Eighty Sixed

Eighty Six bucks a barrel for Bubbling Crude. Oil, that is. Black Gold, Texas Tea. That is the highest oil has traded in real terms since 1983 - which in terms of the way it is gauged is the beginning of time, since trading prices have only been monitored this way since then. Think we don't have an energy fiasco on our hands? Think again.

AOL is going to lay off 750 people in this area, out of 4000 who work here. They are shifting to advertising and away from the ISP business, and moving the headquarters to NY. Of course, NY is watching its hegemony in all matters financial erode pretty quickly, to such outposts as Velley Forge, PA, which is the headquarters of MY financial matters. I think I'll just say that the Chinese curse of "may you live in interesting times" is about to come to us all.

There was a good article in Sunday's Times about how Nike and other companies are moving to a more experience based advertising model - providing and sharing experiences with the consumer. Apparently we are tuned out of magazine advertisements and our DVRs work a little too well in helping us avoid commercials.

In more important news, the NCVC executive slate was unanimously elected last night and the team is healthy on all counts. We have a good group heading out to the hills to get in some punishment on saturday and all is fine with that world.

Now if only I could get rid of more of this f***ing water on the site, it'd be just grand.