Australian MasterChef was rigged - says by the fans

MasterChef Australia Judge Matt Preston denied the competition was a popularity contest, as figures today confirmed it was the most-watched Aussie TV show ever

Julie Goodwin, 38, beat Adelaide's Poh Ling Yeow in a three-round challenge in front of their former top 20 MasterChef Australia opponents and judges Gary Mehigan, Matt Preston and George Calombaris last night.

Celebrity chef Curtis Stone also attended the final which included the finalists identifying ingredients in a beef bourguignon dish, cooking an entire chicken and perfecting Matt Moran's signature dish, a chocolate tart with chocolate half pipe and macaroons accompanied by a chocolate sorbet.

After the win, furious fans took to the internet to label MasterChef a fraud, saying popularity rather than cooking won Julie the title.

But Preston told News Limited the reasons Julie won were obvious.

"Julie identified one more ingredient in the taste test, she plated up a better dish in the invention test and in the final challenge she made a sorbet that wasn't grainy," Preston said. "They are things you can't fix."

In the chicken challenge Preston gave Julie the edge by rating her dish one point higher than Poh's. He said he made the decision based on the quality of the food.

"The other three judges scored them the same. I gave Julie an extra point because it was a better looking dish and if I was going to pay money for those dishes I would be more willing to pay more for Julie's dish."

"It's as simple as that. She put more value on the plate, there was more technique and more detail."

Preston said Poh's failure to follow the recipe in the final chocolate challenge had cost her dearly.

"Poh didn't temper the chocolate. It didn't crack as it should do. It wasn't shiny. Her sorbet was grainy," Preston said. "I think the result was clear. Everyone where I was watching knew it was Julie." "It's not a popularity contest if it was Justine would have won."

Hongkong school offers free notebooks to attract student enrolments

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(星島日報報道) 為期兩天的升中註冊昨日展開，面對經濟不景，有屯門區中學向中一新生提供多項福利，包括免費課本、午膳、交通津貼及輕便型手提電腦（Netbook）等，估計每名中一新生可獲高達一萬元津貼.

屯門區深培中學日前在學校網頁張貼了一張中一「叩門」宣傳單張，聲稱「為減輕中一學生家長的經濟負擔」，新學年推出多項「中一新生福利措施」，包括免費贈送全套中一課本、全年留校午膳、一套夏季校服及一部輕便型手提電腦。校方更提供三年共六百元的初中課外圖書津貼，區外學生則有全年二千元的交通津貼，而家住天水圍的學生不僅享有全年免費單程校巴服務，更額外有一千元交通津貼，該校並已開辦食物銀行，為有需要的低收入學生家庭提供即時食物援物。

　　有網民則在網上討論區上譏諷該校做法是「六千蚊換學生一世前途」，立法會議員張文光亦認為該校今次做法難免引起非議，「學校為求生存，只能選擇這樣難堪的做法，正是殺校政策造成的惡性競爭。」

A secondary school offers freebies to attract students to enroll for next September..
- a notebook
- free meals
- free school books
- free school uniform
- $600 book subsidies
- $2000 per year transport subsidies (outside zone)
- free school bus transport (in zone)
- $1000 per year transport subsidies (in zone students)

It reflected the crisis of school closures in Hongkong where government will shut down schools that have insufficient enrollments next year...

$90 Million OZ Lotto - the BIGGEST ever in Australia

There were no first division winners in Oz Lotto's last Tuesday night $59 million draw. As a result, the prize pool is a mega $90 million for the draw tomorrow at 30 June.

Sol Trujillo claims Australia a racist country

The former CEO of Telstra, Sol Trujillo, says doing business in Australia is like taking a "step back in time", there are racist views here and the nation must change. He claims many Australians have approached him to apologise for the Prime Minister over his use of the word "adios" when responding to the news that Mr Trujillo was leaving Telstra.

Mr Trujillo says there are racist views abroad in Australia and trying to do business here is like taking a "step back in time".

SABRA LANE: In San Diego, the BBC's Steve Evans asked Mr Trujillo for his reaction to that.

SOL TRUJILLO: Many Australians have come up to me and they've apologised, because they're embarrassed by that kind of behaviour.

STEVE EVANS: Because I noticed reading the papers there, that when you were referred to they would always point out that you were, had a Hispanic background, or whatever.

In other words in Britain and in America it would have been neither here nor there; in Australia it was invariably pointed out.

And the Prime Minister, when asked what his parting words to you would be, said "Adios".

Was that racism?

SOL TRUJILLO: I think by definition - there were even columnists who wrote stories that said it was.

But you know, my point is that that does exist and it's got to change because the world is full of a lot of people and most economies have to take advantage - including Australia - of a diverse set of people.

And if there is a belief that only a certain people are acceptable versus others, that is a sad state.

SOL TRUJILLO: Well, I would say that Australia definitely is different than the US.

You know, in many ways it's like stepping back in time, just simply because of some of the policies, some of the laws that, you know, are more recent.

So if you think about, you know, the immigration policies that weren't changed until about 30 years ago or so, which were very...

STEVE EVANS: The White Australia policy?

SOL TRUJILLO: ...Which were very restrictive. If you think about privatisation of companies - you know that's only that's 10 or 15 years old, you know, in terms of what most people would call a developed economy.

And essentially you know, the isolation of the country, by virtue of distance, you know there's a lot of considerations there that say it's a much different operating climate, environment than most other countries.

STEVE EVANS: Do you think there's racism there?

SOL TRUJILLO: Well I think it was evidenced in a lot of ways there, you know, with me personally, but more importantly with others as you look at some of the events that have occurred over last five or 10 years, some of them before I was there, some while I was there.

But, I'm sure that that will continue because of you know, what I would call the evolution, and the maturation of a country.

Australian mum was jailed for stealing a bar mat in Phuket

An Australian tourist, Annice Smoel, could face up to five years in jail for allegedly stealing a beer bar mat from a Australian themed pub in the resort region of Phuket in Thailand.

36-year-old Annice Smoel from Melbourne, Australia spent four days in a 4 by 4 cell with three other women says she was left "scared, helpless and alone" after being arrested for taking a bar mat. Annice Smoel claims she had nothing to do with the alleged incident.

An Australian mad bar mat, often stolen from pubs across Phuket by drunk Australian "larakyns".

Retrenchment at Oracle 2009

According to rumours from various sources, Oracle is going through a retrenchment exercise. Several people are rumoured to have been retrenched from the USA and India Office. Retrenched personnel is rumoured to account to as much as 10%, i.e. 8000 employees. Rumoured departments affected are: CRM Sales, Sales Business Operations, Channels group, IB group, PeopleSoft and much more.

Oracle has an office in Singapore, we do not know yet whether the Singapore office went throught the exercise also. If you have any information, please send to us: admin@breaking.sg

Click below link for more details.

http://retrenchment-blog.breaking.sg/2009/01/rumour-oracle-going-through-retrenchment-exercise/

Meet the Chinese Celine Dion

霸王卸甲 INCREDIBLE!

Story background is same as "Ambush from all sides"

十面埋伏 The Ambush from All sides

"The Ambush from all sides"(十面埋伏), performed by Liu Fang （劉芳）during a solo recital in the Pierre-Mercurre Hall of the Centre Pierre-Peladeau, on March 27, 2002, in Montreal.

A $7,000,000 watch!

On 6 Mar 2009 a special Patek Philippe was auctioned in Hong Kong to raise funds for the " TWGHs 2008Charitable Food Relief Fund " for providing food assistance service .

The auction was hosted by Sotheby's for the Tung Wah Charity Night presented by Patek Philippe.

Reserve Price: HK$1,000,000 (about US$125,000).

Hammer Price: HK$7,000,000 (or US$875,000).

13 year-old Itzhak Perlman

PCCW's Privatization

Richard Li's privatization plan for PCCW will be delayed.

Earlier, High Court Judge Susan Kwan approved the USD 2 billion privatization of PCCW by its majority shareholders Richard Li and China Unicom.

Kwan's judgement and reasoning:

- no substantial evidence that the privatization vote had been rigged and the SFC's argument was only suspicious.

- splitting of shares is not a prohibited activity in HK. In common law, a shareholder is entitled to transfer some of his shares to nominees to increase his voting power at a meeting.

- independent shareholders who acquired their shares at different times might well be motivated to vote in different ways. That is a fact of life.

- conversations and SMS messages exchanged between former PCCW vice chairman Francis Yuen 袁天凡 and Fortis Insurance regional director Inneo Lam 林孝華 did not have "anything to do with what Lam did to split shares.

- there is merely suspicion, wholly unsubstantiated by evidence.

Despite the High Court approval , the privatization was put on hold for another 10 days as the Securities and Futures Commission was granted the right to appeal.

Appeal grounds:

- the case whereby the agents for PCCW were accused of manipulating voting on the privatization plan by splitting shares and distributing them to employees in exchange for votes, was "sufficiently serious" for an appeal - said Court of Appeal Justice Anthony Rogers.

SFC chief executive Martin Wheatley said the regulator would need a full clarification on vote splitting which in his view is illegal.

American vs Chinese business customs

A Chinese cop with NY accent

明天會更好 Tomorrow is Better

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台灣歌手大合唱民國七十四年，「明天會更好」發起人李壽全由張艾嘉和創作人羅大佑等人發起的反盜版運動，結合了當時海內外六十餘位知名歌手，寫下了唱片界的空前紀錄，更在社會造成極大的迴響 .此時再看到這首MV除了懷念舊時兒時的好時光,更令人感慨現世的混亂,我們的明天真的有更好了嗎?

（蔡　琴）輕輕敲醒沉睡的心靈
　　　　　慢慢張開你的眼睛
（余　天）看那忙碌的世界是否依然
　　　　　孤獨地轉個不停
（蘇　芮）春風不解風情　吹動少年的心
（潘越雲）讓昨日臉上的淚痕　
　　　　　隨記憶風乾了

（甄　妮）抬頭尋找天空的翅膀
　　　　　候鳥出現牠的影跡
（李建復）帶來遠處的飢荒無情的戰火
　　　　　依然存在的消息
（林慧萍）玉山白雪飄零　燃燒少年的心
（王芷蕾）使真情溶化成音符
　　　　　傾訴遙遠的祝福

（黃鶯鶯）唱出你的熱情　伸出你雙手
　　　　　讓我擁抱著你的夢
　　　　　讓我擁有你真心的面孔
（洪榮宏）讓我們的笑容
　　　　　充滿著青春的驕傲
　　　　　為明天獻出虔誠的祈禱

（陳淑樺）誰能不顧自己的家園
　　　　　拋開記憶中的童年
（金智娟）誰能忍心看那昨日的憂愁
　　　　　帶走我們的笑容
（王夢麟）青春不解紅塵　胭脂沾染了灰
（李佩菁）讓久違不見的淚水
　　　　　滋潤了你的面容
（費玉清）唱出你的熱情　伸出你雙手
　　　　　讓我擁抱著你的夢
　　　　　讓我擁有你真心的面孔
　　　　　讓我們的笑容
　　　　　充滿著青春的驕傲
　　　　　為明天獻出虔誠的祈禱

（齊　豫）輕輕敲醒沉睡的心靈
　　　　　慢慢張開你的眼睛
（鄭　怡）看那忙碌的世界是否依然
　　　　　孤獨地轉個不停
（江　蕙）日出喚醒清晨　大地光彩重生
（楊　林）讓和風拂出的音響
　　　　　譜成生命的樂章

（合　唱）唱出你的熱情　伸出你雙手
　　　　　讓我擁抱著你的夢
　　　　　讓我擁有你真心的面孔
　　　　　讓我們的笑容
　　　　　充滿著青春的驕傲
　　　　　讓我們期待明天會更好

（蘇　芮）唱出你的熱情　伸出你雙手
　　　　　讓我擁抱著你的夢
　　　　　讓我擁有你真心的面孔
　　　　　讓我們的笑容
　　　　　充滿著青春的驕傲
　　　　　讓我們期待
　　　　　明天會更好（齊秦和聲）

（余　天）唱出你的熱情　伸出你雙手
　　　　　讓我擁抱著你的夢
　　　　　讓我擁有你真心的面孔
　　　　　讓我們的笑容
　　　　　充滿著青春的驕傲
　　　　　讓我們期待
　　　　　明天會更好（蘇芮和聲）

（合　唱）唱出你的熱情　伸出你雙手
　　　　　讓我擁抱著你的夢
　　　　　讓我擁有你真心的面孔
　　　　　讓我們的笑容
　　　　　充滿著青春的驕傲
　　　　　讓我們期待明天會更好

Art of War discussions #1

Sun Tzu says,
All warfare is based on deception.
when able to attack, we must seem unable;
when using our forces, we must seem inactive;
when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away;
when we are far, we must make them believe we are near.


How useful are Sun Tzu's words in our world today? Will it work?

Let’s spend a few moments to think about this. Is this strategy applicable to other extensions of warfare such as a race, a contest, a competition, a combat or a match?

In a 100 meter race, can you win the race by playing tricks to others? Have you ever seen athletes run like wild boars at the sound of the gun? Everyone is so focused on the finishing line and does not pay attention to anyone else. How are you going to deceive others if they are not really interested in how you behave? You’ll just be wasting your chances trying to make deception work.

Like everything else, there are always conditions or constraints where a theory or proposition might not be applicable...loop holes.

Two deductions.

Sun Tzu's deception theory won't work in an intense and combative competition. Why? Because there is no time for any kinds of mind games. Either you have what it takes to win or you haven't. The one and only one way to win the competition is to focus, focus and focus….

By the same token, one way not to let anybody's tricks affect you is, again, to focus on what you are doing. If you are not 100 percent focused, your brains are susceptible to false signals and that would affect your concentration.

Bottom line is: Focus is a key strategy to win.

Bush is funny...

Hair splitting

DHL - we deliver...

Cool

My LinkedIn Answers #7

Seeking to develop a list of the important questions each party discusses with the another during the beginning the due diligence process.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Firstly, we need to give a definition to due diligence to get everyone on the same page. Let's put it this way. Due diligence is the process by which both parties use to confirm or disconfirm the business reasons for the proposed capital transaction.

Some of the key questions we need to bring to the fore are:-
- strategic fit of the two entities.
- net effect on the combined shareholder value.
- overall effect on fulfilling the customer needs.
- cultural fit.
- litigation risks.
- risk orientation.
- environmental issues.
- employee support.
- management orientation.
- IT systems compatibility.
- business processes compatibility.
- compatibility of internal business processes and operations.
- complementary strengths of products or services.
- anti-competitive behavior.
- tax implications of the combined entity.
- legal framework.
- revenue recognition policies

Equally important are the financial considerations:-
- cash receipts
- accounts receivable
- accounts payable
- liability and debts
- customer billing
- inventory ordering, controls and management, vendor and customer contracts

My LinkedIn Answers #6

Is sales more "mental" or "physical"?

Let me define my interpretations of 'mental' and 'physical' in this context first of all.

'physical' activities are those that are predominantly 'client-facing', a term normally used in management consulting, such as greeting the customers, making the presentations, articulating the sales process in front of the customer, how you answer the questions, how you dress, how you behave and how you act..

'mental' activities are 'behind the front line' activities, strategies, tactics, and the thinking part. It is not visible to the customers.

I reckon both are important in any sales situations. One can't really tell which one is important during the sales cycle or even afterward. As a result, it's best to put equal weights on both all the time (in the mindset) but making adjustments as you go down the process and discover more about your customer.

My LinkedIn Answers #5

How do you personally contribute to creating a winning culture within your organization?

Involvement! Involvement! Involvement!

You can either talk about all the winning elements - such as dedication, commitment, leadership, empowerment - and then sit back and expect something miraculously will happen that all of these great values are somehow espoused by your employees.

Of course, it won't work.

The one and only one option is for you to be actually seen as a part of this winning culture. Your contribution will be your 'personal involvement' in it. It's similar to leading by exemplary behavior but, here, the focus is about leading by example and endorsing the 'right and correct' behaviors of a winning culture in your firm.

My LinkedIn Answers #4

What is the most effective way to answer the phone?

Your phone rings. The call is unexpected. It is an inbound sales call. How do you answer the call to take control of the call and funnel the caller through your sales process rather than have to go through the callers process?
Clarification added 1 month ago:

By inbound sales call I mean the folks are prospects calling you to find out more about your products and services. Typically, they call in, express interest, collect information, and then you have to spend time chasing them down to find out if they want to do business with you. I am curious what techniques you use to get them out of that process and into your process - qualifying etc.

Interesting to find that people hang up on callers rather than grade their efforts though.

This is a common problem in a telesales organization.

How can we tell whether the caller has a genuine interest to do business with us? How can we not waste our time on these calls? Worst of all, how can we be sure it's not a 'mystery shopping' call where its sole purpose is to gather market intelligence from us?

An experienced tele-sales professional should have a proactive buy/sell process and exercise self-restraint not chasing down a blind alley when it becomes clear that the prospect is not qualified.

In fact, you've hinted in your question a way to deal with these calls. The problem that the sales person needs to face is qualifying the prospect as effective and timely as possible. He/she should:
- discover the real needs and motivation of the prospect;
- decide whether there's a mutual fit (not trying to convincing the prospecting to buy something from you);
- discuss with the prospect why it should make a decision to change (buyers are not really buying something, they're changing something to satisfy their needs).

In the end, you'll be able to qualify the prospect.

The goal of qualification is to find out whether there's better than 50 percent chance of closing the sale.

My LinkedIn Answers #3

What do you do when a prospect wants to "see more", and more, and more?

Once in a while we run into prospects that get into the "see more" mode. What do you do when a prospect wants to see more, and more, and more? How do you get them over the hump and into the "buying" mode?

We need to put on an Inspector Rex hat and find out why...

... this could be a rejection sign and they could have selected a preferred vendor. We should step back and find out why we are rated behind this vendor, and take it from there.

... they have no idea how to solve their problems and they don't know what they should be asking for. Instead they keep on asking for more information to satisfy their ignorance. A few possibilities here. Our sales is incompetent to find out what the problem is. Our sales see the problem but cannot convince the prospect. Either case, we need to show the prospect what their real problem is and how we can solve that problem.

... they understand their problem but they have no confidence in our products so they want to see more. We should propose a trial of our product to cast out the doubts of the customer.

Above all, we shouldn't let it drift into the blind (in this case the customer) leading the blind (us) situation. We need to be creative and inquisitive to find out the reason behind it.

My LinkedIn Answers #2

Team Trust Drivers: What do you feel are the most important behaviours that contribute to building trust within teams?

Do these factors change if the teams are

(a) cross-cultural and cross-functional
(b) co-located or geographically dispersed
(c) drawn from different companies in a collaborative / joint venture situation

There could be more than a dozen behaviours that affect the 'trust' factor in a team. One's psychology, which is a more encompassing term than behaviours, often change when one interacts with other person(s).

I'd rather look at the other end of the funnel - what the team is set out to achieve and then working backwards to find out the appropriate behaviours that will help us getting there.

In a business setting and from the 'trust' perspective, I'd suggest the following behaviours are important.

Respect, honesty, perceptive, experience, high spirits, helpful, subject matter knowledge, understanding, commitment... the list can go on and I'm not kidding they're all important psychology factors because each one's definition of 'trust' is personal and unique.

Can we just name a few and call them critical? I suppose one knows the answer.

The different environments, as you listed them out, are of course important considerations. As one's psychology is affected by one's perception of one's external environments, it's really hard to prescribe 'trust factors' without any background information of the team.

The approach I'd take would be to invest time with the team, getting to know the members, understanding the psychology, find out if there are any special concerns, and then establishing the 'trust' factors for this team.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Hamish,

Thanks for your note. Your question is very interesting which thrilled me when I answered your questions.

I like you pointing out 'common ground' as one of the key element. Having worked in consulting for some years, I felt that there's little time for us to flush out these critical elements (as we're on billable time) and we're often pressed to drill down to the tangible metrics such as goals, objectives, plans, schedule...

In Asia and esp Greater China, we've two devils called time and speed. We're succumbed to them.

It'd be a success if we could discover 'common ground', and if you wouldn't mind me rephrasing it to 'common interests', at the early stage of an assignment.

I remember this in a training course. We're debating whether we should focus on earning 'trust' or earning 'respect'. The argument is that it's hard to build trust in limited time but it should be easier to garner respect... .. if one respects another, one would take the other person seriously and be prepared to work with that person... the question then becomes how to build 'respect'?


Best Regards
Michael


-----------------------------------------------------------------

On 11/24/08 5:46 PM, Hamish Taylor wrote:
--------------------
Hi Michael

Firstly many thanks for sharing your thoughts and indeed the thought provokers.

I think we are very much on the same page in terms of approach and also making sure that teams get focused on the end goal and then work out how to get there; trust as you rightly say is context based and the factors that are critical for one person, may be trivial for another and vice versa.

The key to success is finding the common ground, establishing the solid shared values and then encouraging the "right behaviours" to prevail whilst creating the environment in which the occasional "wrong behaviour" can be dealt with and overcome.

Thanks again for sharing your views, they're much appreciated.

Kind regards

Hamish.

-------------------------------------------------------------

On 11/24/08 3:05 PM, Michael Ling wrote:
--------------------
There could be more than a dozen behaviours that affect the 'trust' factor in a team. One's psychology, which is a more encompassing term than behaviours, often change when one interacts with other person(s).

I'd rather look at the other end of the funnel - what the team is set out to achieve and then working backwards to find out the appropriate behaviours that will help us getting there.

In a business setting and from the 'trust' perspective, I'd suggest the following behaviours are important.

Respect, honesty, perceptive, experience, high spirits, helpful, subject matter knowledge, understanding, commitment... the list can go on and I'm not kidding they're all important psychology factors because each one's definition of 'trust' is personal and unique.

Can we just name a few and call them critical? I suppose one knows the answer.

The different environments, as you listed them out, are of course important considerations. As one's psychology is affected by one's perception of one's external environments, it's really hard to prescribe 'trust factors' without any background information of the team.

The approach I'd take would be to invest time with the team, getting to know the members, understanding the psychology, find out if there are any special concerns, and then establishing the 'trust' factors for this team.

My LinkedIn Answers #1

What are the top 2 actions you/your company are taking during the next 90 days to win new/keep existing clients?

As leaders, our actions set the course for our future path. Given the current economic headwinds, what are the most important actions that you and your leadership team are responding with to address these challenges, specifically as it relates to winning new clients and retaining current ones?

The overall strategy would be to ensure your sales and customer-facing teams are evangelizing the core values of your organization to your clients.

Economic downturns are macroeconomic and uncontrollable. Building good relationships with clients and demonstrating one's value to them is controllable and achievable.

If we could continue to demonstrate to our clients (1) our values and (2) our commitment to them and earning their trust, I reckon this can help us ride the storm of the current, or any, economic headwinds.

アラン (Alan) - 涙そうそう (Nada Sou Sou) (Apple Store Mini-Live)

Eric Schmidt on Web 3.0??

Here you go... social networking has taken on the front row in web collaboration.

Oracle's Larry Ellison commented on Microsoft Windows

Do you feel like working for Google?

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates video

Steve is the legend!

A woman missed her flight and.....

"The middle-aged woman was seen charging at a security guard at the departure gate, before screaming "aieyyahhhhh," at the top of her lungs in a rant that lasts about three minutes.

An elderly man travelling with her tried to pull the wailing woman to her feet but she shouted in Cantonese: "I want to go, I want to go."

Cathay Pacific said it had already closed the aircraft's doors and had offloaded the woman's baggage, and so was unable to allow her to board the flight to San Francisco.

"Don't be so upset, don't be so emotional," a male Cathay Pacific staff member is heard saying on the video.

Cathay Pacific said the incident occurred earlier this month, and the video appeared to have been loaded onto YouTube late last week. By Monday, the "woman going insane after missing her flight video" had over 400,000 hits."

I guess the video is getting popular as there are over 1.5 million hits now.

During the less than 3-minute drama, I am surprised not a single airline staff provide any help to this poor lady, who was so hysterical to the point of breaking down - not a word of consolation or friendly embrace gesture... Not a word!

If you are the CEO of this airline, what do you think about your customer service? Where is your dedication to your customers? Can we trust you?

Bloggers in Sydney

Here you'll see a bunch of jubilant bloggers performing their daily rituals before their work day commences.