Archive for November, 2009
Cyber Monday
Everyone is well aware of Black Friday , the day after Thanksgiving and the opening day of Christmas and holiday shopping. The first use of the term “Black Friday” in conjunction with Thanksgiving comes from Philadelphia police officers referring to the heavy traffic as a result of the shopping madness. On Cyber Monday, traffic on the roads is not an issue
Existing-Home Sales Record Another Big Gain; Inventories Continue to Shrink
RISMEDIA, November 24, 2009—Driven by the first-time buyer tax credit, existing-home sales showed another big gain in October 2009 with a strong uptrend established over the past seven months, while inventories continue to decline, according to the National Association of Realtors. Existing-home sales–including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – surged 10.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.10 million units in October from a downwardly revised pace of 5.54 million in September, and are 23.5% above the 4.94 million-unit level in October 2008
Happy Thanksgiving
No one really knows the exact date of the first historical Thanksgiving , though most trace the holiday’s roots back to 1621, when the Plymouth settlers held a harvest festival to celebrate a successful growing season at Plymouth Plantation. The accounts indicate that the foods served included game (duck, geese, venison), seafood, fruit, pumpkin, squash, and other vegetables.
The Curse of Knowledge
Authors of the book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, illustrate that knowledge can be a barrier in communication. Here’s an excerpt from the book regarding an experiment with “tappers.” Listeners had to guess the songs that were being tapped; in the end, 2.5% of 120 songs were correctly named. The problem is that tappers have been given knowledge (the song title) that makes it impossible for them to imagine what it’s like to lack that knowledge.
Don’t let bad weather keep you from enjoying the outdoors…
Ghana In Fog from Paul Octavious on Vimeo .
How do you make an idea “stick”?
One answer given by Chip and Dan Heath in their book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die , has to do with the use of strategy.
Planning Year-End Tax Strategies in a Down Year
RISMEDIA, November 17, 2009—(MCT)—Year-end tax planning this year will be different from years past, largely because of the recession.
Tuning up the Brain
In a recent article in The New York Times , Benedict Carey asks, “what if the primary purpose of dreaming isn’t psychological at all?” Dr. J. Allan Hobson, a researcher at Harvard, published a study positing that the primary purpose of REM (rapid-eye-movement sleep) is not psychological but physiological
Compelling Approaches
Veteran’s Day
Woodrow Wilson , the 28th President of the United States, proclaimed November 11, 1919, the first commemoration of Armistice Day .
