Absurdly Decadent Business Cards

I know you have to spend money to make money, but I don’t think these cards, at about £1,000 ($1,534) each, are a smart investment.

Mercenary Navy Coming Soon

The Somali Pirate situation has gotten so out of hand that insurance companies are starting their own navy.

They’re hoping it might go a little something like this.

Save the Earth by Increasing Data Center Temperature a Few Degrees

How companies can save money and “go green(er)” by simply lowering the air conditioning in data centers.

AdBlock Plus to Allow Ads

In a strange turn-about, AdBlock Plus will now allow “acceptable ads.”  Why?

Starting with Adblock Plus 2.0 you can allow some of the advertising that is considered not annoying. By doing this you support websites that rely on advertising but choose to do it in a non-intrusive way. And you give these websites an advantage over their competition which encourages other websites to use non-intrusive advertising as well. In the long term the web will become a better place for everybody, not only Adblock Plus users. Without this feature we run the danger that increasing Adblock Plus usage will make small websites unsustainable.

It’s an interesting idea.  It allows users to support their favorite sites, without having to deal with obnoxious advertisements.  This also encourages sites to only choose these acceptable or not-obnoxious ads.

(hat tip: Linear Fix)

How the NBA Uses Accounting Strategies to Maximize Losses

Deadspin has an analysis of the NJ Nets’ books from 2003 to 2006 with some interesting tax law and business strategy aspects.  For instance, NBA teams are allowed to take depreciation on players as well as writing off their salaries.  This allows the teams to take a loss on taxes.  Then the teams can then take advantage of pass-through to apply their owners’ other businesses.

Teams can then use those losses to beg politicians for new stadiums and land deals that they otherwise couldn’t get.  Case in point, Bruce Ratner, who is building the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn:

[T]he best explanation for why a buccaneering real estate developer like Ratner might buy a middling franchise like the Nets in the first place. As Neil deMause, co-author of Field of Schemes, explains: “If Ratner had gone to Brooklyn politicians and said, ‘Hey, I want to build offices and residential buildings on public land,’ they’d have hung up on him. But when he says, ‘I’m going to bring professional sports back to Brooklyn,’ suddenly here’s [Brooklyn Borough President] Marty Markowitz holding press conferences and sobbing about the Dodgers. [Buying the Nets] helped him get a foot in the door with Brooklyn politicians.”

An interesting and cynical look at the business of sports.

First Bow Ties, Now Cufflinks

Cufflinks designed to mimic the pulsating glow of a Mac “breathing” in sleep mode.

The iCufflinks are available here for $128.00.  The Open Source hardware design and source code available here.

P is for Pandora

Pandora is “the first Silicon Valley consumer Internet company to join the exclusive one-letter stock ticker symbol club.“

Kosher Cell Phones and Emergency Messaging

There’s a market in Israel for “Kosher” cell phones, which purposefully lack features like text messaging, etc., among the haredi / ultra-Orthodox communities.  (See, e.g., this for details)

However, the IDF and others are trying to ensure that these phones can receive emergency messages.  They want to be sure that these messages, and only these messages get through.

(Oh, and it doesn’t mention whether or not these Kosher phones turn themselves off or refuse phone calls on the Sabbath.  I’d be interested to know that.)

Jack Daniels Changes Its Label

Sort of the end of an era, Jack Daniels is changing its label to make it easier to read.  The new label uses more empty space and eliminates the kitschy “Pop 361,” among other changes.

Disruptive Technology: Kickstarter

Om Malik has an excellent post on why Kickstarter works (the comments are also worth reading).  He quotes Craig Mod because this really does say it all:

With Kickstarter, people are preordering your idea. Sure, they’re buying something tangible — a CD, a movie, a book, etc — but more than that, they’re pledging money because they believe in you, the creator. If you take the time to extrapolate beyond the obvious low-hanging goals, you can use this money to push the idea — the project — somewhere farther reaching than initially envisaged. And all without giving up any ownership of the idea. This — micro-seed capital without relinquishment of ownership — is where the latent potential of Kickstarter funding lies.

Billionaire Felix Dennis wrote, “ownership isn’t the important thing, it’s the only thing.”  Kickstarter allows creative talents to get seed capital without giving up equity.