New Quote I Love and early 101th birthday wish to professor Ronald Coase

Here is a new addition to Quotes I Love,

“New ideas are most likely to come from the young who are also the group who are most likely to recognize the significance of those ideas.” – Ronald Coase in his 2003 Coase Lecture

Photo credit: by Zhaofeng Xue (薛兆丰) 2009

And I like to send an early Happy Birthday and All the Best wish to Professor Coase, for his up coming 101th birthday on 29th December, 2011! And I am looking forward to the upcoming (Feb 2012) book “How China Became Capitalist” co-authored by Prof. Coase and Ning Wang. Yes, Prof. Coase is going to be 101 years old and he is still working and writing!

The following is an insightful 2003 talk by Prof. Coase when he was _only_ 93 years old! :) (See this entry for all six video clips and time codes plus descriptions.)

2003 Coase Lecture by Ronald Coase – Part 1/6

Happy One Month Birthday G+ aka Google+ !!!

Happy One Month Birthday my dear little G+ (Google+)!

Here is a sexy Happy Birthday song for you! :)

My dear G+ (aka Google+),

I hope you will forgive me in not liking you when you were only 2 days old! Silly old me thought you were just like your time wasting siblings Google Wave and Buzz. But, at one month, you turned out cuter than I thought initially and I am willing to wait a little before declaring you “the best thing since slice bread”, “you suck” or “somewhere in betwen”! :)

(note: After my personal greetings, you will see some excerpts of Birthday Wishes and Birthday Minuses from around the web.)

I’ve read one of your many parents Andy Hertzfeld‘s G+ contribution and even his clarification. And will soon find some time to watch your beautiful birthing video ala Steven Levy‘s “Inside Google+ — How the Search Giant Plans to Go Social“.

You see, I have also started calling you my Lovemark which is much cooler than the boring old school brand. Being called a Lovemark comes with great responsibility. I know you are too young to remember the 1985 Coca-Cola‘s (an indisputable Lovemark) crazy New Coke debacle but it is one lesson in brand management that you have to learn in pre-school. We, the millions of users, are now in control and will be actively shaping your destiny. YOU better listen to our complains and our wishes very carefully.

Please tell your parents (i.e. Goolge), if they mess you up or worst “cancel” you, then their credibility in providing “tools” in general, will be damaged seriously, possibly beyond repair. Three strikes in rapid succession, why should anyone trust Google any more? I may be naive, but I am not that stupid!

Anyway, on your one month birthday, I hope to publish two articles to share my general & technical insights of G+ Hangouts with KOMU anchor Sarah Hill and others.

My dear G+, you are only one month old, I am willing to give you time to grow, learn and to be helpful to people. I can’t help but want to use this particular Marshall McLuhan quote when I think of you today.

“We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.” – Marshall McLuhan

With Love and here is a sexy Happy Birthday,

Kempton (G+)

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P.S. Interesting to include this Mashable article, “Google+ Hangouts: 4 Creative Ways People Are Using Group Video Chat”

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Again, allow me to use two of my favourite forecast-related quotes by Edgar R. Fiedler from my quotes I love collection,

“The herd instinct among forecasters makes sheep look like independent thinkers.” and;

“If you have to forecast, forecast often.”

Here are some excerpts of Birthday Wishes and Birthday Minuses from around the web.

TechCrunch, “Sophomore Slump? One Month In, Google+ Sees A Traffic Minus”

“While it’s totally circumstantial, my own observations and usage seem to support this data as well.

Happy Birthday Madiba ! Mr. Nelson Mandela turns 93

Happy 93rd Birthday Madiba ! You are an inspiration to us all. Here is an excerpt from a Washington Post article in May 12th, 1994. [HT Raju] (emphasis and links added)

““I am your servant,” says Nelson Mandela to delirious throngs, who believe him. At 75, he is beyond ambition. “We speak as fellow citizens to heal the wounds of the past with the intent of constructing a new order based on justice for all.”

Mandela goes on the floor of the parliament and hugs Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the Zulu chief who threatened to boycott South Africa’s first democratic election and whose forces killed thousands in an attempt to stop Mandela.

Mandela embraces Frederik W. de Klerk, the former president whom he suspects of having colluded with Afrikaner security forces to instigate violence against the African National Congress. In Time magazine, Mandela accuses de Klerk of “very dirty racist tactics” in the chaotic election. But this is “national unity” time, and Mandela,who said, echoing Martin Luther King Jr., “free at last”, when he was elected, has been free all along of vindictiveness. How can it be? He invited three of the guards from the jail where he spent what could have been embittering years. It is something for other politicians to contemplate. This elegant, radiant, noble soul apparently just closed his mind to hatred.“

From CBC “Nelson Mandela’s 93rd birthday marked worldwide – People asked to mark the occasion by working in their community”

“Millions of South African schoolchildren sang to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 93rd birthday Monday, leading a worldwide chorus of birthday wishes sent to the anti-apartheid icon.

More than 12 million students sang a special version of “Happy Birthday” before lessons began Monday.”

Happy 50th Birthday Ricky Gervais !!!

It was my pleasure to meet and interview the world famous funny comedian Ricky Gervais and his girl friend Jane last year at Banff. Of course, to us Canadians, he is Ricky Dene Gervais!

Check out my video interview and Ricky’s award acceptance speech video from 2010 Banff World TV Festival!

Happy 50th Birthday Ricky !!!

Prof. Ronald Coase, Happy 100th Birthday!

I would like to wish Prof. Ronald Coase good health and all the best on his 100th Birthday (Dec 29th, 2010) and his new book to be published in 2011 (see attached Economist article)! “… Mr Coase will publish a new book in 2011, with Ning Wang of Arizona State University, on “How China Became Capitalist””

By the way, I have watched the following lecture videos by Prof. Coase probably over 5-10 times already and I am still learning something new every time. Enjoy. Note: More info after the videos.

Also check out the following,

– (video) Ronald Coase: “Markets, Firms and Property Rights”

– Audio (downloadable) Ronald H. Coase: The 17th Annual Coase Lecture

– Ronald Coase Discusses Global Warming Regulation – Of Individual Liberty and Cap and Trade

– For the record, from Stephen N. S. Cheung “（2011.01.04）科斯百岁了”

And from Economist,

Why do firms exist? – Ronald Coase, the author of “The Nature of the Firm” (1937), turns 100 on December 29th
Schumpeter Dec 16th 2010 | from PRINT EDITION

FOR philosophers the great existential question is: “Why is there something rather than nothing?” For management theorists the more mundane equivalent is: “Why do firms exist? Why isn’t everything done by the market?”