And he sketched the outline of a solution: BMW and its Chinese partner, Brilliance, will build a separate brand for New Energy Vehicles. However, these cars will not reflect the latest BMW technologies because it wants to give up as little as possible and protect its critical technologies long enough to where they’re no longer critical.
In 1980, BBC director John Downer set out to film the world from a birds perspective for his documentary In-Flight Movie. His plan was to have a green-winged teal imprint on a willing cameraman as soon as it hatched. But as Downer was driving to deliver the egg to the cameraman, the duck hatched prematurely in his lap. By the time he reached the cameraman’s house, the duckling had firmly imprinted on Downer, and for the next six months, the director was the bird’s surrogate mother. “Wherever I went and whatever I did, the duck kept me company,” he writes in his new book, Earthflight. “In the car, she would sit beside me in the passenger seat. In the office, she would sit on my head while I tried to make telephone calls. In the evening, as I relaxed in front of the television, she would snuggle up to my feet. We would even go out to dinner parties together.”
At a time when banks remain reluctant to approve business loans, many are issuing more and more unsecured personal loans. SmartMoney reports that SunTrust Bank handed out 23 percent more personal loans through September 2011 than it did in the same period a year ago, while TD Bank issued 5 percent more personal loans. Wells Fargo and Capital One also say their personal loans are up.
In “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY… AND HE IS US” , Lessons from Twenty Years of the Kauffman Foundation’s Investments in Venture Capital Funds and The Triumph of Hope over experience no detail is spared in a direct, unflinching look at how a $2BN, entrepreneurial foundation under performed the S&P 500 through group think and the willingness to be lead.
A long read, and somewhat technical, but truly worth the time. It makes a lot of what we’re seeing make sense.
THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES:
I recently had the pleasure of meeting Matthew Hall, co-founder of myfilmis.com, an online independent film distribution channel. A film maker himself, he was frustrated with the limited number of channels available to independents. The typical route of film festivals and distribution trades shows had produced unsatisfactory results.
myfilmis.com allows film makers to upload all of their work and place it behind a pay wall so they can be compensated by those viewing the film. They can also upload trailers and teasers to attract people to their movie. They also can choose to make the movie available for free. The site categorizes its available films by genre and has a page of trailers for each one.
If you’re a film maker or just like independent films, check out myfilmis.com
Maybe this is the reason General Motors went “mental” and pulled its Facebook ad budget.
“How is that any of your business?” I asked him. “All right then,” he said, the fake smile unaffected, “You folks have a nice day.” He slinked back to his pit.
Having attracted 900 million users to the biggest party in history, Facebook now has to sell them stuff — without being a buzz kill.
That move to a secondary matching engine used the order book as it appeared at 11:11 a.m. – but this meant new orders and changes in orders that came in later did not show up in the opening price.
