For Love and Money

• Safaricom Post-IPO Ownership

  Posted: March 26, 2008, 10:25 pm

  Safaricom Post-IPO Ownership

• Summary of Safaricom's IPO Prospectus

  Posted: March 25, 2008, 8:17 pm

  Summary of Safaricom's IPO Prospectus

• Merry Easter

  Posted: March 23, 2008, 7:36 pm

  Merry Easter

• Rain, Rain, Go Away

  Posted: March 22, 2008, 8:13 pm

  Rain, Rain, Go Away

• Investing In Foreign Based Companies

  Posted: March 22, 2008, 5:06 am

  Investing In Foreign Based Companies

• There's No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

  Posted: March 20, 2008, 8:50 pm

  Sometime early last year, Chipotle Mexican grill opened up a branch close to my place of work. I like Mexican food, so I've been there more than a couple of times with friends from work and others who work in the vicinity.

  The fast food chain that is famous for free food on it's first day of business, when they open a new branch, offered us free lunch today. As is their intention, the free lunch offer created a buzz at my place of work this week. Between 100 and 200 colleagues made their way to the eatery which I understand was jam packed.

  I couldn't make it as I had a lunch time meeting where food was also provided. For the colleagues who made their way to Chipotle, they found out that TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch). The Burritos were free but not the soft drinks. For $1.40 they could add a drink to their meal.

  Chicken Burrito Bowl, $0Ice cold Coca-Cola, $1.40Mexican bubble bath, pricele$$

  There are some things money can't buy, for everything else there's MasterCard.

• Fun Day At The Science Fair

  Posted: March 18, 2008, 3:11 am

  One of the highlights of my 4 years in high school was participating in what we called the Science Congress in Kenya. High school students competed by presenting projects in various fields of science and technology. For some reason, I can recollect very little about the projects that I presented and I doubt if I excelled past the provincial stage. The culmination of the Science Congress was the national competitions which I think used to be held at either the Kenya Science Teachers College at Dagoretti Corner or Kenya Technical Teachers College in Gigiri. I seem to recall attending the finals at both venues.

  My interests in science and technology has led me into participating in my local Science Fairs here in the US. I normally volunteer my time to serve as a judge in the Fairs which are held around this time. Unlike touring the exhibits as a spectator, judging is much more demanding as it involves a thorough inspection of the projects which can be tiring especially if you have to spend a couple of hours going through the projects.

  Two weekends ago, I volunteered as a judge in my school district. I was assigned to projects carried out by 5th graders. In total, there were close to twenty entries mostly in the experimental category. There was also one or two projects in the model and invention categories. In the experimental category, students investigate a problem by performing a series of tests in which one thing is changed each time and all other things remain the same from test to test.

  Based on the judging criteria, I found the projects to be very competitive earning some of the participants more than 80 points out of a maximum of 100. Of interest were the following projects.

  Relationship between IQ and body weight; The hypothesis was that there is an inverse relationship between body weight and IQ. The student subjected various 5th graders through the IQ test and compared the results to their body weight. Surprisingly, the results proved the hypothesis. I haven't checked this phenomenon online but I am certain this subject has been researched extensively in academia. Perhaps fat cells do clog the brain.

  Another contestant looked at the effect of music on a blood pressure; They subjected their classmates to fast paced music (Christmas Song by Alvin and the Chipmunks). As they listened to the music, the subjects experienced an increase in blood pressure and pulse rate. They recommended this as a therapy for people with low blood pressure.

  Fruit powered batteries; This was a project involving the generation of current from lemons. Basically, the student unsuccessfully tried to generate sufficient electricity to power a light bulb. I believe this could work for a low powered battery operated watch that use the tiny battery.

  Effect of humidity on a baseball; This was a new one for me. Apparently, high humidity has an effect on the bounce of a baseball ball (no pun intended). The 'drier' the ball, the better it bats. They did their experiment by measuring the bounce of balls subjected to varying humidity dropped from a fixed height. You can imagine the effect of batting in high humidity (isn't that the case during the baseball season).

  The Green house effect; The student demonstrated using a model, the effect of green house gases on global warming. They built a model of the earth with and without a boxed environment and compared their effect on the ease of melting a block of ice.

  Other projects included the effectiveness of various mordants (Tin, Alum, Chromium, Salt) on dyeing clothes, a model of a hovercraft, the relationship between lung capacity and height, the effect of flavoring milk, efficiencies of catapults (1st, 2nd and 3rd class levers) and the effect of heat (various temperatures) on brass.

  While I have seen better projects in the high school category where students take their projects seriously, I believe the 5th graders did a superb job. However, I have noticed that the greatest effect on the quality of the projects is the students parents. Normally, they assist their kids select a project and in most cases help them through. As such, kids with parents in technical fields excel much better than kids whose parents are in non-technical occupations.

  Race/culture also has an effect. Most of the winners are usually of Indian or Chinese heritage. This is true at all levels and gets more pronounced as the Science Fair progresses to the national levels. The proportion of Asian and Chinese students is much higher than that of black and Latinos. The same applies to Spelling Bee contests which are mostly won by Indians. I think this is reflective of the competitive nature of natives from Asian cultures.

  For these reasons, I would like to call on parents to take more interest in such contests as they have a lasting effect on the type of profession our kids will choose when they grow up. Encouraging and supporting our kids through such endeavours not only helps them take up well paying careers but also helps them get admission and scholarships to the best colleges in the US in addition to winning cash prizes during such contests.

• Safaricom IPO Roadshow

  Posted: March 17, 2008, 5:11 pm

  Safaricom IPO Roadshow

• There Will Be Blood

  Posted: March 17, 2008, 4:56 am

  There Will Be Blood

• My Take On The Safaricom IPO

  Posted: March 16, 2008, 5:44 am

  My Take On The Safaricom IPO

• Investors Stone Blackstone Group

  Posted: March 14, 2008, 5:21 pm

  Investors Stone Blackstone Group

• Fool's Gold

  Posted: March 13, 2008, 9:49 pm

  Fool's Gold

• Fed Rate Cut Folly

  Posted: March 10, 2008, 3:19 am

  Fed Rate Cut Folly

• Electoral Commission of Kenya Website Hacked

  Posted: March 4, 2008, 6:35 am

  Electoral Commission of Kenya Website Hacked

• Half Priced America On Sale

  Posted: March 2, 2008, 10:09 pm

  Half Priced America On Sale

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes