What does Blake Edwards, Stanley Kubrick and Mick Jagger have in common?

They all share the same birthday with Jonathan Gan who turned 16 today.

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Have you heard of Long Tail marketing?

It's a relatively new, recently uncovered marketing model that was driving the greatest website on the planet- amazon.com and iTunes and the rest of the media and entertainment industry. The number of non hits can really outnumber the hits and blockbusters. People are wandering further down the beaten path and discovering that they actually are unique individuals with unique, individual taste that may not be 'POPular' choice or driven by HITS. So they buy what they like and the market presents itself into thousands of little niches that translate to hundreds of thousands in sales.
Read more here;

Long Tail

India Blackout Blogspot

In a surprise move, Indian authorities have blacked out blogs especially blogspot. ISPs are being instructed to control access to blogspot. It seems that some blogs are being used by terrorists to communicate. No shit. This is India. IT supremo.
Heck it's like saying shut down the phone lines, the terrorists talk to each other through phones.
Thanks Azhar Chougle for the heads up.

Faith

AN INTERESTING CONVERSATION (God, Faith and Science. Think about it) 

An Atheist Professor of Philosophy speaks to his class on the problem Science has with God, The Almighty.

He asks one of his new students to stand and.....

Prof: So you believe in God?

Student: Absolutely, sir.

Prof: Is God good?

Student: Sure.

Prof: Is God all-powerful?

Student: Yes.

Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal

him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God

didn't.

How is this God good then? Hmm?

(Student is silent.)

Prof: You can't answer, can you? Let's start again, young fellow. Is

God good?

Student: Yes.

Prof: Is Satan good?

Student: No.

Prof: Where does Satan come from?

Student: From...God...

Prof: That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?

Student: Yes.

Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything.

Correct?

Student: Yes.

Prof: So who created evil?

Student does not answer.

Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these

terrible things exist in the world, don't they?

Student: Yes, sir.

Prof: So, who created them?

Student has no answer.

Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe

the world around you. Tell me, son...Have you ever seen God?

Student: No, sir.

Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?

Student: No, sir.

Prof: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God?

Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?

Student: No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.

Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?

Student: Yes.

Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol,

science says your GOD doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?

Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.

Prof: Yes. Faith. And that is the problem science has.

Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?

Prof: Yes.

Student: And is there such a thing as cold?

Prof: Yes.

Student: No sir. There isn't.

(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)

Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat,

mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold.

Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the

absence of it.

(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)

Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as

darkness?

Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?

Student: You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of

something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light,

flashing light....But if you have no light constantly, you have

nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? In reality, darkness

isn't. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker,

wouldn't you?

Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?

Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.

Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?

Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one.

To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it.

Now tell me, Professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?

Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.

Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?

(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize

where the argument is going.)

Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?

(The class is in uproar.)

Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the

Professor's brain?

(The class breaks out into laughter.)

Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's

brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so.

So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable,

demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir.

With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?

(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable.)

Prof: I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.

Student: That is it sir... The link between man & god is FAITH . That is all that keeps things moving & alive.

Brand ZIZOU

If you, like me, watched the World Cup finals last Sunday and saw the head butt incident and like me, questioned the sanctity of Zidane throwing away his last match of an illustrious career spanning 18 years or worse you also heaped curses on the man calling him stupid, senile, mad or lost it. But after the dust has settled I ponder the events again and perhaps clarity set in.

Continue reading Brand Zizou

IF

Recently, long time friend and finance maestro Steven de Souza sent me this Kipling poem accompanied by his story which I felt magnified the beauty of the poem. It was timely and it comforted me . 

I reproduce it here verbatim.

I was given this poem before I went away to NZ. Can't remember who gave it to me but it probably gave me strength to get over the hours and days in a strange new environment.  I was 19, never ever travelled by plane. I had arrived late afternoon in Auckland with no one to meet me. I was quite prepared to sleep the night at the airport lounge as I had NZ 100 cash and knowing I could not affort to look for temp accomodation and a meal. This poem 'saved the day'. I know some of you will want to share this with a son or daughter or loved one who might be in need of morale boosting. Steve      

[IF] by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, 

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you But make allowance for their doubting too, 

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: 

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master, If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; 

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; 

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!" 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch, 

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; 

If all men count with you, but none too much, 

If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, 

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, 

And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son! --Rudyard Kipling

Hua Hin

Spent a year in Huahin one weekend. A quaint little royal seaside town where Thailand's first golf course was opened by King Rama VII back in 19th Century. The place we stayed in was nice, very lux.Yeah so lux that it even comes with a jacuzzi on the balcony. The SpringField Village Golf and Spa Resort. It has a 27- hole Jack Nicklaus designed course. Making this the third Nicklaus course I've played so far.
Vince and I were on assignment for Nike Golf's Spring 07 Trade launch. Vince covered the media briefings, events while I covered media plus dealers events which included golf, dinner, drinks, meetings, etc.
Highlight of my trip must most certainly be the 12-seater single engine Cessna flight that flew us from Bangkok to Hua Hin 45 mins away. Apart from the spectacular views of the meandering Chao Phraya and the mosaic-like salt flats at the estuary, the flight sensation itself was very close to flying our own plane. We felt all the bobbling and dipping and air pockets to the max! Ahhhh... that flying sensation was felt right to the metal twisting, crude rattling of the tyres on the runway at landing. Wheee.......