Happy Goats, Happy Cows, Happy New Year

2010 finally ends, being a difficult year of “getting-back-into-track” for the world and for innovation investment itself.

I want to end this year with happy Latin R&D news provided by the Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) in Argentina, where scientists after 6 years of research presented their “supermilk”, as the author of the investigation Ing. Gerardo Gagliostro has called it. The “super milk” is a healthier dairy product created by the combination of cow and goat milk, which is said can help prevent heart diseases, diabetes and tumors. The secret of the “supermilk” relays not only in this mixture, but on the special nutrition given to the cows and goats (such as soy, oilseeds and fish oil) in order to reduce saturated fats and achieve higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid and vaccenic acid in their production. It has no chemical additives and is all based in natural products, continuing the healthy life style trends. INTA states that their product, although not a medicine, it can strengthen the immune system and prevent the formation of tumors such as breast and prostate, diabetes and fat accumulation in the inner walls of the arteries. The “supermilk” is already being sold in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and other supermilk-based products have been already evaluated, such as yogurt, butter and cheese. The bad part is that there are still no news comments about the taste,we'll have to try that for ourselves.

I guess happy well fed cows and goats create happier products.

Happy new year and I wish you all readers a healthier, safer 2011... just like childhood days...

How to know if your President is creative?

This past week, as many of you should know, Wikileaks divulged internal documents and messages from US diplomacy that made reference to different world leaders. The one I liked best was the one referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was criticized as “risk averse and rarely creative” in a 2008 message. "Rarely creative"? I think that is the first time I hear someone is "officially" classified as non-creative. You would imagine that for someone to become Chancellor some creativity must be needed. I was worried then to see if our presidents are creative or not. How can you tell?

Of course you can analyze new government reforms, the way a problem is attacked with a different approach, new forms of creating value for the country, and so on. But that is probably a colaborative government appreciation, not a personal matter. Maybe Chancellor Angela Merkel was, as the message states, risk adverse and therefore could be close-minded or square-minded. Or maybe she was just not doing what the US wanted to.

But don't worry Latin America, our presidents have tought us they are really creative... in their own ways. Infact, we should be worried of them being "overly-creative", making up stories, finding ways to "juggle" money and new political tricks.

Take as an example Venezuela's "overly-creative"President Hugo Chavez who released his own music CD called "Canciones de Siempre", with rancheras and folkloric music from Venezuela, sang by...him (who else?), taken out of his radio show "Aló, Presidente." Maybe next CD can be a duet with Ecuador's Rafael Correa who is also known for singing. Creative? YES! Chavez also has great quotes, like in 2006 UN assembly when stepping up to the podium he said "ayer el diablo estuvo aquí, huele a azufre todavía"(the devil was here yesterday, it still smells like sulfur), referring to US president George W. Bush. Creative? YES YES!

For Argentina's Cristina Fernández de Krichner, on Wikileaks documents, US diplomacy puts her "mental health" in doubt. Sometimes creativity comes with madness, right? Lets give her an overly-creative point for that!