Filed under: Analytics, Business, Finances, Posted by TA | Tags: analysis, bail out, Bankia, bias, CEO, delta, Enron, Euro, Lehmann, lie, reports, Spain, taxpayer
Last week I read this story about BFA-Bankia in Spain. Shortening up, Bankia is asking for 24 billion dollars in bailout money to rescue their operations. The request was, obviously, made to the Spanish government, meaning several thousand people might lose their life savings despite Bankia’s new CEO promise this won’t happen. But that’s not the point I’d like to focus on. About three months ago, the old management team reported Bankia’s annual results. According to the reconciliation, the bank had a profit of 309 million euros. That’s 386 million USD. The new CEO, on his humble request to the Spanish Crown, rectified the annual balance to a loss of 2.97 billion euros or 3.71 billion USD. The delta is nearly 3.3 billion euros or 4.1 billion USD, a “modest” difference. Good for the new CEO he had the guts to report this slight error on the books.
One could look at this story from several different perspectives. Some will call it déjà vu with Enron, Fanny and Freddie, Lehmann and so many other “biased” companies that altered their books to make things look good; others will think about the poor Spanish clients who are now stressed out about losing everything they’ve saved and reserved for a better life and future generations; a few will ask if the government will eventually bail Bankia out at the cost of the entire Spanish taxpayer population. Thinking of the delta between the two reports, I will tell you I want to lie, too!
I work with hard, quantitative and qualitative data on a daily basis. Some might disagree, but after a while you can say there’s no right or wrong when it comes to hard data. It’s raw and simple. It is how one uses it that will make the difference. I’ve seen people making good use of analyses, reports and recommendations. I’ve seen good people, analysts in general, being fair and unbiased towards the recommendations they’re making. The problem usually lies at the decision maker, who’s usually deprived from in-depth context information and makes decisions based on corporate politics or own personal guts, every analyst’s nightmare. A simple way to decide becomes a simplistic way to decide, something completely different and far more dangerous.
Uninformed and out of context decisions plague private and public organizations alike. I’m not saying every decision make must be an analyst or vice-versa. Overanalyzing is equally a big problem in decision making as making out of context decisions is to the whole. But the gap between those who harvest the information, the recommendations they make and the decisions that are ultimately made are widening towards a transforming data into a high maintenance relationship: frivolous, expensive and pointless.
Filed under: Fiction, Imagination, Movies, Musings, Posted by TA | Tags: 1940, 1950, A Dangerous Method, anima sana in corpore sano, Berlin, Billy Elliott, Black September, Bridesmaids, Carl Jung, CIA, Clint Eastwood, Daniel Craig, Denmark, Europe, fiction, films, Friends, George Lucas, Germany, Goodbye Lenin, Gran Torino, Israel, James Bond, Japan, Jason Bourne, Jedi, KGB, Leonard Nimoy, Leonidas, life, Master, Matt Damon, Michael Fassbender, Mission Impossible, Movies, Munich, reality, Ross Geller, Saving Private Ryan, Sparta, Spock, Star Trek, Star Wars, Sweden, Switzerland, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, UK, United Kingdom, What to do in case of fire, Yoda
… who would I be? Where would I live? What would I do? Thinking about a different life is a fun exercise. Instead of looking at movie stars’ personal lives, I’d much rather concentrate my thoughts on the characters they play. Let’s get started. And remember “all characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.”
Personality: This would be a very wild mix between Daniel Craig’s James Bond, Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne, Gerard Butler’s King Leonidas, Leonard Nimoy’s Spock in Star Trek, David Schwimmer’s Ross Geller in Friends (forgive the TV reference here) and Star Wars’ Jedi Master Yoda. How do they connect? Well, I’ve always been fond of characters involved in mystery and internal emotional turmoil. It also would be great if my personality allowed me to talk as little as possible and be a master in everything a human being can possibly do (like the tricks Bourne and Bond operate). But being Bond or Bourne, reporting to other people and receiving orders without questioning are not exactly a picture perfect scenario for me. I’d like to be in a commanding position like the fearless Spartan leader. He was respected, a great decision make who knew exactly what he wanted to die for. And people would follow him. The capacity to lead and be heard is what I like about Yoda. He’s a Master who solves everything with a sentence, usually in reverse order, but he’s also a fighter. Perfect combination of anima sana in corpore sano (or “healthy mind in a healthy body” if you’re not familiar with the expression). He also personifies that wisdom and knowledge come with time and a lot of effort. He didn’t achieve that rank by chance or accident. In fact, George Lucas should go back in time and tell Yoda’s story in a whole new trilogy. Similar to Yoda is Spock. He is the master of wisdom, shaped to be the most knowledgeable being out there. But most of all, what attracts me to Spock is his ability to control feelings and show no expression. He goes way beyond the poker face term. Even better, his entire Vulcan culture is based on science and knowledge, and not passion and emotion. Wouldn’t that be great? From Ross Geller I only wanted his PhD title. From all the traits and tasks above mentioned, that might actually be the easiest one to achieve during my lifetime.
Origins: Personality explained and based on my own self-knowledge journeys, I’m sure I would have been born in Germany or Japan. If I had to tell a story about my origins, this is what it would be: my father was a Swiss university professor (like Michael Fassbender’s Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method) living in Munich at the time of the Black September attack against the Israeli delegation. He’s so disgusted about the act that he decides to “defect” and move to East Berlin, where he meets my mother, an anarchist disguised as a KGB agent operating in the DDR. They meet, nine months later I come to this world only to realize that my father turned to the dark side of the force and got arrested by the CIA. He’s never seen again. My mother decides to cool her jets and change her way of life, but KGB doesn’t accept it, so she runs away to Canada and raise me in Halifax.
Time: If my life was a movie, growing up in the 1940’s or 1950’s would be my ideal scenario.
Place: I would definitely live somewhere in Europe, definitely, but with lots of traveling involved. Anywhere in Germany (Berlin, like the characters from Goodbye, Lenin or What to do in case of Fire), Denmark, Sweden or northern England like Billy Elliott.
Occupation: a spy like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, a soldier who dies for his country like Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan, a grumpy veteran like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino or any other sort of really critical occupation like Meghan in Bridesmaids (she takes care of the nuke codes).
I better get back to reality now…
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Filed under: Posted by Angel | Tags: Africa, atlas, cartography, continents, geography, kai, kai krause, map, mercator
I think the picture speaks for itself. Amazing.
Think again when you look at an atlas. Kai Krause’s 2010 map of Africa gives an indication of its actual size as opposed to the grossly distorted Mercator map that pervades all classrooms. Think about that.
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Filed under: Posted by Angel | Tags: children soliders, Invisible Children, Kony 2012, life, LRA, morality, Uganda, video
Life is complicated. We often expend energy trying to simplify it, only to discover more complications. There are many in world who are very sure of themselves, of their realities, of the way the world works and the way it should be. They make a lot of effort to convince you that your path is the wayward one.
I’ve been told that should you believe something to be right, then there is a moral obligation to tell others, let them know the errors of their ways… steer them towards what is correct. I don’t subscribe to this train of thought. Does that make me lazy? Uncaring? Unfeeling? Not invested in my fellow human beings or in mankind generally? Who knows? There is a general tendency for people to mistake quietness for acquiescence and agreement. I do have my own thoughts, beliefs and viewpoints about the way life should be. But just because I’m not trying to convince you of that does not mean that I do not have conviction regarding my beliefs.
For any subject, there will always be opposing beliefs. Is it possible for us, the human race, to ever reach a point of mutual understanding? Take for instance a situation in which one person, say a minority, views a particular event as racist and another person, maybe a friend does not see that. Both might believe each other to be wrong in their viewpoints. Can they ever reach a point of mutual understanding? Can the non-minority ever understand where the minority is coming from? Some would say no; it’s impossible. Can the minority ever understand the non-minority? It could also be the same answer. Life is complicated.
Enter Kony 2012 and all the uproar (for better or worse) that has developed around it.
Here are three articles (one, two and three) that provide food for thought. I should tell you, the articles represent my leanings regarding the subject although I admit my ignorance in not fully understanding the events that led to Joseph Kony gaining the spotlight and what has happened in Uganda during the time he was there and after he had left.
Life is complicated.
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Filed under: Business, Education, Posted by TA | Tags: academic life, accounting, Business, Doctor, drop-out, Education, employment, finance, grad school, graduate studies, HR, Master's, MBA, money, outside the box, PhD, postgraduate, school
Immediately after graduating from my Bachelor’s, I decided to start an Executive MBA in Corporate Management. I was 22 then and very happy for being part of the student elite that could either afford that kind of course or was dedicated enough to pass the pre-course test. At the time, the MBA cost half of my net salary.
MBA’s surged in popularity in the 90′s, when, for some reason, companies thought hiring MBA graduates was a great idea. Well, I’ve never understood the whole concept, but let me save the reasons for later.
Almost 18 months and 70% of the course completed later, I made up my mind to leave the MBA and pursue a different type of postgraduate education. Trust me, I’ve heard lots of “Are you nuts?” and “Why now?” since then. Let me tell I’ve regretted a few things in life, and that decision wasn’t one of them.
The MBA really didn’t teach me how to think. It taught me how to repeat things other people who didn’t have an MBA did. It was definitely challenging to keep up with studies and work full-time, but I honestly wasn’t defied to think outside the box most of the times. It was case study here, case study there, always a very limited plethora of scenarios. Most of the times, they were not really applicable to my professional reality. By the time I learned what to do, everybody had already repeated the same formula.
Perhaps I was too young to understand, or wasn’t at the right career level to judge. Truth is that my colleagues and other people who went through an MBA (around the same time, before or just after that period) are not necessarily smarter almost 10 years after starting it, nor are they necessarily happier. Yes, some said they enjoyed the MBA and found it useful. Most of them actually finished it. I respect both. Wrapping up graduate school is no easy task. It’s guts, dedication, focus and effort. But isn’t there a little too much hype around the MBA title?
I’ve heard so many reasons why you should take an MBA, and they’re usually related to money.
- On average, MBA graduates make more money than non-MBA graduates, that’s a fact.
- MBA is a big plus on your resume, an asset, sometimes a requirement. That’s also a fact. But does that mean you’re smarter than other people? No, not really.
- MBA’s can cost up to 10 times more than a Master’s degree. Schools suggest that yes, it costs more, but the amount will be paid off with a better salary in the future. Have you ever heard about the reasons why MBA’s cost so much more, or is it good old speculation knocking on your door? I don’t know, but would love to learn from grad school admission pricing analysts.
Why some areas, such as Business and Finance praise an MBA more than a PhD, which would technically be a level above? I’ve always felt there’s a clear bias towards “more academic” degrees in certain areas, especially business (the one I’ve always been in). Maybe corporate leaders and senior management think doctors are not practical enough. I’ve never actually had a chance to meet, work with or even hear about a Doctor in business. Have you? So if we should strive for perfection, why does everybody look for a Master in Business Administration, when several other areas recognize a Doctor as the benchmark?
Maybe someone will be able to answer my questions about MBA’s. As for my own story, I started and finished a Master’s of Science in Business. And that was the best decision I’ve ever made in my (fairly linear) academic life.
For hiring managers and companies: don’t go with the flow. Think if MBA’s are better than other degrees for your own business needs. To date, I haven’t seen a single study showing that MBA graduates make better decisions or save more money than non-MBA graduates. So make sure you’re tracking your ROI properly or tracking at all; for MBA candidates: money is not everything. Education is for learning, knowledge sharing, making the world better, being smarter and bigger purposes other than growing your bank account.
These are words from a happy MBA drop-out.
Thanks for your time reading this post.
Filed under: Africa, Asia, Culture, Music, Posted by Angel | Tags: Burban, corruption, drones, famine, guardian, Iran, le monde, New York Times, Nigeria, Nollywood, nuclear weapons, Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan, Politics, Somalia, Taliban, violence
Pakistan, Somalia and Iran: when you hear the names of these countries, what do you normally think of? The Taliban? Sectarianism? Nuclear weapons? Violence? Famine? I would venture to say it’s understandable why these are the images that pop into your head. Just look at the latest headlines relating to these countries. The New York Times Pakistan page contains articles mostly talking about the Taliban, Osama Bin Laden, drones and corrupt officials.
What does the Guardian have to say about Pakistan? Well, we see a similar article on the demolition of Osama Bin Laden’s house, just like the NYT. Intriguing. Maybe it’s an English thing; why don’t we see what LeMonde has to say about Pakistan? Surprisingly, we can also find amongst other “usual-suspect” subjects, an article on the demolition of the Bin Laden compound.
Coming from a country that often gets the same coverage as say Pakistan or Somalia, there is a sense of frustration that arises with the one-dimensional picture that deigns to tell you what is going on in that particular part of the world. Seriously, if all you do is read the latest headlines, you would think that nothing else happens in these countries. You might think life is not lived or experienced, but is rather something that people run away from while seeking shelter or people forget about while looking for food. But this is not true! All these stories that make up the news headlines are the alternative story. They are not the main story; the main narrative that runs through the lives of people living there.
The Taliban is wreaking havoc in Pakistan. True, but did you also know that there is a thriving Pakistani underground hip-hop music scene that actually talks about the actual realities that people face and incorporates different traditional musical traditions into the music produced? The scene is growing, so much so that people are speaking of the Burban scene.
Nigeria is constantly plagued with fuel crises with the latest protests placing the spotlight on other issues from government self-enrichment practices to unemployment. True, but did you know that Nollywood (the Nigerian film industry) is a burgeoning behemoth of an industry (functioning as the second largest employer after the government), that is ever-growing in world-wide popularity, thus making it the “world’s second most prolific film industry after India’s Bollywood“?
The point is the realities in these countries are more than just the ills; as is the case in any other part of life, there is always the good and the bad. Why this link is rarely made with these “plagued” countries is beyond me. You are human and those living in these “alien, troubled” places are also human. So, why would they not have the same human experiences as everyone else in the rest of the world does? Sometimes, we just need to step outside of ourselves.
Check out Italian film maker Franco Sacchi’s TED Talk on Nollywood.
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Filed under: China, Democracy, Politics, Posted by TA | Tags: American Elections 2012, Barack Obama, Business, Donald Trump, facebook, marketing, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Nixon, Olympics, Politics, President, presidential elections, realpolitik, Ronald Reagan, Salt Lake City, social media
Donald Trump unveiled today his support for Mitt Romney. Well, I’ll piggyback on his speech and declare my support for Romney too. Will my opinion count? Who knows? I’m not interested in counting, even because I’m not an American citizen, can’t vote in the American elections nor have any interest or record of supporting Republicans. But I will support Romney, at least this time.
Angela posted an interesting article about getting informed (read it here). Not only did I read that, but I actually went to get myself informed. Elections are always a big risk, likely a bigger gamble than buying energy bonds from the Iranian government. Maybe that’s the reason why they’re so much fun. Multiply that factor by the richest and most popular country in the world and you will get yourself the perfect storm. Romney is not perfect. His flaws started to show when his campaign was threatened by Newt Gingrich in Iowa. After Florida, things seem to be coming back to normal. Enough digression, let’s move on to endorsement reasons.
Mitt Romney is more than businessman. He’s a brilliant businessman. Nobody makes $42 million in two years by chance. Very few people have been able to create the legacy he’s created in the marketplace. It’s more than just being a nerd in numbers and stocks. Having a market guy leading the pack will settle many corporations and indexes out there (especially the big ones such as Nasdaq and NYSE). It’s the rich businessmen little club. We always prefer one of our kind rather than the other guy.
Add to Romney’s CV the fact that, in addition to his private managerial skills, he’s an experienced public manager. Think about it: it’s not easy for someone to become governor of Massachusetts, one of the most important and demanding states in the United States. As far as I’ve been able to research, his government was fairly decent.
Fair enough, Mitt Romney had a few slips in the past few weeks. That statement “I don’t care about the very poor” statement definitely didn’t sound good. Well, if American voters did care about the very poor, Mother Teresa would have won against Ronald Reagan or even Nixon. Romney’s campaign also demonstrated an early panic when Gingrich’s threatened a more aggressive move, which could be translated as a first timer’s goose bump. It also didn’t help bearing the title of president of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee, especially after so many bribery allegations, likely the worst scandal in Olympic bidding ever (until the next). Above all that, I believe Romney hasn’t been entirely contaminated by what Obama’s starting to exhale: taste for power. It also has to do with the contradictions of the Obama administration. Isn’t it time to stop blaming the lack of bi-partisan agreements? Seriously, that one’s done and dusted.
For me there’s also the frustration of having supported Obama in 2008 and seen what’s been done so far. I truly can’t cope with a guy who won the Nobel Peace Prize and 6 months later started to bomb people 10,000 miles away. A commander-in-chief that orders executions in foreign countries by invisible special forces, disrespecting national sovereignty and so-called “partners” (sounds like Nixon’s realpolitik). He hasn’t been able to warm up the American economy on a consistent basis (with or without politics involved) and his chief-diplomat is a resentful walking disaster (which triggers a domino effect for the whole administration). Last but not least, I’ve been able keen on men of actions. Obama has become less of a rhetoric master and social media fundraiser to become a boring high-level lawyer, full of polished politician words and lacking two very critical items: support and leadership.
Trump said he’s endorsing Romney “because of his position on catching up to China’s economic growth and because he believes Romney can out-debate President Obama.” I truly believe the former is a lost battle before it even starts and the latter is highly questionable. I’m glad to be distant from Trump’s opinion, except when the subject is endorsing Mitt Romney. If Obama’s most accomplished successes are raising $250 million dollars and engaging people on Facebook, maybe he should find a job in marketing, and leave politics to result-driven people.
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Filed under: Life, Posted by TA, Relationships, Women | Tags: conversation, girl, kiss, opposite sex, Sex, women
Recently I had an opportunity to remember some of my blunt moments with the opposite sex earlier in my life. It’s paramount to admit I used to be a walking disaster when the subject was relationships with women, friends or not. This is not a mea-culpa but an illustration of how men can always improve their touch with women.
“Why would a girl like you fall for a guy like me? I don’t think I deserve you”.
Said to one of the the hottest girls in university, in her car, almost 11 pm at night on a weekday, after class. We were alone, and she had just told me of her crush on me. Could I have screwed a better opportunity?
“No, I’m not”.
Response to “Are you an idiot?”, asked by my mother. I realized to be wrong a while after.
“Ok”.
About my then-girlfriend’s proposition to break up. It was over the phone, on her birthday. I was sick and decided not to attend her birthday party. I have negotiated it better or in a different moment.
“You shouldn’t have done that”.
After a kiss by a friend/date who grabbed before leaving a party. Another one of those low self-esteem moments. What man in sane condition would say something like that? And I didn’t go for seconds that night. What happened after stays in Vegas.
“No, we’re going to a funeral agency”.
After my aunt asked if we were going to eat out in a restaurant. Yes, it was rude, but wasn’t that dumbly obvious?
“Did you screw him?”
To another close friend who had just gone out with an acquainted French guy (who had travelled all the way from France just for the “event”). Curiosity didn’t let me settle until hearing a “yes” from her, but our relationship was never the same after that. It was none of my business.
“Your nickname should be Homer Simpson”
Ignoring the burdening consequences of such act. To make things worse, she had been a very close friend of mine, and I completely ignored the fact.
“Heil, Hitler”
Followed by a nazi salute To a German acquaintance on New Year’s Eve. She was drunk, annoying and irritating everybody. I still managed to tolerate her behaviour for over 3 hours before losing it. I know it didn’t justify the gesture.
Filed under: Democracy, Politics | Tags: American Elections 2012, herman cain, Mitt Romney, news, Newt Gingrich, Obama, Politics, presidential primaries, Republican Primaries, Rick Perry, television
The 2012 Republican party presidential primaries have been entertaining us with all kinds of blood and gore while President Obama officially launched his campaign with the help of Al Green. So, you’re watching the news on all the mudslinging and “discussion of the issues” and after a moment, you might ask yourself, “What did I just see? I don’t know. Wait a minute, I don’t think I’ve learned anything. What’s the whole race about anyway, Newt Gingrich’s love life over the past few decades? I think not.”
Well, maybe you didn’t have to ask yourself those questions but I did. If that’s the case, then you’re in better shape than I am, that’s for sure. So these questions crossed my mind after watching some of the Republican debates and television news programmes. All I got from them were that the other candidates do not like Mitt Romney and he is the go-to punching bag. I’ve also seen that although Ron Paul appears to talk sense, finally, nobody really gives a damn about him, not even his party. Another fact that stuck with me was Rick Perry’s inability to recall three things at a time and that he has the physical profile of a president — I remember all of this coming up before he dropped out of the race and promptly endorsed Newt Gingrich. Herman Cain was popular with the ladies, for all the wrong reasons, which contributed, in part, to his withdrawal.
Amidst all the television news coverage and reports and Weeble technology , I have yet to come away with the feeling of knowing exactly what is going on with the presidential elections. Granted, most of the attention is focused on the Republicans but I cannot tell you much about their individual platforms. I cannot also tell exactly what they have against the current adminstrations policies’ other than their claim of its inepitude in combating radical islamists and their call for the repeal of Obamacare.
I’m sure I’m not alone in this conundrum. Lest our minds be dulled even further, I would suggest doing your own research to find out what exactly the Republic candidates are really about, what their viewpoints are on several issues and how they differ from the current president. You’re not going to get the full picture from one website or one source but at least, you can get started in getting the essentials as opposed to the extras.
I’m going to the same.
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Filed under: Society, Style, Travel | Tags: african hair, afros, beauty, countries, Europe, expat, natural hair, Society, Travel, world
I wouldn’t say that I was a nomad but I do admit to having wanderlust, an affliction for which I’ve already detailed its phases. But in reading Arielle Loren’s thoughts on how travelling liberates black women from the confines of traditional hair lifestyles in Clutch Magazine, I realised there’s another facet to my wanderlust existence that I haven’t given much thought to.
It is true that there is an aspect to travelling and living abroad that is never mentioned in the usual how-to travel guides. For black women, this oversight becomes quite glaring when we decide to move to another part of the world, only to realise that we cannot take our hairdressers with us. What a shock! It’s beyond traumatic.
You see, there’s a culture surrounding black women and their hair. Our hair is often misunderstood, both within our own cultures and within the ‘mainstream’, where companies and hair professionals either miss the mark with their products or ignore us altogether. Don’t get me wrong, there is a whole market catered just to black women and their hair: you have the weave and wig market, the hair growing market, the hair products market, the hair salons market and not to mention the celebrity market where daily videos of starlets strutting with waist-long hair lead the rest of us to dreaming of having the same hair and becoming just as ‘beautiful’.
Much of the black woman hair machinery is geared towards us living up to idea that being beautiful only means having long, straight hair; everything else is suspect and therefore makes you less attractive. This includes our own natural hair. Now, this image of our hair is not that much of a problem when you are home and you have ready access to your hair dresser and all of your supplies.
The wake-up call presents itself when you move abroad and you realise that either available options are just too expensive to be part of your normal experience (Switzerland is one of the places that come to mind) or there aren’t any options (a rude awakening that can send you to therapy).
I’ve been in both situations and I agree with Arielle that this spurred on a journey to rediscovering my hair and myself in the process. While abroad, I decided to become natural. What does that mean? It meant that I decided to forego all chemical processing and embrace my own hair; a decision that is more shocking than it ought to be.
There was a new found liberation that came with falling in love with my hair. I discovered I loved the texture of my hair, that my hair was versatile and the only option wasn’t just straight and long. I had confidence that came from not having to worry about the state of my hair (could I go swimming since I just got my hair done, could I go to the gym without ruining my style, etc..). I could do whatever I wanted without any limitations, physically or emotionally. How simple this all ought to be. You are born with your hair. It’s natural. Imagine having to go through a liberating experience in order for you to accept what was always there. The absurdity of such a reality boggles the mind.
But here we are now or rather, here I am now, with my hair, strutting everyday like I just stepped out of the salon. How fabulous.
**UPDATE**
Not so fabulous is the criticism and lack of support women in the black diaspora (African, the Carribbean, Latin America, etc…) face when they decide to go against the “long-haired beauty ideal” and embrace what the hair they are born with. To wit: Nigerian women saying no to curly, natural hair. My own personal experiences, unfortunately, encompass the negative sentiments included in this Guardian article. Sometimes, the enemy within is more dangerous than the one without.
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Filed under: Analytics, Business, Ipsos, Posted by TA, Research, Shared by TA, Wal-Mart
Know and Grow Your Share: The Wallet Allocation Rule Ipsos Ideas Knowledge & Ideas | Ipsos.
Why hello there 2012! What are we going to be doing this year? I’ve got absolutely no expectations, just ready to see where the wind takes me.
I’ve mentioned before my complete lack of discipline when it comes to new year resolutions. To be quite frank, I don’t see the use in engaging in them. However, what I do love about the new year is the optimism that seems to envelope me. It’s not to say that today in the new year is any different from yesterday in the previous year. On the contrary, things are quite normal and ordinary.
But still, the idea of not knowing what the year will hold, of not having the baggage of the preceding twelve months makes me feel weightless, like I’m floating in space. I’ll enjoy it while it lasts, before the year begins to take on a definite form; clean slate and all that.
Happy New Year.
Filed under: Innovation, Posted by TA, Technology | Tags: Analytics, Brad Rutter, Business, Computers, Humans, IBM, innovation, Jeopardy, Ken Jennings, languages, planet, skills, smarter, Society, Watson, Win
I received this email last night and found it so awesome that I decided to quote it in its entirety. The copy was compelling, the subject was perfectly enticing and they’re even selling Watson shirts!
Dear Thiago,
Earlier this year, the IBM computer Watson and former champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter competed on the TV quiz show Jeopardy!
And the winner was – resoundingly – humankind.
Watson’s advances in deep analytics—and its ability to interpret unstructured content and natural language (like the complex, contextual, punning language on Jeopardy!)—are now being directed toward challenges beyond the game board.
Natural language is the language of our lives and, increasingly, of our businesses. Watson’s ability to discover insights in this very human data has the potential to help transform entire industries. For example, new solutions based on Watson are being developed to help doctors analyze a patient’s history, symptoms and the latest news and media literature and help them make faster, more accurate diagnoses. We are also exploring new ways to apply Watson’s skills to the rich, varied language of finance, retail and customer service.
We believe that the technology underlying Watson will help us make our lives, our work and our societies smarter. Win-win-win.
Let’s build a smarter planet.
More on Watson is here:
http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: articles, business management, cloud, docs, e-book, google, knowledge, LIbrary, marketing, online, papers, shared, statistics
Just a few days ago I was looking at my cloud library of articles and immediately clicked: “why not sharing with other people who might be looking for the same”? The articles cover mostly business management and statistics, but you will find a little bit of everything, including an excellent paper from Google (Predicting the Present with Google Trends), customer satisfaction analysis, measuring marketing and business performance (the latter is an e-book).
So here it is:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0CYnXQSVvJjNTdlMWYwMmQtZjRjNi00Yjk1LWJhNmQtNWUyODM1MzNjM2Vl
This is a Google Documents folder. Anybody with the link can have access to it, but I obviously added restrictions to editing the content (this might change in the future). Thank you, Google Scholar, for making some of the articles available for free. Writers and publishers should spend more time thinking about regular users and not only those who can afford to pay for their research.
The library should be updated as I add more files. If you’re planning to visit it often, I suggest saving the link to your Favourites. These are mostly content I use at work, but some are leisure reading. If you’d like to help spreading the number and scope of the articles, please contact me.
“Computation may someday be organised as a public utility.”
John McCarthy
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Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Allen Funt, Brazil, Canada, Candid Camera, China, diplomacy, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Palestinians, Reuters, Russia, Security Council, State Department, Susan Rice, UN, UNESCO, United States, Victoria Nuland
What really appalled me were the commentaries from US diplomats immediately after the announcement they were cutting 22% of UNESCO’s budget.
Fair enough that the American system has its laws and the Palestinian move created certain conflicts of interests that will block funds for UNESCO. But all the rest is pure diplomatic baloney. ”The United States … remains strongly committed to robust, multilateral engagement across the U.N. system” , said Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman with the State Department. “Smile, you’re on Candid Camera!”.
How long will the international community pretend that kind of speech corresponds to reality? As far as everybody knows, the US and other permanent Security Council members blocked new member sign ups. Among the contenders, India and Brazil, emerging countries. Mrs. Nuland continued her series of unfortunate and unrealistic remarks by adding that the vote was “regrettable, premature and undermines our shared goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East” (my bold and underline).
What is the true American perspective on ” lasting peace”? Has it ever been one in the past 2,000 years? Is it even just to punish a people that is looking for nothing but the right to have a voice? Diplomacy has now been officially rewritten to mean lobby, corporatism and other bad things we all know. And I won’t even start talking about Jewish groups in the background. I’m a big admirer of Israel and her people, traditions and survival history, but this personal feud went too far.
An American “ambassador” to the UN said the situation is “no substitute for negotiations, but it is deeply damaging to UNESCO.” And all I do is to regret another great opportunity the US had to make good. Shame on the administration. It sends out a message that it doesn’t matter how democrat or republican someone is, the repugnant feeling of a government to a few lingers. Go Occupy the UN. Or better, just put yourself aside from these matters. There will be no hope anyhow. Allen Funt would have been a great American diplomat. At least his jokes made sense.
