Which begs the question, why is it so easy to be dismissive of this “movement”?  The quick answer is the lack of leadership, the lack of credibility, and the lack of a coherent message and strategy.  A perfect example of these facts is the raw video I shot of the Occupy SF participants last Friday.

Certainly we can appreciate the passion, but is yelling, “F*** the Ferraris” going to resonate and add to your ranks?  Is posting 20 different signs with completely different messages going to connect with the target audience that can actually help make a difference?  Is standing shirtless on the side of the street going to get you a seat at the table?  Clearly rhetorical questions, but the barriers are easily highlighted.

So, should we just dismiss all of the “Occupy” protests?  Of course not.  Not until we’ve taken the time to understand what they’re truly after.  I’ll defer to outlets that do a far better job of outlining the Occupy mission (LA Times, Business Insider) and proponent web sites that articulate a more succinct message (We Are the 99 Percent, Occupy Together) to help with that.

And while I understand how easy it is to dismiss Occupy Wall Street and each of the other Occupy protests around the world, the movement is worth a little research, since they might actually be fighting for something we support.

The good stuff starts around 1:46. Enjoy.

UPDATE: I was wrong. Here’s a different video from Fox Soccer Channel.

- Matt
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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

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“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

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• 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.

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

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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

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- Matt

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-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)!

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

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