Meeting Anousheh Ansari and Buzz Aldrin at CNN Future Summit

I am *bleeping* starstuck after meeting the two space travellers today.

I was invited to the CNN Future Summit taping at the Esplanade in Singapore and had the privilege to be in the same room with Anousheh Ansari and Buzz Aldrin, 1st female space tourist and 2nd man on the moon respectively.. I am still in a mild state of amazement after meeting these icons of human space travel. Its been my dream since i was really young to travel to the stars and today, I think i got the closest I have ever been. To go any closer will require me to strike paydirt and pay that $200,000 for a Virgin Galactic ticket.

I managed to be the only guy who asked a question to this panel of luminaries, that includes Ian Pearson, futurologist at British Telecom and Lino Guzzella who’s a real innovator in hydrogen fuel cell technologies. The whole event is essentially an awesome publicity stunt by Singapore Tourism Board to drum up buzz for the upcoming spaceport. I hate to leak out details of the show before its first screening at 6pm Singapore time on the CNN channel. All i can say now is that Buzz Aldrin’s really conservative and “old-guard-ish” while Ansari is full of entrepreneurial enthusiasm on what our generation can do to make space flight even more accessible. And I am trying to figure out how I can record my first appearance on internation television. Darn, I forgot to mention my name and NUS affiliation, haha..

All in all an amazing week for me, after my invitation to George Bush’s talk in Singapore. That caps 3 major international celebrities and makes for a climatic end to my university education. I am gonna reserve some of my thoughts on this event till after the show’s screening.

Related post: A Spaceport for Singapore

Straight Talking from Yahoo: The Peanut Butter Manifesto

Disclaimer: Unabashedly reproduced from the eminent Wall Street Journal Online. Original link here. You guys are great, so please don’t sue me and I will repay your kindness and pay for subscription one day when I have money.

To my friends and readers out there, i decided to step out of my self-imposed exile while writing my thesis to bring you this gem of a memo written by a Yahoo SVP that summed up all that is wrong and was right with this once-great enterprise, and importantly, how to find the wheels to move forward.

I read this manifesto after reading the Jerry Maguire monologue on Valleywag. Thats what really inspired me today. I recommend you read that too here.

Enjoy.

Credit goes to Valleywag for breaking the WSJ story to me

The ‘Peanut Butter Manifesto’
November 18, 2006

An internal document by Brad Garlinghouse, a Yahoo senior vice president, says Yahoo is spreading its resources too thinly, like peanut butter on a slice of bread. Full text of the document is below.

Three and half years ago, I enthusiastically joined Yahoo! The magnitude of the opportunity was only matched by the magnitude of the assets. And an amazing team has been responsible for rebuilding Yahoo!

It has been a profound experience. I am fortunate to have been a part of dramatic change for the Company. And our successes speak for themselves. More users than ever, more engaging than ever and more profitable than ever!

I proudly bleed purple and, yellow everyday! And like so many people here, I love this company

But all is not well. Last Thursday’s NY Times article was a blessing in the disguise of a painful public flogging. While it lacked accurate details, its conclusions rang true, and thus was a much needed wake up call. But also a call to action. A clear statement with which I, and far too many Yahoo’s, agreed. And thankfully a reminder. A reminder that the measure of any person is not in how many times he or she falls down – but rather the spirit and resolve used to get back up. The same is now true of our Company.

It’s time for us to get back up.