One of my colleges at work is more politically left of centre than me; he is a union member and supports the left side of politics. Conversely, my political views are more right of centre; I more of a capitalist than a socialist but I believe in regulation as a balance of power is required.

I also believe in social safety nets such as government welfare to assist those less fortunate within reason; naturally this assistance is short term only to help people get back on their feet. One area we did agree on was when the Abbott government came to power, he slashed budgets across all departments; this was required after the budget disaster he was bequeathed but the scientific budget needed to be expanded.

But the science and innovation portfolio was largely ignored in order to derive budget savings; to my way of thinking, this is short-term thinking that has long-term ramifications. Some of their leading innovations and scientific discovery from the CSIRO include WiFi, plastic banknotes, the Hendra virus vaccine, extended wear contact lenses, Aerogard insect repellent, the total wellbeing diet, RAFT polymerisation, BARLEYmax, self twisting yarn and softly washing liquid.

The Abbott government pretty much slashed the CSIRO budget, that is the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation that employs scientists, engineers and research technicians – the whole reason why we need to better utilise PhDs. We ran the real risk of losing top notch talent to overseas organisations where our leading scientific minds defected to international organisations – our country loses the benefits of their knowledge and work.

Since the Prime Ministerial coup, the first real change of policy is to inject $100 million back into the CSIRO with over twenty individual measures running across eleven ministerial portfolios. The funding forms the ­national innovation and science agenda focusing on four key outcomes of commercialising research, raising capital and ­effective risk management, providing government leadership as model of innovative practices and boosting talent and skills across the economy – great stuff.

Notwithstanding, such research requires funding to attain commercial success and that requires venture capitalists investing scarce resources to projects that hold commercial capabilities. The top international universities of the world such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Chicago Booth and Wharton University all generate significant interest and funding opportunities through venture capitalists.

The strategy supports science, mathematics and technology at schools across the country to provide the foundations of the program. Now we have the tools and government support to compete at the highest level to attract the best talent worldwide. While Abbott stated Australia is once again open for business, Turnbull is creating the environment to attract science and innovation back to Australia.

Furthermore, tax advantages will now drive investment in ventures that may have not received venture capital funding in the past, one hopes scarce capital is attracted to entrepreneurial business enterprises leading to jobs and investment. Naturally, some business ventures will fail with such risk allowing tax deductions of capital lost.

Say what you want about McDonald’s fast food outlets, their work with Ronald McDonald House is exemplary – this is a fantastic community service. As the old Princess Margaret Hospital is closed down, the new children’s hospital at the redeveloped Sir Charles Gardner Hospital site means the residential facility had to be moved as well as it is imperative that the facilities are close to the medical facilities.

When families have to travel to Perth for their child’s hospital treatment, they have the opportunity to stay at this outstanding residential facility. The new building has the capability to house 180 people each night with Lotterywest contributing $8 million. BHP kicked in $5 million and Fortescue Metals Group also contributing $2 million to the construction. West Australians donated $22 million and was raised in just 9 months.

The state government providing the land adjacent to the hospital – an outstanding contribution all round. The facility is staffed by volunteers who work to provide services for families stressed with sick children. The original Ronald McDonald House in Philadelphia came about after football player Fred Hill organised a housing facility when he was forced to sleep in corridors after his daughter was diagnosed with leukemia.

Back in 2008, I was lucky enough to head out to Sandalford winery in the Swan Valley to attend an outdoor concert on the grounds. This was my first time to see John Mellencamp in concert and it was a fantastic evening – I loved it.

Now 8 years later, John Mellencamp will be back for a concert under the stars and I immediately snapped up tickets. I will have to wait until February 2016, this will be a hot summer’s night in an ideal setting sipping the excellent fine wines of Sandalford – really looking forward to reliving this concert.

On one hand, we have Islamic apologists trying to shout down everyone asking questions regarding Islamic extremists views calling people who oppose their views as racists, bigots or Islamophobic.

Then on the other hand, we have a bunch of people calling for every Muslim person to be deported and flung from the country; the answer seems to be somewhere in between. Islamic extremists are generally drawn from the ranks of mainstream Muslim followers; for anyone to argue IS, ISIS, ISIL or Daesh is not about Islam deluding themselves.

Quite possibly, the name of the organisation Islamic State may offer some clues to their intentions. However, for people to blame every Muslim for the deeds of Islamic State Iraq Syria is also misguided and wrong. Yet, the recruiting of young followers and jihadists from mosques is real; the issue requires leadership from within the Muslim community – so far, this is sadly lacking.

So where are we at? People are concerned about the Muslim community, it is a fair call, there are serious integration issues. For the Islamic community to integrate, the leadership needs to address the wider community in both conversation and deeds. The Christian community provides essential public services.

If the Islamic community wants to be taken seriously then community services such as feeding and housing homeless people, meals on wheels, aged care and disadvantaged people and groups would enhance their image. The Muslim community has an image problem, one of only taking – not giving; hands out for as much money as they can milk it for without providing any community service. Until the Muslim leadership can address these issues – they will continue to suffer from their own abilities to effectively integrate in the country they now live.

Is Yahoo! Inc a business with a future? Founded by David Filo and Jerry Yang in 1994 when the internet was really kicking off; the question is, are they going to survive?

Current CEO Marissa Mayer is considering selling out of the internet business to concentrate on its investment in Chinese technology giant Alibaba. The two major assets of Yahoo! are the Alibaba stake and Yahoo Japan with the 15% in Alibaba valued around $32 billion USD and 35% stake in Yahoo Japan valued around $8.5 billion USD.

Following a line of short-term CEOs, Mayer is feeling the pressure to stem the bleeding and arrest the flow of top executives leaving the corporation. Despite the Asian assets performing well, the rest of the business seems to be sinking after being a leading internet business. Whilst remaining a big deal, the search engine is losing ground to rival Google although the email and news functions still drive people to the site allowing advertising to remain a cash cow for the business. Is this the end of Yahoo! as we know it?

Interestingly, contradicting Susanna Kass at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business is Elizabeth Holmes CEO of Theranos, the privately held health technology and medical laboratory company suggesting “The minute you have a back-up plan, you’re admitted you’re not going to succeed.”

Both of them can’t be incorrect, so the question is – “Is contingency planning an admission of impending failure or prudent risk management?” I tend to support Susanna’s views believing strategic planning is fluid and responsive insofar as correct methodology and processes are undertaken to achieve desired results.

As a sailor, you need to steer to the course and keep the endgame in mind, but the best tactical decisions are based on current conditions and strategy. The old adage of defending your position when you are in the lead and engaging in offensive tactics when you are challenging for the lead holds true – you can’t just sail your own race. You need to account for the other competitors and respond accordingly.

When you think of American Express, people immediately identify the company as a financial services business, namely the distribution of charge and credit cards – the company reach extends far beyond the traditional credit business.

I began with some basic research and found the company was founded as an express mail business in 1850 by Henry Wells and William Fargo, the founders of Wells Fargo bank that was incorporated in 1854. As a non-American, I was aware of the Wells Fargo brand but didn’t really know much about the bank apart from the fact that it was a pretty big deal. I think of DHL Express and TNT Express as logistics business and Amex as purely a financial business, so that part of the story was very interesting to me.

Interestingly, the financial services arm began in 1882 with the introduction of the travelers cheque after dissatisfaction with the traditional letter of credit created difficulty in obtaining local currency for international travelers. American Express entered the charge card business in 1958 following the success of Diners Club and then entered the credit card business in 1987.

What I am tending to find is Amex isn’t the first company to enter a business, but when it does, the business becomes a serious competitor. Amex still hasn’t conquered the Visa and Mastercard market share yet, but I’m guessing they will build market share at the expense of these two credit card providers.

A business like Diner’s Club suffers an identity crisis based on its history as a restaurant charge card, patrons wrongly associate the card with purely a restaurant charge card competing against Visa and Mastercard credit cards and the Amex charge card. As a competing charge card, American Express displays better advertising, a name now associated with finance and a strong branding. American Express does not suffer from such an identity crisis despite its logistics history and name.

In Australia, the American Express isn’t as readily accepted as one might think due to the excessive fees for vendors charged by the company. Plenty of times I have been told I will be charged an extra fee for Amex, around the 2% mark but if I use Visa or Mastercard – the transaction interchange fee is lower and usually won’t be passed on to consumers.

American Express charges an annual fee to issue the card, this can be very high as opposed to competing cards, then comes the merchant fees – the benefits to consumers better be pretty good to justify such costs to the consumer. If Amex was to lower fees to build both market share among consumers and gain stronger acceptance with vendors, I am guessing they will soon displace Mastercard and seriously challenge Visa as the dominant credit card. 

I read on The Wall Street Journal that Google was intending to merge Chrome into Android and I was more than a little concerned, I\’m very disappointed. I had become accustomed to Chrome; I don’t really use my tab much except when on holiday and I don’t own a smartphone, so I would prefer if they didn’t mess with an excellent operating system.

According to The Wall Street Journal article, Google will now merge its Chrome operating system built for personal computers into the Android mobile operating platform. Furthermore, the article hinted there would be a significant change to Chromebooks – that can’t be good. I got stuck with that dog of an operating system Windows 8 that was built for mobile devices on my notebook computer – I don’t want to see a repeat of that episode.

I hate shopping, all men hate shopping so when I needed to go out and purchase a gift for a 17 year old youth, I was suitably perplexed – what do I get him?

As Michael is my World Vision sponsored child, I wanted to make sure my gift is educational in line with the values and philosophies of World Vision. After some searching, I decided on a tablet, this way he can use the tablet for school work and social activities. Sure, I know he is going to use it for playing games, chatting and generally messing around. In a days time it was going to be his so he was free to add apps as he wished. My only apprehension was that he spent all his time playing games and generally jerking around instead of furthering his education – I guess I will find out.

At the store, they didn’t want to load the Facebook and Skype apps, I said why not, it is his now – he can do as he likes. He tells me he wants to go onto vocational school to study refrigeration and air-conditioning so I hope he is able to utilise the tablet in his studies to build himself a job and career – I am pretty excited for him. The World Vision organisation gives kids opportunities, I support the ideals of this organisation and I am glad we are working together for him.

It has been a long time since Neil Diamond released Hot August Night in 1972; this hasn’t concerned me, no matter his age, we knew we were off to see a very good show. So, a much older Neil Diamond was to play at Sandalford Winery in Perth\’s Swan Valley after the temps hit over 37C on a Saturday – this was going to be a hot November night.

We got there late, it wasn’t without dramas and fights, we were there now and it was time to go. The picnic basket was cracked open and a warm bottle of Sandalford’s chardonnay was sipped – they knew the volumes to be catered, there is no absolutely excuse for that.

Just before the show started, a dark cloud floated over as the sun was setting, the lightening show lit up the sky right on dusk. We guessed we were going to get wet, so that was the price of entry – it never eventuated though. The downpour came after the show finished and we were on our way home, we were walking down a line of traffic and a window opened and two ponchos were offered and gratefully accepted.

He puts on a pretty good show, the price of entry was extravagant but the cost was negligible at the end of the day considering the quality of the show. His dance moves were a little lame, but what do you expect at age 74? There was nothing wrong with either the lyrics, singing or the melody. My major complaint is the tickets stated the concert was from 7.30 – 10.00 with times subject to change without notice, so you could imagine my nonchalance when he started at 8.00 and finished at 9.30 – all in all, a pretty expensive one and a half hours.