tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59669532011-12-20T17:22:19.199-08:00Technology & BusinessTimnoreply@blogger.comBlogger991100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-42643854509672108082007-12-25T18:41:00.000-08:002007-12-25T18:55:20.281-08:00

Every December, NY Times columnist David Brooks names his favorite essays of the year, the Sidney Awards. He recommends this article from NY Times Magazine called "There and Back Again" about the social costs of commuting and extreme commuters. Here;s a sample:Commuting makes people unhappy, or so many studies have shown. Recently, the Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and the economist Alan

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-26821993392507582302007-11-24T15:52:00.000-08:002008-03-23T05:56:06.661-07:00

Why We Trade:"The United States has run a merchandise trade deficit every year since 1976. It has also added more than 50 million jobs during that time. Per capita income, corrected for inflation, is up more than 50 percent since 1976. The scaremongers who worry about trade deficits talk about stagnant wages, but they ignore fringe benefits (an increasingly important part of worker compensation)

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-75732674309101580042007-05-19T08:44:00.000-07:002008-11-27T06:47:58.044-08:00

A great business team is like a great band. Surrounding yourself with talent and subordinating your own interests to those of the team is what it's all about.AC/DC was a great band in the late 70s, and then their lead singer, Bon Scott, tragically died. But they kept going because the rest of the team was so strong. Their highest selling album, Back in Black, was released as tribute to Bon

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-13001830847555708672007-04-06T17:20:00.000-07:002008-11-27T06:49:45.110-08:00

Jonah Goldberg on Rosie O'Donnell on National Review Online:Renowned metallurgist Rosie O’Donnell proclaimed on TV last Thursday that Sept. 11, 2001, was a more significant date than most of us realized. It was, in her words, “the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel.”This, of course, came as news to steelworkers, blacksmiths, firefighters, manufacturers of samurai swords, and

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-32494663730109599362006-12-27T06:28:00.000-08:002008-11-27T08:54:54.287-08:00

Finally reading through the copy of Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" on my shelf and I am struck that Kuhn never answers the darn question --> What is the Nature of a Scientific Revolution?He writes in very long and very thick paragraphs with endless sentences. But he does manage to introduce the world to the concept of "paradigm" (to the delight of business consultants

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1148934245354711402006-05-29T13:24:00.000-07:002007-05-19T08:13:14.763-07:00

The American Spectator "Can CSR help a company's bottom line? Economist Wayne Weingarten analyzed the CSR index compiled by Business Ethics magazine, which looked at 28 prominent companies known to be CSR supporters. He found that CSR was 'negatively or not correlated with compound annual net income growth, net profit margin, and stock price appreciation.' I also looked at how Business Ethics

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1148410006072042982006-05-23T11:46:00.000-07:002006-05-23T11:48:48.056-07:00

Glenn Reynolds has a great management article in TCS Daily about companies blocking internet use at work "Well-run companies look at outputs -- how well people are doing their jobs -- rather than simply trying to make sure that employees look busy. And given that U.S. economic performance over the past few years, as Internet usage has boomed, has been excellent, it's hard to believe that this

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1147780485103912422006-05-16T04:54:00.000-07:002006-05-21T09:19:32.636-07:00

What bothers me the most here, is that I'm not sure any of the 60% cared that they were doing something unethical.A recent Ministry of Science study of 180 PhD candidates in China found that 60 percent admitted plagiarizing, and the same percentage admitted paying bribes to get their work published Publish or Perish?

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1145145167521096422006-04-15T16:52:00.000-07:002006-05-16T05:01:03.020-07:00

BrothersJudd.com - Review of Eric Hoffer's The True Believer : Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements:"Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden...We join a mass movement to escape from individual responsibility, or, in the words of an ardent young Nazi, 'to be free from freedom.' It was not sheer hypocrisy when the rank-and-file Nazis declared

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1138547591086417682006-01-29T07:13:00.000-08:002006-05-21T08:58:13.160-07:00

I'm going to use this during my next meeting.The principal, Andrew Buck, said it is always the same children who wave their arms in the air, while the rest of the class sits back. When teachers try to involve less-adventurous pupils by choosing them instead, that leads to feelings of victimization.Pathetic

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1136143230425355212006-01-01T11:20:00.000-08:002008-11-27T09:03:10.266-08:00

These three headlines should depress anyone who appreciates the vast contributions Germany has made to Western CivilizationEmpty Maternity Wards Imperil a Dwindling GermanyGermany's falling birthrate is entering its second generation, with dwindling number of potential mothers failing to have enough children to reproduce population; reunification with eastern Germany, where birthrate is even

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1134263125568293572005-12-10T17:05:00.000-08:002008-11-27T08:59:57.635-08:00

. Nicola Tesla got his inspriation for the AC induction motor from a Goethe poem and drew the first schematic in the sands of a Budapest Park.This article about Bill Walsh is another gemDigital Rules (By Rich Karlgaard)Bill Walsh, Maverick Football CoachForbes hired me in 1992 to start a technology magazine called Forbes ASAP. How great was this! The job even came with a decent budget to hire

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1124284127595433692005-08-17T05:59:00.000-07:002005-08-17T06:08:47.596-07:00

First a woman gets trampled over a DVD Player and now this:RICHMOND, Va. - People trampled, beaten with a folding chair. A woman urinating on herself. The police called, then themselves calling for backup. All to get a bargain. The stampede erupted Tuesday when a crowd estimated at 5,500 showed up at the Richmond International Raceway to purchase 1,000 used Apple iBook laptop computers. The

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1124190950964097392005-08-16T04:15:00.000-07:002008-11-28T05:38:46.293-08:00

Why did they think of this?Researchers in Singapore have developed a paper battery that is powered by urine. Despite sounding gloriously silly, the breakthrough promises a cheap and disposable power source for home health tests for things like diabetes.The battery is composed of paper, soaked in copper chloride, sandwiched between layers of magnesium and copper. The whole thing, once laminated in

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1124190458552129092005-08-16T04:07:00.000-07:002005-08-17T05:56:15.143-07:00

This begs the questionA Vanderbilt University research squad has illustrated what the Victorians and Mary Whitehouse knew all along: that smut sends you blind, albeit temporarily. The same apparently applies to blood and guts images, although of course eyeballing snaps of carnage does not carry the same penalty of eternal damnation as ogling smut.Vanderbilt Uni psychologist David Zald and his

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1123892656667894772005-08-12T17:24:00.000-07:002007-05-19T08:27:47.251-07:00

The Corner on National Review Online "ONLY IN BRUSSELS [Iain Murray]Economically-literate readers might like to turn their hand to parsing these two paragraphs:The European economy appears to be regaining some momentum and the indications are that things will continue to improve in the second half of the year, the European Commission announced yesterday (11 August)Presenting its growth figures

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1121606177340069842005-07-17T06:16:00.000-07:002005-07-17T06:16:17.386-07:00

Are you kidding me?According to an eye-popping article in the June 9 Nature, about one-third of more than 3,200 polled U.S. researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health self-reported serious scientific misbehavior during the three years prior to being surveyed. High responses for serious infractions came in categories such as "Failing to present data that contradict one's own previous

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1115857899786395672005-05-11T17:08:00.000-07:002008-11-28T05:43:49.028-08:00

An especially clear and informative Special Report on Oil in last weeks Economist (subscription only) Official American estimates suggest that over the past 30 year OPEC's machinations transferred over $7 trillion in excess profit from consumers to producers. And the cartel's coffers are still overflowing: OPEC's oil-export revenues have shot up from about $100 billion in 1998 to perhaps $340

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1086400205253311512005-05-09T18:44:00.000-07:002005-05-13T17:34:40.386-07:00

Just to be Fair and Balanced - I wrote here about the Myth of the Manufacturing Job. This was not an anti-manufacturing, anti-union screed per se, but I was trying to show the code-words used by politicians as well give some context to the discussion.Now to pick on the other end of the corporate ladder: there are just plain too many Executives Positions in American business. We still have too

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1113696005889467882005-04-16T16:57:00.000-07:002005-08-17T05:56:45.766-07:00

More from the The Economist ... talking about hanging on to the last fig on a dying tree.Members of the European Parliament rejected reforms to clamp down on abuses of expenses and allowances. So MEPs will go on claiming reimbursement for bills they have not incurred, hardly a way of making their unloved institution more loved.Gotta love those folks.

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1113695528236367582005-04-16T16:38:00.000-07:002005-04-16T16:52:46.296-07:00

In the Great Debate concerning centralization vs decentralization, folks need to realize there is no one answer. I've long felt that current market needs should dictate how a business is organized. Certainly, McKinsey makes a lot of money telling people to centralize their purchasing to save money via consolidated, larger volume purchasing. (Why anyone with a 2nd grade education needs to pay

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1108381831766026342005-03-14T03:50:00.000-08:002005-03-26T14:36:45.996-08:00

Verdant Power makes High Humidity Wind TurbinesMy wind power brethren say their turbines generate more power when it's humid," said Trey Taylor, president of Washington-based Verdant Power, which makes underwater turbines. "I like to say, 'You can't get any more humid than water."' and you can't get anymore dorky than this "helical turbine"Here are specs .... * Units designed to convert kinetic

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1108728363653134622005-02-18T04:06:00.000-08:002005-03-26T07:28:27.200-08:00

From Brother's Judd read the linked article in the San Frnscisco Chronicle about employees being fired because they smoked at home:HOW DOES freedom slip away? It doesn't happen one day, all of a sudden, without warning. It erodes in stages. One day you read that an employer has fired four employees because they refused to follow the company's no smoking policy -- including not smoking in their

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1108441336631249392005-02-14T20:22:00.000-08:002005-03-26T13:11:03.986-08:00

Oops (courtesy Brother's Judd)THE Kyoto Protocol takes effect this week but Japan, where the landmark environment treaty was sealed, is not fully prepared, its industry scared that a push to cut pollution will set back economic recovery.The treaty aimed at curbing global warming - signed in 1997 in Japan's former capital, Kyoto - obliges the world's second-largest economy to cut 1990 levels of

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1105975544855134682005-01-17T07:25:00.000-08:002005-01-17T07:30:39.970-08:00

From Bro Judd, you have to love the unintentional self-parody in this Globe article regarding Larry Summers recent speech:The president of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers, sparked an uproar at an academic conference Friday when he said that innate differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women succeed in science and math careers. Summers also questioned how much of a

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1105758488142801232005-01-14T19:08:00.000-08:002005-01-31T19:06:40.446-08:00

Great article on the real origins of the Social Security Mess Economist Paul Craig Roberts described these problems in detail in an article written in 1983. Here is -- literally -- the money quote: "President Ford, at the apparent urging of his political advisors and with the apparent blessing of his chairman of economic advisors, Alan Greenspan, wished to appear more generous. Ford opted for the

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1104712147351803702005-01-02T16:29:00.000-08:002005-03-26T11:17:00.966-08:00

Found a great Website "Canstats" that has load of statistics and follow ups to bad science & bad reporting. Their list of "great media scares in 2004" is classic. I love the salmon scare most:Farmed SalmonFrom PCBs to sea lice, the media really beat-up on farmed salmon in 2004. It started in January when the journal Science released a report about the differences between PCB concentrations in

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1104422150277660232004-12-30T06:41:00.000-08:002004-12-30T12:21:22.840-08:00

That NY Times, Gina Kolata article is really two articles woven together. The first (see my other post) is that Hospitals have just discovered the 20th Century regarding measuring performance. But the second idea, that socialized medicine creates this operational retardation, just proves the laws of unintended consequences and begs us to consider Einstein's great thought about the circle of

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1104415588297368982004-12-30T06:05:00.000-08:002004-12-30T12:36:35.003-08:00

Virginia Postrel notes this article in the New York Times on a radical concept ... measuring your performance. Really, millions of people, hundreds of """"""experts"""""" will read this and consider it some sort of big deal. And it is a response to a sobering reality: lifesaving treatments often are forgotten while doctors and hospitals lavish patients with an abundance of care, which can involve

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1104194637337894342004-12-27T16:43:00.000-08:002004-12-27T16:48:29.180-08:00

Why There's No Escaping the Blog - FORTUNE (Hat Tip: Instapudit) Just as Rathergate was breaking, corporate America got its clearest sign of blogger muscle—in this case, brought on not by memos but by a Bic pen. On Sept. 12 someone with the moniker "unaesthetic" posted in a group discussion site for bicycle enthusiasts a strange thing he or she had noticed: that the ubiquitous, U-shaped

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1104158421742715252004-12-27T06:40:00.000-08:002004-12-27T06:44:16.613-08:00

Worming Into Apple is a story about a programmer who not only kept working on a project after it was canceled, but even after he was laid off. Avitzur sneaked into Apple's California HQ for six months to write a software program that, through luck and hard work, is still included on every Mac sold today. Unemployed and living on savings, Avitzur worked 12-hour days, seven days a week, to create

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1104157645614832972004-12-27T06:27:00.000-08:002005-03-26T19:30:49.610-08:00

Great quotes from Dell CEO Kevin Rollins Here's Classic DellRollins also said Apple Computer's iPod could suffer the same fate as the Macintosh computer line if Apple continues to keep iPod technology proprietary. (Macs have a devoted following, but they garner only a small percentage of yearly global PC shipments.)"I think they're doing a fantastic job" with the iPod, he said. But "Apple runs

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1104098365923511482004-12-26T13:59:00.000-08:002007-05-19T08:28:48.917-07:00

Foreign Affairs - The Global Baby Bust - Phillip Longman: Foreign Affairs - The Global Baby Bust - Phillip Longman: "Japan's population, meanwhile, is expected to peak as early as 2005, and then to fall by as much as one-third over the next 50 years -- a decline equivalent, the demographer Hideo Ibe has noted, to that experienced in medieval Europe during the plague.""In nations rich and poor,

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1104029507371624422004-12-25T18:51:00.000-08:002004-12-25T18:51:47.370-08:00

More from that wickedly interesting Asian Demography Essay by Nicholas Eberstadt - Policy Review, No. 123It does not seem wild, however, to propose that the emergence and rise of the phenomenon of the “unmarriageable male” may occasion an increase of social tensions in China — and perhaps social turbulence as well. Exactly how China’s future cohorts of young men are to be socialized with no

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1104028104237867892004-12-25T18:28:00.000-08:002004-12-25T18:36:44.080-08:00

Power and Population in Asia by Nicholas Eberstadt - Policy Review, No. 123 The most radical and dramatic shift in the relative population weight between major countries in the region, however, involves Pakistan and Russia. In 1975, Russia’s population was nearly twice as large as Pakistan’s (134 million vs. 70 million). By 2025, under medium variant projections, the situation will be virtually

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1103919644227635522004-12-24T12:20:00.000-08:002004-12-24T12:20:44.226-08:00

John Tamny on the Savings Rate on NRO FinancialTo begin with, 401(k) accounts have become highly popular investment vehicles for Americans over the last 20 years. Since 401(k) deposits come out of pre-tax income, the significant savings built up within those accounts would not factor into government calculations of money saved over outlays. As for home ownership, mortgage payments are not

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1103675625848120322004-12-21T16:33:00.000-08:002004-12-21T16:33:45.846-08:00

Great Observation by Chris Horner in the TCS COP coverage What's more, under the Marrakech amendments of 2001, Kyoto implicitly classifies generating electricity through nuclear power as a greater threat than climate change, since it excludes it as a permissible method of satisfying the treaty's CO2 reductions. Nukes are the sole known 'GHG-free' technology capable of providing our energy needs.

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1103601106571667822004-12-20T19:51:00.000-08:002004-12-24T09:00:09.220-08:00

President Holds Press Conference and comments on restrictions to the proposed "private accounts" in Social Secrity reform: And that is, the people could set aside a negotiated amount of their own money in an account that would be managed by that person, but under serious guidelines. As I said, you can't use the money to go to the lottery, or take it to the track. There would be -- it's like the

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1103331325754242122004-12-17T16:55:00.000-08:002004-12-18T06:53:32.100-08:00

I found this very amusing weblog by a UK professor via TCS: EnviroSpin Watch Here's a sample...And how do all the gorgeous, pouting French ladies in their little black numbers stay so chic? "Most French women smoke instead of eating," says Mathilde. [An eco-slip there, shurely, Ed?] "'Zac [Goldsmith] and I laugh sometimes because we say we'll spend all these years planting trees and so on,

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1103291999472162482004-12-17T05:24:00.000-08:002004-12-18T06:36:06.936-08:00

Chart 1: Clinton Recession/Bush Tax Cuts So Spending Rates Increased During Bush's first term, but if you dig into the details at the Gov't Website, you'll see that if was largely defense and unemployment benefits Chart 2: Domestic vs Defense as a share of the Total Federal Budget or Why Nixon Stinks as a Conservative To be fair, Nixon inherited the costs of Johnson's Great Society, but

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1103132950495229302004-12-15T09:45:00.000-08:002005-03-26T19:37:35.733-08:00

Went on an X-Files induced cyberbinge recently regarding Uncle Sam's radioactive testing on human subjects. Among the most interesting thing was this first clip about our early worries about a Nazi Dirty Bomb Ideas about radiological warfare surfaced even before the U.S. began its atomic bomb program. Key atomic scientists Ernest O. Lawrence and Arthur Holly Compton proposed a top priority

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1103119222368757972004-12-15T06:00:00.000-08:002004-12-19T14:44:28.593-08:00

How can it not be a giant joke that Germany and, especially, France don't live by the rules they impose on the others through the EU? The European Commission froze its threat of fines against France and Germany on Tuesday, granting the two biggest economies in the euro zone an extra year to bring down their bloated budget deficits. The decision will help heal the relationship between the

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1103090118918252162004-12-14T21:55:00.000-08:002004-12-18T06:43:28.403-08:00

Is this weird or whatEuropean companies may be outsourcing work to Indian firms but in one Delhi-based call centre it's Europeans who make up a fair number of the workforce. "It's so different from Europe - the culture and the way you live - and I think it's fantastic," says Marie Blomquist from Stockholm. "People are so friendly and the food is awesome, everything is great." So, it must be the

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1101342793618970552004-12-13T01:33:00.000-08:002004-12-12T22:10:09.630-08:00

They just love to do this to themselves Under the electrical and electronic waste (WEEE) law, authorities will then have a further year - until August 13, 2005 - to introduce free take back of waste goods by final owners and to ensure that equipment producers are responsible for financing the collection, treatment, recovery and disposal of all waste. Individual firms will be financially

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1102916925566755042004-12-12T21:47:00.000-08:002004-12-12T21:52:01.650-08:00

From TCS:In 2003, something called the Environmental Working Group claimed to have evidence that the farm-raised salmon eaten regularly by millions of Americans contains high levels of PCBs. PCBs were identified in the press coverage as a "toxin," "probable human carcinogen," or "a cause of cancer and nervous system damage." These reports were grossly misleading. At levels of environmental

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1102916648495111082004-12-12T21:41:00.000-08:002004-12-12T21:44:08.496-08:00

A sad state of affairsNot only are obstetricians closing their practices, but the specialty is no longer the draw it once was. Of the 128 students graduating from the University of Maryland Medical School in 2003, none chose obstetrics. And though the previous three generations of Kearney's family have delivered babies, his son plans to specialize in orthopedics.And people say tort reform has

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1101560108107600302004-12-12T01:55:00.000-08:002004-12-12T22:21:20.326-08:00

I thought everyone was for it? In the longer term, a sea area of 150,000 square kilometers ... could provide enough power to satisfy all of Europe's electricity demand,' an EWEA statement said. He gave no timeframe. But Rowena Langston of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds -- which says global warming must be stopped -- said development was being pushed ahead with scant reference to

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1101525614862009872004-12-12T01:20:00.000-08:002004-12-12T22:15:08.620-08:00

Marginal Revolution has this great Health Care Free Market story: Laser eye surgery has the highest patient satisfaction ratings of any surgery, it has been performed more than 3 million times in the past decade, it is new, it is high-tech, it has gotten better over time and... laser eye surgery has fallen in price. In 1998 the average price of laser eye surgery was about $2200 per eye. Today

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1102348817660627962004-12-06T07:54:00.000-08:002004-12-20T04:56:39.926-08:00

Here is a must read editorial from The Times on EU Corruption. I am compelled to post the whole article by Marta Andreasen (courtesy Brother's Judd) (bold-ing is mine): There has been much optimistic talk about how the new Commission and the new constitution will reform the European Union. I am not convinced that either will tackle the EU’s most pressing problem: Brussels’s culture of

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1102347122144082752004-12-06T07:29:00.000-08:002004-12-06T07:34:06.870-08:00

Green Buildings are discussed in the Economist this week. It is officially known as the Swiss Re Tower, or 30 St Mary Axe. But Londoners universally refer to the newest addition to their skyline as “the Gherkin”, thanks to the 41-storey building's distinctive, curved profile, which actually looks more like a pine cone. What is most remarkable about the building is not its name or its shape,

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1102177541091167492004-12-04T08:25:00.000-08:002004-12-04T08:30:20.250-08:00

Meteorologist Likens Fear of Global Warming to 'Religious Belief' -- 12/02/2004An MIT meteorologist Wednesday dismissed alarmist fears about human induced global warming as nothing more than 'religious beliefs.' "Do you believe in global warming? That is a religious question. So is the second part: Are you a skeptic or a believer?" said Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Richard

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1102168846444346592004-12-04T06:00:00.000-08:002004-12-04T06:02:37.850-08:00

Somebody important calls Open Innovation as "book of the year." Here's the blurb:The great corporate research departments at companies like Bell Labs, IBM and Xerox were once the motor of American industry. But that may be changing, according to this probing academic study of corporate technological innovation. Chesbrough, an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School, argues that the old

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1101994523954001192004-12-02T05:35:00.000-08:002004-12-02T06:04:59.546-08:00

Rocket Fuel Chemical Found in Organic Milk WASHINGTON - The government has found traces of a rocket fuel chemical in organic milk in Maryland, green leaf lettuce grown in Arizona and bottled spring water from Texas and California. What's not clear is the significance of the data, collected by the Food and Drug Administration through Aug. 19. Sufficient amounts of perchlorate can affect the

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1101812573689539842004-11-30T03:02:00.000-08:002007-05-19T08:42:13.146-07:00

Deroy Murdock on Medicine on National Review Online:Merck already pays huge bills, even before facing a potentially calamitouspost-Vioxx situation at the hands of brokers who are unloading its stock,federal prosecutors who may levy huge fines, and tort lawyers who aresalivating at payouts that could rival the huge asbestos and breast-implantjackpots. Site Facilities Director Greg Landis still

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1101602213149433952004-11-27T16:35:00.000-08:002005-08-20T07:55:42.890-07:00

She is wearing an LCD screen sewn into her T-shirt promoting Nicholas Cage's new movie "National Treasure" I guess people call this good marketing, because it definitely got our attention. But it is also sort of silly. You've got to be comfortable with people staring at your breasts or your gut all day. But I suppose if they were distributed to thousands of walking bill-board-people who could

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1101306755599426692004-11-24T06:23:00.000-08:002004-11-24T06:32:35.600-08:00

Time Magazine recently featured the Agricultural Research Service in their special issue on technology and innovation. What a weird place for all sorts of cool stuff to come from: 1. frozen foods 2. DEET bug repellent 3. permanent press 4. Diapers 5. Lactose free milk 6. Oat fiber fat substitute 7. transgenic cows The cover article leads with a chicken-feather-to-structural-plastic-like fiber

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1099921264593706262004-11-08T05:41:00.000-08:002004-11-24T05:53:29.990-08:00

Virgina Postrel writes about another kind of outsourcing to India Here's a win-win development that's ripe for demogogic denunciation: Pharmaceutical companies are moving drug testing to India, where well-educated doctors are plentiful and costs are low. Moving tests to India promises to speed drug development while building yet another relatively high-value industry for the still-poor country.

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1099623455634058172004-11-04T18:57:00.000-08:002004-11-28T10:10:25.470-08:00

I just can't always figure out these Sustainability guys.. Here's Jeffrey Sachs on what good business brings to a community Business often does a good job supporting communities: the arts, universities, and scientific enterprise. Gainful Employment takes a back seat the luxuries, subsidized education and science!

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1097609231450055612004-10-12T13:26:00.000-07:002004-11-24T07:26:27.046-08:00

"Most people avoid opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like hardwork" From US News & World Report Edison got the idea for an "electrical grid" by visiting an inventor in Ansonia, CT (9/8/1878). He had a system of (low voltage/high current) electric disharge (carbon arc) lights powered by a dynamo (generator). Edison basically sold the public a gigantic bill of goods that

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1097608873921674492004-10-12T13:21:00.000-07:002004-10-12T12:28:08.093-07:00

Manufacturing Snafus are a common part of an industrial operation...but now they are cause for grand jury investigationChiron Corp. is being investigated by a federal grand jury after failing to deliver its flu vaccine this year because regulators did not consider it safe.I doubt the average person will understand that by punishing one of the few companies who fart around with flu vaccines, we

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1096949655844956522004-10-04T21:10:00.000-07:002004-10-12T16:00:53.590-07:00

Andy Grove on practical strategy We were sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves. I asked Gordon something: What if the board fired us? (Laughs) The board wasn't going to fire us because the board didn't fire founders in those days. But theoretically, you could think about it. We lost $200 million on $1 billion in sales in all those years and had no strategy to make it better. If the board

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1096935350868760092004-10-04T17:15:00.000-07:002004-10-12T16:07:37.723-07:00

US News, Time, and Business Week all have cover articles dedicated to innovation and technology. I will post "mylights" I read through them. BW's is by far the most pervasive.

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1096935156116955742004-10-04T17:11:00.000-07:002004-10-12T16:08:19.623-07:00

Open with Darwin Penicillin, Teflon, Post-it Notes -- they sprang from such accidents as moldy Petri dishes, a failed coolant, and a mediocre glue. It's no wonder so many executives throw up their hands. "Our approach has always been very simple, which is to try not to manage innovation," shrugs Silicon Valley venture capitalist Michael Moritz, a partner with Sequoia Capital. "We prefer to just

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1096935041746288642004-10-04T17:09:00.000-07:002004-10-12T16:08:46.120-07:00

Muhammed Ali meets Innovation Management To hard-headed business people, innovation often seems as predictable as a rainbow and as manageable as a butterfly.

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1096934901455443162004-10-04T17:05:00.000-07:002004-10-12T16:10:20.723-07:00

Confirmed Suspicion The most successful startups may be those with one foot firmly planted in info tech and the other in emerging technologies. I've thought for a few years that marrying complementary technologies together and/or adaptive technology transfer is fertile ground...so do they.

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1096934651377380302004-10-04T17:01:00.000-07:002004-10-12T16:11:03.530-07:00

Only Executives and Senior Engineers can afford to live in the "innovation hotbed" The cost of living in the Valley is now so prohibitive that cash-strapped startups can't afford to hire many people here at the salaries they need. The median price of a single-family home has shot up 240% over the last nine years, to $640,000. The result: Only 21% of the people who live in Silicon Valley now earn

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1096934451792095462004-10-04T16:58:00.000-07:002004-10-12T16:11:31.226-07:00

Here's the US Secret: And as the pace of innovation increases, America benefits by having the immense amount of capital and the entrepreneurial culture needed to win the race to market and culture doesn't get taught in school or magically occur in India or China.

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1096934216701697062004-10-04T16:55:00.000-07:002004-10-12T16:13:07.276-07:00

Obligatory Non-Sequitur In today's superfast world, yesterday's "big thing" becomes a commodity and moves to lower-cost offshore factories, says Stanford University physicist Burton Richter, a Nobel laureate: "So now, if we don't fund the physical sciences, where will the Next Big Thing come from? We don't generate new ideas like we used to." That's why Richter is spearheading an effort to

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1096934080123594532004-10-04T16:52:00.000-07:002004-10-12T16:14:00.120-07:00

What does he mean by nurturing? And even if an innovation boom occurs globally, the U.S. could still not get the full benefit. "What we have is special and needs to be nurtured and enhanced," says Amgen's Sharer.

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1096933905798280852004-10-04T16:49:00.000-07:002004-11-28T10:15:04.426-08:00

Global growth of R&D as % of GDP is up by 31% In the industrial countries, non-defense private and government spending on R&D has risen from 1.6% of gross domestic product in 1981 to 2.1% in 2002, the last year for which data are available.

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1096822121646477692004-10-03T09:48:00.000-07:002004-10-03T09:51:56.253-07:00

When reporters add things that are just plain silly On Thursday, as news was leaking out that Russia was likely to ratify the Kyoto global warming treaty, a group of U.S. business executives was discussing climate policy as they lunched on chicken and avocado sandwiches in Washington's St. Regis hotel" WHO GIVES A FARKLE WHAT THEY ATE? I have this new fantasy where reporters are not allowed to

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1096118388647331072004-09-25T06:05:00.000-07:002004-09-25T07:11:03.773-07:00

Global warming to devastate Europe first Europe has to continue to lead worldwide efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but this report also underlines that strategies are needed at European, regional, national and local level to adapt to climate change, says Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of the EEA, based in Denmark. This is a phenomenon that will considerably affect our

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1096117437662853782004-09-25T06:03:00.000-07:002004-12-06T08:27:58.310-08:00

We've uncovered details from the top secret Kyoto II negotiations underway in Europe. You cannot stop a sheep belching or farting, but you can make sure its eructations are less damaging to the environment. Belches and, to a far lesser degree, farts from sheep, cows and other farm animals account for around 20% of global methane emissions. The gas is a potent source of global warming because,

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1095856835543001272004-09-22T05:40:00.000-07:002004-09-25T07:06:16.566-07:00

A professor in graduate school once told me that BY DEFINITION, all forecasts were going to be wrong...which is another way of saying nobody can predict the future, no one has "special knowledge". But this forecast is so far off as to be worse than useless...as companies execute business plans based on what is apparently a giant mirage. Leave it to the third largest Itanium server shop to put

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1095520149306127192004-09-18T08:09:00.000-07:002004-09-22T05:52:48.080-07:00

Look out for sanctions and compromise to the Hurricanes The UN weather agency said it was on full alert to monitor a rise in deadly storms after three successive hurricanes battered the southern United States with greater intensity than at any time since 1950 Kofi Annan to ask for Sanctions Against the South Atlantic?

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1095339008366902522004-09-16T05:50:00.000-07:002004-09-16T05:50:08.366-07:00

Government-Run school teachers send their kids to PRIVATE schools at a rate 50% higher than the rest of the country We've long known that school-choice opponents Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy and Jesse Jackson sent all of their kids to private schools. So do many of the children of teachers' union bosses, among the bitterest opponents of school choice because their paychecks depend on

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1095098748790297202004-09-13T10:54:00.000-07:002004-09-13T11:05:48.796-07:00

Demonstrating the benefits of your product is one way to do good marketing. But demonstrating the inherent large scale life threatening risks of your competitors products is much, much more fun. The second development was a growing rivalry between the two giants of the young electrical utility industry. Thomas Edison was the first person to establish himself in the industry with DC service.

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1093786724851195002004-08-29T06:38:00.000-07:002004-08-29T19:03:40.410-07:00

Market Forecasting anecdotes... Theoretically, television may be feasible, but I consider it an impossibility -- a development which we should waste little time dreaming about. (Lee de Forest, 1926, inventor) The chairman of the board for IBM in 1943 said, I think there is a world market for about five computers. (Thomas J. Watson, 1943, Chairman of the Board of IBM) A recording company expert

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1090150635696151812004-07-18T04:37:00.000-07:002007-12-25T19:00:11.390-08:00

A great interview with Harry Stonecipher about the basics of running a business right. The polished marketing and the associated fluff, may all have their place in this business-as-media-entertainment age, but first things should always come first:AP: What are the major differences between your leadership and Phil Condit's approach?STONECIPHER: I think Phil was more deliberate, more patient,

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1089376894265159432004-07-09T05:29:00.000-07:002007-12-25T17:12:30.605-08:00

This article is reg. only from the June 10th Issue of the Economist, but I clipped some of the good stuffSmart "Dust" ... featured in many SciFi yarns .. is comprised of tiny wireless sensors that act as "one" ... very coolIN DUST WE TRUSTJun 10th 2004 Sensor networks: They have generated a lot of hype. But might sensor networks, also known as "smart dust", actually be useful?WITH everyone in

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1085965654093110192004-05-30T18:07:00.000-07:002007-12-25T17:07:30.767-08:00

1. No Bones to DogsButchers are being threatened with fines if they give bones away to dog owners.They are being sent letters telling them that a new European directive bans the traditional practice2. French Need More Sleep (via Tim Blair)FRENCH intellectuals have taken up a new cause, which they describe as a defining issue for modern society. They are calling for more sleep.Philosophers,

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1085401735637548872004-05-24T05:28:00.000-07:002007-12-25T17:05:36.651-08:00

Making the green crowd happy:James Lovelock, author of the Gaia hypothesis and one of the first important scientists to warn of the Greenhouse effect, has called for a massive expansion of nuclear power everywhere in the world, saying the alternative is climate catastrophe.Professor Lovelock, now 84, wrote in the Independent this week that: "Global warming, like a fire, is accelerating and

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1081001663361082922004-04-03T06:14:00.000-08:002007-12-25T17:04:33.026-08:00

So I wonder if thisDelta Air Lines Inc., the least unionized major carrier, told flight attendants, reservation agents and administrative workers they won't receive raises this year. The same group of workers, 40,000 of the airline's 60,000 employees, didn't get pay raises last year.contributes to thisDelta Air Lines . . .ranked at the bottom for on-time arrivals in February, according to the

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1079191326709603432004-03-13T07:22:00.000-08:002007-12-25T16:57:33.753-08:00

This article on M&A sounds about right.Most studies of mergers and acquisitions by consultants and academics come to the same conclusion: Mergers tend to destroy value, not create it. Work by McKinsey & Co. shows that 65% to 70% of deals fail to enhance shareholder value. Consultant Booz Allen Hamilton estimated that 47% of deals didn't meet the objectives laid out by management in the merger

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1078886367663747282004-03-09T18:39:00.000-08:002007-12-25T16:53:29.551-08:00

This was inevitable. (hat tip Brothers Judd)Two Columbia doctors believe the health insurance industry is chronically sick, and now they’re taking the treatment into their own hands.George and Hana Solomon have canceled their contracts with all health insurance companies, effective Dec. 1.For patients who can’t afford the pay-as-you-go health-care method, the Solomons propose an alternative:

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1078703273562209322004-03-07T15:47:00.000-08:002007-12-25T16:49:23.005-08:00

This is interesting in that I'm sure the two Apex founders (wealthy by now I imagine) didn't give two hoots about their branding strategy, nor did they hire consultants to help them map out their corporate strategy.Globalized production strategies, however controversial they are in the political realm, have thrown bargain culture into overdrive, converting luxuries like cashmere and high-tech

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1078596214359297072004-03-06T10:03:00.000-08:002007-12-25T16:34:23.021-08:00

Interesting post from the Customer Evangelist. Can companies take "branding" too far?With slavish, internal devotion to "the brand" like an infallible corporate deity, companies often cast aside the true gods: customers. Rather than hiring unbelievably helpful customer-focused employees, or improving products or services, or lowering prices, brand crack is fired up and inhaled by mass media

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1077326197963321962004-02-20T17:16:00.000-08:002007-12-25T09:06:34.447-08:00

From the Financial TimesLiability law appears to be a critical factor behind the vaccine shortage:As legal liabilities have chased many vaccine-makers out of the market, there are fewer manufacturers. This means less overall ability to produce additional doses, and less investment on new, faster ways to make vaccines.In the US about 185m people risk serious flu-related illness each year.At one

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1077309733308201672004-02-20T12:42:00.000-08:002007-12-25T08:54:36.959-08:00

This is painfulLast year a medical transcriber in Pakistan threatened to post patients' medical records online unless the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center settled a financial dispute. Lubna Baloch, the transcriber, claimed she hadn't been paid the 3 cents a line reportedly promised by a Texas man, who, in turn, had subcontracted the work from a Florida woman. The Florida

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1076880558914769112004-02-15T13:29:00.000-08:002007-12-25T16:34:53.769-08:00

I've always preferred a direct-model in lieu of the "middleman" because the middleman was sort of always getting in the "middle" of things.So I read this story with mixed emotionsLIKE entrepreneurs trying to make a fortune, Andrew Hollingworth believed China was his key to success. The 31-year-old started to sell chemicals made by a Chinese company and soon built up a £3m business.At his home

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1076879923214259912004-02-15T13:18:00.000-08:002007-12-25T08:45:12.552-08:00

Once in a very long while, you celebrate software glitchesCol. Vladimir Vetrov provided what French intelligence called the Farewell dossier. It contained documents from the K.G.B. Technology Directorate showing how the Soviets were systematically stealing — or secretly buying through third parties — the radar, machine tools and semiconductors to keep the Russians nearly competitive with U.S.

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1076281665682861852004-02-08T15:07:00.000-08:002007-12-25T08:40:17.514-08:00

A Timely Good Idea as an expanding EU means that countries with little or no corporate tax get to compete for investment with high taxers like France and Sweden.Here are the money quotes from The EconomistGovernments have responded to tax flight in two other ways. The first has been to increase the number of rules and to enforce them more strictly. Much attention has been paid to so-called “

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1076079354722990642004-02-06T06:55:00.000-08:002007-12-25T08:37:49.150-08:00

Getting in Bed With the CustomerSo, to celebrate the Japanese release of Dead or Alive Online next month, Microsoft is rolling out a special edition Xbox set with an extra-special bonus -- a dakimakura, or "hugging pillow," that features a life-size, front-and-back print of teenage character Kasumi in a skimpy bikini.These character-print dakimakura came into existence in the late '90s as a way

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1076079222588720692004-02-06T06:53:00.000-08:002007-12-25T08:32:39.501-08:00

What is wrong with this sentenceMOSCOW (Dow Jones)--Russian anti-trust authorities, at the behest of gas monopoly OAO Gazprom (GSPBEX.RS), are delaying approval of China National Petroleum Corp.'s acquisition of ZAO Stimul, Vedomosti reports

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1075554432100453222004-01-31T05:07:00.000-08:002007-12-25T08:23:24.417-08:00

From Tech Central Station:Americans without health insurance actually spend roughly the same amount of their own money on health care ( $242) as do the fully insured ($211). To put this in perspective, the average U.S. household spends $296 on bakery products and $349 on alcoholic beverages.While some Americans are chronically uninsured, three-quarters of the roughly 44 million uninsured remain

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1073583150148556412004-01-08T09:32:00.000-08:002007-12-25T08:19:18.728-08:00

Branding Sounds? German engineering and electronics giant Siemens, in its quest to redesign its corporate identity, came to Westermann in 2002. Siemens already had ticked the usual boxes: new typeface, fresh logo, fashionable colors. But something was missing. For a company in the business of communication, its identity was deafeningly silent. Says communications director Juergen Barthel: "Our

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1073396539535876052004-01-06T05:42:00.000-08:002007-12-25T08:16:34.403-08:00

Global CoolingThe Iceman ComethLast month Barrons ran an article in their commodity section entitled The Iceman Cometh a catchy title that discussed the impact of the Pacific Decadal Oscillators (PDO) on long term worldwide weather patterns.Using extensive databases and computers to examine historical weather data the PDO was discovered by researchers in 1996. Pacific? refers to the slow

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1073054477904618572004-01-02T06:41:00.000-08:002007-12-25T08:13:19.616-08:00

From BusinessPundit & Fortune...At 94, Peter Drucker still views things(reg. requried) differently than everyone else. His take on wages in the U.S. -..the belief that labor costs are a main reason for producing outside the U.S. is justified for only a very small segment of industry.Consequently, the industries that are moving jobs out of the U.S. are the more backward industries. The U.S.

Timnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966953.post-1072886080254732542003-12-31T07:54:00.000-08:002007-12-25T08:10:06.814-08:00

1. This hole is fun to visit and easy to spot.2. You can't see these holes directly, but we can sure see their effects.3. But accounting holes are the hardest to findThe money quote:Tanzi told Parmalat's new chief executive officer Enrico Bondi that he would find a ``hole'' of about 8 billion euros ($10 billion) in Parmalat's accounts, according to court documents. The collapse of Parmalat,

Timnoreply@blogger.com