the F rant

Ustream is a live streaming service, where anyone can stream footage, video, audio and archival footage live on the web to potentially millions of people.  All for free.

Michael Jackson’s This Is It Red Carpet streamed live on Ustream and drew over 1.8 million viewers.

It provides one of the easiest and cheapest tools for anyone or any company to become a media company.  Live speeches from political candidates, presentations at company AGMs, live streaming of a wedding for friends and family around the world, you name it.

BTW, “This is It” is a completely brilliant film / concert.  You must experience it.

FUN: Music, Culture and Entertainment, FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends

A wonderful piece from The Daily Reckoning, about former U.S. President Warren G. Harding.  Our current leaders could learn a thing or two from him.  My favourite passage:

Warren Harding may never have been the brightest bulb on the White House porch, but intuitively he understood that proper macro-economic policies were more the product of virtue than of genius. Debt led to trouble; thats all he needed to know.

Keynes came along a few years later. Keynes was a genius; everybody said so. And he had an answer for everything. Nature? Government could do better. Debt? Dont worry about it, he said. Why not just let capitalism sort itself out? Without government intervention, it will only get worse, said Keynes.

…does that not sound exactly like our own Kevin Rudd – who, being a complete control freak, thinks he can solve every problem through his own over inflated sense of genius?  RuddBank, RuddTel, $300 billion dollar pink batt and portable classroom spending spree, now he thinks he can improve the architecture and planning of our own homes!  Read on…

But Harding had already proved him wrong. Harding did the very opposite of what Keynes recommended. Instead of increasing government spending, he reduced it. He cut the budget almost in half. He slashed taxes too…and cut the national debt by a third.

Japan at the time struggled with the same downturn. But it had no Harding at the helm. Instead, its masters prefigured Keynes, trying to stay the correction using price controls and other interventions. The result was a long-drawn-out affair that lasted until 1927 and ended in a bank crisis. In America, meanwhile, by 1922 unemployment was back down to 6.7%. By 1923 it was down further – to 2.4%.

This lesson was entirely lost on the worlds economists. When the next crisis hit a decade later, they turned to Keynes. Of course, it turned out to be a moral world after all. They got what they deserved.

Read more here: Harding the Last American President to Deal Honestly With a Major Financial Crisis.

FREEDOM: Economics, Politics and Business daily reckoning, global financial crisis, kevin rudd, keynes, stimulus

Just when we thought the ridiculous and draconian internet censorship laws created by the Rudd Government were enough, now there’s a suggestion that iPhone and gaming apps will require Federal Government classification.

This shows a complete lack of understanding and a ridiculous over-stretch of Government power – Rudd’s Nanny State seemingly knows no bounds.  Such a move would cost jobs, curb freedom, limit access to iPhone apps from around the world, curb innovation, curb competition and make creators and developers lives a living misery.

FREEDOM: Economics, Politics and Business, FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends apps, censorship, classification, government, iphone, Rudd

I hate fake fashion almost as much as I hate cheats. Check out this fantastic video from Behavioural Economist, Professor Dan Ariely, that proves a direct correlation between the two.  He conducted some research that proved people who wear fakes are more likely to be cheats, and to think of others around them as cheats.  Generally, these “fake fashionistas” are people of a lower moral standard.

FUN: Music, Culture and Entertainment, FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends behavioural economics, cheating, dan ariely, fake, fashion

This is what makes Apple Apple.

Even the boxes that hold call centre employee t-shirts have been designed with the single sense of purpose, that incredible design aesthetic, that attention to detail and outstanding vision of what the company should be – a creator brand.  This, along with photos of their employee job offer packs, shows the level of thought and strength of culture at the firm.

More pictures here: Apple Employee T-Shirt Unboxing Photos – Mac Rumors.

FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends apple, design, fashion, strategy

He’s done an Augmented Reality film clip – you hold up the John Mayer Icon (Download it here: http://www.johnmayer.com/ar/JM_Battle_Studies_Icon.pdf), and then you appear in his film clip, holding up the set of the clip.

An augmented reality application like might help:

• Increase (reward) sales (if you held up the CD or some tangible product)
• Customisation – every person has their own unique experience.
• Making your brand pretty cool by telling your story or displaying your content in a cool way (even if it is John Mayer).

Check it out: http://www.johnmayer.com/ar/#/Home

Punters, what other products could this be done for?

FUN: Music, Culture and Entertainment, FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends augmented reality, film clip, john mayer

How sick are we of telling another website what our name and details are?

How sick are we of remembering our various passwords?

How sick are we of having to make decisions – and the risk that it might not be the right one? We’re the options generation, the people that have grown up in such a period of change that we’re afraid of making commitments in case the commitment takes us down a path that is made redundant or is superseded, or just boring.  HEY, there’s something new here or something better, why didn’t I recognise this earlier?!

How many abandoned blogs MySpace pages and Twitter accounts are there in the world? How many ex’s? How many old toys? How many false starts? How many career changes?

I guess the key is learning how to make a single decision well – so that you may never have to make that decision again. You’ve decided correctly.

Seth Godin talks about the stress of choosing Apples.  They’re just apples.  They’ll be eaten in a minute. Why should it be so hard?

As always, he’s a top read: Seths Blog: Fear of apples.

FUN: Music, Culture and Entertainment, FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends change, choice, seth godin

I love the Sartorialist, and his neverending ability to find wonder in the fashion of every day people, and capture it so well.

In his words:

When people ask me if street style blogs will replace fashion magazines and big runway shows I always say “of course not.” Designers like Romeo Gigli or photographers like Paolo Roversi create dream worlds that challenge us to make our real lives even more beautiful.

For me, the reality-based pictures I take are a way to supplement the fantasy world of my magazines and photo books.

Somewhere in-between fantasy and reality can be a pretty great place to live.

Here’s a great picture he took recently, titled: Isabel and Friend Vélib’ing, Paris.

Of course, the “friend” is Adrian Grenier from Entourage (a friend of mine who met him described him as having the personality of a yabbie).

FUN: Music, Culture and Entertainment, FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends adrian grenier, fashion, photography, sartorialist