March 27th, 2006 § 0
On one side of the barricade was girl carrying a sign that said, “Instead of porn, show us Godly relationships.” On the other, a woman held one that said, “I moved here to get away from people like you.”
SF Chronical: Evangelical rally in SF
Popularity: 1% [?]
March 8th, 2006 § 0
When you think of how to promote a new product, when you’re trying to get the word out about your new show or you need to raise money for a new venture, some of Seth Godin’s May ‘05 tips on what’s hot and what’s not in marketing could help clear your head. On his website there are many more from which this selection is copied.
- Products that are remarkable get talked about.
- Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your returns policy.
- You can’t fool all the people, not even most of the time. And people, once unfooled, talk about the experience.
- People don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.
- Business to business marketing is just marketing to consumers who happen to have a corporation to pay for what they buy.
- Traditional ways of interrupting consumers are losing their cost-effectiveness. At the same time, new ways of spreading ideas (blogs, permission-based RSS information, consumer fan clubs) are quickly proving how well they work.
- People all over the world, and of every income level, respond to marketing that promises and delivers basic human wants.
- People are selfish, lazy, uninformed and impatient. Start with that and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
- Marketing that works is marketing that people choose to notice.
- Choose your customers. Fire the ones that hurt your ability to deliver the right story to the others.
Seth Godin on what every marketer needs to know
Seth Godin’s Blog
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February 20th, 2006 § 0
The American Government’s elite research body DARPA has created a game for troops that aims to teach common Arabic styles and approaches with body language. The game is important beecause body language plays such an important role in relations between soldiers and civilians who do not speak the same language.
One of the system’s creators says the training tool, known as Tactical Iraqi, has already been a great success. Hannes Vilhjalmsson, a research scientist at the University of Southern California, gave details of the Tactical Iraqi at a conference in St Louis, US.
The program teaches military personnel Arabic language skills and some key gestures such as an up-down movement with the right hand to ask someone to slow down and gives them tips such as removing mirror sunglasses when approaching local people.
US troops taught Iraqi gestures
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January 28th, 2006 § 2
The hoi-polloi are out in Switzerland this week with Bono launching a ‘Red’ credit card to benefit aids, Gates announcing he’s tripling his TB-fund and logistics firms declaring that they’re going to mightily piss of aid charities by pitching in ‘for free’ when a major disaster strikes (implying that Oxfam doesn’t know how to deliver its own aid but DHL does). Davos sucks. It seems like the kind of place where nobody with a real grasp of the outside world could penetrate. It seems so truely undemocratic in the way that it’s the rich and powerful only. Why not ‘the top world executives’ and ‘the world’s top academics’. What’s to stop a bit of critical input? Why is it that only those advisors on the payroll of the rich and famous are given the opportunity to speak to anyone who can make a difference?
At the same time, women don’t yet really have much of a position at the forum, more often than not being mistaken for somebody’s secretary or assistant. Women, it seems, just can’t get out of the shadow of those big strong men!
“When I put my card (down) saying I’m going to speak, before they saw my card they said, `Where’s your minister?’ I said, `I am the minister,’” Al Qasimi said. In social circles, even with her colleagues and employees, “there’s always this assumption that I’m somebody’s wife.”
Washington Post: The World Economic Forum is still an elite club
Popularity: 1% [?]
January 28th, 2006 § 0
And worst of all, author James Frey had Oprah lampooning him! The shame!
Pressed by Winfrey on why the company didn’t do independent fact-checking, Talese said, “This whole experience is very sad.”
“It’s not sad for me,” Winfrey replied. “It’s embarrassing and disappointing for me.”
Washington Post: The Oprah Example
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January 23rd, 2006 § 5
A decision has been made to give the body to the Natural History Museum after all the tests are complete and it will clean the bones and preserve them for scientific research. The museum has had the right to examine all whale carcasses that wash ashore in Britain since 1913.
In most cases when it comes to disposing of the flesh, if a carcass contains poisonous substances – from chemicals dumped in the sea – it will be classed as toxic waste and have to be incinerated. If untoxic, it will probably be disposed of in a landfill site.
As for the voluntary organisation that tried to rescue the whale, British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), there is no onus on the government, the city, the Queen or anyone else to cover the cost of the rescue attempt, which reportedly includes more than £300 worth of parking fines.
Source: BBC News
Popularity: 1% [?]
January 21st, 2006 § 0
The Liberal Democrat party in the UK has been going through a period of slow-motion panic over the last couple of weeks. Their leader was about to be exposed as a long term alcoholic and so took the preemptive step of publicly disclosing his problem. Then the Members of Parliament booted him out of that position. They didn’t want a leader who for days was unavailable, was unreliable and had secrets, so after a short but vociferous whispering campaign, he resigned.
Coming into the spotlight were many individuals who’d been just under the radar of popular recognition. Many of them were completely run of the mill and unexpected, others old hands who deserve (if that’s possible) a chance to make change. This paints a picture of dire political crisis that isn’t strictly accurate. During the 2005 national general election the Liberal Democrats achieved their highest vote percentage ever with a strong increase in Members of Parliament.
What’s silly though is the consideration of some that they might be a candidate or that the public ever would vote in someone who they can’t even name-check:
One of the most obvious lessons I extract from the messy fall of Charles Kennedy is that the party cannot afford to have another leader who does not enjoy the unambiguous loyalty of the overwhelming majority of his parliamentary colleagues. A leader who spends his time looking over his shoulder to make sure his own colleagues are on side cannot be effective in making advances against the other parties. This, I should perhaps add in answer to a little media speculation, is one of the many reasons why I never entertained the idea of standing in the contest myself. A rookie MP, barely arrived in the House of Commons, would need to spend far too much time establishing his authority in Westminster. We need a leader who has got the clout to hit the ground running, make bold decisions, from day one.
This comment comes from Nick Clegg, a man who only just got elected in the 2005 election having been an MEP in Brussels and working at the European Commission previously. One year of backbench experience does not a leader make. Go and sit in a cupboard for five years and then think again Mr Clegg. He’s excellent and has done some amazing work in Brussels on opening up markets, but he’s not got the clout to be the leader yet, not for a long time.
Guardian Newspaper: Nick Clegg Comment: It’s a marathon, not a sprint
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December 17th, 2005 § 0
Aged 58, Spencer, who was most famous for his role as US Presidential Chief Of Staff in the NBC show ‘The West Wing’, died of a heart attack on Friday 16th December. He had a wit, a cheery smile and an appearance of wholesomeness that was an ever attractive quality and a joy to watch. He was certainly one of the most engaging actors I’ve watched, which I say having obsessed about The West Wing for the last six years of my life since the show first aired in September ‘99. It took a while for the show to cross the Atlantic but Spencer’s role as part of the team that made the fictional White House so real can’t be over estimated.
He will be missed by many but forgotten by few.
Executive Producers Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme also said, “We’re shocked and deeply saddened by the sudden death of our friend and colleague. John was an uncommonly good man, an exceptional role model and a brilliant actor. We feel privileged to have known him and worked with him. He’ll be missed and remembered everyday by his many, many friends.”
ComingSoon.net: West Wing Actor John Spencer Dies
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September 19th, 2005 § 0
The incentive to sign up new customers is great in Europe but in the US it’s even more pronounced because banks send out 1,937 pieces of marketing information for every new sign-up.
US banks lose $50bn to phantom fraudsters
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