The Morals of Monkeys? Don't speak too soon!
Cultural genesis suspect. The case for a genetic morality- from way, way back.
Our primate ancestors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/science/20moral.html?ei=5087%0A&em=&en=3aa8caacde344310&ex=1174708800&pagewanted=all
Human Risk Assessment (Poor)
Wired News: Human Brain a Poor Judge of Risk
Scientist Finds the Beginnings of Morality in Primate Behavior - New York Times
Morality not cultural. Genetic, and from way, way back.
Controversial, like all theories. Not an especially new one, either.
Scientist Finds the Beginnings of Morality in Primate Behavior - New York Times
Morality not cultural. Genetic, and from way, way back.
Controversial, like all theories. Not an especially new one, either.
Economist War Support
In your cover article, "Next Stop Iran?" (Feb. 10, 2007), it is reassuring that your position on a potential US attack against Iran is conscientious: Caution.
What about 'last time'?
In your courageous mea culpa-cum-justification since losing the true religion along the way, we are informed ad inf. that The Economist supported the US invasion of a sovereign country to destroy both non existent weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and fudged "terrorist" connections. When the first two banalities dried up and blew away, the Neo Con-Fundamentalist crusade to reform America's ex ally, bad man Saddam and his country, somehow also received your magazine's support.
"This newspaper supported America's invasion of Iraq. We believed, erroneously, that Saddam Hussein was working to acquire nuclear weapons. And we judged that the world should not allow a mass-murderer to gather such lethal power in his hands. In the case of Iran, the balance of risks points, though only just, in the other direction."
Everyone makes mistakes. But on such a scale? I am a long time admirer of The Economist. However, your reputation has suffered irreparable harm from your impetuous rush to join the fray. It is only slightly pardonable because this is not a trait with which you are normally associated. I suggest at least caution, if not better judgement the next time you seek to influence the world. Well before the planes flew, too many of us saw what you apparently did not. Too many of us recognized the hype on TV. Too many understood, if not the game below the surface, that there WAS one- that we should not call into serious question your editorial judgement. Kindly do your readership a favor: Drop further references to your excuses for supporting the worst judgement of the worst leader of the free world in our lifetime. Thank you.
Bob Beadle
Peninsula de Marau, Bahia
Brazil
www.maraupeninsula.com
Crocs® Off the Tracks
Crocs® are trying hard to link to sailing imagery, part of their origins. Beating a dead horse, they have added boat shoe tops. Instead of linking directly to sailing to consolidate the authentic image they own. Besides, all that leather is absurd, absolutely unnecessary.
I think Croc®'s are gonna blow up. Ive just received the latest catalog. Instead of sticking to promotion of what they do best
using the Beach VBall Tour, etc, they are expanding through line extension, with all sorts of very conventional model adaptations. Line extension is a temptation, but always risky. Almost always falls flat on its face. Crocs® may be driven by fear of the knockoffs. Fear makes for mistakes. There are plenty of clones at super low price points already. Making Croc® girlie shoes wont fend them off.
Crocs® must be thinking: more models, more volume, more shelfspace in stores, more chance to block copies that don't offer the range. And just abandon cheapo outlets to the Chinese.
Major error. Facing the clones, image is way more important than price.
Although the marketing strategy is easy to understand, it is desperate. Worse, it dilutes the Crocs® 'message'. It will rob them of their unique caché if they try to be all things to all people, as the latest catalog suggests.
They're also still selling direct to retailers, instead of careful brand management through exclusive national distributors who know their markets. Retailers are whores. "Kindly whores", as Hans Diesundtot put it.
I think Croc®'s are gonna blow up. Ive just received the latest catalog. Instead of sticking to promotion of what they do best
using the Beach VBall Tour, etc, they are expanding through line extension, with all sorts of very conventional model adaptations. Line extension is a temptation, but always risky. Almost always falls flat on its face. Crocs® may be driven by fear of the knockoffs. Fear makes for mistakes. There are plenty of clones at super low price points already. Making Croc® girlie shoes wont fend them off.
Crocs® must be thinking: more models, more volume, more shelfspace in stores, more chance to block copies that don't offer the range. And just abandon cheapo outlets to the Chinese.
Major error. Facing the clones, image is way more important than price.
Although the marketing strategy is easy to understand, it is desperate. Worse, it dilutes the Crocs® 'message'. It will rob them of their unique caché if they try to be all things to all people, as the latest catalog suggests.
They're also still selling direct to retailers, instead of careful brand management through exclusive national distributors who know their markets. Retailers are whores. "Kindly whores", as Hans Diesundtot put it.
Game, Set....
Game Over: Thirty-Six Sure-Fire Signs That Your Empire Is Crumbling
by David Michael Green
So. You've built yourself an empire, eh?
Well, bully for you!
What's next, you ask? Well, now you've got to do what everybody does when they have an empire, of course. You've got to worry about it falling apart, mate!
But how to tell for sure? Let me see if I can be helpful. Here are some rules of thumb to keep in mind, thirty-six sure-fire indicators that your empire is falling apart:
You know your empire's crumbling when the folks who are gearing up their empire to replace yours start blowing up satellites in space. And then they don't bother to return your phone calls when you ring up to ask why.
You know your empire's crumbling when those same folks are cutting deals left, right and center across Asia, Latin America and Africa, while you, your lousy terms, and your arrogant attitude are no longer welcome.
You know your empire's crumbling when you're spending your grandchildren's money like a drunken sailor, and letting your soon-to-be rivals finance your little splurge (i.e., letting them own your country).
You know your empire's crumbling when it's considered an achievement to pretend that you've halved the rate at which you're adding to the massive mountain of debt you've already accumulated.
You know your empire's crumbling when you weaken your currency until it looks as anemic as a Paris runway model, and you're still setting record trade deficits. (Hint: Because you're not making anything anymore.)
You know your empire's crumbling when "the little brown ones" (thank you George H.W. Bush – certainly not me – for that lovely expression) in country after country of "your backyard" blow you off and proudly elect anti-imperialist leftist governments.
You know your empire's crumbling when you can't topple those governments and replace them with nice puppet regimes – like in the good old days – even if you wanted to. And you badly want to.
You know your empire's crumbling when one of their leaders comes to the United Nations and makes fun of your emperor, calling him the devil, and joking about smelling sulphur where he just stood. And though a few folks cringe, everybody laughs.
You know your empire's crumbling when just about your entire military land force is tied up in a worse-than-useless war launched on the basis of complete fabrications, that every day is actually making you less – not more – secure from external threat.
You know your empire's crumbling when almost half the soldiers in that war are high-paid mercenaries, and you don't dare institute a draft.
You know your empire's crumbling when you send soldiers into war with two weeks training and a lack of armor, and then you keep them there for three, four and five rotations.
You know your empire's crumbling when a member of the Axis of Evil can test missiles and explode nuclear warheads, and all you can do about it is mumble some pathetic warnings about how they better not do that again or there will be consequences.
You know your empire's crumbling when you even think that there is an Axis of Evil.
You know your empire's crumbling when a rag-tag military hodge-podge of irregulars has you pinned down in an endless fight you can't win, but also can't lose.
You know your empire's crumbling when you're too dumb to even ban Humvees as a first step toward ending your dependency on a foreign-owned crucial resource.
You know your empire's crumbling when you trade your prior moral leadership on human rights issues for global disgust at your torture, 'extraordinary rendition' (a.k.a. kidnaping for torture) and the dismantling of nine centuries worth of civil liberties progress.
You know your empire's crumbling when you blow off international law that you once helped create, and undermine the institutions of international governance that you once helped build.
You know your empire's crumbling when opinion polls confirm that every month you're more and more despised throughout the world.
You know your empire's crumbling when you can't even pull off the hanging of a tin-pot murderous former dictator without turning him into a hero.
You know your empire's crumbling when you're the richest country in the world, but nearly 50 million of your people don't have basic health care coverage.
You know your empire's crumbling when the World Health Organization ranks your healthcare system 37th 'best' in the world, just above Slovenia, and just below Costa Rica. (And far below Colombia, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.)
You know your empire's crumbling when instead of making it easier for citizens to obtain a higher education, you're making it harder and more expensive.
You know your empire's crumbling when your government gives tax breaks to industries as a reward for exporting your jobs elsewhere.
You know your empire's crumbling when the so-called 'opposition' party can't even turn that obscenity into a viable campaign theme and use it to clobber the worst emperor in your history.
You know your empire's crumbling when your middle class has been stagnant for three decades, while the wealth of the hyper-rich continues to climb through the roof.
You know your empire's crumbling when your reaction to that is to exacerbate the problem by enacting tax policies that massively increase further still the gap between the rich and the rest.
You know your empire's crumbling when the predatory class has taken over your government and is stripping the country of everything not bolted down to the floor. And then it sells the floor itself, as well, to your rivals.
You know your empire's crumbling when you're spending tens of billions of dollars you don't own on new nuclear warheads and space weapons that don't work, to be used against an enemy you don't have.
You know your empire's crumbling when one of your cities drowns and your government does next to nothing before, during and after.
You know your empire's crumbling when a massive environmental nightmare is looming around the corner, and your emperor not only ignores it, but claims it isn't real while taking steps to exacerbate it.
You know your empire's crumbling when your emperor is warned by a CIA briefer of an imminent terrorist attack of vast proportions, and responds by remaining on vacation and dismissing the briefer with the words: "All right. You've covered your ass, now."
You know your empire's crumbling when the same emperor drops everything to fly across the country from his vacation home in order to sign a bill intervening on the wrong side of a personal medical drama involving a single family.
You know your empire's crumbling when gays and immigrants are used as diversionary issues to keep people from thinking about the pillaging of their country and their wallets actually taking place. And it works.
You know your empire's crumbling when people are getting more religious and less scientific, not the other way around.
You know your empire's crumbling when your political leaders start to be chosen by dynastic rules of succession.
And you especially know your empire's crumbling when the most idiotic child of one of the least accomplished leaders in its history is not only crowned as the next emperor, but is even revered for a time by most of the public as a great one.
Rome? Britain? Spain?
At this rate we'll be lucky to end up like Belgium.
Patriot Lies, Traitor Truths
The enemy is not always stupid.
Or wrong. Or a propagandist.
Our own leaders have proven themselves all three.
It's not unpatriotic to acknowledge the truth.
Accepting a lies, stupidity and propaganda is. From anyone.
Zawahiri message.......
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/22/zawahiri.video/index.html
Or wrong. Or a propagandist.
Our own leaders have proven themselves all three.
It's not unpatriotic to acknowledge the truth.
Accepting a lies, stupidity and propaganda is. From anyone.
Zawahiri message.......
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/22/zawahiri.video/index.html
Private Militaries in Iraq
Navy Seals article on private militaries (Halliburton, Bechtel, etc) run amuck in Iraq.
Law finally catches up to an error? Or a symptom of the rot?
http://www.navyseals.com/community/articles/article.cfm?id=10418
Law finally catches up to an error? Or a symptom of the rot?
http://www.navyseals.com/community/articles/article.cfm?id=10418
Movie Marathon
A few mini reviews from a recent movie splurge while visiting Rio, dodging the bad guys in the streets ....
"Volver" (Return), Pedro Almodovar-
This Almodovar still another slog through compelling domestic strife. And I'm feeling lonely once more. Everyone else likes his work.
The film mother of leading lady Penelope Cruz's excellently portrayed character returns ("volver"...) after 20 years away. Ever since that night so long ago when she set her husband and his hippy lover afire as they slept- the lover the mother of her good friend now dying of cancer. One imagines the murder was not especially for the betrayal of her marrriage bed, but because her daughter had also been impregnated by daddy, thus rendering Penelope's daughter her sister. Confusing, but it gets better...
Penelope's stand in father Paco tries to molest her daughter-sister in the kitchen, who of course stabs him to death as any decent, adopted daughter-sister would. And as any hysterical, dysfunctional wife-mother-sister also, Penelope stuffs Paco in the freezer until she has a moment in her busy life to bury him at their favorite, riverside trysting site.
The rest of the movie has Almodovar maneuvering characters between assassinations, incest, "the return" ad nauseum, cooking to pay the bills and XLNT plot complexity as everyone pretends or believes the returned mother must be a ghost. (?)
Driving home the title, we are treated to multiple "washing" and "revolving" (read: "returning") images. Endlessly repeated scenes of spinning windmills, a revolving front end loader washer closeup, characteristically Almodovar bird's eye views of Penelope washing the dishes, washing the blood off, washing clothes. Washing up, period. Out, damned spot!
But all's well that ends well, as the family- less Paco, the mother's ex husband and her friend's hippy mother- are happily reunited. And mother gets to wash away (again) her guilt. First, by caring as a ghost the family and villagers are somehow unaware of, for Aunt Paula until her death. Then, for her cancer ridden friend, the one whose mother she set aflame.
And like that. The rewards of of the life of your typical, dysfunctional Spanish family.
"Little Miss Sunshine", by an unknown duo with a recent, surprise nomination for an Oscar as Best Director(s)
Speaking of dysfunctional.... Wonderful acting and portrayal of the banality of goodness, an oxymoronically honest Hollywood reply to Tarantino and clones banality of evil of flicks, like Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, etc. It's hilarious, in your face, worth seeing. A failed Success Guru, his heroin addicted father kicked out of the nursing home, the dark, brooding son who has taken a vow of silence until his career as an astronaut takes off, the much suffering mother, and of course Little Miss Sunshine, whose hopes of mini stardom are doomed from the beginning. Great fun trekking down the highway, the whole family push starting their old VW bus with the by now dead father in back. A must see.
"White Planet", by some French photographers whose names I'll never remember anyway.
Tour de force photography in the Arctic, under, above and within the ice cap. What's left of it, that is, as the global warning finale graphically highlights. It's one of the best scenes, too. An aerial shot as an extremely anxious looking polar bear, grovels - swims - grovels across intermittent, crumbling ice flows and water until he finally reaches solid ice- and absolutely goes apeshit with joy. Closeups of whales, polar bear family, octopuses in mortal combat with crabs and eels, foxes, wolves on the hunt, fur seals and their pups hunted, walruses, elephant and leopard seals, birds of all kinds, etc. Photography not what you would call esthetically rendered, but truly impressive technology in a forbiddingly austere, beautiful world. One I for some reason found sad. I don't know why. An accessible, graphic natural history version of the otherwise excellent but statistic ladened Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truths", without the preaching. Worth seeing.
"Casino Royale".
Simply the best James Bond flick in 30 years. If you like glitzy action spook films too, don't miss it. A "real" JB, for a change, no smarmy English poseur this one. Tough guy who references all previous Bond flicks to his drinks waitor suggestion of a Martini, "stirred, not shaken" with a "You f****** nuts?"
Daniel Craig (who?), the new Bond recently visited Txai Resort in Itacaré, Bahia, not far from our home on the Marau Peninsula. When I met with Txai's developer at the Marriott in Copacabana earlier this week, he mentioned meeting him at Txai recently. When I asked what Daniel Craig was like, he replied "Just a typical nice guy like anyone else. Oh yes, accompanied by two (2) lovely ladies." Afterall...
"The name is Bond..... James Bond."
"Volver" (Return), Pedro Almodovar-
This Almodovar still another slog through compelling domestic strife. And I'm feeling lonely once more. Everyone else likes his work.
The film mother of leading lady Penelope Cruz's excellently portrayed character returns ("volver"...) after 20 years away. Ever since that night so long ago when she set her husband and his hippy lover afire as they slept- the lover the mother of her good friend now dying of cancer. One imagines the murder was not especially for the betrayal of her marrriage bed, but because her daughter had also been impregnated by daddy, thus rendering Penelope's daughter her sister. Confusing, but it gets better...
Penelope's stand in father Paco tries to molest her daughter-sister in the kitchen, who of course stabs him to death as any decent, adopted daughter-sister would. And as any hysterical, dysfunctional wife-mother-sister also, Penelope stuffs Paco in the freezer until she has a moment in her busy life to bury him at their favorite, riverside trysting site.
The rest of the movie has Almodovar maneuvering characters between assassinations, incest, "the return" ad nauseum, cooking to pay the bills and XLNT plot complexity as everyone pretends or believes the returned mother must be a ghost. (?)
Driving home the title, we are treated to multiple "washing" and "revolving" (read: "returning") images. Endlessly repeated scenes of spinning windmills, a revolving front end loader washer closeup, characteristically Almodovar bird's eye views of Penelope washing the dishes, washing the blood off, washing clothes. Washing up, period. Out, damned spot!
But all's well that ends well, as the family- less Paco, the mother's ex husband and her friend's hippy mother- are happily reunited. And mother gets to wash away (again) her guilt. First, by caring as a ghost the family and villagers are somehow unaware of, for Aunt Paula until her death. Then, for her cancer ridden friend, the one whose mother she set aflame.
And like that. The rewards of of the life of your typical, dysfunctional Spanish family.
"Little Miss Sunshine", by an unknown duo with a recent, surprise nomination for an Oscar as Best Director(s)
Speaking of dysfunctional.... Wonderful acting and portrayal of the banality of goodness, an oxymoronically honest Hollywood reply to Tarantino and clones banality of evil of flicks, like Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, etc. It's hilarious, in your face, worth seeing. A failed Success Guru, his heroin addicted father kicked out of the nursing home, the dark, brooding son who has taken a vow of silence until his career as an astronaut takes off, the much suffering mother, and of course Little Miss Sunshine, whose hopes of mini stardom are doomed from the beginning. Great fun trekking down the highway, the whole family push starting their old VW bus with the by now dead father in back. A must see.
"White Planet", by some French photographers whose names I'll never remember anyway.
Tour de force photography in the Arctic, under, above and within the ice cap. What's left of it, that is, as the global warning finale graphically highlights. It's one of the best scenes, too. An aerial shot as an extremely anxious looking polar bear, grovels - swims - grovels across intermittent, crumbling ice flows and water until he finally reaches solid ice- and absolutely goes apeshit with joy. Closeups of whales, polar bear family, octopuses in mortal combat with crabs and eels, foxes, wolves on the hunt, fur seals and their pups hunted, walruses, elephant and leopard seals, birds of all kinds, etc. Photography not what you would call esthetically rendered, but truly impressive technology in a forbiddingly austere, beautiful world. One I for some reason found sad. I don't know why. An accessible, graphic natural history version of the otherwise excellent but statistic ladened Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truths", without the preaching. Worth seeing.
"Casino Royale".
Simply the best James Bond flick in 30 years. If you like glitzy action spook films too, don't miss it. A "real" JB, for a change, no smarmy English poseur this one. Tough guy who references all previous Bond flicks to his drinks waitor suggestion of a Martini, "stirred, not shaken" with a "You f****** nuts?"
Daniel Craig (who?), the new Bond recently visited Txai Resort in Itacaré, Bahia, not far from our home on the Marau Peninsula. When I met with Txai's developer at the Marriott in Copacabana earlier this week, he mentioned meeting him at Txai recently. When I asked what Daniel Craig was like, he replied "Just a typical nice guy like anyone else. Oh yes, accompanied by two (2) lovely ladies." Afterall...
"The name is Bond..... James Bond."
NY Times: Rio's 'Civil War'
I don't have "TimesSelect", NY Times premium access. If you have it, check out the article on the explosion of violence in Rio. I've spent the last 3 weeks here and can confirm how serious violence, always endemic to Rio, now is. For the rich, the poor, the law abiding, the criminal. Close to 20,000 violent deaths in Rio last couple years. Crime statistics leave Palestine, Gaza Strip, almost everywhere in the dust.... Rivals worldwide are limited to a few places like JoBurg, Sao Paulo, Mogadishu, Kapaa, Dafur, Washington D.C...
GLOBALIST
War That Doesn't Speak Its Name Rages in Brazil
By ROGER COHEN
Published: January 10, 2007
Rio de Janeiro's taint of blood is the consequence of combining extreme wealth and extreme poverty in a city awash in cocaine and other drugs.
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GLOBALIST
War That Doesn't Speak Its Name Rages in Brazil
By ROGER COHEN
Published: January 10, 2007
Rio de Janeiro's taint of blood is the consequence of combining extreme wealth and extreme poverty in a city awash in cocaine and other drugs.
To continue reading this article, you must be a subscriber to TimesSelect. Log in now.
Upgrade to TimesSelect
Cloning, Clogging Crocs
There is no end in sight for the ongoing popularity of Crocs , the soft, lightweight, bacteria and odor resistant, orthotic shoes that were catapulted into the spotlight over the past three years. Although comfortable, many still feel that the bright colors of the croslite PCCR material used to make Crocs are a bit over-the-top, and El Naturalista Clogs can be a good stand-in. The Spanish clogs are made of supple leather that is naturally tanned and conditioned by skilled artisans, using vegetable extracts, animal fats and sunflower oils. Olive oil gives the leather its final finish and makes the leather repel water, dust and dirt. The uppers are hand-stitched and attached to contoured, cushioned footbeds with rubber soles that will provide great grip on just about any surface. They are available in six understated colors. Price: $135.
A good example of someone who doesn't "get it"... And for $135, yet.
Clogs have been around for eons, ask any little Dutch girl. While Crocs® work because of the the material, crosslinked LDPE I think. It's not about style, form, color. And it's definitely not about paying $135 for a pair!
KISS. And try to focus: It's about the non slip, comfortable, water impervious, lightweight material. A non-proprietary cross linked expanded polyethlene (LDPE) foam, Leather, cloth, rubber, etc don't work.
Unless you think it's really ALL about "style", appearances, peer pressure.
Is it?
Candor or Courtesy
What do you say? Prefer candor or...... 'nice'? Honesty or
dissumulation? Frank or fractious?
dissumulation? Frank or fractious?
According to Tom, ya can't have it both ways.
Me, I'm just looking for an excuse......
> He who dares not offend cannot be honest.
>
> -Thomas Paine, philosopher writer (1737-1809)
Press corps covering its behind.
Article on an embarrassed US media's excuses over Downing Street Memo reporting
Tacit, autocensorship. Not to say craven irresponsibility....
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2005/06/17/dsm_press/
Tacit, autocensorship. Not to say craven irresponsibility....
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2005/06/17/dsm_press/
US Administration: Impeachable?
You couldn't call the writer of this Bangor (Maine) Daily News article eloquent. Robert's views are unimportant to the world outside Bangor. He's angry and bewildered, like many of us who just don't get it........
"What's curious is why anyone like me should have to even point this out."
Robert's the kid in the crowd who cries, "The King has no clothes!" Unpalatable, even unacceptable to adults. But being a kid- or an unknown writer from a small town in Maine- doesn't make the truth any less the truth. As Krishnamurti put it, it's not who says it. It's what is said.
http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=114420
Many would trash this article as lies, liberal propaganda, anti war nonsense, deranged ranting....
Well, is it?
You know the answer.
The real problem is the answer doesn't matter.
"What's curious is why anyone like me should have to even point this out."
Robert's the kid in the crowd who cries, "The King has no clothes!" Unpalatable, even unacceptable to adults. But being a kid- or an unknown writer from a small town in Maine- doesn't make the truth any less the truth. As Krishnamurti put it, it's not who says it. It's what is said.
http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=114420
Many would trash this article as lies, liberal propaganda, anti war nonsense, deranged ranting....
Well, is it?
You know the answer.
The real problem is the answer doesn't matter.
Skyping the Telecoms
Some are probably shocked an upstart could "ruin" major communications monopolies. Others applaud. I'm in the second group. Do telecom execs spend all their time on the phone, or what? It's hard to sympathize with companies that have been exploiting monopolies and ripping off consumers unmercilessly for a hundred years.
Dinosaur phone companies have a shabby tradition as innovators. They have no idea when it's staring them in the face. I used call back systems in the early 80's from Brazil, where 60 companies sprang up overnight. The response from the Brazilian telephone monopoly EMBRATEL was weak. It tried blocking calls to "certain area codes" in the USA (those where call back computer were at work.) That didn't last long: Congressmen couldn't get through to associates who happened to live in the blocked area code. EMBRATEL backed off.
Stodginess is typical of heavily regulated industries like telecommunications. Shipping, transportation, airline companies, insurance, etc, come to mind. Typically, executives in these sectors were, prior to deregulation, hired to do little more than administer within narrow public interest boundaries set by governments. While creative businessmen are hired by marketing companies for unregulated market segments where decision making, rather than paper shuffling, is prized.
"Skype is a good company," said independent telecom analyst and commentator Jeff Kagan. "But Skype is never going to catch up to the major service providers," the large telephone and cable companies that increasingly are offering bundles of services, including local and long-distance calling, wireless, high-speed Internet access and digital television.
This is what they said when telephone companies were being deregulated, and AT&T talked of offering a 'one stop communication shop'. I told an exec at an ATT seminar lots of people would prefer "cheap phone calls" to well packaged billing, thank you. I'm unsure how, but they seem to have gotten over that hurdle.
Until Skype...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/03/AR2005060301520.html
Dinosaur phone companies have a shabby tradition as innovators. They have no idea when it's staring them in the face. I used call back systems in the early 80's from Brazil, where 60 companies sprang up overnight. The response from the Brazilian telephone monopoly EMBRATEL was weak. It tried blocking calls to "certain area codes" in the USA (those where call back computer were at work.) That didn't last long: Congressmen couldn't get through to associates who happened to live in the blocked area code. EMBRATEL backed off.
Stodginess is typical of heavily regulated industries like telecommunications. Shipping, transportation, airline companies, insurance, etc, come to mind. Typically, executives in these sectors were, prior to deregulation, hired to do little more than administer within narrow public interest boundaries set by governments. While creative businessmen are hired by marketing companies for unregulated market segments where decision making, rather than paper shuffling, is prized.
"Skype is a good company," said independent telecom analyst and commentator Jeff Kagan. "But Skype is never going to catch up to the major service providers," the large telephone and cable companies that increasingly are offering bundles of services, including local and long-distance calling, wireless, high-speed Internet access and digital television.
This is what they said when telephone companies were being deregulated, and AT&T talked of offering a 'one stop communication shop'. I told an exec at an ATT seminar lots of people would prefer "cheap phone calls" to well packaged billing, thank you. I'm unsure how, but they seem to have gotten over that hurdle.
Until Skype...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/03/AR2005060301520.html
The Pro War Movement
Article forwarded by a friend impressed by Canadian Naomi Klein speaking in Oakland recently. Some interesting comments....
Most people feel Naomi is "truly brilliant", as my friend does. Or another "Hanoi Jane". In which case, what epithet really fits? Osama Naomi? Baghdad Klein? Not really. The difficulty in stereotyping Naomi, except mindlessly as 'treasonous', proclaims the illegitimacy of her accusers' position.
The point is, who is she 'working for'? The "Anti War Movement". Which has 'lost the plot', as our Australian friends put it:
The Movement needs to migrate to the center and rename itself "The Pro War Movement." Motto: "The RIGHT war at the RIGHT time." An umbrella concept, like merely being "against war"- has long since become maudlin and depleted.
Instead, the Movement should trash Bush and the Neo Cons cabal because of what they are: appallingly incompetent War Administrators. Not because of what they are not: peace loving. They have no exit strategy. No occupation strategy. No war prizes (ones they'll tell open up about, anyway.) Certainly none to be shared with their fellow Americans. No slaves. Well.... Poor administration, widespread corruption, ideology as a substitute for transparency, etc. They've botched it badly.
Opposition often promotes the strengths of the Opposed. The Anti War Movement needs to regain the credibility it has not had for a long, long time. Then, nail them.
The majority of the center and right don't hear the tune with that same old shopworn, impractical slogan:
How to End the War -- In These Times
Most people feel Naomi is "truly brilliant", as my friend does. Or another "Hanoi Jane". In which case, what epithet really fits? Osama Naomi? Baghdad Klein? Not really. The difficulty in stereotyping Naomi, except mindlessly as 'treasonous', proclaims the illegitimacy of her accusers' position.
The point is, who is she 'working for'? The "Anti War Movement". Which has 'lost the plot', as our Australian friends put it:
The Movement needs to migrate to the center and rename itself "The Pro War Movement." Motto: "The RIGHT war at the RIGHT time." An umbrella concept, like merely being "against war"- has long since become maudlin and depleted.
Instead, the Movement should trash Bush and the Neo Cons cabal because of what they are: appallingly incompetent War Administrators. Not because of what they are not: peace loving. They have no exit strategy. No occupation strategy. No war prizes (ones they'll tell open up about, anyway.) Certainly none to be shared with their fellow Americans. No slaves. Well.... Poor administration, widespread corruption, ideology as a substitute for transparency, etc. They've botched it badly.
Opposition often promotes the strengths of the Opposed. The Anti War Movement needs to regain the credibility it has not had for a long, long time. Then, nail them.
The majority of the center and right don't hear the tune with that same old shopworn, impractical slogan:
How to End the War -- In These Times
Tech Caused Real Estate Crash?
A 'visionary" article by a technology consultant for CNN.
Nothing new- just another brick in the mainstream wall of conventional wisdom on the decline of urban living...
Tech will cause a real estate crash, CNN, May 16, 2005
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/05/12/visionary.nielsen/index.html
Excerpts:
The balance between remote regions and the center will change in favor of a more distributed lifestyle, resulting in a real estate crash..... Given the nature of real estate, he warned that even a drop in demand by 20 percent could cause prices to be cut in half.
Nothing new- just another brick in the mainstream wall of conventional wisdom on the decline of urban living...
Tech will cause a real estate crash, CNN, May 16, 2005
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/05/12/visionary.nielsen/index.html
Excerpts:
The balance between remote regions and the center will change in favor of a more distributed lifestyle, resulting in a real estate crash..... Given the nature of real estate, he warned that even a drop in demand by 20 percent could cause prices to be cut in half.
Gays smell different
No, that's not what I meant....
New study shows gay brains are excited by the same pheromones in male sweat which affect female brains.
While heterosexual male brains remain unaffected.
Locker room odors ever do much for you? No offense, just wondering....
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/05/09/pheromones.study.reut/index.html
New study shows gay brains are excited by the same pheromones in male sweat which affect female brains.
While heterosexual male brains remain unaffected.
Locker room odors ever do much for you? No offense, just wondering....
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/05/09/pheromones.study.reut/index.html
Buffet on Terrorism
Warren Buffet alert to risks of terrorism, plugs docudrama site.......
"If you go to lastbestchance.org, you can obtain a tape, free, that the Nuclear Threat Initiative has sponsored, that has a dramatization that is fictional but is not fanciful. We would regard ourselves as vulnerable to extinction as a company if we did not have nuclear, biological and chemical risks excluded from our policies. There could be events happening that could make it impossible for our checks to clear the next day."
"If you go to lastbestchance.org, you can obtain a tape, free, that the Nuclear Threat Initiative has sponsored, that has a dramatization that is fictional but is not fanciful. We would regard ourselves as vulnerable to extinction as a company if we did not have nuclear, biological and chemical risks excluded from our policies. There could be events happening that could make it impossible for our checks to clear the next day."
Online Ads Taking Over.....
Google + Yahoo overtake CBS/ABC/NBC combined ad revenue:
http://economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3908700
http://economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3908700
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