Quite Noteworthy

Small business 401K provider?

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:57:00 +0000

Does anyone have recommendations for a 401K provider for small businesses?
We are currently using SurePayroll with Sure401K/ePlanServices. This has been a complete disaster.

The numbers provided by both companies vary wildly for our Form 5500, and those differ from what our accountant thinks the numbers should be as well.
There is no single point of contact as these are two different companies.
For several problems the answer has been "don't ask us, ask the other guys. We just get the number from them."
We had to get our accountant involved as well, which has driven the cost up for this service dramatically, as no one at either company can provide a straight answer.
Emails and phone calls to both organizations have gone unanswered many times. We have to actively get someone on the phone, or then worry that our phone calls go into a black hole.

Before setting up the 401K, we were very happy with SurePayroll and recommended them to all of our friends. Now, however, that has changed.

Your suggestions are appreciated! Please post them below or email me directly.

PhotoSketch: I can't wait to try this

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:19:00 +0000

A lot of press coverage hit my sources about PhotoSketch, an "Internet Image Montage" research project from five students at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore. It looks like an astounding piece of technology, and a lot of fun to play with. Unfortunately, the site was taken down due to an unbelievable amount of traffic (what's called being "slashdotted", named after a site is brought to the attention of the popular technology news site slashdot.com).

With it, you:

Draw a pencil sketch of what image you want to compile
Label the items in the image
Run the image through and get back a photo montage compiled from available online images.

Just let the pictures and video speak for themselves.

Sketch2Photo: Internet Image Montage from Tao Chen on Vimeo.

I wonder what the image in my previous post would translate to?

"Doing" the Lourvre

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:47:00 +0000

Tourists who visit city art museums in a day, taking pictures and moving on, may not fully appreciate the art within them, as this New York Times article laments. I suffer from this affliction as well. Well, perhaps "suffer" isn't the best word - I'm quite comfortable in my low interest level in painted art.

Architecture, however, is different animals. Given the right conditions, I can see how spending a few hours observing a building could be interesting. Especially if it is active observation, as this paragraph from the article suggests.

Recently, I bought a couple of sketchbooks to draw with my 10-year-old in St. Peter’s and elsewhere around Rome, just for the fun of it, not because we’re any good, but to help us look more slowly and carefully at what we found. Crowds occasionally gathered around us as if we were doing something totally strange and novel, as opposed to something normal, which sketching used to be.

I would like to try this someday. As the paragraph suggests, not because I'd be "any good", but rather to help absorb the building and its environment better. In middle school I would spend hours designing floorplans for houses on graph paper and doing perspective drawings. I contemplated a career in architecture, but the pull of computer science was too strong at the time.

My drawings may not be very good, but at least at the end I can pull out my DSLR and snap a photo before walking away...

Leaving a dentist near you...

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:19:00 +0000

.. Invisalign.

In what could be the dumbest business decision I've heard of in a long time, Align Technologies (NASDAQ: ALGN), makers of Invisalign® has decreed that all dentists offering Invisalign must start 10 cases per year and complete 10 CE credits related to Invisalign per year (copy of letter sent to one dentist here).

What this means for the consumer:

The consumer experience will undoubtedly improve. Those who truly want Invisalign will now have a limited set of very experienced dentists to choose from.
However, competitive pressure may change that - see notes on ClearCorrect below.

What this means for the dentist:

The national average for a case is $5,000/year(source). Convincing 10 patients per year to fork over $5,000/year for a truly elective procedure is very, very hard in the vast majority of markets out there. Only the ones that market heavily and whose business consists of a very high percentage of cosmetic dentistry will make this quota.
Every dentist who became certified in the past 5+ years was required to pay $1K-2K to become certified. This, combined with a mandatory reduction in services, is going to lead to a large number of very unhappy dentists at this decision (I know a few myself). And, you can be sure that unhappy dentists across the country will do whatever is in their power to keep a patient in the door. A few choice quotes from the online dental community DentalTown:
- "Absolute idiots IMHO !!! I wonder if they will be refunding doctors certification costs as they decided to change the rules in the middle of the game?"
- "While there are many doctors that may not submit many cases to Invisalign, I suspect these same doctors talk alot about invisalign and are a terrific advertising/referral source for high volume invisalign offices or orthodontists. I'm sure many of us won't have very many nice things to say about Align right now."

What this means for Align Technologies:

I would expect that this knocks out 50-75% of their dentists (by number), but only knocks out 10% of revenue in year 1*. They can align sales/admin costs against this expected reduction in revenue to minimize the impact to net income. This, however, does not include the general softness expected in their business due to offering an expensive, elective procedure during a severe recession, which analysts have already identified.
Beyond intentionally cutting revenue during the recession, their timing is poor. Between being found as violating patents by one competitor (Ormco Corporation) and seeing another upstart invade their turf (ClearCorrect), they are leaving dentists with plenty of options that are not Invisalign.

How long will they have until this newfound exclusivity takes a toll on their brand strength and share price? I don't think their 2Q earnings will reflect the change, as the few fringe dentists are likely pushing Invisalign hard to hit their quota, but I would be surprised if they don't have to lower guidance again in future quarters, partially as a result of this policy.

Comments? Thoughts?

*These are gut-feel numbers, not based on financial analysis.

Google Voice (today) --> AT&T (1980's)

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:06:00 +0000

This is a great opinion piece by Judy Shapiro at Advertising Age. It draws parallels between the widely acclaimed Google Voice service and the breadth and reach of AT&T's investments in the '80s and '90s. The conclusion is that this is a dangerous path for Google, as it takes it far afield from its core business, and that while the core business may not suffer today, it may (will?) in the near future as a result. From the article:

Much like AT&T did 20 years ago to maintain its growth, Google is trying to do the same -- control the data distribution channels. In the case of AT&T, it was all about information delivery to business and residential users. In the case of Google, it's all about advertising delivery to its "product" -- the users of its services.

The trouble with wanting to dominate all delivery channels (whether it be information or advertising) is that you are forced to go further and further afield from your core competency. And while playing in disparate businesses is something a leader brand can afford to do, over time the core business tends to suffer -- slowly but inextricably. Then at some point, you are willing to throw out the knitting needles. AT&T did, and it did not end well. Google looks like to be headed in the same direction.

Nerdy Chicago Weather Joke

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:20:00 +0000

From Cheap Talk:

Q: How do you prove the existence of Spring in Chicago?

A: By continuity.

In February it was zero Farenheit. Today it is muggy and approaching 90. By continuity, Spring happened somewhere in between. But note that this existence proof is not constructive. It is of no help in telling us exactly when it was that Spring fluttered by. I must have been sleeping at the time.

Podcasts on your Blackberry with Mediafly

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:57:00 +0000

Mediafly just released the beta version of their player for BlackBerry devices. For those of you who don't know, Mediafly is a free service to enable you to manage all of your podcasts and discover new podcasts, across all of your devices (iPhone, iPod, Sansa, Zen, Squeezebox, chumby, PopcornHour, Zune, CastGrabber, and even plain old RSS). That may sound complicated, but it's enormously useful once you realize how it works.

I listen to This American Life from Chicago Public Radio quite often - at the gym, on the bus, etc. In the past, I would have to remember to sync my iPod to iTunes to ensure the podcast is loaded onto it. With Mediafly Audio Edition for Blackberry, however, I can simply stream new and recent episodes quickly through the application's interface whenever I want.

When you open the application, you are given a list of channels with default shows within them. Lots of great exploration here. There are a lot of audio programs I recently started listening to that I did not know existed before starting to use Mediafly. I've become a fan of Gordon Deal's dry wit on the Wall Street Journal podcasts. And, the Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business puts out CareerCast, interviews with professionals on various career-related topics. I find these to be excellent as well.

Next, you can customize your own channel list. If you want to customize the list, you can register for free at Mediafly.com and link your BlackBerry to your device. You can then add and remove shows and episodes from both the BlackBerry and from the website.

Finally, there is a version that supports video podcasts as well in the works.

It's definitely worth trying out, at the very least to see what kind of content you can find. The release is a beta, so please let them know if you encounter any bugs or other issues (you can do so right from the application, it seems).
To install, point your BlackBerry browser to: http://www.mediafly.mobi

Are expensive running shoes a waste of money?

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:30:00 +0000

A fascinating article in The Daily Mail about running shoes and whether they are worth their money. If you are a runner or even like to walk a lot, it is well worth the read.

My favorite quote:

Dr Craig Richards... revealed there are no evidence-based studies that demonstrate running shoes make you less prone to injury. Not one.

It was an astonishing revelation that had been hidden for over 35 years. Dr Richards was so stunned that a $20 billion industry seemed to be based on nothing but empty promises and wishful thinking that he issued the following challenge: 'Is any running-shoe company prepared to claim that wearing their distance running shoes will decrease your risk of suffering musculoskeletal running injuries? Is any shoe manufacturer prepared to claim that wearing their running shoes will improve your distance running performance? If you are prepared to make these claims, where is your peer-reviewed data to back it up?'

Dr Richards waited and even tried contacting the major shoe companies for their data. In response, he got silence.

And also,

Runners wearing top-of-the-line trainers are 123 per cent more likely to get injured than runners in cheap ones.

Antidote du jour

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:33:00 +0000

One of my favorite blogs of the day is Naked Capitalism. The blog offers an almost increasingly despairing look at the economy and the politics behind making it better, and makes you want to crawl into a hole and hide for a couple of decades after you read it.

It is topped off by posts of "Links", which contain a barrage of interesting and usually pessimistic links from across the news and blogosphere. At the end of each of these "Links" posts, however, contains a picture that author Yves Smith entitles "Antidote du jour", usually contributed by a reader. Instead of describing the picture, I'll post a few below.

Given the starkly negative (/realistic?) tone of the blog, "Antidote du jour" always makes me smile.

Banks were profitable in January and February... because of AIG

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:07:00 +0000

Wow.

AIG, knowing it would need to ask for much more capital from the Treasury imminently, decided to throw in the towel, and gifted major bank counter-parties with trades which were egregiously profitable to the banks, and even more egregiously money losing to the U.S. taxpayers, who had to dump more and more cash into AIG, without having the U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner disclose the real extent of this, for lack of a better word, fraudulent scam.

Helmet use in skiing

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:12:00 +0000

Given the death of someone in the news while skiing this week, I was able to find numbers on what I have been looking for that justify my suspicion: use of helmets by skiers has increased dramatically recently.

When I first started skiing yearly in 2003, the only people I saw wearing helmets were two of the other three people skiing with me. I was acutely conscious of this and other equipment/fashion trends on the slopes, as I literally had almost no idea how warmly to dress, what good or bad equipment was (save determined by price), etc.

We adopted helmet use for our 2007 trip, and intend to continue it for the foreseeable future. I've put a lot of money into making my head smarter, I should protect that investment.

This year, on our trip to Steamboat Mountain, helmets were far more common than I've ever seen. The quote below from a CNN article helps justify that sentiment.

Forty-three percent of U.S. skiers and boarders wear helmets, according to a 2008 survey by the National Ski Areas Association, the trade group that represents ski resorts as well as ski gear manufacturers. That's up from 25 percent in 2003.

Looks like it will be a banner year for the ski helmet manufacturers and distributors.

TARP, in pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:42:00 +0000

Forwarded from a friend.

TARP

How to make AIG executives give up their bonuses

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:40:00 +0000

The government claims they are contractually obligated to pay 400 AIG executives and employees their $165M in bonuses.

How do we get these people to do the right thing and forgo these completely undeserved bonuses?

The administration can play hardball. Make a public statement that states, yes, you can take your bonus as the law dictates. However, if you do, we will make your names, addresses, and the amount of your bonus public. Not hardball enough? Then, make this policy apply in perpetuity (e.g. if you move, we will keep your address up to date). Too hardball? Limit it to those taking home >$500K from this bonus pool.

This will certainly make them think twice about accepting this money.

Of course, none of this would have been a problem if we hadn't bailed them out in the first place - they would enter bankruptcy and these contracts could be void.

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:32:00 +0000

I've practically grown up with the business news channel CNBC in the background (and occasional foreground). I've tracked the market and invested in it for many years, learning early on that it felt only a few notches above gambling to me. And, the emergence of fast-pitch shows like Jim Cramer's Mad Money on CNBC, and how they have become the ratings-winners for CNBC, really left an unsettling feeling in me that I've never explored before.

So, it was with great interest that I watched Jon Stewart disembowel Jim Cramer on his March 12 show (via my Neuros LINK). Catch the unedited version here while you can, but be aware that its unedited and contains profanity.

I have a variety of thoughts that stemmed from watching both the edited and unedited versions of this show, that I explore below.

Jon Stewart pushes hard to first establish Jim Cramer as the voice of CNBC, then rip CNBC apart for poor journalism over the course of the interview.
Jim Cramer's argument seems to be that his show is purely commentary/entertainment, not journalism in the slightest. He tries to use this argument to justify that 1.) he was lied to like everyone else, 2.) he's not the voice of CNBC so Jon Stewart should stop yelling at him. But since he doesn't come right out and state this (and I don't know if I would either, if I were him; that specific point would probably be picked up by other media and used to trash his show and ratings), he seems unable to mount a clear defense against Jon Stewart's points of attack.
Jon Stewart plays some relatively damning clips of Jim Cramer being interviewed in 2006 about his days as a hedge fund manager and the short-selling and incorrectly leaked information tactics used by funds to drive stocks down for their personal gain. Jim Cramer's response to this should have been a clear: "Yes, I did this. Yes, this is what many funds do. Yes, this may not be right. Now, my goal is to expose this to my viewers so they know what is happening." Instead, he initially tried to lie, then fumbled around for an answer, and finally let Jon Stewart finish his sentences.
At one point, Jon Stewart asks Jim Cramer, "who are your viewers? The traders? Or.." he trails off, implying the other option as the average American. Which is an interesting question: who are CNBC's viewers? For anyone who has watched CNBC in the morning or during the day for even five minutes, they will quickly realize that the viewers are the traders, investors, and other Wall Street insiders, and not the average viewer. I believe Jon Stewart trailed off at this point because he recognized the answer to this question himself at that very moment.
CNBC as a network is in a tough position. As a news network, they are seen as a source for independent reporting. But their target viewers are the very people who supply them with information and access. If they pushed into investigative journalism, transforming parts of their agency to look and act like Spitzer's or Cuomo as Attorney General they run the risk of being entirely shut out of all of the companies they need access to. This situation is reminiscent of how the Bush administration treated reporters during the past eight years - if a network posted negative news about the administration, the war, or other areas of interest, they were effectively shut out of the news bubble.
This discussion may have been extremely popular for Comedy Central and CNBC, but will the results of this exchange change anything? My guess: on Mad Money, perhaps. You will see Jim Cramer try harder to explain how things work on a slightly more technical level. On CNBC, not as a result of this exchange. You will see broader changes in reporting due to the massive drop in the indexes, however.

The Agreeable Cat

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:03:00 +0000

With all the hubbub around Facebook Terms of Service, I thought this post was especially on-the-mark:

My cat, Simba, agrees instead of me. As he is not a legal entity, I don't really know how kitty's agreements would stand up in court, but I like to think he would be responsible for any breaches of contract, assuming the agreement is even enforceable. After all, he is not even of legal age, at least in human years.

Full details about The Agreeable Cat here.

Random thoughts about Android/G1

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:24:00 +0000

I received the T-Mobile G1 running Android yesterday and played with it essentially all evening. A few thoughts below, for those who care. (Sorry regular readers, this is a post for those who find this blog from Google...)

I thought I would be downloading games, but interestingly enough I haven't even touched those yet. In fact, the application I've spent the most time so far is "Settings"
This is the first time I've had a data plan on a phone. While the possibilities are endless, I wonder how much value I will actually get out of it over time. I bike to/from work and don't travel much, so I don't get a lot of the entertainment value that others might. We'll see how I feel in a month
I would love to start writing apps for this thing, but unfortunately my old laptop has only USB 1.1, which is unsupported

More specific stuff:

As is well documented, the POP/IMAP email client is a train wreck
I keep pressing "Menu" when I mean "Back".
Task switching is annoying. I would love part of the Notification bar to be a list of open apps.
The included headphones and USB-to-headphone extension are really really annoying! The combination is massive, with overly long cables, and the included headphones sound tinny and get tangled in everything.
SSH and FTP seems straightforward (ConnectionBot and AndFTP). Nice touch to be able to log into any of my servers from my phone. However, there is an annoying ConnectionBot bug - all of my private keys need to be in the root directory of my SD card
New version called "Cupcake" coming out soon. On-screen vertical-orientation keyboard seems like a good thing. Hopefully it also fixes email
Google Voice Search seems like a gimmick. First, it doesn't really work well (I said "Chocolate Grape" and got back "Chocolate Cake"). Second, to use it I have to 1.) Enter my password, 2.) Bring up the applications menu, 3.) Scroll down, 4.) Press "Voice Search". Too much effort.

Hospital pricing

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:16:00 +0000

The Economix blog at the New York Times has a guest article that discusses hospital procedure pricing and revenue sources. From our experiences in a small dental practice, much of the same discussion on revenue sources applies as well. However, the range is more tightly bound than the orders of magnitude difference described in the practice.

From the article, it seems:

Medicare (Federal) tries to pay at hospital cost
Medicaid (State/Federal) on average pays far under hospital cost
Private insurance generates the bulk of profit
Uninsured gets screwed
The range of prices paid by a private insurance vary widely, by orders of magnitude, and there are seemingly few consistent rules that dictate what prices will be
Pricing is enormously complex and (except in CA) nearly completely opaque

I love this guy!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:07:00 +0000

From here:

“For a long time now there’s been too much secrecy in this city. Transparency and rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.” - Barack Obama

The new president effectively reversed a post-9/11 Bush administration policy making it easier for government agencies to deny requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act, and effectively repealed a Bush executive order that allowed former presidents or their heirs to claim executive privilege in an effort to keep records secret.

It may not be the type of thing that Mr. Bush wants to hear, however. Experts said Mr. Obama’s moves would have the practical effect of allowing reporters and historians to obtain access to records from the Bush administration that might otherwise have been kept under wraps.

How wonderfully refreshing!
Let the floodgates open on the secrets that the Bush administration tried oh so hard to keep secret. Exciting times, indeed.

Better Posture

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 04:27:00 +0000

Poor posture sucks.

The problem
It starts early in life and is enormously difficult to correct once you are set. It will lead to back pains, poor breathing, and a host of other issues that won't appear for another 20 years.

I've have fairly miserable posture for most of my life. I would slump while sitting, slouch while standing, and probably even curl up while lying down. When people would ask how tall I am and I tell them 6'3", invariably the response would be similar to "Really? You don't seem that tall."

The resolution
I vowed ("resolved", even?) to get past this right after Thanksgiving of last year. Like a drug addict who's hit rock bottom, my bottom was seeing pictures from my brother's wedding. Despite being taller than both of them, I looked shorter than them in almost every picture I can remember, and was fed up.

No more poor posture.

The tools
I dug out a book I had purchased a few years back, Posture, Get it Straight! by Janice Novak. While the book was written for someone quite a few years older and quite a few pounds heavier than myself (the subtitle is "Look Ten Years Younger, Ten Pounds Thinner and Feel Better Than Ever", after all), and had illustrations of 50-year old woman in leotards smattered throughout the book, the principles laid out throughout the book, especially in the first two chapters, were solid.

The actions
For the past 8 weeks now, I have started the following.

Every time I catch myself slouching, I consciously sit upright with the "perfect posture" principle in the book.
Whenever I head to the gym, I focus more intensely on posture than every before: shoulders low and back, chest out, head and neck back.
Occasionally I will turn on the Yoga DVD that we have and run through that, as the stretching invariably helps limber up my back.
I've incorporate 2-3 core workouts into my weekly regimen. Good posture requires a strong core, both front and back. (I will detail this in a future blog post)

The results The first two weeks were tough. I caught myself slouching 10-20 times per day. When I would correct myself, my back would make snapping and popping noises. I would go to bed with an aching back at the end of the day.

But it is getting better. At least I think so. My back doesn't pop or snap anymore. The corrections I have to take are fewer. I'm not out of the woods yet, but I definitely see improvement. And I definitely feel taller. Whereas my wife used to seem ~9-10 inches shorter than me, she is now the appropriate 12 inches shorter than me. I haven't had any comments about how tall I don't look in these past 8 weeks. Yes, things are looking up.

I will update this post as time goes on.

Resolutions?

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:43:00 +0000

Some may say Jan 21 is too late to post New Years resolutions. These should all be done over the first week of January, then immediately pushed aside for more interesting fare. Others prefer to not post them at all. I spent the last three weeks pondering over this question for myself.

You see, resolutions never really meant anything to me. I always believed that, if I needed to do something, I would just start doing it and not wait for a new year to begin to "resolve" to do it.

This point of view hasn't changed. It's just that I've decided to start doing some things that overlap relatively cleanly with the new year.

I'll explain these things in subsequent posts, for those who care (and everyone else who doesn't...)

Why bailing out Detroit is bad

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:35:00 +0000

Seeking Alpha has an excellent article on why bailing out Detroit is a terrible idea. From the article:

When it comes to bailouts, the real discussions are not centered in Washington but rather in Beijing, Tokyo, and Riyadh. With no money of our own, our ability to bailout our own citizens is completely dependent on the world's willingness to foot the bill. While I am sure that Bush and Paulson are doing their best to convince the world that open ended financing of the United States is in the global interest, my guess is that, unlike Congress, our foreign creditors will see through the self-serving nature of our plea.

Newsweek's Top-Secret Election Project

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:17:00 +0000

Newsweek reporters made an agreement: exclusive behind-the-scenes at all of the campaigns, in exchange for complete silence until November 5.
Now, they have released their stories.
There's a lot to read (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and more coming), but it makes for really fascinating reading.

Analysis on the election

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:22:00 +0000

This site offers an excellent analysis, complete with charts, on how voter turnout compared to 2004 and 2000.
Particularly:

McCain did better among the rich than the poor, but his lead decreased among the highest income brackets.
No massive youth turnout, again. Instead, Obama got a much larger share of the youth vote.
As in 2004 and 2000, the map was very partisan by state (see the charts for more details).

The World's First President

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:26:00 +0000

This Newsweek article, The World Hopes for Its First President, really steps me back from the daily ground game I read about over at fivethirtyeight.com and editorials at politico.com, to a more global, and heartening, perspective. Barack Obama seems to be the overwhelming favorite in a US election that has been more closely watched across the world than any other by far.

Obama, whose life story allows him readily to be seen as the personification of change, racks up landslide-scale support in global surveys. Recent polling by the London-based firm YouGov had Obama garnering more than 70 percent support in Nordic countries and well more than 50 percent in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. They show him rising in the polls since May, ever so slightly in Germany, and by 13 points in Britain, to 62 percent in October. In France, friends-of-Obama committees have proliferated; the French Support Committee for Barack Obama sells "France for Obama" T shirts online. The Portuguese-language version of the social networking Web site Orkut, dominated by Brazilians, has 293 "communities" dedicated to Obamania, including Eu Amo Obama. In Brazil, flattery knows no bounds: at least eight candidates in recent elections simply borrowed Barack Obama's name and put it on the ballot instead of their own.

(Emphasis on my favorite part my own)

Some more statistics illustrating his global appeal.

Obama went into Election Day with a steady lead in U.S. polls, averaging about 50 percent to 44 percent for McCain, but he was headed for a landslide around the world, topping polls in virtually every nation often by strong margins: 70 percent in Germany, 75 percent in China and so on. Somewhere along the road to the White House, Obama became the world's candidate—a reminder that for all the talk of America's decline, for all the visceral hatred of Bush, the rest of the world still looks upon the United States as a land of hope and opportunity.

Las Vegas Republicans to use lawsuits to win the election

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:53:00 +0000

A point of view from The Washington Independent. It's unfortunate that disenfranchisement is turning out to be the most effective tactic by the GOP to try to win this election.

The strong Democratic turnout has Republicans mulling possible legal challenges. “We question whether these are valid registrations,” said Smith, the Washoe County GOP chairwoman.

While talking to Smith, she was interrupted by a cell phone call, which she inadvertently put on the speakerphone. It was the state GOP executive director Zachery Moyle, and the two discussed what could be done about the tsunami of Democratic Party registrations.

“I’m looking for people to sign on to a lawsuit,” Moyle said to Smith, who fumbled with the phone while turning off the speaker. “You didn’t hear that,” she said glancing in my direction.

When asked later that day about the potential for a lawsuit, Moyle said there was no “definitive plan” to go to court. “There’s been obviously concern with voter fraud across the country,” he said.

Emphasis above is my own.