“NEW DELHI – Internet giant Google Inc. said Monday it will give $5 million to upgrade and support 50 elementary schools run by India’s Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic unit of Bharti Enterprises Ltd.”
Can an enormous business-based philanthropic venture like Google fulfill its mission to save the world?
“There’s a coffee machine in the corridor. There’s no cafeteria, although students and staff can order food delivered to the office pantry one floor down.
‘I’m thrilled and proud to attend Hamburger University,’ said Zhou, who in 2007 started as a management trainee in the central Chinese city of Changsha, a job for which she and seven others were among 1,000 applicants. That’s a selection rate of less than 1 percent, lower than Harvard University’s record low acceptance rate last year of about 7 percent, according to the school’s official newspaper.”
“Now my father has stopped trying to persuade me to work in banking.” – Sun Ying, McDonald’s Shanghai Store Manager
With college graduates fighting to get into Hamburger University, can a Chinese obesity crisis be far behind?
“If you thought it was getting more expensive to go the movies, your hunch was right. The average ticket price at theaters in the U.S. last year rose to an all-time annual high of $7.89, up 5% from $7.50 in 2009, according to the National Assn. of Theatre Owners. In the fourth quarter, the average price was $8.01, up 5% from the year-ago period.”
Can you believe they’re still cheaper than they were in 1970? (When you factor in inflation.)
“All Danny Clark wanted was to leave an eco-friendly footprint for his children.
That and to ride the new wave of ‘green business’ startups by coming up with a way to make money and help the environment at the same time.
His idea was simple: If he could make plastic water bottles biodegradable, it would reduce the impact on landfills, curb roadside litter and reduce the amount of plastic garbage that eventually washes into the oceans.
Everybody wins. Well, not everybody.
The Mesa man’s small-business venture has run into opposition from a large and unexpected source: the $400 billion recycling industry, which fears that by making plastic bottles biodegradable, it will reduce the stream of plastic refuse used to make everything from carpet to clothing to new bottles. In addition, changing the makeup of plastic bottles could make it more difficult to recycle them, the industry fears.”
Chicken or egg? Should your old plastic junk be used to make new plastic junk, or should it biodegrade into the earth once its life is over? Which idea has a better business model?
“Popular mobile check-in application Foursquare today announced that it grew 3400% in 2010. The company now stands at 6 million users.
Other interesting stats include more than 381 million total check-ins accounting for every country (including North Korea) as well as a check-in from space. California also appears to have the most fit Foursquare users, being the top state for gym check-ins.”
How awesome are these infographics? A check-in from space?!
“The 2008 financial crisis was ‘avoidable’ and brought on by the actions of government officials and private-sector players, according to a blue-ribbon panel’s draft report that spreads blame broadly for the meltdown.
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission’s draft report singles out federal banking regulators for particularly sharp criticism, saying that ‘the prime example’ of the system’s shortcomings was ‘the Federal Reserve’s pivotal failure to stem the flow of toxic mortgages’ over the past decade. But the report also has harsh words for both ‘captains of finance’ and Main Street lenders.”
Who do you think has earned more blame for these bad business decisions – businesspeople or the regulators that are supposed to be setting and enforcing regulations? How have you been affected by the financial crisis?
“TOKYO — Kenichi Horie was a promising auto engineer, exactly the sort of youthful talent Japan needs to maintain its edge over hungry Korean and Chinese rivals. As a worker in his early 30s at a major carmaker, Mr. Horie won praise for his design work on advanced biofuel systems.
But like many young Japanese, he was a so-called irregular worker, kept on a temporary staff contract with little of the job security and half the salary of the “regular” employees, most of them workers in their late 40s or older. After more than a decade of trying to gain regular status, Mr. Horie finally quit — not just the temporary jobs, but Japan altogether.
He moved to Taiwan two years ago to study Chinese.”
“The trustee representing the victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s multibillion dollar Ponzi scheme is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from the owners of the Mets, alleging that they, as longtime and successful investors, knew or should have known Madoff was operating a fraud, according to two lawyers involved in the case.”
“Groupon Inc., which last month rejected a $6 billion takeover offer from Google Inc., isn’t convinced it will sell shares in an initial public offering anytime soon, said Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mason.
The biggest daily deal website’s commitment to proceeding with an IPO this year is ‘less than 100 percent, that’s for sure,’ Mason said in an interview at the Digital-Life-Design conference in Munich. ‘An IPO is something we are considering, but we’re just trying to learn more about the option at this point and understand the benefits and drawbacks.’ ”
Is Groupon missing an opportunity to dominate the market now that it’s turned down a $6 billion buyout from Google AND put off becoming a publicly-traded company? When was the last time you suffered from hesitating? Was hesitating ever the right thing to do?
“Taxpayers waiting on a refund from the Internal Revenue Service can now check on its status using a smartphone.
The application for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android operating system also will give taxpayers daily tax tips during the filing season, the U.S. tax collection agency said today. Smartphone users may download the “IRS2Go” app for free, the IRS said.”
Would you use an app to check your tax refund status? What will be the next government-made mobile app??