I haven’t listend to this (I’m in an Amtrak station riding on some good soul’s free but flaky wifi), but here’s a podcast interview I did a couple of days ago as part of the LeWeb prep ‘n’ PR. I talk sort of about what I’m going to be talking about there, which (unless and until I rewrite it yet again) has something to do with leadership as the age of information ends. In the current draft of my overheads (Yes, I called them “overheads.” I’m old.), the connection seems to be that both the Information Age and leadership as we’ve generally known it assume/create scarcity. When the scarcity goes away, so does the primacy of information and the old idea of leadership.

I’ll try to say more about this as my overheads (Yes, overheads, dammit! And dittos that come from the mimeo machine!) go from draft to locked-in objects of fear and self-loathing. [Tags: leweb leweb2008 leadership information_age abundance overheads mimeo ]

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/34339?ns=guardianpageName=Comment+is+free%3A+Sipson+can+define+an+erach=Comment+is+freec3=The+Guardianc4=Travel+and+transport+environmental+impact%2CCarbon+emissions+%28Environment%29%2CClimate+change+%28Environment%29%2CActivists+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironment%2CHeathrow+%28Travel%29%2CPolitics%2CTransport+UKc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CClimate+Change%2CEthical+Living%2CUK+Travelc6=John+Harrisc7=2008_12_05c8=1129133c9=articlec10=GUc11=Comment+is+freec12=blogc13=c14=Comment+is+freeh2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free" width="1" height="1" //divpOn the face of it, it's a struggle between the usual powerful suspects and an alliance that takes in everyone from Tories to anarchists. To many people, though, it is something even more important: a turning-point that will either prove that government doesn't always have to bow to a corporate version of the inevitable, or sorely test thousands of people's limited faith in politics. Bizarrely, the frontline is the nondescript Middlesex village of Sipson, a clump of postwar suburban housing that was famously visited last year by the Camp For Climate Action. A ruling in favour of a third runway at Heathrow airport will mean that Sipson will be concreted over. If - by some 11th-hour miracle - it survives, it will be transformed from a very noisy corner of west London into a byword for against-the-odds optimism./ppThe final decision was yesterday postponed until the new year. Though the Tories' recent manoeuvrings have suggested a bonfire of David Cameron's early progressive poses, his party is opposed. Since 2003, by contrast, the government line has been fervent support for the plan, with limp caveats on noise and pollution - though, according to a steady trickle of stories, a loose group of cabinet ministers have been expressing a mixture of unease and outright opposition, from the energised new climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, through his brother David, on to Harriet Harman, Hilary Benn and John Denham. Ranged against them, unfortunately, is a truly titanic alliance: among other ministers, the PM and the transport secretary Geoff Hoon, along with BAA, the airlines, the CBI, at least two of the big unions, and the relevant parts of the civil service./ppLower down the Labour food chain, plenty of MPs are terrified of the damage a pro-expansion decision will do to the party's atrophying vote in the home counties. Others cleave to that residual old Labour position whereby the promise of jobs - British jobs, to use the vernacular - trumps just about everything. /ppSome people claim that, despite predictions of serial loopholes, the inclusion of aviation in EU emissions trading from 2012 might somehow lessen a third runway's environmental impact. Maybe, they argue, the air industry can be treated with kid gloves as long as there is huge movement on low-carbon electricity generation and car technology. But much clearer arguments surely point in the opposite direction. What with the Climate Change Committee chaired by Adair Turner urging as much as a 42% cut in Britain's greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and the younger Miliband pledged to an 80% drop by 2050, how is the case for expansion credible?/ppA third runway will increase the number of Heathrow flights by almost a half. Every year, its CO2 emissions will equal those of Kenya. It would be completed just as the effects of climate change start to blitz the developing world, which will couch the story in a horrible poetry: Europeans blithely securing even easier global travel, while millions cope with food shortages, water scarcity, and a rather more nightmarish kind of population movement./ppThough only a fool would be optimistic, some rumblings from Westminster and Whitehall suggest that the delayed decision might denote at least a tiny shred of hope, and a belated realisation of how massively symbolic this story is. As with a proposed revival of coal-fired electricity, the third runway represents something truly era-defining: it may not have the iconic ring of your Caracases or Porto Alegres, but if we're going to have an even halfway progressive future, Sipson would be a great place to start./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/travelandtransport"Travel and transport/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/carbonemissions"Carbon emissions/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climatechange"Climate change/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/activists"Activists/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/heathrow"Heathrow/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/transport"Transport/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/8P6OxM44nMNMRmh5ovS7TdtCYng/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/8P6OxM44nMNMRmh5ovS7TdtCYng/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

pimg class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=47e08c87796c7a6000163eecmaxX=148maxY=164" border="0" alt="ipod silo.jpg" title="ipod silo.jpg" width="148" height="164" /Will a slowing economy and cannibalization from the iPhone ruin holiday sales for Apple's (AAPL) iPods? Nope, says Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu./p pWu says the iPod is doing so well that retail outlets like Amazon (AMZN), Best Buy (BBY), Target (TGT) and Wal-Mart (WMT) are running out of current models. Unfortunately, he offers no details on how he arrives at this conclusion -- or at least Reuters doesn't. (Only two of a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics/3221551/ref=pd_ts_zbw_e_3221551_more?pf_rd_p=366127201pf_rd_s=right-3pf_rd_t=101pf_rd_i=13660271pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DERpf_rd_r=1Y5FTPEAXFZCNN2P60GA"Amazon's top 20 iPods aren't in stock/a: The 8 GB and 16 GB iPod touch. Both of those models ship within 24 hours from Apple.com.)/p p style="padding-left: 30px;"a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2008/12/03/ipods-scarcity-points-to-popularity-analyst-says/"Reuters/a: Wu said stocks of certain iPod models have been harder to come by at Amazon.com, Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart. [/p p style="padding-left: 30px;"Wu says: 'Frankly, we find these sell-outs on iPods surprising given how difficult the macroeconomic environment is, putting a crimp on consumer spending. From our assessment, we believe iPod is holding up better than most, due to its relatively low ASP (average selling price) and strong consumer understanding of the value it provides.'/p pWu is predicting iPod sales to reach 21 million this quarter. That's below last year's sales of 22.1 million iPods sold (and Wu's own a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/9/new-apple-ipods-nice-but-wall-street-in-no-hurry-to-jack-sales-forecasts"September prediction of 24 million/a) but above a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/apple-mac-sales-on-track-ipod-looking-better-than-expected-aapl-"the Street's prediction of 18.6 million/a. /p pIn other words: Q4 iPod sales are going to be horrible relative to Wu's expectations only three months ago. But maybe not disastrous./p pstrongSee Also:/strongbr /a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/have-ipod-sales-peaked-aapl-"Have Apple's iPod Sales Peaked?/abr /a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/apple-mac-sales-on-track-ipod-looking-better-than-expected-aapl-"Apple Mac Sales On Track, iPod Looking Better Than Expected/abr /a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/9/new-apple-ipods-nice-but-wall-street-in-no-hurry-to-jack-sales-forecasts"New Apple iPods Nice, But Wall Street In No Hurry To Jack Sales Forecasts/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/I2naDJZfAtI_0jGa4QPsQJ7gG34/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/I2naDJZfAtI_0jGa4QPsQJ7gG34/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=1HD7hmcd"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=1HD7hmcd" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=szuMp0wf"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=JXWGu2l9"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=80" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=ev8mfoNQ"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=ev8mfoNQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=eAZgCqCj"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=131" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=7dEX40B9"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=336" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=IClELbxP"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=9ju3AZRh"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=50" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~4/8dT0ElGx4hw" height="1" width="1"/

iPeople with a keen strategic sense maintain a well-diversified hoard of coins and painstakingly build alliances with local shopkeepers or bank tellers, conspicuously proffering coins for one purchase or deposit in the hopes of being indulged when they're short of change at some point in the future./i a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2205635/pagenum/all/"Argentina's coinage problem/a. br / a href="http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/Americas/2008/November/Argentinas-Coin-Scarcity-Leads-to-Illicit-Numismatic-Trade.html"Further/a, a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1859249,00.html"further/a, a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/16/business/LT-Meltdown-Argentina-Coins.php"further/a a href="http://livinginpatagonia.com/?p=182"still/a; a href="http://www.metafilter.com/75339/I-can-pin-point-the-exact-moment-when-the-entire-country-realized-what-was-happening"previously/a.