Los Angeles Times: “Even if Congress can’t pass a bill to end them, those subsidies are worth focusing on. After all, we’re talking about somewhere between $10 billion and $40 billion annually (depending on what you count) in freebie cash for an energy industry already making historic profits.”
Exxon recorded $41 billion in profits. I don’t think we need to handout money to a company that is clearly on its feet and doing well.
John Moltz: “Anyway, here we are. Don’t worry, though, it’s cool. I’ll tell you my secret: send your wife back to work. That’s what I’m doing. If you don’t have someone you can send back to work or they’re already working and you still can’t quit your job, then I don’t have any advice for you.”
There’s the key to going indie! Send your wife back to work!
Why didn’t I think of that?
This week Tiger Woods declared himself a “traditionalist”, when it comes to the game of golf. What prompted the declaration? Golfers using long putters, or belly putters. Tiger Woods would like to see the rules amended to exclude the use of the long putter. I find that ridiculous. I’m not a golfer and I can understand the desire to maintain tradition, but this is a bit silly when you consider the technology Mr. Woods, and the rest of his fellow professional golfers, deploy when they step onto the links. They use clubs with shafts made of exotic fibers and heads made of titanium. I don’t think the original clubs were made of those materials, right? Well, no, they were made of wood and in some cases iron.
“Club heads were made from beech or the wood of fruit trees such as apple. Some club heads for were made from hand-forged iron. Shafts were usually ash or hazel. Balls were made from tightly compressed feathers wrapped in a stitched horse hide sphere. The sport was somewhat exclusive due to the expense of the handcrafted equipment. After 1826, persimmon and hickory were imported from the USA to make club heads and shafts respectively.” – Golf Europe, A History of Golf since 1497
That’s a description of a traditional golf club. I’m pretty sure you won’t find a single all wood club in Tiger Woods’ golf bag. Here’s a better description of the clubs Mr. Woods carries, and it describes clubs from 1991. Can you imagine how far they’ve advanced since then?
“Taylor-Made was the first company to manufacture metal woods. Only recently have they become more popular than persimmon woods. The most successful club in history is Callaway’s over sized wood, the Big Bertha which was introduced in 1991. Today there is an enormous variety of woods to choose from. The latest trend is woods with titanium heads and graphite shafts which are very expensive.” – Golf Europe, A History of the Golf Club
I think it’s time the PGA introduced a Traditionalist Tournament. The Traditionalist would feature clubs made completely of wood and a very low end golf ball. The clubs and the golf balls should be provided by a single manufacturer and every golfer in the tournament would be required to use this equipment. Then it’s down to the golfer to perform. At that point a belly putter would be the least of Tiger Woods worries.
No takers? Really? This is a Bruce Campbell classic.
The correct answer was…
See you next Thursday.
The Atlantic: “Dozens of spectators pressed against the glass of the high-roller pit. Inside, playing at a green-felt table opposite a black-vested dealer, a burly middle-aged man in a red cap and black Oregon State hoodie was wagering $100,000 a hand. Word spreads when the betting is that big. Johnson was on an amazing streak. The towers of chips stacked in front of him formed a colorful miniature skyline. His winning run had been picked up by the casino’s watchful overhead cameras and drawn the close scrutiny of the pit bosses. In just one hand, he remembers, he won $800,000. In a three-hand sequence, he took $1.2 million.”
Fascinating.
Good morning! I’ve been waiting since Monday to use this line. It’s a real classic. Good luck!
Ok, quick, what movie! Send your guesses here.
Pando Daily [by Josh Miller]: “For now, I miss the grit and grime of New York. It is real and raw, and the commotion of the city is contagious. Startup life is characterized by constant motion and tenacious tinkering, not hikes on Mt. Tam and brunch in the Mission, and the pace of life and breadth of humanity in New York is invigorating. I like to tell people: New York is like coffee. You know it’s not good for you, and you don’t really like the taste, but you just can’t get enough. The rush, the jitters, they’re addicting, as are startups.”
I’d love to give New York City a try. I really would. I’ve heard from more than one person that the tech business in New York City is very different from business in San Francisco. I wouldn’t mind giving that a try.
This must be a mid-life crisis thing. I want to wonder around. I wish we could be completely mobile, move from city to city for the next five years. Could my lovely wife handle that kind of life? Probably not. Have I been trying to convince her we should try this? Absolutely.
I think they call it wanderlust. I definitely have it.
Skatter Tech [hat tip James Robertson]: ‘I excitedly thought I won out of pure luck. However, I was quickly told that I lost. I asked for a reason and was told Windows Phone won because “it displays the weather right there.†That was rather unclear. I showed her my device which also was showing off the same information with two side-by-side weather widgets on the center home screen. After pressing for a better reason, I was told that Windows Phone won “just because.‒
Way to go guys. Don’t be a sore loser, especially if you’re going to stack the deck in your favor. That would be like saying take a picture in Instagram and upload the results to Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. Oh, wait, what? Windows Phone doesn’t have an Instagram app? Oh, I guess you lose.
Jerry Fahrni: “Sometimes the simple things really are best. Pen and paper are currently my best tools for recording ideas. And honestly, until a tablet computer from any company can equal their ease and flexibility they will remain my tool of choice.”
Pencil, or pen, and paper. Simple.
Jeffrey Zeldman: “So Google wrote to my zeldman.com address, which they won’t allow me to associate with my Google+ address, to invite me to start a Google+ account (which I already have) on my zeldman.com account, which they won’t support. And if I do that (which I can’t), and some other complicated stuff, they promise that I will then be able to participate in Google IO, whatever that is.”