new concentrate producer would be forced to spend far more with indeterminate results to challenge the powerful brand equity Coke and Pepsi have built over the last 100+ years. Bottlers have little invested in their own brands.

The CSD industry clearly faces a huge variety of substitutes, from sports drinks to juices and iced teas. With such a variety of substitutes, consumers of carbonated soft drinks are extremely price sensitive. A shift in demand for Coke however, will affect both the concentrate producer and the bottler.

Posted by sam at 01:41 PM | Comments (4)