Brain Contour

The World Economic Forum’s “Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report” 2011 has been released with Switzerland topping the latest global survey among 139 countries. The top 10 countries overall that are considered the most competitive in travel and tourism are Switzerland, Germany, France, Austria, Sweden, United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Canada and Singapore.

What is the rank of my dear Philippines? It placed 18th out of 26 countries in Asia Pacific. Overall, it slipped to 94th place from 86th in the 2009 rankings. Read how the Philippines fared:

How many times have you gotten a mail from Capital One this month? More than once, for sure. Capital One wants to waste paper, which is why the credit card issuer can afford to send offers in paper to your mailbox many times a month.

Capital One offers Visa and MasterCard, with platinum and gold cards. With more than 44 million cardholders in the US, Canada, and the UK, why send mail spams? If they have these many customers, why not let the word of mouth do the promoting or recruiting? Satisfied customers will always be happy to share their experiences.

I just passed by the new building of the Dacotah Bank in Brookings, SD. A big electronic board was placed in front that says “Dacotah Bank is now open.”

I thought the construction of the building will never be finished. In all those times that I drove along 6th St., it seemed the bank construction has been taking its time. I waited for it to finish because I am planning to open a new account with them. If you want to know its banking hours, I posted the schedule below:

These big companies are greedy, with special mention going to both H&M and WalMart. Have you heard about the two throwing unsold clothing / clothes to waste? Can you imagine how many people, suffering in this cold winter months, could have benefited with the clothes had H&M and WalMart donated the unsold merchandise to Goodwill or other charities?

New York Times reports the discovery of bags full of unused clothes in bins, slashed with razors to ensure that no one would ever wear or sell it. H&M follows a destroy-and-discard policy. OMG! These predatory companies do not have a sense of civic virtue or civil responsibilities.

Bay Landing Hotel at the Bayshore Area in San Francisco exudes comfort more than what meets the eye. In my last trip to San Francisco, around mid-December, I was expecting the hotel prices to sky rocket due to the holiday season craze. San Francisco is one of the U.S. busiest cities — tourists and locals flock the metropolis for its shopping centers and favorably warm weather. The busier the city is, the pricier the hotels become.

But not with Bay Landing Hotel. The price of the room per night was only $69, without the necessary tax. While most of the hotels I searched online were priced at more than $100 a night, Bay Landing Hotel was listed as one of the cheapest hotels near the airport and close to the downtown area.

I always make it a point to donate my old (and sometimes new) clothes to the Goodwill store. Goodwill is a thrift shop with a collection of all things used and cheap. Goodwill Store in Brookings, SD is located beside the Dollar store.

I have this vanity for clothes. Whenever I go shopping, which happens very often, I never fail to buy a shirt or two. And that must be paired with new jeans or pants. Just a couple of weeks ago, I spent too much on winter clothes that sometimes I think it is excessive. But I never regret buying things for myself. If, for some reasons, I decide not to wear them anymore, I always share them to the needy. The two bags I donated today at the Goodwill store included T-shirts, sweat shirts, long and short pants, and even new coats that I bought 2 months ago but were unused.

UPS is better in tracking information of your package than USPS. USPS does not update their tracking site often, which will leave you wondering where your package is — if it is still on its way or already lost somewhere. UPS, on the other hand, is efficient enough to scan the package in each and every arrival and departure.

I won’t say that UPS is faster than USPS in terms of delivery time. Both are actually slow. When I ordered my Swiss watch from buy.com and the seller opted for a UPS delivery, I know it will take a week for my order to arrive. And I was right. Exactly 7 days of shipping time.

ESRI released a beta version of its “Make a Map” application that website folks/bloggers can play around and embed on their sites/blogs.

The ESRI prototype application intended to highlight the ArcGIS API for Flex, the great demographic data available from ArcGIS Online, as well as the “Map Sandwich” web map layering technique proposed by the ESRI Mapping Center Team.