I don’t recall the first time I saw the KFC fake chicken hoax appear on social media, I guess it was about seven or eight years ago and I see this is still doing the rounds. I can’t say I’m a fan of KFC, what I don’t like is people pushing fake rumours that hurt not only KFC but also their suppliers and employees.

In Australia at least, KFC is supplied by both Steggles and Ingham, I am also informed Turi Foods also supplies chickens as well but I know less about this company. As Australians know, you purchase both Steggles and Ingham from the supermarket, so one could argue you are getting the same chickens as the supermarkets.

I didn’t know too much about Turi Foods so checking out their website I see they make a commitment to no steroids or hormones and also pledge to monitor suppliers for GM free products in their cereals and grains fed to the birds. Their chicken food includes wheat, barley, oats, sorghum and soy protein so one would believe the birds are reasonably fed and not the beakless and featherless mutants force fed nutrients via tubes the internet sharing community would have us believe.

They did get in trouble from the ACCC, that’s the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission as their suppliers claimed they were offering free range chickens to KFC where chickens are free to roam. The chickens were free to roam within the confines of a large air-conditioned barn with access to clean water and food but fell short of the definition required.

We all know Kentucky Fried Chicken changed their name to the abbreviated KFC, we all thought it was in response to health concerns with deep fried foods. This may be true but is also related to a strategic move to change their menu to offer more than purely chicken. Clearly they wanted to remove the term fried from their name, that is understandable and while I can’t say I’m a fan of their product, I can see why they want to expand and differentiate their product in a tight market.

I have been a little critical of the Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte over his style of governing, death squads, locking up of political critics and general demeanor. I understand he is popular with the largely uneducated citizens hoping his tough talk and promises will pull them out of poverty – you can’t blame people for seeking a better life. However, I have to agree with him on the state of Boracay, the raw sewage pumped out to the nearby Bulabog Beach is just sickening.

Authorities have also dug up illegal underground raw sewage pipes pumping out effluent to their famous White Beach – it’s disgusting. So with Boracay set to reopen on the 26th of this month, one can only hope the notoriously corrupt government officials have been able to sort themselves out. They need to stop the large resorts discharging human waste straight onto the beach where people swim, dive and relax. Let’s hope they have pulled their heads in and put the environment, people’s health and the sustainability of the island above their short-term profits – if not, they should be shut down for good.

Working as a Wall Street trader, Michael Bloomberg was successful in his own right as a general partner heading up equity trading at investment bank Salomon Brothers; a corporate buyout can be a real career killer and Bloomberg was offered a $10 million redundancy package in 1981 – not too bad at all. Using the funds from his payout, he took his intimate knowledge of Wall Street finance to develop a terminal system with features and screens dedicated purely to finance.

The terminal is not cheap, professional stockbrokers and investment firms have the revenue to justify such expenditures, all but the most successful investors have to seek other options placing independent investors at a disadvantage. The exorbitant price is not purely for the hardware, the terminal is loaded with real time information for traders to make buy/sell decisions in a multitude of markets for a multitude of products. Supporting the Bloomberg terminal, the Bloomberg finance is channel shown on cable television is an informative program designed for the finance professional but equally informative for novice investors.

I am recounting a story told to me by an acquaintance from the high school we both attended, I had spent some time with her post high school. As she was a couple of years younger than me at high school; I can’t ever recall knowing her at school but apparently she knew of me. I was pretty much biding my time at high school and wasn’t interested in the social aspects of the education system and I met her a number of years after leaving school.

World Skills is a pretty big trade-based competition, this allows apprentices to apply their diagnostic abilities in a skills based competition. The World Skills organisation operates at an international level with competitors participating at a regional competition to qualify for national selection with national winners heading to the international competition.

One of our apprentices who did very well in the last regional competition and headed off to the national competition acquitted himself well picking up a third place. His employer was pretty impressed gifting him a $10,000 toolbox and a significant pay rise – great news. This is really what World Skills is all about, he was offered a degree respect with financial inducements thrown in.

There are plenty of reasons to compete at World Skills, this is a learning experience, a great skill to add to the resume under achievements and there is the stress of competition and learning to perform under pressure. Now a second apprentice from from his company has qualified earning himself similar financial benefits and credibility. I am glad I am part of the World Skills competition as a judge and I really love seeing our apprentices succeed.

I had a taste of this Sauvignon Blanc Semillon on the last week of winter, but for me a SBS is a summer wine and I still had the heater on. Ok, spring was on it’s way but it just didn’t feel right – still way too cold for me. The Siblings SBS is a blend of 60% Sauvignon Blanc and 40% Semillon that is pale straw in colour with a faint green tinge. The tasting notes told me this SBS had notes of tropical fruits, nectarines, grapefruit and citrus with herbaceous grassy characters.

To be honest, I struggled to identify some these flavours and found this SBS a little non-descript on this particular evening, this is maybe due to my pre-conceived notions of what determines summer wine. I can say I pretty much hate winter, I am always looking forward to summer taking the bulk of my overseas trips during the winter months. In the future, I am hoping to engage in overseas travel and live the endless summer in my retirement.

I look forward to spending half the year in the northern hemisphere during the Australian winter before returning home for the summer months. Now that we are officially in spring and the weather is improving, I look forward to revisiting this SBS on a hot Sunday afternoon as I enjoy a refreshing white wine in the warmer months.

As a former business student, I have an ongoing interest in business models and their accompanying marketing strategies. The Gillette razor/razor blade model is an interesting concept; needless to say, the money is in the blades and not the razor.

The Gillette razor/razor blade model revolves around a loss leader with the razor being sold at a loss with the razor blades sold at a substantial profit. The loss leader razor is complemented with a razor blade requiring repeated purchases. Naturally, the razor/razor blade combination is unique ensuring that you have to purchase razor blades from a specific manufacturer, in this case Gillette.

The psychological factor at play is the perceived bargain of purchasing a razor that is considered to be better value than competitor\’s products. This is especially true when the consumer is now locked into a product with the razor purchase. Instead of creating a one-off sale, a continuous revenue stream is generated by the consumer needing to not only make repeated purchases who purchases less out of product loyalty and more from force of habit.

The model was further refined with the printer/printer cartridge offered by computer hardware manufacturers. This can be circumnavigated by third party firms offering refillable cartridges at significant discounts, although with printed circuits added to cartridges, this became less cost effective. The Nespresso coffee machine/capsule model is another example, slick advertising with George Clooney endorsing Nespresso is critical to success, the coffee is decent, easy to make and easy to clean up.

This business/consumer model also encompasses e-commerce with digital industries adapting the model. A business like Google doesn\’t even offer a product as a loss leader, instead a portfolio of services and applications is offered to the consumer for no cost assembling a large audience for advertisers to target consumers. Applications are offered to consumers free of charge with opportunities to upsell premium products, ironically sometimes to escape aggressive advertising firms. This is the ultimate example of the old school bait and switch in a digital application.

I have been a user of Google+ for a number of years now but I am unsure how much time I need to invest in this media platform as it’s future is somewhat uncertain. I read many an article stating that Google+ is finished yet the network is still running – nay the naysayers.

Barely just two weeks after the June 2011 launch of Google+; its follower base hit a staggering 10 million users – impressive. By the end of the 2011, more than 90 million users had Google+ accounts – this was a highly successful product launch. I tend to feel that most of these users are pretty much inactive; G+ holds plenty of accounts but not many are regular users. I follow a number of the photography pages and the quality of uploads is outstanding.

The social media platform has some interesting communities and the followers seem less inclined to attack each other in a way that Facebook users get really personal and trivial. When I publish a post on Blogger, that post is immediately shared on the G+ network and whilst people may disagree with my views, they are generally respectful. I enjoy publishing on G+ and I really hope this social media site continues although I have to admit I really only log onto G+ when I am using my tablet.

We were looking to stay in and around Adelaide but didn’t want to stay around the CBD or riverbank area so another option was needed. The botanic gardens are apparently very good but Gramps wasn’t in the mood for walking too far so a line was ruled through that idea.

The tram runs through the Adelaide CBD with a stop not far from our hotel on South Terrace right at the back of the CBD. We wandered over to the South Terrace stop and boarded the tram for the beachside suburb of Glenelg, the tram staff were extremely helpful helping us purchase tickets on route. The centre of Glenelg is reasonably small, by what Glenelg lacks in size it certainly makes up for with natural beauty, the beach is magnificent.

We wandered out on the pier to view the beach looking back, a tractor was out raking the sand whilst only a few people lay on the beach. The beach was great although I never took a swim in South Australian waters, I suspect they would be a little colder than I have been used to, I doubt it would be a pleasant experience. We wandered around to the marina and adjoining parks before heading back to piazza for a coffee and catching the tram back to the CBD. I probably wouldn’t spend the whole day at Glenelg but a weekday morning was a pretty good experience.

Rolex gained a well earned reputation among professionals with their robust range of tool and sports watches. Rolex as a brand was a well respected and sought after timing tool among commercial and professional users before targeting the luxury goods market when a large number of Swiss watchmakers were going broke – the brand’s reputation aided the transformation.

I would choose the Air King Reference 116900 as a daily timepiece despite not being a huge fan of a number of Rolex timepieces for reasons of style – that’s personal taste. For me, the Air King is simple yet robust, the 40 mm 904L stainless steel oyster case of the modern Air King is borrowed from the Milgauss demonstrating plenty of anti-magnetic properties.

The Air King was introduced in 1945 with possibly the 5500 reference of the late 1960s as the most recognisable timepiece of the series, although at 34 mm I would expect to be a little small for my tastes. Unlike the aviation inspired Breitling Navitimer range with a specific purpose of utilising the radial slidewheel for calculations, the dial of the Air King is simple and uncluttered. Modern commercial aircraft are computer controlled rendering such a tool redundant.

The dial of the Air King resembles a cockpit instrument aesthetically. Similar to the 5500 reference, the 3, 6 and 9 markers are Arabic with the remaining hour markers running in multiples of 5 to give the instrument look. The italic Air King naming logo has been moved from the upper dial to the lower dial, similar to the 5500 reference, no date is displayed. The smooth angled bezel is similar to the Explorer design, I have always hated the fluted bezel design and love the smooth angled bezel.

The chronometer certified automatic 3131 movement, similar to the Milguass is fitted with the paramagnetic blue parachrom hairspring ensuring magnetic fields do not disrupt the performance of the timepiece. The movement is COSC certified to -2/+2 precision and would via a bidirectional self-winding perpetual rotor. A screw-down crown and screw-in case back ensure 100 metres water resistance of the oyster architecture with a scratch resistant sapphire crystal.

The new Air King is closer to the Milguass with a redesigned dial than the older references of the 1950s and 1960s, I like the Milguass but always hated the lightning bolt second hand. Whilst not a true aviator’s timepiece, I really like the dial of the Air King and the case of the Milgauss. I appreciate many people really dislike the dial design. My choice of a Rolex is the Air King, I like the new Milguass with the exception of the second hand so the Air King is closer to my tastes.