My Director of Operations, Saul Wainwright, wrote a very fine blog post, Spread The Word: Blogs Matter We Just Can’t Measure It!!, over on Marketing Conversation today in response to a blog post by Norman Birnbach of PR Back Talk titled How Do You Establish Metrics for a Blogging Initiative? Take A Page (Via Marketing Conversation):

Another day, and another blog post thanks to our efforts at Abraham & Harrison. Norman Birnbach over at PR Back Talk wrote this great post, How Do You Establish Metrics for a Blogging Initiative? Take A Page from the Campaign for Jerry White’s Book”, which talks about our successful blogger outreach efforts on behalf of our client Survivor Corps.

The goal of every outreach campaign is to get the “conversation” started and help keep it going. How do you do this? Norman shows some of the elements that we have used to promote both the Survivor Corps brand and the book, I Will Not Be Broken, written by the co-founder Jerry White.

First: craft messages that are specific to the demographics you are trying to talk to – no cookie cutting here!!

Second: make it easy for bloggers to blog. In other words create an SMNR – check out the two we created for the campaign here & here.

Third: be passionate about the conversation. This, in my opinion, is always the most critical element – get your team excited, get them talking, get them thinking. Excitement is infectious!!

Norman mentions an article that was recently written by Business Week called, Beyond Blogs: Thee years ago our cover story showcased the pheneomen. A lot has changed since then. I am not going to to into great detail about the article but what I will say is it highlights how things have changed. How powerful a blogger outreach campaign coupled with utlizing social networks like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and Digg are in the world of PR.

The return-on-investment on a social media campaign is huge. Once you get the message out there it can keep propagating and spreading and you get to watch this happen. You get to see the blog posts go up, you get to count the visitors to your site, you get a sense of what people are thinking and feeling about your product. You never got this in traditional media – you sent out your message and then….well, that was the end of that.

What so many companies are still wanting though are metrics – how many people will “read” the posts, visit the blogs – how do you measure a conversation? How do you track where a story goes – where an email is sent, who read the post and then went home to tell their kids about the book? We can’t put numbers on this – it is “out of our control” just like the whole concept of social media – it is about loosing control and letting go. Ultimately it is a trust game. Trust your product, trust your social media team trust your demographic. Don’t get me wrong – we can give you certain measurements but in the end this is only a slice of the much bigger pie, and no one has truly figured out how to measure the much big network effect.

We are very stoked with the response that we have garnered so far for our clients. We know that we have done a good job getting the message out there and bringing it to people’s attention. I hope all of you get a chance to check out the book and ask any questions you have about all that we do over here (wherever that might be for a virtual company) at Abraham Harrison.

When clients come to us asking for conversion rates, metrics, CPM, penetration, eyeballs, and all of the rest of the numbers that are de rigeur in the world of advertising and marketing, we do our best to oblige. We really do. People want to speak numbers and they really want to be able to strictly quantify the spending of a budget with a nice solid number.

Truth is, as an insider, most of these numbers are sort of bullshit. Not because any firm is bullshitting, but because all the tools suck and because all the good tools are aimed squarely at easy-to-define web1.5 portal and ecommerce sites. Truth is, the influence of blogs and bloggers is generally not directly associated with how many folks visit but who.

Blogs are news sources. And, likes water sources, they’re generative dribbles that coalesce into mighty rivers, the portals and mainstream media. Bloggers and blogs are the source from which all downstream media trade is buoyed. New media bloggers, mainstream media columnists and pundits, and talk radio hosts have disproportionate influence on both the mediasphere in particular and on culture in general.

In my world, it isn’t a game of how many eyeballs, but whose. And since this is essentially a B2B campaign — PR exec to blogger and not PR exec to consumer — it is almost impossible to extract the kinds of metrics one expects from B2C campaigns. We’re not direct marketing, we’re doing pitches to folks who are in possession of their very own platform or organ: a blog or a forum. It is apples and oranges.

We use many of the same standards of success that traditional PR firms do: Are we getting coverage? Are we getting articles placed? Are we getting buzz? Is is the buzz good?

Are people picking up our news releases? Is the coverage directly connected to our outreach? Those sort of things. Also, is the tone of the coverage good, bad, neutral? Is the conversation infectious? Are we winning hearts and minds?

As part of our reporting we show volume, tone, penetration, influence, and trending; additionally, we offer analysis of the campaign as well as deeply consulting with the client in order to make sure our messaging is consistent with both who they are as well as steering towards who they want to be! See!

This isn’t marketing, this is PR stuff!

The Road to Firebrand starts next week on ION (at 11PM every weekday night) and online at Firebrand.com. Firebrand loves working with me because I love commercials more than I love television. I am an evangelist. This week, they’re coming down the pike with something called The Road to Firebrand, “the multi-million dollar media buy will include spots on cable networks like MTV, G4, Sci Fi and VHI, as well as online video placements on TVGuide.com, YouTube, MySpace and Facebook, among others.” Check it out — it’s quite good and highlights all of our favorite stars from a lifetime of TV commercials and ads — true icons. Here are the teaser spots: Pregame, Kickoff, and Half Time:

Pre Game

Kick Off

Half Time

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR Contact:
Dawn Rowan
646-747-3600
dawn.rowan@firebrandtv.com

Press can access images and further information at
http://press.firebrand.com

FIREBRAND LAUNCHES FIRST NATIONAL AD CAMPAIGN:
“THE ROAD TO FIREBRAND MONDAY”
WHERE ONLY THE GREATEST COMMERCIALS GET TO PLAY

All-Star Campaign includes the Caveman, the St. Pauli Girl, the Crash Test Dummy,
Mr. Peanut, Bob’s Big Boy and Mr. Clean, among others.

New York (January 21, 2008) – Firebrand, the hottest spots from the coolest brands, on TV, web and mobile, will celebrate “the Holiest Day in Advertising,” with the launch of its first national holiday campaign, “The Road to Firebrand Monday.” The multi-million dollar media buy will include spots on cable networks like MTV, G4, Sci Fi and VHI, as well as online video placements on TVGuide.com, YouTube, MySpace and Facebook, among others.

The Road to Firebrand Monday campaign begins today with at least three new commercials– PreGame, KickOff and HalfTime – on-air and online over the next two weeks, driving viewers to tune into Firebrand, starting January 28th on ION TV (weeknights 11PM/10C). And all that week on TV, web and mobile, Firebrand will begin showcasing playlists related to the Big Game.

The campaign culminates on the first annual “Firebrand Monday,” February 4th, the day after the Big Game. On TV, the hour will be dedicated to major ads from the Big Game, featuring Celebrity CJs such as Reebok’s “Office Linebacker” Terry Tate and Carmen Electra, who makes her Big Game debut in an ad for Hershey’s “Ice Breakers.” All content is downloadable on mobile devices, iTunes and Firebrand.com. And that morning, Firebrand.com will have only the best of the previous day’s commercials ready for download, allowing viewers to share and rate them all, and to decide for themselves which spot wins the coveted “Firebrand Water Cooler” trophy.

“The Big Game has always been the holy grail of advertising and Firebrand celebrates that,” says Shari F. Leventhal, Chief Marketing Officer. “Most people watch the big game with hopes of seeing the best, most creative commercials the ad industry can serve up. The greatest commercials get to play every day at Firebrand. So the Firebrand Monday campaign is our way of saluting the best of these commercials, past and present, as well as the famous icons that make commercials so memorable, and in many cases, a part of pop culture.”

Viewers watching the Firebrand Monday commercials will be treated to a series of spots featuring a parody of some of the most popular commercial icons including Mr. Clean, Mr. Peanut and the Cavemen, among others. The icons are placed on a football backdrop, either behind the scenes getting psyched up for the game, in the locker room, or huddling conspiratorially on the field. No matter how you slice it, Firebrand delivers an entertaining tribute to what has become advertising’s greatest sporting event.

The fun continues for a week starting Firebrand Monday to the following Monday where every spot that is viewed, downloaded, emailed or embedded earns the viewer a chance to enter to win cash.

Major investors in Firebrand include Microsoft, NBC Universal and GE’s Peacock Equity Fund. Firebrand can be found at www.firebrand.com <http://www.firebrand.com> , and weeknights on ION television network at 11 PM/10C and on www.itunes.com <http://www.itunes.com> . For additional information, check out http://press.firebrand.com.

Firebrand. Where only the greatest commercials get to play.

###

Firebrand Multimedia

• Road to Firebrand Monday

  • Half Time 30secTV
  • Kick Off 30secTV
  • Pregame 30secTV
  • Road to Firebrand Monday-JPG

• Screenshots of Firebrand

  • Firebrand Logo-AI
  • Firebrand Logo-JPG
  • Firebrand Logo-SWF
  • Firebrand Search
  • MOBILE
  • SYNCHRONOUS
  • TV
  • WEB

• Firebrand Social Media

  • Del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • iTunes
  • Myspace
  • YouTube

2007

November 27

Just What The World Needs Now

David Burn, AdPulp
(read more…)

Firebrand Makes Its Debut As The First 3 Screen, Multi-Platform Network Dedicated to Commercial Culture

Alan Weinkrantz, 3 Screens.net

(read more…)

November 26

Can Firebrand Make Commercials Hot?

Chris Albrecht, GigaOm

(read more…)

Firebrand Makes its Debut as the First Multi-Platform Network Dedicated to Commercial Culture

create magazine

(read more…)

Commericals as Content

Charles Sipe, Cool Marketing Stuff

(read more…)

Forget about the Super Bowl Ads

By Tarik Moody, RadioMilwaukee’s Diggin’ with the Architect

(read more…)

November 15

Firebrand movie includes work!

Be.Interactive

(read more…)

FirebrandTV; A Great Way to Waste Time at Work

Marketing Conversation

(read more…)

Fond of commercials? This post is for you

VOIP

(read more…)

November 14

In (Mild) Defense of Firebrand

grokdotcom

(read more…)

For the birds

Make The Logo Bigger

(read more…)

Firebrand – For those without enough commmercials in their life

Movie Marketing Madness

(read more…)

November 13

Firebrand

Be.Interactive

(read more…)

November 12

all in one place

zefrank

(read more…)

October 10

Influx Interview- Shari Leventhal- Firebrand

Influx Insights

(read more…)

October 1

Brands on fire

‘Cross The Breeze

(read more…)

September 26

Firebrand Shows Ads The Way MTV Used To Show Music Videos

By Rohit Bhargava, Influential Marketing Blog

(read more…)

September 25

how firebrand lit a blog on fire

Brand Flakes for Breakfast

View Full Article

Firebrand All-Ad Video Network Set to Debut

By Kamau High, Adweek

(read more…)

Commercial Culture Gets Its Due

Brand Noise

(read more…)

Brands on fire (with a little help from crayon)

By Greg Verdino, Greg Verdino’s Marketing Blog

(read more…)

Life after the 30-second spot?

By Joseph Jaffe, Jaffe Juice

(read more…)

Consumers Gain Greater Control As Brands Get Fire

A Media Circ.us

(read more…)

Firebrand Preview Launches during Advertising Week – Love Coverage

By David Berkowitz, Inside the Marketers Studio

(read more…)

Firebrand – Extremely Ambitious Advertising as Content Destination

Karl Long, Experience Curve

(read more…)

Microsoft, NBCU Back Venture That Turns Ads Into Content

By David Goetzl, Media Daily News

(read more…)

Commercials serious business at Firebrand

By Alex Woodson, The Hollywood Reporter

(read more…)

TV Commercials Redistributor Firebrand Raises Funds

Submitted by Mark Hefflinger, Digital Media Wire

(read more…)

Firebrand All-Ad Video Network Set to Debut

By Kamau High, Brandweek

(read more…)

Tech company offers commercials only

By Amanda Fung, Crain’s New York Business.com

(read more…)

NBC: That’s Advertainment

By Stuart Elliott, The New York Times

(read more…)

You know I have been rubbing shoulders with Hollywood producer Leonid Rozhetskin. Well, it looks like Leonid Rozhetskin and L+E Productions does a fine job of selecting scripts and projects because I got some breaking news: the Sundance Film Festival selected L+E Productions’ Hamlet II in its premiers category.

“The Sundance Film Festival nomination of Hamlet II is not up on the Sundance website, but here’s some information about the Premiers Category: To showcase the diversity of contemporary cinema, the Sundance Film Festival’s Premieres program offers a selection of the latest work from established directors and world premieres of highly anticipated films. This is not a competitive category. It’s L+E Production‘s first Sundance selection.” (More about Hamlet II)

I have never heard Fair Game with Faith Salie before, but my local NPR Public Radio affiliate, WAMU 88.5 is now showcasing this amazing new, amazingly hip radio show, described as,

“a new satirical news and entertainment program … hosted by Faith Salie, possibly the only Rhodes Scholar doing comedy today … Fair Game covers the important stories of the day and uses insightful humor to tease out what it all means. The show also features newsmaker and celebrity interviews, live music, and regular appearances by the country’s best comedians. Think of it as a variety show for the highest common denominator.”

Bloody edgy, brilliant, and almost as good as a cutting-edge podcast — in fact, there is a podcast!. Topical, sexy, and funny.

Two-piece garments worn by women for athletic purposes have been observed on Greek urns and paintings, dated as early as 1400 BC.

Modern origin of the Bikini

According to the official version, the modern bikini was invented by French engineer Louis Reard and fashion designer Jacques Heim in Paris in 1946 (introduced on July 5), and named after Bikini Atoll, the site of nuclear weapon tests in the Marshall Islands, on the reasoning that the burst of excitement it would cause would be like the atomic bomb. However it should be noted that women in Paris were wearing bikinis one year before the bikini was “invented.” This fact is documented with pictures in the July 16, 1945 issue of Life Magazine.

Of course the magazine article did not attach the name “bikini” to the swimsuit. At that time the public had not yet been informed of the atom bomb project, and few people had ever heard of Bikini Atoll. The article instead spoke of the “French Bathing Suits.” But although the name had not yet been adopted, the swimsuits that the Parisian women were wearing are clearly recognizable as bikinis in style and coverage.

Coincidentally, the date of publication of the magazine, July 16, 1945, was the very same day that the first atomic bomb was detonated in the desert outside Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Reard’s suit was a refinement of the work of Jacques Heim who, two months earlier, had introduced the “Atome” (named for its size) and advertised it as the world’s “smallest bathing suit”. Reard split the “atome” even smaller, but could not find a model who would dare to wear his design. He ended up hiring Micheline Bernardini, a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris, as his model.

Bikinis in modern culture

It took fifteen years for the bikini to be accepted in the United States. In 1951 bikinis were banned from the Miss World Contest. In 1957, however, Brigitte Bardot’s bikini in And God Created Woman created a market for the swimwear in the US, and in 1960, Brian Hyland’s pop song “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” inspired a bikini-buying spree. Finally the bikini caught on, and by 1963, the movie Beach Party, starring Annette Funicello (emphatically not in a bikini, by mentor Walt Disney’s personal request) and Frankie Avalon, led a wave of films that made the bikini a pop-culture symbol.

In Malta bikinis took time to be introduced. In the 1960s the police fended off Bishop Michael Gonzi’s request to ban bikini clad tourists following fear of compromising Malta as a tourist destination. Malta Labour Party girls felt protected to put on bikinis during beach parties but this was unacceptable by those supporting the Nationalist Party.

People who are familiar with the history of Bikini Atoll—particularly opponents of nuclear proliferation—may find the etymology and use of the word “bikini” for a garment as inappropriate, as its tongue-in-cheek “explosive” reputation effectively reduces the significance of a serious historic humanitarian crisis—one that still influences the politics of the Marshall Islands—to a mere popular culture sex symbol in the minds of most people. The term two-piece is considered a neutral alternative.

The string bikini is one of the first and most classic renovations of the traditional bikini. It generally consists of the barest minimal fabric coverage for the top and bottoms. For some women, the string bikini may actually be the most flattering bikini style. The string bikini style looks best on women with small busts or boy shapes. Because women with small breasts do not need a large amount of bra-style support, a traditional triangle top can serve to add more shape and curve to the breasts. In addition, triangle tops with built-in under wires can work similarly to a push-up bra to maximize the breasts.

The bikini is a sex symbol that often makes the woman wearing it significantly more attractive in the eyes of men. Girls often wear a bikini to impress men or to fit in with the other women in bikinis. Many magazines market themselves by placing a woman in a bikini on the cover. Men often just buy the magazine for the picture of the woman and women may buy it to learn how to look like the woman on the cover. Because of the influence of the media, women try to lose weight before the summer so they can have the ideal “bikini body.” These weight loss goals are often unrealistic and unhealthy in their means and result. The image of the bikini in the media sometimes brings about eating disorders in people striving to have the “perfect” body. Though in reality, most women do not achieve their weight loss goals, but still wear bikinis anyway. That’s why there are different styles of bikinis, in different sizes and in different colors to suit every woman’s body type

Evolution of the bikini

A woman wearing a string bikini.In recent years, the term monokini has come into use for topless bathing by women: where the bikini has two parts, the monokini is the lower part. Where monokinis are in use, the word bikini may jokingly refer to a two-piece outfit consisting of a monokini and a sun hat. The term was coined by Rudi Gernreich.

The tankini is a swimsuit combining a tank top and a bikini bottom. A string bikini is a more revealing alternative style where both top and bottom are reduced to triangles of cloth connected by strings.

The lower part of the bikini was further reduced in size in the 1970s to the Brazilian thong, where the back of the suit is so thin that it disappears into the buttocks.

Female athletes who play beach volleyball professionally are required to wear two-pieces.

Media depiction of the Bikini

Women tanning often wear bikinis.The obvious sex appeal of the apparel prompted numerous film and television productions as soon as public morals changed to accept it. They include the numerous surf movies of the early 1960s and the television series, Baywatch. Iconic portrayals of bikinis in movies include Ursula Andress as Bond girl Honey Ryder in Dr. No (1962), Raquel Welch as the prehistoric cavegirl in the 1966 film One Million Years B.C., and Phoebe Cates in the 1982 teen film Fast Times at Ridgemont High. These scenes were recently ranked 1, 86, and 84 in Channel 4 (UK)’s 100 Greatest Sexy Moments (in film).

In addition, a variant of the bikini popular in fantasy literature is a bikini that is made up of metal to serve as (admittedly rather impractical) armor, sometimes referred to as a “chainmail bikini” or “brass bikini”; the character Red Sonja is a famous example. A term for such usage, where sex appeal is more important than actual practicality, is babes-at-arms (parodying “men-at-arms” for fully armoured soldiers).

Brigitte Bardot From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brigitte Bardot (born September 28, 1934) is a French actress and model, considered the embodiment of the 1950s “sex kitten.”

In the 1970s Bardot established herself as an animal rights activist. During the 1990s she was outspoken about her political views on such issues as immigration, Islam in France, race mixing, and homosexuality.

Career

Bardot was born in Paris to Anne-Marie Mucel and Charles “Pilou” Bardot, an industrialist.

In 1952, she appeared on screen for the first time in Le Trou Normand. That same year, at age 18, she married director Roger Vadim, with whom she had been romantically involved for several years.

Although the European film industry was then in the ascendant, her personal rise was remarkable: she has been one of the few European actresses to receive mass media attention in the United States. She and Marilyn Monroe were the icons of female sexuality in the 1950s and 1960s and whenever she made public appearances in the United States the media hordes covered her every move.

Her films of the early and mid 1950s were lightweight romantic dramas, some of them historical, in which she was cast as ingénue or siren, often with an element of undress. She played bit parts in three English-language films, the British comedy Doctor at Sea (1955), Helen of Troy (1954), in which she was understudy for the title-role but only appears as Helen’s handmaid, and Act of Love (1954) with Kirk Douglas. Her French-language films were dubbed for international release. “She is every man’s idea of the girl he’d like to meet in Paris” said the film-critic Ivon Addams in 1955.

Vadim was not content with this light fare. The New Wave of French and Italian art directors and their stars were riding high internationally and he felt Bardot was being undersold. Looking for something more like an art-film to push her as a serious actress, he showcased her in And God Created Woman (1956) with Jean-Louis Trintignant.

The film, about an amoral teenager in a respectable small-town setting, was a big international success. She may have had an affair with her co-star Trintignant, but this was more likely a pre-release publicity gimmick. The film is often wrongly described as her first film (it was her seventeenth) and to have launched her overnight, but it did help move her towards the cinematic mainstream.

It also ruled out a transition to Hollywood, where she was thought too risqué to handle. The Doris Day era was in still in full swing and even Jane Russell in The French Line (1953) had been thought to be going too far by showing her midriff. Erotica like Bardot’s Cette sacrée gamine (That Crazy Kid, 1955) was considered fine at the box-office as long as it was clearly labelled “European”. Bardot’s limited English and strong accent, while beguiling to the ears of men, did not suit rapid-fire Hollywood scripts. In any event, staying in Europe benefited her image when the 1960s began to swing and Hollywood slipped into the background for a while, and Bardot was voted honorary sex-goddess of the decade.

Divorced from Vadim in 1957, she married actor Jacques Charrier (1959-62), by whom in 1960 she had her only child, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier from whom she is estranged. She once referred to her only child as “a tumour”. The marriage was preyed on by the paparazzi and there were clashes over the direction of Bardot’s career. Her films became more substantial, but this brought a heavy pressure of dual celebrity as she sought critical acclaim while remaining to most of the world a glamour model.

Poster for Bardot’s film Le Mépris (Contempt).Vie privée (1960), directed by Louis Malle has more than an element of autobiography in it. The scene in which, returning to her flat, Bardot’s character is harangued in the lift by a middle-aged cleaning-lady calling her a tramp and a tart was based on an actual incident, and is a resonant image of celebrity in the mid-20th century.

Soon after, Bardot withdrew to the seclusion of Southern France and is now known to have attempted suicide, but as the sexual revolution of the early 1960s gathered momentum her lifestyle began to seem more like the norm and the pressure lifted. Through the sixties, she was happy to appear in glossy star-vehicles like Viva Maria (1969), to dabble in pop music and to play the role of glamour model and icon. In 1965 she appeared as herself in the Hollywood production Dear Brigitte starring Jimmy Stewart.

Her other husbands were German millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs (1966-69), and French right-wing politician, Bernard d’Ormale (1992-present). She has also had reputed relationships with many men including singers Serge Gainsbourg and Sacha Distel. In the late 1950s, she shared an exchange she considered “croiser de deux sillages??? with writer John Gilmore, then an actor in France for a New Wave film to have starred Jean Seberg. Gilmore told Paris Match, “I felt a beautiful warmth with Bardot but found it difficult to discuss things to any depth whatsoever???.

She is recognised for popularising bikini swimwear in early films such as Manina (Woman without a Veil, 1952) and in her appearances at Cannes and in many photo shoots. She even sported an early version of the monokini from time to time. Though this was not considered extraordinary in France, it was considered nearly scandalous in the US. The fashions of the 1960s looked effortlessly right and spontaneous on her and she joined Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, in becoming a subject for Andy Warhol paintings.

In 1970, the sculptor Alain Gourdon used Bardot as the model for a bust of Marianne, the French national emblem.

Activism and controversy

In 1974, just before her fortieth birthday, Bardot announced her retirement. After appearing in more than fifty motion pictures, and recording several music albums, most notably with Serge Gainsbourg, she chose to use her fame to promote animal rights. She is accused of being a misanthrope and preferring the company of animals to that of humans.

In 1986, she established the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals. She raised three million French francs to fund the foundation by auctioning off jewelry and many personal belongings. Today, she is one of the world’s most influential animal rights activists and a major opponent of the consumption of horse meat.

She is also one of the most celebrated supporters of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the right-wing Front National political party, with which her husband is associated. With the publication of her 2003 book, A Scream in the Silence, the reclusive Bardot has come under considerable fire for anti-Muslim, and anti-gay comments. In May 2003, The MRAP (“Mouvement contre le Racisme et pour l’Amitié entre les Peuples” – Movement against racism and for friendship between peoples) announced that it would sue Bardot for her published views. Another organisation, The “Ligue des Droits de l’Homme” (League of Human Rights), announced that it was considering similar legal proceedings.

Bardot, in a letter to a French gay magazine, wrote in her defense, “Apart from my husband—who maybe will cross over one day as well—I am entirely surrounded by homos. For years they have been my support, my friends, my adopted children, my confidants”.

Bardot has lost a considerable amount of sympathy from her fans due to her now-frequent anti-Muslim, anti-gay and anti-immigrant comments. On June 10, 2004 Bardot was convicted by a French court of “inciting racial hatred” and fined 5,000 €, which was the fourth such conviction/fine she has faced from French courts[1]. The courts cited passages where Bardot referred to the “Islamization of France” and the “underground and dangerous infiltration of Islam”[2], her descriptions of France’s Muslim community, the largest in Europe. In the book she also referred to homosexuals as “fairground freaks” and she condemns the presence of women in government.

Considered a militant for animal protection, she condemned seal hunting in Canada during a visit to that country. She sought to discuss the issue with Stephen Harper, though her request for a meeting was denied.

“The Noble is one of the best sports cars in the world.” – R&T

Rent, expenses, classes, luxuries — the works!

I am sure that over time he would be come attached to her — oftentimes surely be in love with her.

And of course, never ever ever consider getting married to her.

What would people think? Too young, to hot, too roughly-hewn. Basic and brassy like a showgirl. A mistress does not a wife make.

I mean, it made no sense to me. I am a one-woman guy, 100%. I can barely handle one woman.

For the Noble m400, I would pay all of her rent, buy her expensive furs, send her on lavish vacations, and keep her in the style to which she is accustomed. I would even keep her in Manhattan. Do you know how much it costs to keep a car in the City?

Now I understand, totally and completely! But not for a mistress but for a sportscar! But not any sportscar. She’s certainly not a car that the neighbors could possibly see in my driveway! She’s not the car I could pick a child up in. She doesn’t have a bumper-to-bumper warantee and she is really rough around the edges. The Lotus Elise is even much more refined and practical than she is. While the Lotus Elise may be the summer intern, the m400 is the showgirl! She is the exotic dancer. The supermodel. The Victoria Secret girl? No, she’s a porn starlette!

But, I would never marry her. But I would surely be in love with her and love her dearly. But be practical!

Via Road & Track and 1g Racing’s Noble m400.

The 1g Racing Noble m400 Specifications:

BODY
GRP composite with removable front and rear sections

CHASSIS
Steel spaceframe with bonded and riveted alloy panels. Full safety roll cage

SUSPENSION
Double wishbones front and rear with coil springs and alloy uprights. Dynamics Suspensions dampers all round. Front anti-roll bar

BRAKES
Make Noble/AP Racing
Size 330mm x 30mm discs front
330mm x 26mm discs rear
Type Ventilated and cross drilled front and rear

STEERING
Rack and pinion, hydraulic power assistance; 2.5 turns lock to lock

WHEELS
Design Noble designed one piece 10-spoke
Colour Anthracite
Size 8.5J x 18in (front), 10J x 18in (rear)
Made of Aluminum alloy

TYRES
Make Pirelli P-Zero Corsa
Size 225/40 x 18 (front), 265/35 x 18 (rear)

ENGINE
1g Racing USA M400 chassis are sold without engine and transaxle. Similar USA engine specs are available from independent engine builders
Construction All-alloy block and heads
Layout 6 cyls in vee, 2968cc, twin turbochargers
Max power 425bhp at 6500 rpm
Max torque 390lb ft at 5000rpm
Compression Ratio 8:0:1
Power to weight 401bhp per tonne
Torque per weight 368lb ft per tonne
Specific output 143 bhp per litre
Installation Transverse, mid-engine, rear-wheel drive
Bore/stroke 89.0/79.5mm
Valve gear 4 per cyl, dohc per bank
Ignition and fuel Electronic
Turbochargers Water-cooled with air to air intercooler; max boost at 0.85 bar

GEARBOX
1g Racing USA M400 chassis are sold without engine and transaxle. Similar USA engine specs are available from independent engine builders
Type Getrag 6-speed manual with Quaife automatic torque-biasing differential
Ratios/mph per 1000rpm
1st 3.15/6.2mph
2nd 1.95/10.0mph
3rd 1.52/12.8mph
4th 1.19/16.35mph
5th 1.31/20.8mph
6th 1.03/26.5mph
Final drive 3.87 (ratios 1,2,3 & 4)
2.76 (ratios 5 & 6)

MAXIMUM SPEEDS
1st 44.6mph
2nd 72.0mph
3rd 92.2mph
4th 117.7mph
5th 149.8mph
6th 185mph (est)

PERFORMANCE
0-60mph 3.5 seconds (est)
0-100mph 8.0 seconds (est)
Max speed 185mph (est)

DIMENSIONS
Length 161in
Width (inc.mirrors) 74in
Height 45in
Wheelbase 96in
Max/min legroom 44/39in
Headroom 39in
Interior width 55in
Kerbweight 2337lbs

A tip-of-the-hat to DS for the link.

Source Noble Automotive
View Statistics
Anyone who has driven a Noble M12 on a race circuit will attest to the car’s polished handling, user-friendly nature and – of course – its vivid performance. But there’s an irony here, because the M12 was always designed as a comfortable and breathtakingly fast road car first, with track-day competence thrown in as a bonus.
This led Noble Automotive to develop the M400, a car that takes full advantage of the scope left in the M12′s chassis and engine for drivers who seek even more focus in their performance and dynamics. With a power to weight ratio of 400bhp per tonne (hence the name), the M400 is not only substantially more powerful than the other cars in the M12 range, but it also showcases a variety of unique features not seen in other Nobles.

At £55,995, the M400 is not only one of the fastest production cars of its type, but its chassis – which in standard M12 form uniquely marries high-speed composure with low-speed ride compliance – has now been sharpened to give the driver even greater control of the car at speed.

But none of this has been achieved at the expense of the M400′s road manners. Thanks to completely new, highly sophisticated dampers, the M400 has lost little of the M12′s ride quality, which means that it is still as usable as any other M12 on the public road. Make no mistake, the M400 is so much more than just a ‘track-day special’.

Engine and Drivetrain

At the heart of the M400 is the 3.0-litre, 24-valve V6 engine that can be found in the current M12 range. However, power is now increased by 21 per cent to 425bhp and torque by 11 per cent to 390lb ft.

Internally, the engine has been modified with higher-lift cams and forged, rather than cast pistons, for extra strength. The forged pistons have been included as a safety feature for the engine, rather than out of necessity: in fact, the development car that spawned the M400 has covered many thousands of reliable miles on cast pistons with an even higher output than the production M400. Add to this the usual tuning recipe that goes into each and every Noble engine, and owners can be assured of plenty of durable high-performance.

The M400 retains the twin-turbocharged arrangement of the standard GTO-3 and 3R models, but now has a brace of larger Garrett T28 turbochargers, which produce maximum boost at 0.85bar, replacing the standard cars’ T25s. A revised fuel pump and larger injectors cater for the M400′s improved performance.

Working with leading automotive engineers, Roush Technologies, Noble has developed a bespoke engine map for the M400, which makes full use of the power and torque available in the mid- to top-end of the rev-range, allowing the 3.0-litre V6 to pull strongly right up to its 7200 rpm limiter. The maximum 425 bhp of power is now produced at 6500 rpm (300 rpm up on other models) and the maximum 390lb ft of torque at 5000 rpm, with 75 per cent of this figure available from just 3500 rpm.

Completing the drivetrain upgrades is a completely new gearshift mechanism for the six-speed manual gearbox, which uses low-maintenance, dry-running polymer bearings. The gearlever is now mounted slightly higher in the cabin and moves through a far quicker and more precise gate than before, making committed driving on circuit or road a pleasure.

Chassis

Noble has targeted three key areas while developing the M400′s chassis:

1.To improve levels of grip at high speeds without losing the inherently progressive breakaway characteristics for which the standard 3R is renowned;

2.To build in even greater degrees of body composure as the car approaches its limits, making it more predictable and controllable on the road and track;

3.To closely approach the on-road ride quality of the standard M12.

In order to achieve this, Noble started by replacing the 3R model’s dampers with highly sophisticated, bespoke Dynamic Suspensions units, supplied by Multimatic Technical Centre Europe. These coil-over dampers were chosen after objective testing on Multimatic’s 4-post test rig, followed by subjective evaluation on road and track, including Germany’s famous Nurburgring.

The dampers are monotube units, featuring an impact-extruded aluminium body to minimise weight, and have 45mm sintered pistons and 14mm shafts, incorporating a proprietary low friction-sealing system to optimise performance. Damping levels are fixed, though a threaded external body does allow the M400′s ride height to be adjusted, if required. As with all Nobles, double wishbones are fitted all round.

Complementing the Dynamics dampers is a revised steering rack, which allows a further 0.8 of a turn between locks, while retaining the same ratio found on other Nobles (to make this possible, the footwell has been re-designed and is now double-skinned, adding further strength to the car’s structure). There are now 2.5 turns from lock to lock (standard M12: 1.7 turns) which gives drivers potentially more control if the car is oversteering on a track. Naturally, this revision has also allowed improved manoeuvrability at lower speeds.

All Nobles are famed for their phenomenal roadholding, but the M400 raises the bar even higher. Replacing the M12 model’s Bridgestone SO-3 tyres, are Pirelli P-Zero Corsas of identical size. The Pirellis are directional and asymmetric in design and their softer compound offers increased levels of grip and steering feel. The M400′s high-speed control has also been enhanced by the Pirelli’s stronger sidewalls, which have a high resistance to flex under extreme cornering forces.

The M400 is the first Noble production car to use an anti-roll bar (ARB), which is fitted to the front suspension only. Designed in-house, the ARB weighs just 6kgs, thanks to hollow components which have been laser-cut and CNC-machined. While no road-going Noble has ever been fitted with an ARB before, Martin Short’s Rollcentre team is currently using the factory-designed system on its GT Cup Noble M12 this season, and is convinced of its worth under race conditions.

In order to arrive at the M400′s 400bhp per tonne power to weight ratio, Noble has managed to shave 20kgs from the M12′s already slender kerbweight by removing the air conditioning pump and its assorted plumbing. While air conditioning is a cost option on the standard 3R model, no cars have left the factory without it, hence its inclusion in the 3R’s kerbweight figure. However, Noble anticipates that M400 owners will be more likely to forgo this feature in favour of a superior power to weight ratio. Air conditioning will remain a cost option on the M400.

Brakes are 330mm diameter discs all round, with four-pot callipers, taken from the current M12 range. The M400 adds a revised pressure control valve, which sends more bias to the rear brakes.

Interior

In keeping with the M400′s ‘race-car meets road-car’ remit, all models will be trimmed throughout in high-quality black Alcantara and fitted with all-new Sparco race seats. The seats themselves are trimmed in a hardwearing black jaquard fabric, and fitted with an anti-slip cushion, as well as removable backrest and under-thigh pads. Both seats are fore and aft adjustable, and can be tilted backwards and forwards for maximum comfort. As with all Nobles, the steering column can also be adjusted for reach.

Bearing in mind that the M400 will be popular among circuit drivers, Noble has moved both seats in towards the centre of the car by 15mm to allow more headroom at the side of, and above, occupants’ heads, especially if they’re wearing crash helmets. This re-positioning has also removed the slight pedal offset found in standard M12s. All M400s come as standard with four-point race harnesses, as well as a conventional inertia-reel safety belt for road use.

While the basic dash architecture will be familiar to current M12 owners, the M400′s cabin also receives a combined oil temperature and pressure gauge incorporated into the central switch-panel and ‘M400′ badging on the steering wheel boss.

2005 Noble M400
Year 2005
Make Noble
Model M400
Engine Location Mid
Drive Type Rear Wheel

Performance
0-60 mph 3.5 seconds.
Top Speed 186 mph | 299.3 km/h Similar top speeds

Engine
Engine Configuration V
Cylinders 6
Aspiration/Induction Twin-turbocharged
Displacement 2968.00 cc | 181.1 cu in. | 3 L.
Valves 24 valves.
4 valves per cylinder.
Horsepower 425.00 BHP (312.8 KW) @ 6500.00 RPM
Torque 390.00 Ft-Lbs (528.8 NM) @ 5000.00 RPM
HP / Liter 141.7 BHP / Liter

Transmission Information
Gears 6
Transmission Manual

Dimensions
Seating Capacity 2
Doors 2

Steering
Turns lock to lock 2.50

Brakes
Front Brake Size 330.001 mm | 13 in.
Rear Brake Size 330.001 mm | 13 in.

This godawful bio my best friend wrote for me in response to my bio page is a damned funny Cliffs Notes version of my life to-date…

Bio by my best friend
Chris Abraham is a pioneer in online social networks and publishing with a natural facility for anticipating the next big thing.

As a young man just out of college in the early 1990′s, Chris discovered newly-emerging web publishing as a way to showcase his writing.

In those early days, the unformed structures of the internet required every would-be web author to be a quick-learning hacker just to be able to put his work online. Soon, English major Chris was as much techie geek as well-read, bookish, weltschmerzen-suffering young writer.

And since technologist positions were paying extraordinarily well, while creative writing was, and remains, a one-way ticket to the welfare roles, Chris sold out and became a corporate tech so he could afford his Mercedes, his Nikon, and his piles and piles of Velvia slide film.

At 24, Chris fled back to Hawaii, his childhood home, to escape his clingy marriage-focused girlfriend who was otherwise wonderful, and a mind-boggling lay as well. But a boy has to make certain sacrifices in the interest of his future.

Within a year or so, paradise lost its charm, so Chris packed up a few hundred thousand of his world-class photos and returned to Washington DC to settle in, but instead decided to travel around the world with 6-foot blond hottie, taking pictures.

Somewhere in Thailand, they decided they irritated one another so Chris went to the Netherlands to blow out his ACL while two-stepping in a lesbian night club with Europe’s top Feminism scholars during an outing from an International Post-Modernism conference in Rotterdam.

Thus hobbled, Chris returned to Washington to try to get responsible, with only a few short and unmentionable misadventures with women in Nordic countries slowing his rapid return across the Atlantic.

Once back in DC, the reality of getting an actual job seemed to pale in comparison with the image of it, and enjoying a certain comfortable level of independent wealth based on his successful work as a stock photographer since the gentle age of 16, he chose instead to wallow in dramatic, self-indulgent artistic misery in his romantically squalid apartment overlooking the then un-gentrified and drug-ridden Lincoln Park.

After reading the entire western canon while skillfully avoiding his concerned friends multiple attempts at intervention, Chris took a job as an online creative writing teacher with an experimental joint program of the University of Michigan and the Kalamazoo public schools.

Given that Chris hadn’t showered or gone out in public for something like a year, the only people who would hire him besides some Midwestern academics who had never seen him and had too much grant money were the federal government.

The Treasury Department that safeguards the stability of the US economy, and through that, the world – not to mention the life of the President of the United States – saw it fit to put Chris in charge of its IT systems.

Chris committed himself to the Treasury job with the focus and dedication required of a government worker, and thus was able to spend seven or eight hours every working day acting as a volunteer online community facilitator for a leading local forums company. Through this experience of selfless contribution to society at the expense of the American taxpayer, Chris discovered his vocation, his deep passion, and his God-given talent for manipulating people he can’t see.

After a year or so of buying beer for the principals of this company, and sleeping with a number of its staff, they finally felt obliged to pay him for all the work he was doing. Chris abruptly left the Treasury Department and went to work for the forums people.

Shortly thereafter, the stock market tanked and the US economy went into a tailspin. A mouth-breathing, delusional, religious extremist took over the White House and the national debt skyrocketed. Coincidence? I think not.

Anyway, after Chris went over to the forums company, it tanked along with all the other interesting, fun-to-work-at tech companies with fantasy-based revenue models and foosball tables.

Forgetting that he could actually afford to live off his photography earnings, Chris went out and worked as a freelance geek on innumerable thankless and uninteresting gigs while his then-girlfriend spent all his income on Williams-Sonoma cookware and the lease payments of an unnecessarily over-engineered SUV that they used for grocery shopping and antiquing outings into the Virginia countryside.

After some time, Chris replaced the financially-draining, but really rather attractive girlfriend with an equally financially-draining, but rather less attractive partnership in the US subsidiary of a German software development firm. Weird family politics on the other side of the ocean eventually killed the parent company, leaving Chris with a needy unattractive orphan, so Chris tied a plastic bag over its head, put it in the nearest dumpster and flew to Acapulco to go sailing on a 42-foot catamaran with his best friend. After a few very manly months of yachting, Chris sailed into Newport Beach south of LA with a killer tan and a few thousand new photos.

So, after the sail, Chris returned to Washington, and having learned through his last two jobs how much more fun it is to manipulate people and boss them around than fix shrieking people’s computer problems, he took a position as Director of Sales for a Washington, DC technology services company.

Then he realized that if you boss people around and they do something stupid, while it is indeed funny to watch, you end up having to take responsibility for their actions. So he went to his present company which pays him a lot more money to manipulate people whose actions he can’t be held responsible for. Also, there are very pretty women working at this company and not just ugly, pimply geeks with receding hairlines.

The international consulting firm Haft, Harrison & Wolfson has also taken him on as a partner, but there are suspicions that they are just exploiting him for his underworld connections.