Irrational

Why are people utterly unable to form a rational thought?: http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/economic-ignorance-accelerates/

On Elon Musk

David Brooks hits this one out of the park. He accurately uses Elon Musk as his example of a manic individual who transforms society and the country he lives in, even in spite of some mighty disagreeable attributes. 

Fried Gluten

For all of you who are eating gluten free, at least the gluten is going somewhere.

Dumbing Down

This lunch lady was told NOT to serve better lunches.

Amazon

Amazon is buying Texas Instruments’ chip division. With Amazon’s recent foray into the device field with the Kindle, the ability to more closely control its suppliers is crucial. Now they own their chip supplier. They’re following the Apple model, which should result in a more integrated supply chain, faster time to market and more obfuscated product development to competitors. All good things.

Amazon is also providing commercial lending to small businesses. Some may lament Amazon departing from its core competency to dabble in finance, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. Amazon already has vast knowledge of these small businesses since they sell their products through Amazon’s platform. Additionally, Amazon has a built in way of recouping their loans, much akin to garnishing of workers’ wages. As long as they have the free cash flow, this move should further add to Amazon’s profitability.

Amazon is adding 50,000 retail jobs for the holiday season. This speaks to the volumes of merchandise they expect to move. They also plan to retain thousands of these workers in full-time positions after the holiday season has ended. It’s not public which types of jobs will become the permanent jobs, but the fact that Amazon needs additional labor and feels comfortable retaining some of that labor permanently speaks to their burgeoning business. 

Seattle Seahawks and their defense

The Seattle Seahawks are good again! As a die-hard Seattle sports fan suffering through the still abysmal Mariners, slowly rebuilding Husky football team, non-existent basketball team and decimated Husky basketball team, there is little to cheer about. Sure there is the Sounders, and the recent match with the Timbers was a sight to behold, but I haven’t fully embraced them.

Led by their freakishly athletic, ruthless and nasty defense, the Seahawks are relevant again in the National Football League. Their secondary of Kam Chancellor, Brandon Browner, Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas anchor the defense that has stymied Tony Romo, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady.

The young offense, heavily reliant on Marshawn Lynch, continues to see growth from QB Russell Wilson and WR Golden Tate.

Regardless of the fairness of the GB call, that’s in the rear view mirror. The Seahawks face the 49ers this Thursday at Candlestick Park. I doubt many believe the Seahawks even have a chance (the betting line is currently 7.5). However, Thursday night will tell us a lot about this Seahawks squad. Even in a loss they could prove they belong with the best of the NFL (which the 49ers are). And there’s no reason the game can’t become a physical, dragged-out defensive game. Put us on the back of Lynch, wear down the 49ers and give us a chance come 4^th quarter. 

Passbook, iOS 6’s best feature

I don’t yet have my hands on the new iPhone 5, and since my iPhone 4 doesn’t support a lot of the new features I haven’t paid for the upgrade to iOS 6. That said I’ve read a lot about the new features and wanted to highlight one of them here: Passbook.

Passbook is Apple’s answer to Google Wallet, Square and others (kind of). Passbook is convenient for consumers in many ways, but is really a gold mine for retailers, something that Apple can capitalize on.

Passbook stores all manner of payment forms: tickets, coupons, boarding passes, gift cards, loyalty cards, and, using GPS, will bring the relevant ones to your iPhone lock screen. The reminder of location and ease of payment is something consumers will enjoy and retailers will drool over.

Heard of Valpak, the company that stuffs your mailbox and newspaper with a chunk of coupons? If you’re like me, you pitch those as soon as you see them. Who wants to wade through all of that to save a buck? With the Passbook integrated Valpak app you can easily peruse coupons, add them to your favorites, and they’ll pop to your lock screen when you’re within proximity of a place that accepts one.

Gone are the days of forgetting coupons at home. Gone are the days of misplacing gift cards and losing the balance. Gone are the last-minute scrambles to find boarding passes or tickets.

Some iPhone apps that are Passbook integrated: United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Airnb, Live Nation, MLB, Apple Store, Starbucks, Valpak, Target, Fandango, Lufthansa, Cineplex, Walgreens, Sephora, Amtrak, W Hotels, Starwood Hotels, 

Apple Store on Passbook

MLB on Passbook

Airlines on Passbook

General Article