Pyramid Strategy

Rajkumar Santoshi's Halla Bol has used an interactive marketing strategy. Since the film is vocal about man's inner conscious, Halla Bol is reaching the common man through street plays. Spokesperson from Pyramid Saimira comments, "Regular modes of marketing have been used over and again. Reaching the real viewer through street theatre will be direct interactive marketing. We are targeting on local issues, which will make people aware of it. We are taking these plays to eight cities and in each city one artiste will accompany the theatre group." One of the artistes from Ajay Devgan, Vidya Balan, or Pankaj Kapur will be representing the film during the street play in each city.

The street plays are organized and conducted by senior theatre personality, Om Katare and his artistes.

Plan targets humanity’s effect on whales

A proposed dedicated national research program aims to study the effect of human behavior on marine mammals, including humpback whales that make Hawaii their home in winter.

U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie unveiled a bill yesterday that would authorize the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission to provide steady funding for research.

Abercrombie's announcement coincided with the annual effort to count humpback whales at 56 sites around the state.

"The protocols for doing research, passing money through and so on needs to be institutionalized," said Abercrombie, speaking at the Diamond Head scenic lookout, one of yesterday's whale count sites.

The bill would establish an interagency coordinating committee to develop a five-year national marine mammal research plan. Part of that plan will include a study on the impact of human-related activities, including pollution and the use of sonar on marine mammals, and will identify critical research gaps and uncertainties.

A dastardly increase in the price of a glass of tea

Twenty-five years ago, my mother, my sisters and I used to raise our eyebrows about a local shopkeeper who must have been the last to retain pricing with two, three and five mils, and even to ask for those mils at the till. And here we are, a quarter of a century later, with shoppers encouraged to become all agitated over the euro equivalent of mere mils, and to report mils-worth of discrepancies to the euro-police.

I appreciate that the National Euro Changeover Committee is concerned with the need to fight the impression that prices will rise because of the switch to euros, but surely some sense of proportion is in order here. The Sunday Times last week carried a front-page headline: Warnings issued over price hikes. Gosh, I thought this is serious business. Yet when I read through the article, all I could think was: dont make me laugh.

Both Sides Cite Science to Address Altered Corn

But if the impacts are so small, as they apparently are, we should then ask what are the impacts of spraying corn with conventional insecticides. Does that kill any butterflies? Produce any runoff into streams? How do we compare a biodegradable, highly specific protein toxin with persistent, broadly toxic petrochemicals?

But the broader point is not about Bt corn, Bt toxin and whether there might be some harm caused by SOME genetic modifications. There are also harms caused by chemical pesticides, natural toxins in foods that we eat, and by agriculture itself. These should all be assessed and weighed in relation to their actual significance.

Asian telecom companies advocate more aggressive expansion in low ...

Macao. November 14. INTERFAX-CHINA - Low-income mobile users are a neglected user base in the telecom industry, and companies should work to develop what is a promising market, telecom company officials from around Asia said yesterday at the GSM Association Mobile Asia Conference in Macao.

Mobile phones, which have become such an important part of urban culture around the world, has highlighted the divide between rich and poor. As the CEO of the GSMA Robert Conway said during a presentation at the conference, "53 percent of the world remains unconnected with mobile networks.

EDITOR’S MAILBAG

I would say that if kids are screaming up in a restaurant, parents should take them out until their behavior is under control. However, in a store, I would say that the rest of us need to be patient because usually there is an overworked mom just trying to get her daily work done while lugging 2 or 3 kids around. Kids don't always have perfect behavior, even your little angels were not perfect now were they? And sometimes you need to compliment the mom who may be taking care of a disabled child full time and trying to shop for the family. What is more annoying are the older moms that I can hear whispering" well, my children never did that" while walking past the crying child. " .

PopCap's 'Peggle' pure video-game poetry

Contrary to popular belief (and sales charts), not all great games are 25-hour narrative epics. Sometimes the best titles are long on gameplay and short on story.

For every "Final Fantasy," there's a "Tetris." As impressive as "Grand Theft Auto III" is, "Bejeweled," the quintessential casual title, is just as significant. In 2007, "Bioshock" was one of the best examples of those sprawling plot-driven blockbusters, and arguably, its corresponding gameplay-fueled counterpart was PopCap's "Peggle," which arrived on the Mac and iPod in December.

Influenced by Japan's "Pachinko" game, "Peggle" takes place on a pinball-esque board. Players are given 11 balls that they have to shoot around the field, trying to knock out pegs dotting the space.

To complete the level, you have to clear the board of the orange ones, but doing so is easier said than done because there are obstacles and other pegs in the way.

Source Interlink Media Selects NINJA Mobile to Deliver Ad-supported ...

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Source Interlink Media, a leading special interest media company, announced today that it has selected NINJA Mobile to power the launch of video content from its titles to mobile devices.

The initial product launch will include premium video content available from brands within the Automotive Group, including Motor Trend, Hot Rod, Lowrider, 4 Wheel & Off Road, Four Wheeler, and Sport Compact Car.

"We selected NINJA Mobile's solution because of its ability to deliver the full range of digital assets such as streaming broadcast video to a feature-rich UI across BREW, Java, WAP and iPhone platforms, which is unique in the industry," said Sean Holzman, President of Source Interlink Media's Enterprise division. "In order to effectively leverage our brand and advertising reach across the mobile spectrum we need to ensure that the user experience is consistent with the expectation of our readers and advertising partners.

Qualcomm Expands Global and Customer Representation on Executive Team ...

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) , a leading developer and innovator of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and other advanced wireless technologies, today announced several organizational and leadership changes that will add more global representation to Qualcomm's executive leadership team and unify its services- related businesses. Qualcomm will also increase support for its partners and its continuing global growth with the creation of a chief marketing officer (CMO) position.

Jeff Jacobs, executive vice president, has been named CMO. Over the past several years leading global business development, Jacobs has built an organization that has played a significant role in the globalization of Qualcomm and the expansion of the business.