Working together for personal gain
Proposing a pan-industrial collective procurement platform The world economy is going through a rough patch. The stock markets are in turmoil, Japan is slowly recovering from the tsunami and the European Union is in serious trouble, not just because of the weaker economies of its southern members: even Powerhouse Germany almost came to a … Read more
The world in April
People associate Spring with youth and rebirth. New ideas coming to life, concepts finding a second wind: spring is the time of change and new beginnings. Most of the stories we cover in this edition are exactly of that, be it the brave idea of Kraft Foods to reinvent themselves as Mondelēz International, Snoop Dogg … Read more
Rory Sutherland: Perspective is everything
Rory Sutherland believes that happiness is a matter of perception – a handy take coming from the Vice Chairman of the Ogilvy Group. A great speaker and, seemingly, a very charming man, Sutherland may not unveil groundbreaking discoveries, but his address is highly entertaining, as a chat with a sharp, competent and witty … Read more
The world in March
Just when I thought I have seen it all, life found ways of taming my ego. Kraft Foods, the global conglomerate with almost 100 years of experience seemed an unlikely victim of marketing-by-committee insanity until it announced plans to change its name to the unpronounceable Mondelēz International. Turkish advertising crew Marka have crafted an ad … Read more
The world in February
February was a month of big announcements and breakthroughs. The 35-dollar computer went on sale – not every man’s toy but certainly an interesting project, it comes with a less advanced 25-dollar version for those among us who are really tight. Belgian medics have successfully implanted a titanium jaw manufactured on a 3D-printer, making an … Read more
Ayah Bdeir: Building blocks that blink, beep and teach
Most of us have absolutely no idea how the gadgets that make our daily lives really work. We use the end products but could never dissect electronic devises into components to create something else. We treat electronics like medicine, taking one pill when we have a headache and another to bring the temperature … Read more
Rob Reid: The $8 billion iPod
The Motion Picture Association of America provides shocking statistics on the costs of content theft: 373,000 foregone US jobs, $58 billion of annual losses in economic output to the US economy and so on and so forth. The association also quotes an extensive report commissioned by NBC Universal that claims that 25% of … Read more
The world in January
So, what did we learn in January? Apparently, Chinese government takes life too seriously, while their North Korean colleagues never stop trying to prove it can be ever more bizarre. French society is the most harmonious in the world with a passion for voyeurism and exhibitionism whilst Americans can go miles protecting online liberties. YouTube … Read more
503 off: a brief note on SOPA protests
“No good deed goes unpunished” /Clare Boothe Luce, Billy Wilder, John P. Grier, Andrew W. Mellon, or Oscar Wilde/ The furore caused by the SOPA/PIPA bill earlier this month was (still is, really) unprecedented. The heated debate between the liberal information lovers and the slightly less tolerant supporters of the act that would both drop a … Read more
Clay Shirky: Defend our freedom to share (or why SOPA is a bad idea)
So what are PIPA and SOPA really about? A brilliant overview by Clay Shirky: competent, ironic and concise.
