We're reminded of former executives of a now bankrupt film company disagreeing over the color of their new corporate jet's leather seats in reading the piece about comfort capsules for U.S. Air Force Generals.

One request was that the color of the leather for the seats and seat belts in the mobile pallets be changed from brown to Air Force blue and that seat pockets be added; another was that the color of the table's wood be darkened.

Changing the seat color and pockets alone was estimated in a March 12 internal document to cost at least $68,240.

Terminator transport?

Everyone thought these guys were the best in the market at evaluating mortgages, so they let them skate by with huge debts and tiny financial cushions. But now it’s less clear they knew what they were doing, and it’s really hard to know who’s right and who’s selling pipe dreams and then hoping for the best.

- Thomas H. Stanton, John Hopkins University

Little emerald soul
Little emerald eye
Little emerald bird
We must say goodbye

Running the last mile of the 2008 Boston Marathon, Ethiopia's Dire Tune inches ahead of Alevtina Biktimirova on Commonwealth Avenue. Tune won by 2 seconds.




Kenya's Robert Cheruiyot, at 25013, was a strong lead. He won his fourth Boston Marathon despite an interruption in his training due to the civil strife in his homeland.

This isn't a battle for the smartphone space, but featurephones.

The high valuation also represents a belief that Facebook is creating an important new operating system — one that exists on the Web instead of on personal computers.

Stone's article illustrates the fascination some in Silicon Valley have with the geography of social networks.

“Once a social operating system takes over a country it’s like it becomes the native language of that country,” said Lee Lorenzen, a venture capitalist who is bullish on Facebook and notes that Google’s Orkut dominates Brazil, Friendster dominates the Philippines and Facebook is becoming the dominant forum in the United States, Canada and Western Europe.

To some observers, like British developer Ben Metcalfe, the $15 billion valuation is a piece of crafty theatre.

With $40 billion in current assets, Microsoft seems for now not to want to launch its own social network war to reap benefits from the digitally connected, as it did with Internet Explorer when faced with the Netscape browser's 85% market domination in 1995.

By way of comparison, Novell paid $210 million to acquire German Linux company SuSE and $40 million for Ximian to enter the open source arena in 2003.

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels.
The troublemakers.

- "Think Different" campaign

Speaking of Apple customers, those well-heeled early adopters of the iPhone, some of whom stood in line for hours to spend $599 plus tax were surprised at a $200 price drop two months after the device went on sale. The 33% drop fired up an electronic hailstorm of complaints which overshadowed the new iPod announcement and quickly prodded a mea culpa of sorts and a $100 Apple store credit for The Troublemakers from Jobs:

even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.

Good Will
Last month, technology writer-videographer David Pogue complained about how iMovie '08 had removed important audio and video editing functions as well as the plug-in capability that earlier versions contain. Different code, inferior product. Same name, new version. Proprietary, of course.

Good will is the one and only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.

Despite a dip this week, shares in AAPL have skyrocketed (Chart) since the company started selling its iProducts. If customer relationships with users take a backseat in Cupertino, the company will be hardpressed to extend their market postion, particularly in a declining economic climate.

We always enjoy a trip to the seat of American democracy, particularly in Spring.




The Honorable Gentleman Brussels Griffon

Cherry blossoms and daffodils outside U.S. Capitol

Pollen and politics in the air
Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) has seen a lot of cherry blossoms in his day and his senority in the United States Senate excuses him for waxing all warm and fuzzy in the Spring.

"She sleeps on my bed,'' said Byrd, in his 90th year and prone to meandering. "She goes with me to the Senate, rides in the car with me. She stays in my office. When somebody comes into the office, she rises and comes over and greets them, goes on about her business and gets back on the couch.''

The beloved female companion Sen. Byrd spoke about at a recent Appropriations Subcommittee hearing was his dog. The subcommittee, which oversees the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) budget, is looking into the how numerous pet foods have recently been poisoning thousands of dogs and cats causing kidney failure.

Video of hearing here.

D.C. Spring

We were wondering what sort of conversation might take place if some people who share a birthday today came to the same party.

Jean-Paul Belmondo, actor, born on April 9, 1933

Women over thirty are at their best, but men over thirty are too old to recognize it.

Charles Baudelaire, poet, was born on April 9, 1821

It is the hour to be drunken! To escape being the martyred slaves of time, be ceaselessly drunk. On wine, on poetry, or on virtue, as you wish.

Sol Hurok, impresario, was born on April 9, 1888

If I would be in this business for business, I wouldn't be in this business.

Paul Robeson, singer. was born on April 9, 1898

As an artist I come to sing, but as a citizen, I will always speak for peace, and no one can silence me in this.

Hugh Hefner, publisher, was born on April 9, 1926.

My life is an open book. With illustrations.

Jeff Zucker, television executive, was born on April 9, 1965.

Sometimes when you're down a little, you see things more clearly.

Sacha de Boer, photographer, was born on April 9, 1967.

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."
--Marcellus in Shakespeare's Hamlet

Ungdomshuset
Unique is a building where the footsteps of Lenin and Bjork have passed. Yet so goes the history of Ungdomshuset built in 1897 as a theater and center for the labor movement in Denmark.

Johan Olsen from Magtens Korridorer joined fellow Danish singers Anisette, Natasja and the band Ooh Sticky when they recorded the song Ungdomshuset Blir! by København musician Anne Eltard.

Automobiles Burn
After 25 years as a youth house and alternative cultural center, the eviction of squatter residents from Ungdomshuset by police sparked street rage not seen in the likes of peaceful Denmark in many a year. Eyewitness pedestrian video and camera phone shots of the rioting on YouTube captured the destruction of property by protestors and charges by police vehicles. One professional video clip by CBS News, which recently had all its video removed from YouTube, ironically was preceded by an automobile insurance commercial on its website.

Stephen Hand ponders the violence in Denmark:

As I was reading about the present Copenhagen riots my mind drifted back to the riots of the 60's---especially and ironically after the death of Martin Luther King. Whole cities were in turmoil, many parts of each in flames.

The child of Bethlehem directs our gaze towards all children, particularly those who suffer and are abused in the world, the born and the unborn.
-Pope Benedict XVI Christmas sermon 2006

May peace come to children of all the world.

Since listening to a cassette demo years ago, we've had nothing but admiration for the talent and tenacity of singer, songwriter and performance artist Amanda Palmer. Talent because she writes hard hitting songs busting with emotion. Tenacity because she can do it all by herself with a little help from her friends and record label. Not odd, then, to hear Robert Woodruff, Artistic Director at the American Repertory Theatre was inspired enough to invite Amanda and her Dresden Doll cohort Brian Viglione to create a theater piece for the A.R.T.'s new black box space near Harvard Square.

Only days before the recent opening of the Dresden Dolls-A.R.T. collaboration The Onion Cellar, Amanda's interviews with the Boston press and her blog signalled that her experience in what Woodruff terms the "relationship of music and text" was not what she planned.

Inside the theater lobby, a merchandise table sells drink tickets and Dresden Doll ties, t-shirts, souvenir books and $10 posters that read "Lungs Locked, Lips Locked - Join the Rennaissance" and "You Can Stop The Truth From Leaking."