First Lady Michelle Obama and President Obama just finished up their presentation to the International Olympic Committee. Mrs. Obama destroyed it. Her speech was a home run. President Obama’s speech was straight out of 2008: full of hope and a YES WE CAN spirit. Members of the IOC and other committees asked questions of the Chicago delegation. One of the questioners was Prince Albert of Monaco.

At the end of the Chicago Committee’s presentation, President Obama received a diploma from IOC President Jaques Rogue to congratulated Chicago in becoming an olympic candidate finalist city.

Tokyo’s presentation is up next at 8:25 GMT. Update: It was an amazing presentation and I now REALLY want to go to Japan. But the IOC members seemed to have some serious reservations with Tokyo’s bid. One question was about public support. The Tokyo Committee responded that public support was in the high 80 percent range.

Here are some notes I tweeted about on the twitter.

Brazil is up at 10:05 GMT

Madrid follows later.

You can watch it live by clicking here.

The announcement comes around 11:30am central time and Chicagoans are gathering in Daley Plaza around 9:00am (broadcast info here).

Back in college I had the honor to meet Israeli pilot and astronaut Ilan Ramon at an event in San Diego. Col. Ramon was slated to go to space with NASA as the first Israeli to ever leave Earth. The mission was delayed a few years and when it finally happened, Col. Ramon instantly became a national hero of epic proportions. Col. Ramon would never have the opportunity to share his stories of space, nor would he have the opportunity to bring back the Torah scroll that survived the holocaust because along with his fellow astronauts Col. Ramon died when the Columbia exploded upon reentry in to Earth’s atmosphere.

No comes news that Col. Ramon’s son Lt. Assaf Ramon, a pilot in the Israeli Airforce died when his F-16 crashed.

From the LA Times:

The young pilot’s single-seat aircraft had left a military base on a training exercise and dropped from radio contact when residents of a Jewish settlement reported a window-rattling explosion and a huge ball of fire rising behind a hill, followed by clouds of black smoke. Later the military announced that Ramon’s remains had been identified amid the plane’s scattered wreckage in a remote region of the West Bank south of the city of Hebron.

The cause of the crash and the pilot’s failure to eject from his plane were under investigation, the military said.

While I never met Lt. Ramon, I am very sorry to hear about his death and I mourn along side with the people of Israel who have experienced loss of a hero and his heir.

Yahoo! has a gossip page called OMG as in Oh my God! It’s a really cute name for breaking celebrity news. In the celebrity gossip genre, it’s not uncommon to say OMG can you believe so-and-so did that/wore that/got arrested for that. The site is geared towards women and is bright with oranges and pinks and big puffy font.

TechCrunch reported last month that Yahoo! bought the name OMG.com for cheap. Like $80,000 cheap. That’s nothing for a great URL that’s easy to remember and is the name of the website.

Here’s the problem with the URL, when OMG! is the catch all for all celebrity news, upsetting celebrity news gets caught in the mix. So when OMG ran Us Weekly’s somber story about  about the memorial service for DJ AM complete with a picture of mourners, the light, airy page’s theme didn’t fit the genre of the story.

The anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is upon us and during this time of health care debate and chaotic townhalls where people are screaming about the government, this video from CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 serves to remind us what happens when there is no government intervention. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the local, state and federal governments were too slow to act and people died. People died because resources weren’t made available for those who couldn’t afford it, people rotted in the streets because the government that was left was overwhelmed. In this video posted on Americablog, Anderson Cooper chastises Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu for congratulating the federal government for granting $10 billion dollars in federal aid to the gulf region following Hurricane Katrina. Anderson Cooper seemed to be making the point of asking, where was the government before the hurricane.

I like sometimes like to give Twitter and companies that use it a hard time. But when twitter isn’t being used a water cooler to talk about TV programs as they are happening (or spoiler for tape-delayed events) or as a happy face for a company that has no idea how to use it, Twitter can be the shortcut between bureaucratic red-tape and the customer.

Check out DirecTV’s exchange with web maven Irina Slutsky. I don’t know if DirecTV knows that Irina has pull in the online world or not, but her complaints were fixed in the exchange.

You’ll have to follow the final tweet to get to see the exchange. But the gist is, Irina needs a new remote and she can’t get one easily. She tweets about it, DirecTV answers, they exchange some details and at the end:

@irinaslutsky New remote has been ordered and should be arriving in the next few days.

See, DirecTV isn’t scared of its customers, it addresses the problems head-on and shows the corporate world how Twitter should be used. And her almost 6,000 followers get to read this:

WOW! rt @DIRECTV New remote has been ordered and should be arriving in the next few days.

No doubt Whole Foods CEO is a smart man. He took a small supermarket from Austin and not only turned it into a national chain, but totally took the idea of food shopping and turned it on its head. From an onerous task of schlepping a rickety cart up and down aisle after aisle of packaged goods highlighted by cheaper prices and artificial lighting, John Mackey turned shopping into an event. Fresh, organic foods, natural light, new and exciting products from local farms and fields in far-away places.

Whole Foods prices are more expensive than other places, but it doesn’t matter, because people love to shop there, they love to interact with the knowledgeable staff and they love the idea of shopping at a place that seemed to have a heart.

Then CEO John Mackey wrote a piece on health care reform for the Wall Street Journal. The op/ed as it ran had the headline, “Whole Foods Alternative to Obamacare,”

Boom… Right away, John Mackey showed he has NO IDEA who shops at whole foods. Obama voters, liberals, people obsessed with health. Mackey claims that the Wall Street Journal chose the title for the piece. Here is a blog post from the Whole Foods blog that has Mackey explanation and has the original post.

In his op/ed, Mackey explains Whole Foods policy on Health Care. Seems reasonable, I don’t know, I don’t work there and I’ve never needed Whole Foods provided insurance, but I’ll assume it’s positive.

He then goes on to describe ways he thinks health care can be reformed. Tort reform, change tax laws, etc. Most of Mackey fixes are straight out of the John McCain, conservative talking points.

He then goes on to mention that in the Declaration of Independence there is not a mention of a right to health care. This is a very right-wing talking point and VERY out of step with Whole Foods shoppers.

Many promoters of health care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care-to universal and equal access to doctors, medicines, and hospitals.  While all of us can empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have any more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have an intrinsic right to food, clothing, owning their own homes, a car or a personal computer? Health care is a service which we all need at some point in our lives, but just like food, clothing, and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually-beneficial market exchanges rather than through government mandates.  A careful reading of both The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter, because there isn’t any. This “right” has never existed in America.

While the Declaration of Independence never mentions health care, clothing shelter, computers and cars as personal rights, it never mentioned education either, but education is a right in this country. As a matter of fact, if a parent does not educate their child, they can go to jail. But Mackey doesn’t mention education as a right not mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. I’m sure Whole Foods shoppers would object to the right to education being taken out of American “rights.” I’m wondering if Whole Foods 50,000+ employees are nervous about the future of their health care. If health care is not a right, according to the company’s CEO, why is Whole Foods paying for their employees generous health care?

It’s fine with me that Mackey has his own opinions, he should. He should feel free to express them as he sees fit. However, his customers do not have to support a store that contributes to ideals so contrary and objectionable as their own. Comments on Mackey’s post seem to indicate that they do disagree with his ideology. These are his shoppers, these are the people who make it possible for him to support libertarian candidates and the libertarian party. Whole Foods’ liberal shoppers will decide for themselves if they want their food dollars to support candidates with ideals that run antithetical to their own.

Whole Foods twitter page is filled with backtracking posts.

1. CEO John Mackey IS in favor of health care reform; Whole Foods Market as a company has no official position. More:http://bit.ly/315tBa

2. Our Leadership’s Response Statement to John Mackey’s Op/Ed in the Wall Street Journal http://bit.ly/1m39hN

3. @BRRNN In the original Op-Ed Mackey sent to the WSJ, he did not use the term “Obamacare”; that was added by editors - http://bit.ly/315tBa

The Whole Foods PR team is probably working the weekend and the company is probably looking for ways to distance itself from Mackey’s comments, but the notion that Mackey put his business in the middle of the debate is just plain silly. Mackey’s political donations make it seems as though he has been a libertarian for a while, but if he knows who shops at Whole Foods, he wouldn’t have picked a fight with the people that keep food on his table.  

Update:

The Washington Post has a story in today’s paper titled:
Whole Foods Devotees Lash Out at CEO

Here’s a paragraph from the story (but the entire piece is worth a read):

Mackey is not the first corporate executive to wade into the contentious health-care debate, but other brands do not inspire the level of fanaticism that Whole Foods does. Safeway chief executive Steve Burd wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in June that also called for market-based reforms in health care with nary a social media ripple.

It seems like the 1 million followers mark is the threshold upon where someone reaches twitter-celebrity status. My whole philosophy has always been it’s not the quantity of your followers but the quality. Who will retweet, share on facebook and spread information via the old fashion word-of-mouth. MySpace has an unlimited allowance for friends, Facebook caps its friendship. However, something has to be said for seeing that large number of followers on Twitter and imagining that the moment a communications person hits send, over one million phones, twitter accounts and affiliates instantly are pinged with that corporation’s message.

But why do some corporations and organizations have large followings and others do not?

The NBA was the first sports organization to reach the million follower threshold. The NFL is at 800,000 followers. While the NBA’s 2008-2009 season occurred concurrently with the rise of Twitter, the NFL was off-season. Assuming that Twitter grows and the NFL uses Twitter in creative ways, the NFL could easily over take the NBA in number of followers by the Superbowl. For the record Major League Baseball has 229,000 followers and the NHL has 2,516 followers.

But comparing sports leagues is comparing apples to oranges. What about businesses that compete with the same product.

Jetblue was the first airline (and one of the first corporations) I knew that was on Twitter. And maybe moving first has helped the low-cost airline reach the numbers it has. Jetblue has over 1 million followers on twitter. I’ve heard stories about jetblue using Twitter to solve problems, not just to “advertise.” And that’s how Twitter should be used. But I’ve communicated with Virgin America and while I’ve never had a problem, I’ve received answers. But Virgin America only has 27.000 followers. Perhaps in this case it’s the size of the airline. Virgin America is newer, has limited routes and a smaller presence at airports. But what about the other airlines?

Southwest has a very respectable 420,000 followers, but still no where near Jetblue.

So if size matters, why is American Airlines, one America’s legacy carriers and biggest airlines only able to carry a paltry 9,063 followers?  American Airlines is offering discounts, holding contests and on August 4th, the airline challenged their followers to break 10,000 followers. American Airlines had just crossed 8,000.

Delta has a few hundred followers than American Airlines, but they haven’t updated since June 17th when it ironically announced 80 years of “nonstop service.” I’m guessing that the Delta communications teams isn’t reaching for 80 years of non-stop service.

So what’s the lesson? Maybe once you account for size of the airline, you take into account what following your company means to the follower? Discounts are nice, but you have to fly at prescribed times. The airlines aren’t giving away tickets during peak travel times. Contests help, I’m sure. But what really seems to make a difference is the interaction the airline has with the customers.

A bunch of public tweets that say, “Thanks @so_and_so, we know why you fly” isn’t going to cut the mustard. But a public response (and a possible solution) to an issue of, “Why is my @jetblue flight late?” Is going to win some points and more followers.

If anyone want to compare customer satisfaction and number of followers, I’d be interested to see the correlation. I’d also be interested to see some apples-to-apples comparisons of different companies who sell the same product.

I got this piece of spam today. How much do I LOVE this stuff? Here is the email verbatim.

And now I present you with:

VERY URGENT

Good day,

How are you today and your family? I believe all is well with you. Please without taking much of your time, I find your contact while doing a private research on the Internet for a reliable, capable foreign partner that will assist us in this business opportunity. I decided to contact you via my private electronic address, because of the delicate nature of the project.

We are soliciting for your assistance and guidelines in making a business investment for the transfer of US$ 27,500,000.00 to your country within the next few days. I must plead for your confidence in this transaction. We are high placed officials, working with Department of Finance & Economic Affairs, in Johannesburg South Africa .

Please consider now, I am constrained not to issue more details about this project until I get your response back, if you can take out a moment of your schedule today to respond to my private email below for more details and include your private telephone number in your response, which I and my colleague will highly appreciate, we shall definitely get back for continuous communications.

This fund accrued legitimately to us as commission from foreign contracts, through our private connections in the ministry with theconstruction companies that executed the contract. The fund is presently waiting to be remitted from the bank here in South Africa to any overseas beneficiary confirmed by us as associate/receiver of the company.

Find out how to cash in on the deal after the jump:

By virtue of our positions as civil servants in my country, we cannot acquire this money in our names.  Because as placed civil servants, we are not allowed by the civil service code of conduct to own or operate bank accounts outside of our shores. On the other hand, it is not safe for us to keep the money here due to some circumstance. I have been mandated as a matter of trust by my colleague, to look for an overseas silent partner who could work with us to facilitate transfer of this funds for our mutual benefits, hence this is the reason for my communication with you.

My proposal is that after you receive the funds, you will be free to take out your commission immediately the money hits your account, which we will all discuss about your commission once we all have concrete agreement on a way forward.

Our main objective is to invest the money in a foreign country; we shall also appreciate your help for directives on areas of investments that is profitable in your country.  However, this is optional, and if it is not convenient for you to further assist us with investing the money, we can end our operation after you make available to me our part of the money.

Although discrete, is legitimate and the money will be transferred successfully with all necessary back-up official documents showing the legitimate, source and origin of fund.

I plead with you on one issue, whether you are interested or not, kindly do not expose this information to any one else. I confirm that the transaction is legitimate and without any risks either to us or yourself.

feel free to call the number below  if you wish to assist and Give me your response immediately, by return mail only through my alternative email address.

Yours Faithfully,

Dr Gordon Masede.

Name, address and other info withheld…this deal is for me and I don’t want you to get in on my claim of $27.5 million!!!

I love the flickr blog, there are days when the blog posts some amazing and iconic images that evoke thought and passion and debate. Today’s blog post is titled “Pub House Portraits.”

Here’s an example from Frederic Poirot:

Check out all the photos from this set here.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is one of my favorite movies of all time. I have seen the movie maybe 100 times and know most of the lines. I’ve even read the script to see the differences between the original and the final product.

I was saddened to learn that the director of the film John Hughes has died.

From the Huffington Post:

John Hughes, prolific director of such culturally significant films such as The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Home Alone has died suddenly of a heart attack while taking a morning walk during a trip to Manhattan to visit family.

John Wilden Hughes, Jr., born on February 18th, 1950 in Michigan, was a self-made man whose career began as an advertising copywriter in Chicago. His films helped launch countless careers and revealed to a global audience the humor, sensitivity and nuances of everyday people in the suburbs of Chicago. In the last decade, he stepped back from the legacy he created to enjoy time with his family, maintain a functioning farm in northern Illinois and support independent arts. He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Nancy, two sons, John and James, and four grandchildren.

The above is a statement from Rogers and Cowan