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June 28, 2005
The "Foie Gras Problem"Did you know we had a foie gras problem? I first learned about that from the strange case of Lovenheim v. Iroquois Brands, Ltd., 618 F. Supp. 554, 562 (D.D.C. 1985), in which the court held that a shareholder's proposal to have management study of practice of force-feeding geese among suppliers of the company's foie gras was "otherwise significantly related" to the business of the company, even though foie gras imports were not economically significant to the company. Reasonable minds differ, I suppose, but I always thought it was a bad decision to allow shareholders to vote on such things.
Posted by Gordon Smith in Corporate Law | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Is Google a Bubble Stock?Yes.
Posted by Gordon Smith in Google | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
June 20, 2005
81?!?Retief Goosen's score in the final round of the U.S. Open. Wow! This is a funny anecdote:
The round became so off-the-charts ridiculous that Goosen and Jason Gore, who also needed a tourniquet by round's end, made a bet during the last three holes. "And unfortunately, he messed up on the last one and I won the five bucks," said Goosen.
Posted by Gordon Smith in Sports | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
June 19, 2005
Twins Pitchers Go For HistoryThis is a fascinating column (especially for Twins fans!) by Jayson Stark at ESPN about the best strike-throwing pitching staff in the major leagues.
Posted by Gordon Smith in Sports | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
June 09, 2005
If You Don't Stop, You'll Go BlindApparently, moms everywhere were right. The first lawsuit brought by plaintiffs who claim that Viagra caused blindness was filed in Houston.
Posted by Christine Hurt in Miscellany | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
June 08, 2005
International Onomatopoeic SoundsWant to know what sounds a duck makes in 17 different languages? Then this is the link for you.
Via Metafilter.
Posted by Gordon Smith in Miscellany | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Send Michael Jackson to Debtors PrisonMichael Jackson is $270 million in debt. That's $270,000,000. According to the W$J, "As his popularity plunged, Mr. Jackson used loans to compensate for declining income from record sales and concert tours." Yikes!
Posted by Gordon Smith in Art & Culture | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
AOL is Late ... By YearsAOL is clearly years late to embrace this business model: "Hoping for a bigger piece of the fast-growing
online advertising pie, AOL later this month will unveil a revamped
AOL.com Web site, offering free access to many of the features once
available only to AOL's paying subscribers -- such as news, Internet
radio, videos of music concerts and articles from magazines published
by AOL's sister publications at Time Inc." The only question is whether they are too late.
Posted by Gordon Smith in Internet | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
June 07, 2005
Sociopathic EntrepreneursJustin Hibbard reports on some wild comments by Michael Moritz.
Posted by Gordon Smith in Venture Capital | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
June 06, 2005
Selling Jersey NumbersWhen Clinton Portis joined the Washington Redskins, he wanted to wear #26. But Ifeanyi Ohalete already had the number. Easy enough: the bit player Ohalete sold his rights to the number to superstar Portis for $40,000. Things got interesting when Portis paid only half and Ohalete was cut from the team. Is Portis still required to pay? This almost ended up in court, but the players settled and Portis will pay $18,000 of the $20,000 he still owed. Apparently, trading numbers not uncommon, but why do teams give players rights in their numbers? Why not just assign #26 to Portis and give Ohalete a less popular number?
Posted by Gordon Smith in Sports | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
