What we can learn from Lady Gaga

 I don't know a lot about Lady Gaga, but she's got my vote. I especially love her quote about the choice between pursuing a career vs. men! We can all learn a lot from how her team markets her.Thanks, C3/SelectNY.Paris10 Ways to be a Marketing Genius Like Lady Gaga

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You Can Make Music with Bobby McFerrin

What a great three minute break. This little excerpt is wonderful.

Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event "Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus", from the 2009 World Science Festival, June 12, 2009.

An Earth Day Story

I spent the weekend working on a grant application, so I hardly noticed Earth Day come and go. But this morning I watched this story on Rocketboom and want to share it with you.

What a perfect way to tell a story. So well done.

Update: The links connected to the current day's story rather than the Earth Day piece. Sorry, I'll try to sort it out later today. Tues, 4/24/07

Okay, lets try this link -- http://www.rocketboom.com/stories/rb_07_apr_20

All This to Sell a TV Set

Sony BRAVIA - The Advert

Have you seen this Sony ad? Quite amazing what a company will spend its money on. Be sure to watch the "Behind the Scenes" clip.

Our latest TV ad - featuring massive paint explosions - took 10 days and 250 people to film. Huge quantities of paint were needed to accomplish this, which had to be delivered in 1 tonne trucks and mixed on-site by 20 people.

The effect was stunning, but afterwards a major clean-up operation was required to clear away all that paint!

The cleaning took 5 days and 60 people. Thankfully, the use of a special water-based paint made it easy to scrape-up once the water had evaporated.

Keeping everyone safe was also an important factor. A special kind of non-toxic paint was used that is safe enough to drink (it contains the same thickeners that are sometimes used in soups). It was also completely harmless to the skin.

Web 2.0 - in Four Enlightening Minutes

Wonder what Web 2.0 is all about? Watch this 4 minute video put together by Michael Wesch, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University. (Actually 4 minutes, 31 seconds.)

Wesch practices the sage advice 'show, don't tell.' You'll find the video well worth the small bit of time it takes to watch it.

Kudos, Professor! Well done.

Things I Give Thanks For

If WW II interests you, you'll find this series of posts interesting.

Leif Peng publishes a daily blog of 50's and 60's graphics that I enjoy tremendously. This past week, though, in honor of Veterans Day, he has published WWII illustrations and talked about his family's experience in the war. Father - Chinese living in Japanese occupied Taiwan; grandmother and family in what became East Germany, his wife's grandmother in Scotland, and his best friend's Canadian grandfather fighting in Italy.

It's a great collection of art and story. Because it's a blog, it reads newest posting at the top. Order doesn't matter for most of it, but Thursday and Friday, Nov. 16 & 17 are two parts to the same story, so read Thursday first.

The series starts at Saturday, Nov. 11, 2006, if you need to find it in the archives.

http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/

The Dilbert Blog: Weasel Nominees for 2006

Scott Adams of Dilbert fame, and my favorite blogger, wants your opinions -- help him out. Send him your nominees. I'm considering mine.

The Dilbert Blog: Weasel Nominees for 2006:

"By way of definition, a weasel is someone who is trying to get away with something and actually succeeding. We don’t include anyone who is in jail because that person isn’t getting away with it.

We also don’t include anyone who is evil or annoying or incompetent but in an honest way. A weasel is someone who craps on toast and tells you it is caviar. Weasels say things like this:

“I have never taken steroids. I look like the Incredible Hulk because I eat right.”

“I didn’t realize I was stealing a billion dollars from my company. I just signed whatever they put in front of me.”

“I deserve my $100 million salary because without me the company’s stock price would have plunged even further.”"

Other People's Spread Sheets

I'm a pretty private person.  I guess it comes from my traditional New England up-bringing.  But that means that I don't know a lot about other people's personal lives.  So I found this site pretty interesting.  Who'd have thought people keep spread sheets about so many things?

Sure, budgets, CD & record collections, even mileage calculators.  But some of this stuff is really beyond my imagination.  I couldn't stop reading it.  I wish I'd thought of this one-

I have an 20-year-ongoing Excel spreadsheet, updated quarterly, called
"My Life" with the following columns: Date, Address, Job, Monthly
earnings, Boyfriend (5 years for the current one, but amusing
information before that), and notable events during the quarter. Only
the Monthly earning is graphible, but it's a handy chart at times.

To read what some people track on spread sheets:
Anil Dash: Excel Pile

Seth Godin's e-book- Who's There?

Have you read Seth Godin's latest? As usual, it's thought provoking. He's so good at articulating the changes that the web makes in our lives.

And in the best web tradition, his ebooks are short, sweet, and free. (Isn't he the one who started that tradition?)

This one focuses on blogging. It's must reading if you have a blog. Think about having a blog. Think you ought to have a blog. Or can't figure out what it's all about.

LiveScience.com: The Most Popular Myths in Science

LiveScience.com: The Most Popular Myths in Science: "
Chickens can live without a head

True, and not just for a few minutes. A chicken can stagger around without its
noggin because the brain stem, often left partially intact after a beheading,
controls most of its reflexes. One robust fellow lived a full eighteen months.
Likely he was a real birdbrain, however.

While I was noodling around on the Live Science site, I found this interesting fact. Well, it may not be important in your business, but it made me chuckle.

If you've got a few minutes check out the most popular science myths. Pretty interesting.

Wood Stove Ghost Photo

Wood Stove Ghost Photo

Our friend Donald sent us this 'ghost stove' picture and the story behind it. Take a look. It's pretty interesting.

Antique Wood Stoves - WOW!

I worked on the antique wood stove page this weekend. Boy, these old stoves are beauties. Cast iron stoves that look like Victorian wedding cakes and Gothic churches. Ceramic tile towers in use for centuries. I looked at sites from all over the world.

Even if you aren't interested in wood stoves, you might want to take a look.

Great Surfing

This month I learned about Robert Fenton, a 19th century photographer, listened to some Gerry Mulligan jazz, and contrasted that with some 17th century lute compositions and the art of Gerard ter Borch. Phew, I love this culture stuff! And then, all that science!

You might enjoy visiting the sites listed on the ed.gov listserv, too. It comes about once a month with an assortment of links to online resources sponsored by various government agencies and institutions. The Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, National Geological Survey, and the National Gallery to name a few. Arts, sciences, and social studies (want to know about the history of voting machines or listen to a lecture by Stephen Ambrose?). It’s great that the magic of the Internet now makes all those Washington resources available to us all.

Their instructions to subscribe:
To subscribe to EDInfo, address an email message to: listserv@listserv.ed.gov Then write SUBSCRIBE EDINFO YOURFIRSTNAME YOURLASTNAME in the message, (if you have a signature block, please turn it off) Then send it!

(The link in the title takes you to their archives.)

Amazing Desktop

You look at your desktop day-in and day-out. I don't pay it much attention. I've always opted for a calm, bland, no-thinking, no-search alternative.

Well, I suddenly have new wallpaper on my desktop and it takes my breath away. It's an image called 'All is Well' by Deanna Hancock. The image is nothing more than an open book, some eyeglasses and the most incredible inter-play of detail and light. It's a pleasure to behold.

I found Deanna's piece in the user gallery at http://www.digitalblasphemy.com . Ryan Bliss showcases his work on this (his) site and there's wonderful stuff here. I expect that in a week or two I'll be ready to try one of Ryan's many wonderful images.

The site has both free and subscription options (I've only seen the free stuff). It's worth a few minutes of your browsing time.

By the way, I found this site through This is True - an entertaining free e-newsletter that always leaves me shaking my head. You can preview it or subscribe at http://www.thisistrue.com