Here they are again – Enjoy.

Red Pigeons Map 1 – Go Shoot’em

Red Pigeons 2 – Happy Hunting

Text Cars (you know, the cars that you get a text telling you to go steal)

Jumps – All the special jumps you need to land

Strangers – Go Find them for special quests

There are more for some cars, armor, weapons but I’ll bet if you made it here you already got the cheat codes for those. That said, there are a few of you who want to make it through the game with out cheating or tired of coming here to look at the pictures every time you play some GTA IV then downoad the entire map pack here!

]]> http://www.criticallythought.com/2009/08/gta-iv-revisited/feed/ 0 http://www.criticallythought.com/2009/08/discraft-v-wham-o/ http://www.criticallythought.com/2009/08/discraft-v-wham-o/#comments Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:19:40 +0000 trr http://www.criticallythought.com/?p=32

Discraft and Wham-O:

A brief history and explanation why one is better than the other.

Wham-O is the patent holder of the Frisbee and created the first disc, and Frisbee is just one of many brands from Wham-O.  Wham-O discs (from the Master Model through the 82E model) were the official discs of Ultimate from 1969 through 1991.  It is also important to note that Wham-O has been sold several times over the past few decades causing the Frisbee standards to be largely inconsistent.

It is not surprising but people like consistency, and as a thrower myself, I’m sure I could get used to the flight characteristics of any mold, but Discraft will reign supreme unless another company can create a huge incentive to switch over. The differences are subtle, but certainly noticeable with a different feel on the grip and thickness of the disc. In general you’ll throw further, more accurate, and have much more control with Discraft disc especially if you’re having trouble in windier conditions.

Wham-O, for their part, has been trying to play catch up ever since the Ultimate Players Association decided to switch from Wham-O to Discraft 18 years ago. We have seen multiple attempts by them to reverse engineer the Discraft mold and from the casual look over of our Fresh-Life disc (a Wham-O disc marketed by a local Rogers, AR company), they might be getting close, but getting the mold right is only part of it.  It is more than just a mold, so Wham-O has to get the right plastic and processes (heating, cooling, chemical composition, time in the mold, storage, etc.) too.

The crew at Discraft is great and they’ve been there for 18 years now making great discs for the sport and supporting the sport, UPA, and Ultimate championships around the world. It seems like one of the first things were taught when we first start playing Ultimate is that Wham-O is bad and evil and tried to change the sport and won’t let us use the word Frisbee.  Wham-O’s not bad – they are just contradictory in their support for the sport and sometimes the plastic they use isn’t as consistent as the plastic used in Discraft discs.  Who knows?  This may change someday.

So in conclusion, if you are just looking for a disc to toss around a few times in the back yard, I suggest you try the Fresh Life disc priced at $14.95, they are made by Wham-O from 100% recycled materials. You will legally be able to call your disc a Frisbee (provided you have the Frisbee model) and they’re good for your image too!

However, if you are even slightly concerned about quality, performance, or value then I highly recommend you go with our Discraft Ultrastar disc for $13.95. You may not be saving the environment initially, but you get a better disc and save a buck. As for the saving the environment, if you would like to donate the dollar you saved to the environmental cause of your choice, then the price becomes even, eco-systems are either restored or saved, and you still get a disc that will out perform your less-informed counterparts.

Monsanto is analyzing the Water Treatment Industry as a potential new market. They discuss in detail: applications, types of products, and services already provided during that time. The industry can be somewhat difficult to define. It seems better to determine the industry by the customer, in this case it is the end – user or consumer of the drinkable water. Then in 1999, as a result of increased demand for safe drinking water globally, Monsanto acquired a few firms that had experience in the water treatment industry, with specific knowledge and technologies, which subsequently would better enable Monsanto to break into the water treatment market and be competitive immediately by offering a broad complementary package of water treatment products and services.

b) Consider the domestic drinking water segment of Monsanto’s business. How best can that industry be defined? What are other ways of conceptualizing that industry? Will different conceptualizations lead to different strategies?

The domestic drinking water segment of the water treatment industry is extremely diverse and fragmented with many different firms operating in a wide variety of ways to get water into consumer’s hands. The case really breaks the drinking water segment down into two different categories, municipal and residential water treatment, the segments are determined by the delivery method to which consumers get drinkable water. Monsanto has already positioned themselves, through a series of acquisitions, to be on the clean water treatment side of the industry, as opposed to waste water treatment. More specifically, to easily compete in the municipal drinking water segment. Further development and focus is still needed on the residential water industry. For instance, Bottled water is considered a substitute for both municipal and residential water treatment products, but 1 in 4 bottles contains water from a municipal source. Furthermore, the bottled water industry has conglomerates from the beverage industry competing in the market. This signals to me that the domestic end user doesn’t mind as much about the delivery method of clean water, just so long as there is clean water available. Also of importance is the International markets, there is potential for greater growth globally it would seem, specifically, in the municipal water treatment industry through the sales of equipment and chemicals to treat water.

Keeping in mind also that the discovery of new water sources has been slowing down, a different way of conceptualizing the industry would be to consider water speculation and discovery. Monsanto could invest in R&D to pioneer new ways to find and collect clean water. This could develop into a much different strategy considering it could also include possible entry into the waste water treatment industry. There are also the geographic hurdles to getting drinking water to inhabitants to consider, and not all water treatment processes are best suited for every environment. Monsanto does have the advantage of operating in many different countries, and one possibility is to supplement its municipal water contracts is by also supplying bottling water, possibly turning a threat into a potential opportunity.

c) Pick the definition of the industry that is most appropriate above. In that industry, what are the three key drivers of success? Explain your answers.

The industry definition to best describe Monsanto’s water treatment segment is the clean water treatment industry. Key drivers of success would be vertical integration from water source to market, patent technologies, and consumer trust. Monsanto has the ability to transform an industry with the new acquisitions in patented technology. They want to touch that water as many times as possible in the treatment process, to let the water flow through its equipment. This means they should integrate the new technologies that they have acquired into the water treatment process, either by replacing older technologies, or integrating it into existing systems to work in conjunction with their chemical treatments plants. Furthermore, acquisition of water sources could play a key in developing competitive advantage.

NeoPets, Inc. is an internet start-up that had struck gold in a time when many of its sister companies were feeling the pain of a market correction from asset hyper-inflation and subsequently shutting their doors. They clearly have the competitive advantage by being first to market with “immersive advertising”. Immersive Advertising is a key factor that has helped lead to their success over other online advertising firms that just used traditional banner and pop-up advertisements. Their website is #1 for “stickiness”. The data from Nielsen/Net Ratings showed the amount of time users spent on the site was over 7 hrs. So now, not only have they developed a new proprietary advertising model, but they had also developed an online environment that captured a non-typical massively multiplayer online game, or MMOG that created a loyal online social community. Finally, the nature of NeoPets audience was very unique. NeoPets audience consisted of predominantly older youth and younger teens that had to be knowledgeable or computer savvy to some degree in order to be able to interact on NeoPets website. NeoPets also was unique in the fact that the majority of their user base was female, which was unusual for many online gaming communities. The combination of their audience and advertising model made NeoPets a very attractive service for firms looking to market their products online using an industry that had pretty much collapsed from within.

Also a very important issue to NeoPets, for a number of reasons, was globalization. First off, they have created a niche marketing strategy in an IT based industry and developed a very large and loyal user audience which they’ve managed to keep to themselves, so far. One of the threats posed by globalization is that there are already other media companies that have similar product offerings already out in the offline market in other countries that haven’t developed their product into an interactive online media such as NeoPets. Similar kinds of games and/or cartoons in the offline markets already exist that, in essence share several similarities to NeoPets in terms of storylines, characters, and play style. These included Tomagotchi or Giga pets, both a hand-held game with similar a similar play style to that of NeoPets in that the player had to take care of a virtual pet. Also, Dragon Ball Z which was an anime cartoon that consisted of collecting pets with special powers and has a large fan base following, the cartoon has spawned the creation of a plushies, a card game, and movies; much like NeoPets’ Doug Dohring hoped to do with the NeoPets. Albeit these few examples do not use an as enriched or as dynamic gaming/advertising medium as NeoPets does online, but they could pose a threat if they moved over to the internet arena because of their already existing popularity offline, they would be in a position to compete directly with NeoPets for internet users.

Mr. Dohring wants to control the growth of the company and the image of NeoPets. One of the biggest opportunities for NeoPets is that the company is still young and in a rapid growth stage. NeoPets is still reinvesting its profit back into the company to fund growth and is very agile, and even though it is self funded at this point, due to the competitive nature of the internet industry and rapid rate of technological change, they could easily be in international. Furthermore, a joint venture might not be what is best for long-term growth, remember Dohring also sees potential by expanding globally into markets where his current multinational corporate customers are already doing business and has a strong desire to turn NeoPets into a franchise and in that aspect to bring Green Dot on as a minority equity holder would also allow NeoPets to continue to control its own growth and intellectual properties as it sees fit. Globalization, does offer another option there is an opportunity for merchandising and/or co-branding further, to take the Kraft Mac’n’Cheese print ad even further, to continue to expand “virally” through companies that they already work with. The company, again, is very young and spread mostly through the internet by word of mouth but has already achieved so much popularity. Apply the same viral principal to NeoPets international growth strategy, greater advertising revenue could be generated through co-branded merchandise launch with a multinational firm that 1 is already a client, and 2 also operates in the same geographic markets that NeoPets wishes to enter into as well.

Next up, and on a more serious note, This Is Reality, this ad was very well done. I’ve gotten pretty tired of all the “green” marketing that is going on right now. Retail is the worst of it, believe me (again another one of those posts I was telling you about). So the fact that this spot takes a shot at the fabricators of clean coal advertisements reality got me into it. It even made me check out their website, sign up, and write this post to inform you about it too. Well done indeed if it can motivate even me to put this much effort into it. Hopefully it did for you also.Oh and if you are curious about whether or not the website for Jones’ BA Truck Rental & Storage was real or not, you can check it out here too.

With the growing notion that corporate globalization, is the way of the future it makes perfect sense as to why the Amero would be a good thing. With the US economy in a state of financial turmoil it seems to make sense that the Fed could be using an invisible but guiding hand to lay the ground work for a majority to willingly accept the Amero proposal, and minimize any opposition.

Introducing monetary unions can do some amazing and unique things. It alligns countries political ambitions and requires them to work together in the interest of everyone’s financial well being. It could be said that in the future, it may not be a country that is considered a world super power, but a monetary union. Creating a monetary union in North America would ad some liquidity for the citizens by allowing them to use the same currency in a larger geographic area. Furthermore, strength in numbers, China is often viewed as a friend best kept at arms lenght. Their population is driving their economy right now, and by implementing the Amero, it would put more people under the Amero “flag”, China and Mexico both have inexpensive labor forces, the Amero would allow the US and Canada to take advantage of Mexico’s labor and help level one of the strategic advantages that China has.

The US trade deficit with China is a cause for alarm and Americans pray that they don’t call on our debt, but if we were to implement the Amero, even though the debt is the US’s to pay, it would severally stress the US’s economy which subsequently would be under the Amero. The pressure which would be put on the Amero, instead of a US dollar, is divided amongst 3 political borders instead of just one. Sort of a cushion… for Americans anyway. Or maybe a parachute to save ourselves from crashing completely, then again it could be the anchor that drags Canada and Mexico down with us.

My thinking is that we are being guided, by what or who I don’t know yet, or if I can even describe the thoughts accurately, might be better to say feeling, gut feeling. I’d like to think that this feeling is just humanity’s will at work and that we are guided by some higher power.

“Progress, man’s distinctive mark alone not God’s and not the Beast, God is, they are, man partly is and wholly hopes to be.” – From “A Death In The Desert” by Robert Browning

But then again, it could just be the foreign investors who control our federal reserve, and the fact that our government operates a financial system based solely on debt. George W. has really taken to heart the slogan “Owe the bank 3 million and the bank owns you, owe the bank 3 trillion and you own the bank.”

The longer I think about it, the more utopia and doomsday scenarios both race through my mind. A great many of Sci-fi movie scenes come up, and while most of the ideations are all well and good, happy scenes like the famous cartoon “The Jetsons”, and the world we live in is independent from oil, and national borders and governments cease to exist because of world peace. The trip in between is what I am most curious and sometimes worried about. My anxiety gets the best of me and then thoughts like the world population is going to have to collapse to reach the state of utopia in my dreams.

With talk of the Amero coming up more frequently, I can’t help but think that there is no denying now we are in a state of globalization. The path that the US seems to have gone down is one that resembles Freud’s instinctual state of Thanatos, or self destruction, but then as with all things as dynamic and diverse as the human race, Eros, the instinctual state of creation and life. Cyclical states of change vs inertia.

Business cycles seem no longer relevant in today’s business world. Today we live in bubble cycles, which is to bad because historically a bubble that had a globally devastating aftermath would only happen about once every one hundred years. A change every one hundred years, Eros was the norm, Thanatos only came around every now and again, just like wildlife fires.

Even though it is widely disputed the first bubble is credited to the Dutch Tulip Traders of the 1630s, but in the 21st century we have seen 2 bubbles burst, dot com and real estate. The real estate bubble in my eyes only occurred to offset losses of the dot com bubble. So the financial sectors are playing games with the political sectors, and while I am not a history buff, I would bet that if I researched long enough I could probably trace the reason for the all the historical bubbles back to some sort of change in legislation on a governmental level to benefit people in the financial sector or vice aversa.

Ultimately, I believe the Amero will be good for the US, and furthermore Canada and Mexico, but it is what we as Americans will have to endure for the majority to be willing to accept the change. President Bush has deliberately been driving down the value of the dollar for at least 2 years now. Is this to prepare us for the acceptance of the Amero? or is the Amero just part of the long agenda that progress and globalization will have for us?

I look at the European Union, while political borders are still present, the Euro has aligned the financial interests of all the nations with in the union. It has brought these people a little closer together by giving them a common bond with which to perform transactions with. I believe that with the development of a North American Union, our financial interests will be the same as Cananda’s and Mexico’s. Financial Borders will be the new rule of thumb. Destruction of the US dollar to create change and acceptance of the Amero. Eros and Thanatos always at work, always in tandem.

Much like when we see videos and pictures of a forest fires destruction in California we morn for the loss, instead we should celebrate the change and rejoice for the new life that comes in its place.

If Eros were to take place 100% of the time, nothing would change ever. Life would go on, nothing “bad” would ever happen. Death and destruction would be words that were forgotten. However, the same would be true if Thanatos were to be ever lasting. Death and destruction for everything, never any new creation, no new life. We would be inert, running pegged to one side of the spectrum or the other, light or dark, white or black, good or evil. But to have both means that we can at least continue towards change and progress. Inertia vs Change, i like to think it keeps us in the grey, with a balance of good and evil, and just enough light to see our hand in front of our face.