Sound More Interesting at Cocktails Memo | June 10, 2022
25 talking points for better conversation at cocktails based on what I found interesting this week.
Global Street Smarts
1. There have been 18 missile test launches from North Korea so far in 2022.
+ US and South Korean officials note that North Korea is planning to conduct its first nuclear test since 2017
2. Kishida could become the first Japanese leader to attend a NATO summit: The Japan Times reports that PM Fumio Kishida is planning to attend a NATO summit slated for late June in Spain. This development would make him the first Japanese leader to participate in a Western alliance gathering.
3. NASA to launch three rockets from a private Australian spaceport: This will be NASA's first blast off from a commercial spaceport outside the United States.
4. The world had ten megacities in 1990, 33 in 2018, and will have 43 by 2030, says the United Nations. Over a third of their population growth will be in India, China, and Nigeria.
5. China's slowing economy: China will fall short of the government's annual growth target, expanding by 4.3 percent. That would be Beijing's worst full-year figure since 1990, excluding 2020, when the pandemic depressed activity.
6. Saudi eyes tripling of foreign tourists in 2022: Saudi Arabia aims to triple foreign tourism this year as pandemic restrictions ease, hajj pilgrims return, and the first elements of the crown prince's signature projects open.
7. Roughly 60 percent of all US imports coming from Asia are handled by ports on the West Coast, such as Los Angeles, Long Beach, Seattle-Tacoma, and Oakland.
8. Wow. 65% say most political candidates run for office 'to serve their own personal interests' - Pew
9. Biden is soo unpopular: The latest Politico/Morning Consult poll finds Biden's approval rating sinking to 39%, an all-time low and similar to where Trump stood at his June 2020 nadir
10. Over a quarter-million people watched the White House press briefing with K-pop group BTS.
11. QOTW #1: "There's really three parties in the United States: Republicans, Democrats, and Mayors." -- Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly (I)
12: QOTW #2: "If I wore beige, nobody would know who I am" -- Queen Elizabeth
13. Crypto influence-peddling: The number of lobbyists representing the crypto industry increased from 115 to 320 between 2018 and 2021, and the money spent on lobbying for the crypto sector quadrupled from $2.2mn to $9mn in the same period
14. The world's largest trial of a four-day work week started in the United Kingdom on Monday. In the six-month trial, more than 3,000 employees will work four days a week for the same pay.
15. Taco Bell opens its first 'Defy' restaurant that prioritizes ordering via app: The Verge reports its four drive-thru lanes are located in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.
16. Sony eyes' independent' EV joint venture with Honda.
17. Ford to invest $3.7bn in Midwest US manufacturing amid electric vehicle push: FT reports the US carmaker will invest in assembly plants in Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri.
18. Moving cargo by e-bike is a super trend: Cargo e-bikes, like drones and autonomous robots, probably are the future for cities, where the problem of last-mile delivery is the hardest part of the supply chain to solve at scale.
19. Ad fraud is predicted to cost marketers $81 billion in 2022, and as malicious software and bot programming get increasingly sophisticated, this number only stands to rise.
20. Foo Fighters will honor the rock band's late drummer Taylor Hawkins with a pair of tribute concerts in September — one in London and the other in Los Angeles.
21. The NFL and E & J Gallo Winery announced that Gallo would be the official wine sponsor of the NFL.
+ E & J Gallo joins Anheuser-Busch (beer) and Diageo (spirits) at the NFL bar
22. Netflix enters a four-way race worth £80m to broadcast F1 in America: The Times reports the streaming service wants to move into live sport after the successful Drive to Survive documentary series.
23. Figure skating's minimum age to be raised to 17: DW reports there will be no figure skaters under 17 at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
24. Adidas has signed its first student-athlete NIL deal, inking the best women's amateur golfer Rose Zhang to a multi-year contract. The Stanford standout won the NCAA's 2022 D1 women's golf individual and team titles.
25. Manchester United spending for what? In the post-Ferguson era alone, United have spent roughly £1.2 billion on signings, and they have only one FA Cup, one Europa League, and a single League Cup to show for it.
-Marc
Event: What will next generation car designers create?
Brigadoon Monthly Call
June 15, 2022
2:00 pm New York City
7:00 pm London
8:00 pm Milan
Speaker: Paul Snyder
Paul Snyder, the Paul & Helen Farago Chair of Transportation Design @ College for Creative Studies, will lead a discussion on transportation design and emerging mobility systems.
Paul’s experience spans four continents and encompasses both exterior and interior development for a number of automotive brands, including Ford, Lincoln, Renault, Honda, and Acura.
For Ford Motor Company, he designed exterior and interior solutions for the Taurus/Sable and Explorer production vehicles and later oversaw projects for the Taurus X, Ford Five Hundred, Ranger, and Flex production vehicles.
Prior to joining the College for Creative Studies, Snyder worked at Honda Research and Development in California where he was Assistant Chief Designer, overseeing production and concept projects for the Civic, Accord, Crosstour, Odyssey, Tokyo Motor Show EV-Ster Concept, and Honda AC-X Concept theme vehicles, as well as a 2013 Acura RL vision theme.
Paul previously taught transportation design and visual communications at Pratt Institute as well as a range of undergraduate and graduate courses at Wayne State University and CCS.
In addition to his work as a car designer, Paul is an accomplished figure painter, sculptor, and collagist, having earned a Master of Fine Arts degree cum laude in fine art and cultural studies from the New York Academy of Art in New York City, where he has also shown his work.
Format:
Brigadoon Monthly Calls are 45-minute moderated discussions led by a subject matter expert in an emerging issue shaping commerce and culture.
The guest speaker makes opening remarks for ten minutes and takes questions for the balance of the call.
All calls happen using Google Meet.
Just like all Brigadoon gatherings, the call is powerpoint free and conversation-driven.
Cost:
Brigadoon Monthly Calls are free to all Brigadoon Members in good standing or $25.00.
Sound More Interesting at Cocktails Memo | May 13, 2022
25 talking points for better conversation at cocktails based on what I found interesting this week.
Global Street Smarts
1. the first image of a black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy revealed: Sagittarius A* is 4 million times as massive as the sun and some 26,000 light-years from Earth.
2. Seven in ten Americans view inflation as a massive problem for the country, according to Pew.
3. Greece reported annual inflation of 10.2% in April, the highest since 1995.
4. Global supply chains and China: More than half of Apple's 192 suppliers that manufacture on the Mainland – including Foxconn Technology Group, Pegatron, Quanta Computer, Wistron Corp, and Compal Electronics – have production facilities in lockdown-hit Shanghai and eastern Jiangsu province.
5. The US holds about 8 million tons of lithium, according to the US Geological Survey, putting it in the top five most lithium-rich countries in the world. Yet it mines and processes only 1 percent of global output. Much of the rest comes from China, Chile, and Australia.
6. Tokyo officials have asked residents to watch an hour less of television a day, not keep their rice warm for as long, and turn off their heated toilet seats to save electricity.
7. Subaru to build Japan's first electric vehicle plant: Nikkei reports the automaker to invest $1.9bn in domestic EV production.
8. Office space in aisle 9: Tesco + IWG partner to offer workspaces in supermarkets.
9. CAC: On average, 40% of the money raised by digitally-native CPG brands goes to Google and Meta for customer acquisition.
10. After Jordan debuted his new multicolored shoes in an exhibition game in Oct. 1985, they were banned by the NBA. Nike promptly aired a commercial about the incident, and young people camped out in the streets to buy the new Air Jordans.
+ "Kids like that stuff … 'I'm wearing something I'm not supposed to be wearing.' Perfect. Couldn't be better."
11. GM's newest Cadillac Escalade will be the most powerful and expensive version of the full-size SUV ever: The 2023 Cadillac Escalade-V will start at about $150k with a supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 engine that delivers 682 horsepower.
12. Disney+ tops 200 million subscribers across all streaming services.
13. Percentage of Americans who use:
YouTube 81%
Facebook 69%
Instagram 40%
Pinterest 31%
Linkedin 28%
Snapchat 25%
Twitter 23%
HT Pew Research Center
13. The average American spends 11 hours per day consuming media, 65% of their waking life. Roughly 40% of that time is spent on a mobile device.
14. Andy Warhol's iconic Marilyn Monroe portrait 'Shot Sage Blue Marilyn' sold at Christie's sets a record-high $195 million for an American artwork.
15. The National Library of Austria, in Hofburg Palace, was constructed in the 18th century and contains 7.4 million books.
16. Google announced its first smartwatch, called the Pixel Watch, and it will go on sale in the fall.
17. Heinz says it's developing a paper-based version of its iconic ketchup bottle.
18. Nearly 7 in 10 Americans want to live to 100: Despite fears of outliving savings, most Americans still want to live longer, with nearly 70% hoping to reach age 100, according to Edward Jones and Age Wave.
19. US casinos reported $5.31 billion in revenue in March - their best month ever, according to the American Gaming Association.
20. Naomi Osaka leaves IMG to form her own sports agency: ESPN reports Osaka's sports agency, Evolve, will be stylized in all capital letters as EVOLVE. She is starting the agency with agent Stuart Duguid, who also is leaving IMG.
+ Osaka is ranked 20th on Sportico's 2022 list of the world's highest-paid athletes with prize money and endorsements totaling $53.2 million and is the top earner among women on Sportico's list
21. London could bid for the 2036 or 2040 Olympic games.
22. Tiffany redesigns NBA championship and MVP trophies: Bloomberg reports with the help of artist Victor Solomon, the Larry O'Brien championship trophy gets a new look for the first time since 1977.
23. Lionel Messi is the world's highest-paid athlete, according to Forbes, with $133 million in earnings over the last 12 months.
24. Manchester City has completed the signing of Erling Haaland, one of the best young strikers in the world, for £51 million.
25. Drafting NFL QBs: On a per-play basis, quarterbacks chosen with picks 11 through 50, as well as picks 51 through 90, outperform quarterbacks selected in the top 10.
-Marc