Political Polling After the End of the Phone

With over a third of U.S. households forgoing the land-line and people using their phones less and less for talking, the phone call is no longer the best way for pollsters to reach the people they need to speak with. With that changing trend, this election season polling places like Gallup worked cell-phone calls into its repertoire to get a better reflection of society, Gallup spokesperson Frank Newport told Wired‘s Mat Honan. And, logically, as more people replace landlines for cell phones, polling would increasingly throw cell-phones into the mix. But, it doesn’t look like that’s really the next frontier in polling. For one, it’s expensive. A 1996 Federal regulation requires that calls to cell phones be hand-dialed, rather than computer generated, which costs more money because employing people (rather than machines) takes dollars, notes Bits Blog’s Quentin Hardy. Plus, because of caller-ID, guilting cell phone users into taking a poll proves harder than haranguing an unsuspecting land-line answerer. (Of course, many land-line owners have caller-ID, too.) So, if the annoying, always disruptive at the worst time, pollster phone call is on the outs, then what does the future of political polling hold?

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Survey Monkey

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For real. The amateur-looking website conducted a series of polls throughout this election period, at times with better accuracy than the over-the-phone guys. In an explanatory post on the site, the company explains it had 96 percent accuracy with its methods. Over 60,000 people took one of the site’s surveys the day before election day alone, SurveyMonkey’s vice president, Philip Garland, told Hardy. 

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Though some have questioned the accuracy of the online poll because of its newness to the field. Nate Silver, whose words on all things polling we should now consider law, confirmed that many of the most accurate polling came from online surveys. “When people are asked questions by a person, they feel like they should make a choice,” Garland added. People are more candid on the Internet, which is not at all surprising. 

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Text Messages

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Though a new survey says that text messaging is on the decline, Gallup is already experimenting with it as a polling technique in Central and South America, notes Honan. Though it doesn’t sound that different than screening a phone call, text messages are a lot less invasive and they don’t require an answer right away. Also, increasingly, it is how people do much of their communicating. 

Emails, Unfortunately

Though that sounds logical since so many Americans are accessible by email, it turns out it is too hard to get a good sample using email, since many people have multiple email addresses, and it’s hard to account for that difference. Also, isn’t it just so easy to click delete without opening? However, that hasn’t stopped certain organizations from using it, as Bloomberg Businessweek‘s Peter Coy explains. Some firms use email lists that aren’t representative of the general population, he notes. 

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U2′s Bono to urge U.S. politicians not to cut aid programs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Irish rocker and anti-poverty campaigner Bono will appeal to Democrats and Republicans during a visit to Washington this week to spare U.S. development assistance programs from cuts as Congress tries to avert the looming “fiscal cliff” of tax hikes and spending reductions early next year.

The U2 lead singer’s visit comes as the Obama administration and congressional leaders try to forge a deal in coming weeks to avoid the economy hitting the “fiscal cliff” – tax increases and spending cuts worth $ 600 billion starting in January if Congress does not act.

Analysts say the absence of a deal could shock the United States, the world’s biggest economy, back into recession.

Kathy McKiernan, spokeswoman for the ONE Campaign, said Bono will hold talks with congressional lawmakers and senior Obama administration officials during the November 12-14 visit.

During meetings he will stress the effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance programs and the need to preserve them to avoid putting at risk progress made in fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, she said.

Bono, a long-time advocate for the poor, will argue that U.S. government-funded schemes that support life-saving treatments for HIV/AIDS sufferers, nutrition programs for malnourished children, and emergency food aid make up just 1 percent of the U.S. government budget but are helping to save tens of millions of lives in impoverished nations.

The One Campaign would not elaborate which lawmakers and senior Obama administration officials Bono will meet.

On Monday, Bono will discuss the power of social movements with students at Georgetown University. He will also meet new World Bank President Jim Yong Kim for a web cast discussion on Wednesday on the challenges of eradicating poverty.

(Editing by W Simon)

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Alzheimer’s Precursors Founds at Earlier Age

Scientists studying Alzheimer’s disease are increasingly finding clues that the brain begins to deteriorate years before a person shows symptoms of dementia.

Now, research on a large extended family of 5,000 people in Colombia with a genetically driven form of Alzheimer’s has found evidence that the precursors of the disease begin even earlier than previously thought, and that this early brain deterioration occurs in more ways than has been documented before.

The studies, published this month in the journal Lancet Neurology, found that the brains of people destined to develop Alzheimer’s clearly show changes at least 20 years before they have any cognitive impairment. In the Colombian family, researchers saw these changes in people ages 18 to 26; on average, members of this family develop symptoms of mild cognitive impairment at 45 and of dementia at 53.

These brain changes occur earlier than the first signs of plaques made from a protein called beta amyloid or a-beta, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s. Researchers detected higher-than-normal levels of amyloid in the spinal fluid of these young adults. They found suggestions that memory-encoding parts of the brain were already working harder than in normal brains. And they identified indications that brain areas known to be affected by Alzheimer’s may be smaller than in those who do not have the Alzheimer’s gene.

“This is one of the most important pieces of direct evidence that individual persons have the disease and all the pathology many years before,” said Dr. Kaj Blennow, a professor in clinical neurochemistry at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, who was not involved in the research.

Dr. Nick Fox, a neurologist at University College London, who was also not part of the research, said the findings suggested that “some of the things that we thought were more downstream may not be quite so downstream; they may be happening earlier.”

That, in turn, said Dr. Fox, who wrote a commentary about the findings in Lancet Neurology, could have implications for when and how to treat people, because “there may be targets to attack, whether it’s high levels of a-beta or whatever, when people are still functioning very well.”

The Colombian family suffers from a rare form of Alzheimer’s that is caused by a genetic mutation; it strikes about a third of its members in midlife. Because the family is so large and researchers can identify who will get the disease, studying the family provides an unusual opportunity to learn about Alzheimer’s causes and pathology.

Researchers, led by Dr. Eric Reiman of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Phoenix, and in Colombia by Dr. Francisco Lopera, a neurologist at the University of Antioquia, recently received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct a clinical trial to test a drug on family members before they develop symptoms, to see if early brain changes can be halted or slowed.

The studies in Lancet Neurology used several tests, including spinal taps, brain imaging and functional M.R.I.

“The prevailing theory has been that development of Alzheimer’s disease begins with the progressive accumulation of amyloid in the brain,” Dr. Reiman said. “This study suggests there are changes that are occurring before amyloid deposition.”

One possibility is that brain areas are already impaired. Another possibility, experts said, is that these brain differences may go back to the young developing brain.

“It is a genetic disease, and it’s not hard to imagine that your gene results in some differences in the way your brain is formed,” said Dr. Adam Fleisher, director of brain imaging at the Banner Institute and an author of the studies.

In one of the Lancet Neurology studies, researchers examined 44 relatives between ages 18 to 26. Twenty had the mutation that causes Alzheimer’s. The cerebrospinal fluid of those with the mutation contained more amyloid than that of relatives without it. This was striking because researchers know that when people develop amyloid plaques — whether they have early-onset or late-onset Alzheimer’s — amyloid levels in their spinal fluid are lower than normal. That is believed to be because the fluid form of amyloid gets absorbed into the plaque form, Dr. Reiman said.

So, the high level of amyloid fluid in the Colombian family supports a hypothesis about a difference between the beginning phases of genetic early-onset Alzheimer’s and the more common late-onset Alzheimer’s. The difference may be that early-onset Alzheimer’s involves an overproduction of amyloid, while late onset involves a problem clearing amyloid from the brain.

In another result, when the subjects performed a task matching names with faces, those with the mutation had greater activity in the hippocampus and parahippocampus, areas involved in memory. Dr. Reiman suggested this could mean that the pre-Alzheimer’s brain has to expend more effort to encode memories than a normal brain.

Researchers also found that the mutation carriers had less gray matter in areas that tend to shrink when people develop dementia. Dr. Fox emphasized that seeing less gray matter so early was so novel that it should be treated cautiously unless other studies find a similar result.

In the second study, brain imaging was used to look for amyloid plaques in 50 people ages 20 to 56: 11 with dementia, 19 mutation carriers without symptoms and 20 normal family members. Plaques occurred at an average age of 28, more than 15 years before cognitive impairment would be expected and two decades before dementia.

The study also found that amyloid plaques increased steadily until about age 37, after which the brain did not seem to gain many more plaques. Dr. Blennow said that while researchers know that amyloid plaques plateau when people already have dementia, they did not know that the plateau appears to occur years before.

The researchers are currently analyzing data from family members ages 7 to 17 to see if some of the brain changes occur at an even younger age.

“Some people think that that may be scary, that you can see it so many years before,” Dr. Reiman said. “But it seems to me that that provides potential opportunities for the development of future therapies.”

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United to repay $5.6M in tax incentives

United Continental Holdings, parent of United Airlines, is giving back $5.6 million in City of Chicago tax incentives.

The incentive money is tied to United's 2007 move to its corporate headquarters at 77 W. Wacker Drive, along the Chicago River.

Because of United's recent plans to move out of that building and consolidate its headquarters into Willis Tower where it has other operations, the airline said it was "appropriate" to return the money. However, it wasn't necessary.

City officials said United had so far fulfilled its obligations for receiving the money, such as maintaining a minimum employment level in the 77 W. Wacker Drive building, and that the incentives would have traveled with the company as it moved several blocks down Wacker Drive to Willis Tower.

"I commend United Airlines on an incredible act of corporate citizenship that speaks to the unique role Chicago's business community plays in the future of the city," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement.

United said it will give back $5.6 million it already received in Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, a funding tool used by Chicago to promote investment in the city.

United will also forgo up to $9.7 million more in TIF money that the city would have paid the airline, for a total of $15.3 million. However, United probably wouldn't have received the remaining $9.7 million because the money was tied to its fuel consumption at O'Hare International Airport.

"We were unlikely to ever realize the incremental $9.7 million anyway because of our improving fuel efficiency and reduced capacity," United spokeswoman Christen David said, referring to the airline's business strategy of reducing its overall flying by operating fuller planes.

The giveback does not include $35.9 million in TIF money tied to a separate 2009 incentive agreement that involved moving 2,500 workers from Elk Grove Village to Willis Tower.

"Since we are vacating 77 W. Wacker, which we redeveloped with the help of city economic incentives, we feel it is appropriate to return the funds we used for that redevelopment," David said.

The airline decided it should not combine the incentive agreements for the two locations. "This decision does not have any impact on the agreement for Willis Tower," she said.

The move to return money might seem surprising, coming from a company with thin profit margins in an industry that has struggled. Flight cancellations during superstorm Sandy caused a financial setback of $90 million in revenue and $35 million in profit for the month of October, United said last week.

"I do think this is rare," Joe Schwieterman, a professor in the school of public service at DePaul University, said of giving back incentive money. But in general, companies like to maintain their flexibility and can be hamstrung by a requirement for a minimum employment level at a certain location, he said. United's TIF agreement called for a minimum employment of 315 over 10 years, starting in 2007 at 77 W. Wacker. A 10-year commitment "is an eternity in the topsy-turvy world" of business, he said. "And employment guarantees can be an albatross around senior management's neck."

When United finishes the move, it will have more than 4,000 employees in Willis Tower, far more than the approximately 2,800 they were required to have for both TIF agreements.

United CEO Jeff Smisek said in a letter to Emanuel last week that the airline will consolidate into Willis because it "will be a critical factor in building a common company culture and greater operational efficiency, which we view as keys to our success."

He said United has met the commitments in its incentive agreements on the headquarters building. "However, now that we are relocating co-workers to Willis Tower, we believe it is appropriate to terminate those agreements and repay the city funds we have received," Smisek said in the letter.

United currently leases about 625,000 square feet in Willis. The airline secured another 205,000 square feet in the building and extended the term of its lease through 2028, according to Smisek. The airline expects to finish building out the additional space by the second quarter of next year, according to Smisek's letter.

The mayor's office called United's Willis expansion "one of the largest office space commitments in Chicago's history."

United is the fourth company to return TIF funds recently, according to the mayor's office. The others are CME Group, CNA Group and Bank of America, which together returned some $34 million in TIF money last year. CNA and Bank of America fell short of the 2,700 or so jobs each was required to keep in exchange for the tax breaks, which helped them update buildings. However, they returned the money earlier than they had to, a city spokesman said.

The returned money goes back into the TIF program and will be used for other projects.

gkarp@tribune.com

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'No cause has been ruled out' after deadly Indianapolis blast

At least two people are dead after a late-night explosion in an Indianapolis neighborhood.

Investigators are trying to puzzle out what caused an explosion and fire that killed two people and tore through a residential area of Indianapolis, displacing scores of residents, authorities said today.

The damage estimate is $3.6 million, said Adam Collins, Deputy Dir. of Indiana Code Enforcement.

The two deceased are adults, according to fire officials. Police as of 3 p.m. are not saying if a criminal investigation has been launched.

"There's a significant number of homes that have sustained damage, including two that have been completely destroyed. No cause has been ruled out," said Marc Lotter, a spokesman for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard.

"The investigation is ongoing," he said. He added that seven people had been injured in the explosion, which left a large debris field. The origin of the blast was near 8415 Fieldfare Way, in the south part of Indianapolis, according to an Indianapolis Fire Department release.

U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., who represents the area, said he went to the church where the new donation headquarters is and area Homeland Security officials told him a bomb and a meth lab have been ruled out as causes.

The two homes exploded just after 11 p.m. Saturday, sparking fires in two others and damaging at least two dozen homes on the south side of Indianapolis, said Lt. Bonnie Hensley, a spokeswoman for the Indianapolis Fire Department.

"It looks like a war zone here right now," Hensley said.

Police have so far been unable to identify the two adults who died, a spokesman said this afternoon.

Jan Able, who lives nearby, said she believes the victims, a couple, lived in the home next door to where the blast occurred.

A woman in her 40s and her 12 -year-old daughter who live in the home where the blast originated  were in Ohio at the time, said Able.

Able's daughter and son-in-law live a few streets from Able, so she and her husband are staying with them.

Able said it’s a "very good neighborhood" full of professionals, including doctors, architects, nurses. 

The blast originated near 8415 Fieldfare Way, according to the fire department release.

From his bedroom a block away, 47-year-old software engineer Chris Patterson felt the walls of his home shake. The force of the explosion shattered a glass sliding door in his home, he said.

Patterson said despite the grim situation, his spirit was bolstered by the efforts of his neighbors and first responders and has no plans to move away.

“I am freaked out, definitely, but I don’t think we want to move. We really like this neighborhood. I went to church this morning and I feel blessed because of how fast emergency people responded and the way our whole neighborhood pulled together,’’ Patterson said.

“I’m actually more inclined to stay.’’

Patterson was allowed back into his home about 1:10 p.m.

More than 100 firefighters responded to the two-alarm fire, according to a fire department statement.

Officials evacuated about 200 people to a nearby elementary school, where the Red Cross sheltered about 20 of them for the night. Others spent the night at friends' homes or with family, and officials planned to take the rest to the Southport Presbyterian Church.

As of late Sunday morning, approximately 60 cases of water and Gatorade were outside the school and a police spokesman said donations are pouring in, including toiletries, doughnuts and pizza.

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Malaysian charged with Facebook insult of sultan; sister says he’ll file police complaint

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – The sister of a Malaysian man who has been charged with insulting a state sultan on Facebook says he is innocent and plans to lodge a complaint over his detention.

Anisa Abdul Jalil, sister of Ahmad Abdul Jalil, says her brother was charged Thursday with making offensive postings on Facebook last month.

She says the charges are ridiculous because there is no evidence linking Ahmad to the posts in question, which were made by someone using the name “Zul Yahaya.”

Ahmad was freed on bail Thursday after six days of detention. Anisa says he will file a complaint with police for unlawful detention and intimidation.

Nine Malaysian states have sultans and other royal figures. Though their roles are largely ceremonial, acts provoking hatred against them are considered seditious.

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James Bond soars to box office record with “Skyfall”

(Reuters) – James Bond can don the tuxedo and break out the Dom Perignon after the super spy returned to theaters in record fashion at the weekend, blowing away box office rivals with $ 87.8 million in ticket sales for the U.S. and Canadian debut of new movie “Skyfall” for the biggest opening in the franchise’s history.

The best North American opening for the 50-year-old Bond franchise adds to a strong tally of $ 428.6 million for “Skyfall” overseas. Globally, the movie starring Daniel Craig as 007 has now earned $ 518.6 million since first hitting international theaters on October 26, distributor Sony Pictures said.

“Skyfall” handily beat Walt Disney Co animated movie “Wreck-It Ralph,” the story of a video game character who destroys everything in his path. The family film that topped last week’s charts grabbed $ 33.1 million from Friday through Sunday and slipped to second place.

Denzel Washington drama “Flight,” about an airline captain who saves a plane from crashing, pulled in $ 15.1 million to finish third.

Bond’s allure proved unbeatable in “Skyfall,” the third movie starring Craig and the first in four years. The last Bond film, “Quantum of Solace” in 2008, opened with a then-record $ 68 million at North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters.

“We’ve always been very bullish about the film, but I don’t think anyone expected the kind of stunning numbers that we’ve seen,” said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony Corp‘s Sony Pictures studio.

“How many pictures in just over two weeks have earned more than half a billion already?” he told Reuters.

“We’ve seen huge openings in every country that it’s opened in. It’s going to be one for the history books,” Bruer added.

In the new movie, Judi Dench returns as Bond’s supervisor, “M.” Bond travels between Istanbul, Shanghai and London as his loyalty to M is tested, while MI6 comes under attack from an unknown threat. Javier Bardem plays the villain Bond must stop.

Bond’s return has been hailed by the critics as a triumph for the 23-film franchise after a tepid response to “Quantum of Solace.” Ninety-two percent of “Skyfall” reviews on the Rotten Tomatoes website were positive, and audiences polled by CinemaScore awarded the film an “A” grade. The film has already exceeded the “Quantum” lifetime box office total.

The $ 200 million movie was produced by MGM, Sony and Eon Productions. Its release comes 50 years after the franchise premiered with “Dr. No” in 1962, and the producers highlighted the anniversary in the film’s marketing. The 22 previous Bond films have grossed $ 5 billion at box offices over five decades.

“Skyfall” was the only major new nationwide release this weekend. Steven Spielberg’s historical drama “Lincoln” opened in 11 theaters with sales of $ 900,000, or $ 81,818 per theater on average. The movie which stars Daniel Day-Lewis as the 16th president expands to 1,500 locations next Friday.

Rounding out the top five, Ben Affleck drama “Argo,” about the rescue of U.S. diplomats from Iran in 1979, finished in fourth place with $ 6.7 million. In fifth place, Liam Neeson hostage thriller “Taken 2″ grabbed $ 4.0 million.

Sony Corp’s movie studio released “Skyfall.” “Flight” was distributed by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc. “Lincoln” was produced by Dreamworks and released by Disney. Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros. studio released “Argo.” “Taken 2″ was distributed by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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Mind Faded, Darrell Royal’s Wisdom and Humor Intact Till End

Three days before his death last week at 88, Darrell Royal told his wife, Edith: “We need to go back to Hollis” — in Oklahoma. “Uncle Otis died.”

“Oh, Darrell,” she said, “Uncle Otis didn’t die.”

Royal, a former University of Texas football coach, chuckled and said, “Well, Uncle Otis will be glad to hear that.”

The Royal humor never faded, even as he sank deeper into Alzheimer’s disease. The last three years, I came to understand this as well as anyone. We had known each other for more than 40 years. In the 1970s, Royal was a virile, driven, demanding man with a chip on his shoulder bigger than Bevo, the Longhorns mascot. He rarely raised his voice to players. “But we were scared to death of him,” the former quarterback Bill Bradley said.

Royal won 3 national championships and 167 games before retiring at 52. He was a giant in college football, having stood shoulder to shoulder with the Alabama coach Bear Bryant. Royal’s Longhorns defeated one of Bryant’s greatest teams, with Joe Namath at quarterback, in the 1965 Orange Bowl. Royal went 3-0-1 in games against Bryant.

Royal and I were reunited in the spring of 2010. I barely recognized him. The swagger was gone. His mind had faded. Often he stared aimlessly across the room. I scheduled an interview with him for my book “Courage Beyond the Game: The Freddie Steinmark Story.” Still, I worried that his withering mind could no longer conjure up images of Steinmark, the undersize safety who started 21 straight winning games for the Longhorns in the late 1960s. Steinmark later developed bone cancer that robbed him of his left leg.

When I met with Royal and his wife, I quickly learned that his long-term memory was as clear as a church bell. For two hours, Royal took me back to Steinmark’s recruiting trip to Austin in 1967, through the Big Shootout against Arkansas in 1969, to the moment President Richard M. Nixon handed him the national championship trophy in the cramped locker room in Fayetteville. He recalled the day at M. D. Anderson Hospital in Houston the next week when doctors informed Steinmark that his leg would be amputated if a biopsy revealed cancer. Royal never forgot the determined expression on Steinmark’s face, nor the bravery in his heart.

The next morning, Royal paced the crowded waiting room floor and said: “This just can’t be happening to a good kid like Freddie Steinmark. This just can’t be happening.”

With the love of his coach, Steinmark rose to meet the misfortune. Nineteen days after the amputation, he stood with crutches on the sideline at the Cotton Bowl for the Notre Dame game. After the Longhorns defeated the Fighting Irish, Royal tearfully presented the game ball to Steinmark.

Four decades later, while researching the Steinmark book, I became close to Royal again. As I was leaving his condominium the day of the interview, I said, “Coach, do you still remember me?” He smiled and said, “Now, Jim Dent, how could I ever forget you?” My sense of self-importance lasted about three seconds. Royal chuckled. He pointed across the room to the message board next to the front door that read, “Jim Dent appt. at 10 a.m.”

Edith and his assistant, Colleen Kieke, read parts of my book to him. One day, Royal told me, “It’s really a great book.” But I can’t be certain how much he knew of the story.

Like others, I was troubled to see Royal’s memory loss. He didn’t speak for long stretches. He smiled and posed for photographs. He seemed the happiest around his former players. He would call his longtime friend Tom Campbell, an all-Southwest Conference defensive back from the 1960s, and say, “What are you up to?” That always meant, “Let’s go drink a beer.”

As her husband’s memory wore thin, Edith did not hide him. Instead, she organized his 85th birthday party and invited all of his former players. Quarterback James Street, who engineered the famous 15-14 comeback against Arkansas in 1969, sat by Royal’s side and helped him remember faces and names. The players hugged their coach, then turned away to hide the tears.

In the spring of 2010, I was invited to the annual Mexican lunch for Royal attended by about 75 of his former players. A handful of them were designated to stand up and tell Royal what he meant to them. Royal smiled through each speech as his eyes twinkled. I was mesmerized by a story the former defensive tackle Jerrel Bolton told. He recalled that Royal had supported him after the murder of his wife some 30 year earlier.

“Coach, you told me it was like a big cut on my arm, that the scab would heal, but that the wound would always come back,” Bolton said. “It always did.”

Royal seemed to drink it all in. But everyone knew his mind would soon dim.

The last time I saw him was June 20 at the County Line, a barbecue restaurant next to Bull Creek in Austin. Because Royal hated wheelchairs and walkers, the former Longhorn Mike Campbell, Tom’s twin, and I helped him down the stairs by wrapping our arms around his waist and gripping the back of his belt. I ordered his lunch, fed him his sandwich and cleaned his face with a napkin. He looked at me and said, “Was I a college player in the 1960s?”

“No, Coach,” I said. “But you were a great player for the Oklahoma Sooners in the late 1940s. You quarterbacked Oklahoma to an 11-0 record and the Sooners’ first national championship in 1949.”

He smiled and said, “Well, I’ll be doggone.”

After lunch, Mike Campbell and I carried him up the stairs. We sat him on a bench outside as Tom Campbell fetched the car. In that moment, the lunch crowd began to spill out of the restaurant. About 20 customers recognized Royal. They took his photograph with camera phones. Royal smiled and welcomed the hugs.

“He didn’t remember a thing about it,” Tom Campbell said later. “But it did his heart a whole lot of good.”

Jim Dent is the author of “The Junction Boys” and eight other books.

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Phil Rosenthal: Forming a Bond with brands

On the big screen, a hero's mettle is established by showing how much punishment the star can withstand and how daunting the obstacles are while ultimately getting the job done.

Early in the latest James Bond movie, "Skyfall," an assassin seeks to escape on a train speeding through the Turkish countryside. His tireless pursuer is pelted with bullets, swats away bugs and, when the bad guy disconnects the trailing car, extends an arm to literally hold on to the rest of the train so the chase can continue.

And the pursuer is, in fact, tireless because it is a modified Caterpillar 320D L excavator that Daniel Craig's Bond has commandeered. The bullets are bullets, but the bugs are Volkswagen Beetles, some swept off the train, others crushed. The logo-covered excavator's arm not only holds onto the rest of the train but provides Bond a perch from which to leap into the carriage, fixing the cuffs in his Tom Ford suit as he goes after the villain.

"For (the filmmakers), it wasn't an excavator, it wasn't what they would in the U.K. call a digger — it was for them a 'hero machine' because it was something that actually saves Bond," said Robert Woodley, the marketing executive for Peoria-based Caterpillar Inc., from his office in Geneva.

Woodley arranged and oversaw Cat's "Skyfall" star turn. "It's not just having the brand out there. It's seeing what light it's going to be viewed in."

"Skyfall" is practically "Skymall," what with all the brands and products mentioned and showcased.

The practice is neither new nor isolated. Yet even by the license-to-shill standards of increasingly commercialized James Bond movies, this one has an awful lot of brand exposure. All that's missing are the NASCAR-style logo patches for Bond, no slouch behind the wheel.

Especially now that the fictional covert operator is the focal point of an extremely overt ad campaign for beer, albeit Heineken.

Never mind the other products basking in the superspy's aura, such as Sony mobile phones and Vaio laptop computers, Macallan single-malt Scotch, Honda cycles, Bollinger Champagne, Globe-Trotter suitcases, Crockett & Jones footwear, Walther guns, Aston Martin cars, Swarovski jewelry, Omega watches, OPI nail polish, Land Rovers and Range Rovers and all the rest.

Some pay for the privilege, some make other arrangements. Some, like the new James Bond fragrance hawked by Procter & Gamble, aren't in the film. But all told, sponsorship and other ancillary deals for "Skyfall" are said to have brought in $45 million, about a third of what it cost to produce the film, one of the best in the Bond series.

"We have relationships with a number of companies so that we can make this movie," Craig told Moviefone on the "Skyfall" set this spring. "The simple fact is that, without them, we couldn't do it. It's unfortunate, but that's how it is."

The 007 tradition of brand integration, brand cameos, product placement or whatever you want to call it dates back to the original Ian Fleming stories. Some would say it's in the name of verisimilitude. But it's said Bond, originally a reader exclusively of The Times of London, also began reading the rival Daily Express when that paper began serializing Fleming's work.

Through a half-century of 007 films, the practice has grown as producers realized the potential economic windfall and marketers recognized the unique opportunity of association with the 007 franchise — as well as other entertainment.

"The challenge with product placement is it has to fit," said Timothy Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "When it works, there's a natural connection between the brand and the story and when it doesn't work, there's an inconsistency, and both parties are worse for the deal."

Today's sophisticated media consumer expects to see brands in TV shows, movies and even video games, according to Tom Weeks, senior vice president at LiquidThread (formerly known as Starcom Entertainment), the branded entertainment and content development operation within Chicago's Starcom MediaVest Group. But proper context — proper casting — is a must.

"Brands are stars, too," Weeks said. "They've got their own Twitter accounts. They've got their own Facebook pages. And they're invited into content as part of the experience. But it has to be done right, in a way that's not obtrusive and doesn't interrupt the digestion of that content."

Some Bond aficionados scoff at the Heineken tie-in, preferring to think of their man as a martini and Dom Perignon man. But there was Red Stripe beer in 1962's "Dr. No." And besides the familiar green-bottled Heineken (whose logo also is emblazoned on an unlikely wooden crate toppled in an early chase scene) and a lightly sipped martini, there is a memorable scene built around 50-year-aged Macallan.

"When I was at Kraft, there were times when a film would come out and our brands would be in the film and we'd be delighted … or not," he said. "I never saw a time when one of our brands was used in a way that made us cringe, but it could happen."

Case in point: the VW Beetles, out-of-stock models, crushed in "Skyfall." "While we always look for opportunities for exposure in the form of product placement, we were not involved with this placement," Corey Proffitt, who handles product communications for Volkswagen of America, told the Tribune by email.

Caterpillar, which first tied up with 007 in 1999's "The World is Not Enough," hopes the "Skyfall" connection boosts brand awareness, particularly in emerging markets like China, which seems a manageable goal.

A theme of "Skyfall" is that today's world is changing faster than ever, which is as true of advertising as it is of espionage. That's why you're only going to see more brand cameos, a la the Bond films.

"The traditional tools of advertising are fading and marketers are looking for new things to do," Calkins said. "Product placement becomes one of those things that can engage people where other methods have no effect."

Talk about daunting obstacles to overcome while ultimately getting the job done.

philrosenthal@tribune.com

Twitter @phil_rosenthal

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21-year-old dies in rollover on Dan Ryan Expressway

Josiah Martin’s parents woke him before sunrise on Saturday to deliver grim news: His best friend of 12 years, Phillip Briner, had been in a serious car crash and they weren’t sure if he would survive.

“I just kept asking myself if it was a dream,” said Martin, 20, of DeMotte, Ind. “I just kept hoping that he would be okay, that he was just in bad shape.”

Martin later got a call from Briner’s mother, who, too distraught to say the words, handed the phone to another son who simply said, “He’s gone.”

Briner, 21, was killed early Saturday morning after a drunk driver crashed into him on the Dan Ryan Expressway near 95th Street, authorities said. Both trucks were heading south around 1:30 a.m. when the other driver crossed from the far-right to the far-left lane of the 5-lane highway and smashed into Briner. A witness who saw the crash in the rearview mirror told police that both trucks hit the far left wall, crossed traffic again and hit the right wall before coming to rest.

Briner, of Crown Point, Ind., was transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn with severe injuries and was pronounced dead 30 minutes later, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Michael Briner of south suburban University Park, said that his younger brother was heading home from working his shift at The Peninsula Chicago hotel in downtown when the crash occurred. He normally worked nights at the hotel but worked until midnight as a server for a banquet, Briner said.

“We are all very angry,” said Briner, 26. “I knew that they had (the driver) in custody, which means he walked away from the crash and my brother didn’t. We want justice to be served.”

“I can’t believe this, that someone would be so selfish that they have to get somewhere, that they can’t say, maybe I shouldn’t be drinking,” Martin added. “It’s not worth it. Now (the driver’s) going to jail and I lost a best friend and a brother.”

Michael Briner said that Phillip was the fifth of six siblings and described him as imaginative, caring and fun-loving. He attended Hammond Baptist High School in Schererville, Ind., graduating in 2010. Before working at the hotel, Briner said his brother took classes to become a massage therapist.

Briner and Martin met in church as pre-teens when Martin’s family was looking for a new pastor and Briner’s father came to the church seeking a preacher position.

The Briners eventually moved down the street from the Martins and the two rambunctious boys didn’t take long to start stirring up trouble, Martin said. So frequent were their antics that when the Briners first called with the tragic news, Martin said his mother first thought, “What did Jo and Phillip do now?”

“We were goofballs,” he said, chuckling. “We didn’t cause anyone harm but we were always doing something silly. My mother has three sons but they had no idea what hell was to come when Phillip moved in.”

To wit: Both boys, obsessed with Spider-Man, often tried climbing up the side of the Martin home to mimic the comic-book superhero, Martin said. Just as often, Briner would tumble off the roof into a pile of leaves and get up to try again. Another time, the two lit a gas can on fire. On another occasion, the two doused each other with Axe body spray, emptying several cans of the aerosol deodorant into the home.

“You couldn’t get it out of the house,” Martin said. “It was like a haze. My sister is still angry about it to this day.”

But it was his wit that endeared him to nearly everyone he met, Michael Briner said.

“He always tried to find the humor in things, which is what he would want us to do right now,” Briner said. “He wouldn’t want us to be mourning like we are.”

Martin, offering a glimpse into his friend’s levity, said that Briner always wanted his last Facebook message to be a conversation he imagined having upon arriving in heaven. After St. Peter would ask for his name, Briner would say: “My name is Phillip Scott Briner and I’m here to party!”

On Saturday, Martin fulfilled his friend’s wish and posted the conversation to his profile.

“It’s like my brother said: ‘God must have needed a comedian in heaven,” Martin said.

pnickeas@tribune.com, cdrhodes@tribune.com

Twitter: @rhodes_dawn, @peternickeas

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