Innovative entrepreneurship is exactly what the American economy desperately needs. You might think that the American innovation system is in great shape because large numbers of highly educated young people are flocking to Silicon Valley to create their own smartphone apps. You’d be wrong. The problem, as Thiel argues, is that although we have large numbers of copycat entrepreneurs, we have very few who are willing to take on the biggest, most difficult challenges. If Amazon weren’t a relentless competitor that threatened the very existence of dozens of hidebound retailers, consumers would endure the same high prices and mediocre service, and shareholders in the various not-Amazons of the world would be sitting pretty. Amazon is the living embodiment of what the mostly forgotten economist Joseph Berliner famously called the “invisible foot” of capitalism.
We’ve all heard of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” that guides the free market. The invisible foot is the invisible hand’s brutish older brother. It is the force that sees to it that capital gets reallocated from firms that aren’t doing their jobs to firms that are by putting the former out of business. The invisible foot has seen better days. In sector after sector—banking, broadband, and utilities come to mind—large incumbent firms have found new ways to protect themselves from competition, whether through coziness with regulators of sweetheart subsidy deals with politicians on the make to a pathetic lack of imagination among entrepreneurs who refuse to take on the toughest challenges. The sectors that Amazon takes on are the big exception. Instead of damning Amazon, we need to be asking why we don’t have more companies like it.
via Amazon isn’t the problem with capitalism. It’s the solution to our economic ills..
Russell Brand: what monkeys and the Queen taught me about inequality | Culture | The Guardian
We then watched a clip on YouTube where monkeys in adjacent cages in a university laboratory perform the same task for food. Monkey A does the task and gets a grape – delicious. Monkey B, who can see Monkey A, performs the same task and is given cucumber – yuck. Monkey B looks pissed off but eats his cucumber anyway. The experiment is immediately repeated and you can see that Monkey B is agitated when his uptown, up-alphabet neighbour is again given a grape. When he is presented with the cucumber this time, he is furious – he throws it out the cage and rattles the bars. I got angry on his behalf and wanted to give the scientist a cucumber in a less amenable orifice. I also felt a bit pissed off with Monkey A, the grape-guzzling little bastard. I’ve not felt such antipathy towards a primate since that one in Raiders of the Lost Ark with the little waistcoat betrayed Indy.
Slingerland explained, between great frothing gobfuls of munched hazelnut, that this inherent sense of fairness is found in humans everywhere, but that studies show that it’s less pronounced in environments where people are exposed to a lot of marketing. “Capitalist, consumer culture inures us to unfairness,” he said. That made me angry.
via Russell Brand: what monkeys and the Queen taught me about inequality | Culture | The Guardian.
READ: Jennifer's German fiance reacts | ABS-CBN News
No wonder the monster soldier did think he would get away with it. You show him that every day. Your society does. How should a foreigner respect people like Jennifer if your own society doesn’t?
So face your own guilt. And if the death of Jennifer is for one sense. Learn from it. Listen to the gender protests of those who now finally stand up. Open your eyes (to) what is happening around you and make everyone part of your community.
Isn’t one slogan: STAND TOGETHER OLONGAPO? Why don’t you start with those who you do let stand outside from your society?
Aim high Olongapo? What a joke, regarding what (life) you offer to the majority of your own people.
I will try my best to get there as soon as I can, to pay the honor and respect to Jennifer as the Rose of Olongapo, the honor and respect she simply (deserves) for lifetime but never got from society.
via READ: Jennifer’s German fiance reacts | ABS-CBN News.
This Guy Makes Millions Playing Video Games on YouTube – The Atlantic
The YouTube personality with the most subscribers isn’t Justin Bieber (8 million) or Rihanna (12.5 million). That honor goes to a 24-year-old Swede named Felix Kjellberg, better known by his YouTube handle, PewDiePie.
PewDiePie doesn’t sing or dance, no. PewDiePie has made his name—and a fortune—posting videos of himself playing video games. In one November video, for instance, he plays the Xbox Indie game “Techno Kitten Adventure,” helping a feline avatar navigate dangerous terrain filled with unicorns and narwhals, and shrieking in frustration each time his cat crashes into an obstacle.
via This Guy Makes Millions Playing Video Games on YouTube – The Atlantic.
CALCULATOR: How much less income tax would you pay if reform bills are passed? | News | GMA News Online
Angara bill FTW!
Three measures are currently filed in the Senate to lower the income tax rate. How much less would you pay in income taxes if any of the three measures are passed? Check out in the calculator below.
via CALCULATOR: How much less income tax would you pay if reform bills are passed? | News | GMA News Online.
Japan starting to pay price for halfhearted courtship of foreign workers- Nikkei Asian Review
Japan starting to pay price for halfhearted courtship of foreign workers
TOKYO — Immigration is often discussed as a potential solution for shoring up Japan’s aging and shrinking workforce. Yet many say Tokyo is not doing enough to compete with other governments that offer international workers greener pastures.
The demographic math does not look good.
The Cabinet Office in February estimated that in order to stabilize Japan’s population at around 110 million, the nation will need to accept 200,000 immigrants annually as well as raise its birthrate to 2.07. The number of foreign workers stood at 718,000 in 2013, up only 35,000 from the previous year.
International talent is not exactly flocking to Japan; some workers are also leaving the country. Asokaen, a nursing home for seniors who need special care in Itami, Hyogo Prefecture, has seen this firsthand.
Recently, a female Filipino employee in her 30s informed the facility that she had decided to go and work in the U.K. She had been studying to obtain a nursing care license in Japan but the language barrier dissuaded her from continuing. “Japan is losing the global competition to attract skilled workers,” lamented Yukichika Kawahara, who manages the nursing home.
Japan accepts such workers under an economic partnership agreement with the Philippines. Caregivers can come and gain experience while studying for the exam, which they must pass if they want to stay for the long term. In fiscal 2013, through this past March, only 87 Filipino caregivers signed up, less than half the figure for fiscal 2009, when the agreement took effect.
The caregivers make no secret of the reason they prefer to find jobs in places like the U.S., Britain and Canada. Their Facebook pages are awash with comments about the difficulty of passing Japan’s exam.
Despite its growing need for international talent, Japan’s door is barely open. Yes, some foreign individuals can work in the country while studying, but formal working visas are basically reserved for specialists and individuals of Japanese ancestry.
South Korea, in contrast, overhauled its policy regarding foreign workers about a decade ago. Seoul introduced a system that allows companies to hire people of other nationalities when they cannot find South Koreans to fill vacant positions. The system is designed to treat foreigners as an important part of the workforce and allows them to stay for up to nearly 10 years.
via Japan starting to pay price for halfhearted courtship of foreign workers- Nikkei Asian Review.
Revilla P87M deposits found | Inquirer News
BOO YAH!!!
MANILA, Philippines–Justice is catching up with accused plunderer Sen. Bong Revilla, with a forensic investigation into his and his family’s bank transactions from 2006 to 2010 indicating that he received kickbacks from the pork barrel funds he channeled to bogus foundations controlled by Janet Lim-Napoles as exposed by whistle-blower Benhur Luy.
The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) report on Revilla’s bank transactions involving his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) also showed discrepancies in his official cash declarations that could indicate “concealment of unexplained wealth”; P87.626-million deposits made in the personal accounts of Revilla, his wife, Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado, and his children, and some of his siblings that tended to confirm his receipt of the kickbacks; and more than P40 million in suspicious funds were poured into a dummy corporation, Nature Concepts Development and Realty Corp., controlled by his wife.
The AMLC said the deposits and withdrawals from the bank accounts of the five foundations corresponded with the names, amounts and dates in the entries made by Luy, Napoles’ finance officer, in his ledger of Napoles’ cash and check disbursements, one of the evidence in the P10-billion pork barrel scam case.
“Considering all the foregoing, there are indications of money laundering scheme using the aforementioned bank accounts. There is, however, a need to conduct further investigation to determine the extent of the subjects’ participation and identify the other monetary instruments that were possibly involved in the laundering scheme,” the AMLC said in a confidential report received by the Office of the Ombudsman on Oct. 8.
via Revilla P87M deposits found | Inquirer News.
Types of Programmers
The Ninja is your team’s MVP, and no one knows it. Like the legendary assassins, you do not know that The Ninja is even in the building or working, but you discover the evidence in the morning. You fire up the source control system and see that at 4 AM, The Ninja checked in code that addresses the problem you planned to spend all week working on, and you did not even know that The Ninja was aware of the project! See, while you were in Yet Another Meeting, The Ninja was working.
Ninjas are so stealthy, you might not even know their name, but you know that every project they’re on seems to go much more smoothly. Tread carefully, though. The Ninja is a lone warrior; don’t try to force him or her to work with rank and file.
via Types of Programmers.
Richard Branson Is Right: Time Is the New Money | Inc.com
I want to work for a company that adopts this.
Richard Branson just announced he would be giving Virgin employees unlimited vacation. He’s either nuts or knows something others have yet to discover: You’ll make more money if you give people their time back.
Why We Trade Time for Money
The Industrial Age taught us the only way to make money was to trade time for it. The deal was clear, and always the same: You give me eight to 10 hours of your day, and I’ll give you some money. But in the Participation Age, something new is emerging. Companies are realizing that when you give people back their time, they will make you more money. It seems counter-logical, but it’s really quite intuitive. As usual, Branson is moving on an idea that traditionalists will only discover by watching him and the other early adapters in action.
Why Would Unlimited Vacation Work?
Why give up on a vacation system that’s been in place for 170-plus years? Because it was a bad idea then, and with a work force that did not grow up in the shadow of the Industrial Age, it’s an even worse idea today. Almost no one under 40 can relate to a time-based system that makes no sense in a results-based work world.
Branson didn’t figure this out; he’s actually a late adapter, which makes a lot of the work world archaic and completely out of touch with how to make money today. Fewer than 1% of U.S. companies give unlimited vacation. In fact, America gives the second-lowest amount in the world, behind only South Korea.
The data is in: When you give people control of their time, they make you more money. W. L. Gore Inc., the pioneer in rejecting the Industrial Age, is a $3 billion company with 10,000 stakeholders. They’ve had unlimited vacation since the 1960s and continue to grow exponentially.
via Richard Branson Is Right: Time Is the New Money | Inc.com.
TED: Hans Rosling on the HIV Epidemic
Hans Rosling’s TED talk on the HIV epidemic scared me. If the steady state of HIV infection is about 1 % of population then we are going to see about 1 million probably more because before steady state it gets worse fast and after society adjust to the HIV epidemic then we slowly stop getting worse. People stop unprotected sex.
Watch this ted talk if you are curious