Keeping it in the family
Japan boasts some of the world’s oldest family-run businesses, and many family firms—Suzuki, Matsui Securities, Suntory—break the rule of steady dynastic decline. So how do Japanese firms do it? The answer, says the paper, is adoption.
Last year more than 81,000 people were adopted in Japan, one of the highest rates in the world. But, amazingly, over 90% of those adopted were adults. The practice of adopting men in their 20s and 30s is used to rescue biologically ill-fated families and ensure a business heir.
Fascinating.
I traveled in to India in late April for a wedding in Jammu. I had the chance to also visit Amritstar, Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. It was amazing eight days.
Full set can be found here.
Racing
Splits
Mile 1 7:55
Mile 2 8:17
Mile 3 7:06
Mile 4 7:21
Mile 5 7:07
Mile 6 7:29
Mile 7 6:49
Mile 8 6:49
Mile 9 7:09
Mile 10 7:20
I ran the Presidio 10 this past Sunday. It was my first race in quite some time and my first 10 miler. The course takes runners from Crissy field up into the Presidio, over the Golden Gate bridge and back, and then loops to Hopper’s Hands before the finish (course map). The beginning is biggest mental hurdle with over 200 ft. of incline in the first two miles. I was generally satisfied with my time (finished 12th out of 61 in my age group), but would have liked to have been more consistent with my splits (dramatic elevation changes don’t help) and finished a bit stronger. Full race details on strava.
Steve Schwarzman and Tsinghua University Team Up
The private-equity tycoon Stephen A. Schwarzman, backed by an array of mostly Western blue-chip companies with interests in China, is creating a $300 million scholarship for study in China that he hopes will rival the Rhodes scholarship in prestige and influence.
The program, whose endowment represents one of the largest single gifts to education in the world and one of the largest philanthropic gifts ever in China, was announced by Mr. Schwarzman in Beijing on Sunday.
Very excited to see how this develops. Tsinghua is where I taught and researched in 2010.
Berlin at night. Amazingly, I think the light bulbs still show the East/West division from orbit. twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/…
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) April 17, 2013
Great hike to Point Bonita Lighthouse this weekend.
Ελευθερία ή θάνατος! Happy Greek Independence Day!
Germanos of Patras blessing the flag at Agia Lavra. Oil painting by Theodoros Vryzakis (1865).
Trouble with the Curve
Professor Peter Fröhlich has maintained a grading curve in which each class’s highest grade on the final counts as an A, with all other scores adjusted accordingly…As the semester ended in December, students in Fröhlich’s “Intermediate Programming”, “Computer Science Fundamentals,” and “Introduction to Programming for Scientists and Engineers” classes decided to test the limits of the policy, and collectively planned to boycott the final. Because they all did, a zero was the highest score in each of the three classes, which, by the rules of Fröhlich’s curve, meant every student received an A.
Greece set a minimum bid price of 22 million pounds ($35 million) for a London townhouse, one of six overseas properties the government is selling to help pay its debts…
The Greek consul’s residence in Holland Park will be sold along with real estate in cities including Brussels and Belgrade…They will be the first outright sales of foreign properties by the Greek government since the onset of the global financial crisis.
Still a little curious as to why the Greek consul needed a $35mm villa in Holland Park.
Our buddy Rob was in town for the long weekend. We made it out to Ocean Beach on Monday afternoon. It was quite a beautiful day to be out in SF.
25 Things I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco
Highly accurate summary by Jason Evanish. Highlights include:
- It gets cold at 4pm
- Neighborhoods define you
- Rent is insane
- Costumes are a way of life
- The Divisadero is the fog line (see photo above)
- SF is a super fit city (arguably too an extreme)
- You’ll turn into an early adopter even if you weren’t one before
Nudging in Taxis
In 2007, NYC forced cab drivers to begin taking credit cards, which involved installing a touch screen system for payment.
During payment, the user is presented with three default buttons for tipping: 20%, 25%, and 30%. When cabs were cash only, the average tip was roughly 10%. After the introduction of this system, the tip percentage jumped to 22%.
Europe’s Most Corrupt Country
Transparency International, a Berlin-based NGO, has named Greece the most corrupt country in the euro zone. No surprise there.
In Greece, little effort has been made to rein in tax evaders, which is considered a major factor in the country’s current economic crisis. It is common practice in the country for stores to offer small discounts for items paid in cash as long as shopkeepers don’t have to issue a fiscal receipt, which gets reported to the tax authorities. Rental leases, work-for-hire agreements, and even big items like construction-work contracts are often registered with the government at a much lower fee than what will actually be paid as a way to skirt taxes. All the while, taxes continue to rise, putting an extra strain on those who do pay in good faith and pushing those who don’t further under the radar.
An amazing photoset by Mark Nixon featuring stuffed animals that were loved to pieces.
via buzzfeed
