 we’ll celebrate that too.This paper advances a new framework for defining a country’s material wellbeing based on the distribution of consumer durables, building on the recent material wellbeing literature that calls for an increased focus on both the level and the distribution of consumption and wealth. Our framework is demonstrated using household-level data from the OECD PISA surveys, from which triennial metrics are constructed consistently for 40 countries since 2000. Comparisons with income-based alternative metrics suggest that our consumption-based measure captures important aspects of material wellbeing at both the micro and the macro level. Differences between the two approaches is shown to be associated with life-cycle smoothing, an important aspect that should be captured in material wellbeing estimates.
G. Sirmans & Lynn MacDonald & David Macpherson & Emily Zietz, 2006. "The Value of Housing Characteristics: A Meta Analysis," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 215-240, November.
Graham, Liam & Oswald, Andrew J., 2006. "Hedonic Capital," IZA Discussion Papers 2079, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
Graham, Liam & Oswald, Andrew J., 2006. "Hedonic Capital," Economic Research Papers 269638, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
Graham, Liam & Oswald, Andrew J., 2006. "Hedonic Capital," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 745, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
John Bryant, 2003. "Demographic Change and New Zealand’s Economic Growth," Treasury Working Paper Series 03/04, New Zealand Treasury.
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This is a person-centered approach to talk therapy that incorporates Western psychology and Eastern practices. It is based on the view that we are born with the wisdom, wholeness, and sanity necessary to heal; and psychotherapy is a collaborative effort to help us connect to our internal wisdom and insight to uncover our authentic, healthy selves. Rather than trying to change who we are, the objective is to accept all parts of ourselves so that healing can naturally transpire from the inside out. Art, Somatic, Play, and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies are often incorporated into the style.You don't need real tangible powers to create an army of fanatics. You just need food and to keep the attention of the desperate people getting that food. 

Look at how Wahhabism was spread in Pakistan to birth the Taliban. The Saudis finance free madrasas all over the world where young boys will get a nice hot meal for coming. They then proselytize for a few years and all of a sudden you have a bunch of militants for their faith. And once you've created fanatics anything is justified to them. 

Meribald and Brienne's chapters show us how bad the Riverlands have become. People joined the red god because they were getting food, fires that protect them from Nymeria's band of wolves and an armed force that could restore order to the land. You leave all that in a lawless power vacuum for a few years and all of a sudden you get Westerosi Afghanistan. 

That is how the Taliban came to power. The young refugees/orphans from the war came back from Pakistan full of religious zeal and a desire to create order amidst the chaos and were welcomed by the population because they managed to do it. 

Everyone is arguing about why they killed the flock and not just their shepherd or why did they leave all the food if they were bandits and not the BWB and why the Septon's death was the most gruesome. All of that can be explained in 1 very unsubtle way: having a different faith. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is.. wake up sheeple the Lannisters did 9/11.Why we invested in BigHaat
We’ve been sitting at the ringside of digitally-led agri-input delivery. The space has evolved rapidly over the past decade. Technology is seeing rapid adoption by farmers, nurseries and small retailers across the country.
From Silputa village place in Assam to Pandavapura village in Karnataka, customers are rapidly coming on board and making repeated purchases, that too without incentives. Agri inputs ranging from seed, pesticides and fertilizers from leading domestic brands (like Namdhari) and international brands (like Corteva) are moving through the supply chain. They make their way down to the last farm with transparent pricing in a 3 to 5 day delivery timeline.
The problem: Legacy supply chain
Similar to other legacy distribution systems in India, agri chains are fraught with issues. These are compounds due to the critical nature of goods sold through these networks. Seeds and fertilizers are key for food production. If quality products are not available in a timely manner, the impact is massive. Moreover, Indian agriculture workers make last minute local decisions based on weather, prices and sentiment. This throws supply chains out of whack, enabling local sellers to demand sky high prices.
The solution: Farms of the future
When dealing with such fragmented systems, digital tools can smoothen the process and help to cost-effectively service the demand. Additionally, different players in the ecosystem are keenly interested in making the chain efficient.
Farmers gain a platform that provides the best choices of inputs, advice on growing, credit options and market linkages. Enabled with these tools, they can truly develop the farms of the future.
Manufacturers gain a channel that optimizes their distribution and allows them to engage with their end customer in a meaningful way.
Entrepreneurs can gain loyal customers for little spend. Rural farming communities are networked in such a manner that word spreads quickly or one person buys for many. Customers are happy to make referrals.
BigHaat: Building the farms of tomorrow
BigHaat is the de-facto platform for these players. It provides accessibility to high quality inputs and crop advisory. When we first invested in BigHaat, we envisioned driving efficiencies in the $40 billion chain for manufacturers and customers, and providing the ultimate visibility for various stakeholders.
Along the way we realized that the future in distribution lies in offering one’s customers a higher value add. The customer needed to do better than what they have been traditionally used to. Simply put, efficiency is nice but we needed to help the farmer run their business better.
Additionally, Covid has provided tailwinds to BigHaat’s adoption. Farmers are increasingly adapting to digital platforms. Internet penetration in rural India and recent developments have accelerated the pace of change. All was well pre-COVID. Post-Covid, everything we had seen hit new highs!
We are excited to come back to support the BigHaat team as they build their stack to serve farms and farming stakeholders across the country. We’ve watched them build through good and bad times. We would be hard pressed to find a better set of folks to change the future of farming. We look forward to working with the new investors on the journey forward!Why did Carphone Warehouse buy AOL UK's "access" business!?
But why are CPW chasing so hard to be a major player in the broadband access market given that broadband has already become a “free” commodity bartered by the likes of Orange, Sky and CPW themselves in exchange for something else? Personally I find this deal very odd because the numbers and the strategy just don’t stack up.
First the numbers. Based on the subscriber numbers below, CPW’s newly acquired “broadband” customer base cost £370 per customer to acquire. I guess what CPW are hoping to do is convince the vast majority of AOL’s 1m broadband customers and especially the 600,000 dial up customers (not listed in the figures below) to migrate over to their TalkTalk phone service worth £9.99 per month with the carrot of “free broadband”.
So doing the maths, it will take approximately three years of TalkTalk revenue per customer before CPW breakeven on this deal i.e [(£9.99 x 12months) x 3 = £359]. This assumes that at least 60% of the AOL access customer base sign up for TalkTalk which seems unlikely given the fact that less than 50% of the current CPW TalkTalk customers applied for the “free” broadband offer and less than 10% of them actually ended up migrating over to their free broadband offer.
To make matters financially worse, CPW recently announced that their “free” broadband offer was going to cost them a further £20m to subside, which takes their costs over £70m this year alone and all of this additional expenditure is being funded through increased debt.
So in the medium term (3-5 years) CPW might expect to have around 4-5m TalkTalk phone customers in the UK using their own CPW network which is probably why CPW saw their shares rise 5% in morning trading in London.
This of course assumes that the phone call charges won’t change from £9.99, but as we all know this revenue stream is also coming under strong competitive price pressures i.e currently TalkTalk and BT Together charge £9.99 per month but the likes of NTL and Sky are already offering phone services for £5.00 per month plus free broadband.
So to convert and retain those expensively acquired AOL customers, CPW might have to consider reducing their own call