Category: Off Topic

Updated List of Other Blogs I Read

blogroll

In starting off the new year I thought I would update my blogroll, that list of other sites that I read on a regular basis. There is a link to it in the top menu bar of the website.  Rather than make you have to chase back to the website, I have also included the list below.

Let me know if there are others that you think should be added.

Compliance Related Blogs I Read

Compliance and Business Ethics Organizations

Legal Practice Blogs I Read:

Other Blogs That Interest Me (and may interest you)

  • Andrew McAfee – The Business Impact of IT
  • Dan Ariely – A researcher in behavioral economics
  • GeekDad – The parenting blog of Wired magazine. (I am one of the contributors.)
  • Endless Knots by Jessica Lipnack on virtual teams, networks, collaboration, web 2.0, & knitting.
  • Knowledge Jolt with Jack by Jack Vinson on knowledge management, personal effectiveness, theory of constraints and other topics
  • Leading Geeks by Jenn Steele – A technology leader’s thoughts
  • William Landay – Writer

Vote (and Report)

I’m not going to say that your vote counts. For the presidential election, your vote counts more if you live in Florida or Ohio. Your vote in a solidly red or blue state like Massachusetts or Texas counts less. However, there are likely plenty of other competitive races on your ballot, besides the presidential election.

Regardless of the outcome, I think we will all be thankful that the political advertising will disappear until the next election cycle.

For investment advisers and private fund managers, you need to remember to keep track of political campaign contributions to comply with Rule 206(4)-5.

Unauthorized Board Meeting

For its latest mission, Improve Everywhere staged an unauthorized boardroom meeting in the office chair department of a Staples. The chairs in this particular office supply store were already arranged in a boardroom configuration, making it easy for us to hold a surprise meeting. Actor Will Hines gave a presentation to the board, using a whiteboard and an easel he had bought from the store just minutes prior. Minutes into the meeting, the board was asked to leave by a confused store manager.

Cycling and Compliance

During the summer of 2001, Mrs. Doug was stuck on the couch recovering from knee surgery. She stumbled across the coverage of the Tour de France, and especially Lance Armstrong, on the Outdoor Life Network. We were hooked, and ever since have been glued to the television during July to watch the beauty and competition of the Tour de France.

The US Postal Service team was a well run dynamo helping to support Lance Armstrong during his dominance of the race for seven years. It was clear that Mr. Armstrong trained harder and was more focused on winning than any of his competitors. Unfortunately, the evidence has become almost overwhelming that the US Postal Service team was involved in doping, including Mr. Armstrong.

Any fan of professional cycling knows that there is long history of drug abuse in the peleton. Many Tour de France riders had been subject to disciplinary action for doping. Only three of the podium finishers in the Tour de France from 1996 through 2005 have not been directly tied to likely doping through admission, sanctions, public investigation or exceeding the UCI hematocrit threshold.  The sole exceptions were Bobby Julich – third place in 1998, Fernando Escartin – third place in 1999, and Mr. Armstrong.

I always thought Mr. Armstrong was above this. After all, he fought cancer. He looked death in the eye and said he was not ready yet. There were rumors that Mr. Armstrong was doping. Most of those came from other rides with a grudge against him or were otherwise relatively unreliable.

The US Anti-Doping Agency released its report implicating the riders of the US Postal Service Team in wide spread doping. My heart was broken when two of my favorite riders George Hincapie and Levi Leipheimer admitted to doping.

Because of my love for the sport, the contributions I feel I have made to it, and the amount the sport of cycling has given to me over the years, it is extremely difficult today to acknowledge that during a part of my career I used banned substances. Early in my professional career, it became clear to me that, given the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs by cyclists at the top of the profession, it was not possible to compete at the highest level without them. I deeply regret that choice and sincerely apologize to my family, teammates and fans.

George Hincapie

The cycling team had a culture of doping, set with tone from the top to push your body with medical treatment to improve performance. I’m still sorting through the extensive material to find direct evidence of Mr. Armstrong’s doping. So far the evidence is fairly light about his use. However, the evidence of the USPS team’s acceptance of doping is overwhelming.

It seems that doping was widespread, but has since decreased since 2008. Jonathan Vaughters, a former USPS rider and self-admitted doper, offers decreased riding times as evidence of doping.

  • L’Alpe D’Huez
    • Fastest: 22.43 kph, 1,900 vertical meters per hour by Marco Pantani in 1997
    • Fastest since 2008: 19.98 kph, 1,670 vertical meters per hour by Carlos Sastre in 2008
  • Plateau De Beille
    • Fastest: 22 kph, 1,812 vertical meters per hour by Marco Pantani in 1998
    • Fastest since 2008: 20.57 kph, 1,678 vertical meters per hour by Jelle Vandenert in 2011
  • Fastest Grand Tour Climbing Rate
    • Fastest: 1,769 vertical meters per hour by Roberto Heras in 2004’s Vuelta a Espana
    • Fastest since 2008: 1,682 vertical meters per hour by Bradley Wiggins in 2012’s Tour de France

The data shows a 10% drop in average fastest times. This correlates to the 10% drop in hemoglobin rates reported by UCI doctors from 2007 until 2010.

Perhaps that still leaves us with Mr. Armstrong as the greatest rider of his time. He was competing against dopers, while probably doping himself. The playing field was level for the elite riders. It was just a medically elevated playing field.

Sources:

Independence Day and Compliance

What better way to celebrate the independence of the United States than by taking the day off from work, grilling meat, and watching stuff blow up. I’m doing the same thing on the blog and taking a vacation.


“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. ”

– John Adams on July 3, 1776 to his wife (via A Tradition of Celebration by the Adams Family Researched by James R. Heintze)

 
Fireworks display by Agiorgio
CC BY SA

Compliance and Patriots’ Day

And the shot heard ’round the world
Was the start of the Revolution.
The Minute Men were ready, on the move.
Take your powder, and take your gun.
Report to General Washington.

– Schoolhouse Rock!

Patriots’ Day honors the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the Revolutionary War. That means Paul Revere and William Dawes mount their horses to re-create the warning: “The British are coming!” That means battle re-enactments in Lexington. That means the Boston Marathon passes through. That means a Red Sox home game.

What does this have to do with compliance or business ethics? Nothing.

Patriots’ Day is a Massachusetts holiday. Since Maine was once part of Massachusetts, it is also a holiday in Maine. Although they switch the possessive to Patriot’s Day.

So I’m out of the office.

Sources:

 

Blogoversary

Compliance Building went public on February 12, 2009. Since then, I have managed to publish a blog post almost every business day. Sometimes, more than one. I hope at least some of those 1500 posts were useful to you, whether you are a subscriber or one of the other 325,000 or so visitors to Compliance Building over the past three years.

Thanks for reading.

If you haven’t done so already, you can subscribe and have my posts sent to you. It’s free, except on the Kindle. (I can’t convince Amazon to change the price.)

I started my first blog, KM Space, on this day in 2007. I set up Real Estate Space a few months later. Now I’m moving into my sixth year blogging. As I do every year, I take some time to think about why I publish a blog, whether I want to continue, and what I can do better.

Why do I do this?

Mostly, I publish because the information is useful to me. This blog is a personal knowledge management tool. It’s all about trying to capture information that interest me and has relevance to my day-to-day work. I find that writing my thoughts adds some clarity to my thinking. By putting all of that information into the blog, it’s in a place where it is easy to find.

Will I continue?

The real estate private equity industry is at a turning point. There is split between companies that are filing their Form ADVs, jumping into the world of SEC regulation and those, with good reason, are not registering. Regardless, it’s good for the industry to be focused on compliance and ethics. If it’s good for the industry then it’s good for my company and good for me personally. If a fellow private equity real estate company gets into compliance or ethical trouble that will reflect poorly on the industry as a whole. Inevitably, that will make my job harder. It will likely make it harder to raise capital and to get deals done. That’s bad. So I try to share information that will benefit the industry because that benefits me.

What Can I Do Better?

It’s hard to take a strong position on many issues. I certainly don’t want to be overly critical of the SEC and have them target my company. I realize that what I say here could be attributed back to my company. They don’t want splash back from me taking a strong position. Especially, if I turn out to be wrong.

I admit this blogging experiment is self-centered, but I’m happy to have you along for the ride.  If you want more detail on this you can read my Why I Blog page.

For those of you who know me from KM Space, I will continue to publish a subset of my Compliance Building posts to the KMspace feed. No need to say goodbye. Unless I’m boring you.

Image is from Cake Wrecks: Are Anivery.

Happy Holidays

W.A. Rogers Editorial cartoon from 1902 published in Harper’s Weekly

Uncle Sam standing smiling at Christmas tree laden with warships, telephones, an automobile, a fat man labeled “The Trusts,” and skyscrapers; with bags of money at its base.

(The things that make Uncle Sam happy have not changed much over the last 100 years.)

Salute a Veteran


U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed an Armistice Day for November 11, 1919.

“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”

The United States Congress passed a resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting the President issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. An Act approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday:

“a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day’.”

Congress amended this act on November 8, 1954, replacing “Armistice” with Veterans, and it has been known as Veterans Day since.

My thoughts go out to Marine Corps Sergeant Jason Cohen, currently serving his last few weeks in active service.