Weekly Report: 14-17

  • EARTHQUAKE RISK UPDATE:  Californians experience some 37,000 ‘tremors’ yearly, from around 300 large fault lines running beneath the state (60 directly under Los Angeles), and “geologists expect a 97.7% chance of a ‘Big One’ – at least 6.7 magnitude – striking within the next thirty years.”  Fractured infrastructure would include buckling highways & runways, cracked and severed water & sewer pipes, electrical & gas lines and fibre-optic cables, thousands of fires “whipped into a frenzy by Santa Ana winds,” with at least 50,000 injured.  A 7.5 magnitude on one of the fault lines is projected to potentially affect “over four million downtown residents alone, killing up to 18,000, and leaving 750,000 households homeless with over $250 billion in damage.” Another underwater fault “could unleash a mega-thrust earthquake above magnitude 9, potentially triggering a huge Pacific tsunami that would wash away entire coastal California towns, along with destroying Seattle.” The legislature passed a bill last year to create an ‘early warning system’ but “the state has yet to raise the $80 million to properly fund the project.”  [THE WEEK – Apr 25, 14]
  • SUPPORTING AN INNOVATIVE IDEA OFTEN RESULTS IN “PRODUCTIVE FAILURE” – learning something valuable about your market, clients/customers, product or team to determine conclusively whether the idea is sound enough to risk further capital or time commitment. Too often, “modern management says ‘failure means you get dinged’… but if employees claim they didn’t fail this year (in some capacity), they’re either lying or were incredibly, unbelievably conservative… So executive sponsorship is not about review, evaluation or go-kill decisions, it’s about learning and supporting the team…  Anybody can now rent the means of production, which means entrepreneurship is becoming truly democratized, which means nobody is safe… Any company is dealing with thousands or millions of competitors,” and staying ahead through innovation is dependent on being willing to fail along the way.  [McKINSEY GLOBAL INSTITUTE REPORT – Apr 14]
  • 3-D FOOD PRINTING IS COMING! “Current units only print vegetable-based foods like pizza, eggplant parmesan and corn flakes. But meat products aren’t far away. A German medical firm is fine-tuning 3D printed donor organs… By comparison, steaks, burgers and meatloaf are child’s play… Hershey is experimenting and Nabisco wants to adapt the process to vending machines. All this means more profits for connoisseur and counterfeiter,” not to mention impacts on us mortals.  [THE FOOD LAWYERS BULLETIN – Mar 26, 14]    UNTIL THEN, BARBEQUING MEAT WITH BEER IS THE NEW TREND.  It’s well known that grilling steaks creates “free radical molecules which damage DNA and thus increase chances of developing colon cancer.” The Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry reports research showing that dark beer, rich in antioxidants, apparently “mops up free radicals” so when steaks are marinated, hydrocarbons are reduced by over 50%; Pilsner beer also helps by reducing nearly 15%.  [THE ECONOMIST – Apr 5, 14]
  • THE IRONY OF POLITICAL & CULTURAL POSITIONS:  (1) We are admonished to NOT judge all Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but are encouraged to judge all gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics.  (2) We constantly hear about how Social Security will run out of money, but never about Welfare running out of money; or relevance that the first “entitled” group worked for expected payback and the second didn’t. (3) The Dep’t of Agriculture is proud to be currently distributing the greatest amount of free Meals and Food Stamps ever (to nearly 50 million people), while Dep’t of the Interior orders us to NOT Feed the Animals because they “will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves.”  [INTERNET – ANON]
  • BOSS TWEED TACTICS?  “Covered California, the ObamaCare subsidiary, is sending out voter registration cards as a simple step toward reaching out to Californians who fail to register due to lack of access and opportunity.” However, the cards are all pre-marked for Democrat Party registration, “which does raise suspicion, especially considering the political agenda of the California Assembly… to fill the coffers of left-wing interest groups with taxpayer money…recruiting people to enroll in ObamaCare and sign up to be part of the permanent beholden Democratic voting majority.”  [INFOWARS.COM – Mar 31, 14]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:  An amazing 25-minuter Tour of the International Space Station:  http://www.youtube.com/embed/doN4t5NKW-k                                

           A smartphone application called PEEK (Portable Eye Exam Kit) can now, using the phone’s camera & flashlight,  conduct visual and color field tests, lens imaging for cataracts, and retinal imaging to detect sight impairments and diseases.

 DUITCH CONSULTING GROUP – UTILIZING GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE TO PROVIDE OPTIMAL STRATEGIC, FINANCIAL, OPERATIONS AND MANAGEMENT PLANNING & POSITIONING