As if I needed another reason not to buy an American car, the inside cover of this week’s Business Week includes this gem of an ad from Chrysler:

We live in a car culture. Don’t apologize. Without our cars, we lose a measurable source of freedom, individuality and, yes, happiness.

That’s why we consider it our obligation to improve the technology within the car so your experience behind the wheel remains blissfully unaltered.

So thanks Chrysler, glad to hear that you have everything under control.

Dwight Schrute presenting The National

Originally uploaded by smooth.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

We don’t let Niko watch a lot of tv, but his two favorite shows are Cash Cab and Deadliest Catch. Today we turned on Cash Cab just in time to see a friend of ours from b-school (w/ three other ppl) miss the last strike and get booted out of the cab with nothing.

Apparently those seven years at Cornell really paid off for him…

The Dalai Lama comes to Seattle:

The visit by the Dalai Lama, who arrived here Thursday afternoon on a flight from Japan, is his first to the United States since the onset of international protests over the Chinese crackdown in Tibet. But the trip was planned long before the recent troubles, and few expect him to use it to begin making demands for Tibetan independence.

Nor, for that matter, is he expected to guest on bass or bellow backup vocals when he joins the rocker and local organic parent Dave Matthews onstage here Friday evening.

The expectation, instead, is that he will stick with what got him here, “dialoguing” about the importance of an inclusive kindness and compassion: pitch-perfect preaching for an area with one of the country’s lowest rates of church attendance and a notable lack of interest in mainstream American religion.

Just netflixed Strange Culture, about the artist Steve Kurtz and the ridiculous, arrogant bastard justice department on a crusade against him and his artwork.

Cornell loses to Stanford:

With the 7-foot Lopez twins altering shots inside and defenders in the face of Cornell’s perimeter shooters, it didn’t take an Ivy League degree to figure out the Big Red was in big trouble.

I think this makes three or four NCAA tournament players I’ve played against - Tim Young the was the first (seventh grade) and two or three from Cornell from pickup games.

At least the NYT has another good story about Cornell (thanks B).

Cornell in the NCAA tournament:

Apparently our team made an impression on the Wildcats; many of us overheard one of Kentucky’s players remark, “They look like a high school team.”

It’s easy right now to be worried about the economy, our jobs and our investments. At the moment though, I’m just happy to not live in Tibet.

Help me understand investment banking if you can… as I see it, the business follows the “business cycle” with just two phases: 1) make up a bubble and earn record bonuses; then 2) d’oh! find out that all that money never really existed in the first place, but get bailed out by the government. Convenient.