Open Access / Open Source

Will Open Source Concepts push innovation in drug discovery?

I mix flavors like paint

I paint, I cook, I mix flavor like paint, I mix paint like spices, expressing what I wanna tell, something deep inside becomes a new reality. And I am happy when it tastes or looks good. When I capture the world through a lens, I like to create a new reality, make a little detail, even something fading or ugly become beautiful and unique. One of my favorite photograph is "Blue", it is all blue, you just take it as it is without questioning what the subject matter was. Others were my fading plants with spider.

Jamie Cullum with The Count Basie Orchestra

A wonderful night under the stars at the Hollywood Bowl

The Night Captures the City of the Angels

Reflections at the Turn of a Year - Downtown LA

My Water Sculptures

My Photographs of a Sculpture/Fountain in Santa Monica designed by Students of the Santa Monica College for Design Art and Architecture and by Laddie John Dill (located on Olympic and Cloverfield). I took these pictures for a photography class with Larry Jones, Santa Monica Community College

Some say....

In printed news media in the US, I read frequently the phrase,
Some Say.... I noticed, the phrase was used frequently in the past by the LA times, I subscribed to, especially on topics that are debated and about facts that are not government friendly.

Who are the "Some"? I thought, the news media hire trained and educated journalists, whose mission is to find out who the "some" are. I had the impression that the editors and the writers themselves do not want to be responsible for what they write and rather write an impersonal "Some Say". What a world are we living in, where people deny responsibility for what they are saying and doing. I think it is the responsibility of a news media to put name tags to facts and critically analyze the public life and the world we are living in.

Dear printed news media writes and editors, remove all "Some Say" from your articles and call the facts by the right name.

Who is Andy Gump?

During a recent late night walk with friends along the channels in Venice CA, and later during a photo trip to Venice, I came across another fence sign.

In a warm summer night walking along the channels in Venice California, we came a cross a sign at a construction site, we were curious, who Andy Gump is. Andy Gump sounded like a performer in Las Vegas, don't miss the show, don't miss Andy Gump. Or said in the construction ground language, get another fence, they are so hip. One thing we noticed, he must be really proud of his fences, usually you only see this small Santa Monica fence signs, almost ashamed of it, but here is another Andy Gump. You want to see all of them, the fences, you can be proud of.

But who is Andy Gump? Does he really exist, or is it just a marketing idea, I became curious, has he just started a business e.g. a recent immigrant to CA, or is he around for decades? Thanks to Google I found out, it looks the Andy Gump construction site service company is really committed to service to the community, a commitment, which is reflected in the fence signs. Recently I learned from a successful entrepreneur about the concept of honesty in marketing, selling what you are good at and only at a quality you would accept for yourself and most important, telling the people about it, it looks it works for the Gump fence and portable sanitation business too. Even the Gump portable toilet business stinks, Andy is able to make you feel good about. who does not want another Andy Gump. I am generally curious about the world I am living in and thanks to the Andy Gump sign, I learned about the history of a traditional California family business and the people committed to it, read about another Andy Gump if you are curious about it:

http://www.andygump.com/history1.htm
http://andygump.com/Commitment.html

Rebirth of Frozen Yogurt: Pink, Red, White, Green and Blue

Pinkberry reintroduced frozen yogurt as a mainstream ice cream experience with a successful marketing concept. Their green dotted designer interior attracted people who care about a appealing environment. Their newly attracted customers lined up at cool Pinkberry to get frozen yogurt, a product that has been around for many years. But for how long can Pinkberry benefit from First-Mover advantage. Pink berry is the first mover of the new geneartion frozen yogurt stores.


First-Mover Advantage is a market entry term introduced by Marvin Lieberman, UCLA's Anderson School of Management and by David Montgomery in 1988, who describe the benefit being the first in the market. But will Pinkberry be strong enough to compete against a growing competition? In a short photo story, I like to illustrate the fast growing frozen yogurt market in summer 2007 in the Westwood Village, Los Angeles, California.

Pinkberry rented in Westwood a popular spot next to Subway restaurant and close to Peet's Coffee. The customers lined up to get the pink frozen yogurt. Established ice cream and frozen yogurt places closed down their business in Westwood.

One looser is Ben and Jerry's ice cream. It looks, they could not afford the expensive rent along Westwood Blvd any longer. Only the painted cows look through the nearly covered window. Will Baskin Robins survive the yogurt war in Westwood? The market will tell. Just south of Wilshire Blvd, independent Europastry's frozen yogurt Yogg did not survive either. Probably if you shop for a suit next door, you don't want to spill your frozen Yogg right after. With a new interior experience, Pinkberry had a competitive advantage over existing similar businesses in the area. But Pinkberry, the First-Mover of the new generation yogurt stores is facing new competition.


The competitors copy the brand name concept. White (snow) or red come after pink and mango replaces berry. Who will be the strong second in the market. Red Mango benefits from Pinkberry 's negative publicity. Newspapers reported that the pink berry does not serve real yogurt, because their frozen white stuff does not contain live cultures. Health concerned yogurt fans will favor Red Mango's authentic yogurt with live yogurt cultures. Their competitive advantage, serving real yogurt, is part of the marketing concept. But the ones who love the green interior design will stay with Pinkberry. First-Mover Pinkberry will stray strong but will share the market with Red Mango, in my opinion, the most promising competitor.

I have spotted a third in Westwood, who has not much to offer than being white instead of pink, the name is Snowberry. But isn't it supposed to be called Whiteberry, or Snowball. The name is confusing and who in the world is attracted by snow in Los Angeles, aren't we living in Southern California because it is warm, sunny and dry all year long. I doubt that this business will flourish in the Westwood Village, also because of its hidden location. We probably stay better with the Mountain Snowberry's botanical description by the University of Utah: "Although not highly nutritious or palatable, mountain snowberry is frequently one of the first species to leaf out, making it a highly sought after food in the early spring. Use by livestock and big game is moderate throughout the summer and declines in fall." Will Snowberry decline already this fall?

I am sure, blueberries or pink apples will fight for market share in Westwood pretty soon and the yogurt war will continue. Newcomers might benefit from Red Mango's future negative publicity. Fact is, they do not serve mango flavored yogurt, just the traditional white one and a green colored green tea flavored one. Of course they offer mango pieces as one of their toppings. But as we all know mango fruit pieces are orange not red. Only Redo Mango's raspberry and strawberry toppings are red.

Griffith Park Fire 2007 - Hollywood The dead and the Living.

After the devastating fire you encounter the dead and living plants. The months to come the living will take over the burned areas of the park in a wonderful manner.

The Dead














And the living