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The merger between Sprint and Nextel is complete. They’ve got some new coverage plans which look pretty good. One that I haven’t seen from Sprint before is the free incoming minutes plans. Check them out here.

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Great post over at invertedsm.org on the reality of gas prices. He talks about how people are canceling $750 vacations over $30 in gas. Worth the read.

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I think we will see more stories of people and nations donating to help with recovery efforts. The biggest donation I’ve read about by far is from Kuwait. They have pledged $500 million mainly in oil-based relief assistance. Their Prime Minister, Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al Ahmed Al Sabah (coolest name ever), had this to say: “It’s our duty as Kuwaitis to stand by our friends to lighten the humanitarian misery and as a payback for the many situations during which Washington helped us.” That’s pretty cool.

Also, John Grisham the author, a Mississippi native, has set up a relief fund to help his fellow Mississippians who have been hit by the storm. He and his wife have donated $5 million to get the fund started. Lance Armstrong has donated $500,000 to help cancer patients who have been affected by the storm.

Which brings me back to something I’ve mentioned earlier. The NFL’s revenue last year “climbed to $5.2 billion” and they have only donated $1 million!!! That’s ridiculous. That’s less than pocket change for them. To put it into perspective, that’s only 0.02% of their annual revenue. This really makes me mad. They have a franchise that not only is from there but has been relocated because of the storm. This is ridiculous and the NFL needs to raise the bar. I wouldn’t be surprised if the NHL makes a bigger donation than them.

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I must admit that I really don’t have a clue how gas prices really work. I even read a little bit of an article at HowStuffWorks.com, but that didn’t help clear it up. This past Monday morning, before Katrina hit, I paid $2.53 per gallon. That afternoon, after Katrina hit, the price shot up to $2.88 and has gone over $3 at most stores. Wal-Mart’s gas prices are typically how I gauge where we’re at. They had gone as high as $2.98, but today dropped down to $2.83. I don’t understand.

What really gets me is that the prices have very little to do with how much the store actually paid for their supply, it seems. The gas that has shot up over fifty cents this week isn’t new gas. It’s gas that, for the most part, they paid for last week before the price went up. That just doesn’t seem right and that they’re taking advantage of the situation. It’s hard to point the finger because we’re kind of at the mercy of the gas stations. We don’t want to stop driving, so we have to basically pay what they say.

Check out GasBuddy.com to find where the cheapest gas in town is.

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I didn’t know if I would post anything about Hurricane Katrina, but I’ve been motivated by the donations that certain organizations have made toward relief efforts. Let me first say that I’m always impressed on how much compassion and generosity we show in response to disasters. Money and other donations come pouring in.

The Kidd Kraddick Show raised close to $330,000 in one day alone. Wal-Mart originally donated $2 million, but has since committed $15 million toward the effort. Which is good, considering that the CEO makes over $5 million a year and their annual revenue is close to $300 billion.

The one organization that I think has under-committed is the NFL. They have committed only $1 million. That’s only $1,000,000. The freaking New York Yankees alone are donating that much money. I would think that the NFL would take this more personally, since one of their teams is from New Orleans and their stadium is in the middle of the aftermath that’s going on. The NFL is one of the richest organizations around. They just struck a deal with ESPN for the Monday night games that makes them $1.1 BILLION!!! They can afford to donate more and they should.

Come on NFL. Make a real mark and donate A LOT MORE!!!

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IGN.com is now reporting that Microsoft plans to release the Xbox 360 on Friday, November 25. That’s the day after Thanksgiving. It was originally thought the system would be released around November 4, but it looks like they want to give game developers a little more time to finish tweaking some software title.

My thought is that this date is the best date they could possibly choose. People are already insane when it comes to shopping then and retailers generally have massive sales and open their doors early. I think Microsoft could hit a jackpot by releasing the hottest system on the biggest shopping day of the year. If this story turns out to be true, I think Microsoft did something right. Now if they could just get the brains that work on Xbox to help the Windows OS people . . .

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This is both scary and extremely cool at the same time. GM will be launching the Opel Vectra in 2008 with a self-driving system. It supposedly can navigate through traffic and read signs even at 60 mph. I wonder if the cell phone laws while driving will apply?

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