Four (or Five!) Reasons Why

….Two Weeks of Vacation Doesn’t Cut It

1. It means you barely get any time off work. If you do the numbers, you’re working 250 days - or 68% - of the year. Meanwhile, Europeans are only working 220 to 230 days, or 60% to 63%.

2. At best, you’re taking a two-week vacation. This means there’s not nearly enough time to take a big trip - say a tour of Southeast Asia or travels through Argentina.

3. With only two weeks, you’ve got to spread out your vacations or risk going a long stretch without extended time off. Let’s say you take off during March Break and then again in early-summer. That means you’ll go six months without another vacation.

4. Long weekends such as U.S. Thanksgiving don’t count as vacations. Even with four days off, U.S. Thanksgiving barely gives people enough time to enjoy their destination when you take traveling time into account.

Related Posts

….Americans Don’t Like Taking Vacations

…This Blog Isn’t Written On Weekends

…Thanksgiving Is The Best Holiday

…We Should Care More About Bees

1. Bees colonies around the world are disappearing at an alarming rate. 2007 saw a shocking 30% of bee colonies disappear due to what some experts are calling Colony Collapse Disorder (or CCD). Nobody currently understands what is causing CCD, but anytime a species’ numbers fall at such a rate, the alarm bells have to go off.

2. Bees play an under-appreciated roll in the production of food, at least to the average person on the street. Beyond supplying us with a spread for our morning toast, farmers are highly reliant on bees as an input factor in key agricultural processes. As Zac Browning, vice president of the American Beekeeping Foundation, points out, “Every third bite we consumer is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food.” Manufacturers are worried as well, with Haagen-Dazs (which relies on bees for around 28 of its flavours) recently funding research into CCD and launching www.helpthehoneybees.com.

3.  In addition to the role bees play in food production is the significant economic value in which they play a part. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that bees add $15 billion in value to U.S. fruit, nut and berry crops. That’s $15 billion of economic value that is at significant risk if the decline in bees colonies continues.

4. While there currently isn’t a crisis in food production, declining colony numbers, coupled with growing demand and higher input costs, suggests that there is a strong possibility of food  inflation in the future. As the USDA notes here, “The cost of hives for pollination has risen this year. But much of that is due to growing demand. Some of the price increase may also be due to higher cost of gas and diesel and other increases related to energy and labor costs. Commercial beekeepers truck hives long distances to provide pollination services, so in particular they must deal with rising expenses.”

5. What would Pooh be without honey?

Related Posts

…Food Aid Is Facing The Perfect Storm

…You Should Expect To Pay More For Good Beer

…Genetically Modified Food Is Inevitable

….People Want Google to Stumble

1. From its humble beginnings at Stanford University and its hokie corporate motto (”Do No Evil”), Google has become the Internet’s most dominant player. At some point in time, people stop cheering/admiring the king, and, instead, start to think that it’s time for the king to be dethroned or, at least, taken down a couple of notches.

2. Google is, in fact, fairly evil. The company is ultra-competitive, aggressive, hungry for growth and driven by two co-founders with their eye on the ultimate goal - to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. That’s inspiring and scary at the same time. And look at how Google is reacting to the proposed Microsoft-Yahoo deal. Rather than watch from the sidelines, its corporate legal beagle is writing patronizing blog posts about how this combination would be a danger to the future of the Internet.

3. Ever since the $85 IPO, everyone’s been waiting for the stock to lose momentum. With a 30% decline in the past couple of months, it’s finally happening, which makes all those people who never jumped on the Google bandwagon or couldn’t afford it, happy in some odd way. Judging by some pretty terrible traffic numbers in January, Google shares could come down a lot more.

4. People like competition and under-dogs. In a sense, they want Google to stumble so its competition can catch up so Google has a compelling reason to develop better products. Without competition - be it from Microsoft, Yahoo, Ask, Powerset, etc. - Google risks becoming complacent.

5. Larry Page and Sergey Brin have become gazillionaires who buy 757 and 767s as well as a party plane. It’s hard not to shake your head at that kind of behaviour.

For more thoughts on Google, check out Fred Wilson (aka A VC)

Related Posts

…Google Will Never Be “Apple” Cool

…Twitter Is The Next Google, But Better

….Starbucks is Losing its Mojo

…The Disney Brothers Are More Important Than The Coens

1. Out of the minds of Walt and Roy Disney sprung to life a multitude of characters that survived, and thrived, among the fickle tastes of today’s consumers. Mickey Mouse’s first appearance on November 18, 1928 in Steamboat Willie marked the start of an 80 year career that has made him one of the most recognized symbols in the world. His popularity has seen him contest in a number of US Presidential elections, albeit as a write-in, protest vote, and cloned as Farfur, a Hamas creation used to teach children about Islamic fundamentalism.

2. Behind Walt’s creative genious, Roy’s flair for business catapulted the Disney brothers into becoming a financial powerhouse that boasts annual sales of over $35 billion. The Walt Disney Company’s assets include five vacation resorts, eleven theme parks, two water parks, thirty-nine hotels, eight motion picture studios, six record labels, eleven cable television networks, and one terrestrial television network. All from the creation of a mouse.

3. Not widely known, and certainly overlooked in the 80th Academy Awards, is that Walt Disney is the most decorated filmmaker in the history of entertainment. He has been nominated for 64 Oscars, taking home 26 of them. That’s a better winning percentage that Tiger Woods! Walt has also received the Congressional Gold Medal, France’s Legion d’Honneur, a special medal from the League of Nations, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and has had a planet (4017 Disneya) named after him.

4. Under Walt and Roy’s watchful eyes and shrewd business sense, the Walt Disney Company launched the Mickey Mouse Club, which in turn launched the careers of some of our most beloved entertainers. Among them - Annette Funicello, Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling, Keri Russell, Justin Timberland and, last but not least, Britney Spears.

Related Posts

….Tiger Woods is Unbeatable

….Mac Geeks Are Excited about Leopard

….Kids’ Birthday Parties Are Out of Hand

….Online Dating is Better Than Real Dating

1. It’s easier to filter the candidates before making a decision on who to ask out. Rather than having to ask question after question at a party or bar to determine whether candidate “A” has got what it takes to possibly mate, you can apply some online filters to narrow down the field.

2. It saves you time and effort. Let’s face it, dating is a lot of work; probably too much work. Sometimes, you’re lucky and hit the jackpot; sometimes, you manage to have a good time and walk away as perhaps friends; but often dates are duds - and you can tell within the first five minutes, which means you’ve got to go through the motions for the next two to three hours.

3. Depending on what online dating service you use, there’s a lot of selection. It’s amazing so many people turn to online dating services but they’re out there, which is good if you find yourself having a difficult time meeting people in real life. I mean, unless you work for a PR firm or advertising agency, it’s not like there’s a lot of talent at work. And if you work in the tech industry, women - especially fine foxes - are few and far between. (Note: does anyone uses “foxes” anymore or did I just date myself? - no pun intended.)

4. If you meet someone online, the digital divide can act as a barrier until you’re really ready to meet in real life. You can work your way through online chats to exchanging e-mail addresses and then phone numbers before you ever have to meet in person.

Technorati Tags: Online Dating

Related Posts

…Blind Dates Suck

….New Year’s Eve is Anti-Climatic

…To Go To Conferences Out Of Your Comfort Zone