Monday, September 27, 2004

How to be different in a homogenous world

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Virgin boss in space tourism bid: "Sir Richard says it will cost around �100,000 to go on a 'Virgin Galactic' spaceliner, and the first flights should begin in about three years' time...We've done quite a lot of research; we think there are about 3,000 people out there who would want to do this,' Sir Richard told the BBC.

'If it is a success, we want to move into orbital flights and then, possibly, even get a hotel up there.'"

3,000 x 100,000 = 300 Million GB Pounds

It is true that in a liberal democracy we are free to spend our money any way we want to.

And still the poor starve in dictatorships supported by the first world, because they are cheap labour and their countries have cheap resources.

Meanwhile, we are homogenised consumers, indoctrinated into believing that the only way we can differentiate ourselves is by possessing goods and services (Memories) different from the other wage serfs.

100,000 for a space trip will be the ultiamte in middle-class dinner party cultural capital.

The commodification of the beautiful game

BBC NEWS | Business | Selling Manchester United to its fans: "'We have fan loyalty, and in any other business that would mean we would have customers spending on a repeat basis.

'Someone can be cradle-to-grave fan, but we will not necessarily have them spending anything with us.

'The question we are asking is how we build a relationship with the fans, and at the same time turn them into lifelong customers of the club?'"

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Who needsd god when Oprah can answer your prays?

Fool.com: Oprah's Product Placement [Motley Fool Take] September 14, 2004: "Will Oprah Winfrey drive Pontiacs into pop culture popularity? Maybe so, considering Oprah -- whom we recently crowned 'Investment Guru' -- gave away 276 Pontiac G6 2005 sports sedans to her entire studio audience for her season premiere on Monday. The recipients were handpicked as people whose families and friends had written to Oprah stating that they needed new cars, making it an episode about aspirations and wish fulfillment."

Saturday, September 04, 2004

Democratic equality

CounterPunch: "America's Best Political Newsletter": "What we get is that Murdoch of The Sun in England has a thousand or ten thousand times greater control over the alternatives scheduled for debate and decision in a national election than you do. [13] He is about that much more free to get what he wants for himself and the people with whom he identifies. You can safely say that they, some millions of them, are at least 100 times freer than the rest of us."

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Making an example

News: "The scientific community is still reeling. 'Rather than demonstrating the importance of strict care in the handling of research materials,' wrote the Nobel prizewinners, 'the determination to convict Dr Butler and put him in jail sends a strong message to the scientific community. It says: this 62-year-old man, who voluntarily reported missing material and cooperated with federal investigators, is now being repaid with a ruined career and a personal cost from which he and his family will never recover.' It also says that the next time a scientist misplaces 30 vials of a dangerous pathogen, they're hardly likely to call the FBI."