To promote its new Fusion sedan, Ford is airing a “mockumentary” online film series about a band of Norwegian performance artists who would give the Maytag repairman fits. The rock group Hurra Torpedo cranks out cacophonous tunes by smashing clothes dryers, kitchen ranges and what looks like an outboard motor.
By linking with the group, Ford hopes to attract consumers between the ages of 25 and 35 to the Fusion. Ford is sponsoring the three-man band’s U.S. tour. The promotion includes an online sweepstakes that will give away the red Fusion SEL the band is driving on the road.
Is Energy’s Future Sustainable?
In his Harvard Lecture, Simmons explores the ramifications of peak energy (not just oil). The potential for world conflict is there, but it doesn’t have to be inevitable. (5 MB PDF – republished with permission)
A Chat with Mattel’s Bob Eckhert
The toy industry’s big trade show gets down to business in New York this weekend. Meanwhile, in our new series “Conversations from the Corner Office,” Kai talks with Mattel’s CEO Bob Eckert about the perks and responsibilities of running the world’s biggest toymaker.
Eckert is a former Oscar Meyer CEO.
Sigur Ros on Conan
Bill Graham’s Rock Archives Stream Online
Some of rock’s most intriguing content is now in cyberspace via the Wolfgang’s Vault Web site. The memorabilia seller offers treasures from the stash of promoter Bill Graham, programmer of San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore, who died in 1991.
A 75-song playlist culled from 7,000 to 8,000 vintage audio and video concert recordings made between 1966 and 1999 began streaming on the Wolfgang’s Vault Web site Feb. 8, at no cost to consumers. The owner of the Graham archive is optimistic that some of the seminal performances will make it to retailers’ shelves as CDs and DVDs by year’s end.
Seven Sins of Fund Management
There is a terrific PDF (warning — its 105 pages) on the Seven Sins of Fund Management. It is a behavioural critique by James Montier, the Global Equity Strategist of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, and its full of all sorts of smart observations, backed up with data and charts.
I haven’t read prior work of Mr. Montier — but this PDF made me interested in his book, "Behavioural Finance: A User’s Guide."
I may be referencing parts of the PDF in the future, but if you want an overview, here are the 7 Deadly Sins:
Sin 1 Forecasting
The folly of forecasting: Ignore all economists, strategists & analysts
Do analysts understand value: who is the greater fool?
Freedom To Connect
The need to communicate is primary, like the need to breathe, eat, sleep, reproduce, socialize and learn. Better connections make for better communication. Better connections drive economic growth through better access to suppliers, customers and ideas. Better connections provide for development and testing of ideas in science and the arts. Better connections improve the quality of everyday life. Better connections build stronger democracies. Strong democracies build strong networks.
F2C:Freedom to Connect begins with two assumptions. First, if some connectivity is good, then more connectivity is better. Second, if a connection that does one thing is good, then a connection that can do many things is better.
F2C:Freedom to Connect belongs with Freedom of Speech, Press, Religion and Assembly. Each of these freedoms is related to the others and depends on the others, but stands distinct. Freedom to Connect, too, depends on the other four but carries its own meaning. Unlike the others, it does not yet have a body of law and practice surrounding it. There is no Digital Bill of Rights. Freedom to Connect is the place to start.
“We Thought You Said Spend the $200 Billion on Dark Fiber”
The United States is the 19th ranked nation in household broadband connectivity rate, just ahead of Slovenia.’ Want to know why? Because, contends telecom analyst Bruce Kushnick, the Bell Companies never delivered symmetrical fiber-optic connectivity to millions of Americans though they were paid more than $200 billion to do it. According to Kushnick’s book, “$200 Billion Broadband Scandal”, during the buildup to the 1996 Telecommunications Reform Act, the major U.S. telcos promised to deliver fiber to 86 million households by 2006 (we’re talking about fiber to the home, here). They asked for, and were given, some $200 billion in tax cuts and other incentives to pay for it.’ But the Bells didn’t spend that money on fiber upgrades — they spent it on long distance, wireless and’ inferior DSL services.’ Some headlines from Kushnick’s work:
- By 2006, 86 million households should have been rewired with a fiber optic wire, capable of 45 Mbps, in both directions.
- The public subsidies for infrastructure were pocketed. The phone companies collected over $200 billion in higher phone rates and tax perks, about $2000 per household.
- The World is Laughing at US. Korea and Japan have 100 Mbps services as standard, and America could have been Number One had the phone companies actually delivered. Instead, we are 16th in broadband and falling in technology dominance.
Wonderful… More here.
FTC May Publicize Companies that use Adware
“A ZDNet article reports that the FTC may be gearing up to humiliate companies that advertise via adware.” From the article: “The FTC would publicly announce and publish the name of a company that advertises using adware that installs itself surreptitiously on consumer PCs or using spyware, Leibowitz said. He would recommend publicly shaming advertisers to the other FTC commissioners if the adware problem doesn’t decrease, he said.”
Lessig on Network Neutrality
Larry Lessig, testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee this week [pdf]:
To answer that question, this Committee must keep in view a
fundamental fact about the Internet: as scholars and network
theorists have extensively documented, the innovation and explosive
growth of the Internet is directly linked to its particular architectural
design. It was in large part because the network respected what
Saltzer, Clark and Reed called “the ‘end-to-end’ principle” that the
explosive growth of the Internet happened. If this Committee wants
to preserve that growth and innovation, it should take steps to
protect this fundamental design.
Lessig makes sense, while the incumbent telcos do not. Cringely has more.