You can also watch this video by clicking on the Play Button
6/26/2016
Can A Thousand Robots Outsmart Nature? (video)
You can also watch this video by clicking on the Play Button
Andy Murray and tennis grand slams
Pity Andy Murray, Britain’s number one tennis player and the
world’s number two.
His overall record is impressive. He has won two grand slams
(including Wimbledon in 2013) as well as an Olympic gold medal, and he
regularly makes at least the final four in big tournaments.
Yet his conversion rate of grand-slam semi-finals to
victories, at 19 to two, is the lowest in the modern game (see chart).
It is his misfortune
to be playing at the same time as outperformers like Roger Federer, Rafael
Nadal and Novak Djokovic, whom he has faced in seven of his ten finals.
In any other era he
might have been at least a John McEnroe. Just not this one.
6/20/2016
For the love of Pizza
CALL it pizza, pitta or fougasse: when Europe’s
holidaymakers head for the Mediterranean this summer, they will feast on some
type of flatbread with condiments. Such dishes have age-old roots. In the
“Aeneid”, Virgil’s heroes ate forest fruit laid on pieces of hard bread on the
grass. Famished, they munched the bread, too: “See, we devour the plates on
which we fed.”
Of all these edible platters, it is pizza that has become
the world’s favorite fast food, plain dough onto which each country bakes its
own flavors: mussels in the Netherlands, Teriyaki chicken and seaweed in Japan.
Born in Naples, the modern pizza was the poor man’s meal.
One 19th-century American visitor, Samuel Morse (inventor of the telegraph),
thought it “like a piece of bread that had been taken out of the sewer”. For
Alexandre Dumas, it was “the gastronomic thermometer of the market”: if fish pizza
was cheap, there had been a good catch; if oil pizza was expensive, there had
been a bad olive harvest.
These days pizza is a gastronomic mirror, reflecting Italy’s
anxiety about globalization. Italians are rightly proud of their food, yet
dismayed at its bastardization by the rest of the world. They fear that the
best in Italian civiltà is being looted by others. It is
America, not Italy, that has turned
everything from pizza to cappuccino into profitable global franchises; Domino’s
and Starbucks are even trying to penetrate Italy.
Now Naples is fighting to reclaim “real” pizza. Last month
hundreds of red-capped pizzaioli gathered to bake the world’s
longest pizza, 1,853.88 meters of it, snaking along the waterfront with the
city’s fabled vistas of Mount Vesuvius and Capri. It was all in support of
Italy’s bid to have the art of Neapolitan pizza recognized by UNESCO as a
treasure in the world’s “intangible cultural heritage”, alongside Brazil’s capoeira dance.
A ruling is expected next year.
In 2010 the European Union registered Neapolitan pizza as a
Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) product. It stipulates that certified
“Pizza Napoletana TSG” must consist of a base of hand-shaped dough (no rolling
pin), no wider than 35cm. It must be 0.4cm thick at the center and 1cm-2cm
around the rim. It may be garnished in just three ways: with tomatoes and
extra-virgin olive oil, or with certified mozzarella from either buffalo’s or
cow’s milk. It must be baked in a wood-fired oven and eaten on the spot, not
frozen or vacuum-packed.
This is culinary dogmatism. European food-inspectors surely
have better things to do than take a ruler to pizza. The pizzaioli say
they want only acknowledgment of their tradition. One oft-heard fear is that,
Heaven forbid, America might try to gain recognition for its own inferior
pizza. Should Hamburg then copyright the hamburger? Tellingly, Italy has
secured protection for 924 food products, wines and other drinks, more than
France (754) or Spain (361).
Chefs and farmers, pizza-makers included, have every right
to brand their dish and set their own standards. The state must obviously
ensure that food is safe. Governments have an interest, too, in guaranteeing
the quality of some premium appellations—Champagne, say.
Yet, the
name-craze limits scale, productivity and innovation. But the sacralization
of heritage is a millstone.
Italy’s love of tradition makes for idyllic holidays,
wonderful wines and delightful Slow Food. Italians like to think that their
art, culture and way of life will lift them out of economic torpor. However, Italy
has seen almost no productivity growth in more than a decade, in part because
its firms remain small: on average they count seven employees, about the size
of a family-run pizzeria. Artisan products offer no salvation. Italy has no
global food chains to speak of (or even big retailers, such as France’s
Carrefour). It may be home to espresso, but the next-door Swiss invented
Nespresso.
If pizza embodies Italy’s woes on a plate, it also offers
hope. Look closely at a Neapolitan pizza: the succulent tomatoes came from the
New World; the best mozzarella is made from the milk of the buffalo, an Asian
beast that may have arrived in Italy with the barbarian tribes who conquered
Rome; the aromatic basil originates from India. Neapolitan migrants carried
pizza across Italy and America. The genius of Italy lies in its inventiveness
and adaptability—not in an imagined tradition canonized by the state.
Panama canal expansion and world trade
WORKERS at a fish market in Panama City disagree on the
benefits of the country’s newly widened canal. One optimistically hopes the
government will have more funds to pay for air-conditioning in their workplace.
Another draws a finger across his throat and says, “The people will get
nothing.” A third calls it “the biggest opportunity” in Panama. The last
verdict is certainly true of the government’s take. The revenue it receives
each year from the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) is expected to double to around
$2 billion in 2021.
The ACP will be able to charge more for passage to bigger
ships now that massive new locks have been built at both the Pacific and
Atlantic ends of the canal and channels are deeper and wider. The $5 billion
venture will be inaugurated on June 26th when the first vessel officially sails
through.
Over 960m cubic metres of cargo passed through the canal in
2015, a new record and an amount that Francisco Miguez of the ACP calls “the
maximum we could do in the existing locks”. The expansion increases capacity to
1.7 billion cubic metres.
The biggest container ships that could use the old canal,
known as Panamaxes, can carry around 5,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units, or a
standard shipping container). Neo-Panamaxes that will use through the new locks
can carry around 13,000 TEUs. Although the world’s largest ships have space for
nearly 20,000 TEUs, the majority of the global fleet will now fit through the
canal.
The expansion will also change how freight moves around the
world. Traffic will probably divert from the Suez Canal since larger vessels now
have the option of going through Panama. America’s east-coast ports should get
busier.
In the past, many
containers heading from Asia to the eastern seaboard arrived at west-coast
ports, such as Los Angeles and Long Beach, and then travelled to their
destinations by road or rail. Bigger ships may now sail directly to ports in
the Gulf of Mexico or the east coast, though shipping times will be longer. And
vessels carrying liquefied natural gas from America’s shale beds will be able
to pass through the locks for the first time, heading to Asia. They are
expected to account for 20% of cargo by volume by 2020.
East-coast ports are preparing for the windfall, says Mika
Vehvilainen of Cargotec, a maker of cargo-handling equipment. Ports in
Baltimore, Charleston, Miami, New York and Savannah are updating facilities to
accommodate the Neo-Panamaxes. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
plans to spend $2.7 billion on enlarging its terminals and shipping lanes, and
a further $1.3 billion to raise a bridge by 20 metres.
Shipping lines’ costs will also fall because ports are
automating facilities at the same time as preparing them for Neo-Panamaxes,
says Kim Fejfer, boss of APM Terminals, the ports division of Denmark’s Maersk
Group, the world’s biggest shipping firm. Ports in the Gulf of Mexico are
already embracing these new technologies.
Widening the Panama Canal should certainly give some parts
of the shipping industry a boost. Customers may not, however, benefit much from
the reduction in shipping costs.
A flying hospital for the visually impaired (video)
You can also watch this video by clicking on the Play Button
Move Over Millennials! Here Comes Generation Z (or iGeneration)
Millennials or Generation Y — people
born between 1981 to 1997 — are the best educated and most diverse generation
to date.
“The millennials are a
transition between a white America into one that’s a much more globalized,
diverse America and so I think that’s going to be a signature part of the
generation coming forward,” said William Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution.
The iGeneration, also
known as Generation Z, are people who were born between the mid-1990s and the
early 2000s , the eldest of whom are about 20 years old. It’s the first generation
to be born, almost literally, with a smartphone in hand.
These young people want
“information on demand” and tend to trust the opinions of friends or strangers,
who share their views on social media platforms, over authority figures and
organizations. The iGens also turn to social media to learn about a product
before buying it.
Members of Generation Z
have a strong entrepreneurial streak and are anxious to map out their own
futures. Forty-two percent envision working for themselves rather than for
someone else. This group is also progressive on social issues,
voicing strong support for universal healthcare, relaxed immigration laws
and equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation.
And, despite growing up
with social media, Generation Z still places a high value on interpersonal
interaction, with 66 percent disagreeing with the notion that they’d rather
interact with their friends online than in person.
But the place where
Generation Z might leave their most lasting mark, is in how they deal with
people of different backgrounds and races, and even in how they define
themselves.
“The racial categories
we’ve been using all along may change as there’s more interracial marriage and interracial
dating,” said Frey. “We really don’t have a lot of experience with this kind of
change.”
 |
| Graphic from “Meet Generation Z” Northeastern University |
6/12/2016
Cristiano Ronaldo is the world’s highest earning athlete
Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo is the world’s highest earning
athlete with $88m from wages and endorsements over the past year.
The striker topped Forbes’ annual list of top earning
athletes, which was released on Wednesday, beating Barcelona striker Lionel
Messi who earned $81.4m, and basketball player LeBron James, who earned
$77.2m.
Mr Ronaldo, who scored the game-winning penalty to clinch
victory for Real Madrid in the Uefa Champions League final last month and the
third European cup of his career, earned about $56m in salary and a further
$32m in endorsements.
The Portuguese player has a sportswear sponsorship deal with
Nike, which has launched a clothing range called CR7 (after his initials and
shirt number) and has signed partnerships with watchmaker Tag Heuer and
nutrition supplements group Herbalife.
He overtook Mr Mayweather, who retired from boxing in
October following an undefeated professional career of 49 bouts. Mr Mayweather,
who goes by the sobriquet “Money”, remains on the top-earning list despite only
fighting once in the past year.
It is the first time since 2001 that an athlete other than
Mr Mayweather or golfer Tiger Woods has topped the list.
Mr Woods remains 12th on the list, despite losing form since
2009 when he admitted to serial infidelities and took leave from professional
golf for a short period. Mr Woods earned just $300,000 from golf winnings, but
$45m from endorsement deals with companies including Nike and Titleist.
Phil Mickelson, the highest-earning golfer on the list,
gained $2.9m directly from golf and about $50m from sponsorship deals.
Football club’s kit deal expected to bring in €150m a year
Tennis star Roger Federer earned more in endorsements than
any other athlete, with nearly $60m, in addition to about $7.8m from tennis
winnings.
Mr Federer has numerous sponsors, including Nike, Rolex,
Mercedes-Benz and Credit Suisse. These deals helped him earn $12m more than
Novak Djokovic, the current world number one male tennis player, who won the
French Open last week and currently holds all four of the sport’s major titles.
Mr Ronaldo and Mr Messi are the only football players in the
top 20, a list dominated by US sportsmen. There are 13 Americans in the list,
including American football quarterbacks Cam Newton and Tom Brady.
As in 2015, no woman made it to this year’s top 20 list.
Maria Sharapova will appeal her two-year suspension (audio)
Click on the photograph to listen to the news on Sharapova's suspension
Nobuyuki: chef and Robert de Niro's partner
Nobuyuki Matsuhisa is a chef and co-founder of
the restaurant chains Nobu and Matsuhisa.
Q. What is your family background?
A. I was born in 1949 in Saitama, a city near
Tokyo where my parents had moved during the Second World War. I was the
youngest of four children. My father died in a motorcycle accident when I was
eight. My mother lived to be 93, and passed away 10 years ago.
Q. When did you first become interested in cuisine?
A. My mother and brothers worked outside the
house, and I spent most of my time at home, watching my grandmother cook in the
kitchen. Back then, men did not go much into the kitchen, but as a child, I was
always in the kitchen. When I turned 12, my brother took me for the first time
to a sushi restaurant. Sushi was a very high-end food then, unlike today where
it is sold in every supermarket. I remember walking into the restaurant through
the sliding doors, being greeted ceremoniously, and sitting nervously at the
counter. I was both impressed and excited and decided then and there that I
wanted to become a sushi chef.
At school, I was a “bad boy” and was always getting into trouble.
I was expelled from school before I could obtain a high school diploma. So I
took a job in a family-run sushi restaurant in Tokyo.
Q. What did you learn on that first job?
A. I went to the fish market every day, watched
as the chef selected the fish, and carried his basket. I helped clean the fish,
serve lunch and dinner and clean up at night. This went on for several years
until a sous-chef quit and I was allowed to slice fish and make sushi.
The seven years I spent in that job were important ones. I
learned to make sushi the traditional way. Today, I teach sushi classes, and I
tell my students that making sushi is like giving a hearty handshake; you must
use all ten fingers.
I also understood the importance of teamwork, especially
that of the dishwashers, without whom a chef cannot function. Today, when I
visit any one of my own restaurants around the world, I always stop by the
kitchen and say hello to everyone, including the busboys, because I know how
difficult their job is.
Q. How did you transition from a traditional sushi chef
to fusion cuisine, for which your restaurants are known?
A. A client of the sushi restaurant offered me a
partnership in Lima, Peru. I had just gotten married and was interested in
pursuing other opportunities, so my wife and I agreed to move to Peru. There,
we found a very different sushi culture. It was my chance to show them how
sushi was made in Japan. But the local fish supply was completely different and
the food culture was centered around ingredients like lemon juice, ceviche,
chili peppers, cilantro, olive oil, and tomatoes rather than just soy sauce and
wasabi.
I learned in Peru that I could free myself of the ceremonial
ways of Japanese cuisine and experiment with new flavors. I had no choice but
to embrace the local culture. It opened my eyes to the fact that there was more
than one way to make sushi.
We stayed in Lima for three years, business was good and my
first daughter was born. Then, a disagreement with my partner led to the
breakup of our business relationship. We left Peru and I tried working in
Argentina for a year but business was slow, and with my wife pregnant with our
second daughter, we decided to return to Japan. It was the end of my South
American dream.
Q. But you were itching to leave your native Japan?
A. I had spent years outside the country, and I
felt I had nothing more to learn from Japan. When a friend suggested Anchorage,
Alaska, I discussed the idea with my wife. She has always supported me, though
not always happily, but she agreed and allowed me to follow my dream again.
In Alaska, the oil pipeline brought a lot of people, and
there was little restaurant competition. I opened a sushi place with a loan
from a new partner. The fish was not varied there but within the first few
weeks and much hard work, we were a success.
On Thanksgiving Day, after many weeks, I finally took a day
off. That same night, I received a call from my partner informing me that an
electrical short had caused a fire and the restaurant had burned down to the ground.
We had no insurance and I had no means of repaying my loan. I was devastated.
That was the lowest point of my life. I thought only about
ending my life. But every day, when I returned home, my children were happy to
see their father. At age 3 and 1.5, all they wanted to do was play. I can say
today that my family and the laughter of my children saved me.
After Alaska, I decided that I would never rush in my
business again and that I would rebuild step by step.
Q. Why did you go back into a partnership structure with
your restaurants?
A. After Anchorage, I wanted to keep my business
small and manage it alone. It was 1979, and I had to send my family back to
Japan and I settled in Los Angeles alone and took a job as a sushi chef in a
small restaurant. After a few years, I obtained a green card and brought my
family over. In 1987, with a loan of $60,000, I opened Matsuhisa on La Cienega,
without any partners.
The first two years were very difficult. We barely broke
even. There was mostly frozen fish being served then in sushi restaurants, and
I started importing fresh fish from Japan. That was not “innovative” per se, it
was more a desire to serve quality food, and my clients took notice.
One day, Robert De Niro came into Matsuhisa. I did not know
him then because I don’t go to the movies. He invited me to New York, showed me
around a building in Tribeca and explained his dream to open a restaurant. I
was not ready to take that step. But Bob continued to come to Matsuhisa.
Four years later, he asked me again about New York, and this
time, I felt I could trust him. Together, we started Nobu in New York in 1994.
He was a big reason for the success of the restaurant. We now have 32 Nobu
restaurants and Bob is my partner in all of them. I have also opened eight
Matsuhisa restaurants with other partners. Next January, we celebrate the 30th
anniversary of the original Matsuhisa in Los Angeles.
Q. How do you manage your businesses globally?
A. I am very much involved in managing my
restaurants. In hiring, I look for technical skills, leadership qualities, and
people with a good sense of teamwork. I work with managers who understand my
way of working and my philosophy, so they can become part of the family. The
chef in a restaurant must be a father figure.
Q. What makes a great leader?
A. A great leader must have vision, respect
people, and see things from the other person’s point of view.
Q. What is the best advice you have received?
A. The best lesson I have learned is to take one
step at a time in business. You cannot skip steps because that means missing out
on experience.
Q. What would you tell a young person starting out?
A. Try to do your best, live your life with
passion, and don’t forget to appreciate what you have.
6/11/2016
Google's online platform to explore art (TED Talk)
You can also watch this video by clicking on the Play Button
6/05/2016
Any Swede will answer
Last month, Sweden set up a new phone number called “The Swedish
Number.” Call it and a Swede, any Swede, will answer to talk to you about their
country.
It was started as something of a gimmick by the Swedish
Tourist Association. The gimmick caught on, and, to date, more than 160,000
people have called.
I’m responsible for a few of those calls.
“Random Swede answering,” said Christer Blom, picking up the
phone. Blom is a 53-year-old software developer who lives in the Swedish
countryside about 100 miles west of Stockholm. He volunteered to field calls
from people across the globe two weeks ago.
“I just thought it would be a nice thing to do,” he said.
About a third of the calls to The Swedish Number originate
from the United States. The rest are a mix from across the globe. Blom said
some people want travel tips; lots call to talk about politics; others want to
talk about, well, anything.
“The call before you, the first question was: What’s your
favorite dessert?” said Blom. “I had to think a while, but this time of year
it’s strawberry with some cream. Of course it’s a seasonal dessert. It’s nice.”
You might be thinking: How does learning about Blom’s
favorite summertime dessert promote travel to Sweden? Jenny Engström with the
Swedish Tourist Association said the idea was, first and foremost, to create a
genuine interaction.
“What I think is the cool thing about this is that it’s a
phone call between two people,” said Engström. “In this digital world we’re
living in, you’re not able to hear people’s voices.”
The Swedish Tourist Association, a nonprofit member organization
independent of the Swedish government, wants those voices speaking for their
country to be unfiltered. “To let the people who live here promote Sweden,
instead of someone in a marketing firm telling you where to go or what to do,”
Engström said.
Engström said they were hoping for 2,500 Swedish volunteers
to answer their phones; they’ve gotten 30,000, including Sweden’s prime
minister.
That’s putting a lot of faith in average, ordinary citizens
to market your country. In the calls I made, everybody was off-the-charts
friendly.
Medical student Lisa Haern greeted me with an enthusiastic
“Hi!” from Stockholm, taking a break from the books. She said she downloaded an
app to talk to people like me. I asked if the Swedish Tourist Association wants
her to promote anything or if she has any bullet points to follow.
“No. There’s no information,” said Haern. “It’s just, OK,
enter your number, and that was it. You’re now logged in and you can answer for
Sweden, the Swedish number.”
The Swedish Number was also introduced to mark 250 years
since Sweden became the first country to abolish censorship. I had little doubt
that the Swedes I was speaking with were free to say or do whatever they
wanted, especially when Alexander Larsson, a college student, put me on hold.
He did come back quickly and we had a nice conversation. He
gave me a few travel tips, then we ended up talking about politics and racism
in his country. He said most of his conversations have nothing to do with
Sweden at all.
“Some people just call because they’re lonely, I figure,”
Larsson said. “So they just want to talk because they have no one else to talk
to, I guess.”
Did my phone calls make me want to visit Sweden again?
A little.
Did they make me think more highly of the place and the
Swedish people?
No question.
Eli’s Cheesecake: The how and the who (video)
You can also watch this video by clicking on the Play Button
Some of Muhammad Ali's best quotes
Here are some of Muhammad Ali's best quotes (in no particular order):
1. “Live everyday as if it were your last because someday
you're going to be right.”
2. "Service to others is the rent you pay for your room
here on earth."
3. "I'm young; I'm handsome; I'm fast. I can't possibly
be beat."
4. "Don’t count the days; make the days count."
5. “If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it—then
I can achieve it."
6. “It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I
am."
7. “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out;
it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
8. “If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and
apologize.”
9. “Braggin' is when a person says something and can’t do
it. I do what I say.”
10. 
11. "Only a man who knows what it is like to be
defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra
ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even."
12. "I'm so mean, I make medicine sick."
13. "I should be a postage stamp. That's the only way
I'll ever get licked."
14. “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small
men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore
the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion.
Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential.
Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
15. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will
accomplish nothing in life.”
16. "A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did
at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”
17. “I’m not the greatest, I’m the double greatest.”
18. "It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves
pound the sand. I beat people up."
19.
20. “How tall
are you? So I can know in advance how far to step back when you fall
down!”
21. "A man who has no imagination has no
wings."
22. "He’s (Sonny Liston) too ugly to be the world
champ. The world champ should be pretty like me!"
23. "I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe
Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I'm in a world of my own."
24. "I'm the most recognized and loved man that
ever lived cuz there weren't no satellites when Jesus and Moses were around, so
people far away in the villages didn't know about them."
Copa America Centenario Begins In US (audio)
You can also listen to this audio file by clicking on the Play Button
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)