In the book “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die:” (ISBN 0-7893-1370-7), a great general reference, chronicling the history of the Novel you will find reference to Aesops Fables.

In fact, it is listed as 1001, making it the oldest reference is this very interesting selection of novels. Of course one of the best known of Aesops works is the Goose that laid the Golden Egg, the topic of this blog.

The fable has become a metaphor for any short-sighted action that may bring an immediate reward, but will ultimately prove disastrous. Reminding us that greed can ruin our good fortune.

What I am trying to understand through this blog are better ways of getting what we want out of life; the golden eggs! Without destroying the thing that enables us to have those golden eggs; the goose1

Throughout the blog you will find hundreds of references to the goose and golden eggs happening every day, in the areas of entertainment, business mining, communities, ICT, etc.

I hope you enjoy the journey and can take some time to share ways of improving our lives and enriching the world around us at the same time.

Thankyou Aesop….

A farmer was given a goose, I dont know by who so do ask for thier number, real ID will im sure take care of that. Anyhow, the farmer soon found that the goose laid golden eggs. He and his wife sold the eggs and made millions. However, the farmer got greedy and could not wait for the goose to lay more eggs. Instead he killed the goose and gutted it open and sold the last egg. When the wife came home from the country club she found the goose dead and told her husband that he was a fool, for now they had thier final egg, and no more would ever be laid.

Blizz is making a change here. For money, perhaps. Vague whispers about Facebook and all that. Big money in it somehow im sure.

I have been a victim of stalking before here on the game, and I was easily able to change realms and make a new character and never be found by my stalker.

Also, with so much information on the web, sexoffenders and child stalkers can now easily create an account and use blizzard as a means to find new victims. Social networking is a good thing in some ways, but from the publicity ive been reading about Facebook and the problems people have had with stalkers, im really wondering if the teens who play the game are going to be safe. These stalkers are not stupid, they do this for pleasure and are professionals. They condition and groom thier victims. And giving them a powerful tool such as Warcraft to reach the masses of unsuspecting minds is ignorance on Blizzard-Activisions part.

I urge Blizz to stop and think about this. Make some changes to tighten security. It is not hard to fix what they intend to do. If its not about Trolls, then make it so people can at least feel safe.

The forums are going to dry up, sure, and there will be those few who are not afraid to post with thier names displayed to give feedback about glitches and things, but in essence, I believe that Blizz has started strangling the Goose (haha) and its about to expire gruesomely.

Like all great things, such as the Roman Empire, eventually it will fall. To think WoW will be around forever is nieve and foolish. Eventually it will be usurped by yet another MMO or it will destroy itself.

I wondered what would happen when Activision took over Blizzard. I really thought “Wow, thats going to hurt Blizz more than its going to help.”

Am I seeing my ponderings come true?

I will continue to play the game. I will not give out my real ID, I will not make friends and I certainly hope no one gets my name from making me their friend. I wish Blizz would take examples from places like Second Life and make it so no one can make you a friend without your permission at least.

However, there are lots of other people who are going to drop WoW for something less intrusive. For that, Im sad, but its the truth, it will happen.

Save the Goose
Here is the link http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25626461575&sid=1

David O Williams from The Colorado Independent says BP may in the coming months have to look to its lucrative natural gas fields in southwestern Colorado to recoup the massive financial hit it’s taking in the wake of the worst oil spill in American history.

According to Williams a BP America spokeswoman this week told the Colorado Independent the company is eyeing a resumption of coal-bed methane drilling in La Plata County this fall, although the decision has more to do with a hoped-for rebound in natural gas prices and some resolution with regard to local drilling regulations.

The company at the beginning of the year announced a six-month halt to drilling in the county, where BP directly employs 250 people and indirectly 200 contractors. There are more than 2,000 active BP wells in the county – the only part of the state where the company drills.

“It was more the economics of it actually,” BP America senior director of government and public affairs Lisa Hough said of the hiatus for the company’s $2.4 billion drilling program in the area. “We had a lot with rules and regulations coming on and the drop in the natural gas price and we actually had a real backlog of wells that were drilled but not completed.”

La Plata was the second most productive Colorado county for natural gas drilling in 2009, according to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and BP is the largest operator in the county, where about 40 percent of its wells are on Southern Ute tribal land.

The company operates under a patchwork of regulations, including tribal rules, state (COGCC) regulations and La Plata County’s own oil and gas drilling regulations. The county is the only one in the state with its own set of drilling regs after winning several court cases, including a Colorado Supreme Court decision in 1992.

However, in recent years, the county is once again rewriting its regulations – another piece of uncertainty facing BP and other operators in the area. A company spokesman in January cited the regulatory uncertainty as one of the factors in the six-month drilling hiatus.

But conservationists and longtime observers of southwestern Colorado’s energy sector aren’t buying the regulatory argument for the drilling slowdown.

“That’s a crock, because since 1992 – 18 years – they’ve been drilling with essentially the same regulations that are currently in place,” said Josh Joswick, a former three-term La Plata county commissioner and currently the oil and gas issues organizer for the nonprofit San Juan Citizens Alliance. “This latest round of revisions was minor in terms of further regulations put on them.”

Joswick is a three-term Democratic commissioner who first took office shortly after the state supreme court decision backing limited county land-use regulation of oil and gas drilling (previously only regulated by the state). He said the county has the third lowest mill levy (property tax) in the state, which makes it an ideal place for BP or any operator to drill.

“Any regulation that there is here, nothing is going to drive them away from the goose that laid the golden egg,” Joswick said. “[BP] found the jackpot. Not only are they on top of the most productive coal-bed methane field in the United States, they are paying next to nothing compared to what they would be paying elsewhere.”

Even as BP and the Obama administration came to terms Wednesday on a $20 billion fund to compensate economic victims of the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Hough said the company will continue to invest in natural gas and clean energy in Colorado.

“The ongoing response in the Gulf is trying for everybody,” Hough said. “We all want this leak to stop, and it’s difficult, but we’re continuing to move ahead with great investments here, and it’s going to be hard to remind the public about those, but they give us hope. This wind farm is going to be huge.”

BP last month announced a deal with Xcel Energy to build a 250-megawatt wind farm in Weld County on the state’s Front Range. Overall, BP has more than 1,200 megawatts of wind power generated by six wind farms nationwide, Hough said.

The company also built a 1.2-megawatt solar installation at the CSU-Pueblo campus, offers BP solar equipment at 10 Colorado Home Depot stores and provides residential solar installations through several Colorado solar distributors. Nationally, BP is one of the largest investors in alternative energy sources, including biofuels.

“We’re continuing to say, ‘America, we all have to watch our energy consumption and talk about what our low carbon future is,’” Hough said. “It’s difficult, trying times, for sure, but hopefully we’re all going to come out of this with a better appreciation of America’s energy appetite.”

Joswick credits BP with participating in a county study on industrial emissions in the area, which found that oil and gas drilling contributes 80 percent of the greenhouse gases locally, but now he wants to see how the company and other local operators respond.

“I would hope that anything that they say is taken with more than one grain of salt, in terms of their credibility anymore as a company and any assertions that they make,” Joswick said.
For those who are interested here is the link: http://coloradoindependent.com/55612/reeling-bp-looks-to-resume-colorado-drilling-alt-energy-projects

For the rest of 2010 we get to examine Whistler’s nature through the International Year of Biodiversity, the other 2010 celebration. In support of Enviro-Fest, this Saturday (June 5), the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment (AWARE) is hosting a community dialogue session focusing on the value of biodiversity to Whistler’s ongoing success.

Starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Whistler Public Library Community Room, there will be a few short films and then a presentation by well-known BCIT Instructor Danny Catt, a biologist, world traveler and internationally published photographer with more than 25 years of experience in the field of environmental education. Catt will use his global lens to explain why biodiversity is so important in the resort community setting.

“By looking around the world, you can start to see how fabulous Canada is for biodiversity,” Catt says. “The gem in the country in my view is British Columbia. I really look at the world, try to bring it back home, and then have everyone realize we can be economically viable and still protect ecosystem goods and services.”

Ecosystem goods and services – the things the planet provides us for free and sustain all life — are priceless components that cannot be undervalued in our challenging quest for “sustainable development,” Catt says.

“People come to Whistler and then go back home to Japan, the U.S. or wherever they came here from and they take with them the experience of being in a resort that has been successful by showcasing and protecting biodiversity,” he says. “That exposure is priceless and needs to be protected.”

Following Catt’s presentation, a community panel made up of an RMOW councillor, a local ecologist, a member of the Sea to Sky Invasive Species Council, local developer/real estate representative and a Quest University student who recently travelled to Borneo to look at biodiversity there, will briefly outline their positions on Whistler’s biodiversity and take questions from the audience.

The year 2010 has been declared the International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations to halt or significantly slow the rate at which the world is losing its biodiversity. And for tourism, and the world, to eventually be sustainable we must nurture the goose that laid the golden egg — biodiversity. When the nature of this place that attracts guests to Whistler translates to 11 per cent of annual provincial tourism revenues, protecting and enhancing biodiversity here pays off.

Biodiversity, the variety of life on Earth, is essential to sustaining the living networks and systems that provide us all with health, wealth, food, fuel and the vital services on which our lives depend. The “nature” of Whistler is not just stunning Coast Range ecosystems around us; it’s also the natural commitment of Whistler’s citizens to understand that the ongoing success of this place is vitally supported by an ongoing commitment to biodiversity.

While we admit that building a resort community and hosting the Games has impacted Whistler’s biodiversity, we have worked hard to minimize the net impact. Biodiversity and tourism are so integrated, they affect each other in a way that can make or break tourism economies.

See Kevin and his friends in the Library Saturday evening.

This article is by Adam Davey, Managing Partner of BDO Chartered Accountant.

Adam tells us that like so many fables, the meaning of killing the goose that laid the golden egg is blindingly simple yet understood by few of us.

A successful business, (and I’m talking about the 95% of all New Zealand businesses being small or medium sized where there are real owner managers in the business), will resist the idea of sucking out the cash and thereby ensuring that the life blood doesn’t flow out of the business when it can least afford it.

In my experience, most businesses ultimately fail because they are undercapitalised. That means not leaving enough money in your business to cover your bills and all the other unexpected yet entirely predictable costs that occur in every business, whether it be a debtor not paying you, or a piece of machinery breaking down, or the inevitable downturn in business.

Much like a good farmer knows to put fertiliser on the land to get a better yield; a good business knows to continually reinvest.

Take depreciation, for example. There is a tax break for depreciation on business assets; yes it may be a non-cash item, but it is very real. You need to leave enough behind to cover the replacement of the ageing assets, or invest in technology. To do otherwise will be at your peril.

And just as sure as winter follows summer, a downturn will come. It may be temporary, seasonal, cyclical, or even being in the wrong business at the wrong time. So why do people not provide for the inevitable? I’m not talking about throwing good money after bad, as sometimes, just like in Kenny Roger’s song The Gambler, you need to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away and know when to run. But if you have a sound business, with solid earnings potential, then yes, hold on to it and reinvest in the knowledge that summer will again follow. However we are talking business here, not emotion, and you will need to make business-like decisions if you want to stay in business.

But, as Aesop knew, the more you look after and nurture your business the longer it will continue to lay those golden eggs.

Here is the link http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/small-business/3676068/Refrain-from-killing-the-golden-goose

Mike Magee informs us that jobs are likely to go in mainland China after Taiwanese outsourcer Hon Hai  put up the wages of staff but warned that meant increased automation in Taiwan today.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou minimised the impact of putting up wages at its factories in the wake of several suicides that have put the reclusive company in the limelight.

According to Taiwanese wire Digitimes today, other contract companies such as equally reclusive Compal and Wistron have watched events unfold with interest, and told the newspaper there are no plans to put up wages at their factories in the wake of Hon Hai’s decision.

Compal and Wistron are probably hoping that contracts from Dell and Apple will fall in their lap. Like Hon Hai, both of these companies rely on the People’s Republic of China cheap labour to produce machines for a variety of customers.

Compal, Wistron and Hon Hai find themselves between a ROC and a hard plaice. Multinational companies like Dell and Apple are constantly forcing down prices to keep competitive in an increasingly competitive market.

The multinationals put pressure on the contract electronic companies to keep prices down, and so they do, in order to keep the contracts.

The whole situation can’t go on like this forever, unless the multinationals can find electronics companies to produce their machines in countries where labour costs are even cheaper than mainland China. The Hong Kong based  South China Morning Post said last Thursday that Foxconn’s decision to increase wages would put it nine percent above the average wage in Shenzhen.

Eventually something is going to give.

Read more:http://www.techeye.net/business/hon-hai-set-to-kill-the-goose-that-laid-the-golden-egg

Read more: http://www.techeye.net/business/hon-hai-set-to-kill-the-goose-that-laid-the-golden-egg#ixzz0qn7ephLj

The Jamaica Observor’s PAT ROXBOROUGH-WRIGHT writesfrom MONTEGO BAY, St James – Last week Sunday’s hijacking of a CANJET charter flight at the Sangster International airport here will cost the country additional advertising dollars to restore confidence in the Jamaican tourism product.

Bemoaning the incident, Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett Friday night issued a national appeal for better behaviour, as he spoke at the inaugural Tourism Service Excellence awards at the Ritz Carlton Rosehall resort and spa in this tourist resort city.

“Don’t kill the goose that is laying the golden egg, we all have a responsibility to protect it. It must not be the preserve of the Jamaica Tourist Board JTB), or the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA ), or the workers in the industry. It must be (protected by) all of us,” said Bartlett.

Jamaica was severely embarassed on the international stage last Sunday when 21-year-old Stephen Fray barged past security at the Sangster International airport, boarded CANJET flight 918 destined for Halifax and took the passengers and crew hostage.

Although none of the 159 passengers or the six crew members suffered physical injury, tourism industry officials have since been scurrying to do damage control.

“We are going to have to be on the street for the next four weeks…John Lynch and I and the team will have to, as soon as we welcome Jet Blue on May 21, turn back and head to Canada, but we are not going to be deterred by that hiccup,” said Bartlett.

The glitzy awards ceremony, designed to encourage excellence in the tourism product, saw Island Car Rental’s CEO, Michael Campbell and Beaches Boscobel’s room attendant, Fiona Hartley topping the competition to walk away with the top prizes for the evening.

The link is http://jam.live.mediaspanonline.com/news/150222_-Don-t-kill-the-goose-that-lays-the-golden-egg-