Life For Dummies

Top 10 Hypocritical Punch Lines?

2009-10-02T06:56:00.000-07:00

So David Letterman was the victim of an extortion plot which solicited $2M to refrain from going public with the talk show host's numerous affairs with female staffers.

Last night Letterman discussed both the plot & his affairs on his show claiming that he did this "to protect the staffers involved and his family." Dave I have news for you, protecting your staffers and family would have been you keeping your pants zipped up.

And all this from a man who has made a career of skewering celebrities and politician's indiscretions, the lady doth protest too much, methinks. At least he can do a Top 10 list of hypocrisy though.

Disruptive Marketing or Just Disruptive?

2009-09-30T14:42:00.001-07:00

In a way you have to pity Sony Corp. Their recent history is one of missed opportunities, questionable product quality, root kits and lack luster sales. Now in an attempt to "connect" with core-gamers (a strategy Nintendo avoided rather successfully with the Wii) they have opted for an edgy approach, a strategy that seems to putting them back in hot water.

First there was the unauthorized use of Manchester Cathedral in a shoot-em-up game. Ironically the church has been a leader in ministering to those affected by gun violence. Sony did apologize but declined to pull the game or contribute to a suggested charity. This was followed by the "White Is Coming" campaign for the PSP, loudly criticized for it's overtly violent racist overtones. And now this; their latest ad for the PS-3 which depicts a youthful gamer donating blood to Nazi General and desert fox, Erwin Rommel.

However, my point here is not to rage against such questionable advertising but throw light on the unique problems encountered by such a large and diverse operation as Sony. On one hand you have Sony Pictures devoting themselves to a family-centered audience and on the other you have Sony Games with a product portfolio heavily biased towards the Mature rating. Likewise, Sony Music fights the battle with the RIAA against piracy whilst Sony Computers makes highly efficient tools to illegally download to your heart's content.

CEO Howard Stringer has fought hard to bring down the business silos at Sony but is that really possible when the philosophies around much of your product lines are completely at odds with each other? How can you keep a family friendly moniker at one division whilst impressing the guy playing Demon's Souls at another? Is this a problem exclusive to Sony or do other corporations come to mind?

LfD Sing-A-Long

2009-09-28T16:06:00.000-07:00

LfD Has A Theme Song, not just any old theme song but a completely batty track that we are not even worthy of. So stick that in yer pipe, 5 million daily hits but no theme song, Arianna Huffington.

<a href="http://joejackwagner.bandcamp.com/track/life-for-dummies">Life for Dummies by Joe Jack Wagner</a>

McCafe Needs Tweaking I Think

2009-09-24T14:44:00.001-07:00

While the youngsters were chomping down on breakfast I decided to try the new McDonalds' McCafe coffee offerings so I ordered a latte.

Since my drink hadn't appeared for a while I wandered over to the McCafe station and found the young server staring intently at the picture shown here.

"You're not looking at that trying to figure out what a latte is?" I joked.

My bad, apparently she was!

Some staff training might be appropriate if you're looking to get into the higher-end coffee market.

If You Build It They Won't Come

2009-09-24T07:07:00.000-07:00

I'd like to welcome a guest blogger today, Eric Foster of the aptly named Gun Barrel City, Texas, and his words on the next phase of real estate development in Dallas;

I am the son of a non-starchitect, i.e. Star Architect, a buzzword reproduced in the current D Magazine. This issue regurgitates the old bromide that Dallas is has an Edifice Complex like that is a big surprise.

Fair Park was just the first of these Edifi-Compli to be aborted on to the streets of Dallas, and then left to be abandoned by its citizens for all but a few weeks per year. And soon to be a bigger ghost town as the museums, one by one find new Edifices downtown ‘where the lights are bright’… for now. Cheap frames covered in Art Deco facades.

Deep Ellum was next, and it has been rediscovered by the real estate predators, only to be left again and again, as we find new places to gentrify.

Las Colinas is another. The empty shells now including Texas Stadium, stand testament to our constant search for new and different, and then when "They" start to move in, abandon it for....

VICTORY.... Park that is the ultimate "if you build they won't come" because there are not enough "rich they" to show up. If this is Victory imagine what defeat must feel like.

And then there is Turn-Style Heaven that is Arlington, the latest Not-Fair-Park. You don’t live there but you can buy a season pass.

And Coming Soon: The AT&T Performing Arts Center, the latest Complex-Edifex. 30 years in the delivery, it arrives with so many "future site of" parking lots that will eventually be the property of German Financiers. And don't forget the Park that doesn't even exist, built over the freeway that was designed to cut off US from THEM and worked too well.

But where are the jugglers, the caricature artists, the chess players, the strolling violinists that were so prevalent in the illustrations from 30 years ago in the Arts District? Oh, they'll be hired for Opening Week. But then in reality they are moving back into the abandoned shells of Deep Ellum and Fair Park squatting and renting the Edifi-Compli's of Old.

And 30 years from now when ‘US’ open the latest host of Tax Deductible Gardens of Stone to FINALLY fix Downtown or Uptown or Ghost Town to draw in the people who can't afford to live there, go there, and especially park there, we will look back on the abandoned ruins of the Arts District, Victory Park, Los Colinas, Willow Bend, Deep Ellum, and Fair Park and

Keep silent...

It's Not Me, It's You (part 2)

2009-09-22T10:44:00.001-07:00

Business Week has an interesting article on Apple's future with music and it doesn't look particularly good for the record industry. Although having surpassed Wal-Mart as the biggest seller of recorded music, Apple appears to be less and less interested in this side of their business.

And why should they be? The record labels have hardly embraced Apple as one of the few points of light in their failing business model. Having fought hard to retain the hated DRM they finally embraced unencoded tracks only to follow up by forcing Apple to raise prices.

Apple understands the product cycle and realizes that the days of the iPod as a pure music player are largely over. The latest Nano's incorporate cameras and video and the iPod Touch supports all the iPhone applications that don't require a cellular network. And that's where it gets juicy for Apple. Instead of arguing with recalcitrant record labels over a few pennies, they are attracting legions of application designers and Cuppertino gets to keep 30% of every sale.

I don't believe that Apple will drop the iTunes music store anytime soon but they realize that the future of music listening is best defined by streaming operations such as the wildly popular (in Europe) Spotify. I doubt that it will be too long before Apple releases it's own such network and enjoys the recurring monthly revenue provided by such a service. To embrace that future I would look for WiFi to appear on all but the smallest iPod Shuffle.

Where does this leave the labels? One could hardly believe that they could be any worse off than they are currently, but that may be exactly the future they're facing. Their legal download options are almost completely limited to one vendor and they have no strategy or cohesive voice to implement an alternative. They have made no friends in Cuppertino and could find themselves marginalized very quickly.

Lions, Tigers & Presidents - Oh No!

2009-09-04T07:59:00.000-07:00

Not content with merely turning this nation into a Socialist paradise our President is now proposing to indoctrinate our school children with an Orwellian broadcast scheduled for Tuesday morning. According to the White House our foreign-born leader will cover such radical topics as "the importance of education, the importance of staying in school, how we want to improve our education system and why it's so important for the country."

Thank goodness my son's school and education authorities, both local and around the country are planning to boycott this incendiary nonsense. Like them, I preferred the days when our President was more interested in sending our youth off to die in unnecessary wars than filling their minds with such political nonsense as this.

Innovative Marketing?

2009-08-20T08:26:00.001-07:00

I have a teen driver! And actually, thanks to Sears Driving School it's all been a painless experience and she's now finishing up the road portions of the course.

Sears uses Honda Civics for their classes, citing their reliability as a big factor in what must be a brutal life for a car. I could not confirm if they have a formal deal with Honda but even without, what a brilliant marketing move for the manufacturer this is.

The Civic is an extremely pleasant, well engineered ride. The students really enjoy the car and predictably, this is now the vehicle my daughter & her friends want to own themselves.

Honda & the other Japanese brands have fine tuned the "move up" theory of car ownership. They understand that by giving a new driver a great experience in their starter car they will remain faithful to the brand, moving up a model at a time as their earning power increases. In Honda's case, a positive Civic experience sells an Acura RL 20 years later (and hopefully another Civic to the offspring). It's long term planning at it's best. Compare this to the domestic small cars, which in most cases seem designed to turn off a driver for life creating a customer who cannot wait to ditch the car and quite possibly the brand too.

Apple & Nike, It's Not You, It's Me

2009-08-19T07:42:00.000-07:00

2 companies drifting apart? The must have accessory for most runners is the Nike+ system. For those unfamiliar, this is a sensor that slips inside a Nike shoe & connects to a receiver attached to your iPod. Run data is recorded to the iPod which can then be synced (Syunc?) to your Nike+ online account. The system works beautifully and at $29 (plus an iPod) is one heck of a deal.

For Nike & Apple it seemed a beautiful match, Apple gets to sell more Nanos & Nike sells high end running shoes (must runners go through 2 pairs a year). But there's a hitch for Nike, thanks to third parties like Marware, the sensor can be attached to any running shoe which leaves Nike splitting $29 whilst Apple gets to sell more $149 Nanos.

Now Nike has released a stand-alone piece of hardware, the Sportband. This $59 wrist device also logs your run data but requires no iPod thereby bypassing Apple. Obviously the runner doesn't get music to go but many of us (myself included) don't actually listen to the iPod anyway. And this time Nike gets to keep all the revenue without relying on shoes sales to make up the difference.

Obviously the new device is not stocked in the Apple Store!

Pubes Get Shut Out

2009-08-19T07:13:00.001-07:00

NO Spel Checkr

via News Observer

"The Amiable Psychopath"

2009-08-17T18:31:00.001-07:00

"Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."

"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

Reichmarschall Hermann Goering to Gustave Gilbert during the Nuremburg Trials, April 1946

Arizona Man Prosecuted For Saving Lives

2009-08-13T15:49:00.000-07:00

Buried deep in today's New York Times is the story of Walt Staton who was found guilty of littering and sentenced to 300 hours of trash pickup in Arizona. Federal prosecutors had pushed for a $5,000 fine and he could also have received a year in jail so I guess you could say he got off lightly.

Even so, 300 hours of trash pick up seems a little harsh for a littering charge but this was no ordinary trash. Staton belongs to No More Deaths, an organization committed to saving the lives of migrants attempting to cross the harsh Arizona desert into the US. Volunteers place water jugs along the commonly used routes where well over 100 migrant men, women and children have recently died.

Federal Fish and Game officials oppose the water drops on grounds of littering however, it seems that the prosecutions are more political than environmental. Staton's attorney Bill Walker claims as much "we're appealing because we don't think that Walt committed any crime by putting out fresh, clean jugs of pure water to save human lives on the refuge." Conservatives such as Debbie Schlussel have also used the situation to spit bile on organizations such as Staton's and illegal immigrants in general. And these are the same pundits accusing the proposed health plan of setting up "death panels?"

At what point do we, as a purportedly Christian country, put aside the political differences and realize these are the lives of fellow human beings we are discussing? What would Jesus do? Actually He did have something pretty specific to say on the subject:

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in" (Mathew 25:35)

Biker Lifestyle Severly Diluted

2009-08-11T16:15:00.000-07:00

Underneath Ballys Hotel in Las Vegas, situated in a rather dingy corridor, is a Harley Davidson store. Permanently displayed outside is a small sign that reads Sale-Sale-Sale.

Harley were an American success story. Twice resuscitated from near death, by the late-90's they had become the must-have lifestyle accessory for an increasing segment of the population. The highly expensive bikes became scarce as Harley struggled to keep up with demand and dealers were charging $1,000s in premiums on top of the list prices. By the middle of this decade their stock had reached $75 as their strategy of opening new plants & outsourcing began to equalize supply with demand. Then it all started falling apart, sales plummeted and were soon followed by layoffs and plant closures. The stock fell to almost $10 as 2nd Q 2009 profits fell another 35%.

Of course it's easy to explain away Harley's business demise, recession forces bit deep into what is an expensive lifestyle product. But I propose that a lot more factors came into play and perhaps the most influential was that of Brand Dilution.

Brand Dilution is the over leveraging of a brand's influence and companies that rely on high margins based on brand positioning are particularly influenced by this factor. Harley Davidson had franchised more and more dealers, licensed their name to an ever increasing number of merchants and even opened a chain of boutique stores selling everything but motorcycles in such locations as airports and sad malls underneath casinos. The tchotchkes had replaced the core product.

Harley are far from being the only guilty party. Caught up in the stock fervor of the past few years, companies from all sectors leveraged their names and products for short term gain with increasingly predictable long term results. Starbucks' entry into hotel coffee service and kiosks, Tommy Hilfilger's name on everything from beach towels to deodorant, Hummer's H2 and H3 and the Mercedes C-Class sedans, all served to drag the parent brand down. High fashion designers and retailers who've played into the outlet mall market aren't surely wondering why their traditional high end customers are reluctant to purchase a label seen stacked high and cheap at some out of town strip mall?

But what of companies who've carefully preserved their brands? Apple is a great example. Although pressured by analysts to respond to the netbook trend Cuppertino has shown no interest in participating in a low cost/low quality race to the bottom (if I'm a marketer at Apple I'm surely loving the new Microsoft "Macs are expensive" ads where apparently the competition is paying to position my brand). The smallest BMW 1-Series is small but hardly a cheap car, offering the full "driving machine" experience at a premium. The German brand understands that it's passionate buyers would not appreciate a diluted machine built to do nothing but garner market share. Well positioned brands don't have to be up market either, Vans shoes are still revered amongst hard core skaters and their sponsorship of the Warped Tour does nothing but add a halo to their offerings.

So what have we learned from all this? Like the McFamily who supersized their lives and are now struggling to pay off their debts these over reaching brands have mortgaged their wealth and are now facing an almost impossible uphill struggle to regain the customer's trust.

Breakfast & Electronic Unnovation

2009-08-08T18:35:00.001-07:00

Unnovation is a fantastic term coined by Harvard Business writer Umair Haaque. It is described as the process of innovation that fails to create authentic, meaningful value.

I believed Starbuck's idea to introduce healthy, hot breakfast pairings to be somewhat innovative. I travel extensively and always have difficulty finding a lighter breakfast, a combination of coffee and a small sandwich at the corner Starbucks seems like a great idea. And for Starbucks, it also helps them compete with the lower cost McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts offerings. So, a win all around. Except when you can't actually buy it!

Here's where the unnovation comes in. Because of Starbuck's franchisee agreements the highly marketed breakfasts are not available in all stores, in fact, they're not available in most stores! Why? Well low cost breakfasts would compete with the certain franchisee's existing food businesses, to whit the customer cares not one iota. So, after schellping to a Starbucks a few times and finding that the items are not available the customer (in this case me) gives up on the concept and returns to the competition. And Innovation becomes Unnovation. Corporate policies undermine the very products the company is introducing to stave off the demise of it's tradiitonal business.

Next up for unnovation is Radio Shack. "We're contemporizing the way we want people to think about our brand" was a quote from Lee Applbaum, Chief Marketing Officer. The contemporizing? Changing the name to "The Shack" Not introducing innovative new products or ideas, not implementing new processes, nothing, just a name change. In fact the change doesn't even go that deep, the URL is still www.radioshack.com and apart from a cringely awful online marketing campaign (beware if you click it really is that bad) that's where it begins and ends.

Now that is Unnovation.

Then There Were Three

2009-08-06T11:00:00.001-07:00

Today, Harry Patch was laid to rest at Wells Cathedral in Somerset. The BBC have some excellent coverage of the man and his life and views as the last British survivor of the First World War. I remember as a child, watching the annual parade of veterans on "poppy day" and noticing, as I grew older, that the WWI group grew smaller each year. Next year it will no longer exist at all.

There are now only three living Great War veterans. Australian navy volunteer Claude Choules, Canadian Jack Babcock (who claims he isn't as worthy of commendation because he never got to fight) and American Frank Buckles. Choules and Buckles are 108, Babcock is 109.

Patch became an outspoken critic of warfare, often wrestling with the painful memories his views recalled.

If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field That is forever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam, A body of England's, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. - Robert Brooke

OMG - It's Like Totally All Faked!

2009-08-06T06:46:00.000-07:00

As long-time judge Paula Abdul quits American Idol she is lashing out at the show's producers and format, claiming, along with other previous winners and employees, that the contestants are manipulated and the show is sham.

I'm at all not surprised by these claims, what actually does surprise me is that anyone actually thinks that AI or any other TV reality show portrays a fair and balanced view of the events? Sunday's New York Times also included a piece outlining the "harsh realities" of reality TV.

In case anyone was still unaware, Reality TV is the puppy mill of production. Low paid video crews shoot thousands of hours on low cost digital cameras. These countless takes are then sifted through by little more than interns before delivering a rough product to the "real" editors for finishing. The networks love it because the costs are low and the ratings (used to be) high. But don't confuse the shows for anything more than they are, a nasty, dirty breeding operation turning out sickly puppies to be foisted onto a gullible public.

D&D - Follow Up

2009-08-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

Less than 24 hours after hitting the PETA blog (& LfD), the power of social media and the interwebs is ably demonstrated by a press release from Petland announcing the closing of the bunny killing store (and the filing of charges against Liz). The story being picked up by Cleveland's News 19 probably didn't hurt either. Actually, although I am very suspicious of pet stores that sell animals, I must commend Petland for a speedy and smart approach to the issue. Avoiding the boiler plate "we take this very seriously" line they acted firmly with no ambiguity.

I don't think this is going to go away for some time but Petland gave themselves a head start on the critics which should be a lesson to other companies who find themselves in similar circumstances.

Dumb & Dumber, oh and Sadistic Too

2009-08-04T18:08:00.000-07:00

The photo (doctored for family viewing) purportedly shows a lady by the name of Elizabeth Carlisle, an employee of Petland in Akron, Ohio. According to the PETA blog today, Ms. Carlisle and her manager decided to have a little fun at some bunnies' expense. You can read the actual posting for the full details, but let's just say that even Mr. Cheney might blanch at their methods. To celebrate their exploits Carlisle then posted a vivid description and accompanying picture to her Facebook profile.

I would have thought that after the Dominos' dirty employee YouTube media blitz people would have wised up to posting their sickest doings on social networks. Although I presume the same mental defect that would lead somone to believe torturing animals was acceptable might also blind them to the concept that advertising it might be another really bad idea?

Watch this story get major legs in the next few days.

Yousuf Karsh

2009-08-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

It was December 1941, 2 weeks after Pearl Harbor and Winston Churchill was addressing the Canadian House of Commons. Intercepted by a photographer immediately after the proceedings, Churchill was not impressed, particularly when this photographer physically pulled the iconic cigar from Churchill's mouth.

The angry scowl has become one of the most famous photographs ever taken. But look deeper into Churchill's face and you can see a man single-handedly carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Even as the famous morale booster, Winston knew that the allies' situation was desperate, he was worried, tired and alone. The simple portrait is true to all these emotions.

Yousef Karsh was the photographer. Armenian born but Canadian by naturalization he went on to take so many of the iconic portraits through which we have come to know the subjects. From Queen Elizabeth to Bogart, Ernest Hemmingway to Audrey Hepburn, Karsh's intricate lighting and plate camera became our permanent window into these characters.

His momory and images are captured in this tribute website. As interesting as the images themselves, are the short writings by Karsh about his experiences with his subjects. Amusing, poignent and sometimes downright funny, the pages with accompanying pictures make for great reading.

Why?

2009-08-01T10:05:00.001-07:00

LfD has been laying low for some months now as it's creator experimented with various forms of social media. He was interested to see if these various web 2.0 initiatives could replace the now venerable blog. After 6 months the experiment has run it's course and the answer is a tepid no.

In the end Twitter emerged as the only truly useful & interesting tool. Commonly derided as 140 characters of navel contemplation, the reality of Twitter can be much different provided you keep a tight rein on your follows and followers.

That being said, the editorial department at LfD have decided that even Tweets cannot replace the traditional blog as a place to get your verbal on. So...to the general disinterest of most around us, LfD is crawling back out of the internet cache and onto your screen.

Enjoy, and while you're here, follow me at twitter.com/philipbarrett and #LfD.

Regulators Napping (Yet Again)

2008-12-13T12:19:00.001-08:00

Once again the financial world is rocked by news of fraud, impropriety and deceit and once again the SEC have failed in their role as the police agency for the US markets. This time it's famed trader Bernard Madoff whose lengthy and simple Ponzi scheme has bilked investors large and small of around $50B. Apparently the SEC were tipped about Madoff's actions as early as 1999 but chose to ignore the information and subsequent questions from other investment professionals. Like Enron, Fannie/Freddie, Bear Stearns and a whole host of institutions it was supposed to regulate, the SEC has shown a complete dereliction of duty time and time again. If it wasn't for family memebers turning him in, Mr. Madoff would still be trading today.

This is an organization whose website proudly proclaims:

During his tenure at the SEC, Chairman Cox has made vigorous enforcement of the securities laws the agency's top priority, bringing ground breaking cases against a variety of market abuses including hedge fund insider trading, stock options backdating, fraud aimed at senior citizens, municipal securities fraud, and securities scams on the Internet.

Mr. Cox needs to step down immediataly and his organization disbanded and replaced with one that can actually do the job required. Mad Money's Jim Cramer has offered his services, perhaps we should take him up on it?

Time To Brown Bag It?

2008-12-05T13:52:00.000-08:00

Recently Amazon decided to address the issue of packaging. Although motivated by a desire to cut down on customer injuries and frustrations as much as to help the environment it was a step in the right direction. However, today a trip to the Apple store to replace my Nike+ sensor (another piece of less than green technology) prompted me to envision a world where packaging was entirely optional. The benefits would be twofold, firstly a reduction in waste and secondly a cost saving for the manufacturer.

For many retailers like Apple it would be a very easy plan to implement and still give the customer choice. At checkout you could elect to either have your purchase put into the box or merely be given the goods with a suitable bag to hold all the bits and bobs. The receipt could be easily marked so as a return without the packaging would be easily facilitated. Immediate gains in both the environment and the pocketbook. Obviously the issue of display and theft would need to be addressed, however, re-usable packaging could be developed which allowed the product to be removed at the register.

Why Do They Hate Us?

2008-11-30T10:37:00.000-08:00

Not a post about OBL but a word to the boardrooms of America. The general public consensus regarding the health (or lack there-of) of various corporations so far has been a resounding "let 'em fail." The public's ire is not just confined to the auto industry but a broad range of retailers in general. This should be doubly worrying to the captains of industry who should be asking themselves, why do our customers hate us so much? Sites such as the Consumerist are full of first hand horror stories from the full range of businesses.

Of course there are the standout corporations, the one's that customers do love and would fight to protect (and are the subject of endless books on branding) but they are a tiny minority in a sea of blah. For the others, it seems as if years of treating churn as business as usual is finally coming back to haunt them. Their list of crimes is long but outsourcing technical support, byzantine rules and policies and products that fail to deliver the marketer's promises rate high on the list. The American consumer is completely fed up with their treatment at the hands of these operations which does not bode well for those looking for a bailout to continue in business. The list of teetering companies is long, nevertheless you do not see groups campaigning to keep Gap, Circuit City or Linens n' Things alive. Quite the reverse seems to be true, customers are almost reveling in these corporate failures in a kind of "well they finally got theirs" way.

Although the symptoms are myriad, I think the public perception of a company can be directly traced to the way that company treats their own employees. Outsourcing, benefit cuts and endless rounds of layoffs have all contributed to create soulless organizations whose bottom line may look good on paper but is no stronger than the paper itself. Conversely, companies that are known for their fair treatment of workers are seeming to be able to hold on much better when the times get tough. Perhaps decisions made with the human factor in mind turn out to be better long term strategies. Or maybe it's just Karma?

Thanksgiving with...Yorkshire Pud?

2008-11-13T09:05:00.000-08:00

One of the best things about living in a multi-cultural country is the opportunity to mix favorites from many traditions. Thanksgiving's my favorite holiday and I enjoy my turkey with both candied yams and Yorkshire pudding. This British staple seems to fascinate Americans and is incredibly easy to make. So for those who would like to try some at the table this month the Guardian has posted a recipe from the austere crowd at the Royal Society of Chemistry. Now just imagine dropping that into the conversation mid-meal! A dish with a Royal Warrant no less.

One caveat; the Guardian's picture shows pompous little "restuarant" puddings, but as any fule kno, the best ones are exactly as pictured above, in a roasting pan happily cooking alongside the meat and absorbing all the good stuff floating around in the oven.

As they would say in Yorkshire, "aye, that looks grand pet,"

Branding

2008-11-12T16:23:00.000-08:00

Today KERA's consistently excellent Think! featured Y&R Chief Insights Officer John Gerzema discussing the "brand bubble" (downloadable mp3 is here). He believes that many renowned brands are over valued in the eyes of the consumer and a brand crash is looming. This seems especially pertinent as cash wary consumers start to truly question the elevated cost associated with a name brand versus a generic.

He also briefly touches on the folly of marketing to a demographic rather than an interest group, citing the case of advertising directed at seniors falling into a trap of assumptions. Be sure to check out his Brand Asset Valuator.

Neil Young - Truth or Cover Up?

2008-11-12T14:16:00.000-08:00

Citing an unwillingness to cross IATSE picket lines, Neil Young canceled his show at the Los Angeles Forum, October 30th. Insiders are now asking if the less than stellar 6,000 tickets sold (The Forum seats 17,000) had more to do with the decision?

Bailout? Schmailout!

2008-11-12T13:34:00.000-08:00

The mortgage bailout programs being touted by both the public & private sectors are all fine in theory but miss the point in one huge way.

So many of the homes currently under threat of foreclosure were bought by speculators looking to either flip the home or sell out and profit in a year or two. They, and even people who bought a place to call home, can not be expected to have much interest in deals that give them 40 years of low interest to pay for a home that's worth a fraction of it's original value. In areas like California, Florida and Las Vegas most would have to wait decades to see their value return. Even with affordable payments I believe most will do the math and walk away at their earliest opportunity.

Stop The Madness

2008-11-12T08:01:00.001-08:00

Recent news has shown that once again, the American people are right & our elected representatives are wrong. The multi-trillion dollar bailout of our financial system has done nothing to alleviate or correct the underlying problems facing our economy & now the financial institutions are calling out for further cash injections. All the while they are using taxpayer's money with little or no transparency or accountability.

Next on the table is a bailout for the US auto industry. What next? Surely the airlines deserve some relief? What about the credit card companies, hotel chains and home builders? The list is endless. During the good years many US companies grew lazy. They built high risk accounting schemes, signed unworkable labor agreements, produced substandard products & paid their executives fat bonuses. These times are gone & it is not the job of the US taxpayer to wipe their noses, pat their bottoms & send them back out to play again.

The auto industry does not have the management structure or R&D pipeline to make our investment sensible. They are years away from producing the type of vehicles already available from Asian plants. They ignored long term trends in the energy markets for short term, easy credit fueled profits. I see no reason why they would be able to compete any more effectively with our money than without.

Update : Apparently CBS agrees with me.

Obama flickr Set

2008-11-07T14:52:00.001-08:00

The Obama campaign has uploaded a complete flickr set from Chicago. The photos are brutally honest and capture the evening beautifully from the dour backstage rooms to the triumphant stage call. The comments make interesting reading too as so many congratulations pour in from around the world.

Worth Saving?

2008-11-05T13:30:00.001-08:00

The news for the US automakers gets worse and worse. Sales dropped 30% in October and with the continuing crisis on Wall Street, lack of consumer credit, lots full of unwanted vehicles and an approaching tsunami of default auto loans, things don't look like they're getting better anytime soon.

Detroit is continuing to lobby Washington for bailout cash and although President-Elect Obama has offered assistance for the development of fuel efficient vehicles, those funds may be too late to save the industry today. So is it time to give up on the US Big 3 Automakers? Painful as that sounds it may be the best path since, even with large cash injections, Detroit cannot exist in it's current form. A glut of dealers, products no one wants to buy, bad loans and hugely complex and restrictive labor practices are not going to be fixed cheaply or fast and the clock is running out. Both publicly traded brands are currently worth less than their physical infrastructure.

I can envisage a scenario where Tata Motors (Mkt Cap: 81.52B) buys Ford (Mkt Cap: 4.73B) but a combined GM (Mkt Cap: 3.15B) and Chrysler looks to be best left on the curb to be picked over by the parts pullers.

The Bifecta Pt. 2 - Check

2008-11-05T09:03:00.001-08:00

In the late 1980s I was working at a studio located in a federal building originally constructed in the early 1960s. My wife (then girlfriend ) was visiting the US for the first time and accompanied me to work one day. She noticed the two identical water fountains side by side outside the bathrooms and commented on the needless redundancy of such a design.

To quote the Grateful Dead once again, "what a long strange trip it's been."

The Bifecta Part One - Check

2008-11-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

After a race which nearly required use of the defibrillator paddles on your truly, Lewis Hamilton was crowned Formula One World Champion. After 18 Grands Prix it all came down to the last corner of the last lap of the last race. If a Hollywood script writer had written this he'd have been laughed out of town, proof again that truth is stranger than fiction. Anyway this post is a reference to my June writings.

Read the full race report here. Hope for the Bifecta Part 2 at around 11pm EST tonight.

Not Election, Not Economy!

2008-11-03T11:36:00.000-08:00

National Geographic have just released their Best Wild Animal Photographs of 2008 and they are stunning.

1st Horseman Arrives?

2008-11-03T08:30:00.000-08:00

Spotted in East Plano. You know you're a ~~redneck~~ over-leveraged when you're selling your $200K Bentley Continental with a piece of day-glo card & a sharpie in a store parking lot.

The Obama Infomercial

2008-10-30T09:07:00.001-07:00

Nobody can really predict what we have in store for the next 4 years. But if Obama is elected at least we can be confident that the production values will be high!

Finally...Good News

2008-10-29T16:50:00.000-07:00

Madness |MTV Music

MTV has reportedly put all of their video archives online. Whilst I doubt that (there are some huge artist holes) the catalog does include some classics including this one from Madness. What makes it all the more interesting is the location, namely London's Hope & Anchor pub, home to both the burgeoning New Wave & Ska movements. A favorite of the Stiff Records acts it succumbed to Wine Bar (Fern Bar in the US) status but was rescued in the late 90's and re-opened as a music venue.

Interestingly enough it was located across the street from Islington's infamous Skunkz club, home of the hardest of the Skinhead acts where yours truly was the house mixer for awhile!

'Palllin Around

2008-10-29T13:27:00.001-07:00

This just in. Hot on the news that Obama has been 'pallin around with even more terrorists comes this unquestionable evidence that Our Own President has been doing the same! Yes, this is President Bush clearly 'pallin with a figure who until July of '08 was still on the US list of known terrorists! We have to thank Palin & the McCain campaign for unearthing this National Scandal and I believe we should appoint a Blue Ribbon committee to investigate just how many other lawmakers are quilty of such Anti-American associations.

Hate To Say I Told You So But...

2008-10-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

The good news is that those annoying (and un-secure) pre-approval notices are no longing cluttering up your mail box. The bad news is that just as consumers are having trouble with their mortgage payments, as expected, many are defaulting on their credit cards. The average US credit card customer owes over $8,000 on their card for a total of 2 trillion dollars with around 43% of Americans who actually spend more than they earn each year.

And this is the tip of an iceberg. The 800lb gorilla is car loans, many of which were issued under the same lax oversights as the home sub-primes and were packaged & traded as such. Deliquencies on sub-prime auto loans rose to over 4% in September which is further bad news for the manufacturers & dealers as repossed vehicles (more often than not, SUVs & trucks) find their way back into the marketplace further depressing prices.

I believe the forces against the US auto industry to be too strong for the industry to survive. A bailout may do nothing more than waste taxayers' money by only temporarily staving off the ineviatable. Don't think it can't happen here, years of union/management battles, a lacklustre product line and appalling build quality killed off the auto industry in Britain.

Finally, Good News For McCain

2008-10-28T14:22:00.000-07:00

AP reports that Joe The Plumber is backing McCain. This has to be good news for the Republican campaign since there's nothing like an unlicensed tradesman with an IRS lien on his home to turn the endorsement tide away from Obama who only has Colin Powell, a number of prominent Republicans and nearly every major newspaper in this country on his side.

Apparently Mr. Wurzelbacher, was particularly concerned about Obama's commitment to Israel. And being familiar with The Communist Manifesto, he also expressed reservations about Obama's Marxist sympathies. Really, I'm not making this up.

Muslim?

2008-10-22T06:12:00.000-07:00

Dear Republican Party, here is a Muslim for you. Quick note; the Crusades ended in the late 13th Century.

Thank you Colin Powell for bringing this brave young man to our attention.

Grab A Kleenex & Read On...

2008-10-14T07:13:00.000-07:00

What with the economy collapsing around us, political candidates slinging mud at each other and the general malaise that has taken over our country at this time, it's nice to find something that reminds us of the qualities we share in common.

Last Friday at the Aledo High School football game, Senior Kristen Pass was elected Homecoming Queen. What makes this particular monarch different is that Kristen suffers from Down Syndrome and when this winner was announced the entire stadium erupted into a pandemonium of support.

Like all good fairy tale stories the new queen took her crown to bed with her that night.

From the Dallas Morning News.

Cry "Havoc" And Let Slip The Dogs Of War

2008-10-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

Thus rages Anthony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. With much assistance from Gov. Palin the McCain campaign did just that last week. Desperately trying to distract voters from the subject of the economy the RNC went on the attack with suggestions that their opponent was associating with terrorists. It certainly seemed a successful strategy with recent rallies including cries from the crowd of "kill him" and "terrorist" and even threats made to black TV crew members.

Obviously scenes of howling bloodlust do little to sway the undecided voter and now Sen. McCain is desperatly trying to tone down the rhetoric from his audiences even today even giving praise to Obama, claiming that "he is a decent person, and a person that you do not have be scared as President of the United States."

The problem for him and the Republican party is that once the dogs of war are gone it's very hard to leash them again. This is the YouTube generation and the site is becoming filled with videos featuring McCain supporters hurling epiphets at the cameras. Currently the most viewed video on the site is labelled The McCain-Palin Mob, another is The Sidewalk To Nowhere, both feature party supporters with some very nasty and angry sound bites ("Commie Faggots").

This has the potential to completely derail not just the campaign but the entire Republican party. An act of actual violence perpetrated by a member of one of these mobs could have devastating and long lasting political effects and would rightly bring the wrath of decent society to bear directly on those who let slip the dogs in the first place.

Repeating History - Again

2008-10-10T06:08:00.000-07:00

Note to McCain campaign : It's not Reverend Wright or William Ayers, it's not that his middle name is Hussein. It's not even that he partied it up in school.

It's The Economy Stupid!

For Those About To Leech, We Salute You!

2008-10-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

Hard rockers from down-under AC/DC have certainly listened to the money talk and after finding that it's a long way to the top (if you wanna rock n roll) signed an exclusive with Wal-Mart for their new album. That's right, no iTunes, no Amazon no MySpace, just Wal-Mart.

Seems like the plan may have backfired already. Not actually scheduled for release until October 20th, "Black Ice" has already leaked it's way onto the torrent and P2P networks and is no doubt by now in the hands of all AC/DC fans with half a brain and an internet connection.

Wal-Mart must be thunderstruck with this development. Although the sums paid to AC/DC were not disclosed, I'm sure they were substantial. It was pretty certain that after the official release the album would find it's way online fast enough, however, now even the launch is old news. This may be the end of the road for the exclusive album release deal, better grab the money now while it's still on the table.

Edit: Wouldn't it be awesome if this is what the band intended all along? Think about it, they get their money, the fans get their music, the tour sells out. The only loser is Wal-Mart & it's hard to feel sorry for them. It's like Robin Hood & His Merrie Men vs. the Sheriff of Bentonville.

Follow The Money (Or Lack There-Of)

2008-10-08T18:34:00.000-07:00

In the first quarter of this year, container shippers were worrying about a shortage of containers. Global trade and the weak dollar had boosted shipping to levels beyond their capacity.

What a difference 6 months makes. Eivind Kolding, Chief Executive of shipping giant Maersk declared last week that his company will do whatever it takes to keep their share of the transportation markets. This is in the face of container rates that have dropped over 70% on some routes in the last 12 months.

Companies like Maersk, Cosco, Evergreen and their competitors are at the very front of gloabl trade. Unlike the silent movement of monies, they carry the actual tangible items that make up the international economy. I liken them to a thermometer under the tongue of the world's trade bodies, they don't tell you exactly what's going on but they can give a pretty good indication of the health therin.

A Couple Of Questions Mr. Senator

2008-10-08T17:45:00.000-07:00

Sen. McCain, a couple of things you mentioned during last night's debate got me wondering:

1) You plan to buy up mortgages that are in default & refinance them at fixed rates based on the actual value of the home at this time? Doesn't that reward the property owners who bought way more than they could afford (once values go up again they can profit handily from their foibles) and penalize those who acted responsibly with loans within their means? And what is to stop a homeowner declaring themselves unable to pay their loan merely to take advantage of your amazing offer? How do you plan to vet every applicant for this program without it taking longer than some of the loans issued?

2) Drill Baby Drill! Your battle cry for domestic production with which you plan to give American's "relief at the pump." This all sounds well and good but wouldn't oil sourced in ANWAR, the continental shelf or anywhere else in the US still be subject to world oil prices? Or are you suggesting that say, oil on the spot is selling for $110 a barrel but US domestic oil would be held artificially low at $75 a barrel (or some other pre-determined amount)?

And I thought you were for less government? You sly old maverick you, getting harder to pin down every minute aren't you?

Saving The Labels - Part 57,423

2008-10-07T08:22:00.001-07:00

Not only does EMI have a museum piece of a home page but they've also come up with an innovative new way to save the record industry through clothing. Teaming up with the UK grocery chain, Sainsburys, they will offer apparel bearing "the lyrics to some of the greatest songs ever written" according to the team.

I was swept up in the excitement of the announcement and went rtight to Cafe Press to create my own. I hope you like it. If the idea takes off I'm sure no Hong Kong apparel manufacturer will figure out that you could put lyrics on shirts all day long without infringing anything.

Bush Has Company

2008-10-06T16:35:00.001-07:00

Ever the achiever, President Bush now joins President Nixon with the second lowest approval rating ever recorded for a president. His 24% ties that of Nixon's right after Watergate in 1975.

I am not a crook!

Hey It Could Be Worse, We Could Be In Iceland!

2008-10-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

Iceland, long thought of as a country of stable, hard working Norse people has been on one long party. Flush with funds from deregulated banking, fishing quotas and large pension funds, the Icelandics went on a spending spree sweeping up stocks, primarily in Europe. The average family in the Island of 320,000 saw their income rise by nearly 50% and luxury goods raced off the shelves.

Now it's the morning after and the hangover includes huge losses as the world's banks crumble. Grocery chains are claiming they do not possess enough cash to buy staples. The currency is in free fall, inflation is at 12%, banks have been nationalized and people are lining up to move their money into the safest accounts possible. The government seems unable to cope with the crisis which deepens as foreign banks cut off any possibilities of financing.

Perhaps we don't have it so bad after all?

Iceland Melt-Down via The Guardian

Divine Provenence?

2008-10-05T07:52:00.001-07:00

This blur of red is actually Ferrari driver & World Champion contender Felipe Massa pulling his car out of the pits in Singapore with the fuel hose still attached. This lead to a lengthy delay at the end of pit row and ultimately put Massa at 13th place, a big blow for a driver who was only 1 point off the championship lead going into the race.

Perhaps it's all karma though? Hamilton's unfair penalty at Spa after a completely legal maneuver, handed Massa the race victory. Fate has a way of evening up the odds in F1 just as in life.

Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

2008-09-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you come across something that gets it completely right:

But it was a reckless choice. Palin has proved herself to be spectacularly unprepared for a national campaign and embarrassingly inarticulate and unreflective. She is held in protective custody by a campaign that trusts her less and less. A few conservatives have suggested she should be dropped from the ticket. - E.J. Dionne Jr. Washington Post

In this and his recent to & fro'ing on the bailout, maverick is looking increasingly more like reckless.

My Bailout Plan

2008-09-24T14:24:00.000-07:00

According to statistics on the White House's web site there are about 75M homeowners in the US. Instead of sending the $700B to the organizations that, as Ollie would say "got us into this mess" why don't we split the funds up amongst these US homeowners? The math comes to about $10K per home which in turn represents about 6 months of payment on the average mortgage. The money could be directly deposited into homeowner's mortgage accounts which in turn would save the banks and give the economy a kick start in re-energizing.

Now I don't have one of them fancy economics degree but this seems to be a win-win to me, unless you're a Wall Street type looking to get off scot-free that is.

Tainted Baby Milk & The Olympics

2008-09-24T13:59:00.000-07:00

According to some news outlets the current Chinese baby food contamination may have been known about prior to the Olympic games. However, in order not to detract from the World's media and political leaders gushing over their new found Chinese friends, the problems were covered up by the Beijing government. I can only hope that we did not deliver them a public relations bonanza literally over the dead bodies of children.

Also from The Daily Telegraph.

Payback's A Bitch

2008-09-24T13:53:00.001-07:00

Is it only me who sees the irony in us returning the favor to the Chinese? They sell us toxic toys, toothpaste and food additives and we sell them toxic investments. Seems like a fair trade to me.

Pondering The Questions

2008-09-23T16:46:00.001-07:00

With Congress not exactly falling all over themselves with the Fed's plan to save the US economy I have some questions.

1) Let's just say we don't bail out Wall Street, what is the likely scenario beyond the "it'll be really bad" line which only reminds me of an old Castlemaine beer commercial?
2) How does the proposed bailout stop the flow of mortgages going into foreclosure?
3) What about other financial commitments held by those in default? Presumably people who can't pay their mortgage will also default on their credit card, car, HELOC and other loans. Will we be bailing out GMAC and the like?
4) If companies receiving taxpayer's money return to profitability do we recoup the funds issued plus fair consideration for our risk?

These and many other questions we are left to ponder upon Grasshopper.

Palin, Yahoo & Anonymous

2008-09-17T18:04:00.000-07:00

All over the internets is the story that VP candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account at Yahoo was hacked by the lovable, anti-Scientology folks at "Anonymous." Why is this more than just an invasion of privacy? Because Ms. Palin used this unsecured account to conduct official Alaska business, thereby keeping the e-mail's contents off the legally required record keeping radar.

Originally posted on Wikileaks, which of course is down right now, the screen shots are starting to make their way around the web. I found mine here.

Now we can sit back and watch the illegal wire-tapping Republicans scream about privacy rights! What fun and japes eh?

Google Pipped To The Post

2008-09-16T19:29:00.001-07:00

Chrome, the new & well received browser from Google is based on open source code and while the original creators are dragging their heels on Mac and Linux versions the guys at Wine have ported it to both systems. Obviously this is proof of concept stuff, but fully functioning nonetheless.

File Under: Couldn't Give A Crap

2008-09-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

Just in: Zune owners will be able to access free WiFi (via Wayport, purveyor of the slowest hotel connections imaginable) at McDonalds' restaurants. Since the Zune doesn't have a web browser or e-mail client, the only thing you'll be able to do whilst getting burger grease on your player, is to download music. It's a match made in heaven I think.

Warning - Reprint

2008-09-16T15:31:00.000-07:00

I ' m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight…

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you’re a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic “Muslim” (who, by the way, is a Christian). Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a “maverick”.

Graduate from Harvard Law School and you are unstable. Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well grounded.

If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law Professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs Committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience. But if your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive and next in line behind a man in his eighth decade of life.

If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian. If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and then left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a true Christian.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control and only teaching kindergartners how to avoid strangers who might be sexual predators, you are eroding the fabric of society. However, if, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's. If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until
age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA , your family is extremely admirable.

Save The Bigs Banks By Making Bigger Banks?

2008-09-16T12:00:00.001-07:00

As the news from Wall Street deteriorates further, the recent agreement from Bank of America to purchase ailing Merrill Lynch seems to be just more of the same. Isn't creating giant financial firms through unregulated banking what got us into this mess in the first place?

Remembering 9/11

2008-09-11T05:16:00.001-07:00

Today is the 7th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and attempt on Washington DC. Yet there are now children headed into 2nd grade classrooms who were not even born when it all happened.

My feelings are terribly mixed on the subject. Of course there is the indignation and sense of affront, the respect for the tremendous bravery of the mostly doomed rescuers and the sadness for the thousands of people who stood no chance in the buildings and in the air. Sometimes, as I schlep my bags and coffee aboard another early flight I think that about that day and the passengers just like myself, sleepy and a little grumpy, headed for the exit row, little suspecting what their day held for them.

However, there is another side to 9/11 that troubles me. The constant invoking of that day as an excuse to subvert and trample on the rights of law abiding citizens both at home and abroad. The egregious use of the attacks to trample on portions of the Constitution our forefathers fought so hard for. Their use as a partial justification for the war in Iraq. It seems barely a day goes by without some politician or official touting 9/11 as an explanation for some dubiously legal action.

Yet seven years later the almost mythical Osama bin Laden is still at large and the World Trade Center site is still a construction zone mired in politics, inter agency infighting and greed. A single "enemy combatant" has been tried in the US (and found guilty of lesser charges). Our forces are bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan remains largely under Taliban and militia control. So called terrorist arrests in the US have turned into damp squibs and in the UK attempts to convict the liquid bombers have been frustrated. All we seem to have achieved is the creation of another huge government agency and the rightful suspicion of the civilized world around our use of off-shore prisons and interrogation methods.

In the seven years since the attacks, 9/11 our spirit of shared suffering has become a cause célèbre to be manipulated as needed to fit the political aspirations of the day. Perhaps that's the biggest and final tragedy?

Chili Cheese Fries? Not Today, However...

2008-09-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

Straight out of a movie this one. We were grabbing a bite to eat at Goff's Hamburgers in Highland Park. My friend decided that some chili cheese fries were in order but was told at the counter (by Rose, in no uncertain terms) that "we don't have that." "OK, how about a side order of chili, some fries and a side of grated cheese? Sure that'll be $4.50 please!"

Monty Python would have loved it.

Java, E-mail, Webmail and Vulnurabilities

2008-09-09T05:55:00.000-07:00

I can feel a slight twinge of sympathy for Newegg, they seem like a nice company and I've used them for purchases in the past. However, I think they're in for a bashing on the internets as this morning they sent out an e-mail flyer with a Java script that opened a dialog box requiring a non-existent user name and password. You could not cancel out of the box, rendering your entire e-mail acount useless. Compounding the problem is that using webmail via a browser caused the same actions. Since the webmail pages are Java based, disabling Java in the browser denies access to your acount!

I fixed the problem with some skullduggery which eventually required me to completely delete my e-mail acount from Mail, I am currently re-downloading 21,000 e-mail messages which is not what I wanted to do on a busy work morning.

Newegg may have done us all a favor though in showing that e-mail readers and webmail systems that do not allow the suspension of Java are incredibly vulnarable to this sort of flawed code. In this case the problem was merely incompetence, what if the intent had been malicious?

Best Of Craigslist - Scooby Doo Edition

2008-09-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

Nice ad in the local Craigslist. "Meddling Kids Not Included!"

Republicans Need To Hire A Songwriter

2008-09-05T10:01:00.001-07:00

Disclosure: The fact that I spent many of my idle teenage hours staring at this album cover no way influences the opinions expressed in this post.

Joining John Mellencamp, Jackson Browne and Boston are the Heart sisters who, like their fellow musicians are objecting to the use of one of their songs, in this case "Barracuda," to promote Palin at the RNC.

From an e-mail sent to Entertainment Weekly by Ann & Nancy Wilson -

"Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image...[It] was written in the late '70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women...There's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there."

Looks like the Republicans are running out of classic rockers to promote their candidates. Might I recommend Wham's "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" as a suitable alternative?

Food Fight!

2008-09-04T13:56:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure which is stranger, a food fight at a Donna Summer concert in Chicago OR the the fact that it was a sell out?

Fox News Makes Racist Remarks About Kettle

2008-09-03T13:43:00.001-07:00

Fox News, America's Election HQ and ever the bastion of fair and unbiased reporting has accused gossip rag US Weekly of "blasting" VP nominee Sarah Palin. At issue is a cover and story that is markedly unfriendly to the Alaska Governor. Apparently, by contrast, previous issues have devoted much ink to the happy Obama family of whom, the publisher is a big supporter.

I'm not a reader of US Weekly, however I am so terribly appreciative of Fox's one network crusade to keep election media reporting fair and balanced.

High Speed Longboarding

2008-09-03T09:07:00.000-07:00

Rumored to be a Canadian, the video features a fearless longboarder hitting speeds of 100KM/H (62 mph) on the A8 autobahn (map) between Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. He better keep going as apparently the German police would like a word with him about the stunt.

I'm partial to longboards myself (I have a Surf One) but even though we share the same wheel setup I'm not planning to hit my local freeway anytime soon.

From Rock God to RIAA Tool

2008-09-02T15:36:00.000-07:00

"I hope he rots in jail," said Slash, the former Guns N' Roses lead guitarist. "It's going to affect the sales of the record, and it's not fair."

So says the former guitar player for Guns & Roses in the LA Times. He's referring to music industry blogger Kevin Cogill (a self-confessed GnR fan) who posted 9 yet-to-be-released tracks from GnR's long awaited new album on his blog. For his efforts Cogill received a visit by the FBI, was arrested and is currently out on a $10,000 bond. Suffice to say, his defence against the music industry heavyweights will be a public defender.

ADA Craig Missakian, prosecuting the case claims that Cogill's actions caused "significant damage." If by that he means the world discovered that the new GnR album sucks than I guess he's right about one thing. As for Slash (real name Michael McKagan), yeah, that's the spirit of rock n' roll, big bad rock star that you are. Why fight the man when you can work for him?

Browser Wars - New Forces Arrive

2008-09-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

Hot on the heels of Microsoft's announcement of IE-8 comes a new entrant into the increasingly crowded browser space. Yesterday Google announced that it's browser project Chrome will be available for download sometime today. Google are claiming via an online comic book that this is not your father's software but a complete re-think of the way a browser should work and interact with the web and the user. They make a compelling case too.

A Bono style leak of some screen shots appeared yesterday and were subsequently removed. Currently (9am PDT) the Chrome download page takes you only to Google's search page.

Update: Press conference at 11am PDT, CNET will be live blogging.
Update: Windows version for download today at 12:00pm PDT

Strange Days Indeed

2008-09-02T05:21:00.000-07:00

Palin seems to be an odd choice for VP for a candidate who is running on a platform of experience. The pairing seems a little like a Vegas wedding, the 2 having met only twice before and smacks of a desperate attempt to lock in the dissatisfied Clintonites. The Republicans are talking about her integrity and that she and McCain are like soul mates, or could it be that no one else (chris, Jindal, Romney) actually wanted the job?

Phil Hill R.I.P.

2008-08-29T10:29:00.001-07:00

Lat night the USA's only Formula One World Champion Phil Hill died from complications associated with Parkinson's Disease. Hill dated from an era where so many of his co-drivers perished practicing their sport that his 81 years seems remarkable.

A very complex character, Hill seized the F1 title in late 1961 behind the wheel of his Ferrari. Tragically, the same race at Monza killed his team mate and fourteen spectators, a dark cloud always hung over his achievement. Hill went on to win 3 times at Le Mans before retiring to his native California.

The drivers of today stand upon the shoulders of great men like Phil who literally risked everything in their pursuit of speed. Next week's F1 round will be the Belgium Grand Prix at Spa, coincidentally a race Hill also won in 1961.

Phil Hill at Formula One.com

Last Night At The DNC

2008-08-29T05:56:00.001-07:00

Nicely put, when can you start?

Byrne + Eno

2008-08-28T16:29:00.001-07:00

The new album from Talking Heads' front man David Byrne and musical polymath Brian Eno is out and it's good. RIAA/label hating folks should head to the Everything That Happens Will Happen Today site where they can put their money where their mouth is and buy the whole thing direct from the artists concrned. $8.99 gets you a 320Kbs MP3 or FLAC (with 14 page PDF booklet), another $3 gets you all that plus a physical CD for the tactile amongst us. The album also streams for free plus there's a free MP3 single too.

Like I said, those who rage against the current system need to pony up and show our support for viable alternatives.

"The thing is nowadays, you'll have 20 men working, yet 60 men telling them 'You can't do that, you ain't got a tin hat on'".

2008-08-28T14:43:00.000-07:00

The title quote is from Fred Dibnah, former Bolton steeplejack, TV star and steam engine fancier. Fred's philosophical musings, mostly uttered whilst at the top of some 300' chimney he was "felling" became a cult classic on UK television and thanks to YouTube can now be enjoyed anywhere.

Fred was a man who truly knew no fear. Not in our current tough guy, reality TV sense (Man Versus Swim-Up Pool Bar) but as someone who had a respect for the perils of his profession and had come to terms with the possibility that this day could be the last. A true character in a world increasingly full of pretenders.

Fred was taken by cancer in 2004 but has a website dedicated to him here. And as Fred would have said "By 'eck it were grand."

What If...

2008-08-27T16:07:00.000-07:00

...Tom Waits had been part of Schoolhouse Rock? Would the conversation go something like this:

Teacher - "So Johnny what did you do this weekend?"
Johnny - "Well Teach, see there was this bar down by the docks. And back in the day she was a looker but now it's just a head of foam and legs like twizzle sticks. But the stilettos could still pierce and my blood ran red like Thunderbird on an obsidian sidewalk."
Teacher - "Er, thanks Johnny, Mary did you go to the park?"

Just wondering, that's all.

TV Production Trucks - A Study In Contrasts

2008-08-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

NMT monitor wall & front bench, 1978 and NEP SS25 monitor wall & front bench 2008. Check out the pop-top Bud!

What Are They Gonna Do? Really I Mean

2008-08-26T09:03:00.000-07:00

Many of Hilliary's supporters are still full of righteous indignation over slights, perceived and real, by the Obama campaign. But really, what are they going to do about it? Vote for McCain? Yep, that'll show that DNC. If ever there was needed a case of "get over it" now is the time.

Blogging

2008-08-25T18:06:00.000-07:00

When blogs start to write about blogging it's generally a good indication that they've jumped the shark. This is not something I intend to do here by the way, my intent is just to mitigate any and all blame for my lack of recent postings.

The popular podcast This Week In Tech accused many blogs of doing nothing more than re-posting information from other blogs with a picture attached. I agree with their analysis and have always attempted to keep Life For Dummies a place of often ironic but at least original thought. Today, whilst feeling a little guilty about the irregularities of my postings I realized that it's better to post nothing than to write merely to fulfill an artificially self-imposed deadline or commitment.

Therefore, I plan to continue to blog, when, where and about whatever I want with a particularly big emphasis on the when and I shall not feel one wit of guilt for allowing extended periods of time to lapse between postings.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

Lefsetz & Solzhenitsyn

2008-08-05T07:03:00.000-07:00

I first read Alexander Solzhenitsyn at 12 years old after watching the movie adaptation of Ivan Denisovich. His books were the perfect food for my teenage angst and led me to many other authors writing about social & political injustice around the world. I'm saddened at his passing but instead of writing my own piece on the man I lead you to Bob Lefsetz who has done a much better job than I could ever have.

As for rockers… Shit, the art form expired with Bon Jovi and the rest of the hair bands back in the eighties. To this day, I’ve never heard Jon Bon Jovi utter a negative word. He doesn’t want to offend anybody, he doesn’t want to risk his lifestyle, he doesn’t stand for anything. Whereas Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was only about the truth, he was willing to risk his life for the truth, he was driven to stand up to a repressive government. While in the twenty first century Justin Timberlake serves up African-American Janet Jackson after disrobing her at the Super Bowl, needing to be on America’s Team, one that is always right and does no wrong.

What has America’s Team become? One solely of rampant commercialism?

You took the words outta my mouth Bob. Find the full version here.

TSA - The Best & Worst Edition

2008-08-04T05:47:00.000-07:00

Frequent travelers are well aware that the TSA experience varies widely from airport to airport. Blog or no blog, the TSA experience is one of inconsistency.

So, may I have the envelope please?

Best : San Diego & Dallas/Fort Worth
Worst : Atlanta Hartsfield & Chicago O'Hare

San Diego is cramped but calm & polite, no shouting or pouting, pretty typical SoCal attitude. DFW has the advantage of multiple points of entry so the lines are rarely long. On the dark side, ATL has the rudest & most incompetent staff & ORD is just complete chaos.

So there you have it, trophies are in the mail.

Saving Fingers (and hands)!

2008-08-01T12:11:00.001-07:00

According to Sawstop, every 9 minutes a table saw related accident occurs. Using the body's natural ability to act as an electrical ground the Sawstop 10" saw blade instantly brakes & drops below the table. The demo video using a hotdog is truly, wincingly amazing, I thought that a demo using a live finger might be cooler but I'm not sure I'd volunteer myself.

Now For The Brighter Side Of Life

2008-07-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

Was Love Connection, that great 80's late night dating game the precursor to today's reality shows? If so, the latest variants forgot that the original was actually pretty funny. Maybe the new ones just try too hard?

Back in 2 and 2.

More Lessons From History

2008-07-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

"They came as liberators but were met by fierce resistance outside Baghdad. Humiliating treatment of prisoners and heavy-handed action in Najaf and Fallujah further alienated the local population." CNN, 2007? No, Britain, 90 years earlier!

Robert Frisk writing on the eerie parallels between the 1917 British invasion of Iraq & the situation today, originally published in The Independent. He goes on to say:

"Within six months, Britain was fighting a military insurrection in Iraq and David Lloyd George, the prime minister, was facing calls for a military withdrawal. "Is it not for the benefit of the people of that country that it should be governed so as to enable them to develop this land which has been withered and shrivelled up by oppression? What would happen if we withdrew?" Lloyd George would not abandon Iraq to "anarchy and confusion". By this stage, British officials in Baghdad were blaming the violence on "local political agitation, originated outside Iraq", suggesting that Syria might be involved."

Upon Which The Sun Shall Never Set

2008-07-21T08:26:00.001-07:00

A partial list of countries formally occupied & administered by the British:

Palestine
Burma
Somalia
Uganda
Rhodesia/Zimbabwe
Sudan
Iraq
Sierra Leone

Now children, can you find the connection here? That's right little Johnny, those nasty brutal colonialists were replaced by...

Paying The Piper - USA Style 2008

2008-07-21T07:28:00.001-07:00

The story is actually dates from the 13th century, made popular by the Brothers Grimm in the 19th. The villagers renege on their deal with the rat clearing piper & he exacts his revenge in a horrific manner. From this we get the phrase, "paying the piper."

In the 1940s personal savings rates were close to 25%, perhaps this had as much to do with rationing and the lack of goods to purchase, however even in the 70's & 80's they ran between 6% and 8%. By the Millennium savings rates had dropped to around 2% and actually went into negative territory (people extracting more from their savings than depositing) in 2004.

Household debt (adjusted for income) as a share of disposable income rose from around 33% in the 1940s to 86% in the late 90's. However, from 2000 until 2005 it had risen 30 points from 102% to 131%, in other words, people were spending 30% more than they earned.

The savings rate & spending rate are closely tied, the less you save, the more you spend & it was this burst of credit fueled purchasing that drove our economy into overdrive over the past decade.

We lived in a beautiful upwards spiral, ever lax banking regulation funneled more & more dollars into consumer's hands. Buoyed with this wealth they bought bigger homes forcing property prices upwards. They then borrowed against these homes' inflated values to purchase big ticket consumer goods. By now financial institutions were repackaging loans & selling them off so a borrower's ability to pay became less important than the origination fees associated with the debt. The huge sums of money flowing into the economy by unrestrained consumer spending buoyed up every sector of the market.

However, a house of cards is just that. For all the endless analysis & chatter in the media it's a very simple equation, an economy cannot be built on top of a giant Ponzi scheme. An endless party of borrowing and spending was obviously not going to have much sustainability. And here we are, acting all surprised as usual.

Let's Fix Sport Doping For Good

2008-07-17T07:33:00.001-07:00

Pity the Tour de France, for all their posturing, they can't even reach Stage 12 without a favorite rider testing positive for drugs. Of course, cycling's not alone, baseball, the Olympics and many other sports have been similarly tainted by drug scandals. With the summer games close, I think it's time we took some ideas from the drag racers' NHRA playbook and got back to openess in athletic competition.

I propose 3 major catagories of athlete;
1) Stock - a little coffee or diet coke is fine, energy bars & recovery drinks are permitted but beyond this the athlete is pretty much operating on the goods God gave them.
2) Top Alcohol - these guys & girls are allowed some performance drugs, steroids are in however drugs must be consumed/injected prior to actual competition.
3) Top Fuel - anything goes, want a second heart implanted in your chect? No problem. Prepared to ride with an IV strapped to bike? It's all good for the Top Fuelers.

An athlete would declare the catagory that he/she wished to compete in & like bracket racing the results would be adjusted accordingly. This way both the fans & atheletes win.

SF Held Captive

2008-07-15T11:57:00.000-07:00

This story has legs...a disgruntled San Francisco city computer engineer is currently being held on $5M bail for refusing to divulge the password he used to lock all other administrators out of the city WAN network! Authorities claim that Terry Childs may also have an accomplice remotely accessing & deleting files. This seems a little far-fetched since obviously Childs could have engineered this instead of, or in addition to his password trick at the same time.

While this standoff continues it's interesting to muse on how much of our lives depend on data that could easily be compromised by a malicious computer administrator who may just as easily be thousands of miles away.

Link to story at SFGate

Torrent = Quality and Avant-Garde?

2008-07-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

The video torrent traders seem to be most interested in the timeliness of their files rather than the overall quality. A handheld camera in a movie theater will often serve their purpose well. However, the audio uploaders seem to be increasingly concerned with the quality, of their offerings. 320kbs rips are very common on the torrent networks & far exceed the quality found on the commercial download sites (iTunes, Amazon etc.).

A group calling themselves The Vinyl Flac Project are meticulously re-recording rare avant-garde albums that have long dropped from the label's catalogs. These are then offered on the major torrent tracking sites like Pirate Bay. Alongside a complementary operation, the Avant Garde Project, the offerings include works by John Cage, Peter Maxwell & even Stravinsky. Find their releases here & here (you'll need a torrent program to download the files, don't forget to seed after finishing).

One Of Mine

2008-07-14T15:36:00.000-07:00

Taken with my Nokia N95, Laredo, Texas, June 2008.

Lime 37 - Hot Rod Photography

2008-07-14T15:34:00.001-07:00

Lime 37
Originally uploaded by thebobblog

Unique photographs from a fellow fan of dereliction. Find my own fascination with the subject here.

Bring On The Lawyers

2008-07-14T12:47:00.001-07:00

Confident after their successful action against the NSA in 2006, the ACLU has already filed suit against the FISA warrant less wiretap law. Quote from the ACLU's Christopher Dunn:

"A democratic system depends on the rule of law, and not even the president or Congress can authorize a law that violates core constitutional principles. The only thing compromised in this so-called 'compromise' law is the Constitution."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is also rumored to be starting legal action against FISA although apparently staying quiet on the issue as not to tip their legal hand.

Interestingly, I worked with a Christian organization last week who are highly active in many of the countries considered as supporters of terrorism. Currently many of the objections to the new law revolve around journalists, however, religious & charitable organizations are bound to be caught up in the broad net cast by the act. As a former Brit, one could argue that my frequent calls to the same country that gave us a shoe, liquid & subway bombers could be subject to interception!

Thank goodness for the lawyers dedicated to upholding our freedoms in the face of ever increasing pressure. This could turn out to be an interesting fight, I am interested to see the government's case defending the act against the Constitution.

Meanwhile On The Other Side Of The Pond

2008-07-10T10:02:00.001-07:00

Without the sanity of a Supreme Court or a codified constitution to stop them, the British authorities are waging war on the habeas corpus rights of their citizens originally enshrined in the Magna Carta over 800 years ago. Sir Bob Geldof has an excellent piece in today's Telegraph in which he writes;

What existential threat do we face greater than those of the past 800 years? What great terror exists today that not civil war, not world war, nor recent other terrorisms could make our forefathers change the fundamental basis of this state? What is so dangerous that our oldest statutes could be upended for such a ha'p'orth of momentary panic?

Wise words to heed on BOTH sides of the Atlantic.

The Eagle Has Landed (maybe for good)

2008-07-09T18:36:00.000-07:00

Today the Senate passed Bush's bill extending the government's power to eavesdrop on it's citizens & granting immunity to the telco companies who assisted in illegal surveillance. Obviously the news & blogs are all over this with what appears to be pretty consistent condemnation of the bill & the 69 Senators who voted for it, including a certain Presumptive Candidate for President, Barack Obama.

The democrats are running on a platform of Change. But we already have a majority of Democrats in BOTH houses and yet the war continues and the trampling of the 4th Amendment alongside it. Perhaps I'm worrying needlessly, in fact Sen. Bond (R-Mo) claimed that "unless I have al Queda on speed dial I have nothing to fear" This from a government that can't even implement a functional no-fly list.

Three years ago this fall, I stood in a room with 842 others & swore an oath of allegiance to a country that I truly believed represented the highest ideals of freedom & liberty on our planet. It breaks my heart to see small minded, self-serving politicians, their lobbyists & the corporations that support them, trample on the very ideals I stood up for. To wit: “I will from this point forward grant my allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, and to its Laws, defending the Constitution and the Laws from all enemies that attack them.” Seemingly in 2008, defending the Constitution from enemies will serve only to get me wiretapped?

Squeeze-ing the $ out

2008-07-07T16:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, these are actual concert ticket prices. Who for? Bette Midler? Streisland? The Eagles? Wrong, wrong, wrong! It's for one of my favorite all time bands, British pop icons, Squeeze playing at the House Of Blues. Big fan that I am (I saw their final show at the condemned Rainbow in London) there is no way I would pay this to see Difford & Tilbrook again. And the music industry wonders why it's going down the toilet?

iPhoto to Flickr

2008-07-07T15:27:00.001-07:00

Nice little free application for exporting directly from iPhoto to Flickr. Neat.

My Boombox

2008-07-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

Back when audio-to-go was anything but personal I came home with one of these. I think my parents recoiled in horror at the size & volume of the beast but I loved it. It traveled everywhere with me, complete with little pieces of tape to mark the locations of my favorite Sunday afternoon pirate radio stations in London. I remember sun-bathing on my apartment building roof with the Hitachi, Kenny Everett on Capital Radio & at least a six pack of Swan Lager. Had to be careful with the beer though, it was a long drop off the edge!

Thanks to pocketcalculatorshow for the trip down memory lane & Notcot for the inspiration.

The 4 Grand Chopper!

2008-07-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

Rumor has it that a custom piece from the Teutul family can set you back well over $100K. For those with less (substantially less) funds there is this alternative from JohnnyPag Motorcycles. Retailing a scad over $4K these US designed, Chinese built bikes have a 300cc engine & are good for around 75mph, which is about as fast as you'd want to go on a chopper anyway.

It's no Captain America but still a great looking machine.

via Retrothing.

Doomed To Repeat

2008-07-03T10:37:00.001-07:00

It was George Santayana in 1924 who coined the famous phrase "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." And like deja-vous the US auto industry is fulfilling the prophecy. Back in 1973 the OPEC oil embargo hit the US, gas prices rose about 70 cents a gallon & Detroit was stuck with dealer lots stuffed with V-8 gas guzzling monsters that no one wanted. Much hand wringing followed, with claims from the Big 3 that this could never have been anticipated & they were caught without any models that could appeal to the economy conscious consumer. The door was opened to the Japanese imports & the rest is history.

Fast foward to 2008, gas prices have been steadily trending upwards since 2004 to their current high of around $4 per gallon. Once again Detroit was caught off guard, stuck with dealer lots stuffed with V-8 gas guzzling monsters and no models to sell to the economy conscious consumer. And once again the Big 3 are hand wringing with the usual "no one could have predicted this" excuses.

What are they teaching in MBA class these days anyway?

In Search Of The Perfect Caipirinha - Update Spy Shot

2008-07-02T13:18:00.001-07:00

This grainy spy shot was the best our undercover agent could get (at considerable risk to himself). What we have here is the Pineapple Mint Caipirinha reputedly served at Republic in NYC's Union Square. Hmm, seems like a fact finding mission to the Big Apple may be necessary?