Adieu, Minitel

On June 30th, its 30th birthday, France Télécom is hanging up on the Minitel videotexting system, whose monitors have been a fixture in French homes, offices, and post offices since 1982. The “France-Wide  Web” text-over-phoneline system replaced phone directories, displayed online news and information, and allowed electronic bill payments and other transactions (even virtual sex). Cellphone MSM texting and e-commerce on the Web now serve many of the same functions. Still, there is some mélancolie as the French say “Adieu Minitel, ami fidèle.”

A Juicy Helping of Lab-Grown Meat

Reporter William Little visited a laboratory that’s manufacturing meat, and wrote about it in the Financial Times:

“You wouldn’t normally expect to find a thick red steak quietly pulsating in an oversized Petri dish inside a laboratory. But such is the hype around the team scheduled to produce the world’s first lab-grown cut of meat this October that I can’t help but imagine it. The research being done by bioengineer Dr Mark Post at Maastricht University in the Netherlands has provoked global headlines about “test tube meat” and fierce ethical and scientific debate. Getting access to his laboratory is about as exciting as it gets in the world of food engineering.

But when I arrive, the home of in vitro meat is quiet – no research assistants racing to turn out joints of beef, chicken or lamb. Instead, Post slowly opens the door to what looks like a large fridge, or a bioreactor. Within lie row upon row of tiny Petri dishes in which float minute fibres of almost transparent meat. I find it rather deflating but Post is excited. ‘I’ll need about 3,000 pellets of meat to make a hamburger,’ he says.”

It’s a meaty article. Read it here:

“How do you like your meat?” William Little, Financial Times Magazine

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Rip Up the MBA and Start Over

Business consultant Jeanette Purcell was CEO of the Association of MBAs from 2003-2010. Here’s what she has to say about the state of graduate business education:

“What is needed is a review of the MBA and a more innovative approach to its design and delivery. A good start would be to rip up the existing model and start again, focusing on the MBA’s primary objective – to develop effective business people.”

— “Rip up the existing MBA and start afresh,” Jeanette Purcell, Financial Times

If you need further convincing you need only recall that the only U.S. President with an MBA was George W. Bush, the guy who crashed the world economy.

Related:

“Is an MBA Worth It”? Infographic

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Short Link:  http://wp.me/p6sb6-d1p

Image (“Another Business School Turkey”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Adieu Minitel

France Télécom is hanging up on the Minitel videotexting system, whose monitors have been a fixture in French homes, offices, and post offices since 1982. It’s a text-over-phoneline system that also replaced phone directories, displayed online news and information, and allowed electronic bill payments and other transactions (even virtual sex). Cellphone MSM texting and e-commerce on the Web now serve many of the same functions. Still, there is some mélancolie as the French say “Adieu Minitel, ami fidèle.” FT will keep Minitel service running until its 30th birthday, June 30, 2012.