Gunjan Doshi

Apr 18

“We have trials that go on for decades,” Mehta says, noting that 65% of the people in Indian jails are simply waiting for their court dates. Convictions in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, for example, were handed down after 13 years, in 2006 and death sentences for several of the accused delivered a year later.” Mumbai Attacks Trial Offers Rare Glimpse into Indian Courts - TIME

“Almost half of French people believe it is acceptable for workers facing layoffs to lock up their bosses, according to an opinion poll published on Tuesday. Staff at French plants run by Sony, 3M and Caterpillar have held managers inside the factories overnight, in three separate incidents, to demand better layoff terms — a new form of labour action dubbed “bossnapping” by the media.” Almost half of French approve of locking up bosses - Yahoo! India News

Apr 8

“In Microsoft’s latest biannual report on the state of computer security, the company says that in the second half of 2008, a full 97.3 percent of email traffic was unwanted spam (or malicious email like phishing attacks and outright viruses). Surprisingly though, that’s down a bit from the first half of last year, when total spam volume reached a whopping 98.4 percent of all email sent.” Spam level *declines*… to 97 percent of all email : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

“Over the past 6 years, blog search engine Technorati has indexed 133 million blogs. In a survey of 1,290 of its registered bloggers in 66 countries, Technorati found that 79% blog about personal interests, 46% blog about their industry or profession, but not in an official capacity, and 12% blog on behalf of their companies.” Blogging Stat from Harvard Business review

“Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline sharply in March (-663,000), and the unemployment rate rose from 8.1 to 8.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.1 million jobs have been lost, with almost two-thirds (3.3 million) of the decrease occurring in the last 5 months. In March, job losses were large and widespread across the major industry sectors.” March Employment Report

Apr 7

“More than 20% of the 292 of the self-made American billionaires on the most recent list of the World’s Billionaires have either never started or never completed college. This is especially true of those destined for careers as technology entrepreneurs: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, and Theodore Waitt. Billionaires who derive their fortunes from finance make up one of the most highly educated sub-groups: More than 55% of them have graduate degrees. Nearly 90% of those with M.B.A.s obtained their master’s degree from one of three Ivy League schools: Harvard, Columbia or U. Penn’s Wharton School of Business.” http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/106866/Billionaire-Clusters

“Hispanics made up nearly half of the more than 1 million people who became U.S. citizens last year, according to a Hispanic advocacy group. More Related * The Republicans Flunk Spanish * Bosses, please replace the donuts with kiwi * Doctor’s Orders The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials said the number of Latinos who became Americans in fiscal year 2008 more than doubled over the previous year, to 461,317. That’s nearly half of the record 1,046,539 new citizens overall in 2008, a 58 percent increase from 2007. “Latinos who naturalize are eager to demonstrate their commitment to America by becoming full participants in our nation’s civic life,” said NALEO president Arturo Vargas, whose nonpartisan group works to improve the citizenship process and increase Latino participation in civic activities.” Study: Half of New Americans Hispanic - TIME

Apr 6

“Preliminary figures released by the government Monday show that 37,313 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes last year. That’s 9.1 percent lower than the year before, when 41,059 died, and the fewest since 1961, when there were 36,285 deaths. A different measure, also offering good news, was the fatality rate, the number of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. It was 1.28 in 2008, the lowest on record. A year earlier it was 1.36.” Bad economy holds highway deaths to 1960s levels

Apr 5

“With a total of $45 billion, India was the top recipient of remittances in 2008. China came next with $34 billion followed by Mexico ($26 billion), Philippines ($18 billion) and Poland ($11 billion).” India tops remittances in 2008, fall predicted in 2009: WB - Business News - News - MSN India - News

“Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something.” Obama Asks Security Council to Punish N. Korea - NYTimes.com

Apr 3

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Basketball’s Halftime Advantage

Not surprisingly, the basketball team in the lead early in a game wins over 2/3 of the time, and the further a team is ahead, the more likely it is to win. Every 2 points better a team is doing relative to its opponent at halftime increases its probability of winning by 8%. But an analysis of 6,572 NCAA basketball games recently published by two Wharton School professors shows that this relationship changes significantly when one team is only slightly behind the other. Teams losing by 1 point at halftime end up winning more often than teams winning by 1 point. The study’s authors surmise that players (and employees) are motivated to work harder and perform better when they’re just shy of a goal.

” When Losing Leads to Winning

Apr 2

“just nine people accounted for nearly 2,700 of the emergency room visits in the Austin area during the past six years at a cost of $3 million to taxpayers and others” 9 patients made nearly 2,700 ER visits in Texas

Mar 25

“A company can seize extra-ordinary opportunities only if it is very good at the ordinary operations.” Marcel Telles, Chairman and CEO of Brahma

Mar 24

“Successful new businesses typically revise their business models four times or so on the road to profitability.” Reinventing Your Business Model - HBR.org

“Between 1976 and 1992, disk-drive performance improved at a stunning rate: the physical size of a 100-megabyte (MB) system shrank from 5,400 to 8 cubic inches, and the cost per MB fell from $560 to $5.” Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave - HBR.org