$350 million for BP

BP said Monday it has spent $350 million so far on cleanup and other costs associated with the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

That includes expenses related to cleaning up the oil, protecting wetlands and beaches, efforts to seal the leaking oil well, assistance to Gulf states, as well as liability settlements.


If you think that a $350 million thus far is gargantuan, then you are absolutely wrong.


This sum is just a meagre fraction of a potential loss in the future. There has been a lot of uncertainties as to how long BP will actually take to clean up the entire mess.

It has been projected that it will lose around $2 billion to $14 billion depending on how successful the cleanup will be.


Yes you have not heard me wrong, the bare minimum is a sum of $2 billion loss and that's provided that BP is lucky. This is to say that there won't be any complications like the spreading of the oil further down the sea, poisoning the marine lifes and a transmission of potential diseases among the humans who happen to consume the water. Also, it might affect the livelihoods of many fishermen out there. On top of that, the tourism industry will inevitably be damaged because of the shutting down of certain areas to ensure that the cleanup is done properly. That means no more sea sports for you tourists!

All in all, the incident is still under investigation.


The cause of the fire that sunk the rig is still under investigation. Talk is centering around the cement used to seal the well, which was provided by Halliburton. It has been speculated that the cement may have leaked, allowing highly flammable gas to seep up the well and ignite.









Credits -cnn, -seattletimes, -schema-root

Go screw yourself, Apple

Okay, this is hilarious.


Read if you want to.


Yesterday Apple released some proposed changes to their SDK license restricting the technologies that developers can use, including Adobe software and others such as Unity and Titanium.


This is a frightening move that has no rational defense other than wanting tyrannical control over developers and more importantly, wanting to use developers as pawns in their crusade against Adobe.


I am positive that there are a large number of Apple employees that strongly disagree with this latest move. Any real developer would not in good conscience be able to support this. The trouble is that we will never hear their discontent because Apple employees are forbidden from blogging, posting to social networks, or other things that we at companies with an open culture take for granted.

Okay, I'm sure many of you have heard about the fact that Flash is not permitted to run on Apple products right? A lot of you out there must be furious when you chanced upon a site and you see an icon which requires a flash player and there's nothing you can do about it!


You just have to suck your thumb and leave that site.

That is what Apple is doing, harming other developers and sites by directing viewers away because they can't watch the video.


This is sad, really sad.


But the sadder fact is that Apple is not just a closed system, it is a closed company which does not allow dissidents in the company to voice out.

They are actually banned from blogging about their unhappiness.


Personally, I trust that every single employee are like half your customers, they are not your full customers because they see things from the company's perspective.


It is imperative that you have to work from top to bottom, from the CEO all the way to the suppliers.



Any breakdown in this relationship will cause dissonance. In e long run, there will be a communication breakdown as employees believed that they are stymied by the system. They start to become more and more cynical and sardonic.

By shutting them out, you are de facto cutting them off the operations. Definitely insidious in nature.


Apple might be a genius in innovation, but if they continue to act in their own way, they will not be sustainable. I can see that they are getting more and more complacent these days. They are disregarding the opinions of the outside world. So ironic!

 
If they do not pull themselves back in time, it will not be long before we witness the demise of Apple.
 
 
Credits -techcrunch, -uni, -timdyson, -fineartamerica

Happy 21st to Me

Today is my Birthday, my 21st.


Wow, I must say that throughout this 21 years of living, there have been many ups and downs, times when I was rebellion, times when I was matured, times when I was selfish, times when I was ruthless,  times when I was compassionate and of course times when I was insecured.


Well, how many of you out there feels fat?


How many of you feel that you are not worth very much?


How many of you feel that you have too many pimples, not good looking enough or not fit enough?


How many of you feel that you are not popular enough and that you have too little friends?


Well, I guess we all feel that way at various points of time in our lives.


As the old adage goes, "The grass on the other side is always greener." We all know that but inevitably, we are still jealous of the others' strengths, like their good looks, great clothes, super-smart brains, great physique and popularity.

But the truth is, these people whom we are envy of, are just as equally insecure as all of us out there.


No matter how good looking they are, the moment some other people say that they look older now, they will get a lot more paranoid than the normal looking ones. Why is that so? Simple. It's because they have always been showered with praises, and the moment these praises are replaced with a little criticisms, they will break down for it's an anomaly and we abhor anomalies or consensus that disobey our faiths.


Even if you have the perfect body, the moment someone say you are a little fatter, you get paranoid. Even if you have the perfect clothes, the moment someone say that it's not very nice, you will start to wear it less often to avoid more criticisms for you do not wish to hear the same thing from your other friends.


We humans, always play on the defensive side, when we get praises from something we do or wear, we will keep doing it.


Au contraire, if we get a slight criticisms, we will abolish it altogether.


Hence, my point is that we should not get overly-jealous about what the others have. Rather, we should look at our own strengths which the others are jealous of. Focus on your own strengths more. It is clearly impossible to oversee your own weaknesses and insecurity but at the very least, you can actually alleviate the pain you suffer from your own insecurity everyday.


That is probably how the fad, "emo" came about today. That people are constantly insecure and jealous, which in turn causes them to fret over unnecessary issues but I guess that's life.


The only thing we can do now is to tell ourselves that we are indeed powerful and that we are who we are. It's okay to be who we are and that we can still continue doing things that define us.

Do not give up on something you truly love just because the others criticise you on it, for they might just be jealous that you have found something you love and that they have not, up till today. Continue being tenacious, it will pay off one day.


I will like to end off by saying Happy 21st to myself and I hope that everyone of you out there will enjoy the day, 13 May.


Thank You!


Credits -thomasparkes, -blogspot

Final 4 for ANTM cycle 14

Enjoy

Credits -topmodel.livejournal.com

Google's Privacy Issues

"We are increasingly concerned that, too often, the privacy rights of the world's citizens are being forgotten as Google rolls out new technological applications," the officials say in the letter

The officials requested a response, "indicating how Google will ensure that privacy and data-protection requirements are met before the launch of future products."

Looks like Google has crossed the line once again.


When you get bigger, you tend to get more complacent and before you know it, you had already crossed the line set for you.


As a matter of fact, we have a proclivity to assume that we can get away with anything so long as we are respected as a superpower house.


In the corporate world, when you hold high statuses, you naturally can get away with things easily by having many scapegoats beside you. They will easily take up all the blames and absorb all the punishment as well.


But this time round, things are getting complicated.


Google has stepped into a controversial zone, that is the zone of privacy.


In case you guys are not aware of it, Google prospers on the fact that they have an abundance amount of information about the world, the people. They are able to organize all these information and group them accordingly such that it is very accessible to the world. That is why they are touted as the best search engine in the entire world.

.

Nonetheless, this might be the fatal blow for Google as well.


With greater power comes greater responsibility. Information is power so to speak and naturally privacy control is their responsibility.


They must not give out information randomly without the imprimatur of the owner. If not, they might have to pay the hefty price.


Right now, the world is actually scrutinizing Google's every operations. Why is that so?


Well, when you are famous, you naturally get all the attention. The same goes for Apple.


Nonetheless, I believe that Google will continue to climb up the corporate ladder because at this point in time, it takes more than a privacy breach to bring the entire Google down!


Of course, they have to be careful when it comes to privacy rights as well or they will be stuck in a very sticky situation.


Credits -marketwatch, -photobucket, -photobucket

Bank reform

At issue are branches of foreign banks, the vast majority of which are overseen by a partnership of both state and Federal Reserve regulators.


"A continuing role in regulating the U.S. operations of foreign banking institutions gives the Fed an important window into systemic risk worldwide," Neiman said to a gathering of international bankers in Washington.

Well, there you have it, that is why the Fed needs supervision over the foreign banking institutions. But right now the problem is . . .


Dodd would remove the Fed's examination authority over banks and place that responsibility within the new consolidated bank regulator. This would leave the Fed to concentrate solely on monetary policy.


But, Ben Bernanke argued that without supervision over central banks, he and his committee will have a hard time identifying the risks and thus they will not be able to set up an effective monetary policy that will benefit the majority.

Personally, I feel that it is not wise to deny the Fed of all supervision over central banks. At the end of the day, the central banks are so-called the pillar of the economy. They are the bellwether of the economy; any changes in the loans will have a great impinge on the society.


This includes investments, expenditures, expansion projects and further developments opportunities in the future. The banks hold the assets and the Fed needs to know how much they hold and how are they handling out the loans.

Without an overview of their operations, the Fed might end up setting policies that go against these banks. Rather than supporting the bank's policies, the Fed might end up giving these banks a hard time, which is not intended in the first place.


Hence, it is imperative to allow the Fed to retain control over the renowned central banks like those in Japan, Europe and America. Otherwise, they will not be able to churn out the apposite policy that is beneficial to all.


Credits -adrem, -ceoworld, -the217

An Education

An education

is a story about a 16 yr old school girl named Jenny who wants to go to oxford to read English. However, her dad really wants her to go to oxford to read law because he finds it way more practical and lucrative.


Then upon a fortuitous encounter, Jenny met a guy named david who is all about the glitz and glamour where he brought her to all the parties, great restaurants, concerts, and she even get to watch awesome french films. So basically she was enjoying the life.

As time pass, she feels that education is hard and boring and that before she dies after she graduate, she wants to live the life.



When she said die, it was just a facetious remark. In actual fact, she was talking about the nature of the lifestyle a person lead after he/she graduates, so mundane and repititious, like death.



In e end david proposed to her and she accepted it but then later on she came to find out that he is actually married and has a kid. She was beleaguered and despondent. When she went to visit David's wife, she felt even worse and then she rushed all the way home and she blamed her parents. She upbraided them for not stopping her silly 16-year old naive thinking about glitz and glamour, that her parents should know best that all these are not realistic.
 
 
 

 
Rather than putting an end to it, her parents abetted her to move on with David and even approved of their marriage.
 
 
Later, Jenny's dad went to apologise to her. He said that he was scared all his life and that he doesn't want that to happen to Jenny. That is also precisely why he wanted Jenny to go to Oxford to read Law and eventually become a renowned lawyer that can indulge in profligate living.
 
 
That's roughly what the entire movie is about.
 
 
Personally I thought that I can really relate to this. Firstly, I am really happy that I managed to squeeze my butt into Nanyang Business School. It was really an arduous endeavour altogether which really started in primary school. Then you have the secondary school and the junior college and finally at the University. It was really a vicious elimination process to come to think of it. Many have been eliminated along the way and what's ironic is that those who have passed all the stages are deciding whether to drop out. That is they do not want to go to University and that they want to start to work.
 
 
Is it because we like to take things for granted? Which is why we do not know how to appreciate the precious opportunities given to us? After all the hard work, some of us have decided to drop out of University just because we think it's boring.
 
 
Perhaps some of us think that we have survived so many trials and that we are so damn good already since we already made it to Univeristy. Thus, we can be complacent and start to wander around. But, little do these people know that those people who did not make it to University have a revival round and that they will overtake the people who gave up the opportunity previously. When that happens, it will be too late to regret.
 
 
I have a number of friends who told me that the degree qualification is no longer important today because of it is ubiquitous in this society. And that business is all about practicality and experience and not a piece of paper.
 
 
While I fully concur with the fact that business is all about the experience, I do not agree that the degree qualification is paltry. It is de facto the key to this society now. It is for the fact that everyone has it that you must not lack it. You will be a mile behind if you do not even have the basic qualification required by the society.
 
 
Instantly, there's no cushion to fall back on and naturally people will stare at you for no good reason. You might not care now but trust me, in the long run, you will be irritated by it for sure. Then, it's too late to regret.
 
 
So to my readers out there, don't worry if you are not doing as well now for you hold the key to your own fate. You still have a shot at this so long as you keep working and trying. Do not give up midway. Remember that. No matter how hard it is, you have to persist for it is for your future.
 
 
For me, the key is to have a strong resolution. When I feel that I must finish my work, I will swear upon my own surname that I will finish it.
 
 
Too radical you might feel but that's the type of discipline we need today. Acerbic and relentless.
 
 
That's education today.