Buddhism in South Korea: Monkey business; It is not all sweetness and light at the biggest Buddhist order

Buddhism in South Korea: Monkey business; It is not all sweetness and light at the biggest Buddhist order

Oct 5th 2013 | SEOUL |From the print edition

THE Venerable Jaseung has, of late, become good at saying sorry. When eight senior monks were caught smoking and boozing over a game of high-stakes poker in a hotel room last year, the leader (pictured) of the Jogye order, South Korea’s biggest Buddhist sect, led the 108-bow repentance. Many thought he should resign. He assured them he would not run for election again. But on September 16th, he belatedly entered the race—and swiftly apologised for doing so. Read more of this post

The economics of cow ownership: If the average return on a cow is -64% once you factor in the cost of labour, why do households buy them?

The economics of cow ownership

Udder people’s money

Cattle may be a terrible investment but a decent savings vehicle

Oct 5th 2013 |From the print edition

IN INDIA there are about 280m cows. They produce valuable things—milk, dung and calves. But cattle are expensive to keep. The biggest outlay is food—the average cow consumes fodder worth about 10,000 rupees ($160) a year. Veterinary costs also add up. These expenses are so high that cows are often a poor investment. According to a new and splendidly titled NBER paper, which looks at cow and buffalo ownership in rural areas of northern India, the average return on a cow is -64% once you factor in the cost of labour. If returns on cattle are so bad, why do households buy them? People may not be thinking about economics, of course. Hindus may derive spiritual fulfilment from cow ownership. Households may prefer to produce high-quality milk at home, even if doing so costs more. Read more of this post

Hot air: Are models that show the economic effects of climate change useless?

Hot air: Are models that show the economic effects of climate change useless?

Oct 5th 2013 |From the print edition

MODELS simplify. They are supposed to. It is a feature, not a bug. Their formulae may be complex but models deliberately omit some things in order to focus on others. They also leave out factors that cannot be modelled satisfactorily. That is understandable, but what if the factors that cannot be modelled make a huge difference to the outcome? And what if the things that are excluded tend to produce a systematic bias in the results? Read more of this post

Duke to NYU Missteps Abroad Lead Colleges to Reassess Expansion

Duke to NYU Missteps Abroad Lead Colleges to Reassess Expansion

For two decades, U.S. universities have raced to build campuses abroad to burnish their reputation and attract foreign students. Now, controversies and stumbles at high-profile projects have led some to reconsider expansion. Among the setbacks: faculty dissent at New York University and Yale University, construction delays at Duke University’s campus in China and lackluster enrollment at Persian Gulf outposts. Politics in Russia are jeopardizing the success of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s project in Moscow. Read more of this post

Why Lots Of Grass-Fed Beef Sold In U.S. Comes From Down Under

Why Lots Of Grass-Fed Beef Sold In U.S. Comes From Down Under

by DAN CHARLES

October 03, 2013 2:49 PM

Beef from cattle that have grazed only on pasture is in high demand — much to the surprise of many meat retailers, who didn’t traditionally think of grass-fed beef as top-quality. George Siemon, a founder of Organic Valley, the big organic food supplier, says the push for grass-fed beef started with activists who wanted to challenge a beef industry dominated by factory-scale feedlots. In those feedlots, cattle are fed a corn-heavy diet designed to make the animals gain weight as quickly as possible. Read more of this post

Work on Stuff that Matters: First Principles – Work on something that matters to you more than money.

Work on Stuff that Matters: First Principles

by Tim O’Reilly | @timoreilly | +Tim O’Reilly | Comments: 91 | January 11, 2009

I spent a lot of last year urging people to work on stuff that matters. This led to many questions about what that “stuff” might be. I’ve been a bit reluctant to answer those questions, because the list is different for everyone. I thought I’d do better to start the new year with some ideas about how to think about this for yourself. First off, though, I want to make clear that “work on stuff that matters” does not mean focusing on non-profit work, “causes, or any other form of “do-goodism.” Non-profit projects often do matter a great deal, and people with tech skills can make important contributions, but it’s essential to get beyond that narrow box. I’m a strong believer in the social value of business done right. We need to build an economy in which the important things are paid for in self-sustaining ways rather than as charities to be funded out of the goodness of our hearts. There are a number of half-unconscious litmus tests I use in my own life. I’m going to try to tease them out here, and hope that you can help me think this through in the comments.

Work on something that matters to you more than money. Read more of this post

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants: Malcolm Gladwell’s study of unlikely victors is his most enjoyable book yet, writes Lucy Kellaway

October 4, 2013 7:04 pm

Lucy Kellaway on ‘David and Goliath’ by Malcolm Gladwell

Review by Lucy Kellaway

Malcolm Gladwell’s study of unlikely victors is his most enjoyable book yet, writes Lucy Kellaway

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants, by Malcolm Gladwell, Allen Lane, RRP£16.99/Little, Brown, RRP$29, 320 pages

David and Goliath is an ill-assorted collection of anecdotes that demonstrates various things we already know. It tells us that having nothing to lose can make you bolder. That if you deploy power indiscriminately, it may backfire. And that losing a parent early on can give you a leg up if you plan on becoming a genius. Malcolm Gladwell’s new book comes without the single, catchy idea that made his earlier ones such stonking successes. The Tipping Point (2000) introduced us to the instant at which a trend became a trend. Blink (2005) told us how we make decisions without thinking. And Outliers (2008) warned that if you want to get good at something, you’ll need to spend 10,000 hours practising. Yet David and Goliath is Gladwell’s most enjoyable book so far. It is a feel-good extravaganza, nourishing both heart and mind. Each of its stories – set in Northern Ireland, Alabama, California, Vichy France and ancient Palestine – has an ending that is both happy and surprising. Gladwell is a master at marching us off in one direction, only to end up taking us somewhere else instead – somewhere better. Read more of this post

Capturing the Innovation Mindset at Bally Technologies

Capturing the Innovation Mindset at Bally Technologies

by Vijay Govindarajan and Srikanth Srinivas  |   9:00 AM October 4, 2013

Bally Technologies, a leading provider of gaming systems for casinos, has earned more than 60 awards for innovation in just the last four years. It increased R&D spending from 7-8% of revenue before 2009 to 11-12% of revenue starting in 2010, and maximized the return on that increased investment. The result: Its return on assets tripled, from an industry-lagging position below 4% to an industry-leading position above 12%. How did Bally Technologies do it? Through an innovation excellence framework. This framework is not new; we introduced a similar mindset in an earlier post with 3M. But while the foundational elements are the same, Bally Technologies uses them in a distinct way. It has a more rigorous organization structure that divides responsibilities between the innovation team and development team, and strengthens management around the opportunity pipeline. The company combines this with an intense focus on execution and weekly course correction — but also uses innovation as a means to get the employees energized. Bally Technologies has achieved great success, but only after making this framework its own. Using the five tenets we introduced before, here’s a breakdown of how the company does just that. Read more of this post

Tips for entrepreneurs from Yammer co-founder Adam Pisoni

Caitlin Fitzsimmons Online editor

Tips for entrepreneurs from Yammer co-founder Adam Pisoni

Published 04 October 2013 12:02, Updated 04 October 2013 14:36

Adam Pisoni co-founded a software company and sold it to Microsoft for $US1.2 billion five years later.

The product, Yammer, is a social networking tool to foster collaboration inside companies and is being integrated into the Microsoft Office suite. Pisoni is still running the business, based in downtown San Francisco with about 350 staff. A year after the acquisition, Pisoni claims to want to stay at Microsoft to see Yammer “change every company on the planet” – although he would be bucking a trend if he did so. (Statistics show the majority of start-up founders leave within two years of an acquisition). BRW caught up with Pisoni last month at Microsoft Australia’s TechEd conference on the Gold Coast and he shared his tips for aspiring entrepreneurs. Read more of this post

On today’s campuses, the Socratic ideal of genuine intellectual encounters has largely disappeared

October 4, 2013, 3:51 p.m. ET

Book Review: ‘Why Teach?’ by Mark Edmundson

On today’s campuses, the Socratic ideal of genuine intellectual encounters has largely disappeared.

HARRY GRAVER

Picture a day in the life of an ambitious American undergrad. Morning starts with a pre-law course that does little to nourish his soul but that has been commended to him by an adviser. After an internship interview with an investment firm, he’ll spend the afternoon on elective courses with titles like “GaGa for Gaga: Sex, Gender, and Identity” (actually taught at the University of Virginia) or “Invented Languages: Klingon and Beyond” (University of Texas at Austin). The evening is reserved for drunken revelry. Read more of this post

Earth’s Oxygen: A Mystery Easy to Take for Granted

October 3, 2013

Earth’s Oxygen: A Mystery Easy to Take for Granted

By CARL ZIMMER

To Donald E. Canfield, there’s something astonishing in every breath we take. “People take oxygen for granted because it’s just there and we breathe it all the time,” said Dr. Canfield, a geochemist at the University of Southern Denmark. “But we have the only planet we know of anywhere that has oxygen on it.” What’s even more astonishing is that Earth started out with an oxygen-free atmosphere. It took billions of years before there was enough of the element to keep animals like us alive. Although scientists have been struggling for decades to reconstruct the rise of oxygen, they’re still making fundamental discoveries. In just the past two weeks, for example, Dr. Canfield and his colleagues have published a pair of studies that provide significant clues about some of the most important chapters in oxygen’s history. They’re finding that our weirdly oxygen-rich atmosphere is the result of a complicated dance of geology and biology. Read more of this post

Chinese e-cigarette inventor fights for royalties

Chinese e-cigarette inventor fights for royalties

BY TOM HANCOCK

AFP-JIJI

OCT 4, 2013

Smokin’ clean: Hon Lik, widely acknowledged as the first person to develop a commercially viable electronic cigarette, smokes a pipe version on Sept. 23 at his office in Beijing. | AFP-JIJI

BEIJING – The Chinese inventor who dreamed up the electronic cigarette in a nicotine-induced vision says that despite its global popularity, copycat versions and legal disputes mean he has battled to cash in on his creation. “Smoking is the most unhealthy thing in people’s everyday lives. . . . I’ve made a big contribution to society,” said Hon Lik, 57, in a cramped office in Beijing, sending tobacco-scented smoke into the air as he puffed on a battery-powered pipe. “But I don’t live like a rich person, because of all the troubles our company has faced.” Read more of this post

Funding startups ‘a bit of a lottery’: How one angel investor has perfected choosing which companies he invests in

Funding startups ‘a bit of a lottery’: How one angel investor has perfected choosing which companies he invests in

Armina Ligaya | 30/09/13 9:30 AM ET
Colin Wyatt calls his first foray into the world of angel investing “a wipeout.”

The National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) serves Canada’s angel investor community, with a mission to scale up its size and scope. To that end, it is set to release a report on the state of angel investing in Canada. While I don’t know what this report will say, I can guess it will argue investing levels are not even close to where they need to be to allow Canada to advance its early stage entrepreneurial investment opportunities. It was the late 1990s, and the Canadian technology executive decided to invest $150,000 in a U.K.-based startup called Imagine. Their model was to put kiosks in retail stores which would recognize customers by their mobile phones and print out physical coupons based on their shopping preferences, he said. Read more of this post