Are You LinkedIn?

It was a few years ago when I first signed up with LinkedIn. At the recommendation of a colleague, I signed up, created a profile, and conveniently forgot about it. Lately, however, the site seems to have experienced a surge in popularity, and I'm all of a sudden finding myself with lots of connections!

If you're not familiar with it, LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows you to connect with people you work with (or used to work with) or those you went to school with. You can browse your contacts' professional contacts, search for people, and so on and so forth. It's a great tool for people who are looking for a job, but it's also helpful for people like me who are completely satisfied in their work and who aren't looking to change.

For example, they have a section called Answers, and you can use it to browse questions other professionals have asked. You can read them, answer them, or post questions of your own. I've found the Charity & Non-Profit section to be extremely helpful, and I've posted and answered some questions myself. (You may need to have an account to visit these links. If not, it's easy and it's free, and you can sign up here.)

Give it a look. You may find an old friend, an old colleague, a new job, a new friend, or some valuable answers. And you may even find Eric and me.

Hillary just can't catch a break

The news of the Eliot Spitzer scandal has been a hot topic of conversation for those in my office. Not only are we located in New York but we are heavily involved in the financial industry. In fact, some of my colleagues know others who were directly affected by the Governor's crackdown on Wall Street. I spoke with quite a few people in the industry and there does not appear to be many tears shed for the Luv Guv.

But one (unexpected) impact of this imbroglio is in the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It turns out that Eliot Spitzer and Governor-to-be David Paterson are both superdelgates in the Democractic party. In fact, any Democrat who holds the offices of Governor and Lieutenant Governor in New York are superdelgates. Since Spitzer resigned the office of Governor, he also loses his vote as a superdelegate.

Both Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson have pledged their votes to Hillary Clinton. She will lose Spitzer's vote as a superdelegate but retain Paterson's vote as he becomes Governor. But guess who moves into the role of Lieutenant Governor? Joe Bruno, who is currently the leader of the State Senate...and a Republican.

In a nomination race where every delegate is like gold, it sure seems like Hillary can't catch a break.

Federer vs. Sampras

This past Monday, we were two of 19,000 lucky tennis fans who got to see a battle of the Champions -- an exhibition match between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras at Madison Square Garden. Even better, we got the prime view from seats in one of the luxury boxes, which is undoubtedly the only way to be at the Garden.

Check out our view. Donald Trump was a few boxes down from us. Tiger Woods and his wife, and Roger's girlfriend and parents were right below us.


The match was billed as "Good vs. Evil" -- perhaps not quite jokingly, as Roger (dressed in menacing black) came out to Darth Vader march, whereas Pete (decked out in his tennis whites) made his entrance to the theme from Superman. It was definitely a treat to see these two extraordinary players go head-to-head, although it really is not a fair comparison. Roger is pretty close to the top of his game right now (his bout with mono notwithstanding) and Pete is over five years into retirement. The game has changed pretty significantly since Pete's dominant days -- his serve-and-volley style was almost jarring to watch since we are all used to seeing players camp out on the baseline. Pete definitely looked like he had lost a step or two over the years.

But Roger is well known for being a class-act and someone who respects the history of tennis. My suspicion was that Roger was not going to embarass Pete if the match was turning lopsided. Roger is an amazing talent on-court, and he has the ability to dial down his play just enough to allow another players a good showing. There were several times when it seemed like Roger was holding back just a bit. That made for a good show (see the score) but it also made the match seem somewhat "manufactured". Even with an exhibition, there is a sense (or a hope) that the players are going to play to win, even if they don't give 100%.

The Garden has not hosted tennis matches on a regular basis for several years and I don't think it is a very good venue for the sport. The acoustics of the arena seem to be more suitable for noisy events (such as hockey, basketball, and concerts) but that does not work well with tennis. The arena is not very big and our box was not that far off the court, yet we had a lot of trouble hear the ball come off the racket and even the line calls. Also, the Garden tried to work up the crowd by using a lot of the same techniques used in basketball games, which seems inappropriate and out of place at a tennis match.

Even still, this was a very special treat to see these two players hit around. Roger and Pete gave a good show and the crowd (including myself) ate it up. It is almost poetic that the only time these two played each other in an actual tournament was in the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2001, where Roger won in a very close five sets (7-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7, 7-5). In fact, after the match at the Garden, Pete hinted that their next exhibition may be on the lawns of Wimbledon. With 12 of the last 15 Wimbledon titles between the them, that would truly be a special match.

Global warming? Bet on it.

While global warming may have only become a popular issue in 2006 with the release of An Inconvenient Truth with Al Gore, the citizens of a tiny town in Alaska have been watching (and betting) on global warming for a lot longer than that.

Since 1917, the town of Nenana, Alaska (population 402), which is about 55 miles southwest of Fairbanks, has sponsored the Nenana Ice Classic. This is a lottery where participants wager on the exact moment when the ice breaks up on the Tenana River. Every year, you can buy a ticket for $2.50 and put your money on the exact date and time when the ice will break up, which indicates the unofficial start of spring. Last year, 22 people won and shared a jackpot of over $300,000.

The break-up of the ice is measured using the Nenana Tripod, which is a 26-foot tall pyramid of spruce logs that are anchored into the ice. When the ice breaks up, the tripod (which actually has four legs) will collapse and trigger a trip wire which will stop the clock.

By happenstance, the Nenana Ice Classic offers a rare opportunity for scientists to measure the acceleration of global warming over the 20th century by measuring how the winning times have shifted over the past 90 years. In fact, the winning time has occured almost 10 days earlier since 1960.

No instruments, no fancy equipment, no big movie deals, just a small town that has seen their backyard change a little bit every year.