7th March 2015

1) The story behind Guerrillero Heroico – the iconic image of Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda. It was captured on March 5, 1960, in Havana, Cuba at a memorial service for victims of the La Coubre explosion. Korda has said that at the moment he shot the picture, he was drawn to Guevara’s facial expression, which showed “absolute implacability” as well as anger and pain. Years later, Korda would say that the photo showed Che’s firm and stoic character. Guevara was 31 years old at the time the photo was taken.

2) Stats like this really bring home the size of the problem. Fewer women run big companies, than men called John.

3) And now we are back? Nasdaq Composite Ends Above 5000 for First Time Since Dot-Com Era.

4) Apple ‘s iPhone now commands 89% of all smartphone profits. Android is at an all time low.

5) Netflix and it’s extraordinary employee income levels – Netflix earns $2.4 million per employee, the single largest in all of mega cap technology. The only company even close is Apple at $2 million per employee.

6) ‘It’s Groundhog Day in the cosmos. 
In the 1993 Bill Murray movie, a weatherman finds himself reliving the same day over and over again. Now astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope say they have been watching the same star blow itself to smithereens in a supernova explosion over and over again, thanks to a trick of Einsteinian optics’ (short video).

7) The plot to free North Korea with smuggled episodes of Friends. I’d have gone for Frasier.

8) The Art of More. Love the sentiment here – ‘Technology and economics have conspired to elevate tactics above strategy in advertising. But, on the tenth anniversary of the IPA Excellence Diploma, Nick Kendall says that the pendulum has swung too far – it’s time for the big ideas and the long-term thinking to make a comeback’.

9) How far will this go ? Journalists under increasing pressure from Robots – ‘ Automated Insights, a company that provides language generation software to The Associated Press and other organisations announced Wednesday the news cooperative will use the software to produce thousands of stories about collegiate sports’.

10) Great series of ads from GEICO in the States. Funny for sure, but also has the kernel of a great , campaignable idea – that rolls two ads into one. We know it’s going to be a ‘train wreck’ but we keep watching to see how bad it will get.