I really don’t understand why we’re spending another $59 billion on our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. No amount of money is going to win those wars. The government should just realize what we’ve spent already is a sunk cost that can’t be recovered rather than continuing to throw money at the problem. Why not put that $59 billion towards green energy, poverty alleviation, health care, infrastructure projects in the US, or even paying off some of our massive massive debt?

But that’s just my 2 cents

You can view more awesome technologies here on the Kopernik website.

[via MicrofinanceHub]

In the event you couldn’t tell, I’ve been enjoying traveling. A lot — and I intend to keep it going for awhile with my buddy Dan from high school (he runs Bankvibe.com). Where am I off to next you might wonder?

I’ll be here in Santorini until August 5th when I fly up to London for a few days. After London, it’s on to explore Dublin for a week and then jetting down to Spain sometime between the 16th-19th of August with stop number 1 likely being Valencia for the La Tomatina festival in Bunol (45 minutes outside of Valencia). I just found out the other day that one of my good college friends will be teaching in Madrid for a year so will probably spend a bit of time there and maybe pop over to Barcelona for a bit.

After a month in Spain, my buddy and I are meeting up again (he’ll be in Austria until Sept 20th) and planning to fly down to Kenya for a month long stay. In Kenya, I plan to see Rocky’s orphanage funded by Mothers Fighting for Others and volunteer for a week, spend a bit of time in Nairobi for Kito International, visit Mombasa, and maybe volunteer for a bit for Nuru International. Exact plans are still a little bit in limbo, but coming together slowely but surely. After Kenya, it’s on to Ghana for another month. There, I’m planning to volunteer with Lumana Credit — an organization that is run by my friend Sammie Rayner (a UW grad). To round out our Africa adventures, we’re planning to head down to South Africa for a few weeks and spend some of that time with my former boss David Gibbons!

That puts us near the end of December. After that, we tentatively want to go hang out in Istanbul for a month and then head east to Southeast asia for a few months. But we’ll see what happens as we get closer to the end of our adventures in Africa – it seems every day there is a new country we want to go visit, so plans could change.

If anyone wants to visit any of those places, by all means, let me know! Visitors are certainly welcome anywhere along our journey.

I just read “A new journalism on the horizon” the on BBC News. I’ve certainly changed my news consumption habits — I rarely check news sites like CNN anymore. Instead, I rely on Twitter and Facebook to surface any story that’s worth reading. The only regular & consistent form of news I consume is Fortunate and Time — which I pay for on my Kindle (love my Kindle by the way).

Just thinking out loud, but here is another additional service I’d be willing to pay for:

The ability to pick a story (for example the BP Oil Spill) and receive high quality updates on that particular story via my Kindle. I read most of Time, but not all stories are interesting to me. However, there are some topics that I absolutely want to continue to consume if there was a way to not spend a bunch of time tracking down WHAT I should read relating to them. I’d like to be able to “favorite” a story, and automatically receive related content as it becomes available. I spend a lot of time online, but certainly willing to spend some dollars for someone to filter what I should/shouldn’t read – there’s value in not having to do that myself.

I think this post I wrote back in 2007 is still relevant, and I’m surprised no one has really solved this problem yet. If there is a solution available that I’m not aware of, by all means, let me know!

On a related note – if anyone knows of a blog that covers world events that publishes an article about once a day after sifting through all the news stories and only covers extremely important issues, let me know. I’m tired of wading through article after article on CNN that seems like content just for the sake of generating more page views!

I just watched a 5 minute talk by Brian Bordainick and found it motivating to hear how he has taken on challenges in the 9th Ward head on and with a positive attitude no matter what challenges come up. Here’s a quote that stuck with me from his speech:

Your environment, no matter how good or no matter how bad, eventually becomes normal to you

That’s a scary thing in bad environments — those in them don’t know there is anything else that they should be aspiring to until a new environment is created.

I highly encourage you to watch Brian’s video blow (only 5 mins):

Brian Bordainick: 9th Ward Field of Dreams from alldaybuffet on Vimeo.

[via AllDayBuffet]

Seriously, I have no background on this issue..but give me a freaking break!! This guy didn’t do s**t for 7 years and now he wants 84% of Facebook due to a contract in 2003?

I don’t know how people can live with themselves by just trying to make their money from legal loopholes. I guess some people are fine doing absolutely nothing and expecting others to pay their way in life; I’m not one of those people. If I’m not putting in the time and providing value for my time and effort, there’s no reason I should expect to get paid nor do I want your money. It’s a shame to see people try to make a living from the legal system like this.

My friend saw Inception last night and said it was good. Based on her recommendation and the trailer, I want to see it too!

From: Brooke Babcock
Subject: Up to ten times your targeted traffic

Message Body:
We strongly believe that we have an excellent opportunity to increase the number of visitors to your website through our white-hat SEO services. Please simply reply to this message and we will be delighted to send you further information.

Really? Seriously, SPAMMERS need to get a clue. I can’t believe anyone ever replies to these (but if no one did, I imagine these spammers wouldn’t send them out).

Sorry, just venting from another piece of spam wasting my time — and yes, I know I wasted more of my time by blogging about it, but I’m cool with that.

Labron’s decision to go to the Heat with Wade and Bosh means he’ll never be in Jordan’s league no matter how many championships he gets because a) it’s DWade’s team and b) he’s playing with 2 other superstars. Here is what Jordan has to say about Labron’s decision (via ESPN):

“There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team,’ ” Jordan said after playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada. “But that’s … things are different. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. It’s an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.”

Then, the best wanted to beat the best. Now, the best want to join the best and dominate the rest.

I love reading Umair Haque, who always make me think about the issues he discusses in his writing. I started following Umair when my former boss David Gibbons clued me into him a few years ago and I’ve been following ever since. I’m as big an Apple fan as the next guy, but here is a fascinating quote from his recent “Apple’s Real Achilles Heel” article that should make you think — “what if someone as brilliant as Steve Jobs put his mind to REALLY changing the world (and not just changing the world for a select few)? THAT would be something…

Consider a small slice of history. When Steve Jobs was searching for his own replacement after his first tenure as Apple’s CEO, he audaciously said to the front-running candidate, then-Pepsi CEO John Sculley: “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?”

Perhaps, today, I might gently ask the same question of Steve: “do you really want to spend the rest of your life selling slicker gadgets, or do you want take this chance to change the world radically for the better?”

The future of capitalism isn’t about making prettier, cooler gizmos every year; it’s not about helping sell more movies, music, or apps. It’s about building revolutionary companies, countries, and economies: those that are hardwired to do meaningful stuff that matters the most, and begin making up for the industrial age business-as-usual’s glaring shortcomings; those that can fuel a more authentic prosperity instead.

If the first bullet point on the agenda of 21st century capitalism is discovering a higher purpose for the economy, the second might be said to be building high-impact organizations — those that can change the world radically for the better. Because when you think about it, that’s what’s really scarce.

I mentioned I was contributing to Sloane Berrent’s Cause Its Summer series a few weeks ago — well, my post is now live. The title of my post is The Impact Of Traveling Abroad.

Head on over and check it out!

I just read 10 Reasons to Stop Apologizing for Your Online and think there is some real meat to it worth reading. I particularly liked numbers 3, 6 and 9:

3. When you take the idea of online presence literally, you can experience your online disembodiment as a journey into your mind rather than out of your body.
6. When you focus on creating real meaning with your time online, your online footprint makes a deeper impression.
9. When you embrace online conversations as real, you imbue them with the power to change how you and others think and feel.

Head on over and give the article a read (particularly if you are someone who gives me a hard time about my “online life”)!

I’ve been on Santorini for 2 months now, and it’s time for a bit of a change of scenery — and that change of scenery is Rhodes and Crete. Head over to Oh Hey World for the details!

An hour long special on Labron’s decision – what a joke.

I’ve hinted at the fact that I was working on something in the travel vertical — and I’m excited to unveil the 1st iteration of that project — Oh Hey World. Its my latest project in another vertical that I’m extremely passionate about — travel, and more specifically, the backpacking niche of travel. Oh Hey World is starting out as a multi-author blog dedicated to backpacking and travel for Generation X & Y. There’s certainly more of a core feature that is in the works, but I’ll wait to share further details until I have something to show. I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile now, and now that I’m pretty much permanently on the travel trail — at least for the forseeable future — there is certainly no reason to wait any longer. I’m lucky to find a business partner and close friend in Andrew Mattie, who I’ve known for several years and some of you may know through his work at Diverse Solutions, to handle all the technology so I can focus on the business side of the equation. Head over and read my first post for more info!

I’m excited to connect with some fellow backpacker-bloggers over the course of the next few years as Andrew and I build this site out!

I’m proud to say that I have never been inside of a Wal-Mart (at least not that I remember, my parents may have taken me when I was an infant)

[Via Home Loans]

I bought Fortune on my Kindle (magazines on the Kindle are awesome by the way) this morning and the first article was about the “fundraising” initiative — the Giving Pledge – Warren Buffett and Bill & Melinda Gates are undertaking to convince the world’s billionaires to pledge 50% of their net worth to philanthropic causes by the end of their life. This is probably the biggest fundraiser ever embarked on in history — and it’s being embarked on by two of the richest men in the world. Fortune estimated the campaign could bring $600 billion to charities. That’s a massive massive number and regardless of how many billionaires and millionaires sign on to the pledge, it’s going to make a gigantic impact on the world’s poor in a number of areas across the globe.

Here is Warren Buffet’s personal pledge:

More than 99% of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my lifetime or at death. Measured by dollars, this commitment is large. In a comparative sense, though, many individuals give more to others every day.

I really really recommend you read the entire document. If Buffett can give 99%, then surely other billionaires can give 50%. I expect Gates and Buffett to be hugely successful in their campaign simply due to the unbelievable example they are setting.

One excerpt from Buffet’s pledge that doesn’t really relate to the pledge, but particularly resonated with me:

The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse, and long-standing friends.

It’s great to hear someone with so much experience say what he values most in life is the same as what I value.

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

This was some keywords used to land on Geek Estate Blog that I looked at today. The 2nd one was someone searching for “get high seo quickly”. Good luck with that one.

The Holstee Manifesto – If everyone lived by this, the world would be a much better place.

[via Hey Amber Rae]

I’m so bummed that the USA couldn’t pull out that game against Ghana yesterday. Seriously, now I’m going to have to root for Brazil and Argentina. Oh well, at least we got to watch this goal by Donovan in the opening round. Until 2014 in Brazil, this video will have to suffice…