What works in a bad economy?

There are few winners in a poor economy. The trick is to live like a college student. Slightly listed in the press, the nissin company has made bankroll in the amount of demand of their products. Perhaps the fact it acts as the meal in the cup, or the fact it sells for less than 75 cents per meal for most individuals. The marshallparthenon.com suggest that certainly many people, including college students, will be cutting back on spending and what they can and cannot do. By cutting back it does not mean every person has to eat Ramen noodles for dinner four times a week, even if it is a staple of student dining.

There has been other undocumented winners, because of course it isn't news worthy. Vistaprint has seen a large increase of demand for business cards for individuals to work as consultants, which I personally can say is a bad idea. Along with that is paper companies providing resume materials including card stock. You can imagine the Kinkos/FedEx are not haven problems as well.

I've always stated that the groceries changes are winning like gang busters. And it is true. Year to date, grocery stores have grown during economic times and been steady during "transition". It is logical that those who can't afford or for those who can't go out to the mom and pops every other night are now making more meals at home.

On the IT path I've seen companies drop the price of their equipment significantly if not promote their netbook line more often. The prices I currently see for products are justified for two groups now again, have money and have little money, similar to the have and have nots. Many netbooks are advertized as the all in one need for cheap mobile computing. Meanwhile the advance notebooks are still as expensive, if not more than I would expect this time of year.

I recommend all my clients to purchase their PC's two times a year. During back to school sales around July and August. Of course also during Xmas salesathon, which I suggest is a last case scenario.

Citizens Against Government Waste says Little Calumet Project is a waste of taxpayer dollars

I was listening to the Roe Conn show today. During the 5:30 segment roe mentioned the latest CAGW "pig book" has been released. This book lists all the governmental "pork projects". The idea of this book is to reduce government and taxpayer waste. The first project that Roe talked about was the Little Calumet River Project. He said that the CAGW doesn't think federal money should be used to finish the project. When I got home, I had to read this report. The following is an expert about the project.

$20,422,414 for 11 projects by House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.),
including: $4,000,000 for Army Corps of Engineers construction in the
Calumet region; $2,000,000 for Army Corps of Engineers construction along
the Lake Michigan waterfront; $1,600,000 for Indiana shoreline erosion;
$1,450,000 for the small boat harbor on Burns Waterway; and $951,500 for the
Purdue Calumet Inland Water Institute.

So the CAGW doesn't really think that Northwest Indiana deserves this money. Did they not see the pictures. The entire area was devastated. Not only that, it was two years to the day that Highland and Griffith flooded. The Northwest Indiana times has an entire site devoted to the flood, which can be viewed here.

All of the Munster residents that lived near the river had flood damage. Some people lost stuff in their basements, where as other people lost everything. It honestly looked like New Orleans. Even 80/94 was shut down for several days. 80/94 isn't some small highway. It is one of the busiest interstate in the Midwest.

This is one project that is not government waste. The little calumet project has been going on long enough. 25 years have been spent trying to raise the levee from 12 feet to 18 feet. Luckily, the levee just outside my house was raised to 18 feet, otherwise it would have been a disaster.

If the CAGW thinks this project is waste. then let them have their basements flood. Lets see how much they like it when they have nothing. Lets see what happens when FEMA says there is nothing they can do. I completely disagree with CAGW assessment of this "pork" project.

Chuck to the CW?

In late January, I posted an entry about the TV show Chuck. The day after the Superbowl, Chuck was broadcast in 3-d. I watched the 3-d episode and it was okay. It was neat to see the show in 3-d, but nothing special.

We probably won't know until May 5th if Chuck is going to be renewed for a third season. The ratings have been average for the show. It has been averaging roughly 6.25 million viewers. The ratings are okay, but not great. Also, NBC has to remove five hours of prime time TV because Jay Leno will be on Weekdays at 9:00(central).

If NBC decides to cancel Chuck, there is a chance that the CW will pick it up. According to this article, the president of entertainment at CW is interested in picking up Chuck. We'll have to wait and see.

Update: NBC has renewed Chuck for 13 episodes. New episodes will air in March. There is also discussion about ordering the back 9 episodes of season 3.

New Sprint Commercial

Sprint has a new commercial to help lauch their new 4g network. I found this commercial to be rather entertaining.