Zoo Station

(Via Zem)
Q. What do you get when you cross Lee Iacocca with Dracula?

A. Autoexec.bat

If you didn't already know that science is beautiful, in a very concrete visual sense, have a look at the online gallery for Princeton University's 2006 Art of Science competition. Better yet, if you are in or near New Jersey, this is a great reason to visit Princeton to see the real thing.

The International Private Enterprise Group (IPEG) will be hosting Bowman Cutter, the Managing Director of Warburg Pincus on June 1st, Thursday at Columbia Business School. As many of you know already, besides his role at Warburg Pincus, Bo is also the chair of Microvest and serves on the board of CARE. He also served in both the Clinton and Carter administrations. The full coordinates for the event are below:

Speaker: Bowman Cutter, Managing Director of Warburg Pincus.

Topic: The role of private capital, capital markets and the private sector in fostering economic development.

When: June 1st, Thursday, at 6:15 pm.

Venue: Venue: Warren Hall, Room 208 (second floor). Warren Hall is located on Amsterdam Avenue, between 115th and 116th Streets.

Mr Cutter has an event to go to at 7:30 pm, so we will start on time, so we have some amount of time factored in for discussions as well. Please make sure you are at the venue by 6:15 so we can start without delays. As anyone who has attended these events earlier know, they tend to be very informal and more in discussion mode than just a person speaking. We also tend to catch a few beers/dinner after the event, so please work that into your schedules as well, since that's where a lot of the great connections are made among IPEG members.

As always, feel free to bring along anyone you think might be interested in the subject matter or in interacting with IPEG members after the event. RSVPs will be appreciated, since we need to know how many people to expect.

PS: For those of you who are new to IPEG, you can find more information on who we are, what our members do etc at www.ipegroup.net

In India, every major religious community has to necessarily lose its marbles from time to time. The leaders of the Christian community are proving they are no exception to this rule by calling for a ban on the movie version of "The Da Vinci Code." What is it about FICTION that these people don't understand? Get a life, people. The DVC is just a story, just like the Bible is a collection of second-hand stories and parables. And if you don't like it, don't watch it.

Of course, instead of standing up to this sort of religious bullying and upholding the constitution which guarantees freedom of speech and expression, the Indian government has instead decided to screen the movie to the Catholic church to see if they approve of it before deciding on a general release. Since when did the church supplant the censor board in terms of what should or should not be screened? When did the church become the arbiter of what Vikram Public can or cannot watch? When will someone in the Indian government develop a pair of gonads to stand up for what is right instead of what is expedient, which in turn of course encourages more religious bullies to call for banning this and banning that.

Shame on you, so-called leaders of the Indian church. I was raised as a Christian in India and I feel utterly embarassed that these people are claiming to speak on behalf of all Indian Christians. No, they are not!

UPDATE: Seems like some sense has prevailed and the movie is being released without any cuts to please the religious bullies. Now, if only the same sense would prevail the next time the Shiv Sena or some random Muslim outfit calls for the ban of this movie or that. In the meanwhile, Rotten Tomatoes has the movie with a freshness rating of 21%, which is a much, much better reason to not watch the movie.

Creativity is not something that's generally associated with MBA types. Well, the students of the Columbia Business School utterly demolish this assumption in this video taking the piss (in a good humoured way) out of their dean, Glenn Hubbard. The backstory runs thusly: Dean Hubbard was formerly chair of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisors and was one of the leading candidates to replace Alan Greenspan at the Fed. So, the joke is that Dean Hubbard is still bitter at being passed over by Ben Bernanke. Ergo, this amazing take on his bitterness, with a little help from a Police track we all know and love. Go watch.

UPDATE: Ramesh just posted a link to another CBS video worth watching: a cover of Ice, Ice, Baby...

I have been making several posts in the last month on alternative fuels and energy. As crude oil prices shoot through the roof, this space becomes more and more attractive. Specifically, I have been following Vinod Khosla's interest in the space, including his investment in Praj. Khosla has clearly become the leading proponent of bio-fuels in the United States and his op-ed today in the New York Times, with ex-senator Tom Daschle, is yet another example of his advocacy for bio-fuels.

The CAFE standard does nothing to encourage that change. It requires American automakers to build cars and trucks that meet a minimum standard of average mileage traveled per gallon of gasoline. But the current standard for minimum mileage traveled per gallon of gas consumed is both too low and focused on the wrong challenge. We need to upgrade to a new CAFE: Carbon Alternative Fuel Equivalent. This new CAFE will measure "petroleum mileage" and give automakers incentives and credits for increasing ethanol consumption as a percentage of fuel use of their vehicles, not least by promoting flex-fuel vehicles, which can run on either gasoline or E85 fuel, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. This approach promises several significant benefits.

First, it could set America free from its dependence on foreign oil. As Brazil's "energy independence miracle" proves, an aggressive strategy of investing in petroleum substitutes like ethanol can end dependence on imported oil. Second, switching from gasoline to ethanol produced from perennial energy crops like switch grass can slash our carbon dioxide emissions. Third, it could build on a comparative advantage of American automakers. American auto manufacturers are churning out hundreds of thousands of flex-fuel vehicles. Their foreign competitors make far fewer. Promoting these vehicles will help our automakers build on their already strong market share. And fourth, by encouraging the production of ethanol and new renewable fuel technologies, this new CAFE standard could invigorate rural communities in America's heartland and innovation and research centers along its coasts.

That said, here are sobering statistics from CERA, courtesy of The Economist.



No, it doesn't look that good, does it? Well, as the fine print says, the cost of bio-diesel in there does not take into account tax credits and subsidies, which you can almost automatically assume when it comes to bio-fuels. And I suspect that the initial subsidy (land, water, power etc) will allow the business to scale to a point where the business becomes truly attractive. The question then is what OPEC will do, because if they can drop the prices to $30 a barrel, bio-fuels are a non-starter. However, I somehow suspect oil prices aren't going below $50 ever again because if OPEC could drop prices, they would have before the idea of bio-fuels got so much currency.

I was browsing the World Bank bookstore in Washington D.C. last week when I came across a little book called Venture Capital and Private Equity Funds for Development. Here's what the blurb says.

Entrepreneurs face a multitude of challenges when setting up and growing their business venture. This is even more so for entrepreneurs in emerging markets and developing countries. Access to finance is often the main challenge. The Venture Capital and Private Equity for Development Index gives access to the major funds financing business in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. This practical guide has an easy to use index with funds listed by key fund attributes such as regions, sectors and company size financed. It lists over 270 funds investing in developing countries. The Index is compiled by the Business in Development program of Dutch National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development (NCDO) in cooperation with the Adapppt Foundation in The Netherlands.

The index, in particular, looked like a useful tool for those of us interested in the role of private capital in economic development.

In addition, the folks who put this book out also have a very interesting website up called the Bid Network. The Bid Network is an online community which lets entrepreneurs submit business plans, which are then routed to investors and partners. I have no idea how efficient or successful the network is, but a web-based model could certainly remove a lot of the transaction costs. Have a look.

Via Martin, I found this most elegant version of Pythagoras' theorem. Definitely made my day.

Ed Felten reveals that Newsweek is getting into the business of comedy — for what else can you call its criteria for ranking the top American high schools?

Incidentally, many ZS readers, especially those interested in tech policy, would find Felten's blog consistently interesting. For those who haven't heard of Felten before, here a neat Wikipedia page.