Reblog! $5 Billion Program Set to Boost Female Entrepreneurship in Australia

An Australian-first program to connect women with entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts launched in Sydney yesterday.

Springboard Enterprises, a not-for-profit program to start women in business, has created thousands of jobs and generated $US5 billion in capital.

The program currently operates in the United States and Israel, where 480 women in the two countries have raised capital through Springboard and over 2,000 have attended investor forums where women go on stage and pitch to investors.

Wendy Simpson, the newly minted chairman of Springboard Australia, told SmartCompanys’ Cara Waters that she has big plans for the program here :: Read the full article »»»»

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Wind Farms Linked to Localised Climate Change

Turbulence created by wind farms causes air temperatures to rise directly around the supposed green energy producers, researchers say. Scientists including Associate Professor Liming Zhou from the State University of New York examined conditions around 2,358 turbines at four Texas wind farms.

Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, Professor Zhou and colleagues reported a temperature increase of up to 0.72 degrees Celsius per decade at wind farm locations, compared to nearby areas. The wind industry in the United States has experienced a remarkably rapid expansion of capacity in recent years and this fast growth is expected to continue in the future. While converting wind’s kinetic energy into electricity, wind turbines modify surface–atmosphere exchanges and the transfer of energy, momentum, mass and moisture within the atmosphere. These changes, if spatially large enough, may have noticeable impacts on local to regional weather and climate.

Oddly, researchers also found the effect to be greater at night than during the day. After discounting the impact of surface features such as vegetation, roads, light reflection and surface structures, the researchers concluded that the temperature change was caused by air turbulence generated by the turbines’ giant rotor blades. Professor Zhou said the study could help researchers better understand the impact of wind farms on local environments :: Read the full article »»»»

Portrait Painter Lucian Freud Leaves $150 Million in Will

Renowned portrait painter Lucian Freud has left a record ₤96 million – $AU150 million – in his will, the largest sum bequeathed by a British artist, according to London’s Mail On Sunday newspaper.

Freud died last July aged 88, by which time his uncompromising, fleshy portraits had made him one of the world’s most revered and coveted artists, with subjects ranging from the Queen to supermodel Kate Moss. His Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, a 1995 portrait of a woman asleep in the nude on a sofa, fetched $US33.6 million at Christie’s in 2008 – an auction record for a living artist.

The newspaper said Freud left 2.5 million pounds and a house to his long-term assistant David Dawson, who is pictured in Freud’s last unfinished work Portrait Of The Hound, which also featured the artist’s pet whippet Eli :: Read the full article »»»»

The Impact of Carnivory on Human Evolution

Adopting an opportunistic diet may have contributed to the evolutionary success of our ancestors by allowing them to have more children.

It seems that our diet as well as our large brain, long life span and high fertility are key elements that made humans an evolutionary success. In a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE, researchers have now shown that by becoming omnivores, our ancestors were able to give birth to a greater number of offspring.

The specific impact of carnivory on human evolution, life history and development remains controversial. Researchers say they have shown in quantitative terms that dietary profile is a key factor influencing time to weaning across a wide taxonomic range of mammals, including humans :: Read the full article »»»»

The Pain In Spain

Spain’s unemployment rate has hit a 20-year high, with more than 5.6 million people out of work. In the first three months of this year close to 370,000 people lost their jobs and Spain’s jobless rate is now at 24.4 per cent. Unemployment is highest among the youth population, at 50 per cent :: Read the full article »»»»

Dutch Ban Dope Smoking Tourists

A Dutch judge has upheld a controversial law that bans tourists from buying cannabis at the Netherlands’ famous coffee shops. The ban on tourists visiting so-called cannabis cafes will be implemented nationwide by the end of this year. The new law targets the many foreigners who have come to see the country as a soft drugs paradise and to tackle a rise in crime related to the drug trade.

Coffee shops can only sell cannabis to registered members. Only locals will be allowed to join a coffee shop, and each coffee shop will be limited to 2,000 members. Some users regard the requirement to register as an invasion of privacy.

The mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, opposes the plan. Fourteen cafe owners and several pressure groups also challenged the law in The Hague, saying it is discriminatory. One owner says it will cost him 90 per cent of his turnover. The cafe owners say they will be lodging an appeal :: Read the full article »»»»

Bob Dylan To Receive Highest US Civilian Honour

The White House has announced US folk singer Bob Dylan will be honoured with the country’s highest civilian award. The Septuagenarian will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US president Barack Obama in a ceremony next month  :: Read the full article »»»»

Ooops :: Rolls Royce Recall

Rolls Royce, the symbol of wealth, prestige and the preferred motor vehicle of the British Royal family, has taken a hit after issuing a major recall. Only a handful of cars are affected in Australia, the recall effects 36 Rolls-Royce Ghost sedans, sold in Australia between 2009 – 2011 as well as 74 Phantoms sold between 2003 and 2009 .

Though the number of vehicles being recalled is small, it’s the luxury brand’s image that will  see the most damage. In a recent promotional video for the next version of the Rolls Royce Phantom, company chief executive Torsten Muller-Otvos describes his customers as extremely discerning :: Read the rest of this entry
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OFFICIAL :: Kazakhstan Thanks Borat For First Tourist

Kazakhstan’s foreign minister has thanked Borat, the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy that the Central Asian nation once banned for lampooning its people, for massively boosting its tourism.

“With the release of this film, the number of visas issued by Kazakhstan grew tenfold,” local news agencies quoted foreign minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov as telling a session of parliament :: Read the full article »»»»

Crime Pays :: $US2 TRILLION A Year

The United Nations says crime generates an estimated $US2.1 trillion in global proceeds each year – 3.6 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product.

In what are the first UN figures for global crime profits, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime via it’s Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice has announced criminal business is one of the world’s top 20 economies. Transnational organized crime manifests in many forms, including as trafficking in drugs, firearms and even persons.

According to the UN, organized crime groups exploit human mobility to smuggle migrants and undermine financial systems through money laundering. The vast sums of money involved can compromise legitimate economies and directly impact public processes by ‘buying’ elections through corruption, the UN says :: Read the full article »»»»

National Museum of Australia Snaps-up Rare Aboriginal Art

The National Museum of Australia in Canberra has purchased two rare pen and ink drawings thought to have been created more than a century ago by an Aboriginal artist. ‘Buckley’s Escape’ drawn by Aboriginal artist Tommy McRae, depicts convict William Buckley escaping captivity to spend the next 32 years of his life with Aboriginal people. The Museum paid $AU65,000 for the drawing.

The National Museum of Australia scooped up the two 1890s drawings by Tommy McRae at Deutscher and Hackett’s Important Aboriginal and Oceanic Art Auction in Melbourne on April 4. The museum bid $AU20,000 for the second McRae drawing, Murray Tribe Warfare, which shows Aboriginal people fighting in northern Victoria. McRae lived in the Upper Murray, Victoria, where he made and sold books of drawings. He is one of only a few Aboriginal artists to depict life in 19th century Australia. Both McRae drawings had been held by the same NSW family since being bought directly from the artist in the 1890s :: Read the full article »»»»

Party Like A Billionaire

It’s been another rough week for many in the business community. Confidence remains weak, the Federal Budget looks like it will contain cuts and the markets keep tracking sideways. Let’s forget about all those worries for a little while. We’re going to a party!

Lindsay Fox’s 75th birthday party, which stretched from last Thursday to Saturday, must surely count as one of the biggest functions ever thrown in Australia. The fun started on Thursday, when Fox hosted a 1940s-themed party at Melbourne’s ritzy Park Hyatt hotel, where the 300 guests also stayed the night thanks to Fox.

On Friday, the boys on the guest list did a spot of wine tasting, while the ladies enjoyed a lunch. The sexes came together in the evening though to attend a ‘Roaring ‘20s’ party thrown by Fox’s good friend, Solomon Lew (who could have done with some mirth after a tough week in the courts). On Saturday, Fox was off to the footy to watch Carlton take on Essendon at the MCG, before hitting the Fox mansion for a gala black-tie soiree. :: Read the full article »»»»