Here’s the showdown! Step right up! It’s Hungarian rapper “Speak” vs.
Britney Spears. It’s a close call, so you be the judge.
Speak vs. Britney Spears
It always starts out with: “A talent agent is sitting in his office, and a family walks in to see him….” From there on in it’s all improv and it takes anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes of verbal blitzing. More background here on “The Aristocrats Joke”. If it’s told good, it means it’s extremely explicit and graphical in a kind of LSD-tripped out sex-warped beastiality epical drama kind of way – and always over the top…always…
There is indeed a lot to be learned from modern martial arts: From the younger students careful study of the sing-along prefight seance, to the higher level students absorbed in the advanced sections of “Dress-code deciphering” and “Proper use of Keys”.
It’s so simple and yet so difficult to combine these two lifeessential elements in a way that really makes sense…but here’s a good shot at it anyway: Boobs and explosions dot com. It’s a nice try, but not quite all the way there.
I’d give it 6 for effort and 4 for execution. For us that have been searching for a way of solving the predicament of how to combine the fascination of both explosions and boobs into one consumable format this is of course a step in the right direction. The core of the challenge seems to lie within the contradictory states that the two items are mostly preferred to be presented in; one is to be within reach, and the other to be viewed at a safe distance. Another thing to ponder.
Here are the last few days of phishing mails I’ve recieved. It’s hilarious and concerning reading at the same time…
___________________
Attn.
I am Adolf MunTang,an attorney at law,my proposition to you is to seek your consent,a deceased client of mine died as a result of heart-related condition on March 12th
2008. His heart condition was due to the death of all the members of his family in the tsunami disasteron the 26th
December 2004 in Sumatra Indonesia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake.
Am contacting you to assist in distributing the money left behind by my client before it is confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank
where this deposit valued at Nineteen million dollars(US$19million dollars) is lodged. This bank has issued me a notice to
contact the next of kin, or the account will be confiscated.
I will like you to acknowledge the receipt of this e-mail as soon as possible via my private EMAIL -:firm@albawaba.com
Best regards,
Adolf MunTang
Attorney at Law
This communication links contained herein,is for the sole use of the intended recipient and may contain information that is confidential or
legally protected.
——————————–
Beneficiary.
It is a profound gratitude communicating
with you through this medium. Elgordo de la Primitiva
wish to inform you that your email address attached with Ticket
Numbers (4 16 19 25 27 40) won prize fund
of 1,200,000.00 Euros categorically in
our lottery program.
Please contact our FOREIGN TRANSFER MANAGER.
DR. GERALD ERICHSEN.
TEL: +34-672-810-221
Email: infoprimitva2@ozu.es
Yours Sincerely,
Ms.Amanda Vardez
Public Relation Officer.
——————————–
Dear Sir,
My name is Mrs. ZARA RICHTER, I have decided to donate what I have to charities through you. You may be wondering why I chose you. But someone has to be chosen. I was diagnosed for cancer about 2 years ago, after the death of my husband who had left me everything he worked for.
I have been touched to donate from what I have inherited from my late husband to charity through you for the good work of humanity, rather than allow my relatives to use my husband’s hard earned funds inappropriately.I have asked FOR forgiveness in all my sins and I believe he has forgiven me because He is merciful. I will be going in for an operation in few days, and I pray that I survive the operation. I have decided to Will/Donate the sum of $17,800,000.00 Dollars (SEVENTEEN MILLION EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS) to charities through you for the good work of humanity, and to help the motherless,less privileged and also for the assistance of the widows.
Presently, I have informed my consultant about my decision in willing this fund to charity through you. I wish you all the best and blessings abundantly, and please use the funds well and always extend the good work to others.
I know I have never meet you but my instinct tell me to do this, and I hope you will act sincerely. I decided that 35% of this money should be taken by you from the total sum upon the successful release of this fund to your destination, I am now too weak and fragile to do things myself because of my cancer. I need your assistance.
I will appreciate your utmost confidentiality in this matter until the task is accomplished, as I don’t want anything that will jeopardize my last wish, due to the fact that I do not want my relatives or family members standing in the way of my last wish to know of this funds left $17,800,000.00 Dollars.
Regards,
Mrs. Zara Richter
PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR FULL NAME, ADDRESS, TELEPHONE/FAX NUMBER ON YOUR REPLY FOR EASY AND IMMEDIATE COMMUNICATION. BELOW IS MY LAWYER CONTACT INFO: K.B / EMAIL (luiqq@netscape.net)
——————–
Dear Friend.
As you read this, I don’t want you to feel sorry for me, because, I believe everyone will die someday. My
names are Mohammed Zainal Faraidooni, a merchant in U.A.E, I have been diagnosed with Esophageal
cancer .It has defiled all forms of medical treatment, and right now I have only about a few months to live,
according to medical experts. I have not particularly lived my life so well, as I never really cared for anyone
(not even myself) but my business. Though I am very rich, I was never generous, I was always hostile to
people and only focused on my business as that was the only thing I cared for. But now I regret all this as
I now know that there is more to life than just wanting to have or make all the money in the world.
To whom it may concern, please download the attachment for the full message/email.
Yours truly,
Mohammed Zainal Faraidooni
—————————–
ADMON DE LOTERIA N° 2
C/ CERVANTES 32, 03400 VILLENA
MADRID ESPANA
TEL +34-693-565-805
REF NO: ROEUSP7775553
BATCH NO: X–8007891324–Z,
YOU HAVE WON
We are pleased to inform you on the release of E-Lotto Internet Promotional Draws Jackpot held in Madrid Spain on the 4th of March of 2009. Your e-mail address , attached to the ticket number 357–0146744–224, with the serial number 51228-07, drew the lucky numbers of 1-M-M-0-0-M+1-0 which consequently won the lottery in the 3rd category.
All email addresses entered for these promotional draws were randomly inputted from an internet resource database using the Synchronized Random Selection System (SRSS).
You have therefore been approved for a lump sum payout of Ђ1,500,000.00 (ONE MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND EUROS) in cash credited to your file with the REF.NO:ROEUSP7775553 AND BATCH.NO: X–8007891324–Z, to be paid through BANK TRANSFER or CHEQUE
Your winning prize is now deposited with a BANK insured with your REF.NO:ROEUSP7775553 for security reasons and will be released for payment by the order of the LOTTERY BOARD after the datas have been verified. We ask you to keep this award confidential and away from public notice until your claim has been processed and your cash remitted to you.
The beneficiary is responsible for the remittance charge of the prize to his/her country.
To claim your prize, please contact your claims agent below, and demand for your lottery claiming form.
MRS ANA SANCHEZ
BANCCAIXA ESPANA
AVDA. GENERALITAT,14
003560 EL CAMPELLO
ALICANTE VALENCIA
TEL: 00 34.634.015.778
e-mail: bancaixabancaix@terra.es
————————————–
APPEAL FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE !!!
Dear Friend,
I am Mr.Patrick Chan Kwok wai Executive Director & Chief financial Officer of the Hang Seng Bank Ltd. I have an urgent and very confidential business proposition for you.
I honestly apologize and hope I do not cause you much embarrassment by contacting you through this means for a transaction of this magnitude,but this is due to confidentiality and prompt access reposed on this medium, sorry my English is not very good .Furthermore, due to this issue on my hands now, it became necessary for me to seek your assistance,and it is imperative for me to know your opinion.
Five years ago,a Saudi Arabian Oil Consultant/Contractor with the Chinese Petroleum and Chemical corporation Mr.Al-Rahman AlSaud made a numbered time(Fixed) Deposit for twelve calendar months,valued at US$13,000,000.00
(Thirteen Million United State Dollars only) in my branch. Upon maturity,I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply.
After a month, we sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his contract employers,the Hong Kong Petroleum and
Chemical Corporation that Mr. Al-Rahman Al Saud died from an automobile accident.
On further investigation,I found out that he died without making a WILL and all attempts to trace his next of kin were
fruitless.
I therefore made further investigation and discovered that Mr.Rahman Al Saud did not declare any kin or relations in all his official documents, including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank.
This sum of US$13,000,000.00(Thirteen Million United State Dollars only) is still sitting in my Bank and the interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at the end of each year. No one has ever come forward to claim it. According to Laws of Hong Kong, at the expiration of 5(five)years,the money will revert to the ownership of the Hong Kong Government if nobody applies to claim the fund.
Consequently,my proposal is that I will like you as a foreigner to stand in as the next of kin to Mr.Al-Rahman Al Saud so that the fruits of this old man’slabor will not get into the hands of some corrupt government officials.
This is simple,I will like you to provide immediately your full names and address so that the attorney will prepare the
necessary documents and affidavits that will put you in place as the next of kin.
We shall employ the services of an attorney for drafting and notarization of the WILL and to obtain the necessary documents and letter of probate/administration in your favor for the transfer.The money will be paid into your account for us to share in the ratio of 50% for me and 40% for you and 10% for Expenses Incurred in the course of the transaction.
There is no risk at all as all the paperwork for this transaction will be done by the attorney and with my position as the Executive Director & Chief financial Officer guarantees the successful execution of this transaction.
Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details and relevant documents that will help you understand the transaction. Please send me your confidential telephone and fax numbers for easy communication.
You should observe utmost confidentiality, and rest assured that this transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I shall require your assistance to invest my share in your country.
Awaiting your urgent reply.
Thanks and regards.
Mr. Patrick Chan Kwok Wai.
N.B: For security reason, please reply to my confidential email address; (patchankwaikwo@yahoo.com.hk)
—-
If you’ve ever read anything about thought patterns and how we as humans find ourselves pre-wired for certain motion and thought processes, then Dan Ariely has done research that might intrigue you.
Dan Ariely Morphed
Often it seems the problem is making the research tangible for the layman due to a lack of consumable communication to the masses, but this is where Dan manages to come pull through. Check out these short snippet videos with recaps of his observations. Very interesting indeed. Check it out here and once you’re done with those, continue here for some videos and playlists.
“I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.” -James Nachtwey-
To help out achieve the above wish, I’m trying to expose the work done by James Nachtwey. It must take some guts and willpower to keep on going through each an every single war…from Sudan and straight to Rwanda the next day. Deep thoughts will occur when you visit at http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/
I just bought a Honda VT500FT Ascot from ‘84…and here is the actual TV commercial from way back then. Catch-phrase? Of course – it’s “Follow the leader – coz’ he got a hondaaaaaaaa”. Priceless
I actually did manage to find a few blogs on Honda Ascot’s here and here – but it seems like I bought an import to Europe from the US, and meeting similar models in the old continent will be tricky. My last resort has been to rip the parts page, and buy the official Honda vt500ft Ascot service manual.
…and this is borderline: Mickey Avalon, Dirt Nasty + crew performing an instant classic of some sort
Furthermore, airships have cult status and would therefore be even more irresistable to the average youtube generation prosumer.
Eco Dancerama, baby!
Not far off at all…
I'm temped to go for the north-west corner for nostalgic reasons
Found this article on Wired. “Powerpoint is evil” nails a lot of the issues with powerpoint, and spells out the problems about PowerPoint totally missing the point of getting something across, not to mention the fact that is makes it very hard to align elements, change typography and especially that it just looks bad due to the digital presentation. Read a more elequintly written PPT-bashing here
What do you do when a Request for Proposal comes across your desk? The natural reaction seems to be a sensation of “new client – let’s go for it!”. But choosing your battles wisely seems to come to mind, when backtracking the number of hours spent on free pitches over the years. So here’s some ideas on what to look at when you do get an RFP in the door:
Dig into the client on the following info: What is the historic media-spend, how was it placed and what was the creative level of it. This will give a good indication as to what the budget will be, what kind of media you get to work with and of course what type of assignments you’ll be getting over the time to come.
I.e.: Make sure you want it, and it makes sense to engage with front-loaded work.
Should you still want to continue on this pitch for financial, branding or prestigous reasons, then consider the following as well:
How much time do you want to set aside for this pitch, and what is the expected pitch level: 3 hours on strategy and numbers, or is the client into a highly creative/visual solution. A combination of the 2 would be the ideal, but the client/recipient of the pitch needs to be taken into account as well; The client might have a certain focus on sales, on external communication or they answer to a higher authority in the organisation, and these are things that all affect the leverage of creative vs. strategy in the pitch. Combining this with the fact that you need to take out time from you existing organisation at zero income/hour, the plot seems to thicken.
Know your requirements internally, for the externally expected pitch format.
So – if you’re still up to the challenge, here are some comments on how to proceed:
Do your research well; Everything from company history to visiting shops. Make sure to allocate a proper strategic planning angle on this, and get a solid foundation before coming up with creative ideas.
On the following strategic solution and creative output: This part of the process if where the bulk of time wasted is seen. The answer isn’t there right of, and if the project team isn’t set and guided in a short deadline highly colaborative manor then it will take a lot of avoidable sweat and tears to get anywhere. A specific approach on how to avoid this is to do a number of short sessions with 2 hours deadlines over a couple of days. This will fascilitate a lot more communication and cover a lot more ground than the same 4 people working out of different (non-synergetic) tangents. The planner/PM is an intricate part of this setup, maintaining and guiding the team(s) an hourly basis. This in turn sets very high standard for focus and personal skills for the PM, as well as the team. See http://www.12manage.com/methods_revans_action_learning.html for some more ideas on how to do this.
Manage process tighltly to avoid wasted time and a avoid headless chicken-run.
Once you have your pitch is prepared, one simple action will get you in much better shape with minimal workload: Practice before presenting.
Bush article
Berlingske tidende – business and corporate segment.
One of the most memorable yearly returning days of “whatever” is the International Talk like a Pirate day. Being called a swashbuckler or a landlubber is something that is too rarely seen in office environment these days – especially the fact that bringing a cutlas to the office is seen as both reasonable and practicle on this fine day.
I’m pretty sure a few people at the office will be dressed up tomorrow – and as the enthusiastic Pirate I am, I have am offering everyone at the office a two for one deal on tattoos through Amina Charai (yes, actual tattoos – which you get done on the day – 2 for 1 discount rebate extravaganca).
Let me just repeat the above in pirate-lingo, so as to give you an idea on what’s to come 
Ahoy!
Avast, me buxom beauties and bilge rats.
All who say arrr be prepared to swim in Grog and dance to the hornpipes. For all the lubbers there be punishment, so be smartly and dress like a true pirate on this fine night the 19th day of September unless ye’ fancy a keel haulin’.
Beware! For all Hello-pirate souls that fancy guns, women, muskets & dubloons, there by a 2 for 1 price on all tattoos at Brightside Tattoo on this fine day – no tricks and no rats, this be the real deal – so step lively and get your parrot and your treasure-maps on your chest so as to never forget your hearties.
As a small experiment, I’m crosslinking all my webpresences to see if it will lift my google ranking…probably won’t do too much of a difference, but then again – can’t hurt I guess the next step will be to get in the papers and my name get into the public forum and have that validate my name from a public, popular source (now noted on my to-do list: “Get into online-newspapers to boost google ranking”). Blog comments probably help as well – so better start trashing-up on whatever might be a high profile debate out there…mmmh…Nyhedsavisen comes to mind….better not touch that one 
K.
Just went skiing for a week in Val d’sere – fantastic, off-pist is the best Met quite a few good people there as well, amongst other a great photographer and a soulmate from my time in Barcelona. Check out http://www.tonykellyphotography.com – excellent boarder, and good with a camera as well.
Guess who Tony is on the picture below…
To some extent, creating value is a matter of pleasing certain aspects of a clients life -aspects that may be fully recognised or have the form of an unrecognised need. The question of being favoured is no longer a matter of top-of-mind or retail-space management but very much a question of appealing to, and succumbing to other aspects of human desire such as usability, user-friendlines, product design and interrelation of complementary products.
The advertising industry is currently facing a challenge in regards to maintaining profit margins and delivering according to client demand concerning the focus of how to solve the core-issue of adding value to customers. A number of inter-organisational expansions have been made, primarily concerning production-capacity and existing core competences in relation to communications-based problem solving. Despite market demand for something else, as is underlined in the declining marketing-budget of most companies, advertising agencies focus on keeping the industry standards in place. As if nothing, or very little has actually changed in recent years, agencies approach the market with the same approach as ever not unlike a person wearing blinders, unable to see the changes or contours of the peripheral vision. So, if this is the case, what could be done?
During the past years in academic circles as well as progressive companies, focus has been on innovation, as a means of creating value. The core concept of innovation is that value is a format highly difficult to define, but highly valuable when defined. Not unlike inventions, it is the process of seeing and understanding a market need latent or recognised, and then solving this to stimulate demand. With this in mind, it is not unlikely that an advertising agency would be able to harvest and put existing competencies to good use in this manor. Deep understanding of customer and company variables is already a core competence, which would serve as a substantial foundation for creating innovative solutions instead of solely focusing on the communicative aspect of any given clients challenge. Thus, the operationalization of existing competence profile of the advertising agency, will enable these to create value on a higher level, thereby proactively sustaining their competitive edge.
Well, This is a follow up to a presentation I did on friday. I’m posting a few of the links that best show various sides and potential of the Second Life concept.
(Presentation uploaded under “Presentations…)
What we can expect from the Second life development, both in the hearts and minds of users as well as media is that we are seeing a concept go from the initial stage to a mature stage in it’s development. In other words, Second Life amongst other virtual reality metaverses will most likely see an exponential climb in sign-ups, i.e. more users – hence more traffic and content development. BUT this is the focus a some media attention, which again might very well lead it to be a self-fullfilling prophecy. So, where this is going is hard to say – but there is a certain curious linearity from the phone – to PC’s – to cells – SMS’s – on to Palm’s – to games – to interconnectivity within all platforms – to virtual invisible networks that benefit from personalising the nicknames. In other words, virtual worlds help us understand the tip of the iceberg of possibilities that arise from the mix of clients, content and connections.
The issue of content development should be understood in the broadest sence possible – e.g. wheelies nightclub or having a dot.pet…all still 0’s and 1’s – but that seems to work almost just as well as the real thing. But, of course – more convenient use to both have full-time jobs (1 real), pets (1 virtual dog), 4 girlfriends (3 virtual, one real)…
The theory of natural selection might very well apply to the development of platforms like virtual worlds. In this case though, the question at hand is not strength, but interconnectivity – who will then survive? Well, the concepts that can expand from web to cell – from outlook to thunderbird – from kitchen appliances to your shopping list – something best explained by the likes of ZYB rather than Myspace.
So is Second Life hype og the real thing – well, it is too soon to tell, but anyway way this thing is gaining momentum, I’m keeping an eye on it…and under any circumstances mediacoverage both internally (1, 2) and especially externally(1, 2) might be at good indicator that something is on the rise.
