Monday, October 23, 2006
Carnival Time
The Carnival of the Capitalists is up at Blawg Review.
As always, an eclectic collection of posts on business, management, and financial topics.
Enron Exec Sentenced: 24 and 4
Former Enron executive Jeff Skilling has been sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison.
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has the story and a list of the sentences in other white collar criminal cases.
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has the story and a list of the sentences in other white collar criminal cases.
Global Swarming
The sign of a real sickness in the legal profession:
Attorneys rushing make a case out of global warming.
Here’s an excerpt from the Business Week article:
So when friend and fellow trial lawyer Timothy W. Porter showed up to help with food and water, the two plotted a legal assault. Since Katrina's fury was powered by unusually warm Gulf water, and since such warmth could result from global warming, companies that have pumped the atmosphere full of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide should be liable for damages, they figured. "To me, Katrina was a clear result of irresponsible behavior by the carbon-emissions corporate economy," says Maples. He recruited suddenly homeless neighbors like Ned Comer and filed a class action on their behalf in federal court in Gulfport, Miss. The defendants? Dozens of oil companies, utilities, and coal producers, from Chevron and Exxon Mobil (XOM ) to American Electric Power (AEP ) and Xcel Energy (XEL ). "This is a heartfelt effort," Maples says. "I don't want to leave this global warming mess to my children."
[Oh, yes, the children. It's always for the children.]
Attorneys rushing make a case out of global warming.
Here’s an excerpt from the Business Week article:
So when friend and fellow trial lawyer Timothy W. Porter showed up to help with food and water, the two plotted a legal assault. Since Katrina's fury was powered by unusually warm Gulf water, and since such warmth could result from global warming, companies that have pumped the atmosphere full of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide should be liable for damages, they figured. "To me, Katrina was a clear result of irresponsible behavior by the carbon-emissions corporate economy," says Maples. He recruited suddenly homeless neighbors like Ned Comer and filed a class action on their behalf in federal court in Gulfport, Miss. The defendants? Dozens of oil companies, utilities, and coal producers, from Chevron and Exxon Mobil (XOM ) to American Electric Power (AEP ) and Xcel Energy (XEL ). "This is a heartfelt effort," Maples says. "I don't want to leave this global warming mess to my children."
[Oh, yes, the children. It's always for the children.]
Great Moments in Television
Most Haunted, a big television hit in Britain, has an admirer at The Telegraph:
Last year's Hallowe'en special is out on DVD, and I recommend it to any student of stupidity: you will not find a finer example of sustained nonsense. The show comes from a pub cellar in which a murderer's spirit supposedly lurks among the barrels. The show's presenter Yvette Fielding and the entertainer Paul O'Grady are dispatched into the pitch-dark basement, joined only by a cameraman with an infra-red lens. The idea is that they spend the evening down there, recording any unusual events. Meanwhile upstairs, an audience of paranormal enthusiasts gather to watch the unfolding action on closed-circuit monitors.
That action largely consists of Fielding and O'Grady scaring themselves witless, squealing at every gurgle in the pub's plumbing. Occasionally, Fielding's face is framed in the camera, red-eyed and terrified, earnestly asking if anyone else heard what she just heard. No one has, so she shrieks: "Shush, listen, what was that? Did you hear that?" You listen hard, but there is nothing to hear.
At one point, O'Grady is convinced he sees something emerging from a corner of the cellar. In high excitement, the camera dashes over to the corner and discovers precisely nothing. Soon, the two presenters are joined by a medium who, to no one's surprise, given that his livelihood depends on sustaining the myth, quickly communes with the interloping spirit. As he flaps about the place woo-ing and moaning, the stupidity levels are cranked up so high that even Fielding has difficulty maintaining a straight face.
Last year's Hallowe'en special is out on DVD, and I recommend it to any student of stupidity: you will not find a finer example of sustained nonsense. The show comes from a pub cellar in which a murderer's spirit supposedly lurks among the barrels. The show's presenter Yvette Fielding and the entertainer Paul O'Grady are dispatched into the pitch-dark basement, joined only by a cameraman with an infra-red lens. The idea is that they spend the evening down there, recording any unusual events. Meanwhile upstairs, an audience of paranormal enthusiasts gather to watch the unfolding action on closed-circuit monitors.
That action largely consists of Fielding and O'Grady scaring themselves witless, squealing at every gurgle in the pub's plumbing. Occasionally, Fielding's face is framed in the camera, red-eyed and terrified, earnestly asking if anyone else heard what she just heard. No one has, so she shrieks: "Shush, listen, what was that? Did you hear that?" You listen hard, but there is nothing to hear.
At one point, O'Grady is convinced he sees something emerging from a corner of the cellar. In high excitement, the camera dashes over to the corner and discovers precisely nothing. Soon, the two presenters are joined by a medium who, to no one's surprise, given that his livelihood depends on sustaining the myth, quickly communes with the interloping spirit. As he flaps about the place woo-ing and moaning, the stupidity levels are cranked up so high that even Fielding has difficulty maintaining a straight face.
What They Say and What They Mean: Interpreting Workplace Phrases
"That's very creative."
We don't like creative.
"I'll back you to the hilt but, of course, I can't say anything right now."
My support will consist of meaningful hand gestures.
"Let's run it by the committee."
And then it will be unrecognizable.
"Your research is impressive."
My control over your information sources must be slipping.
"We value diversity."
Except for intellectual diversity, of course.
"The CEO knows about your work."
And you wouldn't believe what I've told him.
"We don't have the time to run it by the lawyers."
We'll mysteriously find the time later if we get sued.
We don't like creative.
"I'll back you to the hilt but, of course, I can't say anything right now."
My support will consist of meaningful hand gestures.
"Let's run it by the committee."
And then it will be unrecognizable.
"Your research is impressive."
My control over your information sources must be slipping.
"We value diversity."
Except for intellectual diversity, of course.
"The CEO knows about your work."
And you wouldn't believe what I've told him.
"We don't have the time to run it by the lawyers."
We'll mysteriously find the time later if we get sued.
Box Office Mania
Dustin Hoffman on the film biz:
Hoffman criticised the film industry for being obsessed with looking almost hourly at the box-office takings of a film in its first few days of release, meaning poor quality but populist films could push out higher-quality productions.
“If the movie doesn’t make money it must therefore be a bad work,” said Hoffman, who won best actor Oscars for Kramer vs Kramer and Rain Man. “I don’t remember a time when there was so much respect for bad work.”
However, Hoffman was encouraged by the more recent success of some American films. “You cannot stop the artists.”
For Hoffman, “the most exciting film I’ve seen this year” is the small-budget Little Miss Sunshine, which tells the story of a dysfunctional family driving across America.
[HT: Drudge Report ]
Hoffman criticised the film industry for being obsessed with looking almost hourly at the box-office takings of a film in its first few days of release, meaning poor quality but populist films could push out higher-quality productions.
“If the movie doesn’t make money it must therefore be a bad work,” said Hoffman, who won best actor Oscars for Kramer vs Kramer and Rain Man. “I don’t remember a time when there was so much respect for bad work.”
However, Hoffman was encouraged by the more recent success of some American films. “You cannot stop the artists.”
For Hoffman, “the most exciting film I’ve seen this year” is the small-budget Little Miss Sunshine, which tells the story of a dysfunctional family driving across America.
[HT: Drudge Report ]
Sunday, October 22, 2006
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