Bloomberg and Gates fight Tobacco Company's dirty tricks

Lately major Tobacco companies are using a dirty trick to ensure they hook new customers in the third world. They threaten to sue the countries for unfair trade practices, going to far as to quote lawsuits, in which they were found guilty, in their legal fights. These small countries are quailing under the legal pressure and giving up their fights to protect their own citizens.

 

Today, Mike Bloomberg and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation donated $4 million to a fund that will help these countries fight these lawsuits. Good job Mike! Full NYTimes article below:

Cigarette production at the British American Tobacco Cigarette Factory in Bayreuth, Germany.  Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on Wednesday that they had started a global fund to help low- and middle-income countries fight legal challenges to their smoking laws. Credit Michaela Rehle/Reuters

 

Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on Wednesday that they had started a global fund to help low- and middle-income countries fight legal challenges to their smoking laws by the tobacco industry.

The fund is modest, at least so far, with a total of $4 million from the two charities. But Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and the financial data and news company Bloomberg LP, said in a conference call with reporters that the investment was more like an initial marker, and that it was expected to grow as more donors joined the effort.

“The fact that there is a fund dedicated to taking on the tobacco companies in court sends a message that they are not going to get a free ride,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “If they say that’s not a lot of money — yes, well, take a look at who’s behind it.”

He added, “We just picked $4 million just to say, ‘O.K., here, let’s start it.’”

The fund was set up to counter what health experts say has been a strategy by tobacco companies to block smoking laws in poorer countries through legal means. In a number of cases, companies have challenged laws in development or after passage, warning governments that they violate an expanding number of trade and investment treaties that the countries are party to, and raising the prospect of long, expensive legal battles.

Companies say that there are only a few cases of active litigation and that giving a legal opinion to governments is routine for major players whose interests would be affected by a proposed law. But tobacco opponents and officials say the specter of litigation has had a chilling effect for countries that lack the financial resources to defend themselves.

“In an ominous trend, in some countries the battle between tobacco and health has moved into the courts,” Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the World Health Organization, said in a statement on Wednesday. Dr. Chan is participating in a conference on tobacco use in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. She added, “We will push back hard.”

The strategy has gained momentum in recent years, health experts say, as smoking rates in rich countries have fallen and tobacco companies have sought to maintain access to fast-growing markets in developing countries.

In Africa, at least four countries — Namibia, Gabon, Togo and Uganda — have received warnings that their laws run afoul of international treaties, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an advocacy group that will administer the new fund. In Uruguay, Mr. Bloomberg’s charity is also helping the government defend itself in court.

Wealthier countries have also been targets, including Australia, which is in court with an affiliate of Philip Morris International over rules on packaging, and Norway.

British American Tobacco, which issued some of the warnings in Africa, did not respond to requests for comment. Philip Morris International said in a statement, “Governments can and should honor their international obligations when enacting tobacco control measures, and this fund can provide them with resources to do so.”

Tobacco consumption more than doubled in the developing world from 1970 to 2000, according to the United Nations. Much of the increase was in China, but there has also been substantial growth in Africa, where smoking rates have traditionally been low. More than three-quarters of the world’s smokers now live in the developing world.

Every year, more than five million people die of smoking-related causes, more than from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, according to the World Health Organization. The organization said in a statement on Wednesday that new data shows a declining rate of tobacco use around the world.

Beyond giving money, the fund will also help countries draft tobacco laws in a way that could help avoid challenge from industry, and establish a network of lawyers experienced in trade litigation. Mr. Bloomberg said some law firms had already expressed interest in volunteering their services. Mr. Bloomberg has committed about $600 million to combat tobacco use since 2007.

A novel use for used rail tracks.

Here's a man in the Bronx who looks at abandoned rail yards as a park rather than a place to leave graffiti. With $3,500, Justin Fornal and his father bought a used rail car and are planning on driving it around old rail tracks, encouraging investment and public use and converting these areas into parks. There is a lot of green and Justin envisages a version of the Highline but with passengers riding on trains.

 



 Justin is taking this plan seriously and invited William Goetz, a vice president of CSX Transportation, one of the nation’s largest freight railroad companies, along for the inaugural ride. 

 

Justin is asking CSX for assistance in riding his car on the rails across the country mostly on unused tracks to raise awareness for his plan. Goetz is skeptical but has not ruled out the plan. 

Gaming theory helps place NYC Students in school of choice

The NY Times neatly reported on the use of Nobel Prize winning gaming theory in the perennial problem of matching New York's high school students with the school of their choice. Since all 75,000 NYC Middle-school students have the option of attending any of the 426 NYC schools and there are many over-achievers, a simple priority list like the college acceptance process used to result in many unhappy applicants.

 

So a group of professors got together and modified a gaming theory called "The Stable Marriage" for this purpose. In the early 1960s, the economists David Gale and Lloyd Shapley proved that it was theoretically possible to pair an unlimited number of men and women in stable marriages according to their preferences.

 

By running a series of rounds of proposals and acceptances with tentative acceptance sometimes being trumped by a rejection and acceptance of another suitor, all the men and women get matched up with someone within their range of preferences.

 

Below is a nice graphic showing the process simplified to ten students, three schools, each of which have three slots, three preferences and three rounds. In reality there are more of each variable but, with computerization, the process works the same.

In 2003, New York City changed its method for matching eighth graders to high schools with a system, called a deferred acceptance algorithm, that was designed by a team of professors, including one who later won a Nobel prize in economic science. The key feature was mutuality: Students submit a list of preferred schools in order, and schools prepare an ordered list of students whom they want or who meet their standards. After rounds of computer matching, schools and students are paired so that students get their highest-ranked school that also wants them. Here, in simplified form, is how it works. In this example, each school can take three students, although it can list more, and each student can list up to three choices.

Sources: Academic papers, with assistance from Parag Pathak, Massachusetts Insitute of Technology

By Ford Fessenden

Big idea for LaGuardia

If you've ever flown into or out of LaGuardia or JFK, you might be forgiven for thinking you weren't in the airport of the greatest city in the world. These airports and their connections to the city are just awful. Newark is better but it is in New Jersey with few connections to New York City. Most large cities have much better connections to their airports.

There is a competition to develop a better plan for these airports with a $500,000 prize.

This guy, Jim Venturi, has a BIG plan that may be what we need, rather than the Band-Aids others are applying to the systemic problem that is air travel into and out of New York.

 

Lithuania declares energy independence from Russia

What do you do when you are a small, former Soviet Republic, trying to make it on your own but tied to Russia's gas monopoly? Lithuania has figured out a way to break this strangle-hold that Russia has used to freeze out Ukraine and threaten to do so to other former Eastern Bloc countries.

The floating natural gas terminal Independence arriving in Klaipeda, Lithuania, on Monday.CreditPetras Malukas/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

This article explains how the Lithuanians have brought in a mobile factory for converting Norwegian Liquified Petroleum Gas to Natural Gas and parked it just off-shore. It may cost more than Russian gas but this independence comes at a price that the Baltic states are willing to pay.

Putting the E in Estonia

I really enjoyed Talinn when I visited a few years back. Not only was the old town absolutely gorgeous with one beautiful square leading into another, the people were amazing. Everyone seemed friendly and spoke many languages.

So it came to no surprise to me that Estonians have fully embraced the digital world. According to this article, Estonians microchip technology to embed their national identity and access thousands of services, including banking and medical records.

They ignore concerns about privacy in favor of the greater convenience of full connectivity. Coming out from under the Soviet yoke a generation ago, they welcome the slashing of bureaucracy this electronic connectivity allows.

Look at some of the advantages they gain: 98% of Estonians file their taxes online in 5 minutes allowing the tax department to halve their workforce to 1,500 and issue tax returns in a week. Digital signatures on mobile devices are the norm.

Estonia is leading the way here. Is it the right path to the future? Are we heading to 'This Perfect Day?'

Simplicity sells

I love Costco. Not just for the prices but for the simplicity. When I want to buy a product, I know that Costco has already narrowed down the many choices to the one or two top products and cut the margin down to a razor thin slice.

Products arrive in boxes and customers walk out with boxes full of products. Pallets are placed on warehouse shelves and it's up to the customers to pull out what they want to buy.

Because of this simplicity I am loyal to Costco and look for that simplicity in other companies. And I'm not the only one. Since 2010, Siegel and Gale has published the Global Brand Simplicity Index which rates companies globally and in the US, Germany and UK for this simplicity factor. Here's the latest list:

My father's favorite company, the German low price retail company, Aldi, heads the list, for many of the same reasons I love Costco.

Building a business from nothing

You've got to admire a person who can create a business out of nothing. Barton Steiner saw a potential in selling stuff that the Yankees had used to fans who want them. According to this article, he has talked the Yankees, and a lot of other sports teams, to sell him their used products, from bases to rakes to dirt, so that he can sell them to fans who are willing to pay well for this memorabilia.

So now Yankees groundskeepers change the bases several times a game so Barton can sell them to fans for hundreds of dollars. Very clever!

Lottery savings accounts

"Lotteries are a tax on the stupid." We've heard this before but this simplistic statement ignores the entertainment value a poor person gets from dreaming about getting rich by purchasing a ticket. Being down and out is a tough situation and the thought that a $1 ticket can bring you riches is worth the purchase price.

My statistics professor once told me: 'The odds of winning the lottery are tiny, but by buying one ticket, you have improved those odds infinitely from zero to this number. Buying two tickets only doubles these odds so stick with one ticket." I use that philosophy when the mega millions gets above a quarter billion.

But I'm not poor and I already save about 20% of my income. How can we encourage the poor to save while still giving them the hope a lottery provides? A long time ago I dreamed of machines located next to the lottery machines at the convenience stores that people could load their money into a retirement account and see the balance and predicted amount at retirement every time they used the machine. Then they would have a choice between instant gratification and long term savings.

But I like a system even better as reported on in today's NY Times article. Here several credit unions offer 'Prize-linked savings accounts.' A small percentage of the interest rate is dedicated to monthly prizes which are randomly given to people who deposit money into their accounts that month. Not only do you have published winners, everyone else wins because they all save money for their futures.

Smart Bus Service in Boston

It only makes sense that the home of MIT and Harvard should host the world's smartest bus service. A new company, Bridj, is rolling out a bus service that takes millions of bits of information from people's smart phones to figure out where they are and where they want to go. Then it runs routes accordingly.

The user's smart phones will give them up-to-date information on when the buses will arrive. But the smart element is that the routes will evolve as more users provide more information. The buses stop when needed, not on a standard schedule resulting in faster commutes in one of America's toughest traffic cities.

Read more about it in this article.

Simple invention to reduce hockey injuries

I love simple ideas with a big impact. Here's one that strives to reduce debilitating injuries in hockey caused by people slamming or being slammed into the boards without warning. Tom Smith invented a simple warning line that paints the last 40 inches of a hockey rink bright orange to give a player warning that a solid object is close.

Having suffered two severe spinal injuries himself, he now walks with crutches but wants to prevent future children from the paralysis and injuries that are all too common in this sport.

His 'Look-Up Line' costs $550 to install in a rink, 1000 times less than his own medical bills for six months.

June 6th, USA Hockey will vote on a measure to require this in all rinks. Let's hope it passes.

Potable water for poor communities

Dean Kamen has invented many wonderful things besides the Segway. His latest is a high-powered, efficient water purifier that he hopes to roll out all over poor parts of the world to relieve the diseases caused by contaminated water.

His company, DEKA , has teamed up with Coca-Cola to deliver thousands of EkoCenters. These solar-powered kiosks are placed on a concrete pad, hoooked up to the local water supply and provide the following services:

1. Potable drinking water through the DEKA water purifiers.
2. Free charging stations for cell-phones etc.
3. Cold storage for vaccines
4. Sell Coke products (Gotta get the next generation hooked, after all)
5. Employment for those servicing it
6. Entertainment for locals through the attached TV

Read more about it here.

New Solar Battery Method

 As Solar Power becomes more prevalent, there is a push to store this energy for night-time use. I've posted before about storing wind energy in people's water heaters and electric cars. Here is a new method that stores heat in salt which melts until it is needed again. The system is small now but can be expanded. Currently the Arizona utility buys all the energy produced by this method.

3-D printing an entire dinner

Funny article in today's Times about using a 3D printer to create an entire meal.

Pasta

Italy shaped pizza with 3D printed plate and cutlery

Even the tie was printed

It's worth the read.

Return to sender for dog poop violators

Hah! I love it. A city in Spain is getting revenge on dog poop law scoffers by delivering their dog's poop back to them at home.

In Brunete, Spain, the mayor found that the most consistent complaint he received was about the presence of errant dog-poop so he set about to reduce this problem. His earlier program was less successful, more on that later, but this one works. All dog owners seem to be carrying plastic bags now, a rare sight in Spain and dog poop complaints have been reduced by 70%.

This article goes into more detail. The big question I had while reading it was: How do they know whose poop it is? Undercover volunteers, after witnessing a crime, will meet the owner and admire the dog, asking its name and breed. From there, a quick look at town records reveals the address. The poop is packaged in a white box and delivered to the door titled: Lost and Found. When the owner signs for the package, they get a lovely surprise.

Oh, and the previous failed project. A remote controlled plastic poop that would bump into people's feet to raise awareness. Both programs are shown in the video below:

Leadership for college students

Teresa Crane forwarded me this article and asked if I would like to present it. I agree with all the advice so I post it below. The original article is posted here.

According to The Job Outlook for the College Class of 2013 by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), nearly all of the top ten bachelor degrees for hiring in the current job market involve leadership ability. These include some of the most popular degrees offered online, such as business administration and marketing management (November 2012). Furthermore, even if you are an e-learner who does not intend to pursue a direct supervisory role, “leadership” is an often cited soft skill on most prospective employers’ lists of wants for their employees.
Clearly, leadership is a new trend in hiring, and graduates about to enter the workforce must be prepared to develop and demonstrate that they have this talent. But what is meant by “leadership skills,” and how do students, especially e-learners, attain and document that they have such abilities? To help guide you, here is an explanation of what employers are looking for and ways you can show them you have leadership skills.
Leadership Defined

Most experts agree that leadership can be a bit difficult to define. Therefore, David Mielach of Business News Daily went right to the source, the leaders of business and industry, to discover, “10 Ways to Define Leadership” (27 December 2012). The answer that stands out most of all is the definition offered by business consultant, Kendra Coleman:

Leadership is an act — a decision to take a stand, or step, in order to encourage, inspire or motivate others to move with you. What’s more, the most effective leaders do not rely on their title, or positional power, to lead. Rather, their ability to use their own personal power combined with their use of strategic influence are what make them effective” (qtd. in Mielach. 27 December 2012).

Most see leadership as the ability to take proactive, preventative, results-producing action. This has no connection to a job title or position. Rather, the group of experts Mielach interviewed sees leadership as an inner strength that inspires outward results, a sense of vision that envelops others and guides a team to further success.
There are a few additional traits that are often mentioned.
Additional Characteristics

Some additional attributes of leadership should also be kept in mind. Good leaders are:

• Flexible with people and situations: According to author and expert trainer, Ken Blanchard, leadership involves the understanding of when to direct, coach, support, and/or delegate to co-workers as a supervisor or team member based on the context.
• Entrepreneurial/Intrapreneurial: They have the creativity and dynamism to operate outside the box to problem solve and get things done whether you are owning and operating your own business (entrepreneur) or working within an organization (intrapreneur ).
• Communicative: They possess the ability to get a message across to others and to guide the exchange of ideas verbally or electronically.

Note that some of these attributes are broken down separately on lists of skills employers look for in employees.
Ways to Gain Leadership Skills

There are quite a few ways that students, online or on-ground, can gain leadership experience. You may even be doing some of these already.

• Stand out favorably in class and obtain letters of recommendation from professors, collect relevant feedback (e.g., on assignments from faculty and other students), and save copies of your best work.
• Lead group projects and document what you did and why; be careful to do this in accordance with the characteristics described above rather than in a pushy way.
• Take specific courses related to leadership, and if possible, take some independent study classes that would allow you to work with a professor on a topic specifically related to leadership development in your field.
• Obtain certifications related to leadership by checking what is offered by your school (e.g., See these offerings by Villanova University ) or respected external, career/employer specific programs (e.g., See the U.S. Office of Personnel Management ).
• Participate in organizations, such as Keith Hawkins’s Real Inspiration, Inc. which provides opportunities to train and get involved in leadership from middle school through college.
• Seek out positions of leadership in student organizations at your school. Most will list these on their websites as Aurora University does, or consider starting your own group. Some groups, such as The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) have special leadership development programs and chapters at online universities (e.g., Kaplan University).
• Consider entry-level jobs, internships/externships, and volunteer positions in which you may develop and increasingly demonstrate leadership skills. Your department and/or school should be able to assist you with finding a suitable position.

How to Document Leadership for Employers

Now that you understand what leadership is and have some ways to gain skills in this area, it’s also time to think about how you will demonstrate this to employers. Here are some suggestions to get you started.

• Most application processes still rely on the traditional cover letter and resume with transcripts, though often this is presented via an online application site. Follow a functional resume format that will highlight what you can do, and be sure to add a specific (sub)heading for “Leadership Skills.”
• Online applications will often allow you to attach transcripts, additional documents, and/or electronic links. Take full advantage of these options to add scanned copies of certifications, screen shots of your work, letters of recommendation, sample projects—anything you have done or are currently involved with that shows you are a leader.
• Software options exist that will also help you demonstrate your leadership skills to potential employers. Consider using Live Binders, Zotero, or screen capture software to assemble a professional overview of your work; then share a link with prospective employers on your resume or in your cover letter.
• Social media is a powerful tool, and hiring managers are increasingly consulting the digital footprint of job candidates. Carefully brand yourself as an up and coming leader in your field within social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Share links to these sites with prospective employers within your application.

Pursuing, documenting, and demonstrating that you have leadership skills can take time; however, the knowledge that employers are increasingly looking for talent in this area, especially in some of the top career fields, should motivate you to take action. You also do not need to accomplish all of the above steps at once. Rather, try to focus on one or two ways each semester and gradually build an impressive portfolio for employers and online presence that brands you clearly as a leader.
If you have any additional tips or suggestions, please share them in the dialog box below or via Twitter.
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Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Donating ideas, not money

Toyota donated their efficiency model to New York's food bank instead of money this year. And what a difference this made.

James Estrin/The New York Times

Daryl Foriest, director of distribution at the Food Bank’s pantry and soup kitchen in Harlem, was skeptical at first of the Toyota engineers’ efforts. “The line of people waiting to eat is too long,” he told them. “Make the line shorter.” They did.

According to this recent NY Times article, teaching the Kaizen model to the food bank decreased lines for dinner from 90 to 18 minutes, filling bags from 11 to 6 minutes and packing boxes from 3 minutes to 11 seconds.

The kitchen, which can seat 50 people, typically opened for dinner at 4 p.m., and when all the chairs were filled, a line would form outside. Mr. Foriest would wait for enough space to open up to allow 10 people in. The average wait time could be up to an hour and a half.

Toyota made three changes. They eliminated the 10-at-a-time system, allowing diners to flow in one by one as soon as a chair was free. Next, a waiting area was set up inside where people lined up closer to where they would pick up food trays. Finally, an employee was assigned the sole duty of spotting empty seats so they could be filled quickly. The average wait time dropped to 18 minutes and more people were fed.

Investing in people

With student loans becoming crippling for new college graduates, some are looking for more creative financing models. Today's Times explores a couple of these new options. In Pave and Upstart, people can invest in students to fund their education or business ideas. For example, one student needs $30,000 in exchange for 7% of his income for his first 10 years in his career.

Stuart Isett for The New York Times

I was intrigued and went on these websites to see who I could invest in. I was disappointed in the few who wanted to fund their education and the plethora of those who want to start some crazy start-up or become well-educated but poorly paid social workers.

I like the idea but want to see more solid investments before I send any of my money their way.

Delhi Metro is a project success

With all the corruption rampant in India, it is a refreshing surprise to see a huge proejct like the Delhi Metro come in on time and budget and actually make money. How is this possible? A great article in Australia's The Age looks into this to find that the project's success hinges on the personality, strength and confidence of the Project Manager, E Sreedharan.

Sreedharan agreed to take on the Delhi metro on one condition: no political interference. He hired a small, motivated staff, solely on merit, paid them well, and sent them overseas to study how the world's best metros worked. He insisted on developing expertise within the organisation, rather than relying on consultants.

Deadlines and budgets had to be realistic and achievable; but once set, they were not to be altered, save in compelling circumstances. Once a decision was made, it was final. If anything went wrong, there was no hunt for scapegoats, only for solutions. A colleague told Forbes magazine that in 30 years of working together, he never heard Sreedharan shout at anyone.

There was no mercy, however, if the issue was corruption, so rife in India. Anyone caught was out immediately. Sreedharan ignored the rule book on competitive tenders to award tenders to firms he trusted - but if they failed to deliver on time, quality and budget, they, too, were out. Politicians used to pulling strings to get jobs or contracts for their allies found their strings were cut.

Mr. Sreedharan was named India's man of the year for his efforts and the government won't let the 81 year-old man retire.

The inventor of the Internet and the computer mouse dies.

Douglas Engelbart, the computer visionary who changed the way we use computers died this week.

In a single epiphany in 1950, he envisioned the way computing should be done. At this time, huge computers were fed punch-cards by a single person trying to solve one problem at a time. According to this recent NY Times obituary, this is what Dr. Engelbart envisioned back then:

In his epiphany, he saw himself sitting in front of a large computer screen full of different symbols — an image most likely derived from his work on radar consoles while in the Navy after World War II. The screen, he thought, would serve as a display for a workstation that would organize all the information and communications for a given project.

Looks similar to what we do now doesn't it? (Al Gore was 2 years old at the time) But Dr. Engelbart didn't just leave it there. He went ahead and created the elements of this vision.

A decade later he established an experimental research group at Stanford Research Institute (later renamed SRI and then SRI International). The unit, the Augmentation Research Center, known as ARC, had the financial backing of the Air Force, NASA and the Advanced Research Projects Agency, an arm of the Defense Department.

The SRI is widely acknowledged as the founder of the Internet. 

In December 1968, he set the computing world on fire with a remarkable demonstration before more than a thousand of the world’s leading computer scientists at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, one of a series of national conferences in the computer field that had been held since the early 1950s. Dr. Engelbart was developing a raft of revolutionary interactive computer technologies and chose the conference as the proper moment to unveil them.

For the event, he sat on stage in front of a mouse, a keyboard and other controls and projected the computer display onto a 22-foot-high video screen behind him. In little more than an hour, he showed how a networked, interactive computing system would allow information to be shared rapidly among collaborating scientists. He demonstrated how a mouse, which he invented just four years earlier, could be used to control a computer. He demonstrated text editing, video conferencing, hypertext and windowing.

A prototype of the first computer mouse, which was invented in 1964 by Dr. Engelbart and constructed by two of his associates.

In contrast to the mainframes then in use, a computerized system Dr. Engelbart created, called the oNLine System, or NLS, allowed researchers to share information seamlessly and to create and retrieve documents in the form of a structured electronic library.

The conference attendees were awe-struck. In one presentation, Dr. Engelbart demonstrated the power and the potential of the computer in the information age. The technology would eventually be refined at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center and at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Apple and Microsoft would transform it for commercial use in the 1980s and change the course of modern life.

Years later, people in Silicon Valley still referred to the presentation as “the mother of all demos.” It took until the late 1980s for the mouse to become the standard way to control a desktop computer. 

Check out the presentation here. It's quite eye-opening to see history in the making.