"Already-depleted cash reserves are dwindling fast, and unless the fuel crisis lessens, airlines face not the now-familiar protracted restructuring in bankruptcy, but outright and immediate extinction," said the report.

Maybe I should blow those miles on a trip to hawaii...

Fuel costs could 'devastate' airlines, travel group says - Jun. 23, 2008

The way we misjudge probabilities is explored by Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini in his excellent Inevitable Illusions - How Mistakes of Reason Rule Our Mind. He describes a study that Tversky and Kahneman, two cognitive psychologists, carried out in the middle of the Polish crisis in the early 1980s. They asked various political leaders and generals to evaluate the probability that the USA would withdraw its ambassador from the Soviet Union. They then asked the same people to evaluate the probability that both (a) The USSR would invade Poland AND (b) as a consequence, the USA would withdraw its ambassador from the USSR.

The generals said the second scenario was more likely than the first. If you think about it, that's nonsensical: the second scenario is a subset of the first scenario. The probability of the USSR invading Poland AND the USA withdrawing its ambassador is less likely than just the USA withdrawing its ambassador. But the generals' brains didn't spot that, and neither would yours. They heard the story, and found it more convincing than the statement.

Stories are powerful, persuasive and ever more fashionable tools. They're a great way to put across your point of view. Telling a story is often a better way to convince others than presenting dry facts, logic and analysis. If you're trying to raise capital from VCs, then you should tell a story. If you're trying to convince your boss that your new strategy will succeed, then tell a story. If you want to persuade potential customers to buy the software that you're selling, then tell them a story.

But if you're listening rather than telling then be careful. Stories can be dangerous. It's easy to construct a story - intentionally or otherwise - that buries the facts and misleads an audience.

Business of Software Blog: The danger of stories - why you aren't as smart as you think you are

Slide show presentations are taking the world or, at least the box office, by storm. Al Gore's global warming presentation, featured in the movie An Inconvenient Truth, is probably the most successful ever produced. Since its release, the movie has strengthened the world-wide movement to prevent global warming, won two academy awards and helped Gore win a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

The movie is also an example of how effective a slide show presentation can be. Presentations are a powerful way to get your message across both verbally and visually.

To help us learn how to make our slide show presentations as powerful as Al Gore's, we've asked for advice from Nancy Duarte of Duarte Design, the company behind the slide show featured in An Inconvenient Truth, and author of slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. This is what she had to say about delivering a successful presentation.

Make a Presentation Like Al Gore - Wired How-To Wiki

The people behind Al Gore's slides.

Duarte Design: Horizon

Jun. 16, 2008 | Jean Brochu was a respectable attorney in Quebec with a wife and two kids. That was before he first punched the button on a video slot machine in 2000. Within 15 months, Brochu says he was losing $500 a day to the machines. He plunged headlong into debt, and lost his car and his house. He stole $50,000 from his union, and was consequently disbarred for three months. He claims that in several dark moments he contemplated suicide. He also says it was all the fault of those slot machines.

Now Brochu is the lead plaintiff in a massive class action lawsuit against Loto-Quebec, the government agency that runs all forms of gambling in the province. Brochu's lawyer, Roger Garneau, says he filed the suit on behalf of the estimated 119,000 gambling addicts in Quebec province. Garneau says the slot machines dragged these citizens into addiction. "They have been conceived and constructed for trapping the mind," he says. The suit asks for almost $700 million in damages.

For Garneau to win at trial this year, he'll have to prove not only that Brochu and his fellow plaintiffs are gambling addicts suffering from a diagnosable mental illness, but also that their illness is a direct result of playing the 15,000 video slot machines scattered in bars and restaurants throughout the province. null

Funny.

Salon.com News | Gambling with science

Startup Florida is a Venture Creation company that focuses on building high-growth businesses by providing capital, mentoring and a supportive community for entrepreneurs.

Startup Florida founded the first Angel Investment Fund and launched the first For-Profit Incubator in Florida.

Angel Investors and Venture Capital in Florida - Startup Florida Ventures

Michael Staton says:

“I’d say if you can’t bother to build it yourself, get potential customers lined up, build revenue on an easier offshoot, or convince someone else to build it in their spare time, then you should reevaluate whether you are an entrepreneur.”

Luca says:

“The idea is the easy part. If you are a first-time entrepreneur, try scaling down your concept to something whose value you can prove with friends & family money, then go to professional investors. If your idea does not lend itself to such an approach, try your hand first with something you can bootstrap.”

Ben says:

“An idea has a dollar value of $0. If you don’t believe in the idea enough to commit your cash/sweat equity to build it or a version of it to show it can work, why should friends, fools and family?”

Venture Hacks — Ideas need not apply

Delta says it plans to cut its capacity by 12%-13% during the last half of the year "to help cope with rising fuel costs," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (free registration) writes. The paper says Delta CEO Richard Anderson made those comments in an on-air interview with CNBC Thursday. Delta had previously projected cuts of 9%-11% for the latter part of the year, according to the Journal-Constitution. Anderson also said fares are going to "have to go up pretty significantly" for the industry to successfully be able to offset soaring fuel costs. In his interview, Anderson predicted that capacity cuts are "going to particularly hit markets like Orlando, Hawaii, Las Vegas — those kinds of leisure markets where people want to travel for $200 round-trip fares, and those fares don't work anymore."

Delta CEO: $200 fares to places like Las Vegas 'don't work anymore' - Today In the Sky - USATODAY.com

Raising money for your company is brutal. It is time consuming, frustrating and can be a real blow to your ego. And that's if you already know what you're doing. You are dealing with people who invest money for a living. You, on the other hand, have likely never done this before. There is a lot to learn about the process - far more than you can imagine. Don't wait until you need capital to start learning, then it will be too late. You need to being the process of educating yourself now. Here are three resources that I would suggest you go to.

GT VentureLab: Thinking of Raising Money for your Startup?

Specifically, he discussed:

* What the capital market is really like in Atlanta
* What the challenges exist
* How asset allocation works (great if you really want to know what you’re up against)
* How the real estate industry is affecting early stage capital here
* The funding gap
* Everything you could ever want to know about angel investors
* What sources exist?
* How to do due diligence on an angel investor
* What angels really want
* Handling rejection
* How to smoke out “fake” investors
* What “good” angel deals really look like
* Market validation
* How much funding to solicit
* Your pitch
* Deal killers
* Advisors
* Closing the deal
* Typical investment terms
* Capital-seeking “to-do” list
* Some case studies
* Facts of life in the Atlanta startup eco-system
* How we can repair it

SL #22: Early Stage Capital in Georgia | StartupLounge.com