A book to read. Warsaw 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe
Wow. What a good read. Especially if you like obscure but interesting history. I had no clue that in 1920 that Lenin decided to invade Poland (which had only recently become a country again after being split between Russia, Germany and Austria for over a hundred years). The history of Poland is interesting in itself (pick up James Michener’s Poland if you want a relatively easy historical lesson told in a good storytelling way).
This is a short book. It shows how close the new Soviet Union came to including Poland (and more geography if they had been successful and kept on going) as early as 1920. It also shows Poland’s resourcefulness (they didn’t really have a qualified experienced general) and fortitude in the face of some fairly overwhelming numbers. If you are interested in obscure historical moments that had an impact (because some things happened in this war that affected Soviet attitudes in WW2) then pick up this book.
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burger mcsausage unoriginal smarts
July 21, 2010 - 9:15 am
Tags: advertising, agency, being the same as the best can be good, book recommendations, brand, branding, business, Business Thoughts, campaign, communication, competitive but not competitive, leadership, lessons, making people aware you sell the same thing, marketing, marketing parity, messaging, no superiority increases sales, strategy, Stuff I Like, the creepy burger king, truth, winning by being unique
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so. This television advertisement introducing the Burger King breakfast sausage biscuit (the one where the creepy king breaks into McDonald’s headquarters to steal the mcmuffin recipe): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF86Rb-uFNE The execution doesn’t confuse me but the effort makes me pause and scratch my head a little. But I guess if you have more money then you know [...]
Célébrons ! bastille day, baguettes & vel’ d’Hiv
July 14, 2010 - 11:53 am
Tags: baguettes, bastille day, book recommendations, character, conscience, enlightened conflict, government, history, holocaust, leadership by courage, lessons, liberty and fraternity, life, life lessons, properly ordering baguettes, responsibility, righteous among nations, sarah's key, Stuff I Like, the french revolution, the honor of the french, the marais district and vel d' hiv, truth
Posted in Personal & Nonsensical, Stuff I Like | No comments
Bastille Day So. Today, July 14th, France celebrates its national holiday in commemoration of the storming of the Bastille prison. Oh. Everyone should also note that if you want anything done in France today forget it. I flew through De Gaulle airport one 14th only to find out about 50% of the workers didn’t show [...]
boy scouts part 2
July 13, 2010 - 10:37 am
Tags: advertising, agency, be prepared, book recommendations, boy scouts, brand, branding, business, Business Thoughts, campaign, character, communication, heritage, leadership, learning, lessons, life lessons, marketing, messaging, missed opportunity, no one cares how old your company is, relevance, strategy, Stuff I Like, truth, words
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So. A friend of mine sent me the following link with the Boy Scouts advertising announcement. http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/boy_scouts_of_america_prepared hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm …. Well. Here’s the deal. And I admit. I may not be the best person to be providing a point of view here because I care about the Boy Scouts (therefore I may be biased toward being [...]
unhealthy eating Part 3: the campaign idea
July 12, 2010 - 10:21 am
Tags: advertising, being overweight can kill, book recommendations, business, Business Thoughts, campaign, change adult behavior to motivate children's behavior, communicate message to inspire behavior change, communicating message to educate, communication, ignorance, it is not a moral obligation to have a thin body, leadership, learning, lessons, life, life lessons, marketing, messaging, remembering early anti smoking intitiative, responsibility, scaring the bejesus out of people to motivate interest, strategy, Stuff I Like, treating unhealthy eating as an addiction, truth, UK anti obesity campaign, uncovering emotional trigger to stimulate behavior change, unhealthy eating, unhealthy eating and stimulating behavior
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(foreword note) Ok. This has been a long time coming. My fault. I hadn’t mastered the link placement in post thing. Hang in there and maybe go back and peruse 1 &2 and 4 is actually now on its way. Assuming you have read Parts 1 & 2 of this diatribe you are tagging along [...]
a trip for Advertising & Marketing people
July 8, 2010 - 2:22 pm
Tags: advertising, advertising archives, advertising history, agency, brand, branding, business, Business Thoughts, campaign, duke antiquities library, education through advertising, great communication, history, learning, lessons, marketing, messaging, strategy, Stuff I Like, the effect of advertising on buying behavior
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(this is about the Duke antiquities library in Durham NC) Okay. If you are in a marketing department or an ad agency or anything to do with the art and science of communication and consumer behavior and you can only afford to send your “brightest minds” on one getaway field trip over a two year [...]
generation jones part 2: debating with the joneses
June 29, 2010 - 1:56 pm
Tags: 4th Turnings, boomers, Business Thoughts, cyclical behavior, generation jones, generational attitudes, generations, genjonsers, history, learning, lessons, personalities, sociological studies, strategy, strauss & howe, Stuff I Like
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This whole generation Jones thing has got me in a tizzy. Mostly because I am having an interesting off-site debate/discussion/conversation with a couple of generation joneser “advocates” (who are quite passionate in their desire to make Generation Jones a household discussion item). The bottom line issue is I am a skeptical joneser. Maybe because I [...]
the jones generation part 1: i be one of the joneses
June 21, 2010 - 8:59 am
Tags: an age of unrestricted versus restricted actions, Business Thoughts, generation jones, generations, history, i be one of the joneses, learning, less ideological and more pragmatic generation, life, marketing, practical idealists, the lost generation of joneses, the runaways and generation jones, truth
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Ok. I am a generations geek. I love to study cyclical generational behavior patterns and attitudes and why certain generations do something and other s do something else. Geeky? yes. Interesting? Well. To me it is. So. I had a comment on a post I wrote where I reminisced about The Runaways and the writer [...]
speaking & silence
June 17, 2010 - 10:07 am
Tags: book recommendations, business, Business Thoughts, communication, deadly fear of silence, don't fill empty space because it is empty, effective communication, enlightened conflict, filling space with words, learning, leaving something unsaid can be good, lessons, life lessons, quotations, quotes, recommendation, saying the wrong thing or saying nothing, speaking and silence, Stuff I Like, the courage to listen, the power of silence, there is a time to not talk, Winston Churchill, words
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The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. - teen blogger Taychyka Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. - [...]
Global Generation 4: role of an education plan
June 13, 2010 - 8:02 pm
Tags: a grassroots anti ignorance campaign, alignment, amnesty international, attitudes of a generation, book recommendations, Business Thoughts, character, communication, creating desired behavior, decision making, effecting a generation is long term, enlightened conflict, foundation of values with everyday people globally, generations, Global generation, human rights, human rights grassroots, human rights intervention, human rights preventative, Human Rights Wtch, leadership, learning, lessons, people's freedom of understanding, recommendation, responsibility, strategy, Stuff I Like, the economist, United Nations declaration of human rights
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So. This Global Generation I keep talking about. These kids some of whom haven’t even been born. I have been struggling a bit to explain the implementation of the education platform. And then I opened up the new Economist and there were two articles back to back on Human Rights. The key article to me [...]
the glorious first of June
June 1, 2010 - 9:09 am
Tags: admiral howe, battle of the nile, Bellerophon, british naval victories, british navy, enlightened conflict, history, leadership, Stuff I Like, the glorious first of june, Trafalgar
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So. To celebrate the 1st of June lets step back in history. I love history. I imagine I couldn’t call myself a ‘history buff’ (I need to look up ‘buff’ because in my head it either means naked or short for buffalo … anyway ..) because those people can pull at random factoids on a [...]



