demand4ev survey complete

yippy! I'm happy to announce that Tom and I successfully completed our online survey dedicated to online vehicles. Now we need people to fill it out.

We have set a goal of getting 500 people to complete our survey in 10 days. The survey takes 3 minutes to complete and is only 20 multiple choice questions. You can fill it by visiting our site at http://demand4ev.com/

Other than that, here's a piece of art I created. Photoshop!!

http://demand4ev.com/


Monkey teaches english in China

I just stumbled upon a great article that was posted by Mikey Meyer in The New York Times entitled Learning to Speak Olympics. In here, Mike talks about his experiences living in China and how some local children are learning English.
I was in China in 2006, but I don't recall ever seeing Mocky the naughty monkey. Apparently this cute monkey is being used throughout schools to drive up the number of English-speaking Chinese to 50 percent of the total population. He is teaching simply phrases like "I want to go...." and such and it seems to be a hit for the children.

Another thing I didn't realize is that Chinese students begin learning English in first grade! That's a big surprise to me b/c I hardly remember running into anyone that I could communicate in English. Well, maybe the best techniques aren't being used to teach English. Apparently most of the courses are on DVD in which students just sit and listen to it in class and there isn't much active participation. I guess I understand that being a problem.

I remember taking so many French courses prior to my first trip to France and I couldn't say a word.

Anyhow, here are a couple of English book examples that have hit the shelves to help the Chinese to better communicate with the foreigners coming to see the Olympics.


Police - Olympic Security English:
60 percent of the police force is supposed to be English competent for the games. An English book calls for “Dissuading Foreigners From Excessive Drinking” and
“How to Stop Illegal News Coverage”. It also introduces useful phrases like
“Don’t pretend to be innocent.”

Love English
:
This book is meant to decode some of the hidden messages linked to certain expressions.
  • “Do you want to go to a movie?” really means “I’d eventually like to
    have sex with you,”
  • “I’m bored” really means “Do you want to have
    sex?”
Learning to Speak Olympics

I guess I'm going to have to equip my friends heading to games with new pickup lines or else they're going to get slapped across the face!

Ship illegal immigrants to India

For the record, it is not my intent to degrade anyone or any culture in this article. I wanted to make the title intriguing so that people would click my article and read it.

India as we know is a huge nation with over a billion people. It's ranks among the fastest growing economies, it's middle class will soon be larger than the USA according to McKinsey & Company and huge pools of potential discretionary spenders are emerging from a non-existant past-time.

With such a booming economy, many projects within India are being created. Infrastructure improvements, developing retail industries, building new houses, the list goes on. Such tremendous growth, oddly enough, is suggesting that India simply doesn't have a big enough skilled-labor force to handle all the projects. There is a shortage of skilled laborers in India and trainee programs are scurringly popping up in effort to quickly teach people certain specialties. Maybe this shortage of skills explaines why India's rapid growth in recent years is starting to slow down from 9% growth to 7%. I'm not sure though....i'm not an economist (yet). But here's the WallStreet Online Journal article where I got this idea. (Click here)

"Spending on major infrastructure such as ports, power plants and roads
is projected at more than $60 billion annually for the next six years,
and will require 92 million man years of labor. Even before taking into
account a concurrent boom in industrial, residential and retail
building, that's around 33% more labor than the market can provide
today, according to India's Construction Industry Development Council,
a think tank.
" (Click here)

For me, it is surprising that India, the second largest country in the world in terms of population, can have a shortage of skilled-workers. I guess this goes to shows that education and other training sectors are lacking and need great improvements. Hopefully things will be done within India's current Five Year Plan, which calls for more inclusive growth among Indians. India's Planning Commission

This particular problem had me thinking about the problems that the USA faces with illegal immigrations and job loss. Americans want less immigrants, and India is in need of a bigger workforce. Why not develop a way to move "un-wanted workers" to areas where they are "wanted"?

Many Americans have lost their jobs due to illegal immigration. It's simple....immigrants are willing and able to work for lower wages. This is also taking a toll on the US economy. People are not spending as much as they did before. I don't have stats on me, but I remember news reports saying that consumer spending around xmas time is less successful than in the past.

If immigrants were relocated to places like India, wouldn't that decrease unemployment and create more spending within the US? I presume that many immigrants are sending money outside the US as compared to american citizens.

Maybe I'm suggesting a kind of human trafficing that could actually benefit countries. Of course there are many obstacles. How could this be possible? How would immigrants get to India or even choose it over the states? Who would finance such an activity?

If a solution to answer these questions were to be found, I think the genius would become very wealthy. For me, it's a brainstorming session worth having a coffee over.

H&M-effect in Atlanta....run!!!!

This article was shared by one of my friends, Chris. btw, I hope things are great man and I'll be back in the A around end of July and thirsty for a coke. U around?

H&M is coming to Atlanta! Now for most, this is totally a cool thing. Who wouldn't want a low-cost/quality store coming to their area? That's a good thing. For me, thinking of such stores takes me back to my hair-on-my-head days working at Goody's Family Clothing and how I used to have to fold women's jeans all damn day. I think this experience scarred me for life and maybe it explains why I don't really like to shop for clothes. exaggerated...yes, but maybe there's some truth to it.

Anyhow H&M is coming to Atlantic Station. (Atlanta Business Chronicle here) Scary part about it is that Berlin, where I'm staying, has about 5 stores on 1 street and many more around the city. And they sell practically the same stuff, although I did see a special H&M just selling bras and undies. :-) My turkish colleagues are obsessed with this place. They went almost once or twice every week while in Berlin! If they are reading and think I'm exaggerating, I'm not! They went crazy for clothes that went on sale after already being offered at sale prices. The thing that gets me is that many of these same clothes are produced in Turkey or can be bought there at cheaper prices. Why not by a Berlin brand of clothes? They knew that they would be returning home in a month or two, so why not just wait and save themselves from having too many kilos in their luggage.

I guess H&M is simply irresistible to some, and price is a significant factor for students. Maybe the H&M effect is like a hamburger is to me. Oh well. If anyone ever tries to give me a lecture again about Americanization in the world, I'm bringing up this example of Swedish-nization (I should patent this word) and their meatballs! Yikes

stock.xchng: Photo stockpile for free!

I just signed onto what appears like a great downloadable gallery of photos that can be used for web designing or photo art. The site is stock.xchng. I tried it and was able to easily download a nice leaf background that I could use if I wanted to promote a be-green message. Anyhow, it's pretty cool and best of all....it's free.

Such a site is inspiring and I hope to get outside with my camera and take some cool shots. Thesis end already!