I have been mute on this story since it came out, but I wanted to pen some thoughts about the whole Microsoft/Yahoo! debacle.
First the disclosures, I am a Yahoo! shareholder (have been for a while), I am also a Google shareholder (have been for a while too) and was a Microsoft shareholder too (wasn’t performing, dumped it).
I am not sure what Yahoo! was thinking by walking away from the deal, by all accounts it was a good financial deal for the shareholders who were being offered a premium for their (languishing) Yahoo! stock. I can understand that Jerry Yang would be emotionally attached to his company and worried about what the future would look like under Microsoft. After all I did co-found a company and put 4 years of work into it. I am also fully aware that you need to look dispassionately at the options being laid out in front of you and do what is best for the shareholders, who ultimately are the true owners of the company.
But at the end of the day I think that Jerry Yang has let his emotions guide his thinking on this. The clearest indication is that he and the board have not offered any convincing alternative plans aside from the claim that the company is worth more than the offer on the table (never mind the stock price.)
The truth is that Yahoo! is a languishing property. Sure it has lots of traffic and some great properties (Yahoo! mail and Flickr are two great instances) but it has turned into a hodge-podge of offerings without a clear focus. We have known that for a while, so this should not be news to anyone (”peanut butter memo” anyone?)
Microsoft likewise has had a spotty record when it comes to internet offerings, and I suspect the hope was to merge the best of the two entities and produce an entity that could convincingly compete against you-know-who.
So I am glad that Carl Icahn has stepped up and is trying to force the issue.
Today is Earth Day.
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of issues one could pick to talk about in regards to conservation. I would like to draw attention to one I feel strongly about, shark fishing. Sharks are vastly overfished for their fins (to make shark fin soup.) The process is as horrific as it is simple, sharks are fished in very large numbers, their fins are cut off and they are tossed back (alive) into the ocean where they die by drowning (most sharks need to swim to ‘breathe’.) We also need to dispel the notion that a good shark is a dead shark, this is simply not the case, I have swum with sharks on many occasions and have never felt threatened by them even when they bumped into me (*).
This issue is pithy because the Shark Conservation Act of 2008 was recently introduced to Congress. Jim Toomey (who authors the Sherman’s Lagoon comic strip) explains why this is important:
April could turn out to be a pivotal month for shark conservation here in the U.S. Just a few days ago, the Shark Conservation Act of 2008 was introduced to our Congress. There are also lots of other activities this week and month that could go a long way toward much needed shark fishing regulations both here and in international waters. But before the political will must come the public interest. So, this week, it’s my goal to demonstrate to policy makers in Washington that public interest in shark conservation is quite strong, and the old notion that “the only good shark is a dead shark” is not a concept the public embraces anymore.
This Sunday, April 20, I have devoted my color Sunday “Sherman’s Lagoon” comic strip to creating awareness and public interest in saving sharks from extinction. Recent population studies done by numerous independent marine biologists confirm that many species of large sharks - from great whites to hammerheads to tiger sharks - are being overfished to the point that only 5% of their historic populations remain. This fall, international shark catch limits are going to be reevaluated by scientists, and the US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is going to establish much more stringent catch limits in US waters. The US regulations could set an international precedent, which is badly needed, since most of the overfishing is now happening in unregulated international waters. Having gained adequate limits in the US, the NMFS will have an opportunity - and the clout - to propose and fight for the first international catch limits for sharks in a key international meeting coming up this November.
We have a chance to show the NMFS that the public does indeed care about sharks - that they aren’t considered pests but a vital part of nature. When the Sunday April 20 cartoon gets published in your local paper, or here on this website, you will have an opportunity to participate in this public awareness effort. Dr. James Balsiger, director of NMFS, who will be the recipient of all of your mail-in cartoons, is aware of this campaign and is actually looking forward to a heavy response as a way to point out to the fishing communities and regulatory bodies that this is an issue the the public cares about. Please help him make that point, which could go a long way toward creating much-needed regulations, not only in US waters but around the world.
Thanks,
Jim Toomey
It could not be simpler, go to this page, print the image, draw your favorite shark on it and mail it to the address listed. I put mine in the mail yesterday.
(*) Interestingly more people are killed every year in the USA by pigs than by sharks. One would be forgiven thinking otherwise given the media coverage generated when the latter happens.
I was very sorry to read that Arthur C. Clarke died today. The NY Times has a very good account of his life.
I have read all his novels, some more than once. I also remember coming across geostationary orbits (which he discovered) when I was studying physics at school and being surprised at their implications after I worked out the maths for myself.
I have been having a lot of fun with Aperture (which I bought a few days ago), and reworked a selection of the pictures I took on my last scuba diving trip.
I have been looking at Apple Aperture to process my photos, well what passes as photos.
To this date I have just put them up, doing no processing on them. My underwater shots were initially done with the white balance set to cloudy giving all the photos a blue hue, and then someone pointed out that I could set the white balance using a white slate as reference at which point the photos started to get better colors. I also got good at setting the white balance upside down while descending on a dive.
While the colors got better, I still had “snow” on the pictures and sometimes the white balance was off, but overall the results were good.
Recently a friend suggested I take a look at Aperture to do some post processing on my photos, and I started to experiment with it a few days ago.
Overall I am very impressed, it will take me a few more days to get comfortable with the interface and all the settings you can apply to a picture, as well as all the things I still don’t understand. The tutorials have been invaluable in speeding up that learning curve.
One thing I noticed is that there is a lot more control available over images in RAW format compared to JPEG. Unfortunately Aperture does not support the RAW format for my camera (it is a dinosaur), but I found that I could convert the image format from RAW to DNG using Adobe’s free conversion tool and regain more control over the image. This is of course a stop-gap measure until I get a new camera.
I am back from my trip, got some nice pictures. It was initially a little weird to be totally disconnected from the world, but I got used to it.
Off for two weeks, photos will follow when I get back.
I recently discovered the music of Zoë Keating (via PopTech).
She is a wonderful cellist, worth checking out (two of her albums are listed on iTunes).
