luni, 25 noiembrie 2013

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics


Thank You, Karma

Posted: 25 Nov 2013 11:31 AM PST

When karma does right things.


























Korean Plastic Surgery - Part 2

Posted: 25 Nov 2013 09:18 AM PST

Photos of Korean people before and after plastic surgeries.

Previous Part:
Korean Plastic Surgery - Part 1
















Pollution of the Ganges

Posted: 25 Nov 2013 08:54 AM PST

India's Holy Ganges River Has to Be Cleaned.
















Stop Carrying Your Phone in the Back Pockets

Posted: 25 Nov 2013 08:30 AM PST

Carrying your phone in the back pockets is not a good idea. It can be easily stolen or broken. Here we've got examples of the broken phones.















President Obama Delivers Remarks on Iran's Nuclear Program

Here's What's Happening Here at the White House
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Featured

President Obama Delivers Remarks on Iran's Nuclear Program

Addressing the nation from the State Dining Room on Saturday evening, President Obama said that the United States -- together with close allies and partners -- has taken an important first step toward a comprehensive solution that addresses concerns with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program.

Click here to hear the President's remarks.

President Obama Delivers Remarks on Iran's Nuclear Program

 

 

  Top Stories


Weekly Address: Working with Both Parties to Keep the Economy Moving Forward

In his weekly address, President Obama says our economy is moving in the right direction. We have cut our deficits by more than half, businesses have created millions of new jobs, and we have taken significant steps to reverse our addiction to foreign oil and fix our broken health care system.

READ MORE

West Wing Week: 11/22/13 or "A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama!"

Last week, the Vice President traveled to Houston and Panama, the President honored the legacy of John F. Kennedy, this year's Medal of Freedom Winners and Nobel Laureates, and attended the Wall Street Journal's CEO Summit.

READ MORE

Here's Why Last Week's Filibuster Rule Change is a Big Deal

Something big happened in the Senate last week: A majority of senators voted to change the way the filibuster works.

READ MORE


 
 
  Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern Time (ET)

11:45 AM: The Vice President delivers remarks commemorating the groundbreaking of the first new domestic violence shelter built in Chicago in more than a decade LISTEN LIVE

11:50 AM: The President departs Seattle, WA

1:15 PM: The Vice President attends an event for Senator Dick Durbin

1:30 PM: The President arrives San Francisco, CA

2:35 PM: The President delivers remarks on immigration reform WATCH LIVE

3:00 PM: The Vice President participates in a seminar discussion with students at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics

4:10 PM: The President delivers remarks at a DNC event

5:00 PM: The President attends a DNC event

5:30 PM: The Vice President attends an event for the Democratic National Committee

6:30 PM: The President departs San Francisco, CA

7:35 PM: The President arrives Los Angeles, CA

10:30 PM: The President delivers remarks at a DCCC/DSCC joint event

11:20 PM: The President delivers remarks and answers questions at a DCCC/DSCC joint event

 

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9 Lessons from an $11m Marketing Campaign

9 Lessons from an $11m Marketing Campaign


9 Lessons from an $11m Marketing Campaign

Posted: 24 Nov 2013 03:15 PM PST

Posted by jamesporter

The John Lewis Christmas 2013 campaign has smashed it virally. Since it launched two weeks ago it's had:

  • 8 million views on YouTube
  • 150k Twitter mentions
  • 70k Facebook interactions

As content marketers, those kind of engagement statistics seem incredible. Admittedly, brand marketers have much bigger budgets, but as content marketers, what can we learn from brand marketers about creating, launching and promoting content?

If you're in the UK, then you will undoubtedly have seen it, but for everyone else, here's the video:

If you're a bit skeptical and think that content marketing and big brand marketing are totally different, then read this quote from industry marketing bible The Drum:

"Shares are the currency of social success and for leading brand marketers discovering how to create and distribute highly shareable content repeatedly and at scale is now at the top of their wish list."

Sounds familiar, right? Basically big brand marketing and content marketing are converging.

Hopefully you've bought into the idea that we're becoming the same industry…so what can we learn?


Lesson 1: Don't launch on your own site (launch where your target market is)

John Lewis is a big brand, but they didn't launch their campaign on their site. They launched their campaign via Twitter and YouTube.

Why? Because that's where their target market is, that is where they are going to get traction with their audience, and that is where they have the highest chance of virality.

Lesson: Could you launch your content where your target market is? A great example of this happening in the SEO community is Stephen Pavlovich's Definitive Guide To Conversion Rate Optimisation. It's a fantastic piece of content that was launched on Moz and helped to build Stephen's name in the industry.

Pro Tip 1: If you're worried about losing link equity, use the cross domain rel=canonical tag to transfer value back to your site.

Pro Tip 2: If you can't get your content onto a platform where your target audience is, can you use paid promotion to get your content on there?


Lesson 2: Don't make links your main objective

We all want more links. But at Distilled we're now optimising campaigns for other metrics as well.

Question: Would you rather build your brand with new audiences or would you prefer a link from a DA30 site on a page that nobody ever visits and that provides zero referral traffic?

Lesson: Set your content objectives not purely on links or views, but on other levels of engagement. Still factor in links but consider other metrics like sharing, data capture, brand uplift, or online purchases/enquiries.


Lesson 3: Target your content broadly

When you're creating content at the level of John Lewis, then arguably your audience is the entire population.

As content marketers, we've got narrower audiences, but there's a fine line between targeting your content too broadly:

and targeting your content too narrowly:

Lesson: Make sure that the audience that you are targeting for your content piece is large enough to achieve your objectives. Otherwise you have failed from the start.

Pro Tip 1: If you're worried about the reach of your target audience, try and combine several audiences into one content piece. Wiep Knol in his Searchlove 2010 presentation (no longer available, unfortunately) gave a great example of combining several target audiences with his piece the "70 Most Beautiful Churches In Europe," which brought the travel blogging and religious communities together.

Pro Tip 2: Another way you can target content more broadly is geographically. Bingo site TwoLittleFleas has used a US/UK switch on their quiz to broaden their potential audience from 63m (UK population) to 377m (US and UK population).

Pro Tip 3: Another way of targeting your content is including many niche audience groups within a piece of content. This works as the piece of content speaks to pre-existing communities, and their automatic thought when seeing the piece is "that's for me!."

The "From Gospel to Grunge: 100 Years of Rock" piece is not just for people interested in music, it also references various music communities and that will encourage people to engage with the piece.

100 Years Of Rock


Lesson 4: Build influencers into your content

John Lewis has embedded an influencer with a massive online community directly into their content. Lily Allen is singing on the ad, which is a pretty clever play from John Lewis considering that she's got 4.3m followers on Twitter.

Lesson: Build influencers into your content launch plan. Ask them to contribute or comment, give them a free trial, or offer them beta access.

Pro Tip: When doing outreach, find people who you can help out. This changes the mindset from "what can this person do for me" to "how can I help this person" (great tip from Marco Montemagno at SearchLove 2013).


Lesson 5: Focus your marketing on innovators/opinion leaders

Hat tip to Seth Godin (and his Purple Cow) for this one. Why did John Lewis launch their campaign online, even though TV is the primary channel? Because online is where innovators and opinion leaders hang out. These are the people that are on the lookout for something new or different. Innovators and opinion leaders have the ability to change the behaviour of the early and late majority.

Lessons: Opinion leaders matter. Use this process from Richard Baxter to find the influencer intersect for your market, and then build relationships with these people as a long term strategy for success in your space.


Lesson 6: Get your creative right (people need to love your marketing)

Didn't you know? Google and other social networks (particularly Facebook), are filtering content through to you based on what they think you'll like. Just because you're publishing content doesn't mean your audience is getting it. (not convinced, read this book).

If other people are reading and sharing though, then your content is likely to get through the filters. So people really do need to love your marketing for it to work.

So, how can you get your creative up to scratch?

If you're just starting out with content marketing, then there are a few things you need to do first:

  • Manage expectations and educate internally that content marketing plays like this can fail.
  • Do something small first that requires limited budget. Build confidence. Get buy in from the C-suite. THEN go big!

Pro Tip 1: Mitigate risk. Offset some of the risks of content marketing by emulating the fundamentals of a piece that has ALREADY been successful in a different geographical location or industry.

Pro Tip 2: Need creative inspiration? Check out this great post from Kelsey Libert on creative ideation, or this classic from Larry Kim "How I got a link from the Wall Street Journal".


Lesson 7: Spend more on outreach than you are spending on content creation

The John Lewis campaign cost £7m. £6m is going to promotion (advertising). £1m went to creative.

What ratios are you working on in terms of spend on content creation to outreach? The loud and clear message here is that in brand marketing outreach isn't an afterthought. It's fundamental to the campaign.

Lesson: Double your outreach budget. Do outreach yourself? Spend twice the amount of time on it for your next project.


Lesson 8: Keep your content non-promotional (but plan for sales post-launch)

If people feel that they are being sold to, they are less likely to share. So keep your content as non-promotional as possible.

Lesson: For your next piece of content, strip out your sales focused header and footer, and remove the sales spiel and the 'buy' call to action. This is an example piece of content marketing for Simply Business. As you can see, the content, sharing and utility of the piece is the main focus, not any specific marketing or commercial messages.

Pro Tip: Add remarketing tags to your content so you can promote to your audience at a later date (even if it's just to promote your next content piece).


Lesson 9: Are you creating a reaction with your audience?

What reaction are you stirring up in your audience? Is it curiosity, surprise, sorrow or pride?

Interestingly, John Lewis adverts are deliberately sad and they evoke an emotional reaction with their choice of music and the story.

Lesson: At the concept stage, if your concept doesn't evoke a visible reaction with a small group of users, consider it a no-go. No reaction = No social shares.


Conclusion

As content marketers, we know a lot of the strategies and tactics that brand marketers are using. But there's a big difference between knowing what to do, and actually doing it.

In my opinion, there's still a lot we can learn from brand marketers, specifically in terms of strategy, scale, reporting and measurement, and ultimately in the results they get. I'm excited about the way that our two industries are converging.

If you need more inspiration here are a list of resources that I follow to keep up to date with the creative digital sector, and of how I keep up to date with what people love online:

Ads/PR/content making waves:

Hope you enjoyed the piece, if you've got any examples of great content marketing or brand marketing that have blown you away, drop them in the comments. Would love to see them.


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Seth's Blog : Authority as an excuse for complacency

 

Authority as an excuse for complacency

"I thought you knew what you were doing..."

One of the principles of being on the bus, in the class or in your seat is that you are along for the ride. The teacher/boss/driver knows what he's doing, just shut up and sit still.

Apparently, we have come to embrace this. It's safer, and easier too. With this worldview, all blame clearly goes to the people in charge, and powerlessness is a seductive habit.

What a shame.

In an industrial setting, giving up our independence in exchange for eager compliance can lead to productivity and thus success. As that age fades, though, our habit of surrender might not pay off.

The internet is an organizing tool, a connection to billions of others. We've been given a keyboard and a megaphone, a way to change the story or the election or the policy. The authority that comes from asset ownership or experience is worth less than ever before, but we are often are eager to defer to it, even when we know that the authority is wrong.

No one can force you to stand up, speak up and make a difference. But if you back off and play along, please understand that whatever happens happened, at least in part, because you acquiesced.

       

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duminică, 24 noiembrie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


Greece's "Meaningless" Debt; Puppies Beg for Treats; Euro Debate Greece Isn't Having; Sisyphean Tasks

Posted: 24 Nov 2013 02:53 PM PST

Greece's "Meaningless" Debt

The Debt-to-GDP ratio in Greece is now at 175% and rising. Recall Troika statements said anything over 120% was unsustainable.

Yet each quarter debt and debt service ratios rise. Now, a new argument has arisen: Greece does not need debt relief because its maturities and payback time are large.

Charles Wyplosz, a professor of economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, takes issue with that belief in a Bloomberg article The Anti-Debt-Relief Crowd Is Wrong on Greece.
Since Chancellor Angela Merkel's impressive victory at the polls, however, a push-back has begun, most recently from Klaus Regling, the managing director of Europe's bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism. He argued in an interview last week that by now the maturities on Greek debt are so long and the interest rate it pays so low that the scale of the debt pile itself has become "meaningless."

This is a new and more sophisticated twist to the usual argument against debt relief, which is that forgiveness risks encouraging chronically undisciplined countries to again run up their budget deficits, safe in the knowledge that whenever debts get out of control they won't have to pay. Both the old and the new arguments are wrong and fraught with risk.
Greek Depression

The expectation that debt relief should follow the German elections was based on a number of immovable facts. The first is that Greece is in the grip of an economic depression that has lasted six years, wiping out 30 percent of its gross domestic product -- the same contraction the U.S. suffered during the Great Depression. Greece is bleeding profusely. The second fact is that after four years of austerity measures designed to reduce Greece's public debt, it has instead continued to grow to 175 percent of GDP. This is despite the 2012 restructuring of bonds held by the private investors, which shaved 30 percent of GDP worth of debt from what Greece owes.

Regling said in his interview that Greece already enjoys concessional interest rates and long maturities on its debt that amount to a form of relief -- and this is true. Last year, the average maturity of Greek debt was extended from about six years to 16 years, as a combined result of the private sector restructuring and new loans from the ESM. The annual interest rate that Greece has to pay on these new loans is low, about 3 percent.

Yet whether Greece can pay the interest on its loans for now is not the issue. Until Greece's nominal GDP growth, currently sharply negative, rises above the interest rate it pays on its debts, these will go on increasing as a proportion of the economy. This is simple arithmetic: Debt service costs add to the debt, the numerator, faster than GDP, the denominator, rises.

It is true that debt relief could prove contagious, but the answer to this objection is: "Yes, and so it should." Greece is not the only euro area economy saddled by an unsustainable public debt.

Greece needs a debt relief package soon or its only option will be inflation, which means leaving the euro area. Even if this is a pessimistic view, it is a very real risk. Merkel must now weigh that risk against the political cost of reversing herself.

Puppies Beg for Treats

Like a puppy begging for a treat, Greek PM Samaras expected to seek debt relief from Merkel.
During scheduled talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Friday, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is expected to ask for a lightening of his country's huge debt, according to a report in Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

According to the report, Samaras is to point to economic indicators suggesting that Greece will post a primary surplus both this year and in 2014 in a bid to convince Merkel that Greece should be given some debt relief.

Germany has repeatedly ruled out a second debt haircut for Greece. But Samaras is not expected to a seek another writedown on Greek debt, according to German reports. Rather, he is expected to ask for a reduction in the interest rates on Greece's foreign loans and an extension on the maturities.

Still Merkel, is not expected to give in so easily, according to Sueddeutsche Zeitung which reported that the German Chancellor will concede that some economic reforms have been achieved but that much remains to be done. It is expected that Merkel will avoid taking a stance on slow-moving negotiations between Athens and the troika, sources said.
Euro Debate Greece Isn't Having

Begging for treats from an unsympathetic master will not produce any results. Nor will the ostrich approach of sticking one's head in the sand. It's time for an honest discussion about Greece.

Please consider The euro debate Greece is not having
There is no dispute that Greece's current account, from a staggering deficit of close to 35 billion euros in 2008, is nearing balance. But the majority of the correction of the trade deficit is covered by a collapse in imports due to domestic demand almost evaporating after three years of austerity and disposable incomes plummeting by almost a third.

The "internal devaluation" rationale is that, in the absence of the currency devaluation which automatically makes everything produced domestically cheaper to the outside world, you suppress domestic demand with the aim of reducing imports and correcting the trade balance. You also implement cuts in costs which are variable, such as wages, unlike other input factors that further feed the effort to push down domestic demand. This naturally leads to higher unemployment and more people without disposable income further suppressing domestic demand.

Overall, it creates a perfect feedback loop and a concerted effort to sink an economy.

You might think all this is worth it if there is light at the end of tunnel but that is not true in Greece's case. After three years of brutal austerity policies, Greece remains in a heavily overpriced currency for its economic standards.

A research paper by Morgan Stanley published in September puts the fair value of the euro against the dollar for the Greek economy at just over 1 dollar. The same figure for Germany is 1.53 - the currency currently trades against the dollar at 1.35.



A paper by Deutsche Bank (DB) on foreign exchange pain thresholds puts Germany's at 1.79 against the dollar. Simply put, Germany is in a situation where the euro has to appreciate from its current levels by circa 33 percent before it starts feeling any strain on its competitiveness while Greece is already in this position with the euro at its current trading levels.

It is a debate on these plain macro facts that is missing in Greece. Any discussion around the currency has been stigmatized and leads to political labelling. The real question we need to answer is how much of the economy and society are we willing to sacrifice to stay in the euro. And if Greece's conscious decision as a nation is to remain in the euro, is there an actual national plan or we will find ourselves in a perpetual deflationary vicious cycle of low wages, subdued demand and high unemployment because we will remain a services economy with low value added and labour intensive industries?

Questioning the benefits of a currency whose flaws and institutional weaknesses have been so blatantly exposed over the last three years should not earn one a place in the 'drachma lobby'. These questions should be used as the fulcrum for a much needed debate on how Greece will be able to respond to the euro challenges. It is about time we have a debate that extends our horizon beyond the next troika review and loan tranche, above accounting primary surpluses and superficial success stories.

So far, neither the government, nor the opposition are making any contribution towards these pressing issues. If this does not change, Greece's task ahead will remain Sisyphean.
Sisyphean Tasks

The adults are still unwilling to hold a discussion. Germany insists Greece become more German-like but the math says it's impossible.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras doesn't want another restructuring (for the simple reason he knows Germany will not allow one). Instead he begs for treats, from a master whose only concern is the electorate of another nation.

The fewer treats Merkel dispenses, the more praise she receives at home. Meanwhile the policies destroy Greece.

Mathematical Irrelevance

It's mathematically irrelevant whether the problem started in Greece, or Germany or who is to blame. And regardless of one's stance on bailouts, something has to give. This situation will be resolved in one of three ways.

Three Possible Resolutions

  1. Greece gets substantial debt relief from Germany and Northern Europe
  2. Greece puts up with financial repression for the rest of the decade (or longer)
  3. Greece defaults on the debt and exits the Euro

Germany has ruled out number one.
I highly doubt the people of Greece will put up with economic depression forever

Neither option one, nor option two, solves any structural flaws with the euro itself.

The needed discussion regards resolution three.

Greece should hold this discussion, in a meaningful way or at least tell the people they have selected option number 2. Instead, all we see and hear is how Greece has turned the corner.

Greece hasn't and won't turn the corner until it exits the euro, or the structural problems of the euro are addressed AND Greece gets debt relief.

Violent Hyperinflationary End

Years of economic depression has given rise to the Golden Dawn neo-Nazi party. And the absence of a meaningful discussion about the realities of the situation, coupled with blatant lies about how well Greece is doing, all but ensures a violent hyperinflationary end to this sad saga.

Ironically, the Greek debt writeoff that Germany would not allow, will happen anyway, with Greece, Germany, and Europe all worse off because of the manner in which it happen.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Founder of French Website "Hollande Resignation" Arrested, Car Impounded for "Insulting the President"

Posted: 24 Nov 2013 12:50 PM PST

On charges of "insulting the president", thirty policemen arrested the founder of the French website "http://hollande-démission.fr/" last week and impounded his car according to a translation from Les Observateurs.

The website owner and four passengers were detained for 16 hours. "Démission" means resignation.

Here is a translated excerpt from the "hollande-démission" site that got the website owner arrested.
You get the feeling that things go wrong in France!
You want to change for a better future!
You also want to make your voice heard!
Together, we create movement!

Enter the site Hollande-Resignation to view and / or sign the petition.
Demand the resignation of François Hollande presidency!

...
  • We acknowledge Mr. Holland has given France a bad image abroad, by deceiving the public on the history of a country, ignoring the respect for local customs.
  • We acknowledge Mr. Holland have neither national stature or international and does not even have sincere cohesion within his government.
  • We acknowledge Mr. Holland is not be the president of a people, but a Party of lobbies.
  • We acknowledge Mr. Holland to impose such visions forgetting the people, and promised reforms and expected while unemployment continues to rise, that pensions will soon have to be paid.
  • We acknowledge Mr. Holland to take no reform to the country's economic recovery sustainably and stable.
  • We acknowledge Mr. Holland has ruined FRANCE with taxes and waste

We the people have goals and know perfectly well that there is little chance that François Hollande is found guilty but his dismissal would prevent other disasters or worsening an already critical situation.
Also, we the people, solemnly ask our members to act on our behalf as they have to do to stop the economic, moral and intellectual recession in France fault relaunch growth.

So we create this petition must collect as many signatures so that our members listen and act as they should for our good, for the People.
-
Sign Our Petition
To encourage our members to submit a referendum initiative of Shared
Finally remove the current President of the Republic, François Hollande, for the good of the People. "

THANK YOU FOR YOUR MANY SIGNATURES
Sign the petition
Imagine being arrested for circulating a petition asking Obama to resign. Is it that far-fetched?

Miscellaneous Note

The website of Acting Man is having technical difficulties.  Pater Tenebrarum asked me to pass that note on. No estimated time as to when the problem will be fixed.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com