Category: Uncategorized

Tim gave me the heads up on this story out of Rancho Cucamonga about a man who broke into a neighbor’s house because he mistakenly thought it was his in a heavily inebriated state. Let’s just say the results didn’t turn out to good for him.

Tim and The ‘Mudge can provide much deeper insight on the topic of baseball than I ever can. However, for some odd reason, I am hooked on the discussions about the banning of Pete Rose from ever entering the Hall of Fame.

For those of you like me who know little about the history or passion of the game, Rose admitted to betting on games (including those he played in) and was ousted from the game for life. There is no question in anyone’s mind that he would be a shoe-in for the Hall if not for this transgression. The trouble, for me, with this permanent ban from the game is that I believe Charlie Hustle (Rose’s nickname) would rather have lost money on a bet than lose a game. That’s the passion that he played with.

Today, he’s busy signing autographs and watching the game on television. And baseball is worse without him.

USA Today’s John Saraceno captures a quote from Rose that, in my mind, shows Rose’s contrition and absolute passion to help make the game better — for the game, not for Pete Rose:

“I’m a teacher. I’m a leader; I’m not a follower. I watch two or three games every day during the baseball season. It drives me crazy when I turn on the TV and see some of these cities, see the empty seats. Every seat at a ballpark is for (a body) every night. That’s why they make ’em.”

“I don’t know,” he says, “but you’d have to think that I’m young enough to get a four- or five-year contract. Obviously, I could make more in some cities. … I don’t want to be arrogant, but if you own a baseball team and you don’t want to win or put people in the seats, don’t call me.”

These are the things that winners and leaders are made of.

For anyone as hooked as the missus and I are on the ABC hit “Lost”, this report from the UK’s The Independent either solves a bunch of the show’s riddles or adds to confusion. If you aren’t watching the show, pick up the first season’s DVD and catch up. It’s, perhaps, one of the most creative and well-done shows in the past 10 years.

Does this surprise ANYONE: Utah Theater Cancels ‘Brokeback Mountain’?

Consumers — people like you and me — downloaded almost 20 million songs at the close of 2005. And they did it legally through iTunes and other legitimae online retailers. Good to see that the RIAA is so in touch with reality and their business as they maintain their ridiculous crusade against their own customers. Customers, mind you, who have shown in the last week of 2005 that they have moved beyond the industry’s stuck-in-the-past model of business.

I live deep in the heart of Nittany Lion country. I think Joe Paterno has had an enviable career as a coach and leader. Despite that, his actions this week demand his immediate and public resignation.

Paterno, long-time coach of the Penn State college football team, was asked by a reporter to comment on the sexual assault allegations being raised against Florida State linebacker A.J. Nicholson. Paterno’s time-for-the-old-age-home-fueled response:

“There’s some tough — there’s so many people gravitating to these kids. He may not have even known what he was getting into, Nicholson. They knock on the door; somebody may knock on the door; a cute girl knocks on the door. What do you do?”

“Geez. I hope — thank God they don’t knock on my door because I’d refer them to a couple of other rooms,” Paterno continued. “But that’s too bad. You hate to see that. I really do. You like to see a kid end up his football career. He’s a heck of a football player, by the way; he’s a really good football player. And it’s just too bad.”

Does a long history of stellar leadership allow him this transgression? Or does the precedent set at universities like Colorado mandate his public removal?

I can guarantee that Tim, over at Cracked Sidewalks is a happy man this morning after the Marquette Warriors dropped the University of Connecticut Huskies big time in the Big East opener last night. Check out his post for the smart post-game analysis.

If I were a high-level executive at either CNN or the Bush Administration, I’d make sure Farris Hassan, the 16-year-old from Fort Lauderdale who snuck off to Iraq in early December, knew he could come work with me anytime he felt like it. Because, let’s face, what’s a better motivator than having a 16-year-old kid with cajones the size of Texas showing supposed experts how their jobs are done?

The Associated Press is reporting that Michael Vale, the actor behind the Dunkin Donuts Fred the Baker character of “time to make the doughnuts” fame, has died at the age of 83. Vale’s character was an American icon up there with the likes of Clara Peller and her “Where’s the beef?” character.

Not to take away from the loss Vale’s family and friends are experiencing, but I hope the powers-that-be at Dunkin Donuts see this as an opportunity to pay respect to the man that single-handedly made the Dunkin Donuts brand an enduring household name.

Imagine, if you will, a television spot during primetime. The spot opens with white text on a black background: “Michael Vale: 1922-2005.” The screen then fades into a quick retrospective of him repeating his famous “Time to make the doughnuts” line. The spot ends with the Dunkin Donuts logo underneath text on a white background: “We will continue to make the doughnuts for you, Michael.” The company could also offer a special, free Michael Vale donut to customers every year on his birthday in memoriam, as well as release his commercials from the archives onto the web to keep his work alive.

I, for one, plan to pick up a doughnut at Dunkin Donuts tomorrow in memory of Michael Vale. I hope Dunkin Donuts encourages everyone else to do the same.

Not sure why I saw this on The Consumerist, but the topic is ripe for front page news. It seems the federal chief of AIDS research is on record saying that any HIV vaccine will not be made by a pharmaceutical company because there’s no financial incentive for them to develop such a drug. OK, fair point. The last I checked, Pfizer, Sandoz, Merck and the others were in business to make profit (remember that capitalism thing we learned about back in school?). That is what they do. And, given the sorry reality of lobbying and influence peddling that has unfortunately become the norm in the pharma industry, we might as well throw the FDA into the for-profit discussion.

However, I think the FDA, universities and Gates Foundations of the world have an opportunity to change the way drugs with no commercial profit potential are developed: Follow the open source model that has shaken the technology industry at its core.

Think about it. The open source movement in the technology industry was fueled by a passion to put power back in the users’ hands. It was built on a belief that communities of developers could re-design, re-build and repair software based on the needs of the community, not the financial needs of a single company. It changed the way companies looked at their information technology infrastructures.

I was at a client seminar a couple of weeks ago and heard a speaker — the chief information architect for a non-profit health organization — say emphatically that they would not be able to do as much as they are currently able if they had to rely solely on commercial software. The funding just wouldn’t allow it. So he mixed some open source technology into his infrastructure to plug the funding gaps.

The federal chief of AIDS research’s comments highlight the funding gaps society today has in the world of medicine. The system — as philanthropic as we want it to be — is a system based on profit, not philanthropy. A smart pharmaceutical company that understands that corporate reputation and societal contributions are as important to the bottom line as selling billions of pills each quarter will understand the opportunity. That company will establish a global research and development infrastructure for drugs and vaccines modeled after the innovation eminating from the open source community in Silicon Valley. They will call on world leaders — people like President Clinton, President Carter, Bill and Melinda Gates, Bono and others — to lead this community-based movement. They will use their immense lobbying power to enlist the FDA to create a dedicated safety review board for community-based pharmaceuticals.

Is there a pharmaceutical company that has the corporate guts to take this on? Use the comments section to let me know your thoughts.