Daniel Franklin, co-editor of Megachange: The World in 2050 and business affairs editor at the Economist, told the Today programme's Sarah Montague that "the Armageddon industry makes a lot of noise... but underestimates our ability to adapt and be inventive".

BBC: How bright is the world's future?

Reviewers note, alongside their fawning assessment of the world's best performance, that the HD 6990 is a massively power-hungry card (375W TDP) and one that makes quite a bit of noise while going through its herculean tasks.

ENGADGET: AMD launches Radeon HD 6990 powerhouse for $699, maintains 'world's fastest' title

"There's enough noise in the Vioxx data that it makes the actual growth rate a little difficult to ascertain, " says Robertson Stephens analyst Robert Hazlett.

FORBES: Magazine Article

In a consumer or retail business, people like personality, they want to engage with personality and so when that faceless corporate that is very conservative, very risk-averse, never makes any noise, finally does something wrong my view is that people are a lot harder on it.

WSJ: Managing in Asia: A Focus on People Keeps Little Guy Flying High

Some of them now qualify for the Order of Celebrityhood. (Not much more can be said of CEOs who pass off their ghost-written banalities in bookstores everywhere.) Is this noise really contributing to a base of public knowledge and reflection that makes for better and richer societies?

FORBES: Sidelines