October 2004

Sunday, 31 October 2004

Giant squid ‘taking over world’: “Dr George Jackson from the Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean studies in Tasmania said squid thrived during environmental disasters such as global warming. The animal ate anything in that came their way, bred whenever possible and kept growing.”

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Wednesday, 27 October 2004

Lost Tribe of Little People: “Because the island is so isolated, creatures morphed into either dwarf or giant forms, including a little elephant called a pygmy Stegodon, and Komodo dragons, giant lizards and turtles that were almost as large as the elephants. But this is the first such incident noted in a human species, showing that humans are subject to the same evolutionary processes as all other mammals.”

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Wednesday, 20 October 2004

The Sales Learning Curve: “The time it takes to achieve cash flow breakeven is reasonably independent of sales force staffing. It is, instead, entirely dependent on how well and how quickly the entire organization learns what it takes to sell the product or service while incorporating customer feedback into the product itself.”

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Wednesday, 13 October 2004

Deconstruction icon Derrida dies : [banal deconstruction joke here]

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Tuesday, 12 October 2004

Fictional Character: “One of the curiosities of political journalism is that reporters tend to be assiduously even-handed about matters of policy (which can revolve around disputes over objective fact) but ruthlessly judgmental on questions of character (which are inherently subjective). In fact, most reporters don’t know or care much about policy.”

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Monday, 11 October 2004

Lost in space: the killer screwdriver: “Flecks of paint from satellites have been known to cause pits half a centimetre deep in the windows of the US space shuttle.”

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Sunday, 10 October 2004

Yahoo Survey Reveals ‘Web Withdrawal’: “Despite being paid some $500 per household, most participants were ready to return the money within five days in exchange for reconnecting to the Internet, said Finnegan.”

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Friday, 8 October 2004

Tech workforce’s ranks shrinking: “One of every four tech workers endured a stretch of unemployment that lasted at least a quarter sometime between 2000 to 2003. The toll was even higher for workers who ended up in non-tech jobs: two of five suffered through such a hardship. One-third of the Bay Area’s tech workers today are employed by companies that didn’t exist before 1995. These young companies pay slightly more than older companies – but they are also three times more likely to fail.”

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Thursday, 7 October 2004

Housing bubble to burst: “Third, as less than 12 percent of the people can qualify for a traditional fixed-rate loan, the vast majority of buyers have been taking out “creative financing,” which is another word for rent.”

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Saturday, 2 October 2004

The travel industry’s online revolution: “Online shoppers now spend more money booking travel than anything else, and the business is still growing strongly.”

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