Kamis, 28 Februari 2008

"SABURAI", A NEW RACE OF GOAT IS BORN

Through human-made insemination method, a new race of goat was successfully born in Lampung province, Sumatera Indonesia. The goat is developed by assimilating Ettawa race or PE with male Boer. PE is an Indian milking-goat brought to Indonesia in the 1800s from the Netherland. The race is however cultivated by farmers as meating-goat.


Director of Animal Health Sub-office of Cattle-breeding Department Lampung province, E Kasman Sunaryo, said that the Boer was taken from Australia in 2001. The birth of Saburai is a great success after the failures in 1986 and 1989. The switch of use by farmers to the goat is not beneficial. PE only produces 30 percents of meat while Boer 50 percents. By assimilating them, Saburai produces more meat and it benefits the farmers financially.

MAKING BUSINESS OF PLASTIC-RECYCLING

Making business with Plastic-recycling

Some 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used each year around the world, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The plastic waste which will only decompose in one hundred years and more is surely a serious threat to the environment. Some campaigns on reducing the use of plastic bags have been organized, but likely result to no avail.


Ela, 48, is however doing her real contribution to the matter. She who is a tailor in Cipinang Melayu, East Jakarta sews plastic waste originally containers of products such as soap, softener, cooking oil, and the like to be shopping bags, purses, hats, or laptop bags. Together with neighbors, Ela is running a small recycling business. “Sewing platics requires extra care due to its slipperiness and stiffness. The sewing has to be neat and straight. Otherwise, it looks awful” said Ela.


The plastic is collected by women in the neighborhood of soap pouch especially. To produce a small handbag of consistent color and pattern takes around 50 plastic pouches. Ela and other women who work for Istari Wahyu, the coordinator of residents from various community units get pay of Rp.75,000,- (US$ 8,-)for a large bag and Rp.10,000,-(US$ 1.01,-) for a small purse.


Burning plastic household waste is common enough, but it produces fumes hazardous to human health. Recycling into handbags are an attractive alternative. In addition, other plastic waste resources like mineral water containers are sort of abundant material for plastic-recycling business.

YAHOO SPURNED MICROSOFT'S BID

Two online giants, Yahoo and Microsoft, are still being preoccupied in a tug of war. The software giant, Microsoft, expects to take over Yahoo and merge the companies’ culture and resources. The company’s executive on February 22 sent workers an upbeat email outlining a vision how the take-over is all about. Yahoo, however, spurned Microsoft’s US$44.6 billion bid for the veteran internet firm. Microsoft is reportedly planning a hostile take-over bid if Yahoo’s board of directors doesn’t change its mind.

“We look forward to a constructive dialogue with Yahoo’s board, management, shareholders, and employees on the value of this combination and its strategies and financial merits” wrote Kevin Johnson, Microsoft platform and service division president. “Once Yahoo and Microsoft agree on a transaction, we can begin the integration planning process in parallel with the regulatory review” added Johnson.


In the effort to avoid being gobbled up by Microsoft, the struggling Internet firm has reportedly explored alliance with Google, Time Warner-owned AOL, and MySpace of News Corp. Some Yahoo stockholders are suing the firm for not accepting an offer Microsoft made.


What idea can we pull out from the psy-war?. A lucrative firm will always attract others to passionately make a take-over. The more developed a honey-bee nest is, the sweeter it tastes. The tug of war of the two online giants might be, especially of the Yahoo side, a strategy to reach the expected amount of bid. It is there, then, that we can learn a trick about how to develop a business that enables us to be a million dollar man.

Google