Category: India

Say goodbye to the world’s longest flight

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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This weekend, Singapore Airlines will terminate its iconic, non-stop all-business-class service to New York – also the world`s longest flight – as the aviation sector grapples with high fuel prices and subdued demand for premium travel.

The cancellation of the direct route, which shuttles passengers between Changi and Newark within 18.5 hours and costs around USD 8,800, has come as a disappointment to business travelers who now face an additional six hours or so in travel time.

Read more: How you`re being nickel and dimed by airlines

“It`s disappointing that a direct flight to the US is no longer available. I feel that it was decently full every time we were on it. The timing of the direct flight works best for business travelers,” said Singapore-based Sheena Mahtani, who travels to New York for work multiple times a year.

“The SQ flight via Frankfurt would probably be the only other Singapore-New York option that would work,” she added, referring to the flight with duration of over 24 hours.

Operating exclusive, non-stop flights to the US has brought about intangible benefits for Singapore`s flag carrier, including helping it to win and maintain key corporate accounts, according to Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA).

“There was also the glamour and prestige associated with operating the world`s longest non-stop routes. But ultimately the incredible cost of operating an ultra-long-range service could not be ignored,” CAPA said in a recent report on long-range travel.

According to industry experts, despite opting for an all-business configuration and charging a premium over its one-stop services in the same market, the yields were not high enough to offset the high operating costs.

Read more: Singapore Airlines hit by cutbacks in premium class

In 2008, the airline re-configured its A340-500 aircraft used on the non-stop route to 100 business class seats from 117 premium economy and 64 business class seats. During that year, premium accounted for over 9.5 percent of total passengers, compared with 8 percent currently, according to data from International Air Transport Association (IATA).

“At the current high price of fuel, making a profit off such long flights became nearly an impossible mission even when filling the plane with premium passengers,” CAPA said.

Timothy Ross, analyst at Credit Suisse says while the non-stop flight was a “differentiator” for the airline, the natural inclination for passengers will be to switch to the airline`s one-stop service.

“There`s a high level of loyalty to Singapore airlines. I don`t think the impact is going to be anything other than marginal,” Ross said. “People attracted by a lower price point are already flying competitors, such as Emirates,” he added.

Read more: Airlines cash in on every inch, even the jammed bins overhead

Meantime, Singapore Airlines, which also ended its non-stop service to Los Angeles at the end of October, says that it remains “very committed” to the US market.

“Over the past 2-3 years we have increased capacity to both Los Angeles and New York by deploying A380 superjumbos on flights via Tokyo and Frankfurt,” a spokesperson for the airline for CNBC via email.

-By CNBC`s Ansuya Harjani; Follow her on Twitter:@Ansuya_H

Copyright 2011 cnbc.com

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

From McDonald’s to Michelin: Rise of polish cuisine

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Two decades ago, the biggest gastronomic event in Poland was the opening of the country`s first McDonald`s. Now, Michelin-starred dishes like pike with baby duck`s blood have arrived, as the country undergoes a culinary renaissance.

Photos from the Golden Arches` arrival in Warsaw in 1992 show Poland`s then political and cultural figures queuing for Big Macs with thousands of ordinary Poles. At that time, the arrival of the US fast food giant was a key moment as the country opened up to Western cultural influences.

Now, Polish cuisine is branching out from its traditional sausage, potato and cabbage image as a new generation of chefs embraces and redefines it.

“It was like Polish cuisine has joined the family of great cuisines around the world,” Wojciech Modest Amaro, the chef behind Atelier Amaro, the recipient of Poland`s first Michelin star, told CNBC.

Amaro, whose restaurant charges a hefty 320 zloty (USD102) per head for an eight-course menu, with another 199 zloty for matching Polish spirits, aims to establish Polish cooking alongside the great cuisines of the world. It is planning to open another restaurant in a more prominent city like New York, London or Berlin in the next three years.

As well as being trained at El Bulli, which was regularly voted the best restaurant in the world before it closed its doors in 2012, Amaro has also worked at another world-beating restaurant, Noma, famous for its use of foraging for ingredients.

Part of the reason for Amaro`s success is the quality of produce available. Poland`s small farms saw a flood of urban emigres return during the transition from communism to capitalism. While this has created some problems – farmers are notoriously low earners because the average farm size is still very small – one positive aspect is that there are high-quality cheeses, meats and vegetables available.

The farmers markets springing up around the country give these smaller producers the chance to display their wares.

“Poland is a green field,” Amaro said. “It`s a very natural country… We have all these small producers here and they are trendy around the globe right now.”

With prices at the very top end of the spectrum, Atelier Amaro`s clientele is around 60 percent foreign tourists and business travellers, who he hopes will help spread the word about the improvement in Polish food.

The international reputation of Poland`s food could also be helped by the publication of From a Polish Country Kitchen, a cookery book by Pulitzer award-winning journalist (and wife of Polish politician Radek Sikorski) Anne Applebaum.

Walking around Warsaw, it is still international cuisines like Italian and American which dominate the landscape.

A number of more affordable Polish restaurants are springing up to cater to the country`s growing middle class. And the celebrity chef trend is on the rise, according to Marta Glinka, a Warsaw food blogger.

“There are more and more signature places appearing where the chef is the creator and element attracting guests to restaurants. This is standard abroad, but a very fresh trend in Poland,” she said.

“The quality of the food is very good, and ingredients like beef are no longer imported by good restaurants.”

– By CNBC`s Catherine Boyle. Twitter: @cboylecnbc.

Copyright 2011 cnbc.com

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Hate your job? You probably live in the US

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The relentless drudgery of working nine ’til five is a common gripe all over the world, but according to a survey by recruitment website Monster.com, US workers hate going to the office the most.

The survey, which was sponsored by Monster.com and conducted by market research firm GfK, found that 15 percent of American workers said they disliked or hated their jobs. This was the highest level of job dissatisfaction among workers surveyed in seven countries.

GfK interviewed 8,000 people as part of the survey over the telephone, including 1,007 respondents based in the US For the countries profiled – Canada, France, Germany, India, Netherlands, UK and US -respondents were asked to choose one of five options when asked how they felt about their jobs: love it, like it a lot, like it, don`t like it, don`t love it at all.

Read more: Nearly half of global employees unhappy in jobs: Survey

Of the US candidates, just over half said they liked or loved their jobs, while 31 percent said they were merely satisfied. However, despite having the highest level of dissatisfied workers, the US also clocked the highest amount of workers who said they loved their jobs so much they would do it for free, at 22 percent.

Canadians are the happiest workforce, according to the findings of the survey, with 64 percent liking or loving their jobs and only 7 percent saying they disliked or hated work.

Other happier workforces included the Netherlands and India, where 57 percent and 55 percent of the respondents said they were happy in their jobs, respectively. India had the lowest level of respondents saying they hated their jobs, at 5 percent.

Read more: Americans hate their jobs, even with office perks

“What is striking about the findings is that the strength of a country`s labor market doesn`t necessarily correlate with workforce contentment,” said Chris Moessner, vice president for public affairs, GfK. “While workers in challenged markets may have had fewer opportunities to advance in terms of promotions or salary during the recent downturn, it has not necessarily affected their happiness,” he added.

The survey also delved into possible links between monetary compensation and job satisfaction and found that US workers with the lowest salary were the most likely to be unhappy at work. More than one in five paid less than USD 50,000 per annum said they either disliked or hated their jobs.

“Regardless of what a worker`s priorities are – being challenged, feeling valued or even making more money – it`s important for anyone who is not in love with their jobs to remain vigilant about finding [a] better [job],” said Joanie Ruge, employment industry advisor and senior vice president of Monster.

Read more: Just 14% of global firms to hire in 2014: Survey

From a regional perspective, workers in the Northeast of the US are most satisfied with their jobs, with 60 percent saying they liked or loved their jobs. Only 48 percent in the Mid-West and 45 percent in the South said the same.

On average, US workers have longer working weeks and a smaller allotment of vacation time compared with other countries worldwide.

According to economic research website FRED, the average employee in America works around 1,700 hours per year, while the average employee in France worked around 1,480. Workers in Asia work much longer hours, with Singaporeans putting in a whopping 2,300 hours a year.

-By CNBC`s Katie Holliday: Follow her on Twitter @hollidaykatie

Copyright 2011 cnbc.com

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China makes right noises on yuan, but doubts remain

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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China’s central bank is making all the right noises when it comes to moving towards opening up its domestic currency, but analysts warn that any concrete action is still a long way off.

On Tuesday after China’s central bank reiterated its plan to gradually stop intervening in its foreign exchange market, the dollar index, which trades against other major currencies, slipped 0.3 percent.

“One thing that we have to remember, we had a huge raft of reforms announced as part of the third plenum, but none of it is really happening today, tomorrow or indeed next week,” said Robert Rennie, global head of FX strategy at Westpac Bank.

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The comments were made by Zhou Xiaochuan, head of the People’s Bank of China, in a guidebook explaining reforms outlined last week following a Communist Party meeting, but Rennie told CNBC they did not necessarily translate into hopes for immediate action.

“Yes we get a clear sense that the PBOC is going to remove or reduce the very frequent intervention into this market, but they don’t tell us when it’s going to happen,” he added.

The PBOC comments are the latest in a series of rhetoric from Chinese central bankers indicating that plans to fully float the yuan are being sped up. In May, a letter from a senior researcher at the PBOC said the yuan would be fully floated by 2015-2016.

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Currently, the yuan is only allowed to trade within a range of around 1 percent either side of a daily-fixed mid-point.

And in another encouraging move, a day after Zhou Xiaochuan’s comments, the PBOC fixed the yuan’s mid-point versus the dollar at 6.1305, its highest level since the landmark revaluation in 2005, an indication that the central bank is comfortable with its strength. The yuan has strengthened 2.21 percent against the dollar year to date.

Simon Derrick, chief currency strategist at BNY Mellon, told CNBC Asia’s Squawk Box on Tuesday he was convinced the opening up of the yuan remained a “big story,” but said it was careful not to get carried away.

“At the moment it is no more than words but we did get intimations out at least back in May…so I do think we are getting a sense of the timeline as to when this is going to happen,” he said.

“[But] what we going for here is a managed flow of some kind. I think we’ll have a reasonably wide trading band and I think it’s going to look a little like the ruble rather than anything else… It won’t be a free floating currency in the way we recognize it,” said Derrick, referring to Russia’s domestic currency, which is freely traded to a certain extent but is still subject to intervention.

Read more: Here’s What China Is Secretly Planning for the Yuan

Westpac`s Rennie told CNBC he remained bullish on the yuan, boosted by the country`s extensive reform plans and more positive economic data in recent months.

“Long China and short Taiwan are the trades that make sense, [but] we wouldn`t be looking for a rapid move lower in dollar-yuan right now though,” he added.

China has announced a number of currency swap deals this year, one with the euro zone in October and the UK in June, also helping to boost sentiment.

Meanwhile in September, the yuan was ranked one of the world`s top ten most frequently traded currencies for the first time ever, in a Bank of International Settlements survey; it ranked ninth.

Other factors putting downward pressure on the dollar also contributed to yuan strength recently. The Federal Reserve’s vice-chair Janet Yellen last week confirmed her intentions to keep monetary policy easy for some time, which has led to some dollar selling.

– By CNBC`s Katie Holliday: Follow her on Twitter @hollidaykatie

Copyright 2011 cnbc.com

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Singapore has fewer women in boardrooms than China

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Despite having a high workforce participation rate for women and one of highest literary rates for women in the region, Singapore significantly lags global peers in the number of females on the boards of its publicly-listed companies, a new study found.

Of the 677 Singapore Exchange (SGX)-listed companies studied, 7.9 percent of board directors were women, a report by National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School and BoardAgender showed.

While, this is a slight improvement from 7.3 percent and 6.9 percent in 2012 and 2011, respectively, Singapore is far behind regional and developed nation peers.

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Female representation in boardrooms stood at 9.0 percent in China, 9.4 percent in Hong Kong, 11.6 percent in Indonesia and 15.8 percent in Australia, according this year`s study.

“The bleak data on Singapore is a surprise considering the country is known for meritocracy and provides both men and women equal opportunity in both education and employment,” said Kelly Teoh, market strategist at IG.

At the current rate of improvement, it will take until 2026 for Singapore to catch up to regional benchmark Australia – that is, if Australia remains at current gender diversity levels, the report said.

Most developed countries recorded a rate above 15 percent, with 16.6 percent in the US and 17.0 percent in the European Union. Scandinavian nations Finland, Sweden and Norway, meanwhile, ranged between 27 and 41 percent.

Read more: Top boardrooms: No-go areas for women, minorities

In an analysis of the relationship between the proportion of female directors and firm performance, the study found that more gender diversity had a positive effect on return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE), but not stock market returns.

Board diversity was also positive for corporate governance. Companies featuring above-average female board representation scored higher on factors such as transparency and investor relations as well as accounting and auditing.

“Bringing this back to the financial markets…in situations where investors find that stock prices no longer justify valuations, they will now be able add another measure to the growth potential of a company by looking at the quality and diversity of its board members, said Teoh.

Read more: South Korean women struggle in workforce

-By CNBC’s Ansuya Harjani; Follow her on Twitter:Ansuya_H

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Oxford Dictionaries word of the year is

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Selfie was named as Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year on Tuesday, following a sharp rise in the usage of the term, which refers to a photograph one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.

The frequency of the word selfie in the English language has risen some 17,000 percent from a year ago, research conducted by Oxford Dictionaries editors shows.

“Using the Oxford Dictionaries language research program, which collects around 150 million words of current English in use each month, we can see a phenomenal upward trend in the use of selfie in 2013, and this helped to cement its selection as Word of the Year,” Judy Pearsall, editorial director for Oxford Dictionaries, said in a statement.

Read more: ‘Selfie’ and ‘phablet’ added to the English dictionary

Selfie is just one word among others such as phablet and coffice that have made it into modern-day language. Another buzz word this year has been twerk, which refers to dancing in a sexually provocative manner and made famous by singer Miley Cyrus at the MTV Video Music Awards in August.

Read more: ‘Coffices’ take off as the work place goes mobile

The words twerk, digital currency Bitcoin and binge-watch, which means watching multiple episodes of a TV program in quick succession, were all on the short list for Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year.

According to Oxford Dictionaries, while the word ‘selfie’ has been around for a few years, its usage has shot up in the past 12 months.

It said the use of the word has become mainstream thanks to social media and photo-sharing websites such as Instagram and Flickr, with the widespread use of smartphones ensuring that selfies are easier to produce and share.

Photos of well-known personalities posing for photos taken by a mobile phone may have helped the growing popularity of the term.

Read more: Funeral ‘selfies’? Yes, people actually do that

Pope Francis, leader of the estimated 1.2 billion Catholics around the world, posed with young Italians for a photo taken by a phone earlier this year in what has been described as the first papal selfie.

Selfie is not yet in the Oxford English Dictionary, but is being considered for future inclusion, Oxford Dictionaries said.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Shoplifting cost the world USD 112 bn last year

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Retail theft, or “shrink”- a loss of inventory due to factors such as shoplifting, employee or supplier fraud and organized retail crime – cost retailers over USD 112 billion worldwide last year, according to the 2012-2013 Global Retail Theft Barometer.

Shrink rose in most countries with global retailers blaming sluggish economic recoveries and organized retail crime for high theft rates, according to a study by retail security firm Checkpoint Systems and market research company Euromonitor.

“As a growing share of the population struggles to meet its financial obligations, the occurrence of both shoplifting and employee theft reportedly rose,” the report said.

“Shoplifting is on average the most important cause of shrinkage in all countries reviewed, followed by employee theft,” it added.

Read more: Retailers track employee thefts in vast databases

The study surveyed 157 companies in 16 countries covering 160,000 stores. The companies generated more than USD 1.5 trillion in sales in 2012.

The highest shrink rates were recorded in Brazil and Mexico at 1.6 percent of overall retail sales, followed closely by the US and China at 1.5 percent.

The lowest rates were seen in Japan and Australia at 1.0 and 1.1 percent, respectively.

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The most stolen merchandise are typically small, easy to steal and hide, have a relatively high value and offer the possibility of resale.

These include fashion accessories, jeans, footwear and lingerie, high-value electronics such as Apple products, electronic games, mobile device accessories and consumer health products including allergy treatments and milk formula.

“Shrink is a multi-dimensional threat for retailers across the globe, with shoplifting and employee theft, including organized crime, on the rise,” said Katharina Kunze, associate consultant at Euromonitor.

“Growing shrink concerns have put loss prevention high on the agenda of retail companies keen to invest in effective and proven loss prevention methods such as collaborating with technology companies and specialists for loss management solutions,” Kunze said.

Read more: Retailers sweeten the pot for Thanksgiving workers

-By CNBC`s Ansuya Harjani; Follow her on Twitter:@Ansuya_H

Copyright 2011 cnbc.com

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Too soon to dismiss China’s ‘vague’ plenum?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The bland statement following China’s hotly anticipated Third Plenum meeting of the Communist Party’s 18th Central Committee has left many analysts feeling flat, but some have warned against dismissing the vague statement.

Hopes were high for this year’s plenum, especially after President Xi Jinping excited investors by talking up a “Master Plan” for reform, and as, historically, third plenums have marked major turning points in economic policy.

Following a third plenum meeting in 1978, for example, President Deng Xiaoping unveiled landmark reforms that triggered three decades of rapid economic expansion, but the importance of his plans were not widely appreciated at the time.

Read More: China’s early-bird investors are left holding the worm

“Looking back at China’s reform history, it was the decisive action that followed the third plenums of the 11th [1978], 12th [1984] and 14th [1993] Party Congress that made those meetings the turning points of the Chinese economy,” said Wei Yao, China economist at Societe Generale.

“The plenum that just concluded has the potential to mark a new beginning of positive changes. Now having said what needs to be said, the new leaders should do what needs to be done,” she added.

Although the 5000-word communiqué published on Tuesday, which precedes an official document set to be released in a week’s time, has come under fire for its vague language and lack of concrete action, analysts have noted some important points were made.

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Most notably, policy makers talk about how markets are set to play a more “decisive role” in the allocation of resources, a marked change from the old language assigning market a “basic” role. Meanwhile, the mention of the creation of a special committee tasked specifically with spearheading reform has also been viewed as an encouraging sign, along with the deadline for achieving decisive results by 2020.

Another important point analysts have noted is talk of reform to the nation`s two-tier system of land ownership, which under current rules means farmers who move to cities are not able to sell land back home. Societe Generale’s Yao described this development as a “major breakthrough.”

However, a lot was left unsaid. In the run up to the plenum, many had hoped to see progress on opening up China’s state owned enterprises (SOEs), a step seen by many investors as vital to fully opening up the economy, but the issue was not mentioned, along with any changes to the Hukou system (a residential registration system that ties citizens to their home towns).

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Also, while the communique talked about improving the financial market system there were no specific references to banks, interest rates or the domestic currency.

Capital Economics chief Asia economist Mark Williams said it was “hard to get excited” about the Third Plenum communiqué, due to its lack of detail and its seemingly conflicting message.

He pointed out that many of the issues that required attention did get a mention, but that a conflict between giving the markets a greater role and the continued strong backing for the state, in terms of no progress on reforming SOEs, presented a confused message.

“Without a clearly-articulated vision to guide officials at various levels of government, we suspect that reformers will struggle to push piecemeal efforts against the opposition of vested interests,” he said.

Read more: China Singles Day could dwarf America`s Cyber Monday

However, Williams added that it was perhaps too soon to view the third plenum as a “flop,” and it was important to see Tuesday`s communique as just an overview.

Analysts at the Royal Bank of Scotland pointed out the communiqué following the plenum was about the “gradual reform…not about rapid change.”

“On several specific areas of reform… this document says little. That does not mean that there is no scope for movement in those areas. The `Decisions document’ [the final document set to be released in a week] that is meant to follow is likely to discuss them,” said the RBS analysts.

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“It is too early to say whether the reform directions and orientations agreed at the plenum will meet the expectations in those closely watched areas,” they added.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

China Singles Day could dwarf America’s Cyber Monday

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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November 11 marks Singles Day in China, the anti-Valentine`s Day where bachelors and bachelorettes celebrate single life, which today has evolved into the biggest day for online shopping in the country akin to America`s Cyber Monday.

From singles-themed products such as boyfriend body pillows to apparel and wine – online retailers are dishing out hefty discounts to lure the nation`s over 240 million online consumers.

This year, online sales from the holiday are forecast to hit around USD 5 billion, according to China Market Research Group, 20 percent higher than 2012. This compares to USD 1.5 billion in sales during Cyber Monday last year, which are expected to touch nearly USD 2.3 billion this year, according to Adobe.

“Singles Day has become a hugely important day for retailers. The discounting today has been the talk of consumers, from millennials to 40-year-olds. Aside from Chinese New Year, this is becoming one of the key days for retails to launch promotions,” Shaun Rein, Shanghai-based managing director of China Market Research Group, told CNBC.

“Above and beyond singles, everyone knows that it is a day of great deals. Chinese youth are getting more frustrated because of rising real estate costs so they are shifting to purchases that make themselves happy,” he added.

Chinese are more excited about e-commerce as they can buy products that are not sold in brick and mortar stores near their homes, said Rein. The profile of an average online shopper is a young, middle-class consumer living in a tier-two or tier-three city, who often lack a wide variety of retail choices.

E-commerce players such as China`s biggest e-retailer Alibaba Group , which operates websites such as Tmall and Taobao, are standout winners of the online sales bonanza. Taobao specializes in consumer-to-consumer commerce similar to eBay, and Tmall links small and large businesses and brands to consumers, like Amazon Marketplace.

Alibaba, which processed USD 3.1 billion of transactions during Singles Day in 2012, expects sales to exceed USD 4.9 billion this year, according to Xinhua News Agency. The company is preparing to handle more than 100 million packages this year, up from 78 million last year, the Financial Times reported.

Logistics companies will also be beneficiaries, as will domestic banks including China Merchants Bank and credit card providers like Visa and Unionpay, said Rein.

Western brands are also tapping into the shopping frenzy. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which launched its flagship online store on Tmall.com in March, for example, is taking part in Singles Day for the first time.

“On our website, traffic tripled in the last five days, and we`re hoping to see a month`s worth of sales happening in one single day,” said Isaiah Cheung, vice president, Greater China at Microsoft.

(Read more: China overhauls consumer protection laws )

-By CNBC`s Ansuya Harjani; Follow her on Twitter:@Ansuya_H

Copyright 2011 cnbc.com

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Selfies at funerals puts last nail in society’s coffin

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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No moment in life is either too serious or too trivial to pass without someone providing a rapid, vapid response through social media.

“Love my hair today. Hate why I’m dressed up #funeral”, reads the caption of a self-portrait snapped by a young woman dressed in black. Another photo of a blonde pouting in her pink bedroom with a “Keep Calm and Rock On” sign is titled, simply, “depressing funeral selfie.”

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Yes, that is depressing; we don’t even know how to be depressed anymore. There is tedium in every social medium to the point where even death becomes boring.

A collection of strangely un-sad Instagrams, Tweets, and Facebook posts have been gathered together at a Tumblr blog (naturally) called, “Selfies at Funerals.”

“Killin the selfie game at pop’s funeral,” tweets a joyful young man mocking a piece of statuary. Pop’s gotta be proud. So proud he may rise up from the dead and slap you. (I hope so!)

Harsh? Katy Waldman at Slate.com says I should all calm down a little.

“Is it somehow more tasteful, even nobler, to keep grief private? If that’s the case, the problem with Internet mourning far predates the Internet: People have been putting their sadness on display—wearing black, holding ceremonies—since the ancient Greeks first hired mourners to tear out their hair at funerals. Social media may make it easier to launch a stream of frown-y faces into the ether, but Mark Zuckerberg didn’t invent the impulse to reach out when you’re hurting.”

(Read more: Who’s viewing from your Instagram, and profiting?)

True, if you’re hurting or if you’re sad. But if you’re just amazed at how much you’re rockin’ the outfit while Cousin Jamie is laid out in a coffin, well, that’s not grief; it’s a symptom of our collective cultural death wish, a bad case of Kardashianitis.

Believe me, I’m as guilty as anyone. I’ve posted selfies looking my absolute worst all done up in foil under a hair dryer at the salon. I tweeted a photo of all the functions available on a public toilet in Japan (though, technically, you don’t see me in the photo, but you get the picture, if you know what I mean). I, like so many others, need to step away from the “send” and “share” buttons. But even I wouldn’t snap a self-portrait inside a funeral home with Grandma visible in her open casket behind me. Someone else did that.

An article from New Zealand teaches us there are five places where you should not take selfies, including holocaust memorials, especially when smiling and giving a thumbs up.

One other suggestion: don’t take a selfie dressed up as a robber before you go out and (allegedly) commit robbery, like these two teenage girls did.

(Read more: Instagram, other sites go down)

So what’s next? What annoyingly self-absorbed Everest is left to climb? “Colonoscopy selfies,” joked @jakejakeny.

Too late.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow