Giant gorilla and dinosaurs still being sought: An astonishing mist-shrouded “lost world” of previously unknown and rare animals and plants high in the mountain rainforests of New Guinea has been uncovered by an international team of scientists.

I don’t blog about investing, but: I can’t help myself from linking to this story about Apple shedding $27 billion in market value during the past four weeks. I wanted to point to it to remind me one day of the following pull-quote:

Concerns also surround Apple’s ability to continue to produce hit products, as well as the seasonal slow-down in iPod sales. “All the good news is out. The easy money has been made,” said Robert Bacarella, manager of the Monetta Select Technology Fund. Mr. Bacarella sold two-thirds of his stake in Apple recently, Marketwatch reported.

And no, I’m not linking to that article to prove my belief that reporters write crazy stuff like “the seasonal slow-down in iPod sales” to explain something that has nothing to do with “seasonal slow-downs” (wouldn’t professional investors factor into their models something that is “seasonal”). Also, I have no idea whether or not the market is acting wisely in selling-off Apple. I don’t know whether or not it makes a lot of sense to head for the hills if you own AAPL.

However, one thing I know for certain. It may have no impact on their share-price or market cap, but this you can take to the bank: Apple has lots more products it will introduce that will be hits!

Technorati Tags: apple

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Don’t say I never offered you something free: If you know some small business people in the New York City area who would like the attend the day-long Small Business Technology Summit on Friday (February 10), let them know they can use the code “rex” and register free. I have just a few left.

By the way, Steve Rubel and I are on a panel together at the conference so I’ve promised not to reveal that Steve hired me to post fake comments on Micropersuasion. ; - )

Technorati Tags: smallbusiness

Decade-old Nashville murder case solved Perhaps the highest-profile unsolved murder in Nashville’s recent history has apparently been solved. The accused murderer’s 78-year-old father has confessed that he aided his son, Perry March, a Nashville attorney, in his plot to kill his wife Janet, the attractive mother of two and daughter of a prominent attorney — a prominent attorney who had mentored and supported his son-in-law through Vanderbilt Law School. Most people in Nashville (at least most of the people I know) assumed the husband did it, but the victim’s body was never found. However, a few months ago the husband was extradited from Mexico and was indicted for the murder. Authorities have not, until today, indicated what caused the break in the case and the arrest. For ten-years, the murder has been standard fare for TV sweeps coverage, a re-telling of the sad tale packaged as something new or breaking, but never anything substantive. Even the networks, 48 Hours, for example, have covered it for years. I do not know personally any of the individuals directly involved in this sad story, but Nashvillians has lived with this for a long time. Although it’s apparently solved, it’s no less tragic or sad.

Technorati Tags: nashville

Headline of the day: “SHOCKER: OPRAH PREGNANT WITH JAMES FREY’S BABY! And Bonnie Fuller Lectures the Society of Professional Journalists!”

(From a column by Simon Dumenco in AdAge - if you can’t get through the free-subscription login, here’s the money quote: “Can’t we just admit, finally, once and for all, that Bonnie Fuller certainly does something compelling and entertaining, but it is not, for the most part, journalism? Her publications, after all, routinely rely on “sources” that again and again prove to be … shall we say, wrong?”)

(via: Romenesko)

Can you fake “word of mouth”? Introducing CON-versational marketing: I’m scratching my head on this item on the Consumerist weblog. Maybe some of you “word-of-mouth-marketing” folks can explain what wire got crossed at the graphics chip manufacturer Nvidia that would cause someone there to consider hiring an agency to provide faux-customers to post messages on forums. (The company providing the faux-customers calls that kind of activity: “Message board monitoring and response” and “Strategic seeding viral assets to ensure they are spread far and wide.”)

I think it’s okay to hire consultants and agencies (heck, or Hammock Publishing) to assist in the development and implementation of corporate or institutional conversational marketing and media strategies. But “transparency” and “authenticity” are the foundations of the success of such programs. You’d be much better off staying out of the conversation than trying to hire people to pretend to be your customers. That’s like, what? Hiring a date? We know what that’s called.

Play along at home: To measure how effective the agency involved is in word of mouth marketing, monitor their response to the conversation taking place about this topic.

Technorati Tags: advertising

Why old farts in their fifties like the Rolling Stones: (From Jon Fine, his four-year-old nephew, Zeke Fine’s take on Mick Jagger): “He looks older than Grandpa.”

As I was watching the Rolling Stones last night, all I could think was how remarkable it is that the Rolling Stones have been big stars since I was in the second grade. Do the math. That’s remarkable. I heard a report that Mick Jagger quipped the group could have played the first Superbowl. By the way, Zeke, Mick Jagger looked older than your grandpa back then, also. To me, at least.

I guess that’s one reason old farts in their fifties like the Rolling Stones. As long as Mick Jagger, someone we can remember from elementary school, is still skinny and bouncing around the stage in front of screaming fans, then we can’t be that old.

Technorati Tags: superbowl

Susan Mernit: I’ll add my ‘what-Doc-said’ to Susan Mernit’s quote of the day:

“Memeorandum is what google news should’ve been.”

(Doc Searls on the gillmor gang podcast featuring Memeorandum’s Gabe Rivera, quoted by Richard MacManus.)

Technorati Tags: puppy

Scott Karp: “How legacy media can attempt to shift their business’ center of gravity.”

Quote:

1. Adjust pricing to reflect media value
2. Align ad sales staff incentives with media value
3. Abolish the separation between print and online journalism

Technorati Tags: magazines

Makes (ad)sense to me: (From the Wall Street Journal (free feature):

“(Google, which) has terrified Silicon Valley with its ability to quickly create new consumer products and services, is developing a rival service called GBuy. For the last nine months, Google has recruited online retailers to test GBuy, according to one person briefed on the service. GBuy will feature an icon posted alongside the paid-search ads of merchants, which Google hopes will tempt consumers to click on the ads, says this person. GBuy will also let consumers store their credit-card information on Google.”

Since they know your IP address, your home address, your phone number and everything you search for and click through, even what the roof of your house looks like, it only makes sense that you’d also give them your credit-card information.

Technorati Tags: gbuy, google, privacy