In Hong Kong on Monday _ the only place in China where a large, public commemoration is allowed _ tens of thousands gathered to mourn the dead at a candlelight vigil. In Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, there were no immediate reports of protests and only tourists gathered to watch a daily flag-raising ceremony amid tight security.
Ding, co-founder of the Tiananmen Mothers, a group that represents families of those who died, said police did not try to stop her Sunday night, though plainclothes agents may have been observing the vigil.
Time is All We Have: 3 Ways to Increase Return on Investment
Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.
– Benjamin Franklin
Return on investment (ROI) is a term you hear frequently, usually in relation to business and finance. The goal (obviously) is to maximize return on the money you invest. The implications of this concept go much deeper when you start to think of time as your primary investment rather than money. Everything you do is an investment of time. When you watch television, you’re making an investment in entertainment. If you watch a show that sucks, you’ve made a bad investment and receive a poor return for your time.
In many ways time is more valuable than money. You’ll always have the opportunity to make more money, but once time has been spent it’s gone forever. When you think of time as a commodity, and all of your actions as investments, it changes the way you approach every day decisions.
Sinus Congestion & Travel
Dave mentioned that he arrived in Rome “clogged up“. During a recent trip to Southeast Asia, I found the following items essential to long distance, dry air travel (I’ve had allergies over the years):
- Sinucleanse twice daily. Works better, for me, than any of the allergy meds.
- A bottle of nasal saline solution. I used this at least hourly on the long flights and found that it made a big difference.
- I drank a great deal of water (and made sure that I purchased a large bottle at the airport prior to departure). Airlines can sometimes (often?) skimp on water.
- I also carried some aspirin.
- I did not pack all that well for the long dry air, but fortunately found some Hall’s drops in Tokyo
Quantas airlines has a useful page on long distance flight health tips.
Stephen Colbert Introduces Viacom’s CEO at D5
D5:
Stephen Colbert’s terrific intro for Viacom President and CEO, Philippe “Dough Man” Dauman.
Earlier, we posted this video, then took it down and then put it back up. Confused?
Our fault and not Viacom’s at all.
D Conference Notes
Walt Mossberg asked CBS CEO Les Moonves about Al Gore’s critique of television culture in his new book, The Assault on Reason. “Gore said that TV in general has basically destroyed American democracy. He says the Internet is the hope –”
Moonves interrupted: “That’s because he created it.”
Mossberg grimaced. There was not a single laugh in the room.
It is one sign of hope for the world today that this dead old line — discredited eons ago — now evokes only contempt.
Meanwhile, here is Moonves’s stirring defense of his medium against the complaint that TV caters to too much of our love for celebrity news at the expense of more pressing issues: “I think there are other things that may have hurt the fabric of democracy more than the media.”
Milwaukee’s Briggs & Stratton Once Had the Lead in Hybrids
We are all seeing our personal mobility threatened by rising petroleum prices and dwindling resources. The fundamental appeal of electric cars is that they allow us to use energy sources other than petroleum on the road.”
A quote from a major auto maker rolling out a new hybrid concept at a recent auto show?
No.
In November 1979, Briggs & Stratton Corp., the Wauwatosa, Wis.-based maker of lawnmower engines, rolled out its sleek, futuristic plug-in hybrid-electric concept car with the very same motivations and goals as today’s car makers. On Earth Day the following spring, the manufacturer hauled it to Washington, D.C. and demonstrated the car running on domestically produced ethanol.
Like today’s Toyota Prius, the B&S Hybrid sported hump-backed styling for minimal aerodynamic drag. The forward-looking design was penned by the agency of famed industrial designer Brooks Stevens, who is credited with sketching the Willys Jeepster, Harley-Davidson Hydra-Glide, Evinrude outboard boat motor and the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile.
Fascinating story.
Vietnam’s Growth as a Tourist Destination
Paul Chong was searching for paradise on a beach in Vietnam.
Mr. Chong, the head of business development at Singapore’s Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, came here on a weeklong mission last August to scout sites for a luxury resort. He had journeyed by car and plane up the coast from Ho Chi Minh City before arriving at a tiny fishing village near the central city of Da Nang. In a remote cove reachable only by rowboat, he and three colleagues explored a two-mile stretch of beachfront.
“We fell so much in love with the site that we didn’t leave until it was pitch black,” Mr. Chong recalls. In March, Banyan Tree won a license to begin building the Laguna Vietnam, a $270 million complex of hotels, villas and spas.
An Interesting Look at Wal-Mart
A confidential report prepared for senior executives at Wal-Mart Stores concludes, in stark terms, that the chain’s traditional strengths — its reputation for discounts, its all-in-one shopping format and its enormous selection — “work against us” as it tries to move upscale.
As a result, the report says, the chain “is not seen as a smart choice” for clothing, home décor, electronics, prescriptions and groceries, categories the retailer has identified as priorities as it tries to turn around its slipping store sales, a decline likely to be emphasized Friday during Wal-Mart’s shareholder meeting.
“The Wal-Mart brand,” the report says, “was not built to inspire people while they shop, hold their hand while they make a high-risk decision or show them how to pull things together.”
A Fascinating Look at the Sugar Water Business
Coke is also encountering a seismic shift in consumer preferences — of the sort that is challenging the newspaper business and hamstringing automakers. Worried about their health and lured by new drinks, Americans are reaching for bottled water, sports drinks, green teas and juice instead of soda. The decline in soft-drink sales isn’t just for full-calorie sodas like Coca-Cola Classic, with about 10 teaspoons of sugar per 12-ounce can. Sales of diet soda are declining too, in part because artificial sweeteners make some consumers nervous.
The problem is so serious that Coke executives no longer refer to soda as just plain “soda.” “Soft drink,” “pop” and “carbonated beverage,” are also verboten. Instead, the favored term in Atlanta these days is “sparkling beverage.”
Memorial Day 2007
Presidio Cemetery, San Francisco, CA.