8 Management Lessons from Paul the Octopus

The world's most famous octopus may  have retired from the arduous task of predicting football games' outcomes, but he still has some lessons for managers. On the one hand, his high profile job is now done, but on the other hand, he leaves behind some perfectly sensible management principles. As far as the other four hands  and two legs are concerned (according to scientists, an octopus has six arms and two legs), he will use them doing what he likes best: entertaining children.

So what did we learn from Paul?  Here are some of his lessons:

¡Viva la Roja! and Viva South African pride!

The FIFA World Cup was an extraordinary event in many ways.  Not only did it produce a winner that had never won a World Cup before (from two finalists who had never done it), but it was held in a continent where it had never been held before. 

Many thousands of words have been written about how successful South Africa had been as hosts - and about the surge of national pride and togetherness that it brought.  Most of us are hoping that the same spirit will continue.  For a few days the "What now?" question will reflect the national psyche and then we'll have to address the "What's next" question in all seriousness. If somehow we can put the same energy behind education, the arts, science and especially also job creation and delivery of services as we did behind staging a successful world cup, we could keep those flags of pride flying high.

Meanwhile, I bet never before in the history of mankind has so much Rioja (the red wine that immediately says "Spain" to me) and cerveza been consumed by so many supporters of la Roja (literally "the red ones") in so little time. Or headache tablets on the morning thereafter.  And who would blame them?  As one of my favourite teams from the start, I was supporting them during the later stages of the tournament and was delighted that they won.  Having lived in Spain for a while many years ago as a young girl, there was a personal link - especially since I started watching football on TV in Spain on a small black and white set in my tiny apartment in Calle Capitan Haya in Madrid.  I became a fan of Real Madrid and have

Intermittent Internet driving us crazy

There's been a problem with local Internet service for many people using a range of ISPs due to part of the SEACOM cable being damaged.   Very frustrating not to know when you will be able to send/receive messages or reach your own or other websites.

Anyone reading this and who may have be suffering from this issue, may want to read the stories here (from Moneyweb) and various items on My Broadband , especially this one.  There is also this informative article by my friend  Christopher Szabo.

Starlit Ponderings July 2010 - Looking for Links

I was multitasking – working and listening with one ear to one of the FIFA World Cup matches on the radio - when my concentration was interrupted by the little voice that says “time you wrote the Ponderings for this month.” Well of course the inevitable happened – I started thinking about a link between the big celebration of the Beautiful Game here in South Africa and what I think of as the Beautiful Science.

First to the rescue was Albert Einstein. Since I am working on updating my talks about his life and work, I am reading yet another biography and from thoughts about space, time and gravity it was one quick mental jump to thinking that the world’s football lovers had been drawn as if by some strong force of gravity to South Africa.

From the author of "the Little Prince"

"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward in the same direction. " Antoine de Saint-Exupery (one of his most beautiful quotes on the day he would have turned 110)

"I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind. " - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Google appropriately commemorated him with their Google Doodle today.

There's more in this article from The Guardian

Vuvuzelas et al

WOW the FIFA World Cup sure is interesting.  My early prediction is that Argentina has the best chance to take the Cup, with their closest competitors being Brazil, Spain, Portugal and dark horse the Nethnerlands.   In the meanwhile I was glad that both the US and UK made it to the next round since I have many friends in both those countries.

Bafana Bafana ended their campaign with honour, beating the French 2-1 but sadly did not get through to the next round. I shall be shouting for my two sentimental favourites Switzerland and Spain (two countries where I lived) for as long as they keep going...

Meanwhile, on those vuvuzelas that has everyone talking, some Friday fun:

Well done to the SpaceX team on Falcon 9 launch

One of the best "good news" stories of the past week has been the successful launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

If their programme continues to be this successful, it will indeed start a new era of spaceflight. It is already helping to stimulate new ideas about how to approach launch vehicles for spacecraft and may help to go further into other aspects of space exploration.

The FIFA World Cup 2010 - yes, it is here

It has been in the headlines for so long that one can almost not remember what it felt like without the FIFA World Cup dominating just about everything else in South Africa as far as hot topics are concerned.

For very many it is truly a dream come true. Some couldn't really care less about sport in general and football in particular, or about large events involving big crowds. Many worry about the real economic impact the World Cup will have on the South African economy. 

Others worry for different reasons - because they are in charge of some of the major arrangements nationally or in their home city. Let's hope for their sake they will have reason to start relaxing soon.

The Case of the Missing Ring and the New Bright Spot

Well no, this is not a whodunnit story (although it might easily be one!), it is a real science mystery.

The case of Jupiter's missing South Equatorial Belt is one that even professional astronomers are finding hard to explain. Although it has happened before on this planet with its turbulent weather, it is relatively rare for us to see the gas giant without that belt. Generally it is a rather baffling event.

The restaurant at the end of the Universe does not close in 2012...

25 May is a special day in the lives of fans of the work of Douglas Adams (1952-2001). Since I am one of those fans, I’m indulging in ponderings about his writings which, as I have discovered over the years, are close to the hearts of many of my friends and acquaintances  as well.

I am not aware of many other authors who have a special commemorative day that is celebrated all over the world. But on Towel Day, the annual celebration on 25 May, Adams fans around the world – and presumably the rest of the universe - proudly carry a towel in his honour. If you forgot to do so this year, then there are about 360 days left to plan your outfit (plaid dressing gown and slippers are strongly advised) and get your towel laundered.

The greatest threat?

Recently I was contemplating the significance of Earth Day (today, 22 April) and asked people on one of my websites what they thought of as the main candidates as the “greatest threat to Earth”. The answers included global warming (and related factors such as the ice caps melting and major coral reefs and forests dying), over-population, the lack of (or limited use of) renewable energy resources, a strike by a major asteroid or comet, some other major event in the Solar System, a nearby supernova and of course also the Sun.

My original question had been a bit misleading, because I wanted to see to what extent people equate the future of the planet with the future of life on Earth, and specifically the future of the human race. It is natural that we see the universe from the one point of view with which we can identify – the human perspective.

Although natural disasters may play a role, modern man is the probably the greatest threat to life on Earth - or to sustain life for beings such as the human race. There is no agreement on the time scales involved, but the majority view seems to be that, unless we act fast, we are heading towards destroying the environment to such an extent that in time to come, only very resilient life forms (and man might not be one of those!) will survive.

Fleeting moments - astronomically speaking

The fireball seen in the Northern parts of South Africa the country late last year prompted me to ponder about our fragile planet being hit by objects from space. However, it also made me think about the thrill and lasting impressions of some fleeting moments relating to astronomy.

There is the “everyday” beauty of moments of unexpected delight: a full moon that suddenly rises from behind buildings or a mountain like a butter-coloured yellow balloon against a navy-blue early evening sky. Or the pleasant surprise of looking up from the centre of a light-polluted city on a very clear evening - and realising that I could easily count six of the Seven Sisters in the Pleiades. Or watching the stars pop out one by one as you sit at the beachfront and having a stranger come up to you to ask if they may borrow your binoculars for a moment to look at Jupiter or Saturn.