Daily News Archive

Please note that The Daily News is publishing (hopefully) twice a week for the foreseeable future due to time constraints.

Monday, December 25th

Make a habit of two things: to help; or at least to do no harm.” -- Hippocrates

 

The Picks of the Day

A Near-Miss Nuclear Explosion

“In March 2005, a nuclear warhead almost exploded in Texas. The near miss accident occurred in Amarillo, when workers at the Pantex nuclear weapons plant bungled the dismantling of a W-56 warhead, a weapon 100 times stronger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20061218/cm_thenation/15149667

http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA%2FMGArticle%2FLNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149192208536&path=!news!archive

[Human error nearly at its worst and examples of how a company’s management didn’t create the correct culture and safe work environment.  “…technicians at the plant blamed the accident on severe working conditions, including mandatory 72 to 84 hour work weeks…”]

 

Insurers Plan To Give Patients Personal Health Records Is “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing”

“’The last place on Earth where patients want to keep their complete medical records is in the hands of their insurers. But that is exactly what AHIP and BCBSA are proposing,’ said Deborah Peel, MD, founder and chair of Patient Privacy Rights.”

http://www.patientprivacyrights.org/site/PageServer?pagename=1220WolfinSheepsClothing

[This is a very interesting article.]

 

Looking for Best Place to Take a Company Public, Some Look Overseas

“Ted Schlein, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, met in Shanghai last month with local investment bankers promoting an almost surreal concept: they want V.C.’s — the vanguard of capitalism — to take companies public on China’s stock exchanges.  Mr. Schlein and other venture capitalists are cautiously thinking about it. Frustrated by the difficulty and expense of taking start-ups public in the United States market, these seed investors are considering overseas exchanges as an alternative place to turn handsome profits by selling their interests in start-ups.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/22/business/worldbusiness/22venture.html?ei=5088&en=f6f7627ba1abf0ed&ex=1324443600&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1166790786-wzWpQQqXMBF3wlnUDz75ww

 

IT Process Improvement / Quality Management

Need for Australian Corporate Governance and Management of ICT Standards and Guidance

“Standards Australia Committee IT-030 ICT Governance and Management is currently undertaking a review of its Terms of Reference (TOR).”

http://www.ramin.com.au/itgovernance/IT-Governance-Discussion-Paper.html

 

Six Sigma Still Pays Off At Motorola

“At Motorola, designers are left to do their thing, but the process wonks will be close at hand, to make sure a cool project meets a measurable customer demand and gets built to quality standards. Unlike some companies newer to Six Sigma's esoteric methodology, Motorola has people who accept it as part of the culture. Veterans are used to so-called project hoppers offering input at various stages in product development.”

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_49/b4012069.htm?chan=search

 

Webinar: The Role of Security in IT Service Management
Scarcely a day goes by without some news story regarding a security breach.  In the world of ITSM, security plays a key role and must be properly factored into the design and delivery of services.
Click here to get the PPT
Click here to go to the archived webcast

 

Legal and Regulatory Compliance

PCAOB Proposes AS2 'Repeal'

“In a move characterized by Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox as the ‘PCAOB’s proposal to repeal the unduly expensive and inefficient auditing standard under Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley,’ the PCAOB hopes to encourage auditors to focus on what it considers the bare essentials of a controls audit--and to find material weaknesses before a problem arises.”

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/8465177?f=alerts

 

A Private Company GAAP for 2007?

“When the fallout from the Enron scandal first heightened the scrutiny on corporate accounting, few observers realized that private company CFOs were feeling the heat too. Indeed, private-company finance chiefs have publicly said that preparing financial statements to satisfy the needs of lenders and investors has become more costly and complex since the Enron debacle raised the price tag of preparing financial reports under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).”

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/8469710?f=alerts

 

Congress in '07: Privacy, patents on agenda

“Some technology vendors and advocacy groups see new opportunities in the U.S. Congress in 2007, with issues such as patent reform and data protection getting fresh life under a Democratic-controlled legislature.”

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/22/HNcongress07_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/22/HNcongress07_1.html

 

Security and Risk Management

How Risk-Shifting Affects Earnings

“Up until now, FASB zeroed in on insurers and had little to say about corporate buyers and their use of so-called ‘finite insurance.’ At a recent FASB meeting, however, the board voted to work on a plan to make it clear that corporate policyholders ‘must evaluate whether the insurance contracts they hold transfer significant insurance risk’ in order to qualify as insurance rather than as loans or financings.”

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/8467493?f=alerts

 

SGC Risk Management Page

This page collects a number of webinars, articles and a multivariate Excel model for tying risks to objectives that I have written.

http://www.spaffordconsulting.com/RiskManagement.html

 

U.S. to Require More Security at High-Risk Chemical Plants

“After years of debate, and criticism over the delay, the Bush administration will move Friday to require security enhancements at high-risk chemical plants nationwide so their hazardous stockpiles do not become a target for terrorists.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/22/washington/22chem.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

 

'Logic bomber' hauled before the beak

“A computer administrator, worried about his future in a big medical company, planted a logic bomb in the network in case he was made redundant, US prosecutors claim.”

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36537

 

DOD bars use of HTML e-mail, Outlook Web Access

“Due to an increased network threat condition, the Defense Department is blocking all HTML-based e-mail messages and has banned the use of Outlook Web Access e-mail applications, according to a spokesman for the Joint Task Force for Global Network Operations.”

http://www.fcw.com/article97178-12-22-06-Web

 

Healthcare / Bio-Informatics / Care Delivery Organizations (CDOs)

This will be a new section going forward.  It reflects my personal research and Pepperweed’s specialized services for supporting care delivery organizations in the attainment of their goals.

 

Study: practice structure, not EMR, prompts quality improvement

“A recent study showing integrated medical groups (IMGs) provide better quality of care than independent practice associations (IPAs) also suggested that the use of electronic medical records and quality improvement strategies by IMGs did not explain the difference in quality.”

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=6043

 

Proposed legislation would implement quality reporting system for physicians

“In action just before the 109th Session of Congress ended, both houses passed bipartisan legislation addressing a number of end-of-session concerns, including the implementation of a quality reporting system for physicians and other healthcare professionals. . . . The quality reporting system is expected to be a boon for information systems, because teasing out quality information will be difficult and costly for physicians using paper-based systems, but fairly easy for physician practices that use information technology.”

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=6031

 

Guest Opinion: Secure, paperless medical records needed

“Electronic health records can provide your entire medical profile to any doctor you visit, drastically speed the process to receive lab and radiology results and help doctors treat you more with more timeliness and accuracy.

The good news is that Arizona is moving in that direction.”

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/36241.php

 

Human Error / Safety

Wisconsin Launches Pandemic Flu Site

“Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle yesterday [December 12^th] announced the launch of a new Web site to help provide information and resources to people across the state about pandemic flu. The site was designed to help individuals, families, businesses, school, and communities prepare for and make plans to deal with a possible pandemic.”

http://www.govtech.net/news/news.php?id=102859

The website is at:  http://pandemic.wisconsin.gov/

 

Flu virus 'could kill 81 million'

“If a flu virus as deadly as the one that caused 1918 Spanish flu struck today, it could kill as many as 81 million worldwide, a new study estimates.  By applying historical death rates to modern population data, the researchers calculated a death toll of 51 million to 81 million, with a median estimate of 62 million.”

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/12/22/flu.study.ap/index.html

 

Concern grows over pollution from jets

“Aviation and the environment are on a collision course. The number of airline flights worldwide is growing and expected to skyrocket over the coming decades. Aircraft emissions pollute the air and threaten by 2050 to become one of the largest contributors to global warming, British scientists have concluded.”

http://www.usatoday.com/money/biztravel/2006-12-18-jet-pollution-usat_x.htm

 

Disappearing world: Global warming claims tropical island

“Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India's part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.”

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2099971.ece

 

India, China to study warming

“A joint Indian-Chinese team plans to chart remote Himalayan glaciers that scientists fear are rapidly melting because of global warming, threatening the great rivers that give life to one of South Asia's most fertile regions.”

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/12/22/melting.glaciers.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6201399.stm

 

Warming climate doubles natural calamities in Russia – minister

“The number of natural calamities in Russia more than doubled over the last 10 years as a result of global warming, the Russian minister of emergency situations said Thursday.”

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20061221/57518164.html

 

Outsourcing / Globalization / International

China could save a tarnished GM brand

“Why the Chinese interest in Buick? While it has seen its status fade here in the United States, the longstanding American brand has never lost its reputation in China. And GM has managed to build on that status, selling vehicles under four major brands — Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and Saab — through Shanghai General Motors, a joint venture between GM and Shanghai Automotive Industry.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16268883/

 

India's economy to boom more slowly in 2007: analysts

“India's economy will continue to boom in 2007 but analysts say demand will slow as its central bank hikes interest rates to curtail consumer spending and higher prices.  India's one-billion-plus population are buying more cars, phones, homes and goods than ever before and its companies have expanded quickly to meet demand domestically and to tap overseas business through acquisitions.”

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/162513.asp

 

Brit Indians are returning because Indian economy has the buzz!

“According to a recent report by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), as many as 2.7 million British nationals left Britain to live abroad between 1966 and 2005. Around 32,000 of them are now living in India, with industries across the professional spectrum experiencing an influx of Britons hoping to make their fortune in their parents' homeland.”

http://in.news.yahoo.com/061223/139/6ajko.html

 

Globalization Must Be ‘More Inclusive’

“Warning of growing inequalities both within and between countries at a time of widespread economic growth, a senior United Nations official today said the process of globalization must be made more inclusive in order to benefit the world’s poor.  Speaking to reporters in New York, Kemal Dervis, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said economies are expanding at a virtually unprecedented rate.”

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0612/S00412.htm

 

Technology and the developing world

“When people ask me what I think is the most important trend in technology today, I always answer the same way. It's not Web 2.0, Open Source software or Google's growing power. The most important trend in technology is how it is boosting economic development around the world.”

http://money.cnn.com/2006/12/20/magazines/fortune/kirkpatrick_UN_speech.fortune/index.htm?section=money_latest

 

Economics / Business / Misc.

Toyota poised to become top car firm

“At a news conference yesterday, Toyota executives laid out a production target that will probably allow it to steal the bragging rights from General Motors next year. But soft-spoken company president Katsuaki Watanabe chose to focus on the company's plan to beef up quality control, rather than bragging about topping GM.”

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/164629