Random Thoughts

Getting married is a major commitment. Love is a necessary con­dition to make a successful marriage, but love alone is not suffi­cient. Much more is needed. Before walking down the aisle, you should learn as much as possible about the one you intend to marry. Compatibility, trust, family, upbringing, religion, educa­tion, career, and financial condition all come into consideration. Marriage, after all, involves a long-term commitment. While there are no guarantees and you can never really be 100 percent certain, you should at least try to minimize the probability of making a wrong decision before tying the knot. Furthermore, when you enter into a marriage you are not likely to walk out just because a prettier face happens to come along. You are not likely to call it quits just because you have some dis­agreements. Of course, if it becomes absolutely clear that there are irreconcilable differences, divorce is always an option. But divorce is messy and extremely expensive. It should never be taken lightly. It should be employed only as a last resort. Divorce should not be the first thing on your mind when you are seriously thinking about getting married. In Warren Buffett's mind, buying a business is like getting married. One difference, of course, is that while he can have just one wife at a time, he can own as many businesses as he can afford. Yet in every case, when Buffett buys a business, he knows he is making a major commitment. This is why he tries to buy only good businesses that he plans to keep for the long run. All serious Buffett fans know this is part of his mystique.

- Vahan Janjigian
http://janjigian.blogspot.com

Spot on.

Heard On The Street

No matter what the gem market is doing, people want comfort food and comfort items + a good friend.

Frugal Traveler Update

A Two-Wheeler Tour of Wine Country
http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/a-two-wheeler-tour-of-wine-country/?hpw

Useful link:
http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com

I always enjoy your travel stories. Thanks Matt.

Martin Rapaport Viewpoint

Credit Alert
http://www.diamonds.net/news/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=26503

We must face the fact that credit/memo programs have hurt the U.S. market. In our eagerness to throw diamonds at every potential customer, whether they had money or not, we prostituted our product. We used every trick and gimmick to keep diamond prices artificially high, and in that process, fooled ourselves into thinking we could sell diamonds without getting paid. Where once we sold diamonds for hard cash, we now can’t get paid — even if we give diamonds away on memo programs. The U.S. market has gone from a cash cow to a credit hog.
- Martin Rapaport

Useful link:
www.diamonds.net

Martin, old habits die hard. Easy credit has given way to lower ethical standards. Thanks for the insightful article.

Eno Artwork

Eno Artwork
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8068173.stm

All the things that humans do, including imagining, are the way we deal with emergencies including the global financial crisis. So to imply, 'oh God, there's a crisis, no time for imagining any more' - it's not true. This is the time for imagining and the way we learn to imagine, one of the ways we learn to imagine, is through the experience of art. The human ability to imagine made people "capable of surviving. By allowing ourselves to let go of the world that we have to be part of every day, and to surrender to another kind of world, we're allowing imaginative processes to take place.
- Brian Eno

Useful links:
http://luminous.sydneyoperahouse.com
www.enoshop.co.uk

Immersive experience, really.

Online Games Update

The Game of Life
http://www.wired.com/dualperspectives/article/news/2009/05/games_wired

Games create drama and excitement. We've done that for years with videogames, and now we can apply that thinking to the rest of life.
- Jane McGonigal

Useful links:
www.seriosity.com
www.avantgame.com
http://en.oreilly.com/et2009
www.playbe.com
www.denniscrowley.com

Games can change behavior.

Global Business BBC

Peter Day's Comment
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/business/2009/05/090526_peter_day_comment_may_26.shtml

Useful link:
www.intel.com

Computer chipmaking is a ruthless business. I think Andy Grove was right: Only the paranoid survive. Thanks Peter.

Energy [R]evolution

Energy [R]evolution Report via Greenpeace + European Solar Thermal Electricity Association + International Energy Agency's (IEA) SolarPACES group. http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/usa/press-center/reports4/energy-r-evolution-a-sustain.pdf

Useful links:
www.greenpeace.org
www.estelasolar.eu
www.solarpaces2009.org