Wednesday, 8 June 2011

SECs & likely results.. YouTube - Bloomberg's Johnson Discusses Groupon's Eric Lefkofsky

YouTube - Bloomberg's Johnson Discusses Groupon's Eric Lefkofsky

and his supposedly phone call after & analysis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXwivMqCyaE

Personally, seems to me groupon never had a sustainable business model from day one (as I also blogged about it)..

hence, whoever might want to buy the shares should only do so with eyes wide open and hopefully for the short term..

sadly most retail investors are not as savvy...

thus, unless SEC blocks it, or ensure the cooling period is long enough,

people will sadly get hurt!



Tuesday, 7 June 2011

EU Health Chief Slams Germany Over E.coli - Yahoo! News

EU Health Chief Slams Germany Over E.coli - Yahoo! News:

serious issue but way this report put it, slightly comical how cucumber was defended..

we need good & reliable and tried & tested information, not scaremongering , especially from government level!!


"'I stress that the outbreak is limited geographically to the area surrounding the city of Hamburg, so there is no reason to take action on a European level.'
Mr Dalli said the commission was holding daily meetings to analyse the situation and insisted that the EU's rapid alert system had worked, although 'we need to learn lessons as we go along'.
A Spanish delegate also stood up at the parliament while holding a cucumber, and defended the vegetable, saying: 'We need to restore the honour of the cucumber.
He then accused Germany of rushing in to blaming Spanish cucumbers and said the European Commission had not done enough after they were cleared."

Sunday, 29 May 2011

Must watch/read: @IFSTnews Lecture 2011 Food Security and the Impact of Science and Technology by Sir.David King: http://bit.ly/isFHeJ

Food Events:

Must watch/read..

"Consumption of natural resources, including fresh water, food, oil and minerals, is happening at a rate far faster than they can be replenished or replaced by natural processes. The mismanagement of other resources, in particular the atmosphere, land and oceans, means that the ecosystem services required from the Earth for a population of 9 billion are being rapidly eroded.

Climate change provides the biggest challenge that our civilization has yet had to face up to, since it requires a collective response of the global population to mitigate the effect. We will also need to manage the growing impacts upon our societies. If these challenges are not future-proofed, enforced environmental migrations coupled with growing health, food, energy, mineral and water challenges will lead to widespread conflict by mid-century between developed, rapidly emerging and developing nations. The socio-political challenges in directing the necessary collective responses are beyond anything previously managed. Meeting these challenges will require a global cultural and technological transformation on much the same scale as the Renaissance or the Industrial Revolution, coupled with the development of a widespread understanding of the need to adapt and strengthen global governance procedures. "

Music Power 100: The full list | Music | guardian.co.uk

Music Power 100: The full list | Music | guardian.co.uk

Interesting list indeed!

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

My cheeky comments re Dorsey's Square tries to eliminate the card swipe by bringing back the tab - Fortune Tech

Dorsey's Square tries to eliminate the card swipe by bringing back the tab - Fortune Tech

This is a good start in the right direction, sadly it still does not address:

1.) if something goes wrong, whose fault is it?? (e.g. if PIN is supposedly used to authorise, it is automatically the card holder's fault, despite the risk of system being hacked.. who hold the hot cake if something goes wrong in this new Square model?? someone tell us? )

2.) identity, erm, guess anyone that take my iPhone (no, I am not a lemming yet, and do not own any apple products) with the square payment can buy small things to their heart's content? or is it intelligent enough to stop the card being used to buying multiple tens of packets of cigarettes from various shops? or is it just a dumb pipe system?

3.) as mentioned already, adoption would be enhanced greatly if the business model is competitive, but if the % fee is still similar to the incumbents (most likely will stay that way).. then it is just playing balls with hopes to be fully bought by the big duopoly players.. of course, nothing wrong with that, that is the game after all..

all in all, guess it might not affect us much unless and until we have some end to end revolution that has a business model that works and it is stupid simple enough for joe blog and secure enough that hopefully data is 200% secure and stored locally rather than centrally? I guess I have a solution but sadly no time nor big VCs to fund us as we are not based in silicon valley nor are we under 20/30s.. oh well, good luck Jack. ;-)

MustRead:need 'something more' the 'higher mission' in life: Three Traits Every CEO Needs - Justin Menkes - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

Three Traits Every CEO Needs - Justin Menkes - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

Brilliant article, totally agree..

Its that 'something more'.. the 'higher mission' in life and mission that differentiate us.

MUST Read!


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To perform their best in today's turbulent atmosphere, leaders must possess this highly unusual set of three traits that often run counter to natural human behavior. These attributes are catalysts for the mastery displayed by the world's best CEOs — and, together, they add up to a new definition of leadership:

  1. Realistic optimism. Leaders with this trait possess confidence without self-delusion or irrationality. They pursue audacious goals, which others would typically view as impossible pipedreams, while at the same time remaining aware of the magnitude of the challenges confronting them and the difficulties that lie ahead.
  2. Subservience to purpose. Leaders with this ability see their professional goal as so profound in importance that their lives become measured in value by how much they contribute to furthering that goal. What is more, they must be pursuing a professional goal in order to feel a purpose for living. In essence, that goal is their master and their reason for being. They do not ruminate about their purpose, because their mind finds satisfaction in its occupation with their goal. Their level of dedication to their work is a direct result of the extraordinary, remarkable importance they place on their goal.
  3. Finding order in chaos. Leaders with this trait find taking on multidimensional problems invigorating, and their ability to bring clarity to quandaries that baffle others makes their contributions invaluable.

Monday, 23 May 2011

lets look for our own 'meaning of life' & !relationships'.. A New Gauge Helps to See What’s Beyond Happiness - NYTimes.com

A New Gauge Helps to See What’s Beyond Happiness - NYTimes.com

Great insights..

lets look for 'meaning of life' & !relationships'..

Must read, click through above link! abstract below,

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“People find meaning in providing unconditional love for children,” writes Dr. Brooks, who is now president of the American Enterprise Institute. “Paradoxically, your happiness is raised by the very fact that you are willing to have your happiness lowered through years of dirty diapers, tantrums and backtalk. Willingness to accept unhappiness from children is a source of happiness.”Some happiness researchers have suggested that parents delude themselves about the joys of children: They focus on the golden moments and forget the more frequent travails. But Dr. Seligman says that parents are wisely looking for more than happy feelings.

“If we just wanted positive emotions, our species would have died out a long time ago,” he says. “ We have children to pursue other elements of well-being. We want meaning in life. We want relationships.”

In observing people’s need for accomplishment, Dr. Seligman says, he’s reminded of his early experiments that famously identified the concept of “learned helplessness.” He found that when animals or people were given a series of arbitrary punishments or rewards, they stopped trying to do anything constructive.

.... more via above link.