NEWS,05 AND 06.05.2013

Google zaps brain power

The Shallows: what the Internet is doing to our brains by Nicholas Carr

IS THE internet a good thing or a harmful thing?

If that seems an odd question, it is probably because you are quite certain that the internet has been an enormous advantage to you in so many ways.

You came across my column as you quickly caught up on the latest news. You probably booked last night’s movie tickets online and searched for the critics' opinion of the movie before booking. You quickly found out everything you wanted to know about “existentialism” in a four-minute ‘Web search and skim’.

The title of the book, The Shallows, is Carr’s conclusion of what the Web is doing to how we think, read and remember. The book is an expansion of an essay he wrote for Atlantic magazine entitled “Is Google making us stupid?”.

Think of how you would have had to find information about existentialism before access to the Web was available.

You probably would have gone to a library to read a book on general philosophy as an introduction to the background out of which existentialism grew. Then, perhaps, something more specifically on the existentialists before finally settling into Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling.

Consider the difference between these two experiences. Carr suggests that the immediacy of the Web’s answers has turned him (and others) from “ a scuba diver in the sea of words” to someone who rides on the “surface like a guy on a Jet Ski”.

At a meeting at Duke University, Professor Katherine Hayles told Carr: “I cannot get my students to read whole books any more.” The students she is talking of are studying literature!

What makes this book so fascinating is not the observation that we have shorter attention spans but that our brains are being changed to have shorter attention spans. If this is correct, the question that follows is whether this means we are sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply.

My immediate response to this would have been a quick, of course not. I read and think about certain things deeply and others superficially.

Carr takes the reader through a tour of neuroscience and the question of how technologies can change the way your brain works.

Is your brain like your hand? Your hand is limited in the movements it can make. It can only get better at the proscribed movements through practice, or worse through disuse.

There is overwhelming evidence that our experiences and the technologies we use do reconfigure the brain.

In an experiment in the late 1990s, British researchers scanned the brains of 16 London cab drivers. Compared to the scans of the control group from the general public, the taxi drivers’ posterior hippocampus was much larger.

This part of the brain stores and manipulates spatial representations of the world. The longer a cab drivers had been on the job, the larger their posterior hippocampus.

They also discovered that the drivers’ anterior hippocampus was smaller than that of the general public, and that the shrinking of the anterior hippocampus could have reduced the cabbies’ aptitude for other memorisation tasks.

Throughout the ages, the latest technologies have changed both how we think about the world and how our brains process information. Carr demonstrates how “tools of the mind” from the alphabet, to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer have all had their effects.

Words were the aural means of communication until we developed the technology of the alphabet and we turned the aural into the visual representing the aural.

The clock changed not only how we thought about time, but how we thought about the world. The change was so wide spread and profound that we even began describing the world in the same mechanical terms.

It changed how we thought about time. It was no longer slowly evolving changes over which we have no control; rather, it was something that could be measured in minutes and seconds, and controlled. With a clock in ever town square and on every church building, our concept of time changed.

We are constantly reminded of time used, time spent, time wasted, and time lost. Our concepts of everything from achievement to productivity changed.

If the printed book forces us to focus our attention and promotes deep and creative thought, what is the effect of Google? Are we becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming? Are we are losing our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection?

Wired magazines Clive Thompson wrote: “The perfect recall of silicon memory can be an enormous boon to thinking.” What is the price of that boon? The result may be “the shallows” of the title, but that shallows is incredibly wide.

This is a must-read. It is a thought-provoking and fascinating book.

Readability:   Light ----+ Serious
Insights:       High -+--- Low
Practical:      High ----+ Low

Spies fuel China's fast military build-up

China is using state-sponsored industrial espionage to acquire the technology it needs to forge ahead with a fast-paced military modernisation programme and cut its reliance on foreign arms makers, the Pentagon said in a new report on Monday.
"China continues to leverage foreign investments, commercial joint ventures, academic exchanges, the experience of repatriated Chinese students and researchers, and state-sponsored industrial and technical espionage to increase the level of technologies and expertise available to support military research, development, and acquisition," the US Defence Department said.
The department, in its 83-page annual report to Congress on Chinese military developments, said Beijing's publicly announced defence spending grew at an inflation-adjusted pace of nearly 10% annually over the past decade, but its actual outlays could be much higher.
China announced a 10.7% increase in military spending to $114bn in March, the Pentagon report said. But it estimated that China's actual spending for 2012 could range between $135bn and $215bn. US defence spending is more than double that at over $500bn.
"China continues to engage in activities designed to support military procurement and modernisation," the report said. "These include economic espionage, theft of trade secrets, export control violations, and technology transfer."

Mystery shrouds 'most dangerous neo-Nazi'

The woman prosecutors call Germany's most dangerous neo-Nazi took her place in the dock on Monday at a landmark trial over a racist killing spree, but despite the high-profile proceedings remains an enigmatic presence.

Beate Zschaepe, known to a horrified Germany only from a dishevelled mugshot and a handful of holiday snaps, strode into the Munich courtroom looking smart and self-confident in a tailored black trouser suit and large hoop earrings.

It was just one more mysterious turn by the 38-year-old, the last surviving member of the far-right National Socialist Underground (NSU) who since her surrender 18 months ago has hidden behind a wall of silence.

When she walked through the door of the police station of Zwickau, a sleepy town in former communist East Germany, on 8 November 2011 to turn herself in, she told officers simply: "I'm the one you're looking for."

Since then, she has refused to divulge any secrets from the previous 14 years which she, according to the authorities, spent underground and on the run as part of a militant trio blamed for 10 murders.

"Everyone in Germany knows her name but no one knows who she is," the daily Die Welt wrote about the woman who has shaken the country's self-image of having learned the lessons of its Nazi past.

Macabre love triangle

Four days before she gave herself up, her two fellow gang members, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt, died in an apparent murder-suicide after a bungled bank heist, finally bringing their lethal NSU to light.

Investigators say the three were locked in a macabre love triangle, robbing banks and living comfortably off the proceeds while they carried out their nationwide hunt for immigrant victims.

Zschaepe, the only surviving member of the group, is suspected of involvement in the killing of nine shopkeepers of Turkish or Greek origin across Germany between 2000 and 2006 and of a German policewoman in 2007, as well as 15 armed robberies, arson and attempted murder.

Dubbed "the Nazi moll" by the German tabloids, Zschaepe faces life in prison.

But those who knew her in Zwickau, where she shared a spacious rented flat with Mundlos and Boehnhardt, say she was a "gentle soul" who never revealed her far-right views.

"She was a kind of big sister, someone with a big heart," a shocked neighbour, who gave her name only as Heike K, told German television.

Dominant

She said her friend told her her name was Lisa, one of at least nine aliases Zschaepe used over the years.

Federal prosecutors say that although she likely never pulled the trigger, Zschaepe played a "dominant role" in the NSU, maintaining the delicate "emotional link" between herself and her lovers.

She fell first for Mundlos, the soft-spoken son of a university professor often seen taking care of his wheelchair-bound brother, at the age of 16, and later took up with Boehnhardt, a more volatile type with a weakness for weapons.

"Ms Zschaepe acted like a wife but for two men," one of their alleged accomplices told authorities.

Zschaepe held the purse strings, managing the windfalls from their bank hold-ups, prosecutors say.

She juggled several identities while she did the cooking and took care of their two pet cats, Lilly and Heidi.

Chaotic upbringing

On 4 November 2011, she allegedly blew up their apartment in a bid to destroy evidence after the deaths of the two Uwes - after dropping off the cats with a neighbour.

Zschaepe had a chaotic upbringing. Her mother, Annerose Apel, gave birth to her on 2 January 1975 in the East German city of Jena, purportedly after being unaware she was pregnant.

Her father was believed to be Romanian but refused to acknowledge her as his child.

During the first three years of her life, Beate's last name changed three times until she finally took the surname of her mother's second husband.

The girl spent much of her youth with her grandmother, to whom she has said she is still attached.

Zschaepe was 14 years old when the Berlin Wall fell, sending economic and ideological shockwaves through communities like hers and leading many to the political extremes.

When she finally gave herself up to police, Zschaepe had not seen her mother or grandmother in over a decade. Investigators say she saw Mundlos and Boehnhardt as her only real family.

Germany arrests alleged Auschwitz guard

German authorities arrested on Monday a 93-year-old alleged former guard at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz, on charges of complicity in the mass murder of prisoners.
Prosecutors in the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg said, the man was believed to have worked at the camp between autumn 1941 and its closure in 1945.
Authorities declined to release the suspect's name, but media reports indicated it was Hans Lipschis, who figures among the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's most-wanted Nazis and is said to have served in the SS "Death's Head" battalion.
The man, who was detained at his home, "appeared before a judge and was taken into custody", the prosecutor's office in the state capital Stuttgart said in a statement.
"The indictment against him is currently being prepared."
Stuttgart prosecutors confirmed to AFP last month that they were working on a probe launched late last year against a suspect, who had worked at Auschwitz.
A cook vs a guard
Lipschis has been living in the Baden-Württemberg town of Aalen and reportedly told the authorities that he worked as a cook, not a guard, in the camp in occupied Poland.
However, prosecutors said the evidence pointed to the fact that the suspect in question had broader responsibilities.
"He took on supervisory duties although he did not only work as a guard," a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office told AFP.
"We will try to determine concretely when and what he did at Auschwitz."
She said the suspect was not believed to have killed prisoners himself but rather "that he abetted the actions of the perpetrators".
Despite his advanced age, the suspect underwent a medical examination and was determined fit to be taken into custody.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, in its 2013 report, lists Lipschis as its fourth most-wanted Nazi, saying he served in the SS-Totenkopf Sturmbann (Death's Head Battalion) from 1941 until 1945 at Auschwitz and "participated in the mass murder and persecution of innocent civilians, primarily Jews".
Lithuanian-born Lipschis was granted "ethnic German" status by the Nazis.
He moved to the US in 1956 but was deported to Germany in 1983, Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported last month.
Nazi Germany
More than one million people, mostly European Jews, perished at Auschwitz-Birkenau, operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland from 1940 until it was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on 27 January 1945.
Germany has broadened the scope of its pursuit of Nazi war criminals since the 2011 conviction of Ukraine-born John Demjanjuk, a former guard at the Sobibor death camp in Poland.
In that case, the court ruled that any role at a death camp amounted to accessory to murder, widening culpability from those found to have personally ordered or committed murders and atrocities.
Demjanjuk was sentenced to five years' prison for complicity in about 28 000 murders. He died at a nursing home last year while free awaiting an appeal.
Lipschis is among 50 surviving Auschwitz staff, who are being investigated in Germany under the broadened culpability rules.
Renowned French Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld said he had mixed feelings about the news from Germany.
"I am torn between my idea of justice and the necessity to chase down war criminals until they take their last breath," he told AFP.
"You need evidence and documents to incriminate them and I think there won't be any more eyewitnesses to implicate them."

Raid of US home stops 'terror attack'

The FBI says it believes "a terror attack was disrupted" when authorities raided a US mobile home.

The FBI arrested 24-year-old Buford Rogers on Friday, after a search of his home in Montevideo turned up Molotov cocktails, suspected pipe bombs and firearms.
The FBI said in a Monday statement that it believes "the lives of several local residents were potentially saved" by the search and arrest.
The agency says a terror plot was discovered through analysis of intelligence gathered by local, state and federal authorities.
The statement doesn't offer further details about the extent or manner of the alleged plot.
Rogers is in federal custody and is charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. It's not clear if he has an attorney.

NEWS,03.02.2013

Fiat boss eyes Chrysler merger in 2014

Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne said Sunday that he expected the merger of the Italian car giant and its US partner Chrysler will take place in 2014."We will succeed in doing it," he said in an interview with the editor of the Repubblica newspaper. "We and VEBA (the United Auto Workers pension fund a Chrysler shareholder) have different opinions on the value of Chrysler but we will resolve the problem in 2014."Macchione, who heads both companies, had said on January 30 that the ties between the two automakers were "irreversible" and would merge "as soon as I can afford it" but did not put date on the merger.Asked on Sunday if Fiat would keep its Turin headquarters Macchione said: "We are a big group present throughout the world, it will depend on access to financial markets and the choices of the Agnelli family" who founded Fiat.He had "not thought" about the future name of the new entity, he said.The deal will ultimately give Fiat a 65% stake in Chrysler and full ownership by 2015.Boosted by increased sales at Chrysler, the Italian giant on Wednesday reported a profitable 2012, announcing a fourth quarter net profit that rose to €388m from €265m the year before.The company said it was aiming for profits of between €1.2bn and €1.5bn this year.Fiat took a 20% stake in Chrysler in 2009 as the third largest US automaker emerged from a government-financed restructuring under bankruptcy protection.It has since steadily expanded its stake by purchasing shares owned by the US government and the VEBA fund.

Starbucks tax offer too little, too late

Despite pledging to pay millions of pounds in extra tax in Britain, Starbucks faces a battle to restore its reputation over its fiscal stance, with analysts saying the offer is "too little too late".With 760 Starbucks outlets dotting Britain, coffee lovers need not travel far to find the familiar green signage and grab a frothy latte or a flat white.But surveys suggest British consumers may be losing appetite for the US chain following the revelation last year that it has paid just £8.6m in British corporation tax since 1998, despite generating £3 billion in revenues.The revelations sparked a stream of negative publicity plus protests outside coffee shops which analysts say hit the brand hard, though Starbucks itself insists "UK customers have remained loyal".Under the weight of pressure from lawmakers and consumers, the company pledged in December to pay an additional £20m in corporation tax over two years.But Sarah Murphy, director of market researchers YouGov BrandIndex, said the offer "has done little to slow down negative sentiment surrounding the brand."BrandIndex has tracked public perception of the coffee giant over several months. Its "Buzz" index gives companies a score based on what people have been hearing about the brand, with zero representing equal levels of positive and negative.In early October Starbucks' Buzz score stood at +1.9, but this plummeted to -28.4 following the tax headlines, and reached -45.2 in mid-December."That was quite a significant decline," said Murphy, adding that measures of perceptions of Starbucks' quality and value also sank during that time.In November, Britain's parliamentary accounts committee grilled top executives from Google, Amazon and Starbucks over their tax affairs.The apparent peak in negativity surrounding Starbucks in December came after the committee's chairman Margaret Hodge slammed companies involved in tax avoidance schemes as "totally immoral".Since then, Murphy says the brand "does seem to be making a slow recovery", but that the company "did too little too late."Social media agency Yomego identified similar patterns. It tracked online conversation over the same period and found negative comments about Starbucks increasingly outweighed positive.Some 95% of comments on Starbucks UK's Facebook and Twitter pages made reference to tax evasion, analysts said.Yomego managing director Steve Richards said: "The outrage over tax avoidance can't help but have an impact on a company's reputation in social channels."The old adage that 'bad news travels fast' has never been more true. Now news has so many channels to travel through, with the potential to multiply as people comment on and share stories."But does negative chatter cause consumers to shop elsewhere?Restaurant manager Julia Stypik said she's "not a huge fan of Starbucks... There's much better coffee and plenty of competitors."However this did not stop her frequenting a busy London branch of the chain one lunch-hour.On the tax issue, she told AFP: "I think they have been very clever but this should end at some point. It's unfair. Everyone has to pay taxes. "Some critics argue Starbucks is being unfairly targeted; Britain needs to tighten up on loopholes which allow companies to pay less corporation tax by moving profits abroad. Starbucks has acknowledged paying no corporation tax for three years on sales worth £400m owing to fees paid to other parts of its business. Executives insist its British division is unprofitable.Despite operating within the law, the multinational has borne fierce criticism from lawmakers, including Prime Minister David Cameron who told the World Economic Forum in Davos last month that tax-avoiding companies must "wake up and smell the coffee".The swipe was ill-received by Starbucks, according to the Sunday Telegraph which claimed it threatened to pull £100m of British investment, though a source close to the company told AFP "no threat was made".A Starbucks spokesperson said: "Starbucks agrees with the prime minister that all businesses should pay their fair share."In the UK, we employ 9 000 people, contribute £300m a year to the economy and are foregoing tax deductions that will make the Exchequer at least £20m better off."Starbucks says it remains "fully committed" to opening 300 new stores and creating 5 000 new jobs by 2016.

Kuwait growth to slow - report

Oil-driven economic growth in the Gulf state of Kuwait is forecast to slow down this year and in 2014 as crude output is expected to remain flat, the National Bank of Kuwait said in a report Sunday.After Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by a healthy 6.1% in real terms last year, thanks to continued strong oil income, it is forecast to drop to 3.2% in 2013 and to 2.5% in 2014, NBK said.Following a massive contraction of around 8% in 2009 due to the impact of the global financial crisis, Kuwait's economy gradually rebounded to grow by around 8% in 2011 as oil output and price remained high.Oil income in the OPEC member contributes an average of 95% to public revenues. Kuwait ended the past 13 fiscal years in the black and is forecast to post a huge budget surplus in the current fiscal year which ends on March 31.Oil GDP, which grew by 15% and 10% in 2011 and 2012 respectively, is expected to remain flat this year and contract by around 1.5% in 2014, according to the NBK report.But the bank revised upward expected non-oil GDP growth from 4% to 5% this year based on signs of greater determination by the authorities to implement large infrastructure projects.Most projects under a $110bn four-year development plan, that runs until 2014, have been stalled because of a political crisis in the emirate.The opposition has staged protests to demand the dissolution of parliament elected last month on the basis of an electoral law that was amended by the emir, claiming that the change is illegal and aimed at electing a rubber stamp body.But over the past few months, authorities either signed or gave the green light for mega projects worth around $40bn, mostly in the oil and power sectors.Inflation this year and next is expected to remain moderate at between 3-4%.Kuwait says it sits on around 10% of global oil reserves and pumps around 3.0 million barrels per day. It is estimated to have $400bn in foreign assets run by the sovereign wealth fund.The emirate has a native population of 1.2 million in addition to 2.6 million foreigners, mostly Asians and Arabs.

China's shortage threatens economy

China's demographic timebomb is ticking much louder with the first fall in its labour pool for decades, analysts say, highlighting the risk that the country grows old before it grows rich.The abundant supply of cheap workers in the world's most populous nation has created unprecedented cost efficiencies that underpinned its blistering economic expansion over the past 35 years, propelling the global economy forward.But now the inexorable consequences of the one-child policy imposed in the late 1970s are beginning to appear, and threaten to impact its future growth.China's working-age population, defined as 15-59, fell 3.45 million last year, official data showed earlier this month the first decline since 1963, after tens of millions died in a famine caused by the Great Leap Forward.The immediate effect may be small in a nation of 1.35 billion people, but the cumulative effects will accelerate over the coming decades.The number of people aged between 15 and 64 will drop by around 40 million between 2014 and 2030, said Wang Guangzhou, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a government think-tank --more than Poland's entire population."The population is aging so fast that we are running short of time to deal with it," said Li Jun, also of CASS, adding the family planning policy had exacerbated the problem.China's proportion of over-65-year-olds is projected to double from seven to 14% over only 26 years a key demographic measure that took the United States 69 years to complete."Undoubtedly it will substantially slow down China's potential growth rate," Yao Wei, an economist with Societe Generale in Hong Kong, told AFP.An ageing population not only means fewer people available to employ and higher labour costs, but investment a key driver of China's growth will be harder to maintain as families spend their savings on health care, she said.Chinese authorities maintain that controlling its population growth has been key to increasing its prosperity.But while China has risen to become the world's second-largest economy, on a per capita basis it still lags far behind the US and other developed countries.Industrial disputes have become more common in recent years, as workers demand higher pay and better working conditions on the back of growing awareness of their rights and the shortage of skilled staff.Multinational companies are looking to other developing economies with lower wages for further expansion, with some already moving production bases out of China to rivals such as Indonesia and Vietnam.In a survey of 514 Japanese manufacturers by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation last year, the number of respondents voting China as the top destination for overseas business fell by more than 10 percentage points on 2011.Economists said China must look to speed up the transformation of its economic model and move up the value chain.The golden period of the manufacturing industry, particularly those depending on exports, has gone," said Yao.At the same time, she said, the country was woefully underprepared to meet the burden of caring for the elderly."The fiscal situation is not prepared and the social security network is not complete," she said.By around 2060, every three Chinese workers will have to support two people above 60, compared with a ratio of five to one now, according to Li's projections.It is a crucial challenge for the ruling Communist Party, said Ren Xianfang, a Beijing-based analyst with research firm IHS Global Insight."Delivering growth and delivering social security to the general public are the key things for the state to (maintain) its legitimacy."Analysts said the medical services are increasingly expensive and hard to access, while the country's flagship public pension plans are crippled by problems including insolvency risks, difficulties in expanding coverage and mismanagement.A rural areas programme was introduced in 2009 to provide people from the countryside with their first ever state-subsided retirement scheme, but its payouts are particularly meagre in many areas as low as 55 yuan ($9) a month.The husband of Du Wenlan, a farmer from Chongqing, gets 80 yuan a month from the plan. She only buys new clothes once every three years, she said, and tries to save money by diluting their rice porridge."What can 80 yuan do?" she asked.On the streets of Beijing, Su Xu, 30, who works for a cosmetics company, told AFP: "I panic when I think about my retirement."

Why 'A players' matter

It's All About Who You Hire, How They Lead... and Other Essential Advice from a Self-Made Leader by Morton L MandelTHIS is an unusual book on leadership.It is the distilled wisdom of an American businessman and philanthropist, but that in itself is not unusual as there are literally thousands of books of this kind.There are three facts that make this book unusual. First, Mandel was described by the business guru, Peter Drucker, in a Forbes magazine article as one of the three businessmen he admired most. (The other two were Jack Welsh of General Electric and Andy Grove of Intel.)Second, his company, Premier Industrial Corporation, was the lead anecdote in a Business Week cover story on customer service, and superlative customer service is always the result of a business that is well managed.Finally, Mandel is a self-made dollar billionaire; his is a genuine story of rags to riches.The title of the book, “It is all about who you hire" encapsulates much of its wisdom. Great leaders have always had an undue impact on the organisations they lead, whether the organisation is a non-profit, a for-profit or a country.This position has led to Mandel insisting that only “A players” occupy leadership positions in his own companies, and in the many public benefit organisations he served and those he established with his own wealth.In a conversation with Mandel, Drucker asserted that you must always put your very best person into your greatest opportunity. When Mandel countered with the question: what if your best person is dentist and your greatest opportunity is a brass foundry, Drucker replied that the best person would fast realise what he could not do and fast find the right person to do it.This begs the question  what is an “A player?” Mandel has five criteria: intellect, values, passion, work ethic, and experience in this order.The complexity of modern business requires its leader to have intellectual firepower, that ability to analyse facts correctly, interrogate situations cleverly, apply thoughtful judgement, and make good decisions.Fortunately, there are many ways to see a person’s intellect and Mandel favours school and university grades because they are taken over long periods and therefore are more reliable than a quick test or flash of brilliance in an interview. Values are harder to discern, but how a candidate talks about their parents, teacher and role models does provide clues.Intellect and values without passion won’t get results you require from the leader. Passion, unlike values, is much easier to discern because you can feel it, hear, it see it. If you can feel it, so will the leader’s staff.The work ethic Mandel is referring to is not only the capacity to work long and work hard, but the way you engage with your work. The work ethic is the belief that work goes a long way in defining oneself.Experience comes last on this list of what you look for when you hire an “A player” because you can help an incumbent to have the relevant experience if he has the other four ingredients.“A players” will need to be paid well, but this is always a small investment for the type of return they are able create. A greater problem is keeping them; they will not stay long in a company or organisation which does not have a rich, deep and ethical culture.A deeply ethical culture is the created and maintained only through diligently enforcing and reinforcing ethical behaviour between staff, and between the company and its suppliers and customers. It requires the establishing codes of conduct that are taken seriously, and never giving in to the temptation to compromise even if the cost is high.Mandel recalls a hugely valuable deal his firm had worked hard to close. When it was secured, the representative of the customer company explained that a 5% consideration was required a veiled request for a “side payment.”There was no discussion as to whether Mandel’s company should accede to the request, so clear were the company's values to all. They don’t engage in dishonest practices, no matter the cost, so the deal was declined.The style of management practised and promoted by Mandel is the polar opposite of the laissez faire type, where the CEO hires his leaders and releases them to do as they will. It is also not a command and control style.Mandel stays on top of all issues to provide guidance and assistance so that both the decisions and the execution are superb.The managers we want out of our way are invariably the managers who we do not respect. These are not managers who are helping you to do your best work; rather, they want you to blindly execute their will.One of the techniques to achieve your personal best in your private life as well as your career is the “Factsbook.” This is a three-ring binder that every leader at every level has that contains minutes of every meeting you have with your manager, all your assignments, your progress in these assignments, and even a schedule of your meetings for the year.At the beginning of each meeting the notes from the last meeting are read aloud to the manager. This seemingly odd practice is of enormous value in keeping responsibilities clear and ensuring they are fulfilled. Consider this: how many times have decisions you and a staff member agreed should be done, not been carried out? Then read the chapter on Factbooks and start using them.The book covers a wide array of thoughts ranging from uncommonly high commitment to satisfying a customer to what to watch out for in mergers or acquisitions. Many of the lessons were learned from Mandel’s successes, but equally from failures or missteps. What Mandel stresses, as seen from having been there, is that there is no difference between running a for-profit and a not-for-profit organisation. The only difference is the measures of success.This book will enlighten you, remind you of things you already know, but perhaps don’t practice, and give you a perspective on doing business successfully. The approach works. Mandel proved it.

NEWS,24.01.2013

Britain reaches out to world leaders

British Prime Minister David Cameron insisted on Thursday he was not turning his back on Europe as he came face to face with world leaders for the first time since unveiling plans for a referendum.In a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Cameron said he would use his country's chairmanship of the G8 to counter tax avoidance by corporations and urged action to curb the threat of terror attacks. But the global elite gathered in the snowy Swiss ski resort only had ears for Cameron's comments on the European Union, a day after he unveiled his proposal to let the British public vote on whether to stay in the bloc.He held talks with German Chancellor and EU powerbroker Angela Merkel and the prime ministers of Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands on the sidelines of the annual forum to seek support for his plans."This is not about turning our backs on Europe quite the opposite," Cameron told the audience of business leaders, top politicians and journalists from around the world."It's about how we make the case for a more competitive, open and flexible Europe, and secure the UK's place within it."His announcement on Wednesday that he wants to renegotiate Britain's relationship with Brussels and then hold an "in-or-out" referendum on membership by the end of 2017 has delighted his increasingly anti-EU party at home.European leaders in Davos called on Britain to stay in the 27-nation group and made encouraging noises, in public at least, in support of Cameron's calls for reforms to make the EU more competitive.Cameron will need allies in Europe to back his quest to renegotiate Britain's relationship with Brussels before holding a referendum on the new terms.Dutch premier Mark Rutte warned that without the EU, Britain would be "an island somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere between the United States and Europe".Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said the EU would be "stronger if Britain is part of it."Merkel meanwhile sidestepped the topic but reached out to Cameron by vowing more action on one of the key reforms he wants for Europe boosting competitiveness."I say this expressly to my colleague David Cameron. You too have addressed competitiveness, see this as a central issue to ensure Europe's prosperity for the future," she said.Foreign policy guru and former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger told the forum that the "idea of European unity needs to be resolved" if the continent is to make a lasting recovery from the three-year eurozone debt crisis.But Cameron rejected any idea of a European superstate or of Britain ever adopting the euro and added that he did not agree that "there should be a country called Europe".Britain's Finance Minister George Osborne backed up the message when he appeared at Davos later, saying: "I'm arguing for reform in Europe and Britain being part of a reformed Europe."Cameron said in his speech that Britain's presidency of the Group of Eight leading world economies Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States would focus on tackling tax avoidance and increasing transparency in a bid to boost the global economy.He said corporations must "pay their fair share" of taxes and that too many businesses were abusing tax schemes, after Britain last year announced a crackdown on multinationals such as Starbucks, Google and Amazon.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates and Jordan's Queen Rania are due to share the stage with Cameron on Thursday evening to speak on issues affecting the global economy.The crisis in Mali, where French forces are helping African troops fight Islamist militants, was also being discussed.No formal decisions are taken at Davos but corporate deals are often sewn up on the sidelines and presidents and prime ministers huddle to thrash out pressing issues.

Concern over currency manipulation at WEF

German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed concern on Thursday about the risks of currency manipulation, specifically mentioning Japan, where the central bank has decided to quicken the pace of money-printing."I am not completely without worry. We have a much higher sensitivity through the discussion in the G20 for currency manipulation or political influence," Merkel said at the World Economic Forum in Davos."I don't want to say that I look towards Japan completely without concern at the moment. And it will be important for Europe as well that the ample liquidity that was given out to banks last year is collected back again."

EU carbon market plunge 'a wake-up call'

A carbon market price fall to less than €3 on Thursday must serve as a wake-up call to EU member states to back a Commission plan to prop up the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the EU climate commissioner said.The cost of carbon allowances on the ETS hit a low of €2.81 a tonne on Thursday after a European Parliament committee in a preliminary, non-binding vote, rejected proposals for market reform. The price later climbed back above €4."It must be clear to all that when the Commission warned that the ETS price could drop dramatically it was not a false warning but a real possibility," Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in a statement."This should be the final wake-up call both to governments and to the European Parliament."Thursday's vote was only an advisory step in the tortuous EU process of trying to agree a plan to remove temporarily some of the surplus allowances that have depressed the market.A more decisive vote in the European Parliament's environment committee is expected next month, to be followed by a vote of member states.Hedegaard said there was widespread agreement an ETS was "the most cost-efficient tool in EU climate politics" and world-wide the idea was catching on.The European Union is working on linking up with other schemes in Switzerland and Australia, for instance.As the rest of the world moves towards coherent carbon pricing, which many in business say they need to plan investment, Hedegaard said the EU was in danger of a messy patchwork of policies, different for each of the 27 member states."The alternative to a well-functioning carbon market is hardly that the EU member states will make it cost nothing to pollute," she said."The alternative is a re-nationalisation of climate tools, meaning a future patchwork of up to 27 different systems and taxes, instead of one market creating a level playing field internally in Europe."

NEWS,30.11.2012

US 'fiscal cliff': No deal in sight

Washington politicians have one month to step back from the so-called "fiscal cliff," across-the-board tax hikes and austerity-driven spending cuts likely to return the country to recession, and a top Republican declares there has been no real progress after two weeks of talks between President Barack Obama and a divided Congress. The president has called for settling the issue before Christmas and headed on Friday to Pennsylvania to campaign for his demand that any deal include higher tax rates on US couples earning more than $250,000 a year. He also wants to keep in place the smaller tax burden that lower income earners have had for about a decade. But Republican House Speaker John Boehner, after receiving details of the Obama plan in a private meeting on Thursday with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, said "no substantive progress has been made" in negotiations since Congress returned to work after the 6 November election. "Much to my disappointment, it wasn't a serious one," Boehner said on Friday of the proposal. Democrats have said that any delay was the fault of Republicans who refuse to accept Obama's call to raise tax rates on the richest Americans."There can be no deal without rates on top earners going up," White House press secretary Jay Carney said Thursday. The austerity measures that automatically would take effect 1 January unless a deal is made is the looming punishment for Washington's inability, or unwillingness, in recent years to deal decisively with the country's spending far more than it has been taking in. Politicians in both major US parties are showing no signs of giving up on the deep partisan divisions that have crippled legislative action in Washington despite Obama's strong victory for a second White House term.White House officials believe Obama's trip on Friday would build momentum for his case, even as Republicans describe it as an irritant and an obstacle to productive talks. Obama insists on higher taxes for the top 2% of earners and casts Republicans as an obstacle to a deal. Republicans have said they are open to new tax revenue but not higher rates. Obama said both sides need to "get out of our comfort zones" to reach an agreement. Obama toured and spoke at the Rodon Group manufacturing facility, showcasing the company as an example of a business that depends on middle-class consumers during the holiday season. The company manufactures parts for K'NEX Brands, a construction toy company.The uncertainty over whether the US can resolve the critical budget deadlock is beginning to increase jitters in stock markets in Europe, where eurozone countries have already returned to recessionary economies. European investor sentiment had been buoyed this week by upbeat reports on the US economy, including economic growth and consumer confidence. But markets failed to sustain their rally on Friday as trading became increasingly focused on the difficult talks between the White House and Congress.Economists warn that sending the US economy over the "fiscal cliff" would trigger a recession and cause a spike in already stubbornly high unemployment.To avoid the danger, Obama and Congress are hoping to devise a plan that can reduce future deficits by as much as $4 trillion in a decade, cancel the tax increases and automatic spending cuts and expand the government's ability to borrow beyond the current limit of $16.4 trillion.Officials on Thursday said the White House is seeking $1.6 trillion in higher taxes over a decade and an immediate infusion of money to aid the jobless and help hard-pressed homeowners.In exchange, the officials said, Obama would support an unspecified amount of spending cuts this year, to be followed by legislation in 2013 producing savings of as much as $400bn from popular benefit programs over a decade.In political terms, the White House proposal are nearly opposite what Republicans earlier lay down as their first offer, including a permanent extension of income tax cuts at all levels.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters, "We're still waiting for a serious offer from Republicans."The White House also circulated a memo that said closing tax loopholes and limiting tax deductions a preferred Republican alternative to Obama's call to raise high-end tax rates would be likely to depress charitable donations and wind up leading to a middle-class tax increase in the near future.

EU set to fight internet tax at summit

European Union member states are preparing to fight as a bloc alongside the United States to prevent a move by Russia and countries in Africa to impose a levy on internet traffic and make it easier to track users' activities.The showdown over the policing and administration of the internet will take place at a meeting of the International Telecommunications Union in Dubai from Dec. 3-14, when the ITU's 193 member countries will meet to debate new net rules.The EU's 27 states are staunchly opposed to sweeping plans to regulate the internet, including proposals from Africa, Asia and the Middle East that governments should be able to trace the flow of Web-based traffic and introduce a tax on companies such as Google and Yahoo! if they deliver content to networks abroad.The United States, which plays a dominant role in administering the internet via ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is firmly opposed to any new restrictions, which it fears will limit innovation and commerce.It is backed in its stance by the EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and other ITU-member countries. As well as having support from African countries, officials say Russia has backing for some of its proposals from China."The EU believes that there is no justification for such proposals," the European Commission, the EU's executive, said on Friday, saying it was the view of all 27 member states.Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner responsible for internet policy, says some of the proposals being made ahead of the ITU conference risk damaging the internet's evolution as a critical piece of global commercial infrastructure and a network for the free flow of information and data."The European Union's firm view is that the internet works," she said this week. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."Leaked drafts of a proposal from Russia show it would like to have more say over internet traffic entering its networks, a proposal the United States has said is most troubling to them."Member states shall have the sovereign right to regulate... the national internet segment," Russia's proposal says.The US ambassador to the ITU, Terry Kramer, said Moscow's plans would give governments "the right to route traffic, to review content, and say that's all a completely national matter", a potentially profound limitation on speech and trade.Any agreements which would allow governments to shepherd traffic at their will threaten US business interests because most content on the internet either originates from, is stored in or routed via the United States.With some of the world's biggest and most innovative Web-based companies, from Google to Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo!, based in the United States, the country has the most to lose.While countries like Russia cite cyber attacks as a reason to monitor traffic, the EU see it as an excuse. "Some countries treat this as a euphemism for controlling freedom of expression," said a commission official.The EU is also alarmed by proposals to make content providers pay for having their services delivered abroad.As traditional phone revenues decline and internet access prices remain high, some countries argue that Google, Skype and Facebook ought to pay to have their traffic routed to that country, helping them fund the expansion of their networks.A leaked proposal from Cameroon says traffic reaching a network operator would incur "full payment." Kramer said some Arab states were also favourable to the idea.However, such proposals, known as 'sender party pays', are a potential boon to European telecoms companies, some of which annnounced in October that they supported such fees. Some European telecoms operators have or would like to have operations in developing countries such as Cameroon.The German operator Deutsche Telekom tried to promote the principle by comparing it to the first postage stamp. But in practical terms, extending the way the postal service makes money to the internet could mean that Google would pay each time someone in Cameroon read their Google-based email. Critics say such proposals are unworkable because traffic usually crosses half a dozen networks in several countries before it lands in a person's browser."The idea that you trace and bill all of this is ludicrous," said James Waterworth of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a US group whose members include Facebook and Microsoft and which has an office in Brussels.Internet activists say such fees would 'Balkanise' the internet and cause an information black out in poorer countries."Who would be interested in providing content, if they have to pay for doing so?" said Markus Kummer of the Internet Society, a think-tank with offices in Geneva."And developing countries might be shooting themselves in the foot, as reversing the economic internet model might cut them off from accessing vital information."

Unemployment hits 19 million Europeans

Eurozone joblessness has reached a new high and the poor state of the economy is reducing inflation to near two-year lows, raising the prospect of further interest cuts by the European Central Bank. As the eurozone sinks into its second recession since 2009, the number of people out of work in the eurozone rose by 173 000 people in October to almost 19 million people unemployed, the EU's statistics office Eurostat said on Friday. That pushed joblessness to the highest level since the euro was introduced in 1999, at 11.7% of the working population, illustrating the human impact of a public debt and banking crisis that has reverberated across the world. Struggling companies and indebted households have also lost the confidence to spend and invest, evident in the annual consumer price inflation reading for November, which dropped to 2.2% in November from 2.5% in October. Consumer price inflation was at its lowest level since December 2010. One of the smallest rises in energy price inflation in a year helped to bring inflation to near the ECB's target of near, but just under 2%, opening the door to more rate cuts by the bank. The ECB last cut its main refinancing rate in July, to a record low of 0.75%, and economists in a Reuters poll this week were more divided than ever on whether there will be another rate cut early next year. "The outlook is still bleak," said Thomas Costerg, an economist at Standard Chartered in London, who sees an ECB rate cut in the first three months of next year. "We think that ECB President Mario Draghi will leave the door open for more stimulus in the coming months," he said. The cost of borrowing for banks and households in the eurozone is already at a record low of 0.75% and economists question whether further rate cuts will do much good, because of a lack of confidence among banks to lend. The central bank may decide to postpone a rate cut until after its next meeting on December 6 as it tries to keep markets focused on the benefits of its recently-announced plan to buy the bonds of governments in distress and keep their borrowing costs down. The bond-buying programme has calmed nervy investors who predicted the break-up of the eurozone just a few months ago and many are moving back into Italian and Spanish bond markets. But the eurozone's economic reality is one of a slowing German economy, stagnation in France, recession for Italy and Spain and an outright depression in Greece, with no signs of a quick recovery. Many economists blame the spending cuts implemented by almost all governments in the past three years to try to bring down their deficits that ballooned over the past decade. Portugal, for instance, shed more than one in 20 public sector jobs in the first nine months of 2012. But in a shift in tone, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission say now that they may have been too aggressive in pushing for government cutbacks. The Commission is now advocating "growth-friendly fiscal consolidation". Draghi, speaking on French radio on Friday, tried to sound cautiously upbeat and has avoided the word "recession" in his public comments in recent weeks. "The recovery for most of the eurozone will certainly begin in the second half of 2013," he told Europe 1 radio. Yet even the European Commission's forecast of 0.1% growth next year looks optimistic and many banks, from Citigroup to Standard Chartered, expect the recession to continue and unemployment to keep rising. There are also wide divergences in unemployment in the eurozone, with the jobless rate at around 4% in Austria, 16% in Portugal and above 25% in Spain and Greece. "The number of unemployed, which better captures the shorter-term dynamics, is showing little sign of abating," said JP Morgan economist Greg Fuzesi. "Even with our expectation of a modest recovery next year, the unemployment rate could reach 12% quite soon," he said.

NEWS,25.01.2012

            The $100 billion question of 2012

IF it ever happens, Facebook will be the frenzied float of 2012, with a possible valuation of $100b (£64.4bn).
But as Mark Zuckerberg considers the options on whether to publicly list the social media site which has 800m users, senior technology figures are asking how much Facebook will learn from the flotation of another internet giant in 2004. The question on everyone’s lips is will Facebook “do a Google” – largely shunning the Wall Street banking community and creating a retail offer via an auction?
Facebook is considering a flotation in New York that would raise about $10bn (£6.5bn) and value the company at $100bn, making it the largest initial public offering (IPO) by an internet company in history and one that’s likely to be accompanied by a record amount of hype.
Should anything close to these numbers be reached, an IPO will make Zuckerberg one of the world’s richest men and many of Facebook’s 3,000 employees exceedingly wealthy. “Zuckerberg has sought to delay an IPO for as long as possible.”      

As 2012 begins, the clock has almost stopped ticking for Facebook’s 27-year old founder to delay further.
Facebook will have to disclose its financial results by the end of April to comply with a US regulation requiring any company with more than 500 shareholders to do so.
While an IPO isn’t a legal requirement of disclosing results, most expect a Facebook float to follow shortly after the company opens its results up to the world.
Whatever a flotation means for Facebook’s long-term future, the company’s far more pressing challenge will be to execute the IPO without any hitches. That’s where David Ebersman, who joined Facebook as its chief financial officer from US biotechnology company Genentech in 2009, stepped in.
The early noises suggested that a Facebook IPO would consign Wall Street banks to a supporting role at best, echoing what Google did almost a decade earlier.
Facebook isn’t yet believed to have picked advisers, and Ebersman is said to have drafted the S-1 registration form, a critical document usually produced by banks, that doubles as a disclosure form for regulators and a marketing brochure for the company selling shares.
“There’s a tendency in the aggregate for Silicon Valley to be sceptical and cynical about Wall Street,” says Lise Buyer, who helped Google organise its IPO when she worked there and now advises companies that are going public on their relations with banks. “A banker’s seal of approval can help persuade an investor but if you’re Facebook you don’t need that.”
The muscle that Facebook brings to the table - the users themselves and revenues estimated to be close to $4bn this year - has led to predictions that Facebook might follow the example Google set in 2004 and sell shares by auction.
The idea, in part, would be to open the sale up to retail investors and sell the shares at a price that reflected true demand, rather than engineering a first day surge for those investors – who are also often clients of the banks – lucky enough to buy the shares at the IPO.
As speculation intensifies about when Facebook will file its S-1 – the moment when the public starting gun on the IPO process is fired – there would be considerable risks in completely avoiding Wall Street.
For a start, Google’s flotation is not seen as an unequivocal success. Google’s shares surged almost 20pc on the first day of trading, prompting accusations the auction system failed to accurately match the amount of shares sold with demand from investors.
Also, Facebook has already used banks to raise funds. In December 2010, Goldman Sachs drummed up $1bn for the company from its wealthiest clients. Even those technology bankers who believe the IPO process needs improving say you need very strong motivation to go public using a system every banker on Wall Street is hoping blows up.
“If you begin to introduce that [the auction] as a mechanism, you erode the value that Wall Street thinks it adds,” said Eric Risley, who was a technology banker at Bank of America and is now a partner at boutique adviser Architect Partners in Silicon Valley. “Wall Street was very pleased that the Google auction failed.”
It will be a surprise if Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, doesn’t use her annual trip to the World Economic Forum at Davos at the end of the month to meet the Wall Street bankers who will also be at the gathering of business leaders in the Swiss ski resort.
The fees generated from taking technology companies public was a rare bright spot for Wall Street in 2011, with Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs making up the four biggest earners, according to Dealogic.
But analysts say that the flotation of video game pioneer Zynga in early December holds cautionary lessons for Facebook. Best known for the games Farmville and Cityville that are played on Facebook, Zynga’s shares ended their first day down 5pc and have yet to reach the $10 mark they were sold for.
Some put the blame on Zynga trying to sell too many shares. It sold 15pc of its stock, almost double the amount offered by professional networking site Linked-In last May. LinkedIn’s shares are now 40pc higher than the $45 they were first sold for.
“A busted Facebook IPO that trades underwater would seriously harm Facebook’s momentum and reputation, with everyone from major advertising agencies to valuable talent Facebook wishes to hire,” says Sam Hamadeh, managing director of PrivCo, a US firm that analyses privately held companies.

NEWS 28.12.2011

Iran is threatening the closure of the straits through which passes 40 percent of world oil

 Iran will close Hormuz Strait, and so to prevent the export of oil from the Persian Gulf, if the West limit Iran's oil exports because of his nuclear program, agencies reported.
"Iran doesn’t want animosity, but the West is conspiring against Tehran," said Vice President of Iran Mohammad Reza Rahimi.

Japan: It made ​​no death penalty for the first time after 20 years

In Japan, this year was not carried out any death penalty, this has never happened in the last two decades.

"We have no information that has beeen any executions up till today," said a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice, reports AFP.

This is the first year after nearly two decades that Japan is not carried out any death penalty,

although the number of convictions on the death penalty has risen from 111 in late 2010. to 129 in December this year.

 
Executions who they’re carried out by hanging in Japan are prohibited during the New Year period from 29 December to 3 January, weekends and public holidays.

The last death sentence was carried out in Japan in July last year.

Japan is with the United States the only developed country where there is still a death sentence, which is why Tokyo is faced with criticism from European governments and organizations for the protection of human rights.

Another secret: Nixon was a gay and in love affair with the mafia guy?

President of the famous Watergate scandal was in publicly against homosexual relationships, a privately, allegedly, had an affair with mobsters Charles 'Bebe' Rebozom

Former U.S. President Richard Nixon said in his book "Nixon darkest secrets" by Dona Fulsome, was gay the Daily Mail. President of the famous Watergate scandal was in publicly against homosexual relationships, a privately allegedly had an affair with mobsters Charles 'Bebe' Rebozom.

Fulsom claims are based on documents and interviews with people who knew Nixon. The former president had not slept in the same room with his wife, and beat her. Author of the book mentions that the Nixon and Rebozo during a presidential reception held hands under the table. The author claims that, if they drank, they were hugging eathother. In the book Fulsome say that Rebozo was during Nixon presidency untouchable, and his wealth grew significantly. For outside public Rebozo was only Nixon's partner for golf.

For Christmas Eve and Christmas 3.7 million devices are activated on Android

Google's Andy Rubin recently announced that they had come to an average of 700,000 daily activations of new devices, and for the holidays is activated even new 3.7 mil. Devices

Andy Rubin of Google's Department for mobile devices to profile Google + has announced that during the 24th and 25^th  December are activated 3.7 million Android devices.

 The Zimo announce, since the beginning of the month until Christmas, dayly was activated 1.5 million Android and IOS devices, and on Christmas, number of downloads of various applications has increased 125 percent. He adds that on Christmas are activated 6.8 million devices (included  IOS and Android), compared to last year's 2.8 million.

Rubin last week at his profile said, that the daily average of 700,000 has been activated Android devices.