Monthly Archives: October 2014

Recently Orbital Sciences Antares rocket exploded just after launch during a resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). What does this mean for the company? For the space transport industry? For NASA? For Elon Musk’s SpaceX?

Orbital Science’s Antares Rocket Exploded Shortly After Liftoff

This explosion comes fairly soon after NASA awarded a $3.6 billion contract to Orbital and SpaceX. The terms of the contract for Orbital were $1.9 billion for 8 flights through to 2016 (that’s $238 million per flight!). This is a great portion of Orbital’s business and success in these ventures would help to ensure contracts in the future.

SpaceX is a competitor to Orbital Sciences. SpaceX was created by Elon Musk.

This puts extra pressure on SpaceX to have a successful. I believe that SpaceX can take this as an opportunity to jump ahead of its competition.  It is also possible to argue that now SpaceX and Orbital are now on the same level, given SpaceX’s rocket explosion in August.

After the explosion, Orbital’s stock price fell by just over 13%. This was probably caused due to a lack of confidence in the company. It has since been climbing back, gaining 2% today. This increase is probably because of investors jumping at the opportunity to regain investment at a lower price.

NASA will presumably come under fire for their decision to end the Space shuttle program and allow the open market to come up with a solution. Hopefully the future holds more success for Orbital, SpaceX and NASA.

Orbital Sciences Antares Explosion Coverage/Video: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/rocket-bursts-into-flames-moments-after-liftoff-from-nasa-base/

Orbital Sciences Shares Fall: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/orbital-shares-fall-after-antares-rocket-explodes-2014-10-28?link=sfmw_fb

SpaceX’s Shuttle Failure: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-25/spacex-failure-seen-slowing-nasa-pick-on-capsule-contract.html

Further Reading on the Subject, TIME Magazine: http://time.com/3544723/antares-explosion-nasa-elon-musk/

Images:

SpaceX: http://spacefrontier.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/spacex-logo.jpg

Antares Explosion: http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/i/newscms/2014_44/739341/141028-antares-rocket-explosion-jms-1825_c6574a8e67fd20cddbc518bebd937bd4.jpg

The Federal Reserve Building

The Federal Reserve of The United States is one of the world’s most influential organizations. The Fed’s decisions affect the entire world because of the sheer size of the U.S. market and wide spread usage of its currency. Recently the Fed ended its asset-purchase program that began in response to the recession of 2008.

Janet Yellen, Chairperson of the Federal Reserve

The goal of the program is to increase the cash in the U.S. to stimulate growth by making it easier for banks to lend out money. This it to allow businesses to expand, to hire more people, to increase employment, to increase consumer income, to increase consumer spending, to increase national GDP. It is very interesting to see how such decisions can cause a chain reaction. It is very apparent the necessity of going down so many levels in order to cause any sort of change.

The Fed has ended this “quantitative easing” program partly due to improving employment numbers, as written in a recent Bloomberg article. More employment was the goal of this initiative, and now that it is working and approaching stable growth, the Fed can focus on other areas such as inflation rates.

The Fed was created to bring stability to the capital U.S. market. Asset purchasing is one of the many tools it has for doing this.

Bloomberg Article: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-29/fed-ends-qe-while-keeping-considerable-time-low-rate-pledge.html

Information on Fed’s Operations: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/monetary-policy-recession.asp

Causes of the Recession for background reading: http://www.economist.com/news/schoolsbrief/21584534-effects-financial-crisis-are-still-being-felt-five-years-article

Images:

Janet Yellen: http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1569298/thumbs/o-JANET-YELLEN-facebook.jpg

Federal Reserve Building: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Marriner_S._Eccles_Federal_Reserve_Board_Building.jpg

The conflict between Aboriginal peoples of Canada and its once foreign settlers is centuries old and has resulted in numerous events that have hurt human, environmental, and civil rights.

For a race of people that has been marginalized since the beginning, it is very easy to imagine the anger and frustration in response to the Indian Act that was enacted in 1867. An article by the CBC clearly describes the goal of assimilation through any means necessary attributed to the Indian Act. This incredible effort of marginalization has destroyed, hopefully not forever, any hope of trust between the Aboriginal peoples of Canada and the Federal Government.

Progress in the country and for the country, depends on the relationship between the two parties. News articles from The Vancouver Sun talking about the B.C. Hydro site C and the Tsilhqot’in New Prosperity Mine showcase the business and economic inefficiencies that take place because of a lack of a relationship between the two parties. Both side are wanting to expand and grow but are facing opposition from each other.

I don’t know enough about political science to determine an appropriate structure for the organization of Aboriginal groups but I do know that the Government should facilitate it. Allowing Aboriginal communities to be more sustainable, efficient, and economical through proper governance and representation would allow communication on new levels. Both parties will be able to make proper decisions and strive towards similar goals all while respecting and working well with each other.

It’s the government’s responsibility to help heal the wounds it created, and heal them in a way that they are stronger afterward in order to better communicate and create progress for everyone.

Notes:

CBC Article, Background on the Indian Act, from suggested readings: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/background-the-indian-act-1.1056988

The Vancouver Sun, Tsilhqot’in set to declare site of New Prosperity mine a tribal park: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Unilateral+park+declared+Tsilhqot+includes+Prosperity+mine/10192766/story.html#ixzz3FRLBTsuT

The Vancouver Sun, http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Premier+urges+cooperation+more+litigation+government+natives+reach+fork+road/10194776/story.html

Advertising works. There is no doubting that. For someone to say they are unaffected by advertising is naive. Companies are literally playing with your mind; this can be a very scary thing if one is not able to recognize it. I believe that a very important skill in modern society is being able to recognize advertising messages and interpret them based on what your thoughts are as an individual.

In an article by The Atlantic, Nigel Hollis, a chief analyst for Millward Brown, a global market research company, outlined some of the core ideas behind T.V. advertising. Specifically, how companies try to create memories that influence behaviour later on. I think that this is one of the most genius components of advertising. It is a subtle psychological tactic that allows companies to influence people without directly promoting their product. Direct promotion usually makes consumers defensive.

This influence is demonstrated in LG’s new brand positioning goals outlined in an article by Marketing Week. Are LG electronics actually “warmer” than Samsung’s? Probably not, but that is what LG is trying to tell you. It is a very imaginable concept, a family looking for a living room T.V. might turn to the “warmer” and “happier” sounding option. While this option is perfectly valid, a family has every right to want something “warm and happy” in their household, it is important to recognize that LG has instilled the idea that it is the only company that can provide that.

The main take away from all this is to recognize that advertising works. It isn’t a 70-billion dollar industry for nothing. I freely admit that I’m influenced by advertising but I also try to realize what the advertisers are telling me and make my own reasonably informed decisions.

Notes:

Article by The Atlantic published in August of 2011. Written by Nigel Hollis: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/08/why-good-advertising-works-even-when-you-think-it-doesnt/244252/#slide2

Article by Marketing Week published in August of 2013. Written by Lara O’Reilly: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/news/lg-rolls-out-new-positioning-to-add-warmth-to-the-brand/4007542.article

LG It’s All Possible Image, taken from google images: http://3gca.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/lhap-600×215.jpg