Charitable Taking

The latest scam to be unveiled on the unsuspecting public is the alleged promise from a brand or company to donate part of your payment to a charity of the owner's choosing. So from cereal delivery companies to pet food suppliers to shoe makers everyone is jumping on this bandwagon of tickling your giving bone to go buy more of the company's stuff that is otherwise idling in some warehouse getting chewed by rodents.

To these latest daylight robbers my message is thanks for the idea. Let me also start a campaign to blast all my social circle with (not to steal from Costanza) a so called charity. Yes it is called 'Charity'. You give me a $100 and I will donate a portion of it to a charity of 'your choosing'. I have done one better. I let the donor choose how they want to spend their hard earned cash. After all they should have a say in that matter not the intermediary.

So give - my fellows and my friends - give - give to me. I will let you decide how you want to spend that cash that you know not what to do with. Certainly you do not need more shoes or cereal or feed your pet too much - you know I care about your finances.

Another PS to the brands - why don't you focus on just making better shoes or petfood? Leave the giving to me? My anticipated take in this operation - close to 90%. This way I would be the best EBITDA business on the planet. Then we can discuss how best the profits can be plowed for generating more profits. You can donate your ideas to 'Charity'.

People as you can see this facetious or not so blog highlights a dangerous trend in corporate America - to scam you off your dollars in ingenious ways. Next up - tipping at Macy's. Get a shoe - tip the sales person. Followed by - a tip jar at the United Airlines ticket counter.

Thank you for allowing me to board the plane.

Comments

Back in DC

This time for a tech conference in the realm of what else? AI. But applied to an oft neglected space called Knowledge Management. The latter is a community of practice that focuses on analyzing, organizing and making available reams of data that have been gathered over time by various functions within an organization for anyone in the company to utilize. This function or process is ripe for applying AI agents (or agentic AI framework) and optimize for better outcomes. It was informative. More rewarding was getting acquainted with folks who practice this craft as well as learning of what they see in the corporate or public sectors. Since the venue was Washington DC it also afforded me the chance to take evening strolls albeit the weather was trying. With wind chill in the single digit it still is a glamorous place to perambulate through history absorbing what this country has been through since its founding days. I was able to visit the place Lincoln was killed along with his monument t...

Costa Rica

Our first foray into Central America. That elongated isthmus that forms the geographic boundary between two vast continents of North and South America. Specifically landing for NYE 2026 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Capital city for this region that does not have its own army, instead relying on its big bro the Estados Unidos to the north is a metropolis of approx. 500K people. Largely wilderness and with both a Pacific and Carribean/Atlantic coast the country is rich in bio diversity. In Spanish it means the rich coast so named by Columbus landing in early 16th century and being mesmerized by the local tribes sporting gold jewelry. Our stay included visiting the foothills of a large strato volcano called Arenal and enjoying the naturally heated thermal baths for a while. Lunching amidst lush forest and watching indigenous species of avian noise makers fly overhead. Toucans, some sort of pea hens, multiple song bird species completed the spectacle. Iguanas and a lonel...

A few good books

On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...

Brown Motion

Search This Blog