www.vizitei.com

The problem and the solution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm5JhpWt4GQ

Letter to the editor of Columbia Tribune (you couldn't make it up if you tried)

Smart, interesting chickens deserve a humane death

Published Monday, March 24, 2008

Editor, the Tribune: Chickens are the most cruelly treated animals on earth, though they are smart and interesting animals.

While cows and pigs have at least a piddly little bit of protection, chickens have none.

They routinely have their wings and legs broken, suffering painful and crippling diseases, having their throats slit and are scalded to death while still conscious.

There are a few people I can think of that I wish would come back as a chicken in their next life.

However, there is a humane way to kill chickens called CAK, or controlled atmosphere killing. The chickens are in a room where the oxygen is gradually replaced with an inert gas, and the chickens peacefully die and can be handled without cruelty.

We must demand that this is the way to kill chickens, or we just won’t eat chicken anymore.

Even if you are not a vegetarian you can still express your feeling that you don’t want them to be treated so cruelly.

Contact the U.S. Department of Agriculture and ask them to change to this better way of putting chickens humanely out before they are processed.

---

Rebecca Schedler

120 Benton Ave.

My next phone

Finally what I have been waiting for

http://www.flixxy.com/sumsing-turbo-3000-cellphone.htm

Who sent that email?

So you are tired of junk emails? Want to know who sent it or at least where it came from? Follow this link and you can. All that is required is the Internet Header portion of your email. Pretty clever little tool

http://www.ip-adress.com/trace_email/

Further communications from Rocky

I took my dad flying. We hit some turblence and I thought I was a goner. Not because of the turblence but because my dad, (who was in the co-pilot seat) grabbed the yoke and flew the plane. I guess he thought he could fly the plane better then me, this was his third time up!

some mindless entertainment from New Yorker

Enjoy :-).

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/cartoons/daily/videos/2008/03/24/080324_playdead 

and

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/01/14/080114sh_shouts_borowitz 

More from our friend Rocky

Another V-Day Bites The Dust.  If you could judge someone by how much they spend on flowers for Valentine day, I would flunk. As another Valentine day comes around, I realize how my life is not going anywhere. I have only bought a girl flowers one time, - in High School!

Three years ago, instead of sitting around the house on V-Day, I decided to go to DC. Got stuck in a snow storm and had to spend two nights at a crappy hotel. It was so bad, I got my trunk mat from the car, layed it on the bed and slept on it.

Venture Capital

For several months we have been seeking venture capital for our company. The experience has been nothing short of educational. I did it twice before. Both times through channels outside of the "normal" Silicon Valley world. This time around we have been pursuing the "standard" valley channels. And it leaves one who is seeking funding..well...ummm...underwhelmed.

There are tens of thousands of people who make their living in the silicon valley off the process of raising capital for a variety of start ups. If you read their web sites and listen to them speak, they are "the" center of the entrepreneurial universe. In fact they are middle men who feed off the inefficiency of the investment process. In the most efficient world the people with money (investors) would find and fund the idea (the entrepreneur) and the process would entail minimum of costs. However, if you listen to these middle men they will sing praises of their wisdom.

Some are , in fact, good. But as with any human endeavor, it turns out that only very few reach that level. The rest follow. Today most are looking for the next Google. It's akin to driving while looking in a rear view mirror. They would be funny if they didn't effect so many people's lives. It's worth remembering that first 42 venture capitalists approached by nascent eBay for funding turned them down. And that's with eBay generating real revenues and profits. 12 of the same 42 invested more than $500 million of their investor's money into online pet food endeavor before they figured out that it costs more money to ship the dog food then to sell it in the local retail store.

In fact, if you have half of an idea and an OK team you can get money from these guys. The problem is that you will be forced to accept absurdly low valuations and meddling of people who know nothing about your business on your Board. In fact, the entire process has become an assembly line. it works something like this:

- Angels - Unlike their real world counterparts these guys aren't in it out of goodness of their heart. Still, unlike their brethren further down the food chain they do show some moxie by accepting SOME risk while doing the Entrepreneur a GREAT favor at a laughably low valuation.

-Early Stage VCs- Are fed by their partners, the Angels. Angles bring their "survivors" to these guys for further nourishing and dilution. They will accept some risk, but not much of it. And they WILL tell you how to run your business. If they can, they will pawn your company off to another existing company in the field or pass you on down the food chain to

-Late stage VCs- try to take no risk and simply ride already proven business to absurd risk/reward ratio results. I am still not sure what is it that they do that regular banks can't since they have about the same amount of appetite for risk.

At times it seems that the actual business concept is irrelevant. If you fit into their valuation/target profile, they buy in. If you don't, tough.

Today's favorite profile would be:

- Company is about 6 months old

- Average age - 20

- Location - dorm room

- market segment - uncertain, but something to do with social community (left handed bicycle enthusiasts as an example)

- Revenue prospects - uncertain, but probably from advertising

- profitability prospects - don't be silly

This will get you a $3 million valuation and about $500 to play with. Good luck. Anything that deviates much from that profile is not going to be easy to fund.

Having said that, with all of its weaknesses and sill the only place on earth where this much capital gets distributed to so many startups. However flawed, it is still better than anywhere else. Shame, cause it could be so much better.

Read this book.....

A friend handed me a book. It seems that's the best way to get a book. Friends tend to judge fairly well what you may get into. It was in Russian, which always means an extra effort in the beginning to switch  my reading mind into "reading russian" mode. Nevertheless, it was small and so I figured I'd make an effort. It was one of those rare occasions where a book feels like it was was written for you. For me, it had so many biographical angles and in-depth and true feel view of the realities of intellectual pursuit. Read it. In greek if you can, but in english if you have no other choice. 

http://www.amazon.com/Petros-Goldbachs-Conjecture-Apostolos-Doxiadis/dp/B0006Z74ZI/ref=cm_taf_title_featured?ie=UTF8&tag=tellafriend-20

Moscow - 16 years later

On the 3rd of March I flew non-stop from

Atlanta

to

Moscow

. It was the day after the "election" of the anointed new president of

Russia

. Last time I was in

Moscow

was 1992 just after the collapse of the

Soviet Union

. Those were tough years with much uncertainty and hope in the air. Since then, I have been back to

Russia

several time, but mostly to

St. Petersburg

and never to

Moscow

. I have heard much about

Moscow

becoming a new shiny super city awash with money and opportunity. So the time came for me to see it for myself.

On the approach we flew over

Moscow

's outskirts with huge "Dachas" organized into groups of 10 to 20 fenced by substantial fences and clearly well secured. It is ironic that this latest incarnation of a simple house in the country for weekend and summer's getaways is neither simple nor really away from much. These are elaborate mansions designed to outdo the neighbor and to impress the visitor. I can't imagine much relaxation going on in there.

Upon landing we were in the old beat up

Sheremetevo

Airport

. It is shabby as are most of the public places in

Moscow

. In fact most have become much shabbier over the last 16 years. This is in contrast with things private. Dachas, Houses, and Office buildings of the moneyed elite are new, expensive and shiny indeed. This makes for a eye cutting contrasts. Imagine the latest 600 Mercedes racing down an awful pot-hole filled dirty street. That's how it is with everything. Extremes.

The populace in general is too busy trying to get by and survive to worry much about presidential elections or politics in general. If 16 years ago everyone was caught up in it, now they mostly don't care. Cynical and tired of being mislead and lied to, they just go on fighting the daily lives. The sliver of those who are financially well are indeed in possession of all appropriate "toys": Latest cars, phones, designer clothing, and sleek apartments and dachas. They enthusiastically support all sorts of wildly overpriced restaurants and clubs. The whole town has a feeling of an oil boom town. Which, of course, is what it really is. 

Yet all that wealth and over-consumption happens to exist on the background of muck, ugliness, and bone chilling cold. And no matter how much you have, you still have to live in it, be surrounded by it, and become a part of it. If

St. Petersburg

has the saving grace of being aesthetically pleasing and very "European" in feel,

Moscow

is definitely equal parts

Asia

, Ugly architecture, industrial pollution, and ever present dirt. There are beautiful exceptions of course. But those are mostly left over from bygone era prior to 20th century.

Here it is even more evident that

Russia

is truly a third world country with failed basic institutions. Medicine is virtually out of reach for the majority. Forget about social net of any sorts or even the vaunted “free” education. It has all turned into a “fee based” (with fee appropriated by the person delivering the service) systems. It is of little concern to the “elites” who are thoroughly enjoying the boom.  The thing about “booms” is that they are always followed by “busts”. And when this one comes, it will be a whopper.

With all of this as a background. It was almost bizarre to watch the “victory” celebration of Putin and Medvedev’s elections. In a scene that could only be thought up by a science fiction writer 20 years ago, 2 men walked out of Kremlin’s gates and proceeded across the red square on foot to meet with the “regular people” celebration rally. Some snow flakes were falling and it was windy. The 2 of them however were dressed lightly and “young”. Putin sporting a stylish short coat over black jeans. Medvedev was wearing the “worn look” jeans and a black leather jacket. He could have gone directly to playing a part in west side story. The teen “American” dress code of the new president surprised no one. And that is the biggest shock of all. In the end, this too was for show. I am sure that this will be the last time in the next 4 years that they walked outside of Kremlin and across red square. I am equally sure that once the cameras were off they were whisked away in their black 600 mercedes with special BMW police escort clearing their way through the chocking traffic stuck in a seemingly permanent state of mud. They were off to the dacha and the people were left behind in the mud. As has been their fate for more close to 100 years now.

Meanwhile somewhere far far away Hillary Clinton was winning

Texas

and

Ohio

. A farce of sorts to be sure. But a farce that pales in comparison.