In these Games, it has been powered by eight golds in weightlifting, seven in diving and five in shooting. While the Chinese have won their share of heavily contested competitions, such as women’s gymnastics, the focus on more obscure sports has paid dividends.
China doesn’t apologize for it. Nor should it. It has its goal and the perfect plan to attain it.
BEIJING – Michael Phelps started the climb up a set of stairs, parting a sea of photographers and reaching upward past a railing for the arms of three women. One by one, his mother Debbie and sisters Hillary and Whitney leaned over and clenched him tight. When it was over, he buried his face in his mother’s shoulder and cried.
At long last, number eight—shared with three of the most important people in his life.
Several grams of gold hanging around Phelps’ neck had finally lifted the cinder blocks of pressure and expectations from his shoulders. Twelve years of buildup, spun forward from the day Phelps’ coach Bob Bowman told Debbie of her 11 year-old son, “He has the potential for greatness.”
Olympic Games, gold medals, world records—Bowman looked at a gangly bundle of right angles and hyperactivity and saw the biggest things.
“I thought he was nuts,” Debbie remembered later. “I told Bob that he was crazy. He was telling me all this stuff, and all I could think was, ‘Bob, I’m raising a middle school child.’ ”
What Bowman couldn’t see at the time, and what no coach truly knows until far down the road, is that Phelps would be the perfect star surrounded by the right constellation of support. A little tight-knit universe that was on public display Sunday, when Phelps climbed into the stands and embraced the three women who have all contributed—in ways small and large—to his greatness.
Three women who helped the middle school child grow into a man, and on Sunday watched him realize more than anyone could have imagined. A planet built in six days was conquered by Phelps in nine, producing eight gold medals, seven world records and one titanic sigh of relief.
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“When we train every day, sometimes there are sets or workouts that you don’t want to do, and Bob is always, ‘This is putting money in the bank, and at the end of the year you’re able to withdraw it.’ I made a big withdrawal,” Phelps said. “I guess I put a lot of money in the bank over the last four years and we withdrew pretty much every penny in the bank.”
But while the coach and star have made the biggest deposits, some of the small ones have been some of the most important.
Many from his mother Debbie, a middle school principal who went to the greatest lengths to keep his life normal when he was living under her roof, making it a point to ask him, “Are you happy? Should we be doing something different?” When Phelps moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., to train and also stretch his legs as an adult, Debbie grudgingly let him go. And when he would return to visit—hair too long, face too scruffy and hat tilted to one side—she bit her lip and let him find his own way.
“Michael is my son,” she said while describing those days, “and I will always love my son.”
And Phelps has returned that love in his own way as a young man, showcasing mettle over the last nine days that can only be found in the sturdiest of foundations. In a way, Debbie had raised her son for moments like these—raised him to be strong enough to accept the criticism and structure of Bowman, but also thoughtful enough to keep close to his heart the goals in his life and swimming career. Goals that Phelps would never openly reveal until Sunday, when he admitted, “They all happened this week.”
In some way, he owes part of this accomplished dream to his two older sisters—Hillary, the eldest and most laid-back, a swimmer who went on to star at the University of Richmond, and Whitney, the middle child who had her Olympic dreams cut short in the pool, but not before displaying the same fiery seed that eventually blossomed in Phelps. Phelps likes to say that Bowman was the one who taught him to dream the biggest dreams, but he does so in the wake of the women who came before him.
Which may be why his career arc is dotted with memories of his sisters, from Hillary taking “little Phelps” to the pool while she went through her own practices, to bounding around Whitney’s Olympic swimming trials in 1996, looking for autographs. He gets his cool from Hillary, who made friends fast and cherished the relationships she had outside the pool. And he gets his fire from Whitney, who at five years old punched her sister’s front tooth out after a shoving match.
Two women who have been there in the best of times, like Sunday, and the worst, like four years ago, when they witnessed a 16-year old boy taunting Phelps after his DWI arrest: “Hey Phelps! Go have a beer and get behind the wheel!” Hillary and Whitney wheeled around on the kid, their fists balled and eyes filled with lava. His only saving grace came from Phelps’ mother, who preferred to look it at like everything else: a lesson.
“The ups and downs, sometimes you have to have that,” Bowman said. “There will be bitter disappointments, and Michael dealt with those the best way he could. He handled it the right way. You just have to do that and have that support system around you. Michael has had that and he will always have that.”
And that was never more evident than Sunday, when Phelps stood on the medal podium for the last time at these Games, looked off into the distance at his mother and three sisters and finally let the emotion wash over him. Maybe that’s the last lesson he learned in all of this. Sometimes the best things in life aren’t accomplishing the impossible dreams or winning the most inconceivable races.
Sometimes it’s not about the gold medals you collect, but the people who you share them with.
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Location: New York
Author: Ken Silverstein, EnergyBiz Insider, Editor-in-Chief
Date: Monday, August 11, 2008
Europe's solar energy market may catch fire. Government subsidies there are playing a big part, all in an effort to help the continent reach its goal of increasing its renewable generation mix from 8 percent today to 20 percent by 2020.
The ultimate aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions tied to global warming. The European Union (EU) is a global leader and as such the member nations enacted incentive programs to achieve their desired results. It all bodes well for solar power. Growing demand, in fact, has helped reduce production costs through the advancement of solar-cell designs and manufacturing processes.
According to consulting firm Emerging Energy Research, Germany now accounts for roughly half of all the installed solar capacity in the world. Within the EU, it is followed by Spain. The countries make up 92 percent of the continent's installed photovoltaic (PV) solar capacity of about 1,500 megawatts. Italy, Greece, France and Portugal are expected to produce the lion's share of PV projects in the coming years. But the establishment of subsidized programs in other markets that include the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Switzerland has set off a off a wave of PV expansion.
"The European solar PV market is becoming increasingly fragmented across the value chain from manufacturers to project owners with installers and developers operating in the continuum" says the firm's senior analyst Reese Tisdale. Emerging PV-based power producers range from renewable energy utilities to specialized solar PV plant owners looking to gain market share. They include German developers Conergy, City Solar and Phoenix Solar as well as such as utilities as Electricite de France, Iberdrola, Electrabel and Enel.
"Given their existing contacts with commercial and industrial clients, and a proven appetite for renewables, European utilities are well-positioned to enter the PV generation market as the sector transitions toward rooftop installations," says Tisdale.
One of the keys to this growth is "feed-in tariffs." Such government incentives guarantee each plant operator a fixed tariff for electricity generated that is channeled into the grid. Each grid system operator is obliged to pay the statutory fee, which is dependent on the technology used and the year of installation. Ultimately, though, the cost of solar must drop at least 50 percent to compete with other alternatives -- something that investment banking firm Morgan Stanley says is possible within five years.
The rapid growth of the solar sector, however, is a double-edge sword. That's because the supply side has not been able to keep up with demand, forcing industry players to seek cheaper but less efficient solar cells. Silicon is prevalent today but "thin film" is giving it a run for the money. To survive, Tisdale says that the players will have to demonstrate that they are nimble and can adapt to readily changing market conditions.
Global Model
PV is a type of technology that converts sunlight directly into electricity. It is the fastest growing energy technology in the world, increasing at an average annual rate of 48 percent since 2002. While Europe's PV market is 1,500 megawatts, the U.S. solar PV market is roughly 500 megawatts -- a figure induced, in large part, by existing tax credits. By nearly all estimates, solar energy use globally will continue upward.
Without question, Germany remains the world leader. U.S. utilities have thus set out to learn from the German experience. At a recent fact-finding mission, those companies learned about feed-in tariffs, solar technologies and grid-integration processes. Toward that end, they discovered that even with solar penetration rates of 20-30 percent, grid integration issues are not a problem for German power producers.
"Germany has established a national renewable program that has achieved impressive results in terms of the large amounts of solar deployed and innovative developments in solar technology," says Roy Kuga, vice president of energy supply for Pacific Gas & Electric and a member of the delegation. "The technology innovations are directly transferable to the U.S. and will facilitate the scalability and competitiveness of solar."
Utilities in this country are seeking to diversify their fuel supplies to meet clean air requirements and certain renewable portfolio standards. Europe is propelled by similar rules, although member states are signatories to the Kyoto Protocol that obligates them to reduce their heating trapping emissions.
Fostering the increased use of solar energy is therefore an absolute necessity in Europe. While expensive and time-consuming, some scientists said just recently that a relatively small amount of sunlight from Southern Africa and the Middle East could one day meet all of the continent's energy needs. The never-ending sun in those places helps defuse the argument that renewable power is intermittent.
Those scientists, from European Commission's Joint Research Centre, say that it would take billions of dollars and another four decades to achieve such ambitious results. Along those lines, the EU must not only build huge solar farms but it must also construct a "supergrid" to carry the electricity over long distances and high voltage lines.
"For the EU to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, many of the required technologies have already been made available while others are in the final stages of development," says Giovanni de Santi and Magda Moner, of the research group. "PV technology is one important element of this technology portfolio." The investment should also include cleaner coal and second generation bio-fuels, they say.
Europe's strategy to bolster its solar supplies could become a global model. It's a pursuit centered on providing incentives and enforcing environmental mandates, all to attract savvy participants, improve technologies and bring down costs.
Republished with permission from CyberTech, Inc. EnergyBiz Insider is published three days a week by Energy Central. For more information about Energy Central, or to subscribe to EnergyBiz Insider, other e-newsletters and EnergyBiz magazine, please go to http://www.energycentral.com/.
Location: New York
Author: Peter Welch & Steve Worthington
Date: Monday, August 11, 2008
At the end of July 2008, Tesco, the U.K.’s largest supermarket group, announced it is to buy the Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) share in their 50/50 joint venture Tesco Personal Finance (TPF) and take full control. The move, widely expected, brings to an end Tesco’s eleven year partnership with RBS. It forms part of a strategy by Tesco to increase its share in fast growing services markets.
Tesco’s decision appears nothing if not brave. In the wake of Northern Rock and the credit crunch, the U.K.’s financial services looks like a market to avoid rather than invest in. Yet despite a deteriorating climate, Tesco has signaled ambitious plans for TPF. Over time, the retailer plans to "extend its financial services business from a collection of popular financial products to that of a full service retail bank." Given market conditions and retailers’ mixed record in financial services, can Tesco make this work?
TPF is profitable, reporting profit before tax of £206 million for 2007 on net assets at year end of approximately £560 million. But the business is comparatively small, with, in Tesco’s own words, material market positions in only two core segments – namely car insurance (4.3 percent) and credit cards (6.9 percent). Insurance represented over 60 percent of TPF’s 2007 profit before tax. Tesco’s buyout of RBS is based on the objective of expanding TPF beyond car insurance and credit cards. It plans both to build TPF’s share in those segments where it currently has smaller market positions [for example, home insurance (two percent) and savings (0.8 percent)] and to enter new retail banking segments.
However, even before considering where TPF might expand, it is worth noting that the business faces tough challenges in its current core markets. Both car insurance and credit cards are highly competitive, with the latter under major economic and regulatory pressure. While TPF currently has a high quality credit card book, the U.K. market is now ex-growth and a downturn may put the loan books of even the most conservative issuers under pressure. In addition, regulatory intervention is squeezing or threatening key revenue streams, notably overlimit and late payment fees, PPI commissions, and interchange.
Tesco and TPF also face specific strategic questions in each of the segments. With car insurance, TPF launched its insurance comparison portal, Tesco Compare, in 2007. But will it be credible for TPF to be both an insurance provider and comparison site operator in the longer-term? With the credit card business, there is the tension on interchange between TPF as an issuer and parent Tesco as a card acceptor. While interchange is an important revenue stream for TPF, its retail parent is a strong opponent of the way in which rates are set and supporter of regulatory intervention by the OFT and European Commission.
Of the other retail banking segments that TPF might consider entering, the two largest are clearly mortgages and current accounts. Indeed, it is difficult to see how TPF could be developed into a full service retail bank without offering at least one of the two. With the former, TPF has made a virtue of its absence from mortgages and therefore lack of exposure to some of the difficulties currently being experienced by may banks. This hardly suggests a keenness to enter the market. And, from a new entrant’s perspective, prospects for the U.K. mortgage market are probably as bad as they have been for a decade. With the latter, Tesco intriguingly says its plans for the future development of TPF include the possibility of a current
account product. However, the characteristics of the U.K. current account market – notional "free banking" and, in the words of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), much of banks’ revenue "derived opaquely" – make it difficult for new entrants to develop a viable product. Consumers would no doubt welcome a TPF current account with a decent credit interest rate and lower unauthorized overdraft charges. But then where do TPF’s current account revenues come from?
TPF may be anticipating that the OFT’s current investigation of unarranged overdraft charges and actions following its recent study of current accounts will change the market’s economics. For example, were the OFT to limit unarranged overdraft charges in the way they have limited overlimit and late payment fees on credit cards, this may force significant changes in banks’ pricing of current accounts. And this in turn may allow TPF to introduce a product that is both competitive and financially viable. But the full implications of the OFT’s investigation remain far from clear.
No longer under any pressure or obligation to do things the traditional bank way, TPF may bring some fresh ideas to the design and delivery of financial services. TPF has already shown an innovative approach with its travel insurance. Clubcard holders can pick up a pack in-store and take it to the checkout with the rest of their shopping. As soon as the insurance pack is scanned along with the Clubcard, the customer is insured. But even here, TPF’s capacity to innovate may in practice be limited. There are very few financial services that can be sold in this way, and regulatory and data protection constraints often push in the opposite direction. And the hard truth is that bringing greater transparency to financial services can mean losing the opaquely derived revenue on which profitability may depend.
Given its size and track record, few would want to bet against Tesco. And its move is a welcome boost for the beleaguered financial services sector. But expanding its presence in U.K. retail banking at this point in the cycle is an ambitious move indeed.
Like their counterparts in the middle class, wealthy Americans are taking a fresh look at their investments, reducing cash outlays and changing vacation plans, according to the survey respondents. And, many investors are using the current economic downturn to educate their children about the importance of having - and keeping - money during times of uncertainty, Council members say. As a result of this trend, respondents are using the downturn as an opportunity to reach out to clients and reassure them.
“We’ve had to do a lot more hand-holding lately,” said James A. Covell, Sr. Vice President and Financial Consultant at RBC Wealth Management. “I’m spending a lot more time talking to my clients about who we are, and what my team and I can do for them. We’re using this as an opportunity to demonstrate how we pay attention to our clients’ needs and focus on the client relationship.”
“Sometimes, when things are going smoothly, it is difficult to get people to re-visit their portfolios,” said Joseph W. Montgomery, Managing Director of Investments for Wachovia Securities. “It is a lot easier to do it when the pendulum swings over to the ‘fear’ side, which it definitely has. So during the last quarter, we used the current turmoil in the markets as an opportunity to re-evaluate investments, to remind clients why they are invested as they are.”
“The current markets have forced us to look at things more tactically,” said George Schietinger, Director, Credit Suisse Private Banking USA. “Cash is very important to many people right now – they want ‘sleep-at-night’ money. Many of my clients are looking for investments with principle protection.”
Council members agree that the economy has caused their wealthy clients to be more guarded about their situations and to cut back on spending as a result.
“Wealthy clients are definitely re-evaluating their positions,” said Patricia Bell, Senior Vice President of Investments for Merrill Lynch. “In New Jersey, I am seeing the numbers for the summer rental market, such as in Spring Lake and Sea Girt, down pretty dramatically. I also have a client who decided not to renew a jet lease agreement because he felt it was a waste of money. People are just being more cautious.”
As a result, some wealthy families are engaging in discussions about discretionary spending and preserving wealth.
“We are seeing a number of high net worth clients using this market to teach lessons in their family, to teach their kids to be more responsible and to take note of how things can change and how family wealth may not be permanent,” said Robert Burke, Managing Director, Professional Development at Nuveen Investments.
Council members also noted that investors around the country are watching the value of their real estate holdings diminish, with the exception of New York City, where European investments are bolstering the market.
Mozilla reported strong interest in the latest version of its Firefox browser, scoring more than 8.3 million downloads in its first 24 hours
A Netsonda desenvolveu e apresentou o NetShuttle, um estudo omnibus online, semanal e multicliente, onde as empresas podem escolher as perguntas que pretendem fazer, com a possibilidade de incluir ainda som, vídeo e imagens.
Este estudo é dirigido especialmente a agências de meios, comunicação e publicidade. O NetShuttle é feito sobre uma amostra de 400 indivíduos registados no Painel Netsonda na Internet e tem cobertura nacional. A amostragem aleatória simples é feita através do mesmo painel. A recolha é feita às quartas-feiras, de forma a entregar os resultados na segunda-feira seguinte, o que garante a actualidade dos dados, segundo informa o comunicado da Netsonda. Os preços rondam os 100 euros por pergunta, valor que pode variar. “O NetShuttle foi desenvolvido exactamente para clientes que necessitam de aferir com rapidez e fiabilidade alguma informação específica ou até testar alguns conceitos de forma a terem pistas junto de um segmento de consumidores de valor acrescentado”, informa a direcção da Netsonda em comunicado.
