Government needs to be smart not angry in diplomacy

India could still conduct a trial and convict the marines in absentia. They would then become fugitives from Indian justice. At the very least, a lookout notice by Interpol or a similar international policing organisation could be issued. This means that if they step out of Italy — they are marines, for god's sake — they run the risk of being arrested on foreign shores and deported to India. Instead, we will vent spleen by packing off the poor Italian ambassador and downgrading diplomatic ties. The marines will still stay in Italy.

In recent months, as the UPA government has floundered internally, many of our international partners have not hesitated to knock us around. The Maldivians are doing it to us in the Indian Ocean. The Chinese are cutting off the Brahmaputra. They are building Gwadar in Pakistan, Kyaukpyu in Myanmar, knocking in Maldives and Seychelles and, of course, Sri Lanka.



However, New Delhi is openly fuelling ethnic nationalism as a politically expedient tool, just because they believe it is a way of keeping the DMK in the UPA. It had disastrous consequences in 1984. Today, we seem to be forgetting that LTTE was the most dangerous terrorist group in the world, and that India played a silent, but significant, role in its ultimate demise.

According to recent studies, one-third of marketing executives surveyed have shifted half of their budgets from traditional to digital marketing in the past year, yet are still spending 20% of their budgets on tradeshows. This gives us many reasons to pause and think about several concerns surrounding these research outcomes.

Tradeshow marketing has always been a money pit for companies both large and small. For the most part, a surprisingly small number of exhibitors truly integrate this tactic into their overall marketing and communications strategies.

At every dental meeting we attend, we hear a good number of exhibitors grumbling about the poor results of their tradeshow participation. More often than not, they blame everyone but themselves.

Truth be told, these same exhibitors or their agencies have experienced less than stellar results because they've neglected the basics, the major one being an integrated exhibit marketing plan! (And by "marketing" we mean the discipline and not just simply a big idea or a cute promotion.)

With the shift of substantial marketing dollars to "more modern" tactics, i.e., digital outlets such as social media, we're concerned that exhibitors will run headlong into developing digital strategies to support tradeshow marketing efforts without paying attention to the basics. Because despite what some digital marketing wunderkinds say, the same proven principles of traditional marketing hold true for digital strategy and should be generously and vigorously applied.

Memphis isn’t doing anything out of the ordinary here. The pick-and-roll/pick-and-pop is the NBA’s go-to play, and lots of teams with two skilled big men run things so that one is going south while the other is going north. But the Clippers, more than maybe any team in the league, respond by having both bigs sprint away from the rim instead of sending the first line of help — the help defender rushing at the Gasol pick-and-pop jumper — from somewhere along the perimeter instead of from in the paint. Teams are starting to pick up on this.

Memphis also ran a lot of screen-the-screener action, in which Gasol would screen for Randolph in the paint (or vice versa) as Randolph ran up to set a high screen for Conley. It’s a simple thing, but Memphis clearly believed they could create a bit of confusion for the Clippers’ bigs that way.

The fourth quarter also showed the no-win situation Vinny Del Negro (and his hair) faces in picking between Lamar Odom and DeAndre Jordan to close games next to Griffin. Jordan can’t shoot free throws (neither can Odom), and while Odom is probably a more intuitive defender in space and carries the lingering perception of being a “shooter,” he has trouble against post behemoths like Randolph and Gasol. This is probably the biggest issue facing the Clippers.

And, yes, Gasol’s performance last night was basically basketball porn for me. He nailed jumpers, facilitated brilliantly from the elbow, had two dribble-drive baskets (including one facial on Odom), and was one step ahead of L.A.’s offense on the other side of the ball. Gasol somehow recorded five steals and was playing volleyball at one point, deflecting pass after pass. A brilliant player.


I chatted at length with Monty Williams after the Hornets’ practice in Brooklyn on Wednesday, mostly for a post that will likely come out next week. But Williams said a few interesting off-topic things that won’t make it into that post, and I wanted to share them here. I asked him if we’d see more of the Ryan Anderson-Anthony Davis big man combo, even though the Hornets have given up an unsightly 113.9 points per 100 possessions when those two share the floor — nearly five points worse than Charlotte's league-worst defensive efficiency mark.

Williams, a Spurs alum and a very smart coach, stopped me in part to protest the over-reliance on analytics: “Yeah, the numbers are bad, but I’m not a numbers guy. Honestly, these numbers have gotten a little out of hand for me. A lot of teams have good defensive numbers, but sometimes guys just miss, OK? Sometimes guys just miss shots. Or they make crazy shots. But that doesn’t mean it was a good shot, and it doesn’t mean it was bad defense. It’s like guys who get paid for numbers, but if you check their winning percentages, would you still pay that guy? I feel the same way about these numbers. Ryan and A.D. — their defensive prowess would look a lot better if we could stop the ball, and if there wasn’t so much penetration. That’s something we have to get better at — guarding the ball at our wing and guard spots.”