Viral Video Production Company: Connective Productions

Connective Productions is a company that I and a few of my friends started in business school. We connect advertisers with online filmmakers to create product integration online. Here is the first video that was created through our marketplace, Wrestler. Check it out and forward to your friends if you liked it!

Is Swoopo a scam?

Winner's curse? Try winner's and loser's curse. Swoopo is the self-proclaimed "home of exciting, fast-paced auctions on the internet." The prices on the site are significantly lower than on other auctions sites such as eBay, but there is a catch: bids are made in $0.15 increments and cost $1 each.

For example, as you can see in the picture below, an Apple iPod Touch just sold for $95.40, $133 below market price. The winner, Jannlotz, also bid 35 times, which cost him/her an additional $35. So the total savings was about $100. But what about all of the other bidders? According to Swoopo, the auction price for all items starts at $0.15. For a winning price of $95.40, that would mean 635 bids were made on this item (600 of which were NOT by the winner). In a 10 minute span, I saw at least 100 bids placed by bidders that eventually lost the auction. So even though Jannlotz was the auction winner, the real winner was Swoopo ($600 in bids - $100 loss on the item for a total of $500!!). And I'm sure there are situations where the auction winner ends up paying more than the value of the item (because of the sunk cost of bidding). For example, say that you have made 100 bids on an item worth $100. If the price is still below $100, it is worth the $1 marginal bid to buy the item for under market price.

In conclusion, Swoopo is not a scam but rather an auction site for those with very high risk tolerance. Bid wisely...

Trip to Amsterdam

Caitlin and I arrived in Caitlin late Monday night. We stayed at The Crooked House (above), a great little hostel in the southern canal area. Tuesday we wandered around the city and met up with my friend Laura from Stanford. On Wednesday we went to The Rijksmusem--the building itself is a piece of art. It was built by Pierre Cuypers, who also has exhibits in the museum. Most of the museum is actually under construction right now, but they moved the masterpieces to the section that is open. They have a great Rembrandt section--the most famous piece is below:


Wednesday evening we went to the Anne Frank museum, which was very sad and moving. I had been unable to see it my first time to Amsterdam and was glad to see it this trip.

On Thursday we went to the Van Gogh museum, which has over 200 paintings from the short-lived artist's life.

Next in our trip is a one day stop in London, before heading back to the States on Sunday.

Our trip to Prague

We arrived in Prague on Friday morning after a 4am flight from Athens, and were very happy to find out that our hotel room was ready when we arrived. After a morning nap, we went out to discover what Prague is all about--cheap beer and food :) We had a delicious roasted chicken leg and a 0.5 liter of Hoegaarden (yes, I realize its not Czech, but it is one of my favorite beers) for less than $10 each. We were then off to the castle (see picture above), walking across the famous Charles Bridge into the Little Quarter. The castle is one of the largest in all of Europe, and also the best preserved because it avoided Nazi bombs during WWII. While the views outside are spectacular, the tour probably isn't worth the price of admission--it was only a couple of rooms and nothing to special. After a delicious dinner and 2 liters of beer for less than $15, we wandered the streets of Prague and headed home for a good nights rest.

The next day we did some shopping and sight-seeing in the Old Town, starting at the Old Town Square and off to the Havelska Market before seeing the Museum of Communism. Old Town Square is the location of the Jan Hus Memorial, as well as Tyn Church and the Astronomical Clock (see the pictures below for more detail).

The communist museum was very interesting, as it outlined the 40 year history of Soviet rule over Czechoslovakia until the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The Soviet propaganda posters were probably the most alarming artifacts in the museum, and the video at the end of the Communist Party riot police beating students (including women) that were non-violently protesting. As an aside, the museum is located above a McDonalds and next to a casino--talk about a change from 20 years ago.

On Sunday we spent the afternoon at the Jewish Museum. The museum is located in the Josefov (Jewish) quarter, and has many sites. The first we visited was the highly emotional Pinkas Synagogue, which contains the names of the approximately 80,000 Czech Jews who were sent from here to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. On the second floor the Terezin Children's Art Exhibit displays the drawings of the the almost 10,000 children imprisoned at the Terezin Concentration Camp. Only a few hundred of these children survived the holocaust.

After walking through the Old Jewish Cemetery (the only burial grounds allowed for Czech Jews from 1439 to 1787), we entered the Maisel Synagogue, which was contained many Jewish history exhibitions. This was actually the place where all Jewish artifacts were stored during WWII, as the captive leaders of the Terezin Ghetto convinced Hitler to create a "Museum of the Extinct Jewish Race." Quite an emotional afternoon.

Statue on the Charles Bridge

Memorial of Jan Hus, overlooking the Tyn Church in Old Town Square. Hus was burned for condemning the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church (100 years before Martin Luther)

The 15th century Astronomical Church strikes at the top of the hour

Four statues surround the clock. A figure staring into a mirror represents vanity, a Jewish moneylender is greed, a Turk playing the mandolin stands for hedonism. All are reminded by death that these are only worldly goals. When death tips his hourglass, the 12 apostles pass by the window above, the rooster crows and the hour is rung.

Beautiful Art Nouveau building in Old Town Square

And here are a few more fun pictures :)

An And1 slam dunk contest in Wencelas Square

The signs on the bathroom doors

Caitlin amazed at the size of her $3 beer at our first lunch

Wine tasting in Santorini

Today we went wine tasting in Santorini with our friends Rob and Hannah from DC. Our hotel manager recommended that we check out Santos winery and Antoniou. After a few wrong turns, we made it to the ridiculous views from Santo Wines (see below).

Rob, Hannah and Caitlin at Santo Wines

At Santos we tried 6 wines (starting from right)

1. Assyrtico—a very nice, dry white wine which wasn’t too bitter or too sweet. My personal favorite.
2. Nykteni—this wine was ok; Rob and Hannah liked it more than the first
3. Ageni rose—a semi-dry rose wine that was one of our favorites
4. Voudomato—we found that the red wines from Santorini were not very good—this was definitely the worst
5. Imiglinos—a very sweet white wine; Caitlin didn’t care much for it but I thought it was good
6. Vinsanto—Santorini is famous for its unfortified dessert wine. It tastes very similar to port, and is made by drying white grapes out in the sun for 2 week

After a 20 min tour of the winery facilities, we headed off to Antoniou, a cute little winery with three tastings (white, red, vinsanto) for 5 euro.

View from Antoniou patio

We finished the wine tour by driving to the Santorini Wine Museum. For 6 euro per person, we got a tape recorded tour of the museum as well as 3 tastings. The museum is extremely cheesy—it felt like a guided walk through a 1950s carnival ride (see video below). It was interesting to learn that the island used very old-fashioned wine making methods because there was no electricity until 1970.

For dinner that night we drove out to the last taverna before the lighthouse in Akrotiri—our hotel manager Kostas recommended it as a great place to get fresh, cheap fish. He was definitely right—we had two lobster and a cod-like fish for 28 euro. Our waitress took us to the back of the restaurant to choose our fish (see mine below). Her father catches the fish that day and prepares it himself. No question this was one of my favorite meals in Greece.

Nea Kameni – Santorini Volcano

For our first day in Santorini we took a day cruise out to Nea Kameni, the most active volcano on Santorini Island. It was created in the 18^th century, with its most recent explosion less than 100 years ago. The island itself has had a very active past—one of the largest volcanic explosions in the history of the planet created the beautiful cliffs (known as the caldera) around 1650 BC. Ash from the explosion was found in South America, and would have been heard on the Western coast of France. It is believed that this explosion is what wiped out the great Minoan culture on Crete. Since then, earthquakes and other volcanic explosions have created the beautiful views on the island.

We took a wooden sail boat which looked like a pirate ship out to the volcano, and then climbed up to the peak, which had ridiculous views of the island. Afterwards we took the boat out to Palia Kameni to swim in the hot springs that spew into the Aegean sea. Then we had lunch in Thirasia, which was separated from the main island in 236 BC. That evening we watched the sunset from Akrotiri, and then drove the rental car (a tiny red Peugot) to have dinner and drinks with our friends we met in Mykonos.

Justin at Nea Kameni Port with the Caldera in the background

View of Hotel Mathios from our balcony

The pirate ship we took to the volcano

Sunset from Akrotiri

Mykonos

Today is our last day in Mykonos before we head out to Santorini. Here's a quick recap:

We left for our ferry around 4pm, which got us into Mykonos around 9. If you are ever taking a trip to Mykonos, make sure you have arranged for a ride! It was a madhouse. Another ferry had arrived later than expected... imagine 1000 people + 50 cars leaving two boats onto a road 4m wide. To say the infrastructure here isn't that developed would be an understatement :)
Caitlin and I finally found a cab after about an hour, and we drove down into Mykonos town. Most of the streets are so small that you can't actually drive on them. The whole town is a maze, which is really cool. It was developed that way because this was an island hide away for Pirates!

Our hotel (Hotel Philipi) is awesome--its a little place right in the middle of Mykonos town, with a beautiful garden in the patio. Location couldn't be better for the price.

Friday night we met a nice couple from DC at dinner and grabbed drinks on the water in Little Venice. Cait and I then finished the night at club down in Taxi Square. Saturday was a day of drinking at Paradise Beach. Now we're off for lunch at a gyro stand before boarding our ferry to Santorini. I'm excited because I heard the views from the ferry are great.

Windmills in Mykonos

View from the bus

Paradise Beach


Caitlin and Justin at Paradise Beach