1 US Fed to pump $267bn into economy (The Guardian) The US Federal Reserve announced a $267bn plan to underpin the US's fragile recovery as chairman Ben Bernanke warned that unemployment was unlikely to improve before the end of the year. The plan – an extension of a scheme known as Operation Twist – aims to drive down long-term interest rate and encourage borrowing. The announcement came as the latest statement from the Fed painted a gloomier picture of the US economy and said it was prepared to take more action if necessary.
The Fed said that the growth in employment "has slowed in recent months, and the unemployment rate remains elevated," and that household spending "appears to be rising at a somewhat slower pace than earlier in the year." The Fed also reiterated its concern that "strains in global financial markets continue to pose significant downside risks" to growth. That news will be a blow to the Obama administration in the run-up to an election that looks set to be dominated by economic news in general and the unemployment rate in particular.
2 Welcome to the bossless company (The Wall Street Journal) Like many tech companies, Valve Corp., a videogame maker in Bellevue, Wash., boasts high-end espresso, free massages and laundry service at its offices.One thing it doesn't have: bosses. Valve, whose website says the company has been "boss free" since its founding in 1996, also has no managers or assigned projects. Instead, its 300 employees recruit colleagues to work on projects they think are worthwhile. The company prizes mobility so much that workers' desks are mounted on wheels, allowing them to scoot around to form work areas as they choose.
Welcome to the bossless company, where the hierarchy is flat, pay is often determined by peers, and the workday is directed by employees themselves. So, how does anyone get things done? "It absolutely is less-efficient upfront," says Terri Kelly, chief executive of WL Gore, the Newark, Del., maker of Gore-Tex and other materials. Her title is one of the few at the company. "[But] once you have the organization behind it…the buy-in and the execution happen quickly," she adds.
At Valve, there are no promotions, only new projects. To help decide pay, employees rank their peers—but not themselves—voting on who they think creates the most value. Any employee can participate in hiring decisions, which are usually made by teams. Firings, while relatively rare, work the same way: teams decide together if someone isn't working out. As for projects, someone typically emerges as the de facto manager, says Greg Coomer, a 16-year veteran of Valve who works on product design. When no one takes the lead, he adds, it's usually a sign that the project isn't worth doing.
3 Grammar is a victim in the office (The Wall Street Journal) Managers are fighting an epidemic of grammar gaffes in the workplace. Many of them attribute slipping skills to the informality of email, texting and Twitter where slang and shortcuts are common. Such looseness with language can create bad impressions with clients, ruin marketing materials and cause communications errors, many managers say.
In a survey conducted earlier this year, about 45% of 430 employers said they were increasing employee-training programs to improve employees' grammar and other skills, according to the Society for Human Resource Management and AARP. "I'm shocked at the rampant illiteracy" on Twitter, says Bryan A. Garner, author of "Garner's Modern American Usage". He has compiled a list of 30 examples of "uneducated English," such as saying "I could care less," instead of "I couldn't care less," or, "He expected Helen and I to help him," instead of "Helen and me."
Mr. Garner requires all job applicants at his nine-employee firm—including people who just want to pack boxes—to pass spelling and grammar tests before he will hire them. And he requires employees to have at least two other people copy-edit and make corrections to every important email and letter that goes out. "Twenty-five years ago it was impossible to put your hands on something that hadn't been professionally copy-edited," Mr. Garner says. "Today, it is actually hard to put your hands on something that has been professionally copy-edited."
4 Forget B-School; D-School is hot (The Wall Street Journal) Forget B-School. These days, D-Scool is the place to go. Stanford University's D-School—the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design—has gained recognition in recent years for introducing the trendy, but murky, problem-solving concept known as "design thinking" to executives, educators, scientists, doctors and lawyers. Now other schools are coming up with their own programs. Design thinking uses close, almost anthropological observation of people to gain insight into problems that may not be articulated yet. For example, researchers may study the habits of shoppers waiting to pay for groceries in order to create a more efficient checkout system that maximizes last-minute purchases.
5 You for sale: Sharing the consumer genome (The New York Times) It knows who you are. It knows where you live. It knows what you do. It peers deeper into American life than the FBI or the IRS, or those prying digital eyes at Facebook and Google. If you are an American adult, the odds are that it knows things like your age, race, sex, weight, height, marital status, education level, politics, buying habits, household health worries, vacation dreams — and on and on.
Right now in Conway, Ark., more than 23,000 computer servers are collecting, collating and analyzing consumer data for a company that, unlike Silicon Valley’s marquee names, rarely makes headlines. It’s called the Acxiom Corporation, and it’s the quiet giant of a multibillion-dollar industry known as database marketing.
Few consumers have ever heard of Acxiom. But analysts say it has amassed the world’s largest commercial database on consumers — and that it wants to know much, much more. Its servers process more than 50 trillion data "transactions" a year. Company executives have said its database contains information about 500 million active consumers worldwide, with about 1,500 data points per person. That includes a majority of adults in the United States.
Such large-scale data mining and analytics — based on information available in public records, consumer surveys and the like — are perfectly legal. For Acxiom, the setup is lucrative. It posted profit of $77.26 million in its latest fiscal year, on sales of $1.13 billion.
6 What happened to the Microsoft monopoly? (The New York Times) As Apple introduces a range of new products, it is worth remembering that there is no such thing as a monopoly in the computer industry. Fourteen years ago, the Justice Department accused Microsoft of maintaining a monopoly in personal-computer operating systems and expressed concern that Microsoft would extend that monopoly.
At the time, 90 to 95% of personal computers powered by Intel processors were running a Microsoft operating system. Some analysts said that this left PC owners little choice, and that Microsoft was preventing the marketplace from functioning well. Others suggested that the market was functioning quite well. Watching Apple introduce some amazing products last week, including laptops (which have been running Intel processors for several years now) and operating systems for mobile and desktop devices, it is difficult to imagine that the Justice Department once thought that, without government intervention, consumer choices would be significantly limited by Microsoft.
Interestingly, on Tuesday, Microsoft announced that it was introducing a tablet, the Surface, that will compete in the strong and growing market dominated by Apple’s iPad. Market forces are clearly working to give consumers choices in the market.
7 Booking milestone for Airbnb.com (San Francisco Chronicle) Online accommodations marketplace Airbnb.com announced that it had reached a total of 10 million guest nights booked on the site. The 5-year-old San Francisco company said it booked its 2 millionth guest night only one year ago, and hit the 5 million mark five months ago. In marking the milestone, the company also reported that it now lists more than 200,000 bookable properties worldwide, and that demand for Airbnb accommodations in the US has increased 240% in the last year.
8 Oracle's Ellison is buying a Hawaiian island (San Francisco Chronicle) Some people splurge on a trip to the Hawaiian Islands. Oracle co-founder and billionaire Larry Ellison splurges by buying one. Ellison is spending a small fraction of his billions to buy the Hawaiian island of Lanai, home to several luxury resorts, golf courses and residential developments, according to papers filed with state regulators.
The exact sale price was not disclosed, but the PUC documents state that the buyer will receive "hundreds of millions of dollars." "It is my understanding that Mr. Ellison has had a long-standing interest in Lanai," said Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie in a written statement. "His passion for nature, particularly the ocean, is well-known, specifically in the realm of America's Cup sailing. He is also a businessman whose record of community involvement in medical research and education causes is equally notable."
As news of the purchase spread, island residents were scratching their heads over a system that leaves some of the most important decisions about their community to a single person. "It's kind of strange that in 2012, a medieval system of having one man own an island in the middle of the state, on which 3,000 people live, can still exist," said Robin Kaye, who has lived on Lanai with his family since 2005. "It's very bizarre."
Ellison, 67, is known for his expensive tastes. A 23-acre Japanese-style estate in Woodside reportedly cost him $200 million, and he is said to have spent as much on other properties around Malibu. Ellison can afford his hobbies. He is the third-wealthiest American citizen, according to Forbes, worth $36 billion.
9 Dear Jobless Graduate (Jonathan Jansen in Johannesburg Times) Jobless Graduate writes to me often, posing a question filled with emotion and frustration. "I have a degree, but I cannot find a job. How do you explain that, professor?" JG is male and female, in the early to mid-20s, mostly black, from a poor family, and from all nine provinces. JG has applied for every job available, starting with one that fits the degree that she studied for and then, later, going for any job that could earn her some money.
So JG, here is my message to you. The reason you fail to get a job has little to do with your degree. It has everything to do with the other things employers look for in a candidate.To begin with, take a close look at your curriculum vitae. You will notice spelling errors and large gaps between words. You will see that your paragraphs are not always aligned, and that your references at the end are missing information. Your sloppy CV is one reason that employers decide, there and then, that you would probably make a careless worker.
Your CV makes no reference to voluntary work or holiday occupations. Your marks reveal that you concentrated on passing, and so your 40% in mathematical literacy at school, and your 52% in sociology at university, send all the wrong signals.While you were concentrating on passing, other students were focused on excelling; there is a big difference. Now I want you to reflect on your last interview. The way you walked into the interview room suggested a serious energy deficit. There was no smile, and you looked depressed, with your drooping shoulders. And for heaven's sake, dress properly.
And so you see, JG, it is not about showing up with a degree that matters. It is the other stuff they are looking for, the value added to the degree. They are looking for competence, composure and confidence, and evidence of a life well lived. They want proof of an energetic self-starter who filled her leisure time with service to others.
10 Mandarin is Australia's second most spoken language (Sydney Morning Herald) Just how multicultural a nation Australia is has been reinforced in new census data that shows that almost one in four Australians was born overseas. The latest snapshot of the country reveals a population of just over 21.5 million on census night last year - and 24.6% of them were born overseas, up from 22.2% in 2006, while 43.1% of people have at least one parent who migrated here.
The United Kingdom is our leading source of overseas-born residents, followed by New Zealand, China and India. Mandarin is now the second most common language spoken at home after English, while Hinduism has experienced largest proportional growth of the three most common non-Christian religious affiliations.
The Fed said that the growth in employment "has slowed in recent months, and the unemployment rate remains elevated," and that household spending "appears to be rising at a somewhat slower pace than earlier in the year." The Fed also reiterated its concern that "strains in global financial markets continue to pose significant downside risks" to growth. That news will be a blow to the Obama administration in the run-up to an election that looks set to be dominated by economic news in general and the unemployment rate in particular.
2 Welcome to the bossless company (The Wall Street Journal) Like many tech companies, Valve Corp., a videogame maker in Bellevue, Wash., boasts high-end espresso, free massages and laundry service at its offices.One thing it doesn't have: bosses. Valve, whose website says the company has been "boss free" since its founding in 1996, also has no managers or assigned projects. Instead, its 300 employees recruit colleagues to work on projects they think are worthwhile. The company prizes mobility so much that workers' desks are mounted on wheels, allowing them to scoot around to form work areas as they choose.
Welcome to the bossless company, where the hierarchy is flat, pay is often determined by peers, and the workday is directed by employees themselves. So, how does anyone get things done? "It absolutely is less-efficient upfront," says Terri Kelly, chief executive of WL Gore, the Newark, Del., maker of Gore-Tex and other materials. Her title is one of the few at the company. "[But] once you have the organization behind it…the buy-in and the execution happen quickly," she adds.
At Valve, there are no promotions, only new projects. To help decide pay, employees rank their peers—but not themselves—voting on who they think creates the most value. Any employee can participate in hiring decisions, which are usually made by teams. Firings, while relatively rare, work the same way: teams decide together if someone isn't working out. As for projects, someone typically emerges as the de facto manager, says Greg Coomer, a 16-year veteran of Valve who works on product design. When no one takes the lead, he adds, it's usually a sign that the project isn't worth doing.
3 Grammar is a victim in the office (The Wall Street Journal) Managers are fighting an epidemic of grammar gaffes in the workplace. Many of them attribute slipping skills to the informality of email, texting and Twitter where slang and shortcuts are common. Such looseness with language can create bad impressions with clients, ruin marketing materials and cause communications errors, many managers say.
In a survey conducted earlier this year, about 45% of 430 employers said they were increasing employee-training programs to improve employees' grammar and other skills, according to the Society for Human Resource Management and AARP. "I'm shocked at the rampant illiteracy" on Twitter, says Bryan A. Garner, author of "Garner's Modern American Usage". He has compiled a list of 30 examples of "uneducated English," such as saying "I could care less," instead of "I couldn't care less," or, "He expected Helen and I to help him," instead of "Helen and me."
Mr. Garner requires all job applicants at his nine-employee firm—including people who just want to pack boxes—to pass spelling and grammar tests before he will hire them. And he requires employees to have at least two other people copy-edit and make corrections to every important email and letter that goes out. "Twenty-five years ago it was impossible to put your hands on something that hadn't been professionally copy-edited," Mr. Garner says. "Today, it is actually hard to put your hands on something that has been professionally copy-edited."
4 Forget B-School; D-School is hot (The Wall Street Journal) Forget B-School. These days, D-Scool is the place to go. Stanford University's D-School—the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design—has gained recognition in recent years for introducing the trendy, but murky, problem-solving concept known as "design thinking" to executives, educators, scientists, doctors and lawyers. Now other schools are coming up with their own programs. Design thinking uses close, almost anthropological observation of people to gain insight into problems that may not be articulated yet. For example, researchers may study the habits of shoppers waiting to pay for groceries in order to create a more efficient checkout system that maximizes last-minute purchases.
5 You for sale: Sharing the consumer genome (The New York Times) It knows who you are. It knows where you live. It knows what you do. It peers deeper into American life than the FBI or the IRS, or those prying digital eyes at Facebook and Google. If you are an American adult, the odds are that it knows things like your age, race, sex, weight, height, marital status, education level, politics, buying habits, household health worries, vacation dreams — and on and on.
Right now in Conway, Ark., more than 23,000 computer servers are collecting, collating and analyzing consumer data for a company that, unlike Silicon Valley’s marquee names, rarely makes headlines. It’s called the Acxiom Corporation, and it’s the quiet giant of a multibillion-dollar industry known as database marketing.
Few consumers have ever heard of Acxiom. But analysts say it has amassed the world’s largest commercial database on consumers — and that it wants to know much, much more. Its servers process more than 50 trillion data "transactions" a year. Company executives have said its database contains information about 500 million active consumers worldwide, with about 1,500 data points per person. That includes a majority of adults in the United States.
Such large-scale data mining and analytics — based on information available in public records, consumer surveys and the like — are perfectly legal. For Acxiom, the setup is lucrative. It posted profit of $77.26 million in its latest fiscal year, on sales of $1.13 billion.
6 What happened to the Microsoft monopoly? (The New York Times) As Apple introduces a range of new products, it is worth remembering that there is no such thing as a monopoly in the computer industry. Fourteen years ago, the Justice Department accused Microsoft of maintaining a monopoly in personal-computer operating systems and expressed concern that Microsoft would extend that monopoly.
At the time, 90 to 95% of personal computers powered by Intel processors were running a Microsoft operating system. Some analysts said that this left PC owners little choice, and that Microsoft was preventing the marketplace from functioning well. Others suggested that the market was functioning quite well. Watching Apple introduce some amazing products last week, including laptops (which have been running Intel processors for several years now) and operating systems for mobile and desktop devices, it is difficult to imagine that the Justice Department once thought that, without government intervention, consumer choices would be significantly limited by Microsoft.
Interestingly, on Tuesday, Microsoft announced that it was introducing a tablet, the Surface, that will compete in the strong and growing market dominated by Apple’s iPad. Market forces are clearly working to give consumers choices in the market.
7 Booking milestone for Airbnb.com (San Francisco Chronicle) Online accommodations marketplace Airbnb.com announced that it had reached a total of 10 million guest nights booked on the site. The 5-year-old San Francisco company said it booked its 2 millionth guest night only one year ago, and hit the 5 million mark five months ago. In marking the milestone, the company also reported that it now lists more than 200,000 bookable properties worldwide, and that demand for Airbnb accommodations in the US has increased 240% in the last year.
8 Oracle's Ellison is buying a Hawaiian island (San Francisco Chronicle) Some people splurge on a trip to the Hawaiian Islands. Oracle co-founder and billionaire Larry Ellison splurges by buying one. Ellison is spending a small fraction of his billions to buy the Hawaiian island of Lanai, home to several luxury resorts, golf courses and residential developments, according to papers filed with state regulators.
The exact sale price was not disclosed, but the PUC documents state that the buyer will receive "hundreds of millions of dollars." "It is my understanding that Mr. Ellison has had a long-standing interest in Lanai," said Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie in a written statement. "His passion for nature, particularly the ocean, is well-known, specifically in the realm of America's Cup sailing. He is also a businessman whose record of community involvement in medical research and education causes is equally notable."
As news of the purchase spread, island residents were scratching their heads over a system that leaves some of the most important decisions about their community to a single person. "It's kind of strange that in 2012, a medieval system of having one man own an island in the middle of the state, on which 3,000 people live, can still exist," said Robin Kaye, who has lived on Lanai with his family since 2005. "It's very bizarre."
Ellison, 67, is known for his expensive tastes. A 23-acre Japanese-style estate in Woodside reportedly cost him $200 million, and he is said to have spent as much on other properties around Malibu. Ellison can afford his hobbies. He is the third-wealthiest American citizen, according to Forbes, worth $36 billion.
9 Dear Jobless Graduate (Jonathan Jansen in Johannesburg Times) Jobless Graduate writes to me often, posing a question filled with emotion and frustration. "I have a degree, but I cannot find a job. How do you explain that, professor?" JG is male and female, in the early to mid-20s, mostly black, from a poor family, and from all nine provinces. JG has applied for every job available, starting with one that fits the degree that she studied for and then, later, going for any job that could earn her some money.
So JG, here is my message to you. The reason you fail to get a job has little to do with your degree. It has everything to do with the other things employers look for in a candidate.To begin with, take a close look at your curriculum vitae. You will notice spelling errors and large gaps between words. You will see that your paragraphs are not always aligned, and that your references at the end are missing information. Your sloppy CV is one reason that employers decide, there and then, that you would probably make a careless worker.
Your CV makes no reference to voluntary work or holiday occupations. Your marks reveal that you concentrated on passing, and so your 40% in mathematical literacy at school, and your 52% in sociology at university, send all the wrong signals.While you were concentrating on passing, other students were focused on excelling; there is a big difference. Now I want you to reflect on your last interview. The way you walked into the interview room suggested a serious energy deficit. There was no smile, and you looked depressed, with your drooping shoulders. And for heaven's sake, dress properly.
And so you see, JG, it is not about showing up with a degree that matters. It is the other stuff they are looking for, the value added to the degree. They are looking for competence, composure and confidence, and evidence of a life well lived. They want proof of an energetic self-starter who filled her leisure time with service to others.
10 Mandarin is Australia's second most spoken language (Sydney Morning Herald) Just how multicultural a nation Australia is has been reinforced in new census data that shows that almost one in four Australians was born overseas. The latest snapshot of the country reveals a population of just over 21.5 million on census night last year - and 24.6% of them were born overseas, up from 22.2% in 2006, while 43.1% of people have at least one parent who migrated here.
The United Kingdom is our leading source of overseas-born residents, followed by New Zealand, China and India. Mandarin is now the second most common language spoken at home after English, while Hinduism has experienced largest proportional growth of the three most common non-Christian religious affiliations.
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