RTFA: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/11/24/the-right-to-…

We hereby petition the incoming Obama administration for a modest change, an immediate change that would signal a new direction for air travelers, a new freedom for frequent fliers. Here it is: recognize the need of Americans in the friendly skies to bear tools that fit in their pocket, by which we mean the ever-so useful pocket knife, also known by its brand names, the Swiss Army Knife and the Leatherman Multi-tool.

Ever since 9/11, pocket knives and their owners have been separated at airport security checkpoints everywhere, never to be reunited. According to the TSA, knives are prohibited, except “for plastic or round bladed butter knives.” Who carries a butter knife in his or her pocket or purse? The TSA’s unhelpful “Summer Travel Tips” says: “Pocket knives, self-defense sprays and other potential weapons are also prohibited.” What a huge misunderstanding! Pocket knives are tools. If you consider them to be weapons, certainly they are Weapons of minimal Destruction (WmD).

FYI: If you happen to put said knives into checked luggage, the TSA just might steal everything, and it probably won’t end up on eBay if that happens.

RTFA: http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/200…

“Think of us as an eBay for people, if you will,” said Gary Swart, chief executive officer of oDesk Corp.

ODesk is capitalizing on globalization trends, home-sourcing abilities and the access to talent, a challenge that companies face daily.

The startup presents small- to medium-sized companies with a global talent pool of technical professionals looking for an opportunity to work remotely on jobs that might not be available where they live.

Companies are trying to do more for less, might not need a full-time employee and can’t find temporary talent locally, Swart said. Companies aren’t charged for posting jobs. Professionals, however, are charged for posting their skills.

“These companies are saying, ‘If I could have a flexible bench – marketing, support or development resources – and I can take advantage of global arbitrage, maybe there’s a win there’,” Swart said.

Grr… On the one hand, this sort of thing is pretty exciting – at first. On the other hand, this is bound to drive labor costs down, which is great from the business perspective, but terrible if you’re competing to provide that labor.

Global Arbitrage – yes, it costs a lot to live in the US, but that’s where the labor pays some of the best on the planet. As a company, selling in the US will get a premium, but hiring from India will keep costs low. These are the theories seen from both sides of the employment contract, and it’s not quite so simple as I’ve represented it, but in some configurations, I suppose this works.

RTFA: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080129/ap_on_hi_te/eb…

SAN FRANCISCO – EBay Inc. said Tuesday it will cut by up to 50 percent the fees it charges sellers to list their goods online, in an effort to boost listings and keep pace with other burgeoning e-commerce sites.
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To balance the fee cut, the company plans to increase its commission on items that do sell, a method the company says sellers prefer because it lowers their risk if items do not sell.

The greatest fee increase will come for goods selling for less than $25. EBay’s fee for those transactions will rise 67 percent, to 8.75 percent of the final sale price.

RTFA: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/ind…

EBay, the internet auction site, admitted yesterday that it had overpaid
hugely for Skype, the internet telephone company.

It also said that Niklas Zennstrom, Skype’s founder, would step down as chief
executive of Skype to become nonexecutive chairman.

He has resigned from the role before his permanent successor has been hired.
The online auctioneer has cut bonuses due to Mr Zennstrom and others by 60 per
cent because it was so disappointed by Skype’s performance.

EBay bought Skype in 2005 for $2.6 billion. Yesterday it warned shareholders
that it would have to take an impairment charge of $900 million (£450
million) because it had valued the group too highly two years ago.

Damn… well, it sounded good at the time.

RTFA: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item…

The original charter and by-laws for the League for Spiritual Discovery, founded by Timothy Leary in Millbrook, NY in October, 1966. Here, Leary and his cohort outline the structure of a new religious association that identifies LSD, peyote and psilocybin as The Sacraments used to commune with, “evolutionary wisdoms preserved in cellular and molecular structures”, and to facilitate the ritual, “to go out of the mind and to come to the senses”. Five – 8 1/2″ X 11″ pages total, with the first four pages stapled top-left, page 5 having come loose about 20 years ago.

Pretty sad, really… The way the owner acquired this was through Leary’s wife, who was selling stuff to pay for the prosecution of Timothy Leary. This document looks terrible, and should have been curated for the last 40 years, if it weren’t for circumstance which would necessitate its sale. Leary, by the way, was a very accomplished academic by the time he was ousted from Harvard. It is evident, in reading this charter document, that the premise is very sound and coherently presented.