Episode 6: Girl from Ipanema
Happy Friday, everyone!
When you thought this year could not get any whackier, a "Godzilla dust storm" from the Sahara Desert traveled across the Atlantic and hit parts of the US today. Add this phenomenon to other biblical-like events in the year 2020—Murder Hornets, Locust Swarms (East Africa), Bat-induced pandemics, and deadly tornadoes that devastated urban areas (Nashville). I guess it's time to give up lattes and start saving for a one-way ticket on Sir Richard's space shuttle to the ISS.
This week's news cycle focused on a variety of topics: the fall-out from the upcoming John Bolton book about his experience working with President Trump; controversy around Trump campaign rallies; an uptick in COVID cases in Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas; destruction of historical monuments deemed to be racist and imperialistic; major league baseball is back with a 60-game season; and Apple's annual developer conference and plans to ditch Intel and start making its processors.
I. Below are the articles I found interesting the past week:
Tearing down America
https://regiehammblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/24/american-dreams/
How to talk about race in the workplace
Who really was Roy Cohn? (I’d also recommend the current documentary on HBO)
https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/bully-coward-victim-roy-cohn-ivy-meeropol-interview/
Covid-19 has led to a pandemic of plastic pollution
The untold damage that COVID is causing to kids
Who is to blame for climate change
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200618-climate-change-who-is-to-blame-and-why-does-it-matter
Amazon to launch $2 billion VC fund to invest in clean energy
Global debt ratio is becoming a concern
If you are serious about your success, then you need to improve your recovery
Virgin Galactic will organize private passenger trips to the space station for NASA
The other plague: Locusts are devastating East Africa
Ford launches new F-series, the top-selling vehicle in the US for the last 38 years
II. Stats that made me go WOW!
- In Chicago, 106 people were shot over Father’s Day weekend, the most in one weekend since 2012. The city has seen 1,508 people shot this year, 350 more than the same period last year.
- Amazon expects its facilities to be 100%-powered using renewable energy by 2025, helped in part by the development of large-scale wind and solar projects. The new target is five years ahead of schedule from the company’s original timeline. Also, Mr. Bezos has pledged $10 billion of his fortune to start the Bezos Earth Fund to fight climate change.
- Apple’s App Store generated $50 billion in sales in 2019, with Apple netting 30% of that figure or $15 billion in revenue. The App Store alone would be number 64 on the Fortune 500 list.
- The year 2020 will mark the first-ever decline in ad revenue for Google. Except for the 2008 financial crisis, revenue has grown by double digits every single year. Google’s still expecting almost $40 billion in ad revenue in 2020, which is approximately 32% market share of the online ad market.
- Ford latched its new F-series truck this week. The F-series made $42 billion in revenue last year, not far behind the iPhone’s $55 billion. On its own, the F-series would be a Fortune 100 company larger than McDonald’s, Nike, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks. The F-series has been the top-selling vehicle in the US for the last 38 years.
- The guitar that Kurt Cobain played during the recording of Nivrana’s “MTV Unplugged in NY” (5 months before his death) sold for a record $6 million. Last October, the cardigan Cobain wore during the concert sold for $334,000 at auction.
- According to a forecast from Grand View Research, the global disposable-mask market will grow from an estimated $800m in 2019 to $166bn in 2020
III. Name that Tune!
As I write this email, I am listening to a Brazilian bossa nova/jazz song called “The Girl from Ipanema.”
The song was written and recorded in 1962 by Pery Ribeiro. However, the Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto recording featured English vocals by Astrud Gilberto. This version of the song received international acclaim. Astrud was the wife of famous musician Joao Gilberto and “The Girl from Ipanema” represented her first attempt to sing commercially. Allegedly, Astrud was the only person of the Brazilian musicians who could speak English well. Ipanema is a fashionable, sea-side neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. A 17-year-old girl living in the Ipanema district, Heloisa Pinheiro, inspired the song. She would stroll past the Veloso bar-cafe each day to the chorus of catcalls. The song would bring stardom to Pinheiro, and she went on to become a Brazilian Playboy Playmate in 1987 and again in 2003. She opened a boutique in Ipanema in her later years, using the song title as the name of her boutique. The Copywrite holders of the song sued Pinheiro, but the court ruled in her favor. I had the good fortune to visit Rio a few years ago and traveled to Ipanema in search of “The Girl from Ipanema” but never found her. Such is life.
Happy reading and have a great weekend!