If you’d like to better understand the impact that microfinance has on everyday families in the developing world, my good friend has the story of Shely Perez in the Dominican Republic posted over on myKRO.org.
Shely, her husband and their 7 children
Shely’s family standing in front of the new house they are building out of concrete block, which the income from their loans is helping make possible
I seriously can’t remember ever being this inspired by a political movement. Granted I’m only 26, but the fact is that an inspiring political movement has not happened in my lifetime. But it is happening now with Barack’s run for President. And it’s not just the actual politician who inspires — it’s everyone around him. Joe Biden just gave a fantastic speech that I watched on NBC after work tonight. Michelle Obama gave an awesome speech the other night in Denver that I wanted to share (for those who haven’t already seen it).
Here are a few of my favorite lines from the speech:
America should be a place where you can make it if you try.
The world as it is just won’t do.
Each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.
We all know there are some people, and you know who you are, who others naturally gravitate towards and want to associate with. The cause for that desire to follow and associate with includes a number of traits. It’s intelligence. It’s passion. It’s kindness. It’s values. It’s straightforwardness. It’s honesty. It’s competence. It’s charisma. It’s the desire to change the world for the better. And it’s all of those things put together.
To me, it is obvious Barack Obama is one of those special people.
The suspense is over — Barack Obama has selected Joe Biden as his running mate for the upcoming election. I think selecting Biden is an excellent move given Biden’s foreign relations experience and willingness to speak his mind, even if doing so doesn’t always win him popularity votes. For instance, there is certainly no question where he stands on the Iraq War, which I’m sure was a part of Obama’s decision. There are some additional video highlights from Biden’s career over at The Huffington Post.
Regardless of who John McCain selects as his running mate, my prediction is that Joe Biden will be the next Vice President of the United States.
I stumbled upon this list of 21 wordpress themes that I wanted to bookmark for myself with a blog post.
There is some fantastic advice for startups looking to get PR over at Alley Insider that was written by Jason Calacanis and distributed via his e-mail list. It’s LONG, but I read every work of it and it’s well worth it.
I have no idea if any Canadians read this blog or not, but if you live in Canada and are reading this — Yelp is now live in Canada!
From Time – The Great American Yard Sale
The weak dollar and our weakening economy are underwriting the great American yard sale. Investors from Dubai are behind the June purchase of the General Motors Building in New York City for $2.8 billion. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council’s sovereign wealth fund bought a 90% stake in the landmark Chrysler Building. General Electric’s plastics division is gone, and its famed appliance unit could soon be in the hands of China’s Haier or South Korea’s LG. Chrysler is hoping to hook up with India’s Tata Motors or Italy’s Fiat. Switzerland’s Roche Holding is offering about $44 billion to acquire the 44% of the biotechnology outfit Genentech that it doesn’t own.
The surge of foreign buying spans the economy. Since 2003, foreign-led mergers and acquisitions have increased more than sixfold. Last year there were over 2,000 foreign-led acquisitions of U.S. companies in deals worth some $405.4 billion, twice the value of deals in 2006 and up from $60.8 billion in 2003, according to Thomson Reuters, the financial-information company. Unlike the 1980s panic about the Japanese buying up American landmarks like Rockefeller Center, the response of the financial establishment has been to welcome the latest rush of foreign investment. “The U.S. needs these flows, particularly now,” says Bank of America chief market strategist Joseph Quinlan. “It helps create income and jobs for Americans.”
Not good.
Though the picture is not very high quality, I thought I’d share a picture from the Tom Petty show I attended at the Gorge on Saturday.
Encore:
Streaming NBA games online has huge potential, but I really hope the NBA does a better job with their online video efforts than MLB does with theirs.
If you are curious about the battle for the “local” audience, LostRemote has a good writeup worth reading.
My answer is he won’t. I took at look at his transportation plan and am not impressed. His congestion relief projects all involve improving and expanding current roads. Additionally, Rossi says in this video – “that gas tax? that’s a thing of the past.”
Here’s the way I see it. He says we have some of the highest gas prices in the nation, but part of his plan is to lower those taxes. I really don’t understand how cutting gas prices is going to somehow magically improve our horrid congestion. If anything, lowering gas prices will only increase our traffic woes. What Seattle really needs is more mass transit — such as the light rail project voters rejected about a year ago.
But what do I know…
The combination of life and work has been a bit hectic recently to say the least — and I haven’t had much time to devote to this blog. I guess that’s what happens when I’m contributing to 4 other blogs (Geek Estate, Zillow Blog, CoRE, and myKRO.org) in some capacity — my personal blog gets neglected.
Not that you would, but don’t worry — I’m not going to stop posting to this blog or anything crazy like that since it still provides me the outlet I need to vent about a random topic from time to time. I guess I just need to find another topic worth venting about sometime soon…
If you have questions or suggestions, please e-mail me at meyers (dot) drew (at) gmail (dot) com.
Or you can reach me on Skype - my screen name is drmeyers2001
I'm going to need good contacts in all these areas at some point in the future, but nothing is immediate. When I get to the point where I need these services, I'd rather use someone I've known and trusted for awhile rather than having to go seek someone out. But if you want my business and to be recommended by me, don't pitch me; build a real relationship and the biz will come later. You can start that process in the comments here (or on any of the blogs I write), via a personalized email, or on Twitter
