economist on PE

The Economist has a very well written article on private equity this week.

starbucks

A friend and I were chatting about Starbucks while having some coffee. Here's something I tossed together. I used Yahoo for some of the financial info. This is based on Q1 TTM. The latte part is mine and generalizes to use the same NI margin.



$624K per store annually. Is that higher or lower than you would have guessed?

SBUX earns $.29 on a $4 latte. I would have guessed a much higher number.

Here's another way to look at it:

NY Times Op-Ed on Iraq, Fillmore Jazz Festival, chair, Rodin Sculpture Garden, Turkish Morning

On Sunday, the Times published an op-ed on "The Road Home" (registration required) from Iraq.

Blurb: "It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit."

It is an enjoyable read and skims over the different issues that must be considered in an organized exit strategy.

Bush's approval rating is somewhere in the high 20s. Maybe it might be time for an exit strategy, not because of the lack of popularity of the president, but because it just makes sense.

We are caught in sectarian conflict. To understand more about the sectarian conflict see this Salon.com interview. It's an interview with Evan Kohlmann, an archivist who covers the insurgency.

Here are some snippets.

Every day you look at Iraq through the lens of insurgent videos and Internet postings. What do you see?

A picture of fundamentalism. Shiite fundamentalism clashing with Sunni fundamentalism clashing with American fundamentalism. We have tried imposing things upon Iraq that are totally foreign to it. Now each side is unwilling to acknowledge the right of the other to have a voice in what's going on. It's a disaster.

What drives people to join the insurgency?

I've called up families of fighters and when I ask that question, the response is always the same: Wouldn't you? They are extremely upset about what's going on in Iraq. Some of them have a burning hatred for the U.S. They see the U.S. as imposing its will on their countries. Some of them have a burning desire to be a missionary and martyr for Islam. You have people who have broken out of prison and gone to fight in Iraq. It's now a vacuum sucking in every disaffected voice in the region.

What happened to the U.S. message of democracy?

It totally failed. The idea of Western-style democracy in Iraq doesn't appeal to anyone. It was our own myth. We thought that if we get rid of Saddam Hussein, people would come together and celebrate and democracy would reign throughout the Middle East. The people who thought that up are people who think Iraq is like Texas. Iraq is not Texas. To Iraqis, tribal affiliations, religion and family mean a lot more than saying, "I'm from Iraq." You know we're doing a bad job of communicating our own message when we're losing the propaganda war to people who cut other people's heads off on camera. Think about it: People in one of the most Westernized countries in the Middle East would rather trust al-Qaida than the United States. That's a terrible sign of things to come.

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here's a clip from the fillmore jazz festival:



Weatherwise, it was a perfect (slightly windy) day in SF to just sit on the street and chill out with some jazz.
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check out this chair @ the DeYoung museum in SF.



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Rodin's sculpture garden at Stanford rocks.



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a morning view from my hostel in istanbul:

mckinsey on SaaS

I caught this earlier today.

McKinsey Quarterly on the rise of Software as a Service. (Registration required)

enjoy.

ps. ratatouille is awesome. pixar does it again. go see it. :)

feist, french, SF moma, The Imaginary Invalid, NYC moma, new yorker cartoon contest, iphone

Feist

Last Tuesday I caught Feist at the Fillmore in San Francisco. The legendary Fillmore is a great venue. I highly recommend catching a show there. The Doors have performed there. Parking is difficult to find around the venue, but it's worth the pain.

Feist gave an amazing performance. With such a sultry/complex/echo-y voice, it was great seeing her live. Her music gives me a warm feeling when I listen to it. Maybe you can identify with it as well? Some of her music is danceable, while some of it is the kind that you must sit down and listen to. Feist's newest album "The Reminder" has received good reviews across the board, and it's one of my favorite for 2007. She even played some new stuff that she's been working on. One of the best parts of seeing artists live is that they play new creations that they've been working on.

Here's a mix of old and new songs from her:


french

I am determined to become conversational in French by the end of the summer (before I take off for Australia). Last week I started Pimsleur's French lessons. Teaching yourself a language is not easy, but Pimsleur definitely makes it easier. Originally I was using the Rosetta Stone program, but I found that it's method of graphically associating the language with text would work well for young children. Instead I turned to Pimsleur which seemed to have rave reviews.
It has certainly lived up to its hype. It is audio only though. Which means that I am quite incapable of writing it, as French is not the easiest phonetic based alphabet to use for a novice.

Je'compain aparle'francais?

It's just so easy to toss on the audio lessons while driving to work.

SF MOMA
I spent some time at the MOMA in San Francisco yesterday. The museum has a good collection.

One of the main features right now covers the sculptures of Matisse. Personally, I enjoy Matisse's paintings more than his sculptures. The museum did have one Rodin along with the Matisse sculptures. Rodin stands as my favorite sculptor.

The exhibition that I enjoyed the most was that of the Hungarian photographer Martin Munkacsi. It celebrates the "dynamism of modern life." If you are in San Francisco and a fan of photography, please do check it out. His shots include pictures from his travels all over the world. There are a series of shots taken on German beaches that are fun to browse through.

Imaginary Invalid

I caught Moliere's Imaginary Invalid yesterday at the American Conservatory Theater last night. The theater has student rush tickets for half-off. We got $50 seats for $25!

The play was very funny, but it had a much greater emphasis on slapstick than Tartuffe. I still enjoyed it.

NYC MOMA

has a cool exhibition going on by Dan Perjovschi, the Romanian artist. The exhibition, called "What happened to us?" features drawings on a wall. Perjovschi uses simple drawings to communicate complex ideas.

You can see some here. It's fascinating!

new yorker cartoon contest

every week the new yorker has a cartoon contest. It gives readers a chance to submit a caption of 25 words or less for a cartoon. They are are generally hilarious with a somewhat dry sense of humor. Here is a recent winner.


Winning Caption:
“Don't tell Noah about the vasectomy.”
David Kempler
Island Park, N.Y.

Too funny.

iphone on conan