General Electric

A massive U.S. conglomerate, covering (according to Hoover's) "aircraft engines, transportation equipment such as locomotives, appliances (kitchen and laundry equipment), lighting, electric distribution and control equipment, generators and turbines, nuclear reactors, medical imaging equipment, and plastics," plus financial services (GE Capital Services) and entertainment (NBC).

General Electric is one of the most freakin' massive companies in the world. They make everything. No, seriously, if you trace the manufacturing process of anything far enough back, GE has done something to it along the way. Some really cool people work at GE. i work there, but i can't really say if i'm cool. A lot of girth throwing and badassery goes on at GE. i'm not a huge fan of the company or anything, but they do some incredible stuff. And they Bring Good Things to Life.

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General Electric is now officially General Electric International Incorporated, abbreviated as GEII.

The somewhat-famous NBC chime tune (three notes) comes directly from that network's ownership by General Electric.

If you take GE's full name, General Electric Corporation, and reduce it to an acronym, you get GEC. Those three letters happen to also be musical notes, forming a C Major chord. If you play those three notes in succession -- start with G, then the E above it, and finally the C between them -- well, that's that's the three-note tune you hear on NBC.

Careful listeners to the NPR radio "news" program "Marketplace" will notice that the tune from GE's "We bring good things to life" campaign is included in the Marketplace theme music. It plays just after they acknowlege GE's sponsorship. Even more careful listeners will note that GE's interests as a world-dominating multinational corporation are well served by the content and style of this program as well.

As previously mentioned, GE makes aircraft engines. They are a very large military contractor. They own both polical parties, and benefit from the slaughter of Serbian, Iraqi, and (insert pariah nation here) civilians. In addition to that charming civic duty, they were also responsible for the deposition of PCBs into the Hudson River.

Thanks a lot, asshole, that was our last sturgeon!