How good business can lift Apple’s share price

Early this month, Adrian Kingsley- Hughes made this prediction on Forbes.com: “It seems quite possible for Apple stock to hit four digits in the next couple of years, barring any missteps.” The author probably imagines future missteps such as overheating iPads, a possible unsuccessful foray into the television-set market, or the failure of the company’s new chief executive officer, Tim Cook, to live up to the legacy of Steve Jobs. Yet it is easy to imagine a whole different set of problems, such

April 17, 2012

How the Titanic made the modern radio industry

We remember the Titanic for its epic technological hubris. But the ship’s sinking also marks the moment when a more modest technology, the wireless radio, began to transform the shipping industry.As an example of the Progressive-era faith in technology, the Titanic is hard to equal. In addition to its sumptuous interior, the ship was able to churn across the ocean at a staggering 22.5 knots. It was also outfitted with the most sophisticated wireless-telegraph technology available, with a range o

April 16, 2012

Hordes of young people leave Greece

ATHENS ― I traveled to Greece to see the land of my fathers, to see its beauty and its economic crisis firsthand.But as I arrived, others were leaving.Especially Greece’s young people, suffering from unemployment that hovers around 50 percent.“They go to Australia or Turkey or wherever they can find work,” says my first cousin Sophia, a mother of two daughters who is fearful of the future.Every day here, as a handful on the hard left throw rocks in the streets, the stories get worse and worse. M

April 16, 2012

Israel-Iran history, Holocaust perverted in Grass’ poem

Guenter Grass, the German writer and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, brought forth last week an odious little poem that focuses on the threat to world peace posed by the Jewish state, and congratulates its author for the courage to point out this truth. The poem, published in the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and elsewhere, was titled “What Must Be Said,” which is quite a vainglorious title. There is very little in the world that is safer (or less novel) than criticizing Isra

April 15, 2012

Arab Spring may not bring democracy after all

Ever since Islamists took office in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, they have been trying to convince us that they are advocates of moderation, democracy, women’s rights and individual freedoms. And most people in the West, after jubilantly watching the Arab Spring’s amazing revolutions last year, wanted to believe them.But now we can see that these Islamic groups are taking us for fools.In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood promised that it would not field a candidate for president. But then this month it

April 13, 2012

High-tech apps could help prevent crime

Many tend to imagine cities to be a place where people keep to themselves and strangers don’t talk to strangers. The fact is that in any given day strangers spend time with strangers, sometimes alone, in a closed room on thousands of occasions. It is called a taxi ride. Some taxi drivers like to share their views on current political issues. Some passengers like to chat with their cabbies about their daily routines. Some rides are almost silent except at the beginning when the passengers announc

April 13, 2012

Thai government plays down consumer price rise

Amid growing complaints in Thailand from consumers over the rising cost of goods, the Thai Commerce Ministry has insisted that prices are under control, but only part of the truth has been reported to the Cabinet and the public.In fact, the government has picked only some products whose prices have come down to showcase to society.Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyaphirom keep on saying that prices are under control and the cost of living has not risen d

April 13, 2012

High-tech apps could prove to be new crime fighting sensation

Many tend to imagine cities to be a place where people keep to themselves and strangers don‘t talk to strangers. The fact is that in any given day strangers spend time with strangers, sometimes alone, in a closed room on thousands of occasions. It is called a taxi ride. Some taxi drivers like to share their views on current political issues. Some passengers like to chat with their cabbies about their daily routines. Some rides are almost silent except at the beginning when the passengers announc

April 13, 2012

Man with beer in airport is economic indicator

Ethiopia isn’t the first place you would look for clues about Asia’s economies. Nor does Jose Rabacal, a 29-year-old Filipino sipping beer at an Addis Ababa airport cafe, think he’s a human economic indicator. But he is, and so are his 10 compatriots as they bided their time recently during a multihour layover. Each moved to Africa from the Philippines for opportunities that leaders failed to offer at home. Each left behind a family they see once a year, if they are lucky. “I haven’t seen my thr

April 12, 2012

Sea dispute between ASEAN and China reopens

Over the past decades, the Philippines used to be benign with its defence strategy over the claims in South China Sea.Domestic turmoil, economic down-turn and southern rebellions kept the country at arm’s length on this key security issue. However, since July 2010, the government under President Benign Aquino III has displayed assertive foreign policy postures in the relations with the U.S. and China ― which has currently moved in an opposite direction. At the last week’s ASEAN summit in Phnom P

April 12, 2012

Iran talks must yield a solution that even Reagan could accept

Apologies to Ronald Reagan as we mangle his catchphrase, but what the U.S. and other world powers need to do in negotiations with Iran later this week is to “accept, but verify” an Iranian nuclear-fuel program that’s limited to producing low civilian-grade fuel. Only the most reckless gambler would bet on a breakthrough in the talks, due to take place in Istanbul on April 14. Ten years of abject diplomatic failure, distrust and Iranian filibustering have fed a justifiable cynicism. Nor is an ele

April 12, 2012