Health care reform needs a heath check.

In the never ending debate the best and most pragmatic opinion offered is by Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D. The number one "New York Times" best-selling author. He wrote "Healthy Aging."

From last night's larry king live:

WEIL: OK. First of all, we don't have a health care system in this country, we have a disease management system that's horribly dysfunctional and getting worse by the day. And the vast majority of disease that we're trying to manage is lifestyle related and, therefore, preventable.

So what we really need to do is to shift our energies away from disease management toward making people healthy and preventing them from getting sick. And that means that I think a society wide effort of -- of everyone pulling in the same direction. You can't have the government telling us to eat more fruits and vegetables and at the same time, through its subsidy program, ensuring that fruits and vegetables are the most expensive things in grocery stores and all the unhealthy stuff is the cheapest. You know, everything has to work together here.

Secondly, the kinds of interventions that we're using to treat disease are way too expensive because they're dependent on technology. I include pharmaceuticals in that. We need a new kind of medicine in which doctors know how and patients accept low tech, high touch approaches to the treatment of illness.

Some immediate things. I would immediately ban direct to consumer advertising of pharmaceutical drugs. That's been a disaster for patients and doctors and a great boon to the drug companies. No other company -- no other country in the world allows that except New Zealand. Stop that right away.

Secondly, I'd set up an office...

KING: And what else?

WEIL: I'd set up an office of health education in the Department of Education with adequate funds to get serious about K through 12 health education, starting with teaching kids about what health is and what lifestyle choices promote it. I think education is something that we could really be serious about.

You know, I heard the president last night talk about prevention very briefly. And he talked about mammograms and colonoscopies. To me, that is such a superficial aspect of prevention. You know, the meat of prevention is about teaching people how to make the right choices about food, how to keep your body physically active, how to deal with stress.

American public Media:Celeb tweets help push Anvil to success

Interesting story had to share this:

 http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/05/28/pm_anvil_q/

Celeb tweets help push Anvil to success

Claude Brodesser Akner, L.A. bureau chief for Advertising Age, talks with Kai Ryssdal about how heavy metal band Anvil managed to rock its way to the top through a documentary and support from a cable channel, celebrities and Twitter.

• Listen to this Story
• TEXT OF INTERVIEW

Kai Ryssdal: I'm going to go way out on a limb here and guess that not too many of you have heard of a 30-year-old Canadian thrash metal band called Anvil. Lots of heavy metal groups you probably do know really respect 'em, though. They inspired bands like Guns-N-Roses and Metallica. Malcolm Dome writes for a magazine called Metal Hammer.

MALCOLM DOME: If you actually had to choose one band and one album that really started the whole ball rolling, it would be "Metal on Metal" and it would be Anvil.

'Who could like Cactus?' -- Clip from 'Anvil! The Story of Anvil'

(AnvilTheMovie / YouTube)

Catchy tune, I know, but Anvil somehow never really got off the ground. Now, though, on the strength of a new documentary -- we pulled that Malcolm Dome cut from it -- the band is enjoying the success their fans say is long overdue. It's a turnaround they can credit to a struggling cable channel, a couple of popular recording artists, and everybody's favorite new social-media site. Claude Brodesser Akner is the L.A. bureau chief for Advertising Age magazine. And when we sat down to talk about this I asked him how a documentary about thrash metal could possibly stand a chance.

CLAUDE BRODESSER AKNER: This movie has two bullets in the head right from the start. It's a documentary and thrash medal. I mean, so right there it's got its hurdles. On top of that, it has no studio support, for probably the reasons we just articulated.

'Good Management' -- Clip from 'Anvil! The Story of Anvil'

(AnvilTheMovie / YouTube)

Ryssdal: All right, well then how is this film succeeding, to the degree it is, without any major studio support?

AKNER: Well, what happened was this: VH1 purchased the broadcast television and DVD rights to "Anvil! The Story of Anvil," which is this documentary. And so while they are not in any way sort of responsible for the theatrical release, they are heavily incentivized to make sure it's a successful one.

Ryssdal: Incentivized in what way?

AKNER: Because the better it does in theaters, the better it does on DVD.

Ryssdal: All right, so how do they make it work, then?

AKNER: They started handing it out on a DVD to various VHI stars. John Mayer, people like Joel and Benji Madden from Good Charlotte. And these are people who have tremendous followings on Twitter, which is the free social-networking...

Ryssdal: One-hundred-forty characters or less...

AKNER: Exactly. And had you purchased the kind of exposure that they have through Twitter, you would have spent many, many, many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Ryssdal: Let me get make sure I have this right. What VH1 did was distribute these free copies to these music stars who have Twitter accounts. The hope being that they would then Twitter, their followers would re-tweet, and go see the movie, and everything would sort of happen. Total cash out of pocket to VH1 is probably, like, 20 bucks for making the DVDs, right?

AKNER: If that much. There's no real way to quantify the value of Twitter media. That is, when you buy a banner ad on RollingStone.com, you know you're going to get X-many impressions. But it's just not the same thing as someone who you follow and maybe are deeply, deeply interested in. When they tweet something, that's like a tap on the shoulder.

Ryssdal: Is there anything in this for the tweeters. I mean, are John Mayer and those guys getting a little extra air play time from VH1 for doing this?

AKNER: No, and in fact, VH1 has been very, very, very, very -- I underline that five times -- assiduous about emphasizing that this can blow up in your face. That you cannot do this sort of thing for "I Love New York" or some sort of Flavor Flav show. Nor can it seem as though these people have been given blandishments to tweet. This has been a sort of spontaneous, earned-media experience rather than a media buy.

Ryssdal: So are people at the major studios sitting there going, Hmmm....VH1 did this, I wonder if it could work for us?

AKNER: Well, if Twitter winds up becoming the sort of cream-skimming device for smaller cultural happenings, that's a very interesting model. Because Hollywood has pretty much all but abandoned the serious documentary film, or the serious art film.

Ryssdal: What about the traditional documentary audience, though? Which I would imagine skews older, isn't necessarily online, doesn't necessarily tweet.

AKNER: You don't have to worry about making sure people over 50 go see a documentary. In a sense that's the low-hanging fruit. I was talking to Bingham Ray who was really the first executive to market successfully a major documentary -- and that was "Bowling for Columbine," which made $20 million. He said, you know we could have made millions more had we spent millions more. But there's a point of diminishing returns on documentaries. And for this film, I'm kind of actually hoping that they don't wind up spending any television money because this would be the case study to find out what's a tweet really worth?

Ryssdal: Claude Brodesser Akner is the L.A. bureau chief for Advertising Age magazine. Claude, thanks a lot.

AKNER: Kai, it's a pleasure.

Ryssdal: Fittingly, we go out with Anvil playing "Metal on Metal."

Blogger Labels: Twitter,Story,AnvilTheMovie,VH1

Technorati Tags: Celeb,Anvil,Twitter,Guns,Roses,Metallica,AnvilTheMovie,

Hmmmm……oh Ya the Great Indian Elections Drama…Forgot to post last week.

Every Indian general elections brings more people to the polls than the last and hence it has been beating it’s own turnout records since 1964. I found a blog by noted Indian Journalist Vikas Singh:The real final: Rahul vs Modi : Rue-Barb Pie : Vikas Singh - Times Of India Blog which adequately describes the current general elections in India.

If someone wonders how the caste system came into place in India, he or she can just look at India’s history since Independence. Casteism  is as Indian as say the river Ganges. Hence we have new castes of political families, Bollywood families, Industrialist families etc who have been formed just by biological relations. They have all the endogamous and hereditary social group barriers which are typical of the Indian caste system.

The Political caste of India currently has a few major families. The main one being the Gandhi (not M.K Gandhi but related to his protégé Jawaharlal Nehru) and some others of prominent political leaders since Independence.

All current polls and market buzz indicate this election will not bring clear majority to any party but a coalition of the congress( the Gandhi Family) might form the next Government.

So why does one have to care about the results? Well apart from the Importance of India to the Global economy, it being a major regional military power etc, the real reason which is to foresee any radical shifts in Indian economic and foreign policies and what impact these heirs of their respective parties are going to have in present elections.

Technorati Tags: Indian,Journalist,Vikas,Singh,Rahul,Modi,Barb,Times,India,Blog,caste,system,history,Independence,river,Ganges,Bollywood,Industrialist,Political,Gandhi,protégé,Jawaharlal,Nehru,leaders,election,coalition,Government,results,Importance,Global,impact,Elections,castes,barriers,policies,heirs

A Lesson in Social media: Article on how McGraw-Hill Learning Group Uses Viral Video and Online Forum to Build Customer Relationships

Through the vibrant network of social media, McGraw-Hill Education and McGraw-Hill Learning Group (MHLG) are developing innovative ways to reach educators in a multimedia landscape by integrating video with interactive networking sites. “Teachers are turning regularly to online video and social networking sites,” explains Mark Merz, product manager, Direct Instruction,

MHLG ,“to bolster classroom instruction with multimedia examples, share and request teaching advice and learn about new products being offered by publishers.” MHLG is responding to customers’ needs by posting informational and promotional videos on free sites like YouTube and Teacher-Tube, garnering hundreds and sometimes thousands of views. Topics range from brief clips of MHLG programs being taught in real classrooms to recorded Webinars on broader educational subjects. These online video clips accumulated more than 40,000 views from January 2008 to January 2009, increasing MHLG’s exposure in the marketplace and to its customers. In 2008 MHLG’s SRA experienced a 27 percent overall increase in online revenue, and Direct Instruction product online sales jumped more than 37 percent —an increase of more than $1million, despite the economic downturn.

A Professional Network for Educators

MHLG, through SRA,has further reinforced its relationships with customers by creating an online community for educators specializing in Direct Instruction (DI), called Signals. “The Signals community hosted on SRADirectInstruction.com currently has over 1,000 registered members,” Mr.Merz says, “including school directors and administrators, teachers, McGraw-Hill sales representatives, and even some parents. Signals is helping SRA to expand its customer base and solidify its role as the primary provider of products, information, and support for the Direct Instruction teaching method.” In addition to a feed of current news articles and a list of upcoming events, the community also includes an informative blog, user forums and a section for viewing video content. Signals community members can post questions, request information, share best practices and network. SRA not only provides answers and tools to educators, but creates a space in which they can share advice and proven methods with each other: “Forums allow potential customers to post product- or support-related questions and receive e-mail notifications when their questions are responded to. Community members who are strong MHLG product advocates often respond directly to questions posted in our forums, creating an additional level of viral, customer-driven product support that would otherwise not be available, ”Mr.Merz says. The benefit is mutual, as customers’ suggestions for improving products are more regularly being brought up in product development discussions. MHLG’s outreach through social media makes the connection between government funding trends, educational movements and real-world teachers’ and students’ requirements. Equally as important, it connects the people, purpose and products that will keep the Corporation thriving and America’s new generation achieving. _

“Signals is helping SRA to expand its customer

base and solidify its role as the primary

provider of products, information, and support

for the Direct Instruction teaching method.”

— Mark Merz, product manager, Direct Instruction, MHLG

Article Source: The McGraw-Hill Companies.

Technorati Tags: Lesson,Social,Article,McGraw,Hill,Group,Viral,Video,Online,Forum,Build,Customer,Relationships,Education,MHLG,multimedia,Mark,Merz,product,manager,Direct,Instruction,advice,products,customers,needs,YouTube,Teacher,Tube,Webinars,January,exposure,marketplace,downturn,Professional,Network,SRADirectInstruction,role,provider,method,addition,news,events,user,tools,development,discussions,connection,government,world,requirements,purpose,Corporation,America,generation,educators,Teachers,examples,Topics,subjects,sales,members,directors,administrators,articles,forums,methods,notifications,suggestions,trends,students

21st century Challenges from lawlessness: Piracy and the Taliban.

 

Two major news items caught my attention this week. It wasn't; like these were the only ones :) These were

a. More Ships hijacked by Somali pirates

b. Taliban getting awfully close to Islamabad, Pakistan.

In a way both these developments are remarkably similar.

Piracy is in essence a law and order issue, and in Somalia there is virtually no authority to carry out the kind of policing that could effectively disrupt pirate operations. What government there is in Somalia has bigger problems. Somalia has spent almost 20 years in a state of civil war, and shifting alliances, international interventions and a steady supply of unemployed young men and cheap guns have acted against any tendencies towards stabilization.

In Pakistan deep structural problems have created fertile ground for the Talibanization of Pakistan. I recommend reading The Idea of Pakistan by Stephen P. Cohen.

I am fortunate to have friends from Pakistan. Many a times we feel “PAKISTAN” the country is a problem. The problems are pretty basic: poverty, the lack of education, the seemingly imperatebilty OF exclusiveness.

The politics of extremism as represented by the Taliban, the economic meltdown and demographic pressure all point to a major implosion in Pakistan. Are we ready for the fallout?

Technorati Tags: Piracy,Pakistan,Taliban,Somalia

The Great Recession: America Becomes Thrift Nation Article in Time.

 

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1891527,00.html?xid=rss-fullnation-yahoo

If the trend TIME asserts is going to continue and America truly has a culture shift towards thrift, it would mean the conventional models for stimuli to demand will not work and Businesses will have to be innovative with their offerings which will result in further cost benefits for the consumer. Seems very close to the low-level equilibrium trap in which less developed countries find themselves.

For most of the third world at subsistence levels, societies consume exactly what they produce with little left for re-investment. As per capita income rises, the increasing population eats up surplus and forces society to its formal subsistence level. In other words there is no major change in over all living conditions.

Hence the argument for Government spending: the classical Keynesian economics. But is the spending in the right direction? furthermore since this is a Global recession would the disjointed efforts by some Governments produce an economic recovery?

The paradox is that consumer thrift strengthens the same forces which favor out-sourcing and further wage cuts. Global sourcing and integrated value chains have made Business cost agile but would they be able to respond quickly to the American consumer who would now not only need a product which is cheaper but to use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without.

The technology industry has a big role to play in turning around the economy and improving the environment. "Information is the dominant strategic resource in the economy in the 21st century,'' according to former Vice President Al Gore.

This morning (04-17-2009) I heard the outcome of the case on Piratebay.org on BBC. Needless to say information media is a global resource and like everything good eventually gets into someone’s idea of property and hence regulated. So what if the dominant advancement for mankind in the last 2 decades has been information technology…most of the required value to the thrift consumer has been provided by email, google, ebay to name a few. Needless to say these companies are probably over valued by conventional beliefs of value. But here I digress, let’s get back to the core problem of identifying true needs and offering a requisite service or product which would satisfy the thrift consumer.

One concept which readily comes to my mind which may arrest the vicious cycle of subsistence demand is diversity marketing: Shifting emphasis from selling to the vast, anonymous crowd to selling to millions of particular consumers. The evolution from mass to micro-marketing is a fundamental change driven as much by necessity as opportunity. America today is a far more diverse ... society than it was in the heyday of the mass market.

It is not only sufficient that business continuously make efforts to make offerings cheaper but in a thrift economy the offering itself has to make rapid leaps in technological advancement much the same way as the new media technologies like twitter have done. Now if only there was a revenue model for Twitter.

And lastly Accounting skills are key to turn around financial crisis.

Discovering Web 2.0 and blog info

 

Finally I am a convert and here is my first post.

Firstly it was tough to decide what to blog about. I didn't want it to be my personal diary or a news feed. Secondly I am still discovering the proliferation of interconnectivity and interactivity of web-delivered content.

I have decided to bring contemporary issues affecting the Globally wired, twitter addicted, facebook personified life my side of the argument.

I will be picking on news items and opinions related to Business, political issues, and things which matter to me.

The X. in the blog title refers to X as an iteration or enhancement as in web 2.0.

So far now adios….