Arriving in Style

Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic are having a party on cloud 9 while other airlines accept their hardships and spend time building explanations out of economic symptoms.

The company recently reported annual pre-tax profits of $109M usd, almost doubling last year's number.

How?

• "results had been helped by a rise in premium fare passengers."
  
  
• "successful hedging of fuel had helped the firm, by buying in advance before fuel prices surged."
  
  
• "Group sales, which include sales from tour operator Virgin Holidays, increased by 8.4% to £2.579bn from £2.38bn in the year before."
  
  
• Style!
  

Full BBC Article

Doc 420

What is the deal with California and medical marijuana? It is too easy to get a medical marijuana card, a license to purchase marijuana for 'medical use'. Either this is a dangerous path to be walking, or a helpful element of California's massive budget deficit solution (when there is a solution).

Sona Patel, also known as "Doc 420", is more than just your typical Indian doctor. I was given her business card recently:

ABC News: Who is Doc 420?

The Beginning of the End: A Free Market

7 months later, a random sheet of scratch-paper puts progress into perspective:

• How a radical idea from a philosophy we've been trained to hate is now common practice
• How a certain political party that designed and engineered this change is the same party that by majority is against the continuation of the same ideas now lead by an opposing party
• How urgency and fear can be convenient; how it is easy to deflect opposition and approve change quickly under these circumstances
• How even before the first of its kind of change was a reality, there seems to have already been some mapped out long-term agenda
  
• How an incubator for an infectious disease can simultaneously act as a counselor for the internationally infected
• How the domestically infected were chronilogically "saved", indebted, weakened, and/or gone

Programmable Matter

Barack Ospock Obama

Great article by NY Times' Maureen Dowd. I hope newspapers survive... a new business model?

There is value somewhere in the fact that newspapers are tangible, and businesses can take advantage of it somehow. Maybe upgrade the concept of giving free shampoo samples that sometimes come with the Sunday paper. If I got something new everyday, it would add a little suspense and excitement to getting my paper and might encourage more home delivery subscriptions. Vendors might pay publishers more for this distribution service if there's some branding value and ROI. Maybe it's a long shot but they should put up a fight soon before subscriptions dwindle.

In the end it's about what the people like. As much as people love the ability to watch tv or hulu.com at home, I think most people today still enjoy the experience of going to the movies and likewise, people like Eric Schmidt and I still enjoy navigating through a physical paper.

online-article is to newspaper as automatic is to stick-shift.

Mayweather Jr. vs. Hatton

on December 8, 2007

The build-up:


The result:

Tiger Woods

and his perfect swing. Saving it here to watch 1000 times again some other time

Freddy Roach

trained Manny Pacquiao, you know, the guy who turned Oscar De La Hoya's face into a strawberry and forced him to give up. The guy who gave Ricky Hatton his naptime in less than 2 rounds. Here, Freddy talks about strategy and makes it sound so simple.

Roach shows interest in a Pacquiao vs. Mayweather jr. fight which at the time of this video must have been soon after Mayweather retired from the sport. Freddy Roach predicted his quick return to boxing, just announced on May 2nd before the Pacquiao Hatton bout. He was also right about Hatton getting knocked out in less than 3 rounds