Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Does Education Pay?

It has become popular to bash education. Here is an article that is questioning the college education

The complete article is here. It raises some valid concerns about the cost of college education also about the availability of jobs after graduation. We also have some famous college drop outs who have done extremely well by being entrepreneurs and creating companies that are worth billions of dollars.

Does this mean college education is a luxury only few can afford? besides that it does not offer any future prospects. Probably not. Here is an infographics from BLS that shows that college graduate outperform others when it comes to earning and prospects of enjoyability.



Unless some one is an exceptional individual who can learn on his own college education still offers a chance to join the ranks of middle class. College affordability is certainly an issue but can be solved by making the correct choice of affordable institution of higher learning. This will require some research on the part of the aspiring college entrants.

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt on American Renewal

GE will open an Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology Center just outside of Detroit, MIchigan. It will employ more than 1,100 scientists, technologists and engineers in one of the economically hardest hit area.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

President Obama on Health Care

The image below shows health care spending in many countries. US by far leads in the overall spending



President Obama appeals to people to send them their health care related stories. This is a white house video with the following message.
The President asks you to submit your questions on health care reform and take part in an ongoing online discussion. He will answer some of the most popular in a town hall on Wednesday.



Saturday, June 27, 2009

Zombie Banks Parody

Bankers are usually a very conservative lot and very good at keeping money from its clients into safe deposits or in safe boring investments. Apparently they got jealous of success of the investment bankers notably hedge funds who were creating huge returns for themselves and their investors so they decided to take some risk in lending to increase there profitability. Also, helping people who were not qualified for loans and credits under normal lending practices. The scheme worked fine for a while till the bubble burst and now we have too many banks holding non-performing loans making them resemble zombie banks.

Once a pillar of the society now they are becoming a good source of material for humorists.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Why Cheap Airlines Are Cheap

An infographics explaining the reason why some airlines can offer very cheap airfares.


Click on the picture for bigger and sharper image.
Source

Eating Live Octopus

Video shows how in Korea live Octopus is considered a delicacy and how it is eaten in a restaurant. It also shows experience of an American eating live Octopus.



It is hard to eat the little slimy buggers.

Little Man

A teenager's attempt to understand opposite sex



Thursday, June 25, 2009

Transformer Ice Sculpture

An Ice sculpture of "Transformer" made of 400 kilograms of ice, is on display in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province for world premiere of the movie "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"

Source




Global Peace Index

Please click on the image for a bigger picture. Source

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Aneesh Chopra U.S. Chief Technical Officer

President Barack Obama appointed Aneesh Chopra as the Chief Technical Officer for the country. He will concentrate on Education,Health and Environment.



Via Purplemotes

Senator Barbara Boxer

Senator Barbara Boxer from California requesting to be called Senator instead of Ma'am.

Firefox 3.5 A New Experience in Web Browsing

The new version of Firefox web browser that will released shortly. It will support some of the graphics such as SVG and Video functions in the native mode.


Monday, June 22, 2009

Future of Management

Gary Hamel is a leading management Guru . His bio
The Wall Street Journal recently ranked Gary Hamel as the world's most influential business thinker, and Fortune magazine has called him "the world's leading expert on business strategy." For the last three years, Hamel has also topped Executive Excellence magazine's annual ranking of the most sought after management speakers.

Hamel's landmark books, Leading the Revolution and Competing for the Future, have appeared on every management bestseller list and have been translated into more than 20 languages. His latest book, The Future of Management, was published by the Harvard Business School Press in October 2007 and was selected by Amazon.com as the best business book of the year. Source

He has authored many books on Management including his latest book titled "Future of Management". The brief description of book is here In the book Hamel demonstrates that

It is innovation in management—rather than in operations, products or strategies—that is most likely to create long-term advantage.
He provides examples of success stories of many companies who are using innovative management practices.

Google is an Information Technology company that is using many new practices for product development that are innovative. Gary Hamel interviews Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the Management Lab Summit. The interview is very informative and provides an insight into the management practices at Google that are slightly different from the "Command and Control" type of management practices at older organizations.



Another book that builds on the same theme is "Future of Work" by Dr. Thomas Malone in which he proposes the management approach of "Cultivate and Coordinate".

It would be interesting to observe if we will see any changes in the management practices in the future to improve the productivity of the organizations along the line suggested by these authors or Google and companies like it will remain few exceptions to the general management practices.

The printing press as an agent of change

The information and media are very closely related. We use media to store and communicate information. Throughout the ages we have invented different ways to do the job. One of the most revolutionary method was the invention of print media. It made publishing books easy and inexpensive. This wider availability of printed book also resulted into social and cultural changes. This books describes some of those changes.


Please use the top bar for navigating through the pages of the book.

The book has implications for our current situation where we are witnessing the emergence of new digital media. It would be very interesting to speculate on its effects on the social and cultural changes.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Michael Lewis: The End of Wall Street

Michael Lewis has written many books. Especially one on the wall street when he described his experience working on wall street.



Friday, June 19, 2009

National Drink-Driving Limits

The map below shows nataional limits on drinking and driving by plotting the allowed blood alcohol concentarion.

Click on the image for a bigger image view.

Sleeping Cats

Watch cats sleeping in most unusual places and positions



Thursday, June 18, 2009

What is a Browser?

A on street interview asking people if they know what a browser is? Most of the people failed to tell the difference between an application and the search engine.

Wall Street’s Toxic Message

When the current crisis is over, the reputation of American-style capitalism will have taken a beating—not least because of the gap between what Washington practices and what it preaches. Disillusioned developing nations may well turn their backs on the free market, warns Nobel laureate

By JOSEPH E. STIGLITZJuly 2009



The Complete Vanity Fair magazine Article is here.

Collapse of Complex Social Systems

This slide presentation looks at many facets of Complex Social Systems and what could be the possible explanation for their collapse. It considers the theory of phase transition that is in Physics to describe the state transition for a given material.

Collapse dynamics: Phase transitions in complex social systems
View more OpenOffice presentations from Noah Raford.Click on the full screen icon at the bottom right for a full screen view of the presentation.

Noah Raford bio
Noah Raford is an urban planner and the Director of Space Syntax Limited in North America. He graduated from Brown University with a degree in Sociospatial Analysis and Design, then received his masters at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. He is currently pursuing his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he focuses on the use of scenario planning and systems mapping to aid local governments in climate change management.Source

Free Web 2.0 Tools

Free tools that help in communication, conversation and creation of digital media. They could be used in e-learning and other profession that extensively use information.



Click on the full screen icon at the bottom right to see full screen view of the presentation.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

HOME GROWN REVOLUTION - Radical Change Taking Root

Video presents a family in Pasadena California who are using their home to grow their own food. They are at the forefront of Urban farming.


Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Student Debts

The Infographics below shows the student debt from different Sates including few Universities where student graduate with High debts.



Please click on the image for a bigger image.

Source

via Broke Grad Student

Global Talent Pool

Click on the image for a bigger picture.
Based upon OECD data
( via Stephen Downes )

Monday, June 15, 2009

Tom Brokaw's reporting About the Internet

Tom Brokaw's Early Reports About the Internet from Computer Show in Las Vegas. These were the early days of Internet but some how the early promises after fifteen years are still the same.

You can see Bill Gates going all gaga over the promise of Internet

This video is a nice trip down the memory lane how much was promised and how much still needs to be done



via Paul Kedrosky blog

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Lightning in Slow Motion Video

The Video shows Lightning in slow motion.

The video must be shot by a camera with an extremely high frame rate.

Social Media Network Use Worldwide

Here is a map that shows the popularity of many Social Networks World wide



Please double click on the image to see a bigger picture. An Interactive display of this map can be accessed here.

Recently ComScore released the data about the penetration of Social Networking in Asian Countries and European countries.


Please double click on the image to see a bigger picture.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Browser Advertising Google vs. Micrososft

The two videos show the advertising for web Browsers from Microsoft and Google. ( via paidcontent)

Adverting video for IE8 from Micrososft



Advertising video for Chrome from Google



Judge the coolness factor by yourself.

Another Twitter Parody

Twitter must be gaining momentum because people start making fun of Twitter by creating these parodies.

Here is the famous quote from Gandhi "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." If we accept the quote on its face value then Twitter is entering into the second phase of acceptability and it will have to go through at least one more stage before it will become a tool that is respected by all.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Social Media Strategy

Beth Kanter

For better viewing please use full screen mode by clicking on the icon located at the bottom right.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Spontaneous Dance Party

The video shows where one guy started dancing and after a while the entire crowd started dancing. A case of spontaneous eruption.

Jim Rogers on Economic Rescue Plan

Jim Rogers, the co-founder of the famous hedge fund "Quantum Fund" with George Soros talks to Faisal Islam about the world economy.



Jim Rogers now resides in Singapore. His website shows his travels through different countries. He also maintains a blog. His Wikipedia bio:
James Beeland Rogers, Jr. (born October 19, 1942) is an expatriate American investor and financial commentator based in Singapore. He was a co-founder, along with George Soros, of the Quantum Fund, and is a college professor, author, world traveler, economic commentator, and creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index (RICI). Source
He is the father of two little girls shown in the video below:



He recently wrote a book "A Gift to My Children: A Father's Lessons for Life and Investing" He also wants his kids to learn Chinese. So his entire family recently moved to Singapore.


The pictures shows Jim Rogers with his wife Paige Parker and two daughters, Hilton Augusta and baby Beeland Anderson. Here is an excerpt from the article titled We Want Our Kids to Learn Chinese
When in Singapore, do as Singaporeans do.

That's exactly what billionaire American investment guru Jim Rogers and his wife Paige Parker are doing.

Like many Singapore parents, they have become parent volunteers so that their five-year-old daughter can stand a better chance of getting into Nanyang Primary School.

Rogers, 65, gives talks to teachers on topics such as education and his views on world matters, while Parker, 39, helps its English department by conducting enrichment classes.

Their daughter, Hilton Augusta, nicknamed Happy, is attending Nanyang Kindergarten, which is not affiliated to the primary school.

They also have a three-month-old baby girl, Beeland Anderson.

The couple sold their New York mansion and moved to Singapore last December so that Happy can learn Chinese in a Mandarin-speaking environment.Source


Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Mish's Global Economic Analysis

Mike Shedlock is an Economic blogger who was originally an IT person. Here he gave a talk at Google about the future economic outlook.

Education Pays

Education leads to higher salaries and lower unemployment rates.

Click on the image for a bigger picture.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey.

Rupert Murdoch on Newscorp

Rupert Murdoch on the future of Newscorp at Fox News



CNN's Fareed Zakaria with Michael Lewis

Fareed Zakaria talks to 'Liar's Poker' author Michael Lewis about the economic crisis. Fareed Zakaria is the author of book "The Post American World".

Michael Lewis also wrote this article on Wall Street "The End". He is highly critical of the way the Wall Street is managed. They also talk about the future of Wall Street.

Google Wave Founding Team Interview

Google wave is a communication product that is supposed to revotionalize e-mail. In this video the team that is responsible of creating it discusses it.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Gin, Television, and Cognitive Surplus

Clay Shirkey talks about cognitive surplus and how it was used to watch TV.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

The Year the Media Died

A parody imitating Don McLean about the the future of Media
At the CM Summit earlier this week, Terry Kawaja debuted his parody "Mad Avenue Blues", set to Don McLean's American Pie. It's now up on YouTube. It's a brilliant send up of our industry. You'll want to watch it a few times to get all the jokes. (via John Battelle's blog)


Friday, June 5, 2009

Sharing

European Green Party came out in the support of file sharing.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Song THAHRA THAHRA from Movie Karma:Crime,Passion,Reincarnation

The movie has an international cast of actors from US,Germany and India. The main actors and actresses in the movie are Carlucci Weyant, Alma Saraci,Claudia Ciesla, and Vijayendra Ghatge

The brief plot of the story is
Vikram, estranged and separated from his father, Ranvir, for the past thirty years, visits him in Ooty with his bride Anna from New York at her insistence, but only for a day or two. The moment Anna alights from the train that brings them to the small town, she unwittingly becomes the medium of events including visions of a murder that took place in the woods surrounding Vik's father's home thirty years ago. With little love by Vik for his father, it is Anna, an orphan, who conspires with her father-in-law to change Vik's mind about staying longer and taking over his father's business. The hauntings now become more frequent and intense, making Anna sick to the point of her mental state of mind questioned. Even though Anna had never set foot in Ooty, leave alone India before, she seems very familiar with the surroundings and even some people. Anna begins to questions some people who then see her as a threat. The nightmares occur more frequently and with more specificity. At first Vik accuses Anna of having some ingrained psychological problems, which hurt Anna deeply - but when strange inexplicable events happen to Vik himself he apologizes to Anna. Vik resolves to help Anna and when it is discovered that a murder had indeed taken place thirty years ago, together they try to solve the mystery. The spirit of Linda, raped and murdered thirty years ago, reincarnated as Anna, leads Anna and Vik to the discovery of the identity of the murderer. Written by Vivek Singhania



The official main web site of the movie is at http://www.karmacpr.com/

The release date for the movie in India is set on 11th June, 2009.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

GM A New Beginning

GM has fallen through the hard times but it has the potential to reinvent itself. This video shows how that will be done.