The long wait has finally come to an end to passengers who miss their phone calls and text message in mid air. United Kingdom based AeroMobile in association with Airnic and Telenor has developed a system that can help you to keep your phone on at cruising attitude, however, the in-flight system installed in each plane has complete control over keep the network available to its passengers, technically the crew can turn the accessibility off during nights.

The AeroMobile system automatically activates once the aircraft reaches 20,000ft. A video then informs passengers they can turn their mobile phones on. Passengers then receive a free text from AeroMobile telling them to switch their mobiles to ‘silent’ mode out of courtesy to their fellow passengers. Calls can be made and received while the plane is at cruising altitude. The service also allows text messages to be sent and received. The system allows for a maximum of five or six calls to be made at once. Passengers using AeroMobile will be charged a premium roaming rate.

As the solution stands currently, the network provided by AeroMobile system on-board offers basic text messaging and voice call server, however, expected to provide data services such as Blackberry etc in sometime.

A couple of Airlines have started using the service, the first-ever call from AeroMobile network was made from an Emirates flight heading to Casablanca. Emirates have seemingly invested to close to USD 27Million on this infrastructure. And, I am quite sure leading airlines would follow the suit – Sooner or later, “talking in the air” could be used a true statement, so get ready to read it correct as it may not stay as a metaphor alone for a longtime.

Now, however, researchers from the University of California at Berkeley have learned a little about what went on inside the heads of some of the more creative artists and poets the world has known.

The researchers have identified the mechanism by which absinthe, the liqueur of choice for the likes of van Gogh, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Toulouse-Lautrec and others – indeed, for much of 19th century French society — affects the brain. It makes neurons fire like mad.

It has long been known that absinthe, a potent, emerald-green distillate of wormwood and other herbs, can cause convulsions, hallucinations, psychotic episodes and, with chronic use, permanent neurological damage. The liqueur has been blamed for the bizarre behavior of van Gogh and others, and it was eventually banned in many countries, including the United States, early in the 20th century.

The Berkeley research, done in collaboration with scientists at Northwestern University, is the first to show the pathway by which the toxic component of the liqueur (other than the alcohol) does its damage.

That component, alpha-thujone, has a sort of double-negative effect on the brain. It blocks a receptor, known as GABA-A, that has also been linked to a form of epilepsy. Under normal conditions, GABA-A inhibits the firing of brain cells by regulating the flux of chloride ions in them. By essentially blocking the blocker, thujone allows the brain cells to fire at will.

Exactly how thujone works ”had been a big question mark for a long time,” said Dr. Karin Hold, a postdoctoral researcher at Berkeley and a co-author of the study, which was published last week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ”No one had ever found out which receptor it was working on.” One theory had held that thujone affected the same receptor as THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, but the new research disproves that conclusively, Dr. Hold said.

”It’s very significant work,” said Dr. Wilfred Niels Arnold, a biochemist at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City and the author of ”Vincent Van Gogh: Chemicals, Crises and Creativity” (Springer-Verlag, 1992). ”It’s the sort of thing that many pharmacologists had guessed at, but this is the first time it’s been demonstrated.”
The work is of more than historical interest, particularly with the rise in popularity of herbal medicines. Wormwood oil, which contains thujone, is present in some herbal preparations used to treat stomach disorders and other ills. (In fact, wormwood, a relative of daisies, got its name from its use in ancient times as a remedy for intestinal worms.)
Though rare, incidents of wormwood oil poisoning have occurred in recent years, resulting in convulsions and, in at least one case, kidney failure. The National Toxicology Program of the National Institutes of Health plans to study thujone as part of a long-term investigation of the active ingredients in many herbal preparations.

Absinthe itself is still manufactured, in Spain and the Czech Republic, although European Union regulations limit the amount of thujone in it to less than 10 parts per million. Old absinthe contained up to 260 parts per million, Dr. Arnold said. In modern absinthe, alcohol, which makes up three-quarters of the liqueur, is by far the most toxic component.
It is still illegal to buy absinthe in the United States, though it can be obtained through the Internet and when traveling overseas. Some do-it-yourselfers soak wormwood and other herbs in grain alcohol or even port to make a poor imitation of absinthe, while the more adventurous try distilling the liqueur themselves.

Absinthe has something of a cult following among people lured by its history, and by the ritual associated with it. The liqueur, which is extremely bitter, is traditionally poured through a lump of sugar on a special slotted spoon, and mixed with five parts water. This creates what is known as the louche, a milky-white effect that occurs when compounds in the liqueur precipitate out of the absinthe-water solution. (Toulouse-Lautrec was said to have favored a drink called the Earthquake, in which the absinthe was diluted with cognac, and there was no louche effect.)

In the last few days, whenever I flipped to Page3-Gossip-Today (erstwhile Headlines Today), I get to see

• Who is going around with who, Why the relationship wouldn’t work (Damn!!) two chosen people of any particular day
• Which of the Indian celebrities got pregnant this week and would could be their respective father.
• Celebrities household chores that weren’t done this week and today
• Celebrities historical relationship records (May be, Headlines Today guys should support Census department with their number crunching skills)

Do you see any relationship between the kind of news they have been broadcasting and “news headlines”? Jesus!! What the heck is wrong with these guys?

If advertisers aren’t ready to pay for pure news channel (Which I refuse to believe), may be you are not good enough. Instead of hunting for spiced up gossips your field has been hunting for, may be you want to get the news content fixed and make it worth the advertisers’ nickel.

I am sure this new trend on covering life-style and celebrity gossip is THE-BIG-THING these days. NDTV (one of the channel, I still respect) had started Nightlife sometime ago but you know its program by itself and choose to avoid the channel when this program is aired. Unlike NDTV, in Headlines Today’s case, Celebrity Gossips are part of “Actual News Content!”, well it surely appears that way..

Hello, Headlines Today, assuming you are listening – If you want to make money through only advertisement, go start some 10x channel selling the Gossip Hot Potato, and get on with life. By doing this, atleast you are not fooling around with your audience.

I have encountered a couple of cases which were rather startling.

Just Around the Corner, one of the outlets of MARS group of restaurants in Mumbai used to stack-up the bill amount by INR 5.00 and expect the consumer to pay, most often it will go unnoticed by the consumer and he or she will end up contributing without even realizing it.
 
The other case, where the bill value will be rounded off and the rounded amount will go to some foundation to save Tsunami Victims or for Under Privileged Children education fund – these are indeed noble tasks, however, as an Consumer/Individual, I always had my doubt if the monies I intended for charity are reaching the right destination as there are multiple hands involved in the process.

This post is about an outfit where you get to see the Rubber meet the Road, an Organization that truly demonstrates it’s social responsibility, an enterprise which puts its Social Responsibility in Action right in front of your eyes!
Interesting? If yes, I sincerely recommend you to visit Costa Coffee Chain, particularly the one in M-Block Market in Greater Kailash II, New Delhi. I had the privilege to visit their outlet recently. Privileged? You might wonder.

Well, all those who are employed by Costa are physically challenged. On my first visit, I was truly awestruck! It was like living in the “instead of giving them a fish, teach them how to fish” story.

If you are in New Delhi next time and want to have a cup of Good Coffee with a loved one or a classmate or discuss your proposition with your prospect outside the office, I sincerely suggest you go to Costa – Enjoy your Cup of Coffee and be a part and participate in a real-life social activity.

If I were to reproduce the essence of the post without giving too much of importance to the Verbatim, he talks about using Disruption techniques to gain momentum or value in any endeavor. Though his post was in connection with the Venture Capitalists industry, think it’s wise to extend its reach beyond the VC horizon.

Any responder to a stimulus has some sort of idea about the stimulus (most of the time a biased view) and expects to see the flow of the stimulus as per his view, many times marketers fall prey to this and end up doing exactly as anticipated by the responder in a communication.

Many times this leads to not-so-desirable response. If you think of an alternate mechanism to circumentvent this, consider weaving a communication message with a twist (something-absolutely-unexpected element) to it. To cite an example, you might have seen the following commercial on Indian Television for personal care and see the role of a cow in Personal Care, the attention during the commercial (at least when the marketer is trying to win the attention in addition to eyeballs the first three times) is quite high – How it results into consistent sale will be determined by the quality of the product, however the success rate of the commercial could be high.

Message with a Thought-Out Twist can be used as a very effective technique to drive attention in any communication you may plan for your audience. However, please do exercise some caution on the new seam you plan to embed in your message, importantly ensure it is not too vague of off-tangent. Last but not the least, close the unexpected-element with a clear actionable to reap the benefits.

I can think of a few ways to see this theory in action, but think it’s better to address specific areas that interests audience of this blog.

Please do use the Contact Page to let me know your case or use the comment page for your accolades and brickbats for this post.

The role of advertising should not be misunderstood as a constant sales enablement component for business. But an approach to be able to make a potential consumer try a product for the first time. The subsequent consumption is solely dependent on quality of the product and the services associated with it.

Any amount of advertising is virtually useless to promote an inferior brand, importantly marketing cannot be blammed for not making an inferior product successful”

This is one of the simplest and best definitions I have heard on role of advertising in business.

A couple of weeks ago, DHL had started airing its new commercial based on Quality of Service. As you might remember the predecessor was on “We know the geography and culture” campaign.

As you might have seen, the new one’s tag line is, DHL will not put you (Customer) on long hold when you call our contact-center, your call will be picked up within three rings and a human will talk to you instead of a series of machine programmed welcome, valuable customer, time and sorry message combination.

The current ATL approach on QoS based is quite interesting. I am sure DHL must have drawn a decent amount of market share from the former campaign and designed to embrace QoS as the way forward. It will be interesting to watch how the new campaign transpires into value to DHL’s advantage.

I hopefully have access to a report on change in logistic industry dynamics in a few weeks by a smart bunch of students from a leading business school, can’t wait to read on role of DHL’s last commercial in increasing its marketshare in Indian market.

I was repeatedly told by my friends not to step into this Restaurant due to the quality of service they received in the past. But, after four years of living close to Olive – Bar and Kitchen, this evening I decided to give it a shot and check things on my own. Result, regretted every minute of my stay there as I was served by one of those that can’t wear a service apron. And, feel awfully guilty as the recommendation to go this eatery was mine.

Note: I do not want this communication to be misunderstood. Its unfair on my part to blame the restaurant basis an experience I received from one of their watiers. It is ironic that I do not know his name and hence refering him under the shades of of Olive – Bar & Kitchen umbrella.

A couple of keys issues to mention

A) I suppose this restaurant receives undue attention from international audience, which to a few Olive’s Kitchen & Bar waiters means, loads of money in tips. No offense meant to the visitors or all the waiters in general. We usually tend to tip the international tipping % when are not sure about the local rates/style, I would assume foreigners visiting India doing the same. So, how does it pan out from the hands of a waiter like the one served me? We “so called” fellow-brown-skins do not the service we deserve.

Note: I do not have anything against foreigners visiting India, in fact I welcome them to this country with so much of cultural diversity, heritage and value with my whole heart and wish them a pleasant stay). But hope they would refrain from going to places where creed-and-color matters and would not recommend such places to their friends and dear ones.

Let me get back to the point. My whole contention to this argument is, a few waiters who are just not fit to wear a service apron making use of foreign visitors’ wallet, and there surely are a few of them in Olive Bandra. Needless to mention, Leopold in Colaba has a host of such waiters for years now (Thanks to Lonely Planet and a few other travel guides reference to this pub)

B) Mission critical systems are not in Order, I hope there is enough of salt in their inventory.

My credit card transaction did not go through, I was told about the ATM/POS network. I have been associated with the Indian Banking industry for at least half-a-decade now, and I damn well know its POS network conditions and alternative mechanisms on card transactions.

Despite of my little awarness on this subject, I had agreed to his claim and requested him to use a manual machine to swipe my card. His response to my recommendation irritated the wits out of me, Olive did not have a manual machine and I was given direction by my waiter to the next ATM counter along with a twelve old to collect the money from me – This is freaking outrageous!

Decided not to engage in a brawl, paid the cash and headed home. To my surprise, once I reached home got an SMS message from my Bank stating the Bill Amount from Olive Bar & Kitchen has been debited from my account..

C) The waiter was acting like a Man-Suffering-From-Pre-Menstrual Stress! No exaggeration, his sense of restlessness and an ‘unsmiling-statue-like-face-without-a-pigeon-on-head’ could not aid me think of any better syndromes.

Suggestion – If you are at Olive, place your first order and feel the pulse. If not good, head to the door straight (please do carry cash NOT card alone to settle the bill), there are least 10 different good restaurants nearby with or without liquor in their menu and working POS terminals.

Other than the fact that both are outstanding movies, they had a direct and strong social message. Mediums likes Movies and Television Serials have predominantly preferred a subtle approach to pass the social message (if any) on. But, like I said earlier these flicks decided to talk just straight.

• Happy Feet theme was moving towards the problem caused by Illegal Fishing
• Blood Diamond moves towards the issues around illegal diamond trading and how various African countries suffer the consequences

I hope the latter one makes it to Oscars-2007. I sincerely recommend you all the watch the movie, in theatres and avoid pirating it.

We the people(audience) should ensure makers of these kinds of flicks make handsome returns for their investments. I would think in addition to good reviews, financial rewards are the best incentives that will drive other potential producers and directors look beyond any obvious story-line and weave a strong social message across Cinema as a medium.

My Rating for Blood Diamond:

For those who watched the movie (I assume most of you have), the first 10 minutes of the flick is on disconnected pieces of a larger puzzle – Cave men’s session with a green man, boy tripping into the ground, bomb blast in a multi-storey building et al.

As in the past, the sequence was boring and my friend had paused the player before I could turn it off and gave me a synopsis of the X-Files series, followed by Area-56 and the conspiracy around Roswell UFO incident. I  Seemingly understood the plot, managed to deep dive into the movie and enjoyed every frame of it.

It may very well be a coincidence, I had watched a long documentary on H.G.Wells, subsequently Tom Cruises’s War of the Worlds and now The X-Files. When I analyze the underlying phenomenon behind all these, I wonder what if the authors/script writers are right about aliens have arrived much before us and staying dormant below our apartments. And, when the time arrives gets woken up and decide for a hostile bid? Christ!

Absinthe isn’t working, I better have a shot of Vodka and hit the sack!