The new Valkyries are promoting Wonder Women.  The best-selling comic strip right now is Saga, a science fiction series about a pair of star-crossed lovers–as in from separate parents.  The series is narrated by their daughter.  The first volume has been on the bestseller lists for over a year and a half and has earned about $6 milllion for Image Comics.  Success is attributed to female buyers.  A network of female comic shop clerks who call themselves the Valkyries increased publicity and sales.

Small independent publishers which release predominantly fantasy and sci-fi stories have profited most from this female fan base.  The superhero franchises are male-centric.

In the 1990s girls were obsessed over Warner Bros. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and also discovered The Sandman by Neil Gaiman.

The large break through came through manga, Japanese comic books, which were introduced in the US in the mid 2000s.

Can these books which make women larger than life make women feel larger than life?  Are their entrepreneurial opportunities for women here?

“When people write the history of this thing, of bitcoin, they are not going to write the story of 6 million to a billion. What is truly remarkable is the story of zero to 6 million. It has already happened! And we’re not paying attention! That’s incredible. That’s what had one chance in a million, and it already happened.”– Wences Casares, Founder & CEO of Xapo

Worth Wray cliarifies the bitcoin:

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency that trades on public exchanges and can be instantly transferred between any two people anywhere in the world with the speed of an email… and at FAR lower cost than for transactions processed through the trdaitional financial system.

While a lot of people have experimented with digital currencies in the internet age, Bitcoin’s mysterious creator, “Satoshi Nakamoto,” was the first person to solve the issue of “double spending” in a completely decentralized network, meaning that all transactions are made directly between parties, with no middlemen, yet in a way that is verifiable across the entire network and virtually impossible to counterfeit.

Much like the internet itself, the Bitcoin hive is essentially a distributed network of computers and people that are relying on a common technological process – the Bitcoin protocol – to confirm and validate every transaction made, using a unit of account called a “bitcoin” that can be broken down into fractions, thereby enabling previously impossible micro-transactions.

Bitcoin protocol is an element of the “blockchain”  — a giant, globally shared ledger of every bitcoin and every transaction in the history of the network.  Whenever two people follow through with a transaction, it is broadcast throughout the entire network, and the blockchain expands as that exchange is automatically lumped together with other transactions in a new “block.”

Bitcoins are created through a process called “mining,” which happens to be the same mathematical process that seals blocks of new transactions onto the blockchain by verifying that every exchange is valid and using real bitcoins. By rewarding “miners” with new bitcoin for devoting their time and computing power to maintenance of the blockchain, the Bitcoin protocol provides the incentive for the network to continue running in a completely decentralized manner.

In the early days, the mining process could be competitively and profitably run from a series of graphics cards linked to a home computer, but in recent years bitcoin mining has become a BIG business. Today, a lot of the mining is done on massive server farms in places like Iceland, where temperatures are cool and power is cheap.

There is an upper limit of 21 million bitcoins that can ever be minted, and the protocol is designed to release a “reward” of a new bitcoin every 10 minutes until every unit of the digital currency has been created. As of today, roughly 13.5 million bitcoins have been mined, with roughly 7.5 million to go.

The Possible Stages of Bitcoin’s Future:

1. Experimentation phase (2009 – 2010)
   No real value associated with Bitcoin. Hackers & developers playing around with the source code. Experimenting with Bitcoin as a medium of exchange.

2. Early adopters phase (2011 – 2013)
   Interest from investors and entrepreneurs started to grow with substantial press coverage in the wake of the Silk Road bust. First generation of Bitcoin-related companies (exchanges, merchant processors, wallet providers, etc.) started. Potential began to shine through poor management.

3. Venture capital phase (2013 – present)
   World-class VCs started investing in Bitcoin companies, and rapid ramp-up is already outpacing the early days of the internet. VCs poured more than $90 million into Bitcoin-related businesses in 2013 and are on track to invest more than $300 million in 2014 (compared to $250 million invested in internet-related businesses in 1995).

4. Wall Street phase (2015?)
   Institutional investors, banks, and broker-dealers begin moving money into Bitcoin. Rising price and volume (in addition to development of derivatives) become the catalyst for mass adoption as retail investment follows.

5. Global consumer adoption phase (?)
   Only happens if (a) companies continue to innovate and make it easier for consumers to buy, hold, and spend Bitcoin, (b) volume expands dramatically so that large merchants can start accepting payment in Bitcoin, and (c) Bitcoin awareness continues to rise with these developments.

Ajey Shah writes about reducing the cost of doing business in India.

As an example of the improved economic thinking underlying the 2014 depository receipts Scheme: the 1993 Scheme embeds industrial policy with names of many industries. The 2014 Scheme eschews industrial policy..

Word count. The first test of simplicity is the word count. The 1993 Scheme (paragraphs 1 to 11) had 2984 words, while the new 2014 Scheme (paragraphs 1 to 11) has 1659 words – a reduction of 44.4% in usage of words. However, this difference is overstated as the previous Scheme dealt with FCCBs also while the new Scheme does not.

Readability.  The 2014 Scheme wins clearly on reliability.

Structured document. For a given word limit, a well structured document is more comprehensible. The 2014 Scheme follows the logical sequence of a depository receipt transaction. The 1993 Scheme was a haphazard mess.

Use of examples. When drafting the Indian Penal Code, Thomas Babington Macaulay intentionally included many terse, exemplary cases to illustrate the application of a provision. The Justinian Code and writings of Roman jurists persuaded him to make clear the legislative intent: ‘they are cases decided not by the judges but by the legislature, by those who make the law, and who must know more certainly than any judge can know what the law is which they mean to make‘. This unusual innovative feature of the Code earned the praise of John Stuart Mill, who wrote:  ‘besides the greater certainty and distinctness given to the legislator’s meaning, [it] solves the difficult problem of making the body of the laws a popular book, at once intelligible and interesting to the general reader‘. The 2014 Scheme includes examples which clarify the law.

Minimal set of defined terms. The 2014 Scheme uses a standardised set of defined terms. For example, it strictly uses a defined term – ‘international exchange’ – on listing institutions. In contrast, the 1993 Scheme used three different terms to explain listing institutions;  `overseas stock exchanges’, `over the counter exchanges’ and `book entry transfer systems’. None of them were defined.

Principles-based definitions. With the rapid development of technology, the concept of an `exchange’ itself has evolved substantially. To make the law neutral to such evolution, the 2014 Scheme is technology-neutral and principles-based in its definition of `international exchange’.

Rationale statement. Finally, there is the backdrop of the drafting intent and rationale of the Scheme. The 1993 Scheme was not backed by a document articulating what was sought to be done. The 2014 Scheme is accompanied by the Sahoo Committee Report which performs this function. When faced with litigation in the future, practitioners and judges will be able to use this document to reduce legal risk.

The Indian system of capital controls comprises the FEM Act, regulations under FEMA, RBI circulars, etc. The 1993 Scheme is representative of the mess that is the Indian system of capital controls. The cost of doing business in India is being greatly raised by the badly thought out and badly implemented capital controls that are all over the landscape.

This is one area where it is dificult to make progress.

Bangladesh topss the use of mobile devices in Southeast Asia, followed by Pakstan and India.  100 million users ar elisted in Bangladesh, a huge stride forward for the country.  Mobile devices are being used for exchange of information relating to marketing, agriculture, health and educaiton.  An editorial suggests that young people should be encouraged to develop apps fr these devices so the employment opportunities afforded by the devices can be maximized.

One of this year’s top-selling Christmas presents is a drone. For $50 you can buy a tiny quadcopter with a video camera, perfect for snapping a bird’s-eye view of your garden; for $700, one equipped with a gyroscopically stabilised camera which, when paired with a wireless tracking device on your wrist, will film you while you ski, cycle or kite-surf.

Philadelphia Federal Reserve repors:  Most countries make sustained economic growth a principal policy objective. While many factors contribute to growth, economists believe that educating workers plays a critical role. Individuals invest in education because of the expected benefits to themselves or their children, such as higher earnings. But suchprivate investment can increase the productivity of others as well. For example, the collaborative effort of many educated workers in a common enterprise may lead to invention and innovation that sustains the growth of the enterprise. Some economists believe there is an important link between national economic growth and the concentration of more highly educated people in cities.  Economic Impact of Educated People in Cities

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Hershey is successfully focusing on global investment and in 2013 annoned an Asian iInnovation Center, which brings together world-class knoweldge and development capabitlies. Locally-relevant products are being invented.

Hershey Kisses Deluxe takes an iconic American product and re-imagines it in the Chinese market.  They are twice the size of Hershey’s Kisses and have a whole hazelnut in the center.  The product was developed to fit the Chinese consumers’ demand for a unique premium chocolate.

Chocolates tailored for the Chinese market may be a rich entrepreneurial field.