Does money give you happiness?

Last updated on: October 24, 2007 at 12:42 pm By Desh Kapoor

Ever pondered that question? Everyone does.. right.. and many have tried to answer - not taking the spiritual masters into account ..yet. Want to know the answer? "Psychologists have spent decades studying the relation between wealth and happiness," writes Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert in his best-selling "Stumbling on Happiness," "and they have generally concluded that wealth increases human happiness when it lifts people out of abject poverty and into the middle class but that it does little to increase happiness thereafter." Read more

EU to bring out a "Blue Card" to compete with US green card

Last updated on: October 24, 2007 at 12:37 pm By Desh Kapoor

The competition for talent is heating up around the world. Now, EU is starting a scheme that mimics US' green card (permanent residence card) scheme that gives permission to people skilled in areas of high demand. The EU says it needs 20m skilled workers over the next two decades, and is very short of expertise in engineering and computer technology. The EU card will be called a "blue card". This is surely to set alarm bells in the US computer industry and push the US government to get its act together for the immigrants - the legal ones.. for a change!! Read more

Shunning Advertising while becoming a household name!

Last updated on: October 24, 2007 at 12:30 pm By Desh Kapoor

I had talked of investment advice from Phil Fisher, who talked of a superior advertising capability within a company to be a good investment. Well, now the investment gurus would need to go a step further... the best companies are those who become household names without much advertising! Like Google has done! While the Internet search leader has sold more than $30-billion in advertising since 2001, Google has become a household name without buying expensive ad campaigns on television or radio or in print. "It's almost as if they have this cultural allergy to advertising," said Mark Hughes, author of "Buzzmarketing," a book about unconventional ways to build a brand. "It has been an advantage because it has helped keep them cool. They have zigged while everyone else has been zagging." This advertising aversion has freed up money for engineers, computing hardware and other resources that fuel Google's search engine while leaving plenty of profit to keep shareholders happy and lift the company's stock ever higher. Read more

Free world-wide wi-fi?

Last updated on: October 24, 2007 at 12:22 pm By Desh Kapoor

World-wide free wi-fi anyone? you would need to share some of your wi-fi to get some wi-fi. Wanna trade some? FON is the largest WiFi community in the world. FON is a Community of people making WiFi universal and free. Our vision is WiFi everywhere made possible by the members of the Community, Foneros. We share some of our home Internet connection and get free access to the Community's FON Spots worldwide! Read more

Stripper, Hedge Funds and Breasts

Last updated on: October 24, 2007 at 12:20 pm By Desh Kapoor

Street advice on Wall Street is: When your cab driver starts giving you tips it is time to sell. And when your cab driver turns out to be an ex-Wall Street analyst, it is time to buy stocks! These days hedge funds are in a really bad shape. In order to make fast money, they hounded the sub-prime mortgage market but now have to sell off even the good investments to get square. .... but you know the hedge fund market has come to its nadir.... when a hedge fund manager starts paying for his mistress' (a stripper) breast augmentation surgery from the clients' investment kittty! THAT is when it cannot get worse... and you know what Buffett means when he starts off on his tirade against these black holes! Read more

Investment Advice from Gurus: 15 things to look for in a Stock

Last updated on: October 24, 2007 at 8:38 am By Desh Kapoor

I would like to start a series where I bring the investment advice of the gurus of stock investment to my readers. These are the gurus who, I believe, were the greatest ever. Here is the first one from Phil Fisher from his book "Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits". He has a chapter in the book where he lists "fifteen points to look for in a common stock". Fisher introduces these 15 points as: There are fifteen points with which I believe the investor should concern himself. A company could well be an investment bonanza if it failed fully to qualify on a very few of them. I do not think it could come up to my definition of a worthwhile investment if it failed to qualify on many. Some of these points are matters of company policy; others deal with how efficiently this policy is carried out. Some of these points concern matters which should largely be determined from information obtained from sources outside the company being studied, while others are best solved by direct inquiry from company personnel. 1. Does the company have products or services with sufficient market potential to make a sizable increase in sales for at least several years? It is important here to distinguish between two types of companies: 1. Fortunate and Able and 2. Fortunate because they are able. According to Fisher, no company can grow for a sustained period of time purely on luck. It must have and keep a high degree of business skill to capitalize of the good fortune and fight the competition. 2. Does the management have the determination to continue to develop products or processes that will still further increase total sales potentials when the growth potentials of currently attractive product lines have largely been exploited? For this to be true the company should understand the basic question "What business we are in?" and therefore understand its core competencies and focus of high level of R&D. While the first point seems to be similar to this second one, Fisher qualifies the former as a "matter of fact, appraising the degree of potential sales growth that now exists for the company", and the latter as "a matter of management attitude". Only the companies scoring high on the first point and upto the mark on this second should be of investment interest. Read more

Wake up Call for Delhi!!

Last updated on: October 24, 2007 at 6:01 am By Desh Kapoor

Yamuna river - the lifeline of Delhi - is dying. What is left now is a sewer really. How long it can sustain is anybody's guess! Unless something is done ... and done fast, not much would be left to supply water to Delhi. Many factors are responsible for it: untreated sewerage waste industrial waste construction along yamuna slums and developments - unrestricted and destructive Is history being repeated? We have seen this area of the world lose one major river (Saraswati) earlier in history - through mindless exploitation or over confidence or natural disaster ... can't really say. But how long will we keep on going like this without any thought for the future? Some citizens are starting a campaign now - called "Jago! Dilli Jago". I am worried that it is probably being undertaken for political gains and under certain ideology but hope it creates the awareness. I wouldn't walk even a foot with that mad man called VP Singh.. but the agenda is worth walking around the earth! Read more

The tree hugger

Last updated on: October 24, 2007 at 3:08 am By Desh Kapoor

Hillarious joke sent by Nandi. While walking through Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, a man came upon another man hugging a tree with his ear firmly against the tree. Seeing this he inquired, 'Just out of curiosity, what the heck are you doing?' 'I'm listening to the music of the tree,' the other man replied. 'You've gotta be kiddin' me.' 'No, would you like to give it a try?' Read more

Animals and Humans to each others' help!

Last updated on: October 23, 2007 at 10:50 pm By Desh Kapoor

A southern Illinois firefighter, Dave Chambers, yesterday went above and beyond his call of duty and gave mouth-mouth resuscitation after the house caught fire and he found the cat not breathing. A southern Illinois firefighter is proof that saving lives doesn't just involve people. Firefighter Dave Chambers helped rescue several animals during a house fire last week, including a kitten that wasn't breathing when it was carried out of the home.Chambers performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the cat. He said the cat came out of it and, perhaps as a show of gratitude, jumped on his lap and started purring.It's not the first time Chambers has done such a thing. Nearly a year ago, he was recognized for doing rescue breathing on a dog. Its not as if the animal kingdom will just take charity from their human brethren! A parrot gave one back to the humans when he alerted a family of the fire by imitating a smoke alarm! Read more

Time of inflation all over!

Last updated on: October 23, 2007 at 8:10 pm By Desh Kapoor

It is the season for inflation all over the place and around the world! The shipping world is facing inflation: The cost of shipping raw materials across the world's oceans has reached an all-time high, pushing up prices of grain, iron ore, coal and other commodities. The average price of renting a ship to carry raw materials from Brazil to China has nearly tripled to $180,000 a day from $65,000 a year ago. In some cases, ocean shipping can be more expensive than the cargo itself. Iron ore, for example, costs about $60 a ton, but ship owners typically are charging about $88 a ton to transport it from Brazil to Asia. Read more