I Feel Better

Look out for sanctions and compromise to the Hurricanes

The UN weather agency said it was on full alert to monitor a rise in deadly storms after three successive hurricanes battered the southern United States with greater intensity than at any time since 1950

Kofi Annan to ask for Sanctions Against the South Atlantic?

Great Moments in Free Market Hypocrisy

Government-Run school teachers send their kids to PRIVATE schools at a rate 50% higher than the rest of the country

We've long known that school-choice opponents Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy and Jesse Jackson sent all of their kids to private schools. So do many of the children of teachers' union bosses, among the bitterest opponents of school choice because their paychecks depend on holding children captive in their schools. Now, we have the most telling data of all -- the actual numbers of how many of the inside experts on the quality of our public schools, the teachers themselves, are rejecting those schools for their own children.

Great Moments in Marketing (con't)

Demonstrating the benefits of your product is one way to do good marketing. But demonstrating the inherent large scale life threatening risks of your competitors products is much, much more fun.

The second development was a growing rivalry between the two giants of the young electrical utility industry. Thomas Edison was the first person to establish himself in the industry with DC service. Westinghouse, developers of the newer AC technology, challenged Edison's dominance of the utility industry. At the same time, copper prices were beginning to rise and DC depended on thick copper electrical cables. Rising copper prices made the DC service more costly and DC had other disadvantages, it could not provide services beyond a few miles of each generator.

Edison reacted to the competition by starting a smear campaign against Westinghouse, claiming AC technology was unsafe to use. In 1887, Edison held a public demonstration in West Orange, New Jersey, supporting his accusations. Edison set up a 1,000 volt Westinghouse AC generator attached to a metal plate and executed a dozen innocent animals.

Here's one such animal

Topsy offered an opportunity that Edison couldn't resist. What better way to demonstrate the horrible consequences of alternating current than to roast a full-grown elephant?

Edison sent over a crack team of technicians — and a film crew. Topsy was led to a special platform, the cameras were set rolling, the switch was thrown. It took only ten seconds. Edison later showed the film to audiences across the country to prove his point.

and talk about negative branding

On January 1, 1889, the world's first electrical execution law went into full effect. Westinghouse protested and refused to sell any AC generators directly to the New York State prison authorities. Edison and Brown found a way around Westinghouse and provided the AC generators needed for the first working electric chairs. Westinghouse funded the appeals for those first few souls sentenced to death by electrocution, the appeals were made on the grounds that "electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment." Edison and Brown both testified for the state that execution was a quick and painless form of death. The State of New York won the appeals. For many years people referred to the process of being electrocuted in the chair as being "Westinghoused