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Canwest News Service
Sun Microsystems CEO tweets farewell with haiku
NEW YORK – Any of us who leave a job at a time not of our own choosing have likely been able to come up with a word or two on the subject; something with a satisfying mouth-feel, as they say in the world of food, that we'd like to pass on to our former employers – whether we do or not.
Sun Microsystems Inc. chief executive Jonathan Schwartz – who observers say was not offered a job after Oracle Corp. completed its $7.4-billion US takeover of the company – put a bit of a poetic spin on his farewell address this week.
And not any old poetry, not a staid sonnet, or loosely ribald limerick. No sir. Schwartz chose the austerity of the Japanese haiku to bid his adieu.
Schwartz posted the poem on his Twitter account OpenJonathan. "Today's my last day at Sun. I'll miss it," Schwartz wrote. "Seems only fitting to end on a haiku. Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no more."
Maybe, but his departure isn't completely grim: Schwartz was to receive $12 million as part of his severance package.
Source: Bloomberg
New York steak house offers to accept shares for meals
NEW YORK – The war against bankers' bonuses has caused some unintended collateral damage: "massive amounts of steak and lobster" are being left uneaten, according to a steak house chain that is offering a solution to the cash crunch.
Smith & Wollensky took out a full-page ad in The New York Times addressed to bankers trying to cope with the shock of receiving their multimillion dollar bonuses in shares rather than cash, offering to trade steaks for diners' stock certificates.
"We haven't the slightest clue if people will show up with stock certificates, but we are ready if they do," Smith & Wollensky founder Alan Stillman said.
In the tongue-in-cheek ad, the chain expressed concerns about the trickle- down effects of bankers receiving shares rather than cash. Among those purportedly affected are personal shoppers and pet psychiatrists.
The promotion applies only to Smith & Wollensky's restaurant on Third Avenue, which draws patrons such as billionaire Warren Buffett. He will be hosting a lunch there on Feb. 20 for which a Canadian wealth management firm agreed to pay $1.7 million US to charity in an auction last year.
Source: Reuters
Wonder why you paid that much? Read on
NEW YORK – Boy, psychology is a tricky business.
Ever wonder why you felt comfortable paying $50 for a steak dinner when you know the ingredients cost maybe one-fifth of that?
It's called anchoring and adjustment. You likely saw another steak dinner on the menu for, say, $150, making the $50 offering sound reasonable in comparison.
Some prices are decoys, designed to make everything around them look more affordable, writes William Poundstone in Priceless, an entertaining look at how companies, restaurants and even artists exploit psychology to extract more cash from the rest of us.
At Ralph Lauren, for example, a $16,995 bag makes a $98 T-shirt look cheap.
Resistance is apparently futile – anchoring appears to be built into our cerebral software, Poundstone writes. In experiment after experiment, humans try to resist anchors and fail.
People tend to be clueless about prices, Poundstone says. Contrary to economic theory, we don't really decide between A and B by consulting our invisible price tags and purchasing the one that yields the higher utility, he says. We make do with guesstimates and a vague recollection of what things are "supposed to cost."
Source: Bloomberg
Olympic champs wear recycled junk
TORONTO – Olympic athletes train hard, they excel, they reach the top of their sport and, if they reach the top of the podium this month in Vancouver, they're going to be rewarded with pieces of junk.
But that doesn't mean we don't think they're great.
No, we're giving them the good stuff, "urban ore" according to Teck Resources Ltd. – metal salvaged from televisions, circuit boards, monitors and electronic waste. Teck is providing the gold, silver and copper used to make the undulating, laser-etched prizes medals that will be presented at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
All the medals will have some e-waste materials from Teck's electronic recycling program in Trail, B.C., about 420 kilometres east of Vancouver. Teck mixed gold, silver and copper from the program with metals mined from the ground. The company said it couldn't provide the exact percentage of mined versus recycled material in the finished medals.
The Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa paid about $1.24 million for the metal. Each of the 1,014 medals to be awarded is unique and based on designs by local artists, according to the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
Source: Bloomberg
Compiled by Kim Covert
