Dogbert and the Senator

This seems to be a common practice right now. In Indiana, Susan Bayh, the wife of Senator Evan Bayh, is under similar scrutiny.

Common Cents Approaches to Financial Freedom

Those of you in the Associate’s Program will get a personal finance class, but the information below is most likely of interest to anyone trying to save a few dollars in this economy. These links are from a blog I recently discovered called LenPenzo.com. Some very interesting articles… enjoy!

• Why Rechargeable Batteries Are Rarely Cost Effective
• Gas or Charcoal BBQs: Which One Is More Cost Effective?
• Shopping For Low Gas Prices Is A Losing Proposition
• Is the Payback Period on Energy Efficient Bulbs Too Long?

Are CEO’s Paid Too Much?

A funny look from Dilbert:

Target: Women

Here’s a couple of entertaining videos about gender roles in advertising.

The best part about being a girl is your girlfriends. They keep you happy when you’re sad and make you laugh when you want to cry, and most importantly, tell you what to buy.

This one has a bleeped-out word towards the beginning.

Single men in commercials look good, drive fast, and drink beer. Then they meet women, get married, and become good-for-nothing doofy husbands.

Courtroom Dress Code: Wear Sensible Shoes

A defense attorney in Florida has apparently been wearing shoes with holes in the soles in order to foster good faith from the jury that he’s just a simple lawyer (like Matlock, I guess).

Upon reasonable belief, Plaintiff believes that Mr. Robb wears these shoes as a ruse to impress the jury and make them believe that Mr. Robb is humble and simple without sophistication. . . .

Part of this strategy is to present Mr. Robb and his client as modest individuals who are so frugal that Mr. Robb has to wear shoes with holes in the soles. Mr. Robb is known to stand at sidebar with one foot crossed casually beside the other so that the holes in his shoes are readily apparent to the jury . . . .

Then, during argument and throughout the case Mr. Robb throws out statements like “I’m just a simple lawyer” with the obvious suggestion that Plaintiff’s counsel and the Plaintiff are not as sincere and down to earth as Mr. Robb. Mr. Robb should be required to wear shoes without holes in the soles at trial to avoid the unfair prejudice suggested by this conduct.

“I’ve been practicing law for 21 years,” he said, “and Mr. Bone thinks he’s finally cracked the key to my success?” Robb scoffed at the idea. “Gotta be the shoes,” he said. “Like Michael Jordan.” Robb claimed that he had been planning to finally retire his “trial shoes,” as he called them, but said this had changed his mind. “[T]hey’re back in play,” he said. “You ride that horse until it completely collapses.”

On the other hand, wearing holey shoes in court could also indicate a lack of success at one’s profession to the point where you couldn’t afford to purchase a replacement pair, so I don’t see how this argument holds. The judge denied the motion.

A Practical Joke

It Could Be Worse

What Will the Return of Steve Jobs Mean for Apple?

In some ways, Steve Jobs hearkened back to the ’80s and ’90s, when corporations were run by celebrity CEOs like Lee Iacocca and Steve Jobs. However, it stands to reason that when your CEO is a household name and something happens to his health, there is bound to be an impact in the markets. It seems that Apple is learning that lesson and trying to adapt to the challenge. While it’s nice to have a public face to your company, you’re also subject to the public’s fickle tastes.

Top 5 Twitter Related Trends to Watch

Not sure why I’m focusing so much on Twitter lately… honestly, I think that Facebook is a bit more of a useful platform. Anyway, some interesting points in this post here, especially the advent of real-time search engines. An interesting idea, but why do you need real time updates to your Google searches? After you’ve found your link, how often do you go back? And what kind of a drag is that going to create on performance? Enquiring minds want to know…

#3 and #4 on the list are way more interesting to me. Enlisting product champions on Twitter to tweetvertise for you with RTs and links with the promise of winning something is brilliant marketing strategy. I have to admit it, I’m hooked.

RSS Feed Your Face Friday

My Google reader got choked up this past week through lack of use, so there’s more than an abundance of stuff that I would be better off quoting and simply passing along:

When smart people are hard to understand

If you’re in a meeting with smart people and they start discussing a term or concept you don’t understand, what do you do? … It’s very important that you don’t just sit there and nod your head sagely. I think there are two constructive paths. The first is to ask. “Wait, I was with you until a second ago. What does that mean?” You’ll be amazed at how smart and engaging this makes you seem if you say it at the right time. The second approach is to write it down and not go to bed that night until you know the topic better than the person who brought it up. How else, precisely, are you going to become one of the smart people?