Call her $erena

Williams sets female athlete mark: $23 million, a record for career prize money by a female athlete. Not bad for someone who collected her first check of $240 from a tennis event in Canada in 1995. More here.

Just a side note: I'm tempted to think that $23 million pales in comparison with Manny Pacquiao's boxing prize money in his last bout. That said, I think it's unfair to call him ₱acquiao.

Is it the coffee or the ambience?

Image credits: reallynatural.com

Don't know about you but I'd like to believe that coffee should not be expensive. Now if I'm not mistaken then perhaps that partly explains why "Starbucks will close 300 more stores, and lay off 6,700 workers". Or is it solely because of worldwide recession? So who is your coffee?

Is this a promise or a threat?

Image credits: mangee

Kevin Merritt, the CEO and founder of blist, a Web-based list manager and spreadsheet that was used on Change.gov, the Obama Administration's transition Website writes about how Obama will be using Social Media to create an open and participatory channel to his constituents.

Could be a "good" model for other politicians? Read more here.

What happens when you cross Skype and Firefox?

... you get a winning-lotto-number-that-you-can-dial fail!

Go to failblog for more FAILS.

Didn't know I was a business innovator ...

Image credits: npr.org

... until I stumbled upon "We Are Smarter than Me".

The wiki-driven book, by Barry Libert (also co-author of Barack, Inc.) and John Spector, says:

"[It] is itself the product of an extraordinary collaboration of Wharton, MIT and thousands of business innovators, worldwide. Drawing on their collective "in the trenches" experience, the wearesmarter.org community reveals what works, and what doesn't, when you are building community into your decision making and business processes."

Indeed, the power of discovery, disclosure, connection and co-creation.

One reason to look beyond email

Image credits: Weboma

There's a better way to act on urgent requests for help.

Picture this:

"Hello, How are you doing? i had sent you an email earlier today,please i need your urgent assistance, I had traveled to Nigeria for a conference , Unfortunately for me all my money and other items were stolen at the hotel where i lodged and i cannot call anyone because i lost my phone where phone numbers were kept also there is no money on me to make calls, nobody even know where i am now, I am so confused right now, I don't know what to do or where to go,I have access to only emails, No phone Please kindly loan me 1500 Dollars and also send it by western union to me with the below details NAME: address: 2 isiba street itire lagos Nigeria 23401 Write me immediately so i can have the western union details to use to collect the money sent , scan and send me the western union money transfer receipt or just write out the details on the receipt and send to me . Please keep this to your self only please Please come to my rescue Best regards,"

Perhaps this should have been titled "How to spot a Nigerian Scam."

More about scams here.

Cheney says no one saw financial crisis coming

... or so it appeared on the link provided by Yahoo News. But wait there's less! Just follow the link to see what I mean. I hope they change the title to "Cheney says no one saw the CIA operatives get involved harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists."

I think the younger generation readers would call this Rick roll'd? Or is it bait and switch?