Historic CEO

If I am ever a CEO I think it would be really interesting to hire a historian to record and analyze the history of the company through emails, contracts, interviews etc. Not only would it be a fascinating story to read back on, but it would do two other things: do more to establish the company as an institution (internally and externally) and you can learn a lot about from history, especially how not to make the same mistakes more than once.

News

That's actually what news channels do. CNN.com is a perfect example. It keeps you interacting with the brand.

Domain Names and Brands

What if the brand for a website was the domain name, and there was always a highly published main event so it became like a TV channel. If I were a major entertainment company I would use each brand's website as a screening room.

Strategic Oil Reserve

We should not stop filling the strategic oil nor draw on it unless an absolute emergency.

America imports 25% of world oil consumption. It imports 60% of its oil. Therefore the impact of a spike in prices or a disruption of oil supply would be exaggerated with respect to many other countries in the world.

Iraq and the Homeless

Iraq was probably the morally correct thing to do. Helping a homeless person is probably the morally correct thing to do. If someone gives change to half the homeless people they see each day it doesn't mean they are a hypocrit. Maybe those could do something for them. Even then it still doesn't make them helping those people the wrong thing to do. What if we have actually hindered the Iraq war by not throwing the full power of the army behind it? But then again, at what point is something outside our country morally important enough for us to sacrifice young Americans. It's the in-group out-group effect. What if we considered the whole world one country? What if every part of the world was American soil? Then it would be okay to send in the national guard? If America has to be the police of the world then that's what we have to do. It's a thankless job. But we are such a well off country because of it so we can't complain.

We need to be honest and realistic about Iraq

We have see a sustained and continuing trend of decreasing violence for a significant period of time before we start reducing our troop levels. And at that point when we can start reducing troop levels we have to provide continued and long term financial support to ensure that the country gets through several decades of progress. Otherwise it'll go the way of Afghanistan where the drastically reduced support left a vacuum that was filled by anti-american religious extremists.

"Winning" will take a long time. And it has to be a gradual reduction of support as the Iraqi government gains its footing and establishes itself as a long term and sustainable entity.

Water Taste and Hydration

I wonder if taste of water has a positive correlation with how hydrated the popuation is. I wonder if Coke (Dassani) and Pepsi (Aquafina) did focus groups in developing the taste of their waters. The prospect of that is awesome on one level. Horrifying on another.

Typing and Arthritis

Will so much typing give our generation terrible arthritis?

Laptops and Electric Blankets

If electric blankets increase the risk of cancer, imagine what laptops do. Hands and lap both pressed against a functioning electric device.

Why I Think We Are Headed For A Depression

Our economy is in the crapper and getting worse.

There is a perfect storm of economic factors that has magnitude without precedence in history.

We are standing on top of the longest and greatest bull market ever; thus leaving a long way for the economy to fall.

One major factor--the price of oil--is likely to continue on its current trajectory indefinitely.

Much of the Western World, and especially the United States, is deploying massive amounts of resources and manpower to places across the globe. These organizations will likely be essential in taking care of domestic problems in the not so far future.

Humanity is acting with remarkable lethargy to slow down the effects of global warming. The world is heating up. And we are like mice in a microwave.

Over the next few years the confluence of factors like dramatically higher energy costs, significantly higher food prices, a reversal in the trend of declining prices for consumer goods, a continuation in a worldwide increase of natural disasters.

In the short term America is going to be crippled by the skyrocketing energy prices. The only thing that can offset this near inevitability is spectacular innovation. Unfortunately America has had slipping schools for decades

We're polishing china on the Titanic.