When I took December off, I forgot about my time for Nonfiction Monday. So I’m back! Welcome to SimplyScience. Put your information and link in the comments and I’ll update them throughout the day.   

From Abby (the) Librarian, The Story of Snow by Mark Cassino with Jon Nelson.

Robin at The Book Nosher has a new National Geographic book: live, laugh, celebrate.

Roberta at Wrapped in Foil has Dragonflies of North America by Kathy Biggs

In Need of Chocolate has Paleo Sharks

Wild About Nature reviews About Penguins: A Guide for Children

Three Turtles and Their Pet Librarian reviews Zero is the Leaves on the Tree by Betsy Franco

Amanda at A Patchwork of Books has reviewed lots of picture book biographies 

Wendie’s Wanderings looked outside her window and decided that 20 inches of snow was the order of the day and so is offering Snowflake Bentley

Lost Between the Pages has Emily Post’s Table Manners for Kids

Check It Out has Redwoods by Jason Chin

Bookends Blog has a fabulous pair of poetry/animal camouflage books: Where in the Wild and Where Else in the Wild

Tundras

Frosty Treeless Land

By Laura Purdie Salas

Illustrated by Jeff Yesh

Picture Window Books, 2009

This fact filled book explained tundras in detail with excellent, reader-friendly text and supplied additional, fun information in sidebar Fun Facts. One in the series of Amazing Science—Ecosystems, it’s fun to read. Carefully labeled illustrations highlight the digital art. Tundra facts appear in the back matter. It includes a glossary, index, and further reading section.

Activity

Create a food chain for the tundra.

National Science Standard: organisms and environments

Book sent by publisher

Box Jellyfish

Killer Tentacles

By Natalie Lunis

Bearport Publishing, 2010

The deadly difference between box jellyfish and regular jellyfish are detailed in this book. The book begins with a girl being stung and explains the treatment, then goes on to discuss these tropical invertebrates. One in the series Afraid of the Water, this book contains fascinating photos and one of the stings is sure to be remembered. It includes a glossary, index, and further reading section.

Activity

Create a chart comparing the differences in box jellyfish and regular jellyfish. Don’t forget to include habitat, eyes, swimming, tentacle placement, and lots of other differences.

National Science standard: organims and environment

Book donated by publisher

Let’s Look at Snails

By Laura Hamilton Waxman

Lerner Publications, 2010

Lightning Bolt Books

Bold, bright photos mix with big text to describe snails and how they live. Labels point out specific facts and the book has additional fun facts and a snail diagram in the back matter. It includes a glossary, index, and further reading section.

Activity

Look up snails to find out all of the places snails live. Make a chart to show these habitats.

 National Science standard: organisms and their environment, life cycle

Book donated by publisher

Out of This World

The Amazing Search for an Alien Earth

By Jacob Berkowitz

Kids Can Press, 2009

This text dense book about the hunt to find an alien Earth that supports life as we know it begins as fiction, but is filled with facts. Sidebars provide additional information. It will appeal to the budding astronomer who can distinguish fact from fiction. Some of the ideas provide food for thought and this could be a fun book for the right reader.

Activity

Find out more about exoplanets.

http://exoplanets.org/

National Science standard: objects in the sky

Book donated by publisher

Many thanks to the publishers who contributed their books. The blog has been a pleasure and I’ll be able to include my two new science books in the blog in the coming year!

Full knee-deep lies the winter snow,
And the winter winds are wearily sighing:
Toll ye the church bell sad and slow,
And tread softly and speak low,
For the old year lies a-dying.
Old year you must not die;
You came to us so readily,
You lived with us so steadily,
Old year you shall not die.

He lieth still: he doth not move:
He will not see the dawn of day.
He hath no other life above.
He gave me a friend and a true truelove
And the New-year will take ‘em away.
Old year you must not go;
So long you have been with us,
Such joy as you have seen with us,
Old year, you shall not go.

He froth’d his bumpers to the brim;
A jollier year we shall not see.
But tho’ his eyes are waxing dim,
And tho’ his foes speak ill of him,
He was a friend to me.
Old year, you shall not die;
We did so laugh and cry with you,
I’ve half a mind to die with you,
Old year, if you must die.

He was full of joke and jest,
But all his merry quips are o’er.
To see him die across the waste
His son and heir doth ride post-haste,
But he’ll be dead before.
Every one for his own.
The night is starry and cold, my friend,
And the New-year blithe and bold, my friend,
Comes up to take his own.

How hard he breathes! over the snow
I heard just now the crowing cock.
The shadows flicker to and fro:
The cricket chirps: the light burns low:
‘Tis nearly twelve o’clock.
Shake hands, before you die.
Old year, we’ll dearly rue for you:
What is it we can do for you?
Speak out before you die.

His face is growing sharp and thin.
Alack! our friend is gone,
Close up his eyes: tie up his chin:
Step from the corpse, and let him in
That standeth there alone,
And waiteth at the door.
There’s a new foot on the floor, my friend,
And a new face at the door, my friend,
A new face at the door.

Ps Sorry if I got the song in your head.

Author : LIMANJAYA, RINNY

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui, manakah yang lebih memiliki value-relevant: net income atau cash flows. Perusahaan-perusahaan yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini diklasifikasikan ke dalam tahapan siklus hidup perusahaan. Pengertian dari value-relevant dalam konteks ini adalah kandungan informasi yang lebih relevan atau lebih superior. Dalam kata lain yaitu yang memiliki daya muat informasi yang lebih besar. Siklus hidup perusahaan terdiri dari empat tahapan siklus hidup: tahap start up, growth, mature dan decline. Tiap-tiap perusahaan yang berada di tahapan siklus hidup yang berbeda akan memiliki karakteristik yang berbeda, sehingga disetiap tahapan siklus hidup yang berbeda, pengukuran akuntansinya (net income dan cash flows) juga memiliki prioritas yang berbeda. Net income diperkirakan lebih memiliki value-relevant dibandingkan dengan cash flows dalam tahap mature. Cash flows diperkirakan lebih memiliki value-relevant didalam tahap start up, growth, dan decline. Teknik yang dipakai untuk menganalisa penelitian ini adalah analisis regresi berganda dengan bantuan software statistik SPSS versi 10. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan pada tahap growth cash flows lebih memiliki value-relevant dibandingkan dengan net income. Namun didalam tahap mature, hasil dari analisa penelitian tidak dapat mendukung hipotesis yang diajukan. Dalam kesempatan penelitan ini, tahap start up dan decline tidak dapat dilakukan analisa dikarenakan adanya keterbatasan data sampel.

Keyword : life cycle, value-relevant, net income, cash flows

Sumber : http://repository.petra.ac.id/2415/

Grounded Ep Instrumentals Free Download!!!

This is for all my DJ’s who want instrumentals to play out. Keep them tables turning. Peace.

-Burn One

Now listening…

Where We Are - Westlife (Smokin' New Music)

24 hours.

As you see the snow is falling down again, you know it’s Christmas time!! I love this season. Not that I’m a Christian (because I’m not…). Me, simply loving the atmosphere of Christmas songs filled the air.

Right on time. It’s Westlife(clickable)! They usually would have a brand new album during this snowy season.

After seeing the 10 Years of Westlife Live at Croke Park Stadium for almost two hours, I (frankly) had a mixed feeling.

On top of the part they are my innocent childhood idols (and I proudly bought different versions of their same albums), they sang undeniably well in the 83,000 audiences concert but I doubted they were as great as they were used to be. Shane’s voice was finely husky (growing as a real man instead of regressing) and Mark’s was diva-ing and loving the homo edition of himself. “You’re flying without wings…” Anyway, I still sang along their crooning songs.

Come back to the current album, Where We Are, it’s the tenth album from the Irish boyband. Besides covering Daughtry’s What About Now, another twelve (12) songs are originals. I realize that they are still the best boyband ever in my life time. Okay, I also love The Beatles. But they are dead.

There is a reason why this album is a great success – Simon Cowell is the executive producer. I truly salute his taste and knowledge, in pop music industry. Not fashion.

5 strongly recommended songs from Where We Are:

1. No More Heroes
2. Talk Me Down
3. Leaving
4. Shadows
5. The Difference

FYI, Westlife garnered 14 number one singles in the United Kingdom, the third-highest in UK history, trailing behind only Elvis Presley and The Beatles. But they are NOT doing teen pop anymore. As I’m blogging about Westlife, I apparently kinda miss that genre.

Buy the album if you have money! It’s totally worth your money. More than enough.

That’s all for now. And Merry Christmas.

26/11 – Last year, India’s economic heart was attacked. Casualties happened; terror was all over, commandos and police in action, netas and public in reaction. The whole country got involved and prayed and wept and help by any means they can and vowed for a better India..

Media was all over the place covering everything in details and putting it on air. No idea who they were helping. General public was terrified after knowing the news. Army and police were not comfortable with the way media was covering the news. Terrorists were most benefited with the coverage. After 1 year to that incident, today I see the very same India with the very same spirit. Nothing’s changed. Everybody seemed to have moved on. And why shouldn’t they. This is all what a common man do. To forget the past and move on.

The thing is all the way long for one year, I was quite affirmative on the advancement and preparation being done by Government for terror combat. Then yester night, the media again aired the news on how safe is Mumbai 1 year after the attack. They went on different places, did all the research and found the loop holes, compiled it and aired it on TV under breaking news package.

Now guess who would be benefited most this time. I need not answer this, as for the public, they were better off with the illusion that some steps have been taken and are safe than to know about how unsafe they are.

Government need not know this news because of two reasons:

1. They probably already knew this.
2. They are not gonna do anything even after knowing this.

So all in all, this compilation would prove helpful to the terrorist, I suppose. A lot of effort on their part has been saved, thanks to our brainless media. Why do they adhere to this stupidity? I refuse to accept the reason behind this as TRP. Nobody can behave with such idiocy and keep on doing that without any shame.

Is it that we have between us got a new species that can be held in regards as much as politicians who have got their soul rotten to the core and the media is fast approaching their position. And looking at their performance we can be assured that media will soon become the Next-Gen menace leaving the politicians behind. 

26/11 is a black day in Indian history and it’s not only for the government to wake up. This requires everybody to realize their own duties. Media on the other hand need to work more on their part because I certainly can feel that the pressure to provide news on a 24 x 7 basis is forcing them to create news out of thin air and is bringing the dark side of freedom they have with them.

In the end, I dedicate this song from Border movie to the victims and martyrs:

Jung to chand roz hoti hai…..

Zindagi barson talak roti hai….. 

Sannate ki gehri chhanv
Khaamoshi se jalte gaanv
Ye nadiyon par toote huey pul
Dharti ghaayal aur vyaakul
Ye khet gamon se jhulse huey
Ye khaali raste sehme huey
Ye maatam karta saara samaa
Ye jalte ghar ye kaala dhuaan
Ye jalte ghar ye kaala dhuaan
Hoho..

Hmmm..
Mere dushman mere bhai mere humsaaye
Mere dushman mere bhai mere humsaaye
Mujhse tujhse hum donon se ye jalte ghar kuchh kehte hain
Barbaadi ke saari manzar kuchh kehte hain
Hay..
Mere dushman mere bhai mere humsaaye
Hoho…

Hmmm..
Baarood se bojhal saari fiza
Hai maut ki dhoop hai laati hava
Zakhmon pe hai chhaayi laachaari
Dariyon mein hai khilti beemaari
Ye marte bachche haathon mein
Ye maaon ka rone raaton mein
Murda basti murda hai nagar
Chehre patthar hain dil patthar
Chehre patthar hain dil patthar
Hoho..

Hmm..
Mere dushman mere bhai mere humsaaye
Mere dushman mere bhai mere humsaaye
Mujhse tujhse hum donon sun ye patthar ghar kuchh kehte hain
Barbaadi ke saari manzar kuchh kehte hain
Hay..
Mere dushman mere bhai mere humsaaye
Hoho…

Hmmm..
Mere dushman mere bhai mere humsaaye
Chehron ke dilon ke ye patthar ye jalte ghar
Barbaadi ke saare manzar sab mere nagar sab tere nagar
Ye kehte hain
Is sarhad par pulkaarega kab tak nafrat ka ye ajgar
Kab tak nafrat ka ye agrak
Is sarhad par pulkaarega kab tak nafrat ka ye ajgar
Hum apne apne kheton mein gehoon ki jagah chaawal ki jagah
Ye bandookein kyon bote hain
Jab donon hi ki galiyon mein kuchh bhookke bachche rote hain
Kuchhbhookhe bachche rote hain
Aa khaayein kasam
Ab jung nahin hone paaye
Aa khaayein kasam
Ab jung nahin hone paaye
Aur us din ka rasta dekhein
Jab khil uththay tera bhi chaman
Jab khil uththay mera bhi chaman
Tera bhi watan mera bhi watan
Mera bhi watan tera bhi watan
Tera bhi watan mere bhi watan

Hoho..
Mere dost mere bhai mere humsaaye
Mere dost mere bhai mere humsaaye
Hoho..
Hmmm..
Aaa…

Again, I have to say looking at the lifecycle of the product and the green qualities, its a really great step ahead.  But the bottle is just plain ugly, and visually dosent communicate anything regarding green, recycling, or the benefits of the bottle.  Step ahead for the concept, 3 steps back for visual communication.  I find it hard to believe that they can ust leave behind the classic sensuous forms of one of the greatest design icons of all time, the Coke bottle.

coca-cola revealed their new plastic bottles made from recycled plant materials will soon hit shelves in

north america. the new bottles will soon be used on the coca-cola classic and dasani water bottles and

are already in use in denmark. the bottles are made from up to 30% plant-based waste materials and are

100% recyclable. the aptly dubbed plantbottle packaging is made the by-product of sugarcane processing

in brazil. while the bottles will contains up to 30% plant materials in north america, the danish version

has about 50% recycled material and 15% plant material. coke hopes to eventually make 100% plant

based plastic bottles.

following the announcement, we came across designer harc lee’s coke can concept that takes a similar

sustainable approach. instead of wasteful inks on the can, lee’s design uses embossing to brand the

aluminum can. this saves countless liters of ink and helps make the recycling process easier and less

intensive.

http://www.coca-cola.com

via coke’s new green packaging.

Eat the grass,
Waste not your time,
For sooner or later,
The grass will feed on you.

Jacques Prévert

Poet an Artist

I’ve never been a superstitious person.

However, I drew a chart as part of my counselling course where make a rectangle and every side represents one quarter of your life. Then you draw a timeline around it of all the life events that have a major impact on your life.

I noticed this: one quarter of my life is around 7 years and one side was packed full of pretty sad stuff. It was a tumultuous time. The rest of the sides were relatively devoid of action.

I went to a drawing party last night. It’s my first experience of life drawing since school. It got me thinking about my year 12 art projects which focused on the female form. For two of my piecesi used broken mirror. I had had to break it myself.

I’m not a superstitious person but I did sure get 7 years back luck. It all started as I finished year 12.

Things are looking much better now though…

iwonder?

The Ant’s Nest

A Huge, Underground City

By Miriam Aronin

Bearport Publishing, 2010

ISBN # 978-1-59716-868-7

NF grades 3-5

“Just as human cities are made up of many building, ant nests are made up of many chambers. In each changer, the insects perform a different task to meet the colony’s needs.”

One of six in the series Spectacular Animal Towns, The Ant’s Nest details ant facts, from a spectacular mound found in England to a rare new species, with plenty of life cycle information packed in between. Bold, captioned photos add interest and additional facts and labeled diagrams provide further information. New vocabulary is in bold in the main text and defined in the  glossary. A chart provides a comparison of three species of ants and a “More Animal Towns” section summarizes two other insects that build and live in nests. The book includes a bibliography, read more section, and an index.

Activity 1

Use the information from the book to create and label a diagram illustrating the ant’s life cycle.

Activity 2 (for older students)

Look up another species of ant and add the facts learned about that ant to the chart on p. 28.

This site shows the ant life cycle.

You can find more ant information here.

Take an ant fact quiz and explore the links to more fun learning about ants with Roberta’s blog, Wild About Ants.

Search Roberta’s blog for more insect facts.

Here’s a site with terrific lessons.

National Science Standard: characteristics of organisms; life cycle of organisms

Book provided by Bearport Publishing

It would make more sense if the life cycle was all backwards.
You should die first, get it out of the way.
Then you live in an old age home.
You get a silver watch and you go to work.
You work 40 years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement.
You do booze,chicks,you party, you get ready for high school.
You become a kid.
You play.
You have no worries.
You become a little baby.
You go back into the womb,
spend your last 9 months floating…
and you finish off
as an orgasm.

;P

We went to Goldstream today to watch the salmon.  A Victoria tradition to stroll alongside the river and watch the fish fight their way up river to lay their eggs (or fertilize them) and die.

Miss Q and her friends had a blast.  The flushed cheeks and excitement in her voice as we were driving home told the story.  ”The seagulls wanted the eyes, but not the teeth,” she said referring to the dead fish we’d hovered over as it lay on the rocks.

True, the eagles had yet to flock to the river en mass to feast.  In a week or two they’ll be there, taking over from the gulls as more fish complete their life-cycles.

Walking the river to the Nature Hut with Miss S strapped to my chest, and Miss Q racing ahead with her friends, I found myself empathizing with the female salmon.   My reminders to my daughter to not throw rocks into the river or leaves, for that matter, were just as much to protect all the spawning salmon as they were to honour the mama salmon in her moment of sacrifice.

Naturally, the female salmon’s plight is lost on toddlers, and a sleeping babe, but the experience of seeing live fish is worth more than any book, or trip to the grocery store.

Before we got to Goldstream, Miss Q told me that she was going to eat the fish all up, because she loved salmon.  When I told her they weren’t for eating, and explained they were going into the river to make baby salmon, she said, “Oh, then I’ll eat the babies.”

Now, she says she won’t, and that she remembers most that the salmon go fast.  We’ll see what she says about them next-time we’re in the grocery store.

We’ll probably go again before the season is over.  It’ll be stinkier, and there’ll be bigger crowds; but for $3.00 all-day parking, a chance to wear rubber boots, and the opportunity to see the salmon hanging in trees, you can’t go wrong.

How should we advise people who find themselves unemployed while celebrating their 40th birthdays?

An economist might suggest “Advise them to move to North Dakota, the state with the lowest unemployment rate in the nation. And tell them to become data communication analysts, the fastest growing type of job in the state.”

Such advice may be helpful for a jobless communication analyst who lives just over the state border in South Dakota. But a 40 year old unemployed bank teller with a family in Florida, with mortgage debt that exceeds his home’s market value, may find it difficult to follow.

That’s because people tend to settle into fixed habits by their 40th birthdays. Organizations behave that way as well; it’s why old economy organizations like Xerox and Kodak have experienced such difficulties adjusting to the digital age. And entire economic sectors, like the newspaper and airline industries, are similarly struggling for survival.

And don’t look now … another former high growth economic sector has just turned 40! Yes, the internet itself just achieved that milestone of longevity this week.

Industry Life Cycles

Internet industry spokesmen, of course, insist that the medium remains a dynamic industry sector that will continue to transform global society for years to come. But that seldom is true of any 40 year old communication technology; instead, such media usually settle into extended periods of maturity and (eventually) decline.

40 years after Thomas Edison produced the first narrative motion picture The Great Train Robbery in 1903, for instance, national radio networks like CBS and NBC had already overtaken the film industry and had begun producing television programs. And 40 years after the legendary CBS News anchor Edward R. Murrow moved his landmark radio program Hear It Now to television and renamed it See It Now, cable news network CNN overtook CBS with its live onsite coverage of the 1991 Gulf War.

So it would be highly unusual to expect the internet and its World Wide Web to continue to drive  technological progress in global communications as it enters its fifth decade.  In fact, recent events may be signaling that the entire sector may be entering a period of maturity.

Telltale Signs

One sign that the internet (and the hardware that is required to access it) may have jumped the shark is the extent to which fashion and image have supplanted technological progress as a driver of sales revenue. Dell, for instance, is now emphasizing its candy colored designs over its product functionality in its advertising campaigns. And Microsoft’s new Bing search engine has cannily incorporated beautiful background photographs into its web page formats.

Another indicator is the manner in which technology firms are opting to cannibalize each other’s innovations instead of creating truly new products and services. Facebook, for instance, has been busily developing the professional networking capabilities of LinkedIn. And netbooks are often described as low power, low weight, and low cost laptops.

Yet another sign is the extent to which early adopters of new technologies have begun gravitating away from the world wide web and towards more sophisticated software platforms. Virtual reality online communities such as SONY’s PlayStation Network, Disney’s Club Penguin, and Linden Lab’s Second Life only use the internet as an invisible backbone to connect users to each other; they shun web pages and email, and rely on their own closed systems, to maintain their proprietary environments.

Will It Live To See 50?

If the internet may no longer be the prime driver of new communication technologies at age 40, will it live at all to see the age of 50? Or will it join the telegraph and the gramophone in the dustbin of history, an aged grandparent to newer resources that will render it obsolete?

If the past is any guide to the future, we certainly shouldn’t expect the internet to suddenly become obsolete. But we shouldn’t expect it to remain at the epicenter of technological growth, either. Instead, like other systems of communication that have burst onto the scene, we might expect it to lose its most advanced users to other media as it settles into a supporting role of maturity and decline.

Movie theaters, for instance, now primarily exist to create word of mouth “buzz” for new film releases as a means of driving subsequent DVD sales, which Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO Michael Lynton has called “the most important profit center for the industry.” And the broadcast television networks cling to their fixed evening news and prime time entertainment schedules, focusing on aging audiences who have not yet mastered video on demand services.

On the world wide web, MySpace was once considered a dynamically growing web based service; it is now derided by some as “the ghetto of the digital landscape.” As technology marches relentlessly forward, it is quite possible that the world wide web itself may suffer a similar fate.

Since my readership has declined on brilliant and relevant environmental postings (which even include pictures!) I have turned to poetry in a a desperate attempt to retain readers.

Tramping Tigers is a response to Blake’s,  ”The Tiger” in Songs of Experience. (Hopefully my readership will pick up before I am forced to also respond to ”The Lamb“).

Tramping Tigers

Untamed Tigers tramping about.

Unsteady Toddlers, tantrum and shout.

Ungrateful Teens, prance and pout.

Unkept Youths, wander and doubt.

Untamed Tigers tramping about.

Unkept Adults, grumpy and stout.

Ungrateful Seniors with illness bout.

Unsteady Age-ed on their way out.

Untamed Tigers tramping about.

Brian

Pardon the layout because I don’t know how to use wordpress. Pardon the punctuation because I never learned.

I checked out my blog stats just now and was really amused by how some people get here via Google.  A few recent highlights include:

• “is it true lady gaga got 2 body parts”: Why, yes, I’m sure she has several.  A cursory glance at paparazzi photos show two arms (complete with hands), two legs (ditto feet), a torso (with however many subdivisions you’d like to make with that), a head with everything in its normal place, and generally a bunch of weave.
• “joan holloway extraordinarily competent”: After saving the British exec’s life post-run in with the lawnmower, I would say yes (assuming this is a question).
• “what is a pig’s life cycle”: Listen to this and you’ll find out.
• “the masculinity of the taqwacores”: Sounds like a good title for an early-20th century British novel.
• “creepy whitye supremacists” and “talk radio xenophobia”: Seem to go together pretty well.
• “coulter dominatrix”: I assume this refers to Ann.  How terrifying.
• “jay z needs to be a role model”: You should probably tell him this, not me.

This could be a good recurring feature.

I come to say hi again by requesting more vacations.

Penang

More and more… Money too!

Intelligence is one thing to me…..
knowing where you are in the cycle of life and understanding that most things have been said or done a million times before you. If you can grasp the cycle, you’ll know where to look for the answers.

Human existence slowly evolves. Sometimes we live our lives to push and so that we evolve. Sometimes we push so that generations of humanity will benefit from our efforts. In order to aid evolution, we all have to keep pushing at the intersection.

Hi,

Here the placement for Device Driver Architect – Chennai

• Our clients are a leading provider of embedded software solutions and services designed to protect software investment by increasing the customers’ level of software re-use in product development.
• They are looking for device driver expert for their Chennai (India) Development Centre.

Device Driver Architect – Chennai

Experience : 6-8 years

Industry Type : IT
 

Functional Area : IT- Embedded
 

Location : Chennai, India

Remuneration Details : As per industry standards

Education:

• UG – B.E/ B.Tech Electronics/ Telecommunication, Computer Science

Experience:

• 6-10 years experience in the architecture and design of embedded software, linux & VxWorks device drivers.
• Experience in developing device drivers for multiple RTOS is a must ( at least more than one)
• Must have the ability to individually write the specifications, design & develop device drivers for multiple RTOS
• Must have excellent communication skills.

Additional Profile

• Must be familiar with software life cycle, configuration management, software management tools, etc.
• Must have creativity, innovation, and the ability to work in a fast-paced environment

Would you be interested ?

Please send us your latest updated profile with contact nos.
current & expected salary details and joining time required to  radha@kbsconsultants.com

You may also suggest this opening to your friends who may be interested.

Further Information:

KBS Consultants
Flat H,Kulothungan Apts,
No, 5 Natesan Road
Ashoknagar,
Chennai 600 083.
India
Phone: +91-44 2489 5341 / 2371 9622

Visit Our Sites:

International jobs: http://www.jobsearchworld.com/
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Newspaper article on the environmental impact of long and short distance food transport, analysing the effects of international trade and globalisation of agricultural markets

19 october 2009

The article (in Italian) analyses the “food miles” perspective, questioning the environmental advantages of this practice. It contends that the impact of transport of food should be compared with the overall impact produced in other phases of the products’ life cycle on the environment. As a result of this comparison it often happens to observe that often a larger amount of GHG emissions are produced in farming. Results of governmental and scientific studies on this topic are reported (DEFRA, 2005; Desrochers & Shimizu, 2008)

Building a portfolio of stocks is a little like assembling a baseball team. However, unlike a team of real baseball players, constructing a portfolio of stocks can mix low-priced single-A farm players with blue chip Hall of Fame players from the Majors. Billy Beane, the General Manager for the Oakland Athletics, was chronicled in Michael Lewis’ book, Moneyball. Beane creates an amazing proprietary system of building teams more cost-efficiently than his deep-pocketed counterparts by statistically identifying undervalued players with higher on-base and slugging percentages. According to Beane, traditional baseball scouts were overpaying for less relevant factors, such as speed (stolen bases) and hitting (batting percentage).

In the stock world, before you can scout your team, you must first determine where in the life cycle the company lies. If Beane were to name this quality, perhaps he would call it Time-to-Maturity (TTM). Some companies operate in small, mature bitterly competitive industries (e.g. shoe laces), while others may operate in large growing markets (e.g. Google [GOOG] in online advertising and algorithmic search). Some companies because of negative regulation or heightened competition have a very short life cycle from early growth to maturity. Other companies with competitive advantages and untapped growth markets can have very long life spans before reaching maturity (think of a younger Coca Cola [KO] or Starbucks [SBUX]). Like Beane talks about in his book, many young, promising, immature baseball players flame out with short TTMs, nonetheless many scouts overpay for the cache´ such players offer.

Unfortunately, many investors do not even contemplate the TTM of their stock. Buying juvenile stocks (i.e., private companies like Twitter & Facebook – see article) or elderly stocks in and of itself is not a bad thing, but before you price a security it’s advantageous to know what type of discount or premium is deserved. Obviously, I’m looking for undervalued stocks across all age spectrums, however finding an undervalued, undiscovered late-teen just beginning on its long runway of growth combines the best of all worlds. Finding what Peter Lynch calls the “multi-baggers” is easier said than done, like searching for a needle in a haystack, but the rewards can be handsome.

What creates long runways of growth – the equivalent of winning dynasties in baseball? Well, there are several contributors leading to longer TTMs, including economies of scale, large industries, barriers to entry, competitive advantages, growing industries, superior and experienced management teams, to name a few factors. But like anything, even the great growth companies, including Microsoft (MSFT), turn from teenagers to mature adults. As famed businessman Thomas Brittingham said, “A good horse can’t go on winning races forever, and a good stock eventually passes its peak, too.”

There are many aspects to creating a winning team. If Billy Beane were to draw up factors for a baseball team, I’m confident TTM would be near the top of his list. What you pay for the length of the growth cycle is obviously imperative, but since I’m a strong believer in the tenet that “price follows earnings,” it only makes sense that above average sustainable earnings growth should eventually lead to superior price appreciation. As Bob Smith, successful manager from T. Rowe Price states, “The important thing is not what you pay for the stock, so much as being right on the company.” So if you want to recruit a portfolio of winning stocks, like Billy Beane picks successful baseball players, then include the equity life cycle maturity as a factor in your selection process.

Wade W. Slome, CFA, CFP®

Plan. Invest. Prosper.

DISCLOSURE: Sidoxia Capital Management nor its client accounts have no direct position in MSFT, SBUX, KO, Facebook, or Twitter shares at the time this article was originally posted. Some Sidoxia Capital Management accounts do have a long position in GOOG shares. No information accessed through the Investing Caffeine (IC) website constitutes investment, financial, legal, tax or other advice nor is to be relied on in making an investment or other decision. Please read disclosure language on IC “Contact” page.