UBC COMM101- Ganasan Ponjani

Blog Link to external blog: NBA Lockout: The NBA’s Nuclear Winter — Where Do We Go From Here? – Gabe Feldman

As of this moment, it looks like there will be no NBA this season. Sad news for fans all around the world, however, fans are not the real losers here. Sure they lose out on all the enjoyment they would have gotten from the games, but thats about it. The real losers are those businesses who rely on the NBA season to earn their revenue. Places such as sports bars, restaurants and hotels all use the NBA season to attract customers into their venue. The lockout directly leads to losses for the businesses and there is really nothing they can do about it.

Gabe Feldman’s blog touches on this issue and another main issue, which is the salary cap. Since 1983, the NBA has been under a soft cap, meaning there were always mechanisms to get around the salary restrictions. However, the owners have proposed a hard cap similar to the NHL, which states that a team cannot spend over a certain amout of money per year. This is where the debate starts as the players vowed to never agree to this kind of system.

There have been terrible contracts signed within the last couple of years that have had players being much too over paid. All it takes is one bad deal to cause a league-wide inflation in the salaries offered to the players, and by introducing a hard cap, this would totally be prevented. The players have to realized that for the well being of the sport, a hard cap should be used. This is a main issue, however it is not the only one, and the debates will continue to escalate until a deal has been reached.

As we all know, The Vancouver Canucks will win the 2011 Stanley Cup, since they are the best team in the NHL! But all kidding aside, what should we do to prevent a future riot from happening if the Canucks do make it to the Cup finals and lose once again? That is simple. Three things we should do to decrease the likelihood of a riot would be to increase the number of police downtown, charge prices for tickets into the live sites, and completely shut down BC liquor stores the day of the event.

There was a lack of police officers downtown, and by increasing the force, this will make it easier to calm the crowd. Secondly, by selling tickets for access into the live sites, this would limit the number of people downtown and cause less congestion. Lastly, we should shut down every BC liquor store for the entire day of the game. It was a norm for the hockey fans downtown to consume alcohol before, during and after the event an this impaired their judgement. This will never completely stop alcohol consumption, but it would help reduce the amount of alcohol being consumed.

There will obviously be loop holes within these recommendations, however with these in place, I believe a potential riot will be less likely.

Citation: Charlie White. “Vancouver Riots 2011: Fans Riot as Canucks Lose Stanley Cup [PHOTOS, VIDEOS].” Social Media News and Web Tips – Mashable – The Social Media Guide. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://mashable.com/2011/06/15/vancouver-hockey-riot/>.

Barefoot College was established in 1972 by an Indian Social Entrepreneur named Bunker Roy.  This college is a non-government organization that has been providing basic services and solutions to problems in rural communities, with the objective of making them self-sufficient and sustainable. The College believes the very poor have every right to have access to, control, manage and own the most sophisticated of technologies to improve their own lives. Just because they cannot read and write there is no reason why the very poor cannot have opportunities to be successful.

Some solutions which Barefoot College are trying to establish can be broadly categorized into:  education, health care, solar energy, water, rural handicrafts, people’s action, communication, women’s empowerment and wasteland development.  Rural men and woman regardless of age, who are barely literate. are being trained to work as school teachers, mid wives, blacksmiths, doctors and many more prestigious jobs.

With little guidance, encouragement and space to grow and exhibit their talent and abilities, people who have been considered “very ordinary” and written off by society, are doing extraordinary things that defy description.

Citation:  “2010 Finalist: Barefoot College | The Buckminster Fuller Challenge.” WELCOME | The Buckminster Fuller Challenge. Web. 15  Nov. 2011. <http://challenge.bfi.org/2010Finalist_BarefootCollege>.

I consider Apple to be an entrepreneurial company. Over the past decade, they have thoroughly established themselves as one of the more profound and efficient companies worldwide. Their recent innovations, such as the IPhone and the MacBook have been a huge hit, and continue to sell at a rapid pace.

When Apple initially entered the technology market, they had to take risks as to wether their products would either be successful and generate large revenues, or unsuccessful and suffer some loses. However, Apple quickly took the spotlight as most of the other competitors in the market could not match their innovation.

Apple is a tough competitor to oppose since it is actually four diverse and thriving companies all wrapped up into one. It’s a hardware company, a software company, a services company, and a retail company. Most technology companies in the world can only manage one or two of these disciplines, however Apple is unique and has all four entities working in harmony, which leads to their successful ways.

Citation: “History of Apple Inc.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 8 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Apple_Inc.>.