Punk Planning

Links for 2009-11-08 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

John Browne on the European Union, Germany's Startling Role and the how the Monetary Elite is Trying to Come to Grips with the Internet
Starting with Kaiser Wilhelm in 1914, Germany failed to see that the two great empires of Rome and England grew not out of international ambition but over time, from the clever strategic defense of national interests. But now the European Union will end up under German control-the empire for which she always yearned.

Blimey

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:42:00 +0000

David Hayes Vs Nikolai Valuev

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:45:00 +0000

Somebody needs to update Nikolai Valuev's Wikipedia entry. That wont be me though. I hope this video isn't removed by the time you get to see it. It's very panto.

Links for 2009-11-07 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Two Puffs and a Dollop of Indecision by C.J. Maloney
Actually, considering all the drone attacks we conduct within their borders, we are at war, but also kind of allies in that confused, Vietnam-like way America has become so fond of. - QUAGMIRE
Captured Photo Collection » Ian Fisher : American Soldier Photos
I love my country to death
American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse
According to Dice, Christian was a high-ranking member of "a Luciferian secret society" at the forefront of the New World Order. "The elite are planning to develop successful life-extension technology in the next few decades that will nearly stop the aging process," Dice says, "and they fear that with the current population of Earth so high, the masses will be using resources that the elite want for themselves. The Guidestones are the New World Order's Ten Commandments. They're also a way for the elite to get a laugh at the expense of the uninformed masses, as their agenda stands as clear as day and the zombies don't even notice it."
Johnnie Moore's Weblog: Congruence
The problem is a preference for avoiding the discomfort of looking at and considering changing our own behaviour. Unsurprisingly, many leaders prefer to support other people and groups to change rather than work on themselves; those other people, in turn, prefer to help other people change … and so on.
The Peril of Palatability - Reason Magazine
But as The End of Overeating more than amply demonstrates, Kessler is the sort of crusader who spares no effort to uncover the obvious.
Why Neanderthals Really Went Extinct: Begley | Newsweek Voices - Sharon Begley | Newsweek.com
Because they evolved in the warm climate of Africa before spreading into Europe, modern humans had a body like marathon runners, adapted to track prey over such distances. But Neanderthals were built like wrestlers. That was great for ambush hunting, which they practiced in the once ubiquitous forests, but a handicap on the steppes, where endurance mattered more.
Breaking the Australian Silence : Information Clearing House - ICH
At least sixty people were blown to bits, including the bride and groom and many children. That’s the fifth wedding party attacked, in our name. Hannah, was being marched from a cattle train to the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen when she saw a group of German women looking at the prisoners, just looking, saying nothing, silent. Her mother never forgot what she called this despicable “looking from the side”.
Precuneus Region Of Human And Monkey Brain Is Divided Into Four Distinct Regions
However, recent functional neuroimaging studies have started to implicate the precuneus in a variety of high level cognitive functions, including episodic memory, self-related processing, and aspects of consciousness.
Seafloor Fossils Provide Clues To Climate Change
"The boundary between the late Eocene to the early Oligocene is a striking example of rapid climate change that we can look to in Earth's past

Links for 2009-11-06 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Crowdsourcing a Discussion on Crowdsourcing: Agency Nil, Anomaly and Victors & Spoils | eyecube
The new thing for advertising should be to focus on solving the client’s problem and quit worrying so damn much about how to label, tag, compartmentalize, catalog and write a book about every new ground-breaking thing.
Sex toy research causes a stir at Duke - News - NewsObserver.com
"I'm concerned about promiscuity also," Vetter said. "And to be honest, I don't have the solution. ... My concern is these students are in this developmental phase, and I don't think it's a good developmental practice to just tell somebody to just sit around and masturbate. I don't think that promotes relationships."
Exxon-Led Consortium Wins Iraq Oil Contract - WSJ.com
DRILL...PUMP...DRILL...PUMP! I'm tired of reading about inefficient, unreliable, uneconomic recycled failures like windmills, solar machines and biofuels!
Edge In Frankfurt: THE AGE OF THE INFORMAVORE— A Talk with Frank Schirrmacher
I mention this because so many discussions of the effects of new information technologies take the status quo as self-evidently good and bemoan how intellectual standards are being corroded (the "google-makes-us-stoopid" mindset). They fall into the tradition of other technologically driven moral panics of the past two centuries, like the fears that the telephone, the telegraph, the typewriter, the postcard, radio, and so on, would spell the end of civilized society.
BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Edinburgh, East and Fife | Morrissey is 'best musical poet'
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now -I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour, but heaven knows I'm miserable now. I was looking for a job, and then I found a job and heaven knows I'm miserable now This Charming Man -I would go out tonight, but I haven't got a stitch to wear, this man said: "It's gruesome, that someone so handsome should care" Some Girls are Bigger than others - From the ice-age to the dole-age, there is but one concern, I have just discovered - some girls are bigger than others
I AM THE CLIENT!: Agency characters, no 3 - The Creative Director
Oh, the Creative Director! Isn't he just crazy? Isn't he just so unpredictable? It's almost like he's not doing advertising. It's like he's doing art.

300 seconds

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:05:00 +0000

Links for 2009-11-05 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Gary Fisher Superfly Mountain Bike | Wired.com Product Reviews
Most of the parts (like the cockpit, wheelset and gorgeous carbon crankset) are borrowed from Bontrager, Fisher's in-house racing line. Drivetrain duties are handled by SRAM's superb X.0 shifters and derailleurs, which perform with a grace and effortlessness that rivals Shimano's vaunted XTR gruppo.
Can Google Take on Wall St — and Win? - Umair Haque - HarvardBusiness.org
Every day, you handle more searches than the NYSE handles trades — and that difference, I'm guessing, is about to hit an order of magnitude more. Every day, you connect people, businesses, and communities in deeper and tighter ways than besuited beancounters do.
Is Your Business Useless? - Umair Haque - HarvardBusiness.org
Socially useless business is what has created a global economy on life support. Socially useless business is what has created a jobless "recovery" and mass unemployment amongst the young. Socially useless business is why we don't have a better education, healthcare, finance, energy, transportation, or media industry. Socially useless business is a culture in shock, reeling from assault after assault on the fabric of community and comity. Socially useless business is the status quo — and the status quo says: "You don't matter. Our bottom line is the only thing that matters."
Why Freakonomics Can't Beat Geekonomics - Umair Haque - HarvardBusiness.org
I enjoyed Freakonomics, as I enjoyed the fifty or so imitators that followed. Yet, they are to economics what Friends is to culture: pop. And ultimately, though Levitt's academic work is stellar, the Freakonomics genre represents the trivialization of a great system of thought. Instead of improving that system of thought, it applies already questionable assumptions to what are socially the lowest-value uses.
The New (New) Mediaconomy - Umair Haque - HarvardBusiness.org
Media's just the canary in the coal mine. Over the next decade, every industry will undergo a similar transition from locked down and closed, to blown wide open. So the question is, whatever industry you're in: are you churning out soda — or carefully nurturing wine?
Elinor Ostrom and the Future of Economics - Umair Haque - HarvardBusiness.org
That conclusion challenges orthodox economics from both left and right leaning perspectives; it suggests that, yes, markets can organize production and consumption efficiently — but only when supported and nurtured by networks and communities.
Thailand Recalls Its Envoy to Cambodia as Rift Grows - WSJ.com
He may value money over life but he also values power over money.
Place Of Grace | The New Republic
Even more than is the case with any building, comprehending one by Zumthor requires you to be there. Worlds unto themselves, Zumthor's buildings change your world. Pictures cannot show that. This man understands the difference between a building and a photograph, and he designs the former, not the latter.

Twitterfall

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:00:00 +0000

It's a bit good isn't it?

You can read (or listen) all about the Moral Maze program on Radio 4 over here. It was a good way to discover another real time application that surpassed the quality of the content being observed. Quite a few laughs and apparently a few of you were keeping an eye on the #moralmaze hashtag taking my Twitter follower account over 1200 although no doubt I'll say something and lose a few of those. It's all good.

Links for 2009-11-04 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Green beliefs win legal protection - Home News, UK - The Independent
Green beliefs deserved the same protection in the workplace as religious convictions.
Geary Behavioural Economics Blog: Risk Aversion, Impatience & Cognitive Ability
We find that lower cognitive ability is associated with greater risk aversion, and more pronounced impatience.
Do Smart, Hard-Working People Deserve to Make More Money? « The Baseline Scenario
Some people seem constitutionally unable to admit that success and prosperity are not the result of hard work alone.”
Philip Greenspun’s Weblog » The Coming Collapse of the Municipal Bond Market
Barring some sort of miraculous boom in the economy and pension fund investment returns, state and local governments are headed for insolvency and default.
How the AvantGrand, Yamaha's new electronic piano, improves upon a 300-year-old instrument. - By Chris Wilson - Slate Magazine
Tuning an instrument very exactly to one key using the standard ratios between notes makes it out of tune in every other key. (There's a very good, non-animated summary here.) The modern scale simply splits the difference between every key so that they're all equally out of tune. - Want one.
Moral Maze? « Peninsulawyer
The problem is that all this is easy to understand this if you use Twitter, but hard to explain to someone who doesn’t. To my mind this makes it hard to have any meaningful debate… suggesting to the anti-Twitter camp that they only reason they are against Twitter is that they don’t understand it is unlikely to convince them!
Minister threatens to close down ISPs and DSI to go after Bloomberg « Asian Correspondent
BP: This is in reference to Bloomberg, who were the first to report the story that rumors over HM the King's health had caused the stock market to fall.

The Client's A Wanker

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:45:00 +0000

Brilliant new fresh blog called I AM THE CLIENT over here. Go check it out.

Adscam

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:00:00 +0000

I've had the pleasure of getting hammered with George Parker of the notorious Adscam one or two times in London and San Francisco and I can confirm he is full of piss and vinegar, although those less familiar with the legend would be surprised to learn that he was once a running fanatic and actually uncannily accurate over a number of important industry prediction issues on his blog which is mandatory reading over here.

Anyway, earlier today (OK so I'm up at 4am these days but I nap at 9am so it's all good) I got this DM from George on Twitter

..and I laughed....because in no particular order: Now he's definitely out.

But not before coming back in again...

Then he's off again

Then back in

One last time??

Fuck Twitter, I need a drink.

Links for 2009-11-03 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Great Pacific Garbage Patch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also described as the Eastern Garbage Patch or the Pacific Trash Vortex, is a gyre of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean located roughly between 135° to 155°W and 35° to 42°N and estimated to be twice the size of Texas
The end of the affair: Modern technology means it's never been easier to expose a partner's lies | Mail Online
Earlier this month, the wife of a cheating husband put a photo of his lover's lacy underwear on eBay. The listing, by annastella007 in Canberra, Australia, said the lingerie was 'so huge it may make a nice shawl'. It was offered for sale with an empty condom wrapper - 'size small' - the wife found in their bed.
I do exist, but not for long : Matthew Taylor’s blog
When I consider myself in the whole-human-being way I fully endorse the conventional view that there is in my case – that I am – a single subject of experience – a person – with long term diachronic continuity. But when I experience myself as inner mental subject and consider the detailed character of conscious experience, my feeling is that I am – that the thing that I most essentially am is – continually completely new
Not The Nation.Com :: The Website you can trust ::
“To simply state that everyone must die is a malicious and unpatriotic attack on sacred institutions,” said a police spokesperson. “As Thais we must watch our words, and Dr Pornthip did not do so.”
Not The Nation.Com :: The Website you can trust ::
BANGKOK – Every licensed stock broker in Thailand was arrested yesterday for having believed the malicious rumors about His Majesty the King’s health, which led to a plunge in the stock market in October.
Not The Nation.Com :: The Website you can trust ::
“Spence was always shutting off the air-conditioner, unplugging the TV and things like that. The fact that his premature death will help the environment would have chuffed him to pieces,” his wife Janice said.
Not The Nation.Com :: The Website you can trust ::
AYUTTHAYA - Police are currently questioning a 17-year-old girl who floated krathong with at least seven different men at the water’s edge last night.
Truthdig - Reports - War Is a Hate Crime
“Every thinking person wants to take a stand against hate crimes, but isn’t war the most offensive of hate crimes?” asked Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who did not vote for the bill
I AM THE CLIENT!
'Cleanavia cleans cleaner than cleaners that aren't Cleanavia'
Middle East News | UN to urge credible probes of Gaza war crimes
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon meanwhile urged Israel to end its "provocative actions" in east Jerusalem.

Maoxian

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:08:00 +0000

How rude:

Clearly a man of refined taste:

Via Maoxian

The Naughties

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:00:00 +0000

Andy has just posted the graph above revealing the relationship between new technologies and the lag that subsequently catches up to play a reinforcing role for truth and transparency. As it's the Noughties we're living in I think he's picked up on some very tasty irony for this. It's a post I'm envious I hadn't thought of before and is well worth checking out over here.

Links for 2009-11-02 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Salon.com Life | How not to make love like a porn star
Soon after, another friend mentioned a man she'd been dating, whose erotic repertoire included withdrawing his member at key moments to thump it on her. After puzzling over it with friends, she finally figured out: It's a porn move.
One in five mammal species on extinction 'red list' | Environment | guardian.co.uk
A fifth of the world's known mammals, a third of its amphibians, more than a quarter of its reptiles and up to 70% of its plants are under threat of extinction
This Is Your Brain On Fatty Acids: Scientists Discover Lipid May Be Vital To Learning
The fatty substance directs the receptors to specific locations in the outer membrane of brain cells, which continually strengthen and weaken their connections with each other, sculpting and resculpting new memory circuits.
America, stop sucking up to Israel - Haaretz - Israel News
Israel of 2009 is a spoiled country, arrogant and condescending, convinced that it deserves everything and that it has the power to make a fool of America and the world. The United States has engendered this situation, which endangers the entire Mideast and Israel itself. That is why there needs to be a turning point in the coming year - Washington needs to finally say no to Israel and the occupation. An unambiguous, presidential no.

X - Rated

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:23:00 +0000

One of the defining moments of British cultural insight was the death of Princess Diana. I"ve never forgiven you for devouring every bit of grubby news about her love affairs via the tabloids, only to do an about face turn at her funeral when the crowds finished baying for one of our cultural gladiators' blood only to toss flowers in the way of her funeral train and weep openly before a sea of suburbia clapped their way, meme-like into Westminster cathedral during her brother, Charles Spencer's historic j'accuse speech pointing the finger at the Royal family for their meanness of spirit and narrow minded ostracizing of a wife they had pre-selected for their son, the Prince of Wales.

Of course there's a lot more complexity than just a binary view of good and bad but even with all Diana (Princess of Wales) faults it was evident that despite her fondness for playing up to the cameras, promiscuity (is Harry really a Windsor?) and possible manipulation of public sentiment, the good shone through, and her championing of AIDS, love of her children and campaign against British arm dealers selling UK made land mines (hated by the establishment) were proof of that.

It's for this reason I still like the Prince of Wales for his principled stand on architecture (one that Ayn Rand's Fountainhead chimes nicely with), his proposal for a multi faith head of religion (as opposed to just Church of England) and dedication towards sustainability. He may be a bit wacky but this pales into insignificance when compared with the British publics attempt to whitewash their own hypocrisy on sentimentality and the cause and effect thereof.

So what is it with the X factor? I listen each season to a large number of UK tweets in what apparently is a mix of obsession and loathing much like our former tragic heroine and yet I can't help but feel like some sort of digital ethnographer on the tail end of observation, viewing a murky world of consumer designed TV, shaped by a rolling narrative of the unexpected mixed with the salaciously expected.

Its easy to be sniffy about popular culture and while very aware that I've long lost the ability to be able to force interest over the medium term in that which is considered entertainment for the majority of Brits I'm still confounded by the gusto for garbage.

But really.....some of the most clever people I know are up to their hips in the banal viewing and low end wading of trash culture which reminds me of the bread and circuses to keep the end of empire crowds from recognising the depth of problem solving required to address the pressing issues that surround us all.

I get it. I don't like it. Do we get what we deserve? Probably.

My thanks to Ruby Pseudo for her post and the essence of Ros Bifs culture marketing that inspired my own.

Word

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:00:00 +0000

It's been a year and a half since I last did one of these.

Google Connect

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:43:00 +0000

One of the great things about social media is the sheer flexibility of it all. I don't have any rules and I'm completely entitled to change my mind at any moment as to how I run this blog. Management reserves the right to be an arse hole and so forth.

However, as a fully paid up "data junkie" I had an epiphany the other day while thinking why so many of the people on Twitter are in some sort of cluster link fuck fest and yet fail to really engage in what makes Twitter delightful. So, I've decided I'm going to remove some of the social networking tools at the side of this blog (as well as pipe some of you who just link on Twitter into Friendfeed) so this is really the last chance to make it easy for yourself and join Google connect. I'll still be on it but it wont be on display as I'm cleaning up my data streams or rather going for a full on tweak that is really never ending. Click below and join in or don't. It's all good :)

For Fox Sake

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:31:00 +0000

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

For Fox Sake!

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

Long before it was safe to do so, when the United States was reeling from the sky scraping collapse of three buildings in New York and any suggestion of even handed analysis or probing and difficult questions was yelled down by people screaming 'they hate our freedoms'. I made my political position clear although you might be surprised to find I'm neither Democrat or Republican.

What annoys me is that those same people baying for blood invariably couldn't point to Iran on a map and are unaware of having their political opinions shaped by the media and its business driven agenda (industrial military and media complex and so forth or MIC as its often known). FOX is most certainly part of this machine as is CNN although they are both complicit in addressing real issues.

Noam Chomsky made clear this complex communication topic of media manipulation in his 'Manufacturing Consent' book. During that post 9/11 I was unpopular and (I lost friends over it) specifically yelling (to the TV) at the disgraceful cowardice of the White House Press Corps as they group fellated then POTUS Bush 43. I've also made clear my views on FOX NEWS (Fair and Balanced) over here but I think it's important that if you haven't watched how media really works that you take the time out to watch the Manufacturing Consent Video below.

There really is no excuse for not being informed and if you find it dull. Perhaps you need to back to your day job because being part of the solution and not the problem is only for the sentient classes.

Disclaimer: Noam Chomsky is my favourite Jewish Person. I imagine if he lived a couple of thousand years ago, that with legendary embellishment he could easily morph into that other profoundly important Jewish figure..Jesus Christ. Watch this and see why he's on another level. I know of no other person who cuts through issues with such compelling truth that it leaves me bewildered as to how he made the lonely journey to what become self evident conclusions.

Green Is Green

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:59:00 +0000

I was taking an early morning swim yesterday. It's a good time for me to think, and as ever when I'm surrounded by the sun, the sea and the sand I'm reminded how beautiful nature is and that we're really confronted by a logic bomb when considering how the system we all conspire to take part in, points at the asymmetry of global finite resources and our wasteful production (most products don't exist within six months of their manufacture) and of course our decadent disposable lifestyles. There's a way out of this and advertising or communications has a powerful and wealth creating role to contribute towards a virtuous solution but I've written about that extensively elsewhere (and here) although intend to probably recap on some of John Grant's The Green Marketing Manifesto at some point because many of those issues were thrashed out then.

In any case, I can quickly highlight that the behavioural changes required to make a sustainable lifestyle are largely a marketing problem and where there's a marketing problem there's a business solution if supply side economics are given the credence we already do.

Anyway I was dipping a few toes into the sea and I suddenly recalled that JWT's future trends watcher Marian Salzman was predicting back in 1988 that Blue was the new Green. That we'd be seeing the environment issue as a blue one where it was once green. A lot of us didn't like it at the time because many people from the consumption classes (I use that term deliberately) are still confused as to the extent of change needed and the last thing the communication classes should be doing is confusing them with bogus rebranding efforts. Anyway, Marian was wrong as most future trend watchers are. I've enjoyed some of her work in the past but frankly I think it's time that these charlatans should put their hands up and admit their error rather than just concentrating on their successes. Don't you?

You can read how common sense and Green won the day over here, here, here and here.

Silhouette

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:42:00 +0000

China's ability to make knock off copies on luxury goods is sometimes frighteningly close or at least visually. I bought this iPod copy recently for US$37 (8 Gigabyte) and while it's got lots of drawbacks such as slow boot up, quicker battery fade and slow processing plus no interface. It does have a few advantages. It's got a radio and I couldn't care less if it was stolen like my last two were in Hong Kong. No shadow of a doubt.

What I'm Listening To

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:53:00 +0000

I've long been a fan of DJ Stewarts mixes from Bed Supperclubs Electrofrequencies in Bangkok on Monday night to his latest sets on UB Radio. To be frank. He's on fire at the moment with some of the best mixes I've heard him make in all the years I've been rating him as one of the finest DJ's in the business. You can download his UB Radio Sets over here. Breaks, House and Tech for those who need some taxonomy (or ontology if like me you're struggling to separate the two).

There's a feed over here you can pop into your iTunes for the cream. It's free..... as indeed "Everything should be (free)" and which one of the sets (Flamgini at Funky Dojo) asserts.

Feedburner Statistics

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:26:00 +0000

A Star Is Born

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:13:00 +0000

Kasabian Football Hero - Society of the Spectacle

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:06:00 +0000

Is this what Guy Debord meant when he wrote Society of the Spectacle?

Via Andy & Eaon.

Cool Bananas

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:06:00 +0000

I just got back from another stunning bike ride round the island I'm living on. I'm very conscious these days that as oil prices spike and the threat of hyperinflation from printing money in the United States and the United Kingdom leaves us potentially looking at an impending breakdown in the food distribution system. It leaves city dwellers with enough food for two days as explained in this TED video I blogged about a week or so ago and so any opportunity to reconnect with nature is fascinating me at the moment and I"m slowly researching what kind of foods I could grow on the island as well as what is available in the wild such as these bananas. Even if my instinct is wrong and my views are alarmist, I just think it makes good frugal sense to see what can be relied upon and so I'm usually taking a bunch of these home with me for the return cycle journey.

It's very satisfying and strangely I seem to be leaning towards a vegetarian diet or at least one with a 100 or so grammes of meat a week. I also understand from a tweet earlier that a vegan in a Hummer has a lower carbon footprint than a beef eater in a Prius because of the intensive farming required to breed cows for food.

I'd like to raise chickens here but after the last round of avian flu the government has put strict rules in place to prevent this. I'm sure that will be ignored if events take over legislation. In any case it's very rewarding as these bike rides for wild growing bananas take me through some of the steepest inclines on the south side of the island and I'm in better shape than I have been for at least five years when I last visited the Gym regularly. I look a bit like a Frenchman sometimes when I come home on the KLEIN bearing bananas instead of onions. Tropical living my friends ;)

Google Wave

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:26:00 +0000

I've been invited on Google Wave and I'd quite like to road test it. For those of you who don't have my gmail address and wish to have a go at using it, just drop me an email to my spam account which is cefrith at hotmail dot bomb.

On Success and Failure

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:25:00 +0000

This may be a minority view that is self indulgently and definitively littered with self referential conntradiction, but I do know that Mr Armano has a similar view as myself so I'm not alone on this and so here goes.

The propensity to indiscriminately use the word FAIL on twitter is surely incongruous with our times? Don't the brilliant (and arguably culturally important) W&K urge us to embrace failure?

Surely there's so much to be critical and deeply concerned with in these pressing times that deserve a sense of urgency and even justified anger?

What like?

Well, there's a strong case for George Bush and Tony Blair to face a war crimes tribunal for a judgement of truth about weapons of mass delusion? ..FAIL..

We appear to be living in a consumption frenzy (particularly in consumer Consumer CONSUMER electronics) that logically concludes with our species consuming ourselves.

Haven't thought about that? BIG FAILURE$

Aren't you mad with the Burmese authorities preventing aid getting to their people after a devastating cyclone? FAIL....

What's your view on the earthquakes in Indonesia happening so alarmingly frequently that hardly anyone comments on them?

Not important? *FAIL*

What about serial typhoons in the Philippines then. Is that a {FAIL}?

OK, then what's your view on our melting ice caps that will take out the Maldives alarmingly soon while our our internet carboon footprint exceeds that of the aviation business globally? ~ FAIL~.

Something a bit closer to home and perversely a bit more intangible? What about the printing presses floating Sterling and Dollar currencies so we can hold the undeveloped world in an economic hologram trap of poverty and squalor? Ever thought about money as simulacrum? You should do. You really should and thus.....FAIL$

A toothless United Nations? FAIL#

US & Israeli (both nuclear powers) largest ever war exercises under the leadership of a Nobel Peace Prize winner...Not bothered? FAIL%%%

Look around you.Noticed the greed, obesity and commensurate starvation? ^FAIL^

The the list goes on doesn't it.

Shouldn't these be the issues we need to be indignant about. The ones we should SHOUT and CAPITALIZE our tweets for instead of a failed iPhone app or a subjective and erroneous view on a logo that is fully explained here and here but not here.

I don't care if your consumer electronics FAIL on YOU.

...and go easy on the gratuitous linking too because guess what? The information age means there's far more interesting stuff on the net than a person could ever hope to devour. It's the real reason you've stopped reading books isn't it?

If you like something. I'm happy for you. If something is pissing you off write a blog post or something but please stop filling up my twitter stream with garbage sentiment and garbage subjectivity and do share with me more of the trivial stuff like if you're having a nice cup of tea or have just broken wind in a lift.

And please.......don't ever capitalize those letters with the solipsist rage of an ostensibly pampered and self indulgent confusion with tardy marketing comprehension.

Synovate in Sok Kwu Wan

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:36:00 +0000

I've had my problems with Synovate in Asia. The first time I commissioned them (actually it was Asia Market Research who they bought out during the project we worked together on) to do qualitative research followed by U&A studies for the Volkswagen brand.

The groups were a disaster. Poorly turned out, we were actually down to two respondents in one final group in which I quickly realised that the two female respondents had different models of the VW Passat. One old and one new. This is an unmitigated catastrophe for a neutral research setting in deeply hierarchical Thailand where animistic Buddhist tradition teaches that people have better lives (such as owning a new car model and not the old car one) because they were better people in their last lives.

In any case mistakes happen but I had no option other than to recommission the research. Unhappy client, unhappy agency, grumpy researchers.

On the upside, a lot of those learnings contributed to my belief that there is a better way to do meaningful research and which I have written about more fully over here. However I was sorely reminded of the research mindset (or the type of people that research companies frequently hire (often creative wannabes without a creative flair) when I stood in for Rob at the emerging markets presentation last year where I talked about the social communication mobility opportunities for low income customers. One speaker from Synovate stood at the podium as if she was delivering a lecture and reeled out a papyrus dry presentation that reminded me of every reason why square duffers should be kept at strict arms length from the creative industries.

Even in dull data there is a story to be told which can be brought to life. If I recall correctly the presentation by Mindshare was much more engaging and I discovered killer facts such as many young Thai people in upcountry (rural) Thailand often buy magazines more for display value than for reading. Something I never knew before and I have more than a cursory understanding of the culture as I speak reasonably fluent Thai (along with a smattering of Khmer, Laos and Burmese) and have traveled extensively throughout the kingdom. Anyway, isn't this topic of magazine display much like a whole generation of iPod fans who don't even really like music yet love to have the badges of modernity with white ear buds and so forth on display?

But I've had reason to think there is hope for Synovate recently. A few weeks back I saw something really clever that I really really like from them. I was cycling around the island I live on and stumbled on the fishing village of Sok Kwu Wan pictured above from afar.

In one of the outdoor restaurants there was a poster which blew me away. Context is everything and you need to picture this quaint little fishing village with lots of Chinese day visitors and the occasional Caucasian including me milling about to appreciate a great example of connection planning. We're not talking hyper commercial setting and yet I felt it was one of the best ads I've seen in ages. Now we can quibble about the message style, but I think it's brilliant. Imagine if you will. I've just taken a cycle trip to God knows where (I"m still exploring the island) on the southern and less populated part, and out of nowhere I stumble across a research company that I am very familiar with. At first I was confused. Did they have a satellite office in nowheresville?

The copy reads.

Brilliant isn't it? A two bit village on a largely ignored island and I come across some copy which applauds not only people like me who really can't help but sniff around the corners of the planet or the internet but also applauds the sort of clients who prefer to take an unusual boat trip or ferry to somewhere isolated for famous seafood and setting. It's like climbing mount Everest and finding a flag at the top with "Synovate woz 'ere but we respect your mountain climing skillz"

Just so you know, the only way to get here really is mountainous bike riding with gorgeous scenes such as this.

Descending the steep paths at speeds which I intend to film they're so scary and difficult to describe and then finally enter quaint fishing villages peppered with boats and restaurants or take a ferry from Central or Aberdeen on Hong Kong main Island.

I was impressed and even though I still think the research industry is largely conning the advertising industries clients by selling safety management and not risk management (I've written about it extensively and commented on it recently over at a Simon Kendrick's 'Curiously Persistent' blog here).

Simon is a researcher who I do have respect for as he's not frightened to concur with what is self evident to a lot of people who are desperate not to drop the ball during their 18 month tenure of a marketing position. I don't mind that this is the modus operandi of most marketing clients but please don't try and talk up the creativity game when we all know it's not creative to knock out 95% of the advertising vying for our attention during the ad break. And most importantly because wanna be creative stiffs annoy me, keep the research people from whittling away a reasonably idea down to a bland idea with squares who should be actuaries or accountants. Anyway good start Synovate. What's your next move?

Update: I see Synovate Hong Kong were voted best market research agency by the industry.

Russell Davies - Newspapers 101

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:28:00 +0000

I've been meaning to do a write up on one of Russell Davies signature posts recently about small pocketable items. Stuff we like to carry round in our pockets with memento or souvenir value and which may also have a utility of some sort. It's a lovely post because it touches on some thoughts I'd been having about minimalist lives which in principle amounts to humans, the clothes we wear and a thing. The thing would be the artificial extension of man. The thing that separates us most from other species in that we utilize tools (and more complexly social objects). It would be a smart device and we're already seeing the emergence of such a device with increasingly powerful iPhones that have the ability to process augmented reality and do quality fry ups. OK I"m kidding on that last point but the collision of Smart Phone and Netbook design is a hint at the future and I suspect that some collision of recombinant-culture-technological-forces, with ever increasing miniaturisation points towards the likely utility of that, and which we will likely carry around in our pockets. I'm guessing hand bags will probably be extraneous accessories which females are unlikely to dispense with and frankly I'm quite fond of bags myself but in principle the clothes aren't so necessary in a hot climate. Or at least less of them.

In any case go and read Russells excellent blog and some of his seminal posts such as this recent candid and very funny post on dancing which is quintessential Russell, as well as 'more ideas, less stuff' or brand polyphony which back in the day (some four years or so years ago) was a real challenge to the traditional received wisdom of how marketing communications worked and when the reliance on USP or proposition testing was ubiquitously held as the most effective and valid methodology.

In any case the reason for this post is that Russell has unearthed a gem of a book for young people on the newspaper industry, by Ladybird and which chimes just nicely with todays business model for a business in transition (to put it mildly).

Brilliant isn't it? I know I shouldn't but this Ladybird parody arrived in my email via Cambodia of all places not so long back and I think it echoes quite nicely with what that whole straightforward and clear renaissance in language theme which is the signature of progressive marketing communications in London. I love it very much, but which of course in this instance is meant to be (and is) hugely funny. I'm very fond of progressive London's aversion to business bullshit, and which of course I was most certainly guilty of at one stage in my career although I never repeated that grubby little number 'heads up' because it's just annoys the hell out of me as if someone is doing me a favour sharing information that they otherwise wouldn't. Anyway, this is more charming I think.

Real Time Search

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:43:00 +0000

Via Business Insider

Shameless Self Promotion

cefrith@hotmail.com (Charles Frith) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:11:00 +0000

I've just discovered that my Campaign magazine mention for Top Ten advertising blogs last year isn't on my blog. As I'm on a slow internet connection and job hunting I've put it here so I can send a link out rather than upload the scan every time. Sorry for this commercial break. Normal service will resume shortly ;)