Showing posts with label terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label terrorism. Show all posts
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Coltan
One of the best articles I've read on Coltan. Basically, Coltan is the new blood diamond. It is a metal mined in places like Canada, Australia, and the Congo for tantalum. Tantalum is used in hi-rel capacitors because of it's great thermal properties. It is used in cell phones and laptops. Demand has forced the US gov to keep reserves. Price has gone way up and so has the fight for profits. Congo has been victim to internal and external profiteers, resulting in bloodshed, humanitarian and environmental crises, and little attention from the international community. Many companies including vodaphone and nokia have spoken to their supply chain to stop using the metal in their capacitors, and US-based Kemet is swearing that all coltan is from the non-Congo region.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
ATHF
I love the Aqua Teen Hunger Force guys. They can totally crack me up. They are gaining in popularity. And they even got featured on one of the best hip hop albums of 2005.
But the folks at Turner have mixed feelings following someone's misinterpretation of advertising for acts of terror. Bedlam in Boston. Come on, do you have to be that dumb to think that this is a threat?
An okay kind of idea, nothing great or groundbreaking, but it really backfired for Cartoon Network's future advertising tactics. Interference should have told the city first, they should have gotten the permits for sure before mounting little devices to the sides of buildings. With a little bit of advanced notice, the campaign could have run a lot smoother, or been vetoed. $2 million in fines is not a pretty picture and may be hard to justify in ROI. Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens were 2 kids who probably stumbled on a craigslist ad about a job of hanging light boxes on the side of a building and thought they'd make a few extra bucks. Now they have lawyers fees and 10 seconds of fame. What a destructive campaign ...
The only way I can spin this around is if we lobby cities to be more forgiving about advertising messages so that people don't have to plot out guerrilla campaigns with so much secrecy.
But the folks at Turner have mixed feelings following someone's misinterpretation of advertising for acts of terror. Bedlam in Boston. Come on, do you have to be that dumb to think that this is a threat?
An okay kind of idea, nothing great or groundbreaking, but it really backfired for Cartoon Network's future advertising tactics. Interference should have told the city first, they should have gotten the permits for sure before mounting little devices to the sides of buildings. With a little bit of advanced notice, the campaign could have run a lot smoother, or been vetoed. $2 million in fines is not a pretty picture and may be hard to justify in ROI. Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens were 2 kids who probably stumbled on a craigslist ad about a job of hanging light boxes on the side of a building and thought they'd make a few extra bucks. Now they have lawyers fees and 10 seconds of fame. What a destructive campaign ...
The only way I can spin this around is if we lobby cities to be more forgiving about advertising messages so that people don't have to plot out guerrilla campaigns with so much secrecy.
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