Weekend Digest: The Shawshank Edition

For our weekend business and political readers:

A SURPRISING NEW LESSON FROM THE BEATLES
What more could the Fab Four have possibly been able to impart, besides the genius of their music careers?

Forbes has come up with another category that the lads from Liverpool left behind. Leadership.

The Beatles. They are one of the most revered bands to ever play music, and they forever changed the landscape of rock and roll. Not too shabby for four guys from Liverpool. So what can we learn from them about business?

Click on this link to find out.

COULD THE FUTURE MEAN FEW, IF ANY, JOBS?
Is that possible? Why? Could that be a good thing?

One venture capitalist predicts what that could mean and its possible outcome.

Hoping for a future of 80% unemployment because so many jobs have been handed to robots, a self-described “raging techno-optimist” says we need to think about what that means for all obsolete humans.

Steve Jurvetson, a partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm DFJ, calls himself a “raging techno-optimist.” But at last weekend’s XPrize Visioneering event, a gathering of over 100 like-minded folk tasked with thinking up ideas for the next big XPrize challenge, Jurvetson offered a warning: The world needs to think about what a future of abundance will do to the gap between rich and poor.

What would the future look like if the majority of humanity didn’t need to work because their potential jobs had all been automated? How could that transition happen without leaving humans fearing for their lives?

Are you intrigued? Go to this link from Fast Company for the full story.

SEA CREATURE’S INVESTMENT ADVICE
You are probably thinking here, it has to be a majestic creature like a dolphin or a whale. No, try a sea slug.

One investing expert came to this conclusion while doing research for her book, “The Nature of Investing.” Her name is Katherine Collins, and she asks the question, “What if instead of being a place to escape, nature could become my personal and professional mentor?”

I found surprising answers to this question through the practice of biomimicry – that is, mimicking the flows of nature in everyday life. Admittedly, this might sound sort of hippy dippy for most anyone working in Corporate America, but the very fact that this process begins with a question is quiet revolutionary: It does not start with an algorithm, or an RFP, or a deadline. It starts with open inquiry, with curiosity.

So what do a sea slug and successful investing have in common?

Travel to this link from Fortune to learn more.

IS SILICON VALLEY OBSOLETE?
Once the leading tech hub by far, now Silicon Valley no longer stands alone.

Still, a strong case could be made that the universe of tech startups does not revolve around Silicon Valley. In fact, one editor maintains that cheap, reliable cloud-based technology has enabled tech startups to start up in a lot of places outside the cradle of the U.S. tech industry.

“When we think of high-tech innovation and startup culture, traditionally a handful of cities always come to mind. But today, there’s a different story emerging,” Blacharski, editor in chief of Techie.com, said in a news release.  “High-tech development and innovation is being democratized, and midmarket cities throughout the U.S. are rolling out new tech parks, incubators and programs designed to encourage tech development.”

So what are “America’s Top 5 Under-the-Radar Tech Hubs?”

The SpareFoot Blog can tell you, and guess who comes in at #3?  All at this link.

LOOKING FOR MEMORIAL DAY SALES
It’s one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year with retailers posting big sales to lure customers in. But which items do retailers let go for the most bang for your buck?

Memorial Day sales typically offer great savings opportunities on a variety of items. Some of the best deals are on spring clothing, appliances and mattresses, says Offers.com Vice President Howard Schaffer. Retailers trying to unload warm-weather apparel that didn’t sell because of the prolonged cold weather will offer discounts of up to 80 percent, with coupons bringing down prices even more.

But here’s one you might pass on:

You’ll see lots of sales on outdoor items, such as grills and patio furniture. However, Schaffer and the deal experts at dealnews.com recommend waiting a few months until these items are marked down much more at the end of summer.

For “The 6 Best Things to Buy at Memorial Day Sales” ring up this link from AOL Daily Finance.

A LOOK AT THE VETERANS AFFAIRS SCANDAL
POLITICO breaks it down and calls it the “anatomy” of the scandal and, in the post, praises CNN’s “hard-core reporting” of the epidemic of horrors being uncovered at veterans hospitals across the country.

CNN’s path-breaking coverage of veterans’ issues — dying while they waited for care, allegations of secret waiting lists for tests and treatment, and charges of a coverup — gives the cable network a point of pride after brutal criticism for its plane coverage. Its report shoved the issue onto the national news agenda on Wednesday when President Barack Obama, seen by many as late to the problem, called a White House press conference to address the issue. Obama mocked CNN three weeks ago at a Washington dinner; weeks later, he was dealing with their hard-core reporting.

POLITICO says, “…the tsunami of problems with the veterans’ health care that smashed into the White House had been building for years, growing larger and more menacing as it headed toward the Oval Office.”

Go inside this eye-opening post by clicking on this link.

DID IKE CELEBRATE THE D-DAY ANNIVERSARY?
The New York Times reports “President Obama is scheduled to speak next month on the battleground of Normandy, France, at the 70th anniversary celebration of D-Day — just as Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush spoke there in earlier such commemorations.”

Other presidents have spoken there as well, but what happened on the 10th anniversary?

The president of the United States in 1954 was Dwight David Eisenhower, who just happened to be the supreme commander who sent those 160,000 Allied soldiers to those beaches (“O.K., we’ll go”) in one of the 20th century’s most fateful decisions.

Had President Eisenhower been surrounded by some latter-day political image-makers, they might have implored him to make the most of the occasion. (“Mr. President, let’s remind Americans of what you achieved in 1944! Sir, your party is having some problems with the midterms this fall — it would help if we could boost your approval numbers!”)

So what did Ike do?

For a great read, and a look at history click on this link.

THE LONGEST SENATE RACE
The Washington Post says it’s happening right here in Arkansas between Senator Mark Pryor and Congressman Tom Cotton.

While Cotton’s fellow Republican candidates are only now transitioning to the general election or gearing up to survive another round of primaries, Cotton and Pryor have been campaigning for November since last August. That means the general election has been going on for nearly nine months and still has five more to go. That’s a long time.

Does that help Pryor or Cotton?

Find out at this link.

A GREAT SECOND ACT
It’s a film that “has taken a near-mystical hold on viewers that shows no sign of abating,” reports The Wall Street Journal. Released in 1994, the second act of “The Shawshank Redemption” has become huge.

Steven Spielberg once told the film’s writer-director Frank Darabont that he had made “a chewing-gum movie — if you step on it, it sticks to your shoe,” says Mr. Darabont, who went on to create “The Walking Dead” for AMC.

So what kind of dollars are we talking about here, and how big are those residuals that keep pouring in for the film’s actors?  For your movie fix and a great read on what’s transpired in the years since its initial release, view this link.

THEY’RE HERE
Aliens, that is according to an eerie post from Huffington Post. Now they may not be sitting next to you at Starbucks, or….are they?

Aliens almost definitely exist.

At least, that’s what two astronomers told Congress this week, as they appealed for continued funding to research life beyond Earth.

“In the last 50 years, evidence has steadily mounted that the components and conditions we believe necessary for life are common and perhaps ubiquitous in our galaxy,” said Werthimer in his written testimony, adding: “The possibility that life has arisen elsewhere, and perhaps evolved intelligence, is plausible and warrants scientific inquiry.”

If you would like to make your own inquiry into this story, “warp” to this link.