Brigadoon Weekend
Connecting curious minds to curious ideas.
December 18, 2021
Five 2021 Ross Rants:
Where is your Hamburg? The Beatles might have hailed from Liverpool, but the band got its big break in Hamburg. The band had secured a bid to play the Indra, a seedy strip joint complete with a neon-lighted elephant beckoning the passersby in Hamburg's infamous red-light boulevard.
More - click here.
Your decision is probably wrong: Half of your decisions are a success. Half of your decisions are a failure. Based on research by Ohio State University Professor Paul Nutt has determined you are just as likely to make a failed decision as a successful decision.
More - click here.
Get to know the Barkley Marathons: The Barkley Marathons is known as one of the most challenging races in the ultrarunning world. Inspired by a jailbreak, race founder Gary "Lazarus Lake" Cantrell created the mysterious race, which runs in late March or early April in the Tennessee hills.
More - click here.
Take time to get your 50 mission cap: A fifty mission cap was a stiff cloth cap with a visor issued to Allied bomber pilots in World War II when they had completed fifty missions. After fifty missions, the pilots were known to weather and beat their cap into a more rugged and worn look. Cheating death and pushing the envelope makes one want to display a roughness and not wear a stiffer and newly issued flight cap.
More - click here.
Brand marketing in a direct marketing world: What was the top 2021 Super Bowl ad according to USA Today's Ad Meter? Heck, if you can name one of the top ten, I will give you bonus points. The reason you can't remember the best ad or any ads from the big game, it's not the best tool.
More - click here.
-Marc
Best 2021 Weekend Reads:
Union in crisis as polls reveal voters want referendum on Scottish independence and united Ireland: The UK is facing a constitutional crisis that will strain the Union as new polls reveal a majority of voters in Scotland and Northern Ireland want referendums on the break-up of Britain.
The Sunday Times
The Iowa Caucus is supposed to tell a story about America. Troy Price devoted years of his life to the Iowa caucus, hoping to make it successful, transparent, and inclusive. But in a year when everything fell apart, the 2020 Iowa caucus was the first institution to collapse.
BuzzFeed
Meghan and Harry interview fallout: What happens now? Patricia Treble on the seismic effects of the racism allegation, why the interview has come under fire, and what the future holds for the Sussexes.
Macleans's
The Firm stands firm on Harry and Meghan: The royal family is licking its wounds after enduring trial by TV. The Queen will speak to Harry while Charles feels traduced over claims he cut his son off — but has the Sussexes’ whirlwind already blown itself out?
The Times
Brittle new world: Policymakers, military planners, business people, and individuals need to have a much clearer idea of networks and their inherent weaknesses, and their own exposures to networks that might be overly connected or overly optimized.
Gerald Ashley
Jackals: How to survive in the underworld of professional basketball: The story of a once-hot recruit living on the street, an idealistic team owner, and the nomadic life of working-class ballers.
GQ
Aston Martin bets on a Formula One comeback to revive the brand: The team’s billionaire owner is spending a fortune to overtake rivals on and off the track.
FT
The weird, extremely German origins of the Wirecard scandal: How politicians, regulators, and the media fell for an obvious financial fraud.
TNR
US, India step up fight with China over the next Dalai Lama: Choosing the next spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists will be a geopolitical battle.
Bloomberg
How space became the next ‘great power’ contest between the US and China: The Biden administration faces not only waves of Chinese anti-satellite weapons but a history of jumbled responses to the intensifying threat.
NYT
Pep Guardiola: Football’s restless innovator: Manchester City’s Catalan coach has now won nine league titles in three different countries.
Simon Kuper
Chaos vs control: China’s communists and a century of revolution: As the CCP turns 100, its leaders are still struggling to reconcile growth and stability.
FT
The blockchain is starting to live up to its potential: The digital database has moved beyond cryptocurrencies and is being used in everything from health care to elections.
Aaron Brown
Why a gin maker invented its own history: Hendrick’s gin looks like it has been plucked out of the Victorian era. But the brand was launched in 1999.
1843 Magazine
The downside to life in a supertall tower: Leaks, creaks, breaks: 432 Park, one of the wealthiest addresses in the world, faces some significant design problems, and other luxury high-rises may share its fate.
NYT
Eliud Kipchoge: Inside the camp, and the mind, of the greatest marathon runner of all time: He’s the greatest marathoner in history, a national hero in Kenya, and an icon for runners around the world. But despite his fame and wealth, Eliud Kipchoge chooses to live the most basic lifestyle. Cathal Dennehy travels to the highlands of Kenya for an inside look at his training camp and to meet a champion with a quiet, complex personality.
Irish Examiner
Dead white man’s clothes: It’s the dirty secret behind the world’s fashion addiction. Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfills, creating an environmental catastrophe on the other side of the world.
ABC (AUS)
An uber-optimistic view of the future: Azeem Azhar’s new book “Exponential Age” predicts stupendous technology growth will lead to an age of abundance. The reality is more complicated.
MIT TR
The uselessness of useful knowledge: Today’s powerful but little-understood artificial intelligence breakthroughs echo past examples of unexpected scientific progress.
Quanta Magazine
Xi hasn’t left China in 21 months. COVID may be only part of the reason. Xi Jinping’s lack of face time with world leaders signals a turn inward on domestic issues and a reluctance to compromise on the global stage.
NYT
The sublime spectacle of Yoko Ono disrupting the Beatles: In Peter Jackson's "The Beatles: Get Back," Ono is a performance artist at the height of her powers.
NYT
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Have a great weekend.
Thanks for making Brigadoon Brigadoon.
See you next year.
-Marc
Marc A. Ross | Founder + Chief Curator @ Brigadoon
Brigadoon is Global Street Smarts.
Connecting curious minds to curious ideas.
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