[292] Propaganda for Kids, a Revolutionary Nuclear Savior, Conspiracy to Tell the Truth
http://img.youtube.com/vi/dN5oiP9fD2Y/0.jpg
Showing posts with label Savior. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Savior. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
[292] Propaganda for Kids, a Revolutionary Nuclear Savior, Conspiracy to Tell the Truth
[292] Propaganda for Kids, a Revolutionary Nuclear Savior, Conspiracy to Tell the Truth
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
[292] Propaganda for Kids, a Revolutionary Nuclear Savior, Conspiracy to Tell the Truth
[292] Propaganda for Kids, a Revolutionary Nuclear Savior, Conspiracy to Tell the Truth
[292] Propaganda for Kids, a Revolutionary Nuclear Savior, Conspiracy to Tell the Truth
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Savior or slayer? Either way, Nokia"s Elop a contender for Microsoft chief
Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop speaks during the news conference of the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia in Espoo, September 3, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Markku Ulander/Lehtikuva
SEATTLE/HELSINKI |
SEATTLE/HELSINKI (Reuters) – When a British bookmaker installed Stephen Elop as favorite to take over the soon-to-be-vacant CEO slot at Microsoft Corp last week, most tech observers laughed it off as a publicity stunt.
But Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia’s handset business, announced late on Monday, has suddenly made Elop one of the most visible candidates for the top spot at the company where he once worked.
Investors and others familiar with the board’s thinking reject any suggestion that the deal was done with Elop in mind, and his track record at Nokia is decidedly mixed.
At a minimum, though, the understated, steely Canadian will play a critical role in managing Microsoft’s controversial entry into the mobile handset market, and thus shape the future of the software giant as it plunges headlong into the hardware business.
On paper at least, 49-year-old Elop fits the role. He knows broadly how Microsoft works, having spent nearly three years there running the highly profitable Office unit, and has just spent three years in the thick of the mobile war at Nokia.
But that is not enough time to cast him as an “insider” in the minds of many looking to shake up insular Microsoft.
“People are looking for Microsoft to go through some dramatic change,” said Kevin Walkush, an analyst at Jensen Investment Management, which holds Microsoft shares. “He has a very good understanding of what happens at Microsoft, and he has made hard decisions in the face of big challenges. It’s a pretty strong combination.”
The jury is still out on whether Elop saved or put a nail in Nokia’s coffin by making the pivotal decision to adopt Microsoft’s Windows Phone system as its smartphone platform in 2011.
Nokia’s shares fell more than 60 percent during Elop’s tenure as CEO, and its sales collapsed as it jumped from its long-held but outdated Symbian system to the largely untested and unknown Windows, choosing it over the more popular Android system by Google Inc.
“They (Nokia) only have 3 percent market share in smartphones. They lost 40 percent of their revenue in mobile phones in Q2. That’s not a business on stable ground,” said Hakan Wranne, an analyst at Swedbank, summing up Elop’s legacy. “Of course we will never know what would’ve happened if they had chosen Android.”
TRAIL TO FINLAND
But perhaps it could have been worse.
The appointment of Elop as Nokia CEO in 2010, making him the first non-Finn to lead the company, was seen by many at the company as a breath of fresh air.
Many who survived the massive job cuts – around 40,000 since his arrival – credited Elop for turning around a culture that many said lacked speed, decisiveness and a sensitivity towards demands of customers and partners.
Analysts credit him for speeding up product launches over the past year by eliminating unnecessary processes and holding individual executives more accountable.
In an interview in July, Elop said the company spent 22 months on the N8, which used the now-obsolete Symbian operating system and was launched shortly after he joined the company. With Windows phones, he got that down to six- to eight-month delivery cycles.
Many Finns were relieved the Canadian was more understated than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer or other U.S. tech executives, bonding with his adopted countrymen over a love of ice hockey.
Many were impressed he answered 10 to 20 emails from customers each day.
“He is a nice guy. Everyone liked him. That’s his strength,” said one former Nokia employee who worked closely with Elop and asked not to be named. “He is very down-to-earth, he answers all of his email. His communication skills are very good, but he has got a sense for the dramatic.”
Elop’s dramatic side came to the fore with his startling “Burning Platform” memo sent to staff shortly before he announced the company would adopt Microsoft’s Windows Phone in early 2011, which essentially announced the death of Symbian.
“It was an internal memo but he (Elop) knew it would get out given the situation at Nokia,” said the former Nokia employee who asked not to be named.
But outside the company it was broadly welcomed as the jump-start Nokia needed to change.
“He (Elop) changed the way Nokia operated. And he did a very good job, he was fast at executing and changing the mind-set of the company,” said IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo.
Before he came to Microsoft in 2008, Elop was a fairly high profile Chief Operating Officer at network equipment maker Juniper Networks Inc and before that a president at software firm Adobe Systems Inc.
“He’s got a technical background, he actually understands engineering, he gets it,” said Paul Murphy, formerly Elop’s chief of staff at Microsoft. “I’ve seen him interact with customers, he’s fantastic with customers in difficult situations.”
Less is known about Elop’s stint as Chief Information Officer of restaurant chain Boston Chicken from 1992 to 1998 when the company filed for bankruptcy.
The Nokia deal is not expected to distract the special committee from conducting a thorough search for a new CEO, said one person with knowledge of the matter, hinting strongly that Elop is not a shoo-in for the job, but admitting that he is a probable candidate.
“People can point to his Nokia track record and say that he failed, but he was really dealt a tough hand,” said Walkush at Jensen Investment Management. “He’s demonstrated a lot of leadership and ability.”
(Reporting by Bill Rigby in Seattle, Ritsuko Ando in Helsinki and Pornima Gupta in San Francisco; Editing by Chris Gallagher)
- Link this
- Share this
- Digg this
- Reprints
Savior or slayer? Either way, Nokia"s Elop a contender for Microsoft chief
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Germany Warns Against "Silvio the Savior" (And That May Backfire); Fake Horse Race Odds Get Around Blackouts
Italians head to the polls on February 24-25 to replace the technocrat government of prime minister Mario Monti.
Pier Luigi Bersani, who heads the centre-left Bene Commune (Common Good) coalition was considered a shoo-in a few short weeks ago, at least in the Chamber (the lower house of parliament).
It’s all up in the air now as Silvio Berlusconi, head of the centre-right Il Popolo della Libertà (the People of Freedom) has staged a massive rally in the polls (now blacked out). Berlusconi has been on a rampage lately blaming Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel for the unemployment problems in Italy. It’s a populist message that is resonating well with voters.
Beppe Grillo’s Movimento 5 Stelle (Five Star Movement) has been largely ignored in the Italian press, yet Grillo has been wildly popular at rallies. Grillo has a chance to come in second, and I would not be surprised by a first place finish.
Mario Monti, who heads the centrist Con Monti per l’Italia (With Monti for Italy) coalition, is running a very distant 4th.
“Fare per Fermare il Declino” (literally “Act to Stop the Decline”, acronym FiD), is a primarily Libertarian party founded less than a year ago but until a recent stumble had been gaining enough steam to possibly overtake Monti.
For further analysis of FiD and the other parties, please see European Reader Offers Insights on Upcoming Italian Election
Poll Blackouts
Officially, pollsters cannot post poll results in a blackout period before the election. That blackout period started February 9. Here is a snapshot of the polls on February 8.
Those results are misleading because they do not include undecided voters, and the undecided vote is a whopping 20-25 percent!
With such little difference between Berlusconi and Bersani, and with huge rallies for Beppe Grillo and Berlusconi, any outcome is possible. Will Grillo take votes from Berlusconi or Bersani (or both). If enough of both I could even envision a win. If he takes more votes from Bersani, then Berlusconi is likely to win.
From my experience, late deciders break in a massive way for one candidate or the other (and in the US election I predicted for Obama). Here, it appears against Bersani (to who is more uncertain).
Fake Horse Race Odds Get Around Blackouts
Adding more confusion rather than clarity, Yahoo!News reports Fake horse racing blog dodges Italy’s election polls blackout
A blog appears to have found a way around a publishing ban on polls in the two weeks before the vote by writing up the results of pretend “underground horse races”, which appear to reflect each party’s standing.On the final day polls could be published before the blackout fell, bloggers Andrea Mancia and Simone Bressan posted “The illegal races return!” on their site Notapolitica.it setting out the main “stables” and “jockeys” competing.
In line with the last published official polls, the winning horses of Tuesday’s “San Nicola Racetrack” came from the “Bien Comun” stables, a thinly disguised name for the centre-left “Italia Bene Comune” coalition.
The centre right of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was shown coming in just 3.5 “seconds” behind. Using a mix of puns and French, Notapolitica.it renders centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani as jockey “Pier le Smacchiateur” and Mario Monti as “Mario de la Montaigne”. Berlusconi is dubbed “Burlesque”.
Horses representing Beppe Grillo’s 5-Star Movement are referred to as “stellar”, while the names of races allude to different pollsters. “San Walter Giuliano Racecourse”, for example, appears to refer to research group SWG.
It is difficult to say if those are official polling results or fictional. Assuming the polls are accurate (not an assumption I am ready to make), it is still difficult to know how undecided voters were handled.
Germany Warns Against Berlusconi
Of potentially more importance, Berlin Warns Italians against Berlusconi
Here are a few examples from the story.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble reportedly said (but later denied) “Silvio Berlusconi may be an effective campaign strategist, but my advice to the Italians is not to make the same mistake again by re-electing him.”
Polenz, a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said: “Italy needs political leaders who stand for the future. Berlusconi is certainly not one of them.”
One Italian bank even went so far this week as to issue a report arguing that a Berlusconi election would almost certainly force the country to apply for emergency bailout aid from the EU. Mediobanca, Italy’s largest investment bank, wrote that “a last-minute Berlusconi victory would scare the market sufficiently to put pressure on the spread.”
“Silvio the Savior”
In Italy, the opposite is happening. Spiegel reports Berlusconi’s Faithful: ‘Only Silvio Can Save Italy’
Adoration of Berlusconi in Italy remains widespread. In the parallel universe occupied by his followers, there is no room for doubt about Berlusconi and lines are clearly drawn. Silvio is good and the others are bad.These fans gather at his speeches, like the Saturday rally in Palermo, where thousands crowded into the venerable Teatro Politeama. There were women in long fur coats and fine gentlemen in three-piece suits. Dock workers like Ferrante squeezed with them through the entrance, everyone pushing and shoving each other like adolescents at a rock concert. The hundreds who didn’t make it in must stand outside.
Silvio the Savior
Fans of the 76-year-old ex-premier see him as more than just a beacon of hope. “Berlusconi will now start a revolution,” says teacher Marinella Romano. She confesses “I have always loved Silvio.” Donatella Catalano, a friendly retiree, gushes, “He stands for everything that is good in the world.” The unemployed Ferrante says that “only Silvio can save Italy, he will bring us much good.”
Fully a quarter of Italians are prepared to vote for Berlusconi again. It is an astounding degree of homage paid to man who faces allegations of abuse of power and bribery; who faces the scandal surrounding the underage escort Karima el-Marough, alias Ruby Rubacuori; who has been blasted for blatantly misogynistic comments; and who broke many promises as prime minister. Instead, the opposition, left-leaning judges and even the Germans are blamed for all that is not right with Italy.
“It was Merkel who toppled him,” says retiree Catalano, referring to the German chancellor. She then turns to her neighbor and says: “It’s better not to tell the man anything, because the Germans always write negatively about Berlusconi.” Another voice yells: “First World War II and now attacks against Berlusconi!”
The comments are not surprising. In almost every campaign speech, Berlusconi rails against Germany. “Should we continue to allow Germany to dictate policies that ruin Italy?” he calls out. “Nooooo!” scream his followers.
Election Predictions
It’s difficult to judge from this side of the Atlantic, but things do not look good for a viable center-left coalition. At best, Bersani will win the Chamber and lose the Senate. That would likely result in a hung parliament.
Anti-German sentiment in Italy is high already. The entrance of German politicians into the battle may fuel that sentiment in a major way.
It is conceivable “Silvio the Savior” pulls off a stunning upset win in both the Chamber and Senate, but a Senate victory would still require a coalition (no party will come close to a majority).
In theory, Movimento 5 Stelle and Silvio Berlusconi could form a nice anti-Euro coalition and put the Euro to a vote, but given the anti-political party platform of Movimento 5 Stelle it’s hard to see that coalition forming.
Indeed it may be difficult if not impossible for any party to form a Senate coalition if Monti’s party does poorly enough (as I expect it will).
The most likely outcome once again is a hung parliament, and the next most likely outcome may very well be a return of Silvio Berlusconi (rather than a weak center left coalition of some sort that most seem to expect).
Regardless, Berlusconi is no savior (nor is there one to be found in the entire group). There are no good outcomes for Italy.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Germany Warns Against "Silvio the Savior" (And That May Backfire); Fake Horse Race Odds Get Around Blackouts
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)