What Eugene's Reading

A compilation of everything I've read (that's worth sharing).

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Cody Foster & Co. acknowledges that a small number of products in our catalog of more than 1800 items bear strong similarities to ones being sold by others. When this issue first came to our attention in mid-October, we immediately pulled those products from our catalog and offered refunds to any of our customers that asked for them. We deeply regret any harm we may have inadvertently caused to our customers and the artist community at large. We are instituting new processes and procedures to reduce the likelihood that this happens again. Our explanation for how this happened is simple, though not excusable. Unfortunately it occurs regularly in this industry. Documenting “artistic inspiration” for reproduced craft products – particularly for those based on folk designs – is a difficult process and presents a huge challenge for suppliers, artists and retailers alike. Our own designs have been directly lifted by other suppliers on many occasions and we have generally found straightforward ways to settle amicably between parties. In this case, a single artist made public allegations before she contacted us directly and took direct actions to whip up emotion and support based on misinformation. She has encouraged her supporters to disrupt our day-to-day business operations and caused documentable financial harm to our company. What has not been widely reported is that this same artist has now, herself, been criticized by independent art critics about the origins of her designs. Cody Foster & Co. is a small, privately owned business with 18 employees located in central Nebraska. We greatly value original design and artistic creation and we are committed to properly compensating individuals who clearly create unique designs that delight and inspire. Even before this incident, we have been exploring new ways to engage with artists through commissioning designs and providing royalty agreements based on sales. We know that more needs to be done to protect artists and we look forward to doing our part to ensure a fair environment for everyone involved.

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The effects of China’s one-child policy are manifold. Studies show people raised under the program are less trusting, men are unable to find mates, and then there's the "4-2-1" phenomenon, where working young people must assume financial responsibility for themselves, their parents, and four grandparents. The policy has likely had the strongest impact on a nation’s demographics of any social initiative, save genocide, in history.

More than 30 years later, the one-child policy also raises an important question for brands looking to make inroads into the country: Is there something the young adult Chinese demographic is missing on account of growing up alone? And if there is such a thing, how can we provide it?

Liz Muller, the director of concept design for Starbucks, makes it her job to answer these sorts of questions. She’s the mind behind some of Starbucks’s most creative flagship stores. As the brand expands internationally, each of her far-flung creations aims to introduce customers in Europe and Asia to the Starbucks take on the subjects of coffee and service in a way that makes sense in their culture.

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Here's a follow-up to the recent DOMS article regarding the use of caffeine pre-workout. 

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Last December, during his final match in World Wrestling Entertainment, Kevin Nash, one of the most successful and recognizable professional wrestlers of his generation, fell off a ladder and through a table. He thought the table would cushion the blow. Instead, it caused his second concussion of the night. Minutes later, Paul "Triple H" Levesque pinned Nash. It was a worthy swan song. Backstage, Nash ran into Vince McMahon. "I think we saved your best for last," the WWE chairman and CEO told him.

Once he returned home to Daytona Beach, Nash, 53, buzzed his long black mane, allowing it to grow in gray. He first wore the gray hair and beard a few years back in TNA Impact Wrestling to resemble one of his favorite movie tough guys, Wade Garrett, Sam Elliott's character in Road House. Now it keeps him grounded. "When my hair is dyed, I feel like I'm 35 again," he says. "Our business feeds that Peter Pan mentality."

During his wrestling career, the sarcastically charismatic Nash was the smartest guy in the room. The center of attention. Big Sexy. Big Daddy Cool. Here, sitting in a restaurant in Daytona, cupping a glass of unsweetened iced tea, the veneer's gone; he's introspective. His face is smooth, unwrinkled. (He denies having undergone plastic surgery.) His Native American features are more pronounced in person than on television. He is, of course, still massive — 6-foot-10, 295 pounds, thick chest, round biceps, and forearms the size of a normal man's quadriceps. And he is now in the midst of a career change. Kevin Nash, like so many wrestlers before him, is trying to make it as an actor. The results, so far, have been encouraging.

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For every Peyton, Brady, or Brees, there are a hundred NFL hopefuls who don't dream of stardom. They just want a job. They show up at training camp, work their asses off, and pray not to get cut. For these anonymous guys on the NFL bubble, every hard knock, every missed tackle, is compounded by the psychic burden of living each practice in limbo. This is the story of three bubble players—a quarterback, a receiver, and a kicker—and their now-or-never gridiron dreams

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