Archives for February, 2005
Anne Lamott on Ash Wednesday
A great story of hope.
Contextless Links
- Pastors are the hairballs of the church :: According to some fine notes Darryl Dash took of Reggie McNeal’s talk in Toronto
- Wither the Wall Street Journal :: Papers who do not offer their content free on the web are losing influence.
- Tsunami photos recovered :: Horrifying and moving
- Watch where you park :: This happened to a friend of mine once and he was so happy as he got way more money than he would have if he sold the car.
- Blogging with Ethics
del.icio.us/inbox/jordoncooper
This isn’t good. This is my favorite place on the web.
Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist
Originally uploaded by Jordon.
My recent submission for Photo Friday
Family
Generally there isn’t a lot to talk about when it comes to my family but my younger brother is moving back to Saskatoon and in with Wendy and I for a while. Am looking forward to having Lee back in Saskatoon. Should be fun.
Contextless Links
- business2blog: Flickr, Yahoo Deal Rumored :: Please Yahoo!, don’t do to them as you did to GeoCities.
- Odeo: Listen, Sync, Create
- evhead: How Odeo Happened
- For a Start-Up, Visions of Profit in Podcasting
- O’Reilly: Build a Simple MP3 Player for Your Site
- Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom :: The complete text online, by Cory Doctorow
- Rider QB Burris signs with Calgary
- Suddenly Seminary @ Soularize
Change
Two friends, former colleagues, and fellow bloggers, Darren Friesen and Cathy Johnson were let go from my old employer Lakeview Church this week. I ran into Darren earlier this week (who is the only person in the world who can wear a beret and look really good doing it) and I heard the news. He blogged about it today. I wish them the best in their future ministry opportunities but it is unfortunate to hear.
For a Start-Up, Visions of Profit in Podcasting
A lot of people have been saying that podcasting could be huge. Evan Williams (who co-founded Blogger) is banking on podcasting to grow like blogging did. You can read the rest in the New York Times article and Evan Williams version on his blog.
Resonate Gathering
Wendy has posted the details of the Resonate Gathering on March 11, 2005 on her blog. RSVP to her if you plan on attending.
Resonate Saskatchewan
Wendy is proposing a little get together. Sounds like fun.
Contextless Links
- Doing kottke.org as a full-time job :: An interesting way of making the site sustainable… micropatrons
- Six Apart - Our History
- Who’s Driving This Thing? - Everyone is asking who leads the evangelical movement
- Politics put aside as Devine portrait unveiled ::
Greatest Premier ever - Highlights of the 2004-2005 NHL Season :: Funny and really, really sad.
- ESPN lays the smackdown on the NHL :: Mark Shapiro, an executive vice president of ESPN, threw off his gloves and criticized the N.H.L.’s rules, lack of scoring, resistance to letting players wear microphones and resistance to allowing arenas to be equipped with the overhead SkyCam. “Everybody, like us, should be less focused on when they’re coming back, but more on why nobody seems to care,” Shapiro said.
- Ken Rockwell, who runs an excellent photography site, explains the dangers of fetishizing your gear :: via
- How to make a “life poster” with Photoshop
gladwell dot com / Group Think
From Malcolm Gladwell
We are inclined to think that genuine innovators are loners, that they do not need the social reinforcement the rest of us crave. But that’s not how it works, whether it’s television comedy or, for that matter, the more exalted realms of art and politics and ideas.
Yet the idea of the visionary leader still dominates much of North American thought.
Of course no team stays together forever
At the same time, the special bonds that created the circle cannot last forever. Sooner or later, the people who slept together in every combination start to pair off. Those doing drugs together sober up (or die). Everyone starts going to bed at eleven o’clock, and bit by bit the intimacy that fuels innovation slips away.
It is called Armeggedon for a reason
From Larry Beil at Yahoo! Sports
“I suspect this will be the end of the NHL as we know it,” says Stanford professor of economics Roger Noll, who foresees a doomsday scenario for the league.Noll has been studying the business of professional sports for more than three decades and says the NHL’s problems go way beyond haggling over a salary cap. “The only way to fix the NHL is to substantially contract it,” says Noll. He believes the small-market teams that are bleeding red ink are becoming an unbearable load for large market teams that have no financial problems.
Not sure I agree totally with that. All leagues have some financial disparity between the rich and the poor. Most have revenue sharing but to do that you need a TV deal that pays more than zero dollars that the NHL gets now from NBC.
The lack of a big-time TV contract is one of the major differences between the NHL’s problems and the labor disputes experienced by the NFL, NBA and MLB. Those leagues all have billions of dollars coming in from the networks, plus more money derived from product licensing. By comparison, the NHL is a minor league player in those entities.
“Seventy-five to 80 percent of the NHL’s revenue comes from what happens in the arena,” says Noll. “The business strategy isn’t viable.”
Another unique element of the NHL’s labor stalemate is that the hard-line owners have very little leverage over their employees. Many of the players are foreign and it’s believed 300 to 400 are now skating for pro teams in Europe. They can’t make millions overseas, but top players in the best European leagues can earn several hundred thousand dollars a year.
In other words, they’re not starving nor are they sitting by the phone waiting for Bettman to call.
So where does that leave the commissioner and his league? In deep trouble, according to Noll, because big-money, big-market teams in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit and Toronto were doing fine under the old financial system and don’t need the major reforms that are required to save franchises in Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Nashville and Carolina.
“The Rangers have no incentive to give half of their revenue to the Coyotes,” says Noll, who notes that the NHL does not have a revenue-sharing system like major league baseball where the Yankees pay a luxury tax that helps smaller market clubs.
It is a struggle even for medium-market teams, like the San Jose Sharks, who made the Western Conference finals last season, yet still claim the team lost $6 million for the year.
Many players believe the lockout could last into next season, leaving Bettman with an even bigger problem than what he now faces – divided ownership.
“It’s not in the Rangers’ best interest to cancel another season,” says Noll. “They’re not going to lose two seasons like this. The biggest danger is that big-city owners may say, we’re taking a hike and the NHL as an entity just collapses.”
I think the large market owners will force Gary Bettman out before that happens but with the NHL, no one really knows. It is a messed up league.
What I am and what I’m not - or a short history and explanation of the wider "emerging church" by Alan Creech
Over at Next-Wave, Alan Creech has a history and explanation of the “emerging church”.
China Catches Up
This article in Adbusters has been rattling around in my brain lately and is about China’s environment. China has runined it’s five largest rivers (actually dangerous to touch) and has deforested itself. 600 million people according the Chinese Environmental Protection Agency drink water contaminated with human and animal waste. Kevin Arnold looks at who is to blame.
But all of this finger pointing seems to easy. I look around me and most of what I own was made in China. My bookshelf, most of my clothes, my printer, my camera, my cell phone. I like to think of myself as environmentally away and socially responsible, I don’t shop at Wal-Mart, I avoid over packaged products when I can. Yet, I’ve managed to accumulate a ton of stuff made in smog-belching, waste dumping Chinese factories.
The explanation is a little simplistic solution to the problems but it does remind us that in a global economy, we are partly responsible for what has been done. It comes again to how much work I am going to do as a Christian and as a consumer of goods to see what the impact of what I am buying. I do believe in globalization and that is can be good but at the same time I need to act like a global citizen when purchasing.
Novelist Tom Clancy seems to think that this environmental damage combined with China’s desire for econominc expansion could start the next major war. A war pushing east into Russia. Let’s hope not but as Jared Diamond point out in collapse, environmental damage often pushes people to do horrible things.
Our Cabin Weblog- Recently listened to music
- David Gray – Be Mine October 19, 2008
- David Gray – December October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Knowhere October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Real Love October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Last Boat To America October 19, 2008
- Recently additions to my library
- Messy Faith: Daring to Live by Grace by A. J. Gregory October 28, 2008
- Rediscovering Church: The Story and Vision of Willow Creek Community Church by Lynne Hybels October 26, 2008
- The Teeth of the Tiger, A Novel by Tom Clancy October 26, 2008
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell October 26, 2008
- The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy October 26, 2008
-
Search
Recent Photos
