Category: What are you thinking about?

Russia: Agent Provocateur Caught with its “Pants Down”?

Pants Down

“Pants Down”?

It appears that the sexy frilly lingerie brand Agent Provocateur has provoked its Russian fans. While launching a whole new site for Russia, Agent Provocateur has blocked access to its international sites from Russia. Allegedly the prices for its products on its Russian site is 50% to 100 % higher than on its international sites. Effectively it has significantly increased its product price for its Russian fans by way of modern internet censorship. While baring in mind their products cannot be said to have a lot of “substance” anyway, I would say this, when true, is a big Internet Marketing #FAIL.

Update

Take for instance the brand’s Mazzy Bikini
Mazzy-Bikini-on-pret-a-porter-com
On Pret a Porter dot com it costs UK pnd 171,-
Mazzy Bikini on Agent Provocateur dot RU
On Agent Provocateur dot RU it costs UK pnd 259,-

Last edited by GJE on March 9, 2012 at 11:15 pm

What are You Thinking About? (2) – Carly’s Voice | Changing the World of Autism

Carly's-Voice-Header

Health, Precarious Health!

I’m really happy with a healthy wife, two healthy kids and two healthy grand kids.

Today somebody I follow on Twitter pointed me to this amazing Youtube video about Carly, an autistic Canadian girl who couldn’t speak, but eventually found a way to express herself, just by typing on a notebook. She finally was able to show she is far from backward. We now can know what she is thinking. I’m happy for her and she is an example for many other people out there including the “experts” who have to do with autism. Also it reminds me that people usually are not who they seem…

Carly has her own blog, Carly’s Voice

About Carly:

My name is Carly Fleischmann and as long as I can remember I’ve been diagnosed with autism.

I am not able to talk out of my mouth, however I have found another way to communicate by spelling on my computer. (and yes that is me typing on the computer by myself)

I used to think I was the only kid with autism who communicates by spelling but last year I met a group of kids that communicate the same way. In fact some are even faster at typing then I am.

Last year a story about my life was shown on ABC news, CNN and CTV here in Canada.

After my story was played I kept on getting lots of emails from moms, dads, kids and people from different countries asking me all sorts of questions about autism. I think people get a lot of their information from so-called experts but I think what happens is that experts can’t give an explanation to certain questions. How can you explain something you have not lived or if you don’t know what it’s like to have it? If a horse is sick, you don’t ask a fish what’s wrong with the horse. You go right to the horse’s mouth. (Via About Carly's Voice).

I like the suggestion: Go to the horses mouth instead of to the experts…

On Twitter you can find Carly as @CarlysVoice.

About What are You Thinking About?

Just a series of posts explaining my own associative way of thinking. Simpler put: My way of presenting an off topic item, an item that usually would fall outside the scope of this blog.

What are You Thinking About? (1) – Lateral Thinking

What are You Thinking About?

Introduction

I have a very associative mind. I see something and think of a totally different thing by association. Usually most of my relatives and friends totally fail to understand my associations at all. Obviously they need a decoder. I’ve honed my associative capabilities after reading a book from Edward De Bono. He is a business guru who had his hey days in 70ies and 80ies, but seems still alive and kicking. Lateral Thinking, he teaches will enhance your creativity.
For me the Internet is a great tool to help me broaden my associations and creativity. Photo’s or images are a great tool to explain associations, especially mine.

My association with the question

When I ask myself the question: “What are you thinking about?” my first association is always with this hilarious video of a German Coast Guard’s bad English:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh5xu35bAxA&feature=youtu.be

I even believe correct English would be: “What are you thinking of?”

The First Photo

I stumbled on the excellent photo of Rodney Smith. He maintains a blog as well: Escape of Life where he shows this photo here.

About Rodney Smith:

Rodney Smith graduated from the University of Virginia in 1970. He went on to earn a Master of Divinity in Theology from Yale University in 1973. While at Yale, Rodney also studied photography under Walker Evans. Mr. Smith is a photographer based in New York with years of teaching experience, including a adjunct professorship at Yale University. He regularly teaches a workshop at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshop in New Mexico.

My association with the Photo

During this week of the year I usually am skiing in the Swiss Alps. For several reasons I don’t this year. After seeing the Photo I just looked up the live cam of our favorite Swiss ski resort (Bettmeralp-The Better Alp) and I was thinking: “I wish I was there in stead of here behind my desk and computer” Look at it:

You see the famous Matterhorn mountain just in the middle of horizon of the webcam…

Ah I clicked the cam again shortly before publishing this and I see clouds creeping up to the mountain which is one of the disadvantages of Bettmeralp. Due to its location there is frequently clouds or mist to ski in…I can go back to work now;-)

Motorboating around with an outboard propelled table

Table Motor Boat

I love this picture. It is part of a video by the name “Under Discussion” by Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla that fetched a whopping £ 39,650 ($ 64,550) at a Christie’s sale in London, today:
A simple dream of mine – Just motor-boating the inland canals, rivers and lakes all year long – in its most simplified form.

Via Christie’s

Last edited by GJE on March 11, 2012 at 4:33 pm

Sheep, Art and Travel Marketing Gurus

Today I was waiting for a bride and groom who had spent their first honeymoon night in our hotel, to check out. In the meantime I watched a highly inspiring keynote from marketing guru Seth Godin which he delivered at Ted. He tells the audience how Tribes are creating the most powerful relationships. I found it via a tweet from Chris Noble of Worldnomads in Todd Lucier‘s Blog Internet Marketing for Tourism.

Immediately I had to think of the following hilarious footage:

The message is that nowadays everybody can reach out and connect with people. If you do it with passion you can get results far better than the medieval kings of marketing that try to tell everybody what they need to have or need to do (the way they do it is considered to be spam in nowadays net etiquette). Create tribes that follow you and they will tell their followers what to have or what to do. You can do it! I can do it!

Lol… talking of travel marketing gurus… yesterday Susan Black confirmed even I can do it, as she counted me under 28 Travel Industry Gurus in a post where she quoted their opinion: Part II Why Travel Industry Gurus Love Twitter.