In light of the recent bailout brouhaha, here's two posts from the past that are highly relevant still. The first is a post featured on this blog, Prose of a Pol, and is a satirical look at how to obtain universal healthcare for everyone in the USA based on how the banks were bailed out. Check out Five Steps to Socialized Healthcare for a quick look at how we could obtain healthcare for everyone. Make sure you check out the comments on that post for a great non-satirical discussion on the pros and cons of universal healthcare and how to improve our existing system. Oh, and if you can spare a stumble please do so!

The second post comes from one of my other blogs, My Last Name Means Money. The crux of Trickle Up Economics Beats Bank Bailouts is that bailouts beget bailouts and we see that today, with the first bailout causing no noticeable improvement to the economy, a second even bigger bailout bill is now working its ways through our political offices. The Republicans are right that these bailouts represent a slippery slope, however it is not the size of the bailout but merely that we're bailing out failing enterprises and once we began to do so we removed a huge disincentive to fail. Now that failing can be profitable, will we continue seeing more and more large corporations reporting dire economic situations and accepting government bailout loans? Call me crazy, but I believe we should give out loans only when we reasonably expect to be repaid, not when the recipients are literally falling towards bankruptcy.

Check out these two posts and if there's enough positive response I may post my updated thoughts on the latest round of bailout bills. Take care everyone!

Two videos for you tonight. First up is a video warning us that President hijack Bush and Vice-President Halliburton Cheney have too much time on their hands to mess up our country even more. Of course, any time war criminals have any time is too much time!

What makes little sense is that if Congress believes the President is innocent the absolute best way to show so is to impeach! If there are no crimes, then an impeachment trial would show that. The truth is, they do not want to impeach the Executive branch for fear of dragging their own congressional crimes into the mix.

The truth is that there is enough potential evidence of war crimes that impeachment is a no brainer. Here's one clear example of perjury by President George W. Bush. On two occasions Mr. Bush stated under oath that he would "...to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States", yet he also publicly declared that "The Constitution is just a goddamned piece of paper!" Right there Mr. Bush violated his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and he should at the very least be held accountable for his perjury. Let's not forget that he also openly admitted to committing war crimes.

At least there is one man doing his constitutional duty to hold Bushco accountable for their crimes against humanity and against the USA. The man's name is Dennis Kucinich and he's a true American hero. Here is a video from Representative Kucinich thanking American citizens for signing his impeachment petitions and providing support for justice. Mr. Kucinich will be making the case for impeachment this Friday thanks to all the support.

Perhaps there is some hope for re-legitimizing the government of these United States of America. Perhaps the Democrats will wake up and realize that we Americans do not want "change", we want a return to a government of the people, by the people, for the people. The elitist corporate lobbies running our congress and executive branch are not the voice of the average American.

For today's post, please first watch this video, entitled "Elect a Democrat":

If the above did not load, please try the quicktime version.

Now, this video brings up a few points and I'll blog about how these points exemplify a few of the reasons I won't be voting for any Democratic candidates during the upcoming elections [or any Republican for that matter].

"Bush is wack, he and Cheney made a big mistake"

No, I don't believe nor think that the Bush-Cheney tag-team of terror government made a big mistake; rather the two men along with their fellow conspirators (on both sides of the aisle), had a plan and executed it near flawlessly. To call what these men have done over the past eight years a mistake is to decrease the severity of their crimes. Their actions were not accidental, they were planned and our current situation is not a surprise to them nor to their constituents. Honestly, if you don't realize that Bush-Cheney had a great plan and successfully executed that plan, then you most likely don't realize the true threat we're in today because their plan was meant to throw up a smoke screen of ineptitude while they conspired behind the scenes to take this country and its resources from the public.

"Bush and Cheney made this country wack"

No, at least not by themselves. At the very least Bush and Cheney are criminal cowboys with no regard for the law or life or anything besides their own agenda. If this were a movie, we'd have children everywhere buying Bush Cheney action figures. Sadly, it's not a movie; it's real life. Our founding fathers realized that the executive branch held a lot of power and that a system of checks and balances must be implemented to prevent dictators from rising up. Well, congress pretty much either gave up or went along with the Bush-Cheney agenda instead of doing their jobs and keeping the executive branch honest and limited. Congress failed us a lot more than Bush-Cheney.

"It's time for change, I'm even down with blacks"

Instead of an elite rich old white dude, we'll elect an elite rich old black dude! Wow, what a change! Pigment: the pragmatic solution! Wait, can we just inject Bush with some extra pigment and he'll be a good president?!?!?!?!The trouble with this country is simple, corporations have the rights of people but not the consequences nor responsibilities that we all share. We absolutely must remove corporate person-hood and stop supporting the Republican-Democratic corporate military marketing media-cracy we're currently living under. A vote for Obama is a vote affirming that our current system works. It does not.

I don't vote based on race, gender or other biological factors other than intelligence. Trust me, I'd love to see a black, female, bisexual, poor president just to say we've advanced this nation to the point where people do not discriminate based on these factors but that does not mean I'll vote for someone purely to show we're not a discriminatory country. I simply do not believe Barack Obama is the best choice for President of this country and frankly don't trust him. His recent shift to the center might have shocked many of his supporters but it was expected by me. He's a politician in essence chosen by the mainstream corporate media marketing complex to be their puppet and appeal to the public's desire for an anti-Bush. Unfortunately he's not far enough removed from mainstream corporate media marketing complex to represent real "change".

"If these are leaders, we're smoking crack"

True. Clinton whines about how the GOP is running roughshod over the country and should apologize instead of doing her job and ensuring congress keeps the Republican executive branch in check!

Obama meanwhile, a constitutional law scholar, recently voted to approve telecom immunity under the new FISA bill, a clear example of an ex post facto law, something distinctly prohibited by the U.S. Constitution!

So, how exactly are Obama (or Clinton) better than Bush? By not being as terrible as him? Call me an idealist but I'll be voting for someone far separated from these Demopublican-Republocrats.

if conservatives voted for the Libertarians and liberals voted for the Greens or Naders, we'd all be much, much better off.

"Bush is a douche, elect a woman or a black man"

Oddly enough, the end of this video shows an "IMPEACH NOW" sign, while supporting Clinton and Obama who are not actively helping to impeach Bush. So we say one thing but vote another way. If that's the case then we Americans deserve these flip-flopping elitist politicians who are looking out for themselves above the public. Until we change and demand more and better from our leaders we can't realistically expect our situation to improve by repeatedly voting between R and D.

Globalization is not a bad idea. In fact, free global trade (which the linked post argues does not currently exist) is a wonderful concept that would improve living conditions for the majority of earth's inhabitants and is necessary for humans to survive. However, globalization creates oddities such as the below pictures.

Everything looks good, right? It's just a City of Boston recycling bin, provided by the city to its residents so we may get our recyclables picked up once a week by the city. An overall good use of Bostonian tax dollars, right?

Well I thought so too, until today. Today is our trash and recycling pick-up day. Our recycling already got picked up so I went outside to bring the bins in and while doing so noticed a curious mark on the side of the bin.

I know it's a bit blurry to see (taken with my iPhone) but the side of the recycling bin says "Made in Canada". That's right, the City of Boston's recycling bins were made in Canada. Now, why is this use of foreign plastic bin makers such a big deal?

Well, for one think of the resources required to transport all these plastic bins from Canada to Boston. It's ironic for a program designed to improve our environment to cause unnecessary pollution by using a faraway source for these bins.

Also, think of the economic benefit this bin manufacturing contract could have had to a plastic manufacture(s) here in Massachusetts. Even if the city government saved money by using the Canadian company, in the long run we lose money by it leaking out of our state economy and thus resulting in less jobs and less tax revenue.

All in all, it's not the worst thing that the City of Boston has done but it doesn't make sense why we didn't use a company within the state to make these bins as it would have required less resources and thus been cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

Perhaps there's something I'm unaware of behind the scenes that makes this situation logical. If any of you out there have additional facts about this story, please let me know via the comments for this post or by sending me an e-mail.

I just received an e-mail from the Executive Vice President of HSBC Direct informing me that HSBC is once again dropping the interest rate on my online savings account, this time from 3.55% to 3.05%! Aaargh! At least it's only dropped by .5% but it's still frustrating, especially considering the savings rate started at 5.05% and rose to 5.55% Of course, I knew this drop would happen sooner or later once the Federal Reserve dropped its interest rate from 3% to 2.25% but it's still frustrating.

I've got nothing substantive to add, just wanted to vent.

Who do you think knows more about basic economic theories and principles, President George Walker Bush or a mass of facebook users? In a democracy, we subscribe to the idea that the majority knows better than a principled few. So from a democratic perspective, the facebook users should know more about economics than President George Walker Bush. As this poll on facebook shows, 76% of facebook users do not think the $150 billion economic stimulus package will help the economy.

What do I think?

I agree with the facebook users. Our economy does not need increased consumer spending, rather, it needs increased domestic spending from the government. We already spend too much money in this country on items that don't increase our productivity or standard of living in the long run. We need to stop borrowing money not borrow more of it. It's these economic stimulus packages from Bush that have gotten us in trouble. Our government is bankrupting our country.

We need to stop wasting money outside the U.S. borders and spend money here, within the United States of America. We have bridges and tunnels in desperate need of repair, schools literally crumbling apart and failing to teach kids basic principles, and families and individuals falling into debt due to massive health, energy, and college costs. Money should go into all of the areas I just mentioned, not to other countries and certainly we should not be borrowing money just to put it in people's pockets.

People might go out and spend a little bit more when their rebate checks come in, but it will only be a shot in the arm for an economy that needs open heart surgery. 76% of facebook users get it, why don't our elected officials?

While scrolling through my Akismet blocked comments for any possible non-spam comments that got blocked, one comment caught my attention for it's lack of link spam. Usually, blocked comments are obviously spam because they have about 10-20 links to some dubious pharmaceutical product or pron site; however, this comment had merely one link, and seemed to have a coherent and logical statement. It was quite odd to see actual text in my blocked comments log, but after a quick analysis (reading the second sentence), it became apparent that this blocked comment was in fact spam.

Still, I would have unblocked the comment as I'm sympathetic to the spammer's, Ron Paul 4 President, message, however the comment was made on a page, not a post, so it would not show up anyway. Although the Newsvine elections application on facebook will show you that I'm currently voting for an independent candidate, if the elections were today, I've give my vote to Ron Paul, as he's the best candidate right now, in my opinion. I'll post in better detail why I like Ron Paul later (he understands economics, appreciates the correlation between foreign policies and domestic issues, and he's a doctor) but for now here's the Ron Paul un-edited "spam":

Ron paul is the last great hope for america. I am spamming your blog because I feel it is my duty as a patriot to inform the public of the true workings of the government. I know you probably dont care about whats going on in the world as long as you have your nice car and fancy gidgets, gizmos and widgets. But that doesnt matter because it cares about you. Hang together or hang separate. If you think these unconstitutional laws being passed on a daily basis wont effect you, you're sadly mistaken. Just yesterday bloomberg and the new york mayor's office announced that you will no longer be allowed to video tape or photograph on a public street, you will now need to obtain a free permit in order to video tape. However, in order to be eligible for this permit you will need 1MILLION$ in liability insurance. Does that sound like the united states to you? The land of the free and the brave, where you have to register to own a gun, register to own a car, register to drive, register to vote, register to leave the country, register to get benefits, register to protest, and now you need to register to take pictures. Maybe I'm just a dirty commie who cant handle that much ‘freedom' (sarcasm) or maybe, we live in a police state.

Wake up! Get mad! Get Active! Call your senate and congress leaders and let them know how you feel! THEY ARE OUR PUBLIC SERVANTS WE ARE NOT THEIRS!

www.ronpaul2008.com

Now aside from the poor grammar, the message is solid (hence why I'm repeating it). The trouble with the message, is the lack of care about the target audience. The writer should realize that many people with blogs have no doubt heard of Ron Paul already. The true patriotic action would be to inform people you see in the real world about Ron Paul, his message, and why they should seriously consider voting for him. I've already went ahead and done so, speaking about Dr. Paul with friends, colleagues, and even strangers! Yes, the internet has played and will continue to play a huge role in the 2008 elections, however, elections happen in the real world. For this revolution to truly take hold, we must communicate and discuss this message with everyone. Spamming blogs about Ron Paul won't help his cause. So, Mr./Ms./Mrs. "Ron Paul 4 President", if you're out there, get off your computer and get out into the real world. That is after all how Dr. Paul came in second place in Nevada recently, and that is how he'll win the presidency.

I'm Adam Pieniazek, and I approve this message.

As Interface Carpets' mission focuses on environmental sustainability, Ray Anderson's leadership style shows evidence of both ethical and servant strategies. Since the environment is a resource shared by and endowed to all humans and life on earth, any company which disproportionately uses environmental resources for its own benefit, especially in a harmful manner, is acting unethically by denying other humans access to that resource. Ray Anderson understands that all of us must share in the positive and negative aspects of the environment, and shows this belief by empowering all of his employees to take part in the idea generation and decision making of leading Interface to several green goals. This realization and belief also shows Ray's use of servant leadership, as he knows Interface Carpets must serve its clients, its employees, its stake-holders and its total environment in order to succeed now and in the long-term.

Ray Anderson also acts as a servant to the general public, by producing goods for society in an environmentally friendly manner, but also by spreading the message of environmentalism to other companies and organizations. For instance, Ray has a lengthy speaking part in the Sundance award winning documentary, The Corporation, where he discusses his shame at not initiating a green movement at his company much sooner, not just because of the effect on the environment, but also because his customers (whom he's supposed to be serving) were asking him about environmental programs at Interface and he was absolutely clueless about what to tell them as he had not yet thought about such matters (this was in 1994). The fact that he then began to institute green programs at Interface shows his listening, empathy and awareness characteristics.

Ray also shows conceptualization, building community, and commitment to the growth of people via his empowering employees and also through his commitment to an organization that can serve a purpose without harming the environment. His belief in the good of a green company has led Interface to adopt numerous environmental initiatives and has encouraged employees through the organization to think green.

One of the main signs of Ray's servant leadership is his stewardship over the environment. In the movie, The Corporation, Ray discusses how people like him have abused environmental resources for the benefit of their companies while causing immense damage to our environment. Ray has now completely flipped around and is a role model for all companies to follow in pursuing a green way of operating. Ray understood that the environment does not belong to businesses but rather is a part of the earth and belongs to every human, animal, plant and all other life-forms presently living on the planet and who will live here in the future. Especially noteworthy, is Ray's openness on the damage companies like his had already done to the environment and how if they continued abusing the environment they would inevitably fail, as such disproportionate relationships with the environment are simply unsustainable. In the movie, The Corporation, Ray compares his early management of Interface to the ways of a plunderer, stating he took what's not his (the environment) and used it to his own benefit without returning an equal benefit to society. He then goes on to state that a day will come where people like him (a plunderer) will be sent to prison! This type of blunt openness and authenticity is rarely seen but immensely treasured.

This authenticity also shows that Ray's sudden change is not a marketing scheme, but rather is an honest disgust at his old way of managing and genuine desire to change his business (before he dies) into a fully sustainable organization.

As the paper on Ray Anderson shows, he has an immense ability to heal his employees and the environment through his initiatives. Several employees of a firm Interface bought out were absolutely amazed that they were encouraged to think about the environment at Interface and were re-invigorated by being able to work without plainly and obviously harming the environment.

Ray also shows foresight in that he understands that if companies do not change their ways and focus on sustainability, that the environment will be irreparably damaged and that these companies will simply cease to exist as they would have taken so much from the planet without giving back that there is simply nothing left to take.

Finally, Ray definitely shows persuasion characteristics, perhaps not at Interface (or at least the case study did not show signs of it), but definitely in his speeches to other executives (see the below excerpt from The Corporation) where he lambastes himself and his "fellow plunderers" for ruining the environment to the point of unsustainability. His use of statistics about the financial success at Interface while implementing sustainability, and his passionate words act as a very persuasive tool to alter the perceptions of other executives focused on pure profit.

In terms of ethics, I feel it's quite plain to see the ethical values of Ray Anderson. Before he was aware of the true consequences of this company's practices on the environment, he acted ethically by pursuing the best interests of his employees and Interface's other stake-holders, to the best of his knowledge. Once he became aware that Interface was severely harming the environment, he understood the moral implications of his business. From there he made a moral judgment that his company and other similar companies simply could not continue down this environmentally harmful path. He put together task-forces and empowered employees to enact changes at Interface to lead them up Mt. Sustainability. He further implemented plans at Interface and set about preaching to the rest of the corporate world on the morally correct way of doing business, while still remaining profitable. He himself states that ensuring Interface does no harm is a core value of his and Interface's. His plans for creating a green Interface also have a huge benefit to the rest of society and can be seen as just (by removing the plunderer actions, whereby Interface takes more than it deserves) and authentic, as Ray pursues green goals in his personal life (as noted in the Grist Interview, where he notes that he drives a Toyota Prius).

I also see aspects of Path-Goal Theory, Visionary, Charismatic Transformational leadership, and Participative Management. By providing suggestion boxes, Ray enabled his employees to put into action their ideas, his recognition and plans to change Interface into a sustainable organization shows his visionary and transformational leadership strategies, while his belief and confidence that sustainability is important shows his charisma. The use of teams and employee empowerment are signs of participative management at work at Interface.

Ray Anderson is a fitting end to our discussion and is an immense role-model for future leaders. Though Ray himself admits he has not always led a green personal or professional life, the fact that the recognized the immoral way of his past and has worked feverishly to enact changes at Interface and in the business community as a whole shows signs of values-driven, charismatic, visionary, servant leadership. The ability to recognize just how wrong one's past actions were, and the ability to openly admit it to the entire world shows immense self-confidence as well as authenticity, which help Ray spread his beliefs in sustainability to the rest of the corporate world.

Outside Sources:

Greenleaf, Robert. The Servant-Leader Within: A Transformative Path. New York: Paulist Press, 2003.

Komives, Susan and Nance Lucas and Timothy R. McMahon. Exploring Leadership: For College Students Who Want to Make a Difference 1st ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998.

Russell, Robert F. and A. Gregory Stone. A Review of Servant Leadership Attributes: Developing a Practical Model. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 23.3 (2002): 145-157.

Rosenberg, Beth. Case study of Interface Carpet and Fabric Company. Tufts University School of Medicine: Department of Public Health and Family Medicine. Boston, 2005.

Ray Anderson, "Ray Matter: Ray Anderson, Sustainable Biz Pioneer, Answers Grist's Questions," interview by Grist (Nov. 8, 2004). Grist

Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbot, Joel Bakan. The Corporation. Zeitgeist Films. 2003.

Note, The Corporation was released for free by the filmmakers.

Below is a ten-minute excerpt from the film featuring Ray Anderson:

Below is the entire film, posted to Google Video by the filmmakers:

Also, here is the torrent link to the full-quality official shareware release of the film.

Although Wayne Ellwood considers the transatlantic journey of Christopher Columbus the initiation of globalization, it's true origins may lie even deeper in human history, dating all the way back to the origins of humanity in Africa, and their subsequent journeys to other continents. Though technology at the time prevented these early humans from creating vast networks of commerce and information exchange, it does show a desire by humans to explore and seek resources. This resource-seeking is exactly what led to our modern globalization, as individuals and companies seek to take advantage of nations' unique characteristics and resources to improve economic efficiency.

The efforts of globalization to connect nations in a free, global economy has led to many disruptions and changes in countless societies, perhaps even every society. Outsourcing hurts the top economic nations but provides cheaper products, while an influx of jobs helps the poorest nations but also creates harrowing work conditions and has potentially harmful effects on the local environment. Countries in the middle of the scale benefit and are negatively affected by all of the above consequences of globalization.

However, these benefits and problems do not arise out of just globalization, rather globalization, especially today in our easily connected world, magnifies existing inequalities between nations. Growing up, I never thought we'd have a trade deficit with Mexico, but the vast difference between the two countries was immensely utilized by American companies to produce vast amounts of goods cheaply. Is it even really a trade deficit if much of the production is by or funded by American owned and based corporations?

This inequality also arises in the rationale behind globalization and the reality of the economic integration. While, I wholeheartedly agree that free economic trade between nations will lead to benefits for all nations, the current globalization strategy does not promote free trade, but rather institutes pseudo-free economies with control shifting out of individual nation's hands and towards global organizations with the interests of the most prosperous nations as a priority.

As Ellwood points out, global markets are not free but rather are influenced by corporate interests. For example, the governments of the "Tiger Economies" desired to maintain control over their economies, but the International Monetary Fund repeatedly insisted that the they free their economies. Eventually, the Asian governments complied, and a few years later went through a financial crisis that sent shock-waves around the world. This sort of persuasion by large organizations goes against the very principles of freedom of nations from outside influences (who have purely their own interests in mind). The IMF and World Bank and other globalization promoting organizations do not allow for freedom to reign, but rather promote their ideals onto other countries. Many third world nations, thirsty for capital seek funds from the World Bank, but have to accept such stringent requirements and restrictions that these funds end up perpetuating their poor economies, rather than helping them grow out of them.

As noted in Multinational Corporations and Government Relationships, free trade is promoted as the ideal market, until a prosperous nation's key industries are attacked by foreign competitors. At this point the governments institute tariffs and import quotas to protect their industries, while hampering free trade. Even today, America promotes the benefits of free trade but refuses to perform any exchanges with Cuba, who have a supreme competitive advantage in rolling the finest cigars on the planet.

Although it would at first prove harmful to prosperous nations, the best strategy to properly implement global free trade, would be to actually implement global free trade. Removing tariffs, quotas, embargoes, and other restrictions to free trade would allow each country to utilize it's natural resources and focusing on creating the best products for the world, without worries that they will be unable to obtain required goods in exchange.

Our current system simply does not follow what is written on paper, and instead prosperous nations utilize their vast resources to maintain advantages, thus limiting the benefits they and other countries can receive from globalization. In the grand scheme of the universe, our earth is not as large as we make it out to be, and for all nations to survive in the future, we will have to rely on trust and freedom to reign across all nations, without restrictions.

Assigned Readings:

Ellwood, Wayne. The No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization London: Verso, 2001.

Steiner, George A. and John F. Steiner. Business, Government and Society: A Managerial Perspective 9th ed. McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2000 [Note, linked version is to 2005, 11th edition].

Last week, I wrote a post about 3 Useful Del.icio.us Tags, Life Quotes, & Traffic Generators, which was part of a blog project contest hosted by Daily Blog Tips. Well, the full list is up and after reading through all 115 entries, it's obvious there's a lot of quality bloggers on this list! You can check out my favorite posts below, but also check out the full list if you've got some spare time.

The posts were broken up by category so you'll find my top 3 favorite posts, listed arbitrarily, from each category below. These posts were chosen based on personal preference and relative usefulness so don't be discouraged if your site isn't listed!

Blogging

• 3 Sure Fire Way to Advertise Your Blog on a Shoe String by Engtech

Good advice.

• 3 Ways to Track Your Comments by David

I always lose track of comments I made somewhere so these sites are very useful. I tried cocomment once but will have to give it another whirl or try the other two sites.

• Top 3 tips to pick up girls/boys using blogs by Mario

Be careful using this one!

Honorable Mention: Three Things That I’ve Yet To Achieve as a Blogger by Rhys

Business & Career

• 3 Great Alternatives to Paper by Using Web-based Solutions by Ryan

Too bad I work for a financial services firm, which does a lot of accounting so this isn't very applicable. Accounting relies on paper.

• 3 Reason Why Entrepreneurs Succeed! by Ray

Great insight and very true.

• 3 Reasons Job Search Spam Should Scare You by Jacob

Useful information and advice for everyone, even if you're not looking for a job right now.

Honorable Mention: Top 3 Reasons Why You Have to Work from Home by Alfa

Entertainment

• 3 movies that can change you by WebStuffScan

Though I disagreed with the top three (check out the comments on the post for my top three), the idea and writing is solid.

• Got Independence? 3 things you should do this July 4th by Joe

Reading the Declaration of Independence, good advice for any day.

• Three Free Willie Nelson Songs by Liz

Free + Willie Nelson = Awesome!

Honorable Mention: Three Great Anime Blogs and Maybe Anime? by Carlie

Health & Fitness

• 3 Things I Have Done To Save My Own Life by Eric

Good advice for diabetics, and a good read in general.

• Three reasons to try a marathon… by Shane

I've always wanted to run the Boston Marathon, hopefully this post will encourage me.

• 3 Reasons Running is Good for You Alexander

And this post will motivate me to get in shape for the marathon.

Honorable Mention: The Top Three Reasons Why I hate Diets by Joey

Make Money Online

This category only had 3 submissions, so to be fair to the other categories I'm only choosing one post.

• 3 Things no one told you about web monetizing by Pedro

As an economics geek, Pedro's analysis of the opportunity costs of blogging was a very interesting read.

Technology

• Three Reasons You Should Hate the Prius by Michael

Interesting analysis of how the Prius is not the best thing since sliced bread, for some people.

• 3 simple ways to drive more traffics from Flickr by Kuanhoong

Wicked useful! Thanks Kuanhoong.

• 3 coolest PC Mods by Madhur

As someone who built my own PCs back in the day, this post was cool!

Honorable Mention: 3+3 free tools for moving your life and your stuff online by Tanya

Travel

• The three places in Japan I would love to visit by Jamaipanese

I've always wanted to visit Japan, seems like such a cool place.

• 3 Ways to Have a Luxurious Hawaii Vacation on the Cheap by Sheila

Honestly, I don't have a huge desire to go to Hawaii, but if I do I can go on the cheap!

• Three reasons to Visit Cyprus by Rajaram

Great, now add Cyprus to list of places to visit...this list is too big!

Honorable Mention: 3 wonders of the world that designers should have voted for by Mirko

Web Development & Design

• 3 Ways to Improve the Comment Styles on Your Blog (With Examples) by Ryan

Nice, I've been considering making a unique style on this blog so look out for some changes.

• 3+1 Ways to Make Your Website Load Faster by Pallab

Very useful tips, especially on javascript compression.

• 3 + 3 + 3 Places Where You Can Get Free Icons For All Seasons And Reasons by Joel

Very handy, I need to implement some icons on this blog so this is very good timing.

Honorable Mention: How I built 10,000 links in 3 weeks

Random Topics

• The last three times I lost my wallet… by Johan

This guy needs a wallet chain wicked bad.

• 3 little words by Paris

Funny (and useful) phrases women like to hear. Thanks Paris!

• Three Reasons Why Superheroes Wear Their Underwear On The Outside by Brown Baron

Simply awesome.

Honorable Mention: Ten things i didn’t know about the number 3 until now by Blaiq

Good job everyone and thanks to Daniel for hosting this project/contest!