And as if I needed any extra help in getting pumped for the June 11th start, Nike rolled out their new World Cup advertisement yesterday during the UEFA Champions League Final between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan (Inter won 2-0). I don’t typically fawn over ads, but they’ve pulled out all the stops for this 3-minute masterpiece that features: Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba, Italy’s Fabio Cannivaro, England’s Wayne Rooney, U.S.’s Landon Donovan, Brazil’s Ronaldinho (sorry dude…I’m shocked Dunga didn’t include him on the 23-man roster), and every lady’s favorite…Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

Check out the ad right here and let me know what you think:

- Matt

———————————–

Similar Posts:

• Change Leaders, not Light Bulbs
• Resource: More Last-Minute Tax Tips
• Resource: New America Foundation
• Suffer Well: Universal Health Care
• Carrying Capacity and Catastrophic Quakes

“Political freedoms (in the form of free speech and elections) help to promote economic security. Social opportunities (in the form of education and health facilities) facilitate economic participation. Economic facilities (in the form of opportunities for participation in trade and production) can help to generate personal abundance as well as public resources for social facilities.”

You might find this either basic or esoteric, but it certainly deserves some thought. Although I think he was actually discussing nation-building, if there is a formula for what makes America such a prosporous nation, Sen’s idea has provided the most accurate and concise I’ve ever seen.

- Matt

—————–

-Similar Posts:

• Resource: Volunteer Opportunities
• 4 Common Income Tax Misunderstandings
• McCain the Twitter-master
• Carrying Capacity and Catastrophic Quakes
• Autobiography of a Nation

• Hobnobbing with scions of society Ryan Howard (he asked me to call his man-purse a satchel, and as Matt has previously noted, he is 255 lbs), Chase Utley, and Jayson Werth of the recently oft-mentioned Philadelphia Phillies…. SERIOUSLY!!!  Details you ask?  I may or may not have bought Howard (who just signed a 5-year $125 million dollar contract) a cocktail (Tanqueray 10 and tonic) at a bar in San Diego following a Phillies/Padres game,

• Keeping up foreign relations with our North American brothers to the south of us.  Again I may or may not have purchased uniformed police officers tequila shots while they were on their lunch break… I literally lubricated the wheels of justice for a week in Cabo San Lucas… OLE!

• Moving from the greater Los Angeles area to the even-greater Ventura County area,

• Meeting regularly with marketing executives from Just for Men in order to increase the creepiness factor of their recent ad campaigns,

• Attempting to establish previously unrecognized Guinness Book of World Records records in the wearable blankets (snuggie) category,

• Determining how to properly stow my Ipod Shuffle headphones after usage in order to prevent it from taking approximately eight minutes to untangle them before their next use.

As you can see, I have been quite busy and therefore excused for leaving all of our dear readers breathless for our next update.  I will make a deal with all of you, however.  If you continue to read our website, I vow to spend less time buying rich and powerful men drinks and more time entertaining you.Similar Posts:

• Carrying Capacity and Catastrophic Quakes
• Don’t Tase Me Again, Bro
• My Little Needle: A-Rod & Outside Eyes
• National Hustle Redux
• Change Leaders, not Light Bulbs

After a few quick Google searches, not surprisingly I found that there was a whole area of study out there ready to quench my curiosity, which can be roughly summarized as carrying capacity.  Now I have to admit, I suppose I initially thought about San Francisco’s carrying capacity in light of the opinions that some day soon, “the big one” will shake the City so hard we are cut off from civilization for an extended period of time and/or the western-most half of California will slip into the ocean.  For the record, I don’t find either option satisfactory.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t track down much information on the carrying capacity of San Francisco.

What I did find, were some really cool resources over at PBS NOVA, called World in the Balance.  It appears to track and analyze both current and historic world population growth, including fun graphs like Human Numbers Through Time and interviews from global population experts in Voices of Concern.  I’m still reviewing the World in the Balance site, so I’d recommend checking it out on your own, but I have learned one thing so far: As of the writing of this post, other than you there are 6,811,060,305 people in the world.  Don’t worry, Mom still thinks you’re very important.

- Matt

———————-

-Similar Posts:

• Resource: Contact Your Government
• 4 Common Income Tax Misunderstandings
• Resource: Volunteer Opportunities
• Resource: Tax Guides & Tips
• Unhealthy Health Care

Although very few Americans had any reservations about retaliating against Al Qaeda and the Taliban after 9/11, the past eight years has seen many Americans become dissolutioned with our role in Afghanistan.  The Iraq War has diverted both military resources and public attention, resulting in today’s all-too-common questions: (1) What are we trying to achieve in Afghanistan?, and (2) Should we send more troops?

To help provide an updated perspective, Frontline aired “Obama’s War” last night:

- Matt

===============

-Similar Posts:

• Autobiography of a Nation; Almost Concluded
• Geithner’s Plan and Inside the Meltdown
• Resource: Contact Your Government
• Women in Afghanistan are Struggling
• Obama Agenda Overload

- Matt

===============

-Similar Posts:

• What a difference a day/year makes…
• D in Detroit: Obama Smacks Down GM and Chrysler
• Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
• Obama Agenda Overload
• The Deficit We Inherited and Volcano Monitoring

-Sir Francis Drake

Although quite chic these days, piracy is not a new concept.  Since man has plied the sea for commerce, other men have made a living by taking those cargoes for themselves.  In fact, even the ancient Greeks were forced to enlist a massive naval force to suppress a pirate threat in the picturesque Mediterranean  in 67 BC.

Piracy spread rampantly throughout the middle ages, with Viking and Muslim Pirates attacking not just sea-going vessels, but often raiding small coastal cities; taking slaves and robbing villages of their riches.  Eventually, piracy evolved to the way we like to think of it today: eye patches, pieces of eight, buried treasure, and a democratic utopia for crewmen with equality for all.

This period is referred to as the “Classic Era” of piracy, and a lot of the Hollywood mystique of sailing under the Skull n’ Crossbones is based in fact.  However, as we are all aware, piracy did not go away.  Although the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama in recent weeks has brought the Somali piracy issue to a global forefront, the issue is by no means cut and dried (I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that I tend to gravitate towards these types of issues).

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) established in 1982, defined any act of detention, violence, or depredation commited for private ends against any crew or passenger of a private ship illegal. This is of course what the Somali pirates have done, and are therefore guilty of grievously flouting a strong international statuate.  My first reaction was to advocate a deployment of a Navy Seal team (wearing eyepatches and brandishing cutlasses (not the Oldsmobile kind)) and hang those Somali’s from the yardarms.

Of course, after researching the sitatuation, I found that the most of the Somali “pirates” are former fishermen whose territorial waters have been poached by Western and Japanese fishing outfits.  The fish that have not been poached have been killed by hazardous waste material unearthed after the devestating tsunami that struck Thailand in 2004.  Over 10 million tons of hazardous waste had been dumped along Somalia’s vast uninhabited shoreline since the early 1980’s by Western multi-national corporations after paying Somali warlords over $60 million for the privelege.

Now of course, what the Somali pirates are doing is wrong, dangerous, and against all international convention.  Not to mention, the fishermen carrying out the actual act of piracy are low men on the totem pole, and no one know how high that pole is our what direction it falls (Tenuous links between Somali brigands and terrorist organizations such as Al-Queda are beginning to be uncovered) .  Suffice it to say, however, that the situation is not necessarily as portrayed on network television (I know, I am just as shocked as y’all)!

Similar Posts:

• Resource: New America Foundation
• McCain the Twitter-master
• Carrying Capacity and Catastrophic Quakes
• Closed Zone and the Arab-Israeli Conflict
• Autobiography of a Nation

Before you take a look at the 45-minute video, here are my main five takeaways from Friedman’s presentation:

1. Global economic competition has been flattened in the last decade. (06:10)  According to Friedman, “From the year 2000 to the present, [competition] was shrinking the world from size small to size tiny and flattening the global economic playing field at the same time.  Only what’s really new, really different, really exciting, and really terrifying, is that this era of globalization is certainly not spearheaded by countries, and it’s not exclusively spearheaded by companies anymore.  This era of globalization is spearheaded by individuals.”  During these times of mass media and mass communication, we are also witnessing a new dawn of mass competition on a global level. 
2. Friedman’s four “Key Flateners” consist of the PC, Netscape, the “Work-flow Revolution,” and Uploading. (07:20)  Everyone’s familiar with the power of the PC, but the Netscape browser brought the Internet to life and it’s successful 1995 IPO boosted investment in fiber optic cable all over the world.  This led to greater world-wide collaboration and eventually, to today’s YouTube and Wikipedia.  
3. Iron rule of business on the Flat World Platform: Whatever can be done, will be done. (17:48)  “The only question left is, will it be done by you, or to you?”
4. The way the U.S. is going to stay on top is to start a real Green Revolution (32:50).  We all like to think we are becoming more energy efficient and making progress in the fight against global warming, but Friedman brings up an important point about this Green “Revolution”.  He says, “Have you ever been to a revolution where no one got hurt?  This is not revolution, this is a party.” (36:55)  Now, Friedman’s not suggesting an uprising and installing an authoritarian regime.  Rather, he’s stating that for true fundamental change in clean energy, companies who fail to innovative will disappear. 
5. The problem with the term “green,” is that is has always been named by its opponents. (42:16)  Green has been labeled “liberal, tree-hugging, sissy, girly-man, unpatriotic, vaguely French.”  This term needs to be rebranded to mean what it truly stands for: “geo-political, geo-strategic, economic, capitalistic, entrepreneurial, patriotic.”  As Friedman says, “Green is the new red, white, and blue.” 

Pretty powerful stuff. 

- Matt

==========

-Similar Posts:

• Economic Stimulus Details
• McCain the Twitter-master
• Autobiography of a Nation
• Carrying Capacity and Catastrophic Quakes
• Suffer Well: Universal Health Care

 
Also, CNN previously aired a piece called Lifting the Veil:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFn9ZpWn7SM

Continued…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5irza22hVaU

The young girls playing at school offers a glimpse of a silver lining, but Karzai’s recent decision is just another roadblock for women’s rights in Afghanistan.

- Matt

==========Similar Posts:

• Last Place Team, Last Place Security
• Freediving an Abyss
• Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
• Eric Byrnes Officially Retires
• Frontline: Obama’s War

For example, earlier this year I was boarding the Muni (SF’s local transist system) and in place of a typical bus-side advertisement for McDonald’s or the current movie blockbuster, I had a simply advertised question staring at me: Why Islam?  Later in the day, another Muni drove by bearing an ad that read “Islam: Submission to God”.  In addition to these messages, each of these traveling billboards included a phone number (1-877-WhyIslam) and a web site (WhyIslam.org).

Even in an open-minded (sometimes to the point of apathy), yet opinionated (sometimes to the point of arrogance) city like San Francisco, this ad campaign somehow caught me offguard.  Perhaps I’m used to seeing only commercial messages pasted onto Muni vehicles and kiosks or maybe I have grown all too familiar with typical Western media portrayals of Islam, which is to say…that it is the religion of terrorists.  And although I’m semi-worldly enough to recognize the fallacy in this widely-held view (believe it or not, not all Muslims are terrorists and not all terrorists are Muslim), seeing Islam publicized in a positive light was unusually shocking.

The Why Islam? campaign is a product of the local chapter of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).  According to their web site, “The goal of ICNA shall be to seek the pleasure of Allah (SWT) through the struggle of Iqamat-ud-Deen (establishment of the Islamic system of life) as spelled out in the Qur’an and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).”  Since the extent of my knowledge of Islam is largely limited to the Five Pillars (or Six Pillars, depending on your perspective) and a bit of reading/watching that involves the subject (e.g., Ghost Wars, PBS Frontline, Traitor, etc.), I found the ICNA’s overarching goal entirely too general to derive any detailed meaning.

So, after taking a closer look at the Why Islam? web site, here are my main take-aways:

1. Jihad has several interpretations. Since the ICNA placed a question regarding the definition of jihad as their first FAQ, they must consider this term one of the biggest roadblocks to wide acceptance of Islam in the United States.  According to their answer, jihad should be interpreted as “struggle” (not “holy war”), or more completely: “At the individual level, jihad primarily refers to the inner struggle of being a person of virtue and submission to God in all aspects of life.”  However, at the collective level, jihad can take a variety of forms, including intellectual, economic, and physical jihad.  In recent history, physical jihad has been the most widely publicized with 9/11, Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq dominating the first decade of the 21st century.

The ICNA explains that the Qur’an allows for physical jihad only as a last resort to defend freedom, but no agression towards civilians is ever permitted.  This position towards civilians is one of the most significant differences between jihad and terrorism.  According to ICNA, the others include: (a) Jihad can only be launched by an established authority while terrorism is committed by individuals or groups without legitimacy to speak for the majority, (b) Jihad is declared openly, whereas terrorism is committed secretly, and (c) Jihad is bound by strict rules of engagement while terrorism is not bound by any rules.

While these last three differences may accurately frame physical jihad as a morally defensible act, the reality is not so clear when the government of a recognized country (i.e., the Taliban in Afghanistan) sanctions bin Laden’s declaration of ”jihad” against the United States.  Coupled with Al Qaeda’s actual attacks on American civilians, the line between jihad and terrorism can be significantly blurred.

2. The Qur’an does not consider Christians and Jews infidels. According to the site, an infidel is someone who does not believe in God, a definition that is incompatible with the beliefs of Christians and Jews.  However, the related term “kafir” can be used to describe those who periodically reject their prophets.

A specific Qur’an passage is offered on the site that states “they [Christians and Jews] have disbelieved” that Allah is the Messiah.  Now, I’m not a religious scholar or a linguist, but I think with “infidels” and “kafir” we’re talking Granny Smith and Fuji here, not apples and oranges as they are making it sound.  Either way, the ICNA sees this as an important distinction.

3. WhyIslam.org is well organized and has the potential to open up dialogue. The intention of the ICNA appears to be clearing up the West’s misconception of Islam, which on its own is a noble goal and the WhyIslam? web site can be a valuable tool in this effort.  However, the confusion over interpretations of the Qur’an and the perception that certain distinctions (like the two points discussed above) are just a game of semantics may marginalize the overall message, which is unfortunate when you consider how many millions of people have negative feelings towards the world’s second largest religion.  At a minimum, I hope the ICNA is successful in at least opening up a dialogue that leads to a mutually beneficial understanding.

The site also has a likely controversial take on women and Islam, but I highly recommend checking out the site for yourself and bringing your thoughts back here.  For further research on a variety religions, you can check out Adherents and our other spirituality resources.

- Matt

==========Similar Posts:

• Early Milestone and Thank You!
• They Know Where You Live: Mexican Drug Cartels
• Milestone: One month down…
• Cramer vs. Cramer vs. Stewart
• Resource: Volunteer Opportunities