In our presentation, Balancing Today and Tomorrow, we argue that white collar/service jobs are rapdily being replaced by machines. We point especially to the professions: starting with accountants, engineers and lawyers, but including architects, pilots and even doctors.
Now a report from New Scientist (2 April 2005) on software agents that will give PR advice (read full report here). These days it’s important to know what is being said about you. But finding out is becoming ever more difficult, with thousands of news outlets, websites and blogs to monitor. This new software, about to be released by a British company, Corpora, can automatically gauge the tone of any electronic document. It can tell with a report about you is positive or negative, or whether it is praising or damning you. This is a function that has often been managed by a PR department or firm, who reduced teams of people to read through everything written about an organisation, person, the event, product or issue. This is both expensive and slow. So it’s great news to hear that there is some software, using complex algorithms, that can do the same thing with about the same level of accuracy.
The program is called Sentiment, and should be available soon.
In 2001, patent attorney John Keogh, successfully filed a patent in Australia for a “circular transportation facilitation device”. It had a circular frame of strong lightweight composite material, reinforced with radial spokes and a hole in the centre to accommodate a shaft or axle. Sound familiar? Yes, it is a bicycle wheel. Yet, his patent (reminder: to qualify for a patent, an invention is supposed to be new, useful and non-obvious) was accepted and registered. 
I had a conversation last night with my Irish brother in law who lives in the USA. We were chatting about the fact that my daughter will be moving to Thailand after her marriage here in SA next month. My son will be moving to London in January. His question was: Do I feel like I am experiencing empty nest syndrome or as his Irish mother calls it , EMPTY COUNTRY SYNDROME.
The 
Have you seen the new Playstation adverts? You can see them on AdCritic or AdForum. Or you can watch them right off of the TBWA web site 
“30,000 children die each day of poverty. We can help to stop this.” This is the message of MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY which is a “massive, concerted effort to end world poverty in a year when extraordinary and radical progress is finally possible.” I’m sure you’ve seen the “Live Strong” yellow armbands which are being sold to combat cancer? Well now you can do your bit to eradicate poverty - by wearing a white “Make Poverty History” band and by putting political pressure on our leaders.
Pat Misterovich is a stay-at-home Dad who uses his basement as a development lab. More and more people are doing this type of thing - they don’t need to be zillionaires, nor rich or famous. They just want to be able to pay off their homes, go on holiday once a year, feed their families and educate their children. In other words, they don’t have huge “global domination” visions. But they don’t want to work for anyone either.
The AARP (American Association of Retired People) lists some of the best companies to work for, if you’re over 50 - companies who do an excellent job of attracting and retaining “bright old things”. In a world where we tend to discard experience (and wisdom), this isn’t a bad idea. Check out the full list 
A new book (released today, not yet available online) from industrial design expert Craig Vogel says companies must continually adapt their products if they are to compete. Read an interview with the author at 
Sadly things went progressively down hill when Air Malaysia annouced (2 hours past the specified boarding time, and well after everyone had checked in and cleared customs) that a part was missing and therefore the aircraft would not be flying. And no - they didn’t know when the new part would be arriving exactly. (Why they hadn’t spotted that a part was missing earlier is anyones guess.)
But, now, in South Africa, we have some real fun. ABSA, the biggest retail banker in the country, has a new (fairly pretentious) campaign, in which breathy individuals exclaim that ABSA is “my rock”, “my hope”, “my future”, “my open road”. Well, a new series of spoof ads doing the rounds takes pot shots at ABSA, with pay off lines like: ABSA is “my elbow”, “my erectile dysfunction”, “my gay brother”, “my ringworm”, and the pay off line is: “My bank is… stoopid”.
The New Scientist of 28 May 2005, lists 11 ways in which you can boost brain performance and/or slow the effects of ageing on your grey matter. See the 
How the music industry has changed over the last 20 years – it is truly incredible. But the ‘new kid on the block’ that, I along with many others believe, will transform the music industry for ever is 
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