Selected by becbarcelona

• Most Topular Stories

• Inaccurate labels and why we need them (and need to improve them)

  Seth's Blog

  Seth Godin

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:46 am

  If I tell you, "I'm going to the baseball game," it seems as though you're likely to understand what I mean. Of course, you won't. When George Will goes to a baseball game, it's a religious experience. Me, I don't even like baseball. Or maybe it's my nephew's ball game (the playoffs), or maybe going to the game causes me to miss an important event, and on and on. We label the experience with just two words, and two words can't possibly capture the emotions and circumstance surrounding an event. The same thing is true with brands. If I tell you that a new business was funded by USV, that might…

• Texts Now Popular Ammo for Divorce Battles [VIDEO]

  Mashable!

  Mashable Video

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:39 am

  New technological and social media tools have a way of messing up relationships — and they can also be used for evidence when those relationships fail and end up in divorce court. A study of divorce attorneys released this week shows an increase in smartphones being used as evidence. Ninety-two percent of the attorneys surveyed in the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers study said they’ve seen an increase in the past few years in the number of cases that use evidence from smartphones; 94% said they’ve seen a rise in the use of texts as evidence in the past three years.

• The Google Wallet Hack Is Not The End Of The World (Or Even NFC) As We Know It

  Fast Company

  Kit Eaton

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:32 am

  Stay calm and carry on, people: It's way too soon to say that NFC should stand for Now Fatally Corrupted. Yes, Google's breakthrough NFC payments app Wallet is being mentioned all over the news thanks to a flaw--it's vulnerable to a hack that gives nefarious types access to your secure PIN number. But don't believe any doomsayers or fearmongering that you may encounter on this matter; it's not as evil as it seems and, believe it or not, it's actually a sign that the future of wireless mobile payments is probably more secure than your current credit card. As reported over at the blog of…

• Throw Away the Maps

  chrisbrogan.com

  ceb

  6 Feb 2012 | 1:30 am

  People judge us by the path they’ve seen us walk before. They can’t anticipate our future steps. We, ourselves, look to how things have been, what seems to be the lay of the land, without realizing that the maps are not the territory. Want to succeed at work? Then don’t try to do your job. Instead, work towards something larger, more meaningful, and something that blends your convictions internally with your best ability to help others externally. Want to create something new? Then throw away the old, or maybe join two disparate old things together into something new. The…

• Big Question (Answered): "Do You Have Too Many Facebook Friends?"

  ReadWriteWeb

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:04 am

  Every day I jump onto Facebook for my work, but honestly, I never use it as it was intended. If you send me a message or like my status, I might engage, but I never reach out to folks. My stream is full of interesting content about people I don't know enough to care about. I know that sounds rude, but there's really only so much room in your life for connections. I have a little over 700 friends and I think that's about 500 too many. I've been considering paring down for some time, not because I think my connections aren't cool, but because I'm missing out on things like my family's birthday…

• 

  Seth's Blog

• Inaccurate labels and why we need them (and need to improve them)

  Seth Godin

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:46 am

  If I tell you, "I'm going to the baseball game," it seems as though you're likely to understand what I mean. Of course, you won't. When George Will goes to a baseball game, it's a religious experience. Me, I don't even like baseball. Or maybe it's my nephew's ball game (the playoffs), or maybe going to the game causes me to miss an important event, and on and on. We label the experience with just two words, and two words can't possibly capture the emotions and circumstance surrounding an event. The same thing is true with brands. If I tell you that a new business was funded by USV, that might…

• How do they know you're not a flake?

  Seth Godin

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:43 am

  Before your link gets clicked or your proposal gets read, a busy person is going to triage it to find out if it's even worth glancing at. Since everyone is now connected, the new permeability has created a deluge of noise, and just about everyone worth contacting is taking defensive measures. Do I know this person? Did someone I trust send them over? Where does she work? (Ideo? the FDA? The New York Times?) Has she won an award? Is she famous? Are there typos and is the design sloppy? Are they pestering me? Do I already follow this person online? Does music play when I visit the website? Will…

• Horizontal marketing isn't a new idea

  Seth Godin

  7 Feb 2012 | 2:09 am

  But it is the new reality for just about every organization. Vertical marketing means the marketer (the one with money) is in charge. Vertical marketing starts at the top and involves running ads, sending out direct mail and pushing hype through the media. Your money, your plans, your control. It might not work, but generally the worst outcome is that you will be ignored and need to spend more money. Horizonal marketing, on the other hand, means creating a remarkable product and story and setting it up to spread from person to person. It's out of your control, because all the interactions are…

• Who is your customer?

  Seth Godin

  6 Feb 2012 | 2:26 am

  Rule one: You can build a business on the foundation of great customer service. Rule two: The only way to do great customer service is to treat different customers differently. The question: Who is your customer? It's not obvious. Zappos is a classic customer service company, and their customer is the person who buys the shoes. Nike, on the other hand, doesn't care very much at all about the people who buy the shoes, or even the retailers. They care about the athletes (often famous) that wear the shoes, sometimes for money. They name buildings after these athletes, court them, erect…

• In search of a timid trapeze artist

  Seth Godin

  5 Feb 2012 | 2:01 am

  Good luck with that, there aren't any. If you hesitate when leaping from rope to another, you're not going to last very long. And this is at the heart of what makes innovation work in organizations, why industries die, and how painful it is to try to maintain the status quo while also participating in a revolution. Gather up as much speed as you can, find a path and let go. You can't get to the next rope if you're still holding on to this one.

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  Mashable!

• Texts Now Popular Ammo for Divorce Battles [VIDEO]

  Mashable Video

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:39 am

  New technological and social media tools have a way of messing up relationships — and they can also be used for evidence when those relationships fail and end up in divorce court. A study of divorce attorneys released this week shows an increase in smartphones being used as evidence. Ninety-two percent of the attorneys surveyed in the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers study said they’ve seen an increase in the past few years in the number of cases that use evidence from smartphones; 94% said they’ve seen a rise in the use of texts as evidence in the past three years.

• Photo Finish: Kodak to Stop Selling Digital Cameras

  Todd Wasserman

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:28 am

  In a cost-cutting move and a signal of the company’s poor financial situation, Eastman Kodak on Thursday announced it plans to stop selling digital cameras. The company, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month, will instead focus on online and retail-based photo printing as well as desktop inkjet printing. Kodak plans to phase out all digital camera sales within the first half of this year. The move is expected to save Kodak $100 million. Kodak expects to incur charges of $30 million for exiting the business. “For some time, Kodak’s strategy has been to improve margins in…

• iPhone, Meet Laser Blaster. Is This 2012′s Hottest Toy?

  Chris Taylor

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:17 am

  iPhones aren’t cool. You know what’s cool? Shooting your friends with your iPhone, mounted into a laser blaster. A couple of phone-based friend-blasting systems have crossed our radar this week — one for iPhone, one for any smartphone. First came news that Hasbro is updating Lazer Tag (remember that?) for the app-obsessed 21st century. Its 2012 edition guns, hitting toy store shelves this August for $40 per blaster, include a slot for your iPhone or iPod Touch. Using a free Lazer Tag app and the phone’s built-in camera, the set-up will keep track of who shot whom and…

• 3 Ways to Optimize Search on Your Ecommerce Site

  Stephanie Buck

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:01 am

  The Future of Search Series is supported by SES New York, the leading search, social and display conference. From March 19 to 23, get five days of education, inspiration and conversations with marketing experts from the digital space. Register with MASH20 to save 20%. More people are flocking online to get their shopping done these days. But, an online shopper doesn’t necessarily equal genius website navigator. Your need to ensure that your business website’s search tools are simple and intuitive for those who are less technologically inclined — or risk losing customers.

• Twitter to Get First Look at Several New York Fashion Week Collections

  Lauren Indvik

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:35 am

  It worked for Burberry, so why couldn’t it work for us? So seems to be the thought process of several prominent U.S. fashion labels during New York Fashion Week, all of which are planning their own takes on the “Tweetwalk” Burberry debuted at its womenswear show in September 2011. The London-based fashion house made headlines when it posted photos of every look from its Spring/Summer 2012 collection on Twitter seconds before they appeared on the catwalk. The initiative generated a huge amount of interest on Twitter — so much so that both “#Burberry” and “Christopher…

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  Fast Company

• The Google Wallet Hack Is Not The End Of The World (Or Even NFC) As We Know It

  Kit Eaton

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:32 am

  Stay calm and carry on, people: It's way too soon to say that NFC should stand for Now Fatally Corrupted. Yes, Google's breakthrough NFC payments app Wallet is being mentioned all over the news thanks to a flaw--it's vulnerable to a hack that gives nefarious types access to your secure PIN number. But don't believe any doomsayers or fearmongering that you may encounter on this matter; it's not as evil as it seems and, believe it or not, it's actually a sign that the future of wireless mobile payments is probably more secure than your current credit card. As reported over at the blog of…

• Inside INTERPOL's New Cybercrime Innovation Center

  Neal Ungerleider

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:09 am

  INTERPOL, the international policing agency, is opening a massive innovation center in Singapore in 2014. At the center, law enforcement will learn all about the latest cybercrimes... and have access to cutting-edge forensics laboratories and research stations.INTERPOL, the international policing organization, is building a law enforcement tech geek heaven in Singapore. The INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation will function as a R&D lab, training facility, and forensics lab for all things cybercrime. Slated to open in 2014, the Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) will be part of the…

• 5 Ways To Put The "Pro" In Profile Pics

  Amber Mac

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:29 am

  Your profile photo is an important part of your online image, so if you still have an egg as your Twitter avatar or a blue-and-white silhouette for your Facebook page, it's time to step things up. (Hint: This photo is a "don't.")If you still have an egg as your Twitter avatar, it's time to step things up. Your profile photo is an important part of your online image. Not only is this pic the first thing people see when they look you up on the web, whether you're using Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+, this image is now regularly transported into people's in-boxes and pulled onto their phones as…

• Apple May Sell iPads To Air Force, Groupon Reports Surprise Q4 Loss, Foxconn Servers Hacked

  Nidhi Subbaraman

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:17 am

  Breaking news from your editors at Fast Company, with updates all day.Rumor: iPad 3 Announcement In March. The latest buzz on the iPad 3, this time from AllThingsD, is that the new device will be unveiled at an early March event. Sources, per usual, are anonymous, but their tips confirm what's already expected of the device--a faster chip, Retina Display, and better graphics. --NS--Updated 9:15 a.m. ESTApple May Sell iPads To Air Force. The Air Force is on the lookout for about 18,000 new tablets, and chances are the iPad--the only device mentioned on their recently spotted notice--may fit…

• Fast Talk: How This Bartender Is Rebooting The Condom

  David Zax

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:05 am

  Meet Richard Pessall, a 20-year-old British entrepreneur who wants to take the condom where no man has gone before (no, not space.)Richard Pessall, 20, lives and works as bartender in Shropshire, England. He spent nine years living in the United States, but when he ran out of money to pay for college in North Carolina, he was unable to renew his visa and was forced to return to the UK. He’s decided to make his fortune before attempting to return stateside. His big idea? Reboot the condom. Forplay, the condom company he's been bootstrapping with his barman’s earnings, has grown to a staff…

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  chrisbrogan.com

• Throw Away the Maps

  ceb

  6 Feb 2012 | 1:30 am

  People judge us by the path they’ve seen us walk before. They can’t anticipate our future steps. We, ourselves, look to how things have been, what seems to be the lay of the land, without realizing that the maps are not the territory. Want to succeed at work? Then don’t try to do your job. Instead, work towards something larger, more meaningful, and something that blends your convictions internally with your best ability to help others externally. Want to create something new? Then throw away the old, or maybe join two disparate old things together into something new. The…

• The Next Social Networks

  ceb

  5 Feb 2012 | 1:30 am

  The rage in social networks right now is Pinterest, partly because it’s probably the first social network that has a much higher adoption rate by females than males, and partly because it’s an interesting concept: somewhere between visual social bookmarking and scrapbooking. What also might not be immediately obvious is that it’s just “easier” to interact there. In that way, Pinterest has something in common with Instagram, which is community around photos. What I’m interested in, though, is Gentlemint, which I keep calling “Pinterest for…

• Learn From Adele – Build Your Platform

  ceb

  3 Feb 2012 | 1:30 am

  Jacq and I just watched Adele Live At The Royal Albert Hall (amazon affiliate link), and though every song was just wonderfully done, I found myself fascinated by what Adele was doing in between each song. Because even though most people would be interested in hearing her belt out her amazing repertoire of hits, what I took away from the performance was Adele’s real magical ability: the ability to resonate with her audience. What Adele Could Teach You About Impact I’m writing something about this right now for my upcoming book with Julien Smith, but I had to share some of the…

• Rob Gokee is a Musical Wizard

  ceb

  2 Feb 2012 | 8:05 am

  I had such a great experience working with award winning musical composer Rob Gokee. We did some musical work together, and the process was so amazing. Rob helped me create my theme song for Shhh! The Secret Show. So anyhow, he and I sat down to do an interview, and it’s a bit long, but it’s totally worth it. We talk about what collaboration feels like at a distance, what it takes to get music like this made for your own show, and a lot more. Rob’s a hero to me, and has been part of the community for a while. I was so fortunate to have worked with him. Can’t see the…

• Build Your Platform – Start

  ceb

  30 Jan 2012 | 1:30 am

  The following is part ONE of a series called Build Your Platform. If you find it interesting, please consider subscribing for free to get the rest of the series. This post is long. You might want to bookmark it for later. The age of social media oversaturation is upon us. People are declaring Twitter bankruptcy to go along with their email bankruptcy. They cite not wanting to start on yet another social network as their reason for not getting more involved with Google+. And just as soon as you start getting into Pinterest, you hear about Path, but wait: there’s Gentlemint, which is…

• 

  ReadWriteWeb

• Big Question (Answered): "Do You Have Too Many Facebook Friends?"

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:04 am

  Every day I jump onto Facebook for my work, but honestly, I never use it as it was intended. If you send me a message or like my status, I might engage, but I never reach out to folks. My stream is full of interesting content about people I don't know enough to care about. I know that sounds rude, but there's really only so much room in your life for connections. I have a little over 700 friends and I think that's about 500 too many. I've been considering paring down for some time, not because I think my connections aren't cool, but because I'm missing out on things like my family's birthday…

• Appcelerator Acquires Cocoafish to Implement Mobile Cloud Services in Titanium

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  Mobile development company Appcelerator announced today that it is buying "backend-as-a-service" startup Cocoafish to implement cloud services and functionality to its Titanium Platform. Acquiring Cocoafish is an astute move by Appcelerator, which focuses on tools for developers to create native and mobile Web apps. The company realized in its latest mobile developer report that 84% of developers using Titanium were utilizing some type of cloud service. With Cocoafish, Appcelerator attempts to keep all the necessary mobile development tools on its own platform. Appcelerator admits that with…

• Three Ways To Use Linked In If You're NOT Looking For A Job

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am

  A post last week on pimping your LinkedIn profile drew a big response, as well as a divide in comments about whether or not people should be using LinkedIn. One of the bigger misconceptions in comments in emails was that LinkedIn is primarily a job-hunting site. But there are reasons to use LinkedIn even if you have a job you love, aside from the obvious benefits of keeping up on your industry and making connections with potential business partners. Sponsor Among them: LinkedIn is a great contact manager. Not all of your contacts will have their phone numbers in their LinkedIn profile (and if…

• Groupon's First Earnings Call Missed the Mark, But It May Not Matter

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:28 pm

  Today in its quarterly earnings call, Groupon reported that it did not meet fourth quarter expectations. The company posted a $43 million loss, or $0.08 cents per share. Despite the loss, Groupon's revenue in the fourth quarter 2011 grew 194% to $506.5 million, up from $172.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. In fact, the fourth quarter 2011 was the company's first quarter of operating profitability since it opening international operations in the second quarter of 2010. This brings everyone back to the same question: Is the daily deals model a real, legitimate business, or is it just a…

• Daily Wrap: January's List of Apps You Need to See and more

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:00 pm

  Dan Rowinski rounds up the best apps, in our opinion, of January 2012. This and more in today's Daily Wrap. Sometimes it's difficult to catch everything that hits tech media in a day, so we wrap up some of the most talked about stories. We give you a daily recap of what you missed in the ReadWriteWeb Community, including a link to some of the most popular discussions in our offsite communities on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ as well. Sponsor New iPhone, iPad and Android Apps for January 2012 In what is surely a labor of love, Dan Rowinski combs through the mass of apps released…

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  Ogilvy Blog Aggregator

• Don’t let go!

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:04 am

• The Wolseley .

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:21 am

  Had lunch at the Wolseley last week, a real place not a place you follow or follows you or a place I have thank the good Lord ever seen someone become Sherrif of or been ousted.Nope its a place with real people with real lives and real stories. I’d just ordered when on his way out the handsome and chiselled Brett Gosper dropped by to gloat on England’s performance in Dubai adding on parting that he and Jeremy King once considered swopping roles for a week, I’ll conclude with the probable results later but the exchange did prompt me to think further and try and analyse the…

• Pinterest Hits 11 Million UMVs (and 8 Tips for Brands)

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:02 am

  In case you haven’t heard, last night TechCrunch announced that Pinterest hit 11.7 million UMVs, becoming the fastest standalone site ever to surpass 10 million monthly uniques. This presents a huge opportunity for brands, as you might have already read about here. The #1 driver of consumer purchases is word of mouth recommendations from friends, and Pinterest holds the power to drive authentic “word of eye” recommendations in a way that is changing the landscape of social commerce. How? The landing page for Pinterest is an endless visual stream of subtle product…

• Just another typical creative / strategic review…

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:24 am

  Just another typical creative / strategic review…

• There is only one way to make an infographic about tattoos.

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:18 am

  There is only one way to make an infographic about tattoos.

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  Entrepreneur Update

• Four Questions to Ask Before Setting a Price

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:03 am

  Before you figure out your pricing, figure out your business.

• Three Ways to Extend the Battery Life of Smartphones and Tablets

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 am

  Consider these options for extending the battery life of your mobile devices.

• Fashion Mogul Christopher Burch Talks Business

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:00 am

  As Fashion Week kicks off, we sat down with the man behind brands like Tory Burch and Monika Chiang to find out what it takes to make it in the business.

• Seven Ways to Kill Your Meetings and Unleash Productivity

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:08 pm

  Despite studies showing that meetings are a colossal waste of time, they remain common. Here's how to collaborate while cutting back on meetings.

• The Danger of Being Franchisee No. 1

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:00 am

  Sure, it's a thrill to get in on the ground floor of a hot new concept. But it's risky to invest in an unproven business model. Here are questions to ask.

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  TEDTalks (video)

• TED: Sheikha Al Mayassa: Globalizing the local, localizing the global - Sheikha Al Mayassa (2010)

  TEDTalks

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:28 am

  Sheikha Al Mayassa, a patron of artists, storytellers and filmmakers in Qatar, talks about how art and culture create a country's identity -- and allow every country to share its unique identity with the wider world. As she says: "We don't want to be all the same, but we do want to understand each other."

• TED: Stephen Coleman: The moral dangers of non-lethal weapons - Stephen Coleman (2011)

  TEDTalks

  7 Feb 2012 | 8:08 am

  Pepper spray and tasers are in increasing use by both police and military, and more exotic non-lethal weapons such as heat rays are in the works. At TEDxCanberra, ethicist Stephen Coleman explores the unexpected consequences of their introduction and asks some challenging questions.

• TED: Neil Burgess: How your brain tells you where you are - Neil Burgess (2011)

  TEDTalks

  6 Feb 2012 | 7:58 am

  How do you remember where you parked your car? How do you know if you're moving in the right direction? Neuroscientist Neil Burgess studies the neural mechanisms that map the space around us, and how they link to memory and imagination.

• TED: Mike deGruy: Hooked by an octopus - Mike deGruy (2010)

  TEDTalks

  4 Feb 2012 | 12:14 am

  Underwater filmmaker Mike deGruy has spent decades looking intimately at the ocean. A consummate storyteller, he takes the stage at Mission Blue to share his awe and excitement -- and his fears -- about the blue heart of our planet.

• TED: Danny Hillis: Back to the future (of 1994) - Danny Hillis (1994)

  TEDTalks

  3 Feb 2012 | 8:06 am

  From deep in the TED archive, Danny Hillis outlines an intriguing theory of how and why technological change seems to be accelerating, by linking it to the very evolution of life itself. The presentation techniques he uses may look dated, but the ideas are as relevant as ever.

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  The Latest from VanityFair.com

• In 10 States, No Child Left Behind … Left Behind

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:30 am

• Hollywood Style Star: Gwyneth Paltrow

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pm

  Hollywood is full of women who know how to put on a gown and pose for the cameras. But there are a handful of ladies whose sartorial selections elevate them head and exposed shoulders above the rest. V.F. highlights these elegant, glamorous stars of

• Hollywood Style Star: Halle Berry

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pm

  Hollywood is full of women who know how to put on a gown and pose for the cameras. But there are a handful of ladies whose sartorial selections elevate them head and exposed shoulders above the rest. V.F. highlights these elegant, glamorous stars of

• Hollywood 2012: Olivia Munn, Part 1

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pm

  Olivia Munn opens up to Krista Smith about making out with Channing Tatum, male strippers, and Jon Stewart’s choice of underwear. Plus, behind the scenes at her V.F. photo shoot with Williams & Hirakawa.

• Hollywood Style Star: Julianne Moore

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pm

  Hollywood is full of women who know how to put on a gown and pose for the cameras. But there are a handful of ladies whose sartorial selections elevate them head and exposed shoulders above the rest. V.F. highlights these elegant, glamorous stars of

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  The Economist: The world this week

• Politics this week

  2 Feb 2012 | 8:03 am

• Business this week

  2 Feb 2012 | 8:03 am

• KAL's cartoon

  2 Feb 2012 | 8:03 am

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  BBC News - Europe

• Greece leaders agree bailout cuts

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:35 am

  Greece agrees to the austerity measures required to gain a new bailout hours before eurozone finance ministers are due to discuss the deal in Brussels.

• Kate attends Lucian Freud preview

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:21 am

  The Duchess of Cambridge carries out her first solo public engagement, attending a preview of a new Lucian Freud exhibition in central London.

• ECB leaves euro rates unchanged

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:21 am

  The European Central Bank leaves its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.0% saying there are signs of stabilisation

• Hackers vow new Kremlin attacks

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:16 am

  A group of Russian hackers has said it will continue to target pro-Kremlin supporters after publishing emails from a youth movement supporting the Russian government.

• Spanish judge Garzon is convicted

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:06 am

  Spain's most prominent judge, Baltasar Garzon, is found guilty of authorising illegal recordings of lawyers and banned from office for 11 years.

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  Decker Blog

• Change your habit in 21 days

  Ben Decker

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 am

  We’re over a week in to February — perilous territory for we New Year’s resolution-setters. How are your goals for the new year holding up? When we make promises to do something differently, start something new, or stick with a plan, what we’re really attempting is behavior change. It takes 21 days to change a habit, according to Dr. Maxwell Maltz and his book Psycho-Cybernetics. I’ve certainly seen this to be true when coaching and changing communication behavior (give or take a week or two!). By the way, that’s 21 consecutive days, not a couple days…

• Video Blog: Tell a story to land your point

  Ben Decker

  6 Feb 2012 | 10:31 am

  Recently, I coached an executive who shared a great example of business storytelling, as an alternative to getting bogged down in data speak. I now share it so you keep using SHARPs (Stories, Humor, Analogies, References & Quotes, Pictures & Visuals) to drive your points and lead others to action. Enjoy! Please let me know your thoughts in the comments and share your own stories.

• Roll with the technical difficulties

  Ben Decker

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:28 am

  The audience only gets what you give them. That’s what I kept forgetting as I moped through the Fort Lauderdale airport yesterday. Thanks to inflight wifi, I bring you my story from a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet, on my way home from a three-city keynote tour for a new financial services client (they’ve grown 30% per year for the last few and are investing in their people’s communication skills). The Orlando keynote was great, but then came Fort Lauderdale. True to form, I showed up at the venue early to find the room and set up my equipment. Despite testing it all, this keynote was…

• Simplify your complex problem

  Ben Decker

  20 Jan 2012 | 8:20 am

  Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler. -Albert Einstein In the wake of primary season and PAC spending mania, comedians Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart have taken it upon themselves to shine a spotlight on the problems with Political Action Committees. It’s a complex issue, but they’ve made it tangible by using SHARPs (Stories, Humor, Analogies, References & Quotes, Pictures & Visuals) to grab our attention and go viral. The PAC issue is nonpartisan – campaigns for Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Green Party alike use PACs as a…

• Video Blog: Steve Jobs motivated with numbers

  Ben Decker

  4 Jan 2012 | 6:00 am

  Before coming up for air from the new Steve Jobs biography, I stumbled across a great example of how to motivate people by using graspable numbers. We call this a SHARP (Stories, Humor, Analogies, References and Quotes, Pictures and Visuals) using human scale statistics, which we’ve covered before but will again because it’s so valuable. Take a look and see how you can incorporate this idea in to your next opportunity.

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  @ProBlogger

• 6 Powerful Guest Post Tactics that No One’s Talking About

  Guest Blogger

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:05 am

  This guest post is by Tom Ewer of Leaving Work Behind. Guest posting is a hot topic amongst startup bloggers. It is one of the most widely-adopted blog promotion strategies in existence, and has been made perhaps even more popular by the success of “serial” guest posters such as Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing. His “blitzkrieg” strategy may come across to some as a triumph of quantity over strategy, but nothing could be further from the truth. He understands the key concepts that we will be exploring in this post, and executes them in a highly effective manner. Whilst…

• How to Succinctly Report a Blog Issue to Tech Support

  Guest Blogger

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:07 am

  This guest post is by Matthew Setter of Malt Blue. How often do you find it happening to you? You discover an issue with your site, or one of your community members emails you to tell you about it, and soon you start to see tweets about it too. Maybe it’s as simple as an error message that detracts from the professional appearance of your site. Perhaps the contact form doesn’t send messages to your contact email address. Or is it that the whole site just displays as a blank page, otherwise known as the white page of death? You’re not a programmer, a software engineer or a seasoned…

• Make Your Blog Load Faster than ProBlogger: Part 2

  Guest Blogger

  7 Feb 2012 | 12:05 pm

  This guest post is by Devesh of WP Kube. A few months ago, I wrote a guest post here called How to Make Your Blog Load Faster than ProBlogger. Today, I’ll go into some more detailed advice to help you speed up your site even more. If you’re a blogger, you already know about the importance of blog loading speed, and the role it plays in search engine rank and marketing your blog. But if this is new territory for you, here are three quick reasons why you need to speed up your blog: Google includes website loading speed as an important metric in their ranking algorithm. If you want…

• How I Beat my Best Month Ever by Doing Something Good, Better [Case Study]

  Darren Rowse

  7 Feb 2012 | 6:04 am

  Mid-December 2010: on my photography site, we launched a new campaign—our first ever 12 Days of Christmas promotion. The result was my biggest month of earnings ever up to that point. The idea was simple: offer discounts on 12 products over the 12 days leading up to Christmas. I used a mix of my own ebooks and products from other photography sites with affiliate commissions. The result was massive. Not only did we see some great revenue generated, it created some lovely buzz on the site. Due to the success of the 2010 campaign, in mid-December 2011 we launched our second 12 Days of…

• Six Steps to Make Sure Your Site Is Ready to Go Viral

  Guest Blogger

  6 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am

  This guest post is by Nancy Sathre-Vogel of Family on Bikes. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Surely Google Analytics was confusing my site with another, way more popular site. There was no way my visitor numbers could be so high! And yet they were. One of my posts had taken off and was spreading like wildfire. Those viral post phenomena that happen to others were now happening to me. The first day, 17,000 visitors came to my website. The next day we topped out at 56,000. Readers were coming in droves. It was exciting. It was exhilarating. My site, viral! Wow! And then I took a…

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  Presentation Zen

• Hans Rosling: The Jedi Master of data visualization

  Garr

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:31 pm

  Dr. Hans Rosling is one of my presentation heroes; he's been featured or mentioned in all my books and several times on presentationzen.com over the years. If there is a Jedi Master of presenting data clearly, visually, and simply, then it is Hans. He proves time and time again, that data are not dull—and when you are trying to change the world, there is no excuse for boring presentations. Most people are aware of Dr. Rosling through his popular TED Talks, but just in case you've never seen him present, below is a nice 5-minute piece he did on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS. At TED.com you'll…

• New: Presentation Zen (2nd Edition)

  Garr

  18 Jan 2012 | 10:36 pm

  Four years ago my first book Presentation Zen was published by Peachpit Press. Since then I wrote two other presentation books and a sketchbook/storyboard book and a DVD (plus an additional DVD/Book just for Japan). Although a lot of time had passed, I was still happy with the original Presentation Zen. And yet, the original Presentation Zen book could benefit from a little freshening up in the form of a 2nd edition for 2012. This 2nd edition of Presentation Zen has the same look and feel as the original book and I still did all the design and layout myself. The biggest difference is the book…

• 10 great books to help you think, create, & communicate better in 2012

  Garr

  10 Jan 2012 | 4:54 am

  In the spirit of personal kaizen, I have listed below a few books that I read (or reread) over the past year that you may want to read as part of your own continuous improvement journey. (Clicking on the book's icon takes you to Amazon.com.) (1) Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long. Over the last 10-20 years scientists have made many remarkable discoveries concerning the brain and how it works. David Rock is not a neuroscientist but he is a good "neurotranslator" of the scientific evidence and does a good job of…

• Progress and the intentional selection of less

  Garr

  30 Dec 2011 | 5:26 pm

  Many people today talk about presentation technology as if it were a panacea for boring lectures and ineffective presentations. Technologies such as our laptops, iPads, and cool software packages are wonderful tools that can, when used well, increase the quality of communication and engagement. This is especially true when we need to engage with people live on the other side of the planet via tools like video conferencing, webinars, Skype, and so on. However, while technology has evolved in dramatic ways over the last generation, our deep human need for visceral connections, and personal…

• Steve Jobs: "People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint"

  Garr

  20 Dec 2011 | 5:12 am

  One thing we need to constantly remind ourselves is that slides and other forms of projected visualization—no matter how "cool" they may be—are not appropriate for every context. Multimedia is great for presentations before large groups such as keynote addresses or conference presentations, but in meetings where you want to actively discuss issues or go over details in depth, slides—especially the snooze-inducing bulletpoint variety, which are never a good idea—are almost always counter productive. I stressed early on in the first version of Presentation Zen four years ago—and ad…

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  The Official Google Blog

• Going gothic with bestselling author Anne Rice

  A Googler

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:00 am

  Bestselling Southern American author Anne Rice is coming to Google headquarters to discuss her latest book, The Wolf Gift, on Friday, February 24 at 10am PT. One of the most popular authors of contemporary fiction, Rice has bewitched readers with her vampire chronicles, tales of the Mayfair Witches and other metaphysical gothic fiction for more than thirty years. Submit your question online between now and Feb 23 at midnight PT, and it could be asked during the Interview with the Vampire—we mean, the interview with Anne Rice. To watch the live broadcast, tune in to the Authors@Google…

• Introducing Chrome for Android

  A Googler

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:40 am

  In 2008, we launched Google Chrome to help make the web better. We’re excited that millions of people around the world use Chrome as their primary browser and we want to keep improving that experience. Today, we're introducing Chrome for Android Beta, which brings many of the things you’ve come to love about Chrome to your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone or tablet. Like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized web browsing experience with you wherever you go,…

• What’s your X? Amplifying technology moonshots

  A Googler

  6 Feb 2012 | 6:10 pm

  Last week, we ran an experiment. We hosted a gathering, called “Solve for X,” for experienced entrepreneurs, innovators and scientists from around the world. The event focused on proposing and discussing technological solutions to some of the world’s greatest problems. Discussions began last week with this small event, and now we invite others to join the conversation on our website and our Google +page. The Solve for X gathering, which we co-hosted with Eric Schmidt, is a place to celebrate a concept we champion internally and that we believe will inspire many others: technology…

• Supporting U.S. student veterans with a new scholarship

  A Googler

  6 Feb 2012 | 3:03 pm

  The newest addition to the Google scholarships family is the Google Student Veterans of America (SVA) Scholarship. We’re partnering with the nonprofit Student Veterans of America (SVA) to support their mission of providing veterans with the resources, support and advocacy they need to succeed in higher education and throughout their careers. The Google SVA Scholarship is available to student veterans who are pursuing degrees in computer science and related fields in the U.S. for the 2012-2013 academic year. In addition to the financial award, recipients will be invited to attend the annual…

• Super Bowl XLVI: Mobile, Manning and Madonna

  A Googler

  6 Feb 2012 | 6:35 am

  Now that the final Super Bowl touchdown has been scored, the dip bowl wiped clean and the last of the chicken wings devoured, we’re taking a look at some game-day search trends to see what football fans were searching for this year. As the Giants and Patriots battled it out on the field yesterday, U.S. viewers multi-tasked, watching the game on television and also going online more than ever before, turning to their smartphones and tablets to look up players, halftime show performers and their favorite Super Bowl commercials. In fact, around 41% of searches related to [Super Bowl ads] that…

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  NYT > Home Page

• Breakthrough on Austerity Clears Way for Greek Deal

  By RACHEL DONADIO and NIKI KITSANTONIS

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:34 am

  After days of talks, Greek political leaders reached a deal Thursday to support a package of harsh austerity measures demanded by Greece’s financial backers in return for a bailout.

• For Recently Divorced Men, a New Breed of Decorators

  By EMILY WEINSTEIN

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:30 am

  For recently divorced men, a new breed of decorators offers help navigating a strange new world.

• U.S. and Israel Split Over How to Deter Iran

  By MARK LANDLER and DAVID E. SANGER

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:29 am

  An intense debate has erupted over when Tehran’s nuclear facilities will become invulnerable to an Israeli attack, and if economic sanctions need more time to work.

• Kodak to Stop Making Digital Cameras to Cut Costs

  By REUTERS

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:25 am

  Eastman Kodak, the inventor of the hand-held camera, plans to stop making digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames in the first half of 2012 in an effort to cut costs.

• Settlement Worth $26 Billion Reached for Homeowners

  By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ and SHAILA DEWAN

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:23 am

  Nearly two million Americans could benefit from mortgage relief from the nation’s biggest banks, as part of a broad government settlement announced on Thursday.

• 

  Most Popular Entries on HuffingtonPost

• George Huguely Trial: Virginia Lacrosse Player Emailed Yeardley Love 'I Should Have Killed You'

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:33 pm

• CNN Suspends Roland Martin For 'Offensive' Super Bowl Tweets

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:03 am

• Miley Cyrus Garter Tights Turn Heads On Starbucks Coffee Run (PHOTOS)

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:52 am

• LeRoy Mystery Illness Symptoms May Be Spreading Through Social Media

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:41 am

• Alyssa Bustamante Verdict: 'Thrill Killer' Gets Life With Possible Parole For Killing 9-Year-Old Elizabeth Olten

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:23 am

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  Speaking about Presenting: Presentation Tips from Olivia Mitchell

• Find a Presentation Designer Here

  Olivia Mitchell

  25 Jan 2012 | 12:22 pm

  Are you looking for a presentation designer? I’ve been asked so many times if I could recommend a presentation designer that I’ve decided to publish a list of PowerPoint and Keynote slide design companies and freelancers. I asked each presentation designer to talk about their approach to presentation design and to give me an example of a slide that represents their brand. I’ve used a very traditional method to order these presentation designers – it’s alphabetical based on the principal’s last name. You’ll see a tremendous variety in approaches…

• 6 Presentation Links Worth Clicking

  Olivia Mitchell

  14 Jan 2012 | 5:33 pm

  When I was in the States last year, I met up with Nancy Duarte… and she interviewed me. She’s now written up the interview on her blog. Find out more about my story and why I’m passionate about helping people be better presenters – and particularly helping people overcome the fear of public speaking. Here’s the link: Nancy Duarte interviews Olivia Mitchell. And here’s five more links to great writing on presentation skills: Even TED speakers get nervous TED is an elite conference where invited speakers give 18 minute talks on the ideas they’re…

• The sobering truth about what an audience remembers

  Olivia Mitchell

  27 Sep 2011 | 8:40 am

  Last week I spent three awesome days at the Presentation Summit. In this post, I want to explore what audience members remember from a presentation, using the first three keynotes of the conference as my examples. I asked as many people as I could what they remembered from each of these keynotes. This was an informal, non-random, non-scientific survey. Nigel Holmes Photo Credit: Rikk Flohr – www.rikkflohr.com Nigel Holmes is a phenomenal graphic artist who used to be Art Director for Time magazine. His presentation didn’t start well – there were a few technical hitches and it took him…

• The two types of presenter: which are you?

  Olivia Mitchell

  25 Aug 2011 | 3:03 pm

  This is a post written by Tony Burns, my partner and co-trainer. There are two types of people in the world – those who divide the world into two types of people, and those who don’t. I’m one of the former. I find models useful – they show distinctions that can help explain and predict behaviors – and they can help us see other opportunities and ways we can grow. One distinction that, as a presenter and presentation trainer, I’ve found useful, is to look at whether a person is “careful” or “carefree” when it comes to creating and delivering presentations. It’s a question…

• The 5-step cure for boring body language

  Olivia Mitchell

  16 Jun 2011 | 2:05 am

  Could your body language be more expressive? Do you inhibit your natural body language when you’re public speaking because of your self-consciousness? Or maybe you’ve been told (by a well-meaning but misguided person) that you wave your arms around too much? As a result you’ve shut down your natural gestures and become stiff and boring. The secret to curing boring body language in public speaking is to replicate the state you’re in when you’re in an animated one-on-one conversation. When you’re in that state your gestures unconsciously complement what…

• 

  Wired Top Stories

• Bitly Fights for Social Analytics With Weapons-Grade Math

  Caleb Garling

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:30 am

  Bitly is just one of many tools that are trying to make sense of people's behavior on social networking services -- and put this information to use inside marketing departments. Like Bitly, the Vancouver, Canada-based HootSuite offers a "social dashboard" that seeks to analyze the performance not only of shortened links, but other media. Big names like IBM and Salesforce.com offer social analytics tools. And Google has gotten into the game with its acquisition of another Canadian outfit, PostRank.

• Feb. 9, 1870: Feds Get on Top of the Weather

  wired

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:30 am

  President Ulysses S. Grant signs a bill creating what we now call the National Weather Service. Forecasting models were simple but generally effective.

• Up Your Game With Banned Sports Gear

  MichaelSalvador

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:30 am

  These athletic aids — from bats to balls to hockey sticks — aren?t approved for official play, but they can give you the unfair advantage you deserve.

• Amphibious Network Lets Marines Share Data From 250 Miles Away

  Spencer Ackerman

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:30 am

  The Marines think they have their data network of the future, an experimental communications system that can keep jarheads linked to sea bases 250 miles away. If it works, it'll be a big win for a Navy/Marine plan to take U.S. troops off of land bases where the locals don't want them. And it got its first test this week off the Atlantic coast during a massive wargame.

• Goodbye Magic Bullet: Hello, Highly Resistant Gonorrhea

  Maryn McKenna

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am

  Physicians have announced that the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea threatens to become untreatable, thanks to the acquisition of antibiotic resistance. Superbug blogger Maryn McKenna reports.

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  HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog

• The History of Marketing: An Exhaustive Timeline [INFOGRAPHIC]

  Corey Eridon

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am

  Ever since people have had something to sell, we’ve been marketing. But the effectiveness of those marketing methods have waxed and waned over thousands of years, and as consumers and their technologies advanced at a more and more rapid pace, marketers have had to change their game. At one time, cutting edge technology was limited to just a small segment of the population – and these advancements were slowly rolled out to the masses over decades (and even centuries!). Now, adoption rates are faster than the speed of light and more widespread than ever – and it’s…

• How to Score Your Leads So Sales Works the Hottest Prospects

  Pamela Vaughan

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:47 pm

  The good news about inbound marketing is that it can help you attract high volumes of leads. The challenge then becomes, how do you separate the good, quality leads from the people who are just starting to look around? That’s where lead management, and specifically, lead scoring comes in. With lead scoring, you can attach values to each of your leads based on their professional information and the behavior they’ve exhibited on your website. For example, you would likely rank a vice president-level lead who has spent time on both your products and pricing page higher than an…

• A Marketer's Complete Guide to Launching Mobile Apps

  Corey Eridon

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:02 am

  According to former CEO of AppVee and AndroidApps Alex Ahlund, the average cost to develop a mobile app is $6,453 -- and the cost can skyrocket to as much as $150,000 depending on the complexity of the app. Wherever you fall on that spectrum, the money and resources you dedicate to conceptualizing and developing a truly great mobile app can all be put to waste if you don't orchestrate a proper mobile app launch. In fact, in December 2011, the 1 millionth mobile app was pushed to market. To give you an idea of just how quickly these mobile apps are being released, at the end of 2010, there…

• How to Attract the RIGHT Social Media Followers for Your Business

  Meghan Keaney Anderson

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am

  The benefits of an extensive social reach are clear, but how do you attract the right followers for your company? As with most inbound marketing, relevancy can make or break the effectiveness of your strategy. So to ensure you have a social media following that helps you advance your marketing objectives, start by identifying a set of core topics that reflect the interests of people who typically become your customers. If you're a HubSpot customer, you can use the Keywords App and the Social Media Prospects App to help with this. For example, we at HubSpot would choose the…

• Why User-Generated Content Is More Important Than You Think

  Corey Eridon

  7 Feb 2012 | 11:33 am

  A certain group of consumers has been gaining attention from marketers recently, because of the strong role they play in the purchasing decision; these power purchasers are known as Generation Y. Whether they're part of the target audience to which you sell or not, this group is worth considering as part of your inbound marketing strategy because there's a strong likelihood they either will become part of your target audience in the future, or because they already influence your target audience now. Let's break down who these power purchasers are, some of the interesting demographics and…

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  Holy Kaw!

• A battle of the sexes on cleanliness and hygiene [infographic]

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:26 am

  Via Keeping It Kleen. Clean dating. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Coffee-themed bike racks

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:13 am

  Java junkies that commute via bicycle get their coffee experience started before even walking in the door of Filter Coffeehouse & Espresso Bar in Washington, D.C. The quirky joe shop recently installed bike racks shaped like a giant coffee mug and French press. The Washington Area Bicycle Association teamed up with the BikeBrand Your Biz campaign to set up the bike racks that not only accommodate the shop's many bikers, but also are wonderful branding for anyone strolling by. Via Laughing Squid. Coffee and biking make for a good morning. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• America's bacon obsession: 10 bacon-inspired products

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:07 am

  How much do we love our cured meats? A whole lot: On average, every American eats 18 pounds of bacon per year. Now, that salty meat obsession is reaching a new level. A look at the bacon craze sweeping the States, from the relatively tame bacon shake to the 'wait, what?' bacon lube: View slideshow at The Week. Photo: CC by kimtaro All the top stories from The Week. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• The content marketing explosion [infographic]

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:44 am

  Via Blue Glass Interactive. Marketing infographics. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• 8 historical figures who ate disgusting things

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:26 pm

  Before you read this article, you may have thought your dog had the grossest eating habits ever. But Fido's penchant for poo is nothing compared to some of these sickos highlighted in Cracked. For example, Victorian scientist William Buckland: He didn't just stop at the meat of animals, either. While on a visit to St. Paul's Cathedral, a strange mark was found on the floor. A debate broke out as to what the stain could possibly be, at which point Buckland got on his hands and knees, licked the stain and confidently announced it to be bat piss. But the craziest thing Buckland ever did, at…

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  TechCrunch

• Kodak Shutters Digital Camera Business In Favor Of Licensing, Photo Printing

  Chris Velazco

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:47 am

  Consider today the end of an era for one of the most iconic brands in the imaging industry. While their bankruptcy protection filing from last month signaled the need for some drastic action, it’s still a bit of a shock to see Kodak announce that they are putting all of their digital cameras, camcorders, and picture frames out to pasture. When all is said and done, Kodak expects annual operating savings of around $100 million, but the bigger loss is going to be that of a cultural icon. Kodak will still exist, sure, but primarily as a purveyor of desktop printers as well as online and retail…

• Shopzilla Founder Launches Cheers: The “Like Button” For The World Around You

  Rip Empson

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:40 am

  The “toast” is an age-old, time-honored tradition, where we raise a glass to pay tribute to — and express our goodwill towards — friends, loved ones, and sometimes even our fellow man. They are even known to be meaningfully punctuated with by a good drinking song or two. And now, thanks to BizRate.com and Shopzilla Founder Farhad Mohit, there is, as they say, an app for that expression of goodwill. Yes, “cheers” is no longer simply a word that accompanies toasts — or the place where everyone knows your name — it’s also the…

• Nielsen: Cord Cutting And Internet TV Viewing On The Rise

  Sarah Perez

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:24 am

  According to a new report from Nielsen, the number of U.S. homes that have broadband Internet, but only free, broadcast TV, is on the rise. Although representing less than 5% of TV households, the number has grown 22.8% over the past year. In addition, the behaviors within these homes are unique. These broadband/broadcast-only households stream video twice as much as the general population, says Nielsen, and they watch half as much TV. Nielsen hesitates to dump all these households in the “cord cutters” bucket, though, saying that while perhaps some are cord cutters (the term that…

• Protesters March Toward Apple Stores On The Heels Of A Foxconn Hack

  Jordan Crook

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:09 am

  It would seem that representatives from Change.org and SumOfUs.org have organized a global protest against Apple’s use of Foxconn and other Chinese manufacturing plants to build the iPhone and iPad. This comes on the heels of a New York Times series exposing harsh working conditions in said plants. 250,000 people have signed petitions calling for a “worker protection strategy”, which will today be delivered to Apple stores in a number of major cities, including New York. We’ve known about the harsh conditions at Foxconn since well before the NYT series. The media…

• Appcelerator Acquires Mobile Cloud Services Startup Cocoafish

  Sarah Perez

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:58 am

  Appcelerator, the company behind the popular Titanium app-building platform, is announcing its third acquisition today. The company is buying Cocoafish, a mobile app infrastructure provider that lets developers add various features to apps including messaging capabilities, push notifications, photo uploads, checkins and other social features, storage, discussion forums and more. Although the name implies an iOS affiliation, Cocoafish is actually a cross-platform backend service provider supporting iOS, Android, and even Flash and Ruby. Starting in Q2 2012, the features Cocoafish previously…

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  Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

• How to Use a WordPress Blog as a Referral Generator

  John Jantsch

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:19 am

  How to Use a WordPress Blog as a Referral GeneratorThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’ve seen and heard this scenario countless times. Two perfectly suited strategic partners determine they should start doing some things together in an effort to create referral opportunities for each other. They shake hands and agree that it’s a fabulous idea, but then nothing happens. Mostly nothing happens because there’s no catalyst to get the ball rolling in a way that makes sense. I mean, sure, they could both send out a mass mailing to their clients professing how great the other is, but…

• Turn Your Business Into a Community Building Platform

  John Jantsch

  8 Feb 2012 | 5:36 am

  Turn Your Business Into a Community Building PlatformThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I believe the future of business and commitment building resides in the idea of viewing your business as a platform for your community. The notion of a platform is one that receives a fair amount of play in various contexts. An author is said to possess a platform when they have built a following. Consultants might work with a business owner to build a platform through speaking, writing, blogging and connecting in social media. And finally, many tech firms have built platforms by creating open source…

• Is Your Marketing Producing the Results You Expected

  John Jantsch

  7 Feb 2012 | 5:58 am

  Is Your Marketing Producing the Results You ExpectedThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Quipol Image:One-Fat-Man via Flickr CC The poll question above is a bit loaded and, not that I want to skew the results, the answer for most lies in the fact that they don’t really know what results they expected or what result they are actually getting. Mostly they know the results aren’t what they had hoped for, but that’s another issue. Setting expectations One of the simplest, yet most effective, things you can do is set expectations or goals for your marketing. You can create…

• This Is a Message from Your Heart

  John Jantsch

  6 Feb 2012 | 5:51 am

  This Is a Message from Your HeartThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I had a heart scan the other day – mainly because I’m old and my spouse is convincing in the most loving way. a4gpa via Flickr CCIf you’ve never done it, it’s a pretty incredible experience to get to watch the awesome mechanical miracle that is you heart spray blood in and out through a series of valves, tubes, chambers, levers and doors that any engineer would be challenged to recreate. More often than not the heart is the subject of poems and songs about romance and love but in addition to being a physical…

• Weekend Favs February Four

  John Jantsch

  4 Feb 2012 | 5:32 am

  Weekend Favs February FourThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or from my own travels. First run of the day Telluride Good stuff I found this week: Quipol – Easily create and embed social polls that are very easy to use and very good looking Transcribe – free online tool that makes it much easier…

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  HBR.org

• The Case of the Rolling Stone (that Gathers No Moss) Resume

  Tammy Erickson

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:30 am

  What would you think if a job candidate sent you a resume listing six jobs held in the last four years? Some of you would probably have an instinctively negative reaction: "This is someone who can't make up her mind or settle down — probably a flake. In 'my day' everyone knew that you couldn't change jobs more often than once every two years." Or would you have a more sympathetic interpretation? Perhaps that this is evidence of a candidate who is willing to take risks and seek out new opportunities? Resumes must be truthful — if you've had six jobs in four years, you need to say…

• How Employers Can Help Solve the Skills Gap

  David Smith

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:30 am

  In my consulting work with large, multinational companies, I see a pervasive anxiety among managers who have trouble finding people for skilled positions, no matter what industry or region. At the same time, employees are just as stressed about the growing skills gap, Accenture research shows, and most of them are unclear about which skills they need to advance their careers. There's a lot at stake here. The mismatch between the skills that companies need and the capabilities of people applying for job openings can result in delays in product releases, lower customer satisfaction, and loss of…

• The Most Important Question You Can Ask

  Tony Schwartz

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:52 am

  Why are you here? It's arguably life's most important question, but is it one you ask yourself? I recognize it's a question some people might view as self-indulgent, while others would see it primarily through a religious lens. But is there any part of an answer we could all agree on? I've found a very simple one for myself, and it's provided me in recent years with an increasingly powerful sense of clarity, inspiration and even joy. It's this: I'm here to add more value to the world than I'm using up. I use up resources every day — the gas I burn driving my car, the heat and…

• Yahoo's Shakeup Demands Fearlessness

  Nilofer Merchant

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:17 pm

  Four longtime Yahoo board members, including the chairman, are leaving the company. In this one move, Yahoo is trying to make a clean break from the past — signaling that they are primed to reboot. It's a much-needed and long-overdue step on the path to shifting trajectories. The Pattern of Failing Organizations Larger organizations follow a fairly predictable cycle when failing. It starts with denial. The proverbial "we're so awesome and our CEO is a rockstar so we're invincible" dynamic. Typically, this lasts some period of time (years, even decades) after having a lot of success.

• Managerial Intuition Is a Harmful Myth

  Andrew McAfee

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:51 pm

  I've been learning a lot from Danny Kahneman's great book Thinking Fast and Slow. Kahneman is the world's leading expert on human judgment and decision-making and the only non-economist to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics (he's a psychologist by training), so his insights and conclusions should be taken seriously. In Thinking Fast and Slow he collects them and explains them to the non-specialist. Read it and you won't look at the world the same way again. And you and the world will both be better off for it. In particular, we'll all be better off if we stop placing so much weight on…

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  HowStuffWorks Daily Feed

• How Yoga Works

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:00 am

  San Francisco International Airport opened a dedicated yoga room this week, free to all ticketed passengers. Yoga is big business in the U.S. But what are the breathing exercises, meditation and poses of yoga all about?

• Top 10 Tech Tools for Managing Your Money

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:00 am

  Knowing how to manage your money is a valuable skill, regardless of the state of the economy. And in today's tech-savvy climate, an array of tools can help you do just that. Read on to see the top 10 tech tools for managing your money.

• I love you and you and you and you

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:00 am

  Is it really possible to love more than one person? People who practice polyamory think so. Find out how much you know about polyamorous relationships with this quiz.

• 5 Memorable NASA Mission Videos

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:00 am

  On Feb. 9, 1995, Bernard A. Harris Jr. became the first African-American to perform a spacewalk. NASA has conducted several successful missions to space. These are some of the most famous.

• How Flirting Works

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:00 am

  A woman plays with her hair. A man makes eye contact. Is this flirting? How do you tell if the person is showing a romantic interest or a friendly one?

• 

  Business

• Jobless Claims Near 4-Year Low As Hiring Picks Up

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:06 am

  Weekly applications for unemployment benefits fell 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 358,000. That's the second-lowest level since April 2008. A consistent decline in applications has coincided with the best job growth since last spring.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Greek Government Reaches Austerity Deal That's Key To Bailout Payment

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:05 am

  The indebted nation needed to agree to more cuts in pensions and other programs. Now it's in line to receive about $173 billion more in financial aid.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Settlement Reached With Banks On Relief For Some Homeowners

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:10 am

  Officials have been pressing five banks to offer mortgage relief and some financial aid to homeowners who got crushed when the housing bubble burst or were caught up in the "robo-signing" scandal that sped up the foreclosure process.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• States, Banks Negotiate Foreclosure Settlement

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:00 am

  Assuming all goes as planned, at least 49 states will have signed on to a broad settlement between the banks and state attorneys general over robo-signing. Troubled homeowners may see some benefit, the banks will get some immunity provisions and the Obama administration is hoping to get some credit for negotiating the deal.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Swiss Bank UBS To Take Back Some Bonuses

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:00 am

  A trading scandal last year cost UBS more than $2 billion and pushed it into the red. The bank plans to take back some of that money, according to The Wall Street Journal. UBS's board of directors decided to take back half of stock-based bonuses awarded last year, if the bonuses exceeded $2 million.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 

  Church of the Customer Blog

• Playbooks and visual explanations

  Ben McConnell

  6 Feb 2012 | 8:30 am

  By the time the New York Giants and the New England Patriots took the field Sunday for their Super Bowl matchup, the players on both teams had read, re-read and rehearsed their respective game playbooks dozens, if not hundreds of times. They'd studied each play via multiple diagrams and photographs, stats and descriptions of assignments for every player on the field.  A playbook is an apt metaphor for any business team that needs concise, how-to plans to deal with the complexity of systems, processes and moving variables, especially with social business. Whether it's for one of the world's…

• People trust people

  Jackie Huba

  1 Feb 2012 | 12:27 pm

  [Click on chart to see larger version.] The latest edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer study just came out showing CEO's in the dog house when it comes to being trusted. Who do people trust? Academic and tech experts, sure. But the biggest movers in the study are "a person just like me" and "regular employee."  Look at your 2012 marketing plan. Are you providing ways for your customers to get together in-person and online to encourage word of mouth?  Are you showcasing your best employees in social media, at conferences, and at private events with customers? Source: 2012 Edelman…

• FedEx's apology: expertly delivered

  Jackie Huba

  21 Dec 2011 | 8:29 pm

  We've seen this before: 1) company makes an egregious service mistake and is outed by a customer via a YouTube video, 2) video goes viral, 3) mainstream media picks up the story and amplifies it, 4) PR nightmare begins. This week's culprit is FedEx. A California FedEx driver is caught on a security-camera video flinging a package containing a computer monitor over the fence of a gated Southern California house. At no time does the driver attempt to ring the bell for delivery. Just a toss over the fence, and he jumps back into his truck. In two days, the video has over three million views. …

• The simplest definition of word of mouth marketing

  Jackie Huba

  28 Nov 2011 | 12:38 pm

  Nice video from WOMMA on the basics of word of mouth marketing. Tweet

• 14 new statistics about word of mouth marketing

  Jackie Huba

  17 Oct 2011 | 11:45 am

  The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) has a neat infographic detailing the latest stats about word or mouth marketing, online and offline.  Source: WOMMA Note: the WOMMA Summit is coming up November 16-18 in Las Vegas. It's a great conference to learn the latest WOM marketing techniques from leading brands and agencies.     Tweet

• 

  Interviews

• Finding 'Life, Death And Hope' In A Mumbai Slum

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:01 am

  Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Katherine Boo spent more than three years in Mumbai's Annawadi slum. In her new book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, she profiles people living in extreme poverty — right in the shadow of luxury hotels.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Donald Hall: A Poet's View 'Out The Window'

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:30 am

  The 83-year-old former poet laureate reflects on how life has changed as he's grown older. "My body causes me trouble when I cross the room, but when I am sitting down writing, I am in my heaven — my old heaven," he says.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• The Risks And Rewards Of Practicing Yoga

  7 Feb 2012 | 8:34 am

  Yoga can be extremely beneficial, but it also can be quite dangerous. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist William Broad examines the pleasures and pitfalls of the practice in his latest book, The Science of Yoga.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Meryl Streep: The Fresh Air Interview

  6 Feb 2012 | 8:36 am

  Meryl Streep won a Golden Globe for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. She talks about preparing for that role, her other films and how her perceptions of herself have changed over the years.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• El-Arian On Economic Uncertainty

  5 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pm

  PIMCO CEO Mohamed El-Erian says the economic future is still uncertain because of the euro zone crisis, China's slowing economy and worrisome U.S. structural components. He talks to NPR's Guy Raz about his Foreign Policy piece "The World On A Knife's Edge." » E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 

  Financial Times - Europe homepage

• Euro firm on reports of Greek deal

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:09 am

  Lack of a Greek debt deal is not enough to destroy underlying bullish mood

• US jobless claims trend near four-year low

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:20 am

  First-time claims for jobless benefits fall, bringing the trend in lay-offs to the lowest level in nearly four years

• Thomson Reuters reveals $3bn goodwill charge

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:57 am

  Media and financial information group swings to $2.6bn fourth-quarter loss related to the declining value of its markets division

• China opens door to Syrian opposition

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:09 am

  China has held talks with Syrian opposition representatives in a sign that Beijing has begun hedging its bets on the latest Arab country shaken by unrest

• Bank of England lifts stimulus by £50bn

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:49 am

  The UK’s Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep interest rates at their current record low and authorised further gilts purchases totalling £50bn

• 

  BBC News - Business

• AUDIO: News Corporation profits soar

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:30 am

  Independent media analyst Theresa Wise told Radio 5 live Wake Up To Money about News Corporation's healthy results.

• VIDEO: Guinness maker announces profit rise

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:19 am

  The world's biggest drinks maker Diageo has announced a 15% rise in half year profits.

• AUDIO: Do quotas for women on boards work?

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:25 am

  Maggie Pagano, former business editor of the Independent newspaper, and Karima Serageldin, director at Ariadne Capital, discuss whether board room quotas work.

• VIDEO: Mood in Greece 'like slow death'

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:13 am

  The mood on the streets of Athens is bleak, as the government edges closer to announcing a deal on a new austerity package.

• VIDEO: Greek coalition fails to agree cuts

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:13 am

  Greek PM Lucas Papademos has failed to secure the support of his coalition for a raft of new austerity measures, after more than seven hours of talks.

• 

  Forbes.com: Most popular stories

• Sirius Looking Like Elway In Fourth Quarter

  David Penn

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:37 pm

  Seven days after dropping to its second, consecutive, new, short-term low at the end of January, shares of Sirius XM Radio have not only gained more than 7%, but have rallied to close at new, 6-month highs for the second time this year.

• Windows 8 Consumer Preview Coming In Late February

  E.D. Kain

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:02 pm

  Windows 8 is designed with tablets in mind (Image via Reuters) If you're itching to get your hands on a pre-release trial of Windows 8, you won't have to wait long. Microsoft has confirmed that it will release a trial version of the upcoming OS to anyone who wants to give it [...]

• The Mystery Monk Making Billions With 5-Hour Energy

  Clare O'Connor

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:22 am

  Ever heard of Manoj Bhargava? Probably not. He's a former monk who struck it rich with that ubiquitous red bottle: 5-Hour Energy. Read his improbable story.

• Maybach: The $500,000 Mercedes-Benz Mistake

  Micheline Maynard

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:40 am

  VideoMercedes-Benz had some very lofty hopes for the Maybach, the super-luxury car it hoped would compete with Rolls Royce and Bentley. But its failure has been a very costly mistake - to the tune of almost half a million dollars per car. Maybach 62 (Photo credit: andyrusch) That's roughly how much [...]

• How Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Kathy Ireland Became a $350 Million Mogul

  Dorothy Pomerantz

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:03 am

  The strange but true story of how swimsuit icon Kathy Ireland turned America’s most mundane products into a licensing empire—and became the first lady of flyover country.

• 

  Discovery News - Top Stories

• Cheaper, Paper RFID Tags

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:01 am

  RFID tags may soon be cheap enough to stamp on paper.

• 'Vomit Comet' Inspires Zero-Gravity Coaster

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:57 am

  A zero-gravity roller coaster will make you hurl...down the tracks at 100 miles an hour.

• Transparent Phone Screen: Avoid Walking Into Walls

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:54 am

  A new app helps you focus on a smart phone and see where you're going at the same time.

• How The Zebra Got Its Stripes

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:02 am

  Bold black and white stripes might help zebras evade disease-carrying flies but that's not the only benefit.

• Ice-Breakers Battle Europe's Big Chill

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:00 am

  Temperatures fell to -13 degrees Fahrenheit in Berlin as the current cold front that has claimed hundreds of lives in eastern Europe makes its way west.

• 

  Advertising Age - Small Agency Diary

• When It's Bursting at the Seams, an Agency's True Colors Show

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:41 am

  When it feels as if the wheels are about to come off an agency, it is a moment of truth. It's when an agency learns whether its people have the resiliency and imagination to outgrow its problems or whether they stay stuck in the present. Succeed and you emerge a stronger, maybe bigger agency. Fail and the agency shrinks back to its natural level of comfort.

• Are We Ever Going to Top the Greatest Super Bowl Ad of All Time?

  3 Feb 2012 | 8:23 am

  If we compare the most popular Super Bowl commercials from year to year, they all fall short of the one that got this magnificent obsession going in the first place: Apple's "1984." That iconic creation still leads everyone's list of the best ever. Why haven't we taken another huge leap and topped it?

• Two True Hall of Famers in the Ad Business: One Famous, One Not

  26 Jan 2012 | 9:26 am

  Two inductees into the One Club's Hall of Fame, Rob Lawton, co-founder of Creative Circus, and Apple's Steve Jobs both pushed others to achieve the impossible.

• Paterno's Legacy Includes Lessons for Building a Great Brand

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:03 am

  Joe Paterno's model for successful marketing of a national brand: set a smart strategy, instill the right cultural values and execute at the highest level.

• Study: More Regional Ad Agencies Budget for Digital Specialists

  17 Jan 2012 | 1:57 pm

  Social content, web development, analytics and display are significantly different specialties. Yet most agencies don't have the budget to hire full-timers.

• 

  World news: Spain | guardian.co.uk

• Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón found guilty in wiretapping case

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:48 am

  Human rights judge Garzón barred for 11 years after authorising illegal recordings of lawyers' conversationsThe Spanish judge celebrated for pursuing international human rights cases was convicted of overstepping his jurisdiction in a domestic corruption investigation on Thursday, the culmination of a spectacular fall from grace.A seven-judge panel of the supreme court unanimously convicted Baltasar Garzón and barred him from the bench for 11 years.Although less severe than the 20-year-ban the prosecution had originally demanded, the ruling is not subject to appeal. Garzón, 56, is also…

• Vodafone revenues dented by European economic woes

  Juliette Garside

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:28 am

  Mobile phone giant misses forecasts amid slump in spending power in Spain and Italy and price cuts imposed by regulatorsVodafone's UK customers are cutting back on their phone bills, forcing the telecoms multinational to miss third-quarter revenue forecasts as it battles economic headwinds across Europe."The UK has seen slightly weaker consumer confidence, translating into lower out-of-bundle usage and lower roaming revenues as UK consumers cut back on overseas travel," said chief executive Vittorio Colao.Price cuts imposed by regulators, and deteriorating spending power in Spain and Italy,…

• Antoni Tàpies and his art - in pictures

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:27 am

  The Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies, who saw his art as a meditation on 'the void', has died aged 88

• Mediterranean seagrass could be hundreds of thousands of years old

  Ian Sample

  7 Feb 2012 | 11:04 am

  Seagrass plants alive today may have begun life in the late Pleistocene at the dawn of humanityA sprawling meadow of seagrass in the shallows of the Mediterranean may be the oldest living organisms on Earth.Scientists calculated the age of the plants from DNA tests on clumps gathered from the seafloor between Spain and Cyprus.They revealed the typical age of the seagrass, Posidonia oceanica, to be thousands or tens of thousands of years old, though some appeared to more ancient still. A 15km-wide stretch of seagrass lying in waters off the Spanish island of Formentera could be 200,000 years…

• Canary Island volcano delights scientists but upsets locals

  Sandrine Morel

  7 Feb 2012 | 6:07 am

  Newly formed underwater volcano offers scientific opportunities but has disastrous effect on island's fishing and tourismThe formation of an underwater volcano off the coast of El Hierro, the southern-most Canary Island, offers scientists a unique opportunity to study this process. But for the people of this tiny scrap of Spanish territory, whose livelihood depends on fishing and tourism, it is a disaster.It all began in July 2011 when Spain's National Geographical Institute (IGN) noted a sudden increase in seismic activity. Then in October, an eruption occurred 2.4km from the coast at a…

• 

  Dumb Little Man - Tips for Life

• 5 Myths Haunting Your Healthy Foods

  DLM Writers

  3 Feb 2012 | 8:03 am

  These days, eating healthy has become a curiously difficult task. Despite the fact that the canons of healthy eating have not changed in centuries, the proliferation of health food products has continued unabated for years. It’s become a crisis of abundance.However, just because a product occupies shelf space in a boutique food store doesn’t mean it’s any better for you than its generic counterpart. Advertisers are very aware of the powers of “mood affiliation”, which is the tendency to associate familiar claims with one another. For example, consumers are very likely to believe a…

• Four Steps To Rescue Stray New Year Resolutions

  DLM Writers

  2 Feb 2012 | 6:55 am

  Looks like it is that time of year when many New Year resolutions that people set have already strayed. Attempts to kick a smoking habit for example, might have seemed successful for a few weeks but once the realities and stresses of coming back from the holidays have resurfaced, some people may have caved into the nicotine again.Of course there is the usual health promises that get broken too. According to the fitness industry, a lot of gym memberships are sold from December to February but gym attendance significantly drops shortly afterwards when people realize that working out involves a…

• Finding the Courage to Stay the Course

  DLM Writers

  30 Jan 2012 | 10:06 am

  Anytime you decide on the pursuit of an important goal, you’ll be faced with a series of challenges. Peaks, valleys and plateaus are par for the the course. But the thing that separates the people who make it from the ones that don’t is the courage to stay the course.At the start of any new endeavor most of us look forward to every single day with a child like excitement. We see infinite possibilities and the future appears bright. It seems as though there is absolutely nothing that can get in our way. We feel almost invincible and the possibility of failure doesn’t even occur to us. We…

• How to Deal with Difficult People and Have Constructive Conflict

  DLM Writers

  28 Jan 2012 | 8:32 am

  Life and relationships aren't always perfect. Take a minute to think of some difficult people you have to deal with in your life? These may be people you work with, the in-laws that come to town throughout the year, or your neighbor who can’t seem to take a hint. For whatever reason, you're just not jiving with these people.Do you flee? Or, do you get flexible and learn to interact?When we encounter these extreme personalities it can feel like they are trying to make our life miserable, but more often than not, it’s simply learning about these peoples’ tendencies and how to interact in…

• 7 Habits of Highly Excellent People

  DLM Writers

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:16 am

  Are you driven in life? Do you love to excel? I believe all of us do. We are born to be the best we can be and to make the best out of our lives.When I was in high school, I wasn't exactly the kind of student teachers would like. I was truant, didn't do my homework and did badly on my examinations. I was lazy and unmotivated in school. However, after a while I realized that this wasn't who I wanted to be. This wasn't the life I saw myself leading. People around me were judging and negative, and I had enough of all of that crap. I had enough of being discriminated against and I decided to turn…

• 

  Fresh Air from WHYY

• Finding 'Life, Death And Hope' In A Mumbai Slum

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:01 am

  Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Katherine Boo spent more than three years in Mumbai's Annawadi slum. In her new book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, she profiles people living in extreme poverty — right in the shadow of luxury hotels.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Donald Hall: A Poet's View 'Out The Window'

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:30 am

  The 83-year-old former poet laureate reflects on how life has changed as he's grown older. "My body causes me trouble when I cross the room, but when I am sitting down writing, I am in my heaven — my old heaven," he says.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Chuck Prophet's 'Beautiful' Homage To San Francisco

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:28 am

  Prophet has described his new album, Temple Beautiful, as a "love letter to San Francisco." Rock critic Ken Tucker says you don't have to be a Bay Area native to enjoy Prophet's melodies.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Two Rowdy Talk Shows Showcase Vintage Humor

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:31 am

  Both The David Susskind Show and The Sid Caesar Show featured large, unwieldy guest rosters and entertaining, timely jokes. A vintage episode of Susskind's show and a reunion of Caesar's writers are now available on DVD. TV critic David Bianculli says both offerings are laugh-out-loud funny.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• The Risks And Rewards Of Practicing Yoga

  7 Feb 2012 | 8:34 am

  Yoga can be extremely beneficial, but it also can be quite dangerous. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist William Broad examines the pleasures and pitfalls of the practice in his latest book, The Science of Yoga.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 

  Top News

• Creepiest Mirror Ever Displays Ghostly Animal Heads Mimicking Your Facial Expression

  Digg

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:24 pm

  This new concept displays a 3-D animal avatar as your reflection, mimicking your facial expressions in a horrifying, mocking way.

• Patent Troll Claims Ownership of Interactive Web – And Might Win

  Digg

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:53 am

  The city of Tyler, Texas, is better known as the nation's

• Tablets equipped to challenge iPad’s authority in 2012

  Digg

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:16 pm

  With amazing figures to show for iPad's sales, do other tablets stand a chance against Apple's deftly fueled onslaught?

• RapidShare: From "Notorious Market" To Proactive Piracy Eliminator

  Digg

  8 Feb 2012 | 5:28 pm

  In a 2010 submission to the US Government, RapidShare was described by the RIAA and MPAA as a “notorious market” for pirated media. Just one year later the file-hosting service was given a tacit clean bill of health.

• What the RIAA Won’t Tell You: Users Matter

  Digg

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:46 pm

  The truth is that a broad swath of public interest, consumer rights, and human rights groups were fighting these bills from the get-go, because we saw how they would harm users, not just technology companies and platforms. Due in part to the hard work of this coalition in raising public awareness, millions of those users saw that, too, and that’s why they contacted their Congressional representatives. We weren’t scared by rhetoric, we were scared by what the bills actually proposed, and we were really scared that the proponents didn’t seem to understand their own legislation.

• 

  Digital Life

• Redefining The Grieving Process In The Digital Age

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:00 am

  After a loved one dies, it's becoming more common to offer and receive condolences through a Facebook post or an email. New York Times contributor Bruce Feiler discusses the new customs that are evolving to guide the grieving process in the digital age.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Facebook: Lots Of Friends, But Stock Offering Has Risks

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:41 pm

  Roughly half of Facebook's users check in on smartphones and other mobile devices every month, but so far the company isn't making money on mobile. That's one of the potential pitfalls for the company as it prepares to sell its stock to the public.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• A Pulpit For The Masses: YouTube, Christians Click

  7 Feb 2012 | 12:42 pm

  Many have turned to YouTube to express their views about the message of Jesus. At least one has reached biblical proportions. With more than 18 million views, "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus" has become a sensation.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Social Media Acts As Catalyst For Policy Change

  6 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pm

  Websites like Facebook and Twitter played an integral role in last year's Arab Spring uprisings. But they've also brought about change right here at home. Audie Cornish talks to Clay Shirky, a professor of New Media at New York University, about how social media has fueled policy changes from Bank of America to Verizon, and the most recent backlash with the breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Chinese Labor Practices Sour Apple Consumers

  6 Feb 2012 | 8:15 am

  Apple products' manufacturers have been accused of exposing workers to toxic chemicals, hiring the underage, and improperly disposing of waste. Host Michel Martin talks with C-Net Editor Rafe Needleman about whether it's possible to make an ethical smartphone.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 

  Smashing Magazine Feed

• Smashing Special: WordPress Theme Trends For 2012

  Siobhan McKeown

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:25 am

     This special is the first in our series of Smashing Specials — extended articles and studies dedicated to a specific topic. The special features current WordPress theme trends for 2012, covering past trends, new developments in theme design and trends in the theme development. 2011 was a great year for WordPress, with some excellent new updates that saw the introduction of a drag-and-drop uploader, distraction-free writing, the HTML5 Twenty Eleven theme, and movement towards a fully responsive dashboard. As well as changes to WordPress core, theme development continued to…

• A Craft Of Consequences: Reader, Writer And Emotional Design

  Robin Rendle

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:06 am

     Before the very first page of a book has been read, you’ve already analyzed it in countless ways without even noticing. The paper stock, the thickness of the binding, the aroma, the color of the type and even the texture of the cover; the very character of the book is being dissected by the hand and eye at every moment. In this brief second there is a dialogue between the reader and the object. This conversation is subtle and complex, but for most people it is entirely subconscious. This is because we rarely think about these things  —  we feel them…

• Collaging: Getting Answers To The Questions You Don’t Know To Ask

  Kyle Soucy

  6 Feb 2012 | 7:02 am

     When conducting user research, we all know that asking the right questions is just as important as how you ask them, but how do you know exactly what questions to ask? What if the discussion topic is very personal? How do you get a complete stranger to open up? There is a better way to conduct an in-depth interview, and it doesn’t involve a clipboard. Just imagine what you could discover if the participant’s answers weren’t limited to a predetermined set of questions. This is where collaging can help. Collaging is a projective technique by which participants select images…

• How To Use Custom Post Types To Organize Online Marketing Campaigns

  Joshua Dodson

  3 Feb 2012 | 7:04 am

     Custom post types add a level of flexibility to WordPress that makes this open-source Web development platform more useful on many levels. Whenever I have been faced with a Web-based task, especially one that involves organizing information, the first thing I do is examine WordPress to determine if it can handle the job. It usually can. Image Source As an Internet marketer and analyst, I need to be able to organize online marketing campaigns in a way that is trackable in Google Analytics. This is the perfect task for WordPress custom post types. In this article, we’ll explain…

• Freebie: St. Valentine’s Day Icon Set (10 PNG/PSD Icons)

  Smashing Editorial Team

  2 Feb 2012 | 7:38 am

     Every now and then, we release useful freebies for all of our highly valued readers. Today, it is our pleasure to present to you Cuberto‘s fantastic St. Valentine’s icon set  —  exclusively designed for Smashing Magazine and its loyal readers. The icons presented are available in transparent PNGs as well as Photoshop PSDs (128×128 px) and are perfect for any projects you have coming up for St. Valentine’s Day. Enjoy! Download the Set for free! This icon set is completely free to use for commercial or personal applications without any…

• 

  Top 10 Lists

• Top 10 Worst Ways to Be Tortured in Medieval Times

  TopTenz Master

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pm

  The Middle Ages were truly not for the faint of heart.  Most people were peasants and dirt poor.  They lived short, brutal existences, and the peasants had few rights to speak of. And did we mention the torture?  I’m not talking about waterboarding here.  This stuff was brutal.  Some people got really creative in figuring [...]

• The Top 10 Most Important Paintings of All Time

  TopTenz Master

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pm

  It’s a well known fact that paintings and art, in general, are inherently subjective things.  Sure, we can talk about “famous” art, but fame does not equal quality; at the end of the day, all talks about the best or worst art of any kind come down to one basic question:  what IS art anyway? [...]

• Top 10 International Beauties Of 2012

  Bryan Johnson

  6 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pm

  In American English, the word “international” is commonly used as a euphemism for “foreign national.”  According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a foreign national is “an individual who is a citizen of any country other than the United States.”  On the contrary, in the European Union a foreign national is someone who is [...]

• Top 10 Not Well Known Documentaries

  TopTenz Master

  5 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pm

  The documentary gets no love, but it’s a key part of our filmic culture.  Too often, it’s lumped in with dull depictions of science topics on PBS, but documentaries fit in genres too, from comedy to horror.  Here are ten you may not have seen. 10. “The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On” A Japanese documentary, [...]

• Top 10 Songs That Get Stuck In Your Head

  Ryan Thomas

  2 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pm

  As time has progressed, we’ve seen music become much more sleeker and refined, designed for mass appeal from the get-go. Songs have become polished products like trinkets you can fit in your breast pocket and admire from the palm of your hand. It used to be that music had splinters and rough edges and a [...]

• 

  TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends

• Blood-Soaked Tea Brewers - The Shark Fin Infuser Eerily Treads and Prepares Your Cuppa (TrendHunter.com)

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:37 am

  (TrendHunter.com) This is probably the most creative tea-brewing invention to date; the Shark Fin Infuser is a mini shark-shaped strainer in which the avid tea drinker's tea leaves can be placed and set to float about a...

• Satirical Pop Culture Cartoons - Bastian Preussger Provides Viewers with Cerebral Visuals (TrendHunter.com)

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:27 am

  (TrendHunter.com) If you demand more from your visual arts than just pretty faces and provocative bodies, then Bastian Preussger is the artist for you. The Hamburg-based illustrator often renders images that make people...

• Pop Culture Equations - Maths by Mattcantdraw Breaks Down Characters into Simple Steps (TrendHunter.com)

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:17 am

  (TrendHunter.com) Maths by mattcantdraw is a series of pop culture equations that explains how many pop culture characters came to be. If this kind of math replaced the stuff in 3rd grade, there would be a lot more happy...

• The Power of Networks - Manuel Lima Discusses Knowledge and Interconnectedness (TrendHunter.com)

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:07 am

  (TrendHunter.com) Manuel Lima is a young senior design lead at Microsoft. He holds a BFA in Industrial Design and an MFA in Design & Technology from Parsons School of Design, New York. He applied his technological expertise...

• Designer Mash-Up Menswear - The Tomorrowland Spring/Summer 2012 Looks Mix and Match Multiple Labels (TrendHunter.com)

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:57 am

  (TrendHunter.com) The Tomorrowland Spring/Summer 2012 lookbook is an excellent collection of outfits put together using a variety of labels, like Mackintosh, Adam Kimmel and Mismo. For the seasons, the Japanese-based store...

• 

  NYT > Media & Advertising

• Media Decoder Blog: The Occupy Movement May Be in Retreat, but Its Ideas Are Advancing

  By DAVID CARR

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:44 am

  Is the Occupy Wall Street movement petering out, or has it already won a big victory by shaping the political campaign of 2012?

• Media Decoder Blog: The Breakfast Meeting: Young People Drift From TV Sets (Which Are Getting Huge!)

  By NOAM COHEN

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:11 am

  Also, Mike Huckabee takes on Rush Limbaugh, Rick Santorum gets a big lifeline, and the rise of Pinterest.

• Media Decoder Blog: A Lawsuit Accuses Relativity Media and Fortress of Fraud

  By MICHAEL CIEPLY

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:04 am

  The suit charges that a complicated financial transaction involving the producer of "Salt" and "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" and Citibank cut an investor out of $44 million.

• Young People Are Watching, but Less Often on TV

  By BRIAN STELTER

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:32 am

  Young people still watch many television shows, but they are streaming them on computers and phones to a greater degree.

• Advertising: A Social Network Review of Super Bowl Commercials

  By STUART ELLIOTT

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:22 am

  USA Today is adding a social network to its Super Bowl Ad Meter, teaming with Facebook to rate and share Super Bowl commercials.

• 

  Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Insights - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image

• How To Get Started As A Business Leader

  Mitch Joel

  7 Feb 2012 | 1:04 pm

  Your life and your success is not obvious. It's not a given. It's not a direct path. I often say that the best careers in marketing (specifically the ones that have a digital/new media slant) are very squiggly. They involve everything from stumbling through university and very crappy jobs to bad choices and decisions that were driven by financial debt instead of personal opportunity. Every year, I do my best to attend the TED conference. A couple of years ago, the name Chris Sacca was bandied around as someone who everyone wanted to not only meet, but hang out with. He was (and still is) a…

• Digital Tumbleweeds And Virtual Crickets

  Mitch Joel

  7 Feb 2012 | 6:51 am

  If you publish online get ready for a lesson in humility. Brands quit publishing content for the exact same reason that many individuals stop publishing content: the brutal reality that nobody cares. As someone who creates and publishes a lot of content online (roughly six Blog posts and one audio Podcast every week), there is both a certain humility and instant humiliation that comes along with the process. The cream rises to the top. Even in a world where two hundred billion videos get viewed every month, the cream still does rise to the top (as the saying goes). It's just that we seem to…

• CTRL AT DEL - The Business Book

  Mitch Joel

  5 Feb 2012 | 11:30 am

  CTRL ALT DEL is the title of my second business book. It will be published in Spring 2013. Following is the official press release and some media mention of the pending project... BUSINESS PLUS To Publish CTRL ALT DEL by Mitch Joel Author of the best-selling business book, Six Pixels of Separation, and President of award-winning Digital Marketing agency, Twist Image, signs with Business Plus for the release of his sophomore book. NEW YORK, February 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - Business Plus, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing (Hachette Book Group USA), has announced it will publish CTRL ALT…

• Madison Avenue And Mountain View Collide For The Future Of Marketing

  Mitch Joel

  5 Feb 2012 | 10:41 am

  Episode #291 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to. This is also episode #20.20 of Across The Sound. Joseph Jaffe is widely regarded as one of the top Marketing Bloggers (Jaffe Juice) and Podcasters (both Jaffe Juice in audio and Jaffe Juice TV in video). He is the author of three excellent books (Life After The 30-Second Spot, Join The Conversation and Flip The Funnel). A long-time friend (and one of the main inspirations behind the Six Pixels of Separation Blog and Podcast), we've decided to hold monthly conversations, debates and…

• Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #85

  Mitch Joel

  3 Feb 2012 | 8:40 am

  Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see? My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see". Check out these six links that we're…

• 

  Advertising Age - Global News

• GlaxoSmithKline Moves Global Aquafresh Account to TBWA From Grey

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:31 pm

  GlaxoSmithKline is moving the global creative account for Aquafresh toothpaste from Grey Group to TBWA Worldwide, which will manage the business out of London, said people familiar with the matter.

• Anomaly to Add Toronto Office, With Budweiser as First Client

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:59 pm

  According to CEO Carl Johnson, an Anomaly office will be up and running in Canada by April. The shop is the global brand agency for Budweiser.

• Nivea Demos Sun Protection in Brazil with a Million Beads

  7 Feb 2012 | 1:45 pm

  It's summer in Brazil, and Nivea Sun is demonstrating its effective protection against the scorching sun in Rio de Janeiro with a clever outdoor idea and one million beads.

• Smell-Vertising Hits U.K. With Potato-Scented Bus Shelters

  7 Feb 2012 | 1:39 pm

  To promote its new product Ready Baked Jackets, McCain Foods is tempting U..K consumers with the wafting smell of '3-D baked potatoes' as they wait at city bus shelters in York, Manchester, London, Nottingham and Glasgow.

• Five Great Agency Ideas From Around the World

  4 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pm

  Japan's Hakuhodo took the prize for Ad Age's International Agency of the Year last month, but many of those who didn't win submitted ideas you can learn from. Here are five of the best, culled from Latin America, Europe and Asia.

• 

  CNN.com - World

• Deep freeze puts strain on Ukrainian EMS

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:34 am

  As Ukraine suffers in the grip of a brutal winter, the country's ambulance service is inundated with calls for help.

• Spy agency called before Pakistani high court

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:30 am

  Long thought to be untouchable, Pakistan's secretive and powerful spy agency found itself in the nation's Supreme Court Thursday, charged with producing eight men it's accused of holding since 2010 and explaining the deaths of four other detainees.

• More than 700 suffer food poisoning after Mexico rally

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:21 am

  Authorities treated more than 700 people for food poisoning after a political rally in southern Mexico this week, officials said.

• Officials: Drone strike kills 4 in Pakistan

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:21 am

  A suspected U.S. drone strike killed four people in Pakistan's tribal region Thursday morning, Pakistani officials told CNN.

• Drillers reach hidden Antarctic lake

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:20 am

  Russian scientists briefly pierced the two-mile-thick veil over a freshwater lake hidden beneath Antarctica's ice sheet for millions of years, polar researchers announced Wednesday.

• 

  Our Editors

• Wanted: Idea Fusers

  Bronwyn Fryer

  7 Feb 2012 | 6:40 am

  It's become pretty much common knowledge that great innovation springs from the ability to pull two unlike things together to create a beautiful third. Steve Jobs famously shifted a paradigm when he fused calligraphy with technology to create the Mac's graphical user interface. Many great inventions fuse something very simple, cheap and widely accessible — say, a small piece of paper — with something expensive and complex — say, a medical laboratory test — to come up with a marvelous solution, such as George Whitesides' postage-stamp sized diagnostic tool. And though…

• HBR's Best Videos, Infographics, Podcasts, and Slideshows of 2011

  Sarah Green

  29 Dec 2011 | 8:13 am

  As you take some time to reflect, relax, and renew before the year to come, we offer you our most popular multimedia content from the year that was: podcasts, videos, slideshows, and infographics that we hope help you chart a successful course in 2012. First off, our most popular podcast this year was Justin Fox's interview with Bob Pozen, "Productivity Secrets of a Very Busy Man." Perhaps if I, too, were willing to eat the same bowl of cold cereal every morning — all in the name of simplifying and streamlining — I could be as prolifically perspicacious as the Harvard Business…

• Amazon Should Partner with Independent Bookstores

  Sarah Green

  27 Dec 2011 | 11:48 am

  I didn't buy any gifts from Amazon this year. I, whose entire job basically depends on the Internet — including editing HBR Singles like this and this, both sold through Amazon — developed a moral and intellectual aversion to purchasing goods from this Internet stalwart. Here's what happened. My original plan this holiday shopping season was, as usual, to order a pile of books — and kitchen gizmos, and DVDs, and who knows what all — from the online giant. I'd re-up my Prime membership, have everything shipped directly, and be done with it less than an hour. Merry…

• The Euro Crisis: Was Cameron Right?

  David Champion

  13 Dec 2011 | 7:52 am

  In yet another effort to solve the euro crisis, France and Germany last week agreed on a stability pact that essentially offers increased bailout funds in return for even stronger fiscal austerity on the part of the major debtor countries of Europe. But the deal arguably necessitated changes to the Treaties governing the European Union and as such required assent from all 27 EU member countries, ten of which are not members of the euro zone but whose economies are nonetheless closely integrated with it. To get around this problem and to provide the markets with a united front of governments,…

• How Technology Made Me Love to Shop

  Dan McGinn

  21 Nov 2011 | 8:01 am

  This blog post is part of the HBR Online Forum The Future of Retail. Like many men, I've never been very enthusiastic about shopping. That's partly because I'm frugal, and don't enjoy spending money. It's partly due to the hassles I associate with visiting retail stores — a series of inconveniences that begins in the parking lot (hunting for spaces), continues in the aisles (where I can never find what I need), and ends at the cash registers (where I have little patience for long lines). Much of the problem, though, lies in psychology. While I can be confident of my decision-making…

• 

  The Content Marketing Revolution

• What Can a Super Bowl Ad Buy You in Content Marketing?

  Joe Pulizzi

  6 Feb 2012 | 7:14 am

  So, another Super Bowl gone.  For those who advertised during the Super Bowl, the average cost of a Super Bowl ad this year was $3.5 million to promote their brand in front of 111 million viewers. For those counting, that’s $116,000 per second. Back in 2008 I looked at how much content marketing you could buy for the price of a Super Bowl ad.  Four years ago, the price for a 30-second-spot was $2.7 million (folks, in this market, the economy is working just fine).  That bought you A LOT of content.  Today, you can buy even more.  Here are a few examples. 47 Issues of Your Own…

• Lethal Generosity: The Key To Your Online Content Strategy

  Joe Pulizzi

  2 Feb 2012 | 6:16 pm

  The concept of Lethal Generosity was first coined by social media pioneer Shel Israel in 2008. Simply put: Lethal Generosity is the concept that the most generous members of any social media company are the most credible and influential and as such, they can devastate their competition in the marketplace. In short, the company whose representative posts the most tips, links, advice, case studies, best practices that followers find useful will always [rise] to the top, not just in influence but also in search results.  The more outbound links you post, the more inbound links you are likely…

• 47 Essential Social Media Tools for Content Marketers

  Joe Pulizzi

  1 Feb 2012 | 9:29 am

  It’s hard to believe the sheer number of social media tools we use everyday to help grow the Content Marketing Institute and SocialTract, as well as my own personal brand.  Since there are so many, I decided to update this post from almost three years ago.  It’s amazing the number of social media and content marketing tools that I continue to use, as well as the many that died over the years from lack of use. Which ones am I missing that you cannot live without? [disclaimer: many of the tools below are CMI partner tools] The Basics LinkedIn - Start the practice of connecting…

• McDonald’s Social Media Goes Wrong? Not a Chance

  Joe Pulizzi

  26 Jan 2012 | 4:49 pm

  You’d have to be living in a cave not to be aware of the now historic McDonald’s Twitter campaign launched a few days ago. If you’ve been out of it for a while, here’s the CliffsNotes version: McDonald’s promoted a Tweet using the Twitter hashtag #McDStories that went like this: ‘When u make something w/pride, people can taste it,’ – McD potato supplier #McDStories http://t.co/HaPM5G9F‘ (source). The link is a video  of McDonald’s potato supplier Frank Martinez and includes a heartwarming story about his life as a potato farmer.

• Tablet Content Marketing: Crazy Stats and Time to Move

  Joe Pulizzi

  25 Jan 2012 | 4:14 am

  If you are not up on the latest statistics on the tablet, here are some to chew on: Apple reported first quarter earnings, selling over 15 million iPads during the quarter.  This is a 111% increase from the previous quarter. In just under two years, Apple has now sold over 55 million units. According to Pew Internet’s latest findings, the share of Americans who own a tablet computer nearly doubled from December 2011 to January 2012.  The number of Americans now owning at least one tablet device is now at 29%. Tablet: The Curl-Up Device Historically in marketing, we have talked about…

• 

  Financial Times - Comment

• The world of finance needs a shame culture

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:52 am

  Those who hope to be summoned to the Palace may think a little bit harder before holding out for a giant bonus, writes Jonathan Ford

• US economy shows signs of return to health

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:36 am

  Lower debt and easier credit rekindle the housing market

• Google’s hardware hire must move fast to catch Apple

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:56 am

  Simon Prakash held the title of senior director of product integrity at Apple, so what would an internet company want with him?

• Don’t put venture capital at risk

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:53 am

  Financiers’ dotcom mistake of the 1990s could recur unless they are restrained in the face of the Silicon Valley gold rush, writes John Gapper

• Where Wukan has led, Beijing won’t follow

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:49 am

  Village leaders were savvy enough to frame their actions as a protest against local corruption, not against the Chinese system, writes David Pilling

• 

  Comedy on HuffingtonPost.com

• 10 Marriage Proposal Fails

  TheFW.com

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:34 am

  As we approach Valentine's Day and the season of love, a lot of couples get the urge to take that big step toward marriage. But before your eyes well up with tears of joy and sweetness, you must do the math. Based on the law of percentages, not all of these proposals can possibly go well. For all of you without dates and already sick of the season's saccharine sentimentality, TheFW.com has compiled 10 very sad and public proposal rejections to lift your spirits.

• Tom Falco: That Syncing Feeling

  Tom Falco

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:18 am

  For more Tomversation, visit http://www.tomversation.com/

• Why Ants Will Inherit The Earth

  Cracked.com

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:57 am

  When the empires of man finally fall and the memory of our hubris has faded to dust, ants will still be here, running shit. Like they have been for millions of years. Here's why ...

• PHOTO: Child Writes Vaguely Threatening Valentine

  Katla McGlynn

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:43 am

  Around each holiday, elementary schools start to resemble factories where little hands churn out seasonal fridge decor with nothing but construction paper, glitter, macaroni and some non-toxic paste. And while the kids toil away making cards for Valentine's Day, they're usually encouraged to write (to the best of their abilities) some sweet message on the inside. "Roses are red, violets are blue" -- you know, the usual stuff. Take this sweet message below for example. This little boy or girl went with the classic, "You're lucky to be alive" message in a Valentine to his or her parents. It's…

• WATCH: My Worst Valentine

  Christine Friar

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:43 am

  For his most recent Late Night trending topic, Fallon honored the season by asking people to share their worst Valentine's Day experiences ever. So if you thought the dinner your girlfriend burned last year was as bad as it gets, think again. The idea obviously struck a chord, because #MyWorstValentine became a worldwide trending topic in under 5 minutes. Just in case you're hungry for more Worst Valentines, the Late Night blog has rounded up some honorable mention tweets as well, so be sure to check those out. International readers can watch the clip here.

• 

  Science

• International Meeting On Controversial Bird Flu Research Draws Near

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:42 am

  The scientists, journal editors and others who attend are expected to review the facts and the most pressing issues related to this specific work, rather than have a broader discussion about the possibility of international oversight of potentially worrisome biological research.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Drilling Team Finally Hits Antarctica's Liquid Lake

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:00 am

  After years of trying, Russian scientists say they have drilled into an Antarctic lake that is buried beneath more than two miles of ice. They are looking for signs of life that haven't been exposed to sky in 20 million years.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• A New Weapon Against Nukes: Social Media

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:38 pm

  A top State Department official wants to unleash the power of Twitter, Facebook and other services to crowdsource the fight to control the world's nuclear weapons.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 'Amasia': The Next Supercontinent?

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:02 pm

  More than 100 million years from now, the Americas and Asia might fuse together, squishing the Arctic Ocean shut in the process. That's according to a new model that predicts where the next supercontinent may form. But don't worry: Humans will likely be long gone by then.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 'Rasputin Was My Neighbor' And Other True Tales Of Time Travel

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:44 am

  There are people who live long enough to create a link — a one-generation link — to figures from what feels like a distant past. And their presence among us shrinks history.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 

  All Things Considered

• Buoyant Santorum Takes Campaign To Texas — And Corrals Some Perry People

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:06 pm

  Fresh off victories in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum campaigned in Texas on Wednesday. He told a small group of pastors, some of them former supporters of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, that he is the true conservative left to challenge Mitt Romney.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• A New Weapon Against Nukes: Social Media

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:38 pm

  A top State Department official wants to unleash the power of Twitter, Facebook and other services to crowdsource the fight to control the world's nuclear weapons.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• China's Demolition Derby Turns History Into Rubble

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:05 pm

  Historic buildings in Beijing are being demolished in the pursuit of quick profit. Even the home of the architect who urged Mao Zedong to preserve Beijing's old city has fallen to the wreckers' ball, sparking considerable outrage. And the epidemic of destruction is spreading to new buildings, too.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 'Amasia': The Next Supercontinent?

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:02 pm

  More than 100 million years from now, the Americas and Asia might fuse together, squishing the Arctic Ocean shut in the process. That's according to a new model that predicts where the next supercontinent may form. But don't worry: Humans will likely be long gone by then.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Conservatives Worry Romney's Vision Is Cloudy

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:59 pm

  Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's losses on Tuesday have raised questions once again about his ability to inspire passion from his party's base. There has been a daily drumbeat begging Romney to put some meat on the bones of his policy agenda and set out his vision for the country.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 

  Research News

• International Meeting On Controversial Bird Flu Research Draws Near

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:42 am

  The scientists, journal editors and others who attend are expected to review the facts and the most pressing issues related to this specific work, rather than have a broader discussion about the possibility of international oversight of potentially worrisome biological research.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Drilling Team Finally Hits Antarctica's Liquid Lake

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:00 am

  After years of trying, Russian scientists say they have drilled into an Antarctic lake that is buried beneath more than two miles of ice. They are looking for signs of life that haven't been exposed to sky in 20 million years.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Does Offering Smaller Portions At Restaurants Help People Eat Less?

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:12 pm

  Asking for less food isn't something most people think about when ordering from a menu. A new study suggests that asking people if they want less food and, in turn, fewer calories, before they order is key.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 'Amasia': The Next Supercontinent?

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:02 pm

  More than 100 million years from now, the Americas and Asia might fuse together, squishing the Arctic Ocean shut in the process. That's according to a new model that predicts where the next supercontinent may form. But don't worry: Humans will likely be long gone by then.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Addicts' Brains May Be Wired At Birth For Less Self-Control

  2 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pm

  A study of cocaine addicts finds that they have abnormalities in areas of the brain involved in self-control. And these abnormalities appear to predate any drug abuse.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 

  Opinion

• New Republic: Santorum's Not Going Away Soon

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:32 am

  GOP candidate Rick Santourm recently won victories in Missouri, Colorado, and Minnesota. Walter Shapiro of The New Republic argues that for the first time during the 2012 campaign cycle, it seems sensible to take Santorum seriously for the long haul.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• The Nation: 'Anybody But Romney' Wins Everywhere

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:51 am

  While Romney's campaign has portrayed the Missouri primary and Minnesota and Colorado primaries as "non-binding beauty contests," John Nichols of The Nation asks why isn't the likely nominee supposed to be attractive enough politically to win beauty contests?» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Weekly Standard: Was This Tuesday Super Tuesday?

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:49 am

  Each Republican presidential candidate still needs over 1,000 delegates to win the Republican nomination. William Kristol of The Weekly Standard argues that candidate Rick Stanorum's victories in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri have upended the race» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Foreign Policy: Super Freaks

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:44 am

  SuperPacs, with their fundraising abilities, may play a large role in the 2012 elections. Joshua E. Keating of Foreign Policy describes the wacky American Phoenix SuperPAC that wants to fight Islam, ban circumcision, and bury people at sea.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• An Alien World Within Our Own

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:23 am

  Antarctica's Lake Vostok has been breached and may reveal secrets buried underneath the ice for over 20 million years, including new life forms.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 

  BBC News - News front page

• VIDEO: Ai Weiwei hopes to visit UK design

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:15 am

  Ai Weiwei, who gained global recognition for his design of the iconic Bird's Nest stadium for the last Olympics, is now designing a pavilion for this year's games in London.

• VIDEO: One-minute World News

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:34 am

  Watch the latest news summary from BBC World News. International news updated 24 hours a day.

• VIDEO: Protests in Maldives turn violent

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:13 pm

  Security forces in the Maldives have used batons and fired teargas to break up a rally in the capital, Male, in support of the former president, Mohamed Nasheed.

• VIDEO: Harry qualifies as Apache pilot

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:49 pm

  Prince Harry has qualified as an Apache helicopter co-pilot and gunner after 18 months of rigorous training in the UK and the US, the Ministry of Defence has said.

• VIDEO: Russia finds vast sub-glacial lake

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:57 pm

  Russian scientists have been drilling for two decades in the Antarctic and say they have found a vast sub-glacial lake.

• 

  Uploads by username: "stanforduniversity"

• 6. Cardiovascular Health for Athletes | Mini Med School

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:48 pm

  6. Cardiovascular Health for Athletes | Mini Med School (November 1, 2011) Assistant Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Euan Ashley, discusses the cardiovascular risks and benefits for high performing athletes. This course is a single-quarter, focused follow-up to the the yearlong Mini Med School that occurred in 2009-10. The course focuses on diseases of the heart and cardiovascular system. The course is sponsored by Stanford Continuing Studies and the Stanford Medical School. Stanford University www.stanford.edu Stanford Continuing Studies http:///continuingstudies.stanford.edu/ Stanford…

• 4. Bioengineering Cardiovascular Tools | Mini Med School

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:45 pm

  4. Bioengineering Cardiovascular Tools | Mini Med School (October 18, 2011) Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Beth Pruitt discusses his work in human embryonic stem-cell-derived cardiac myosites and future opportunities to use heart cells for regenerative therapy. This course is a single-quarter, focused follow-up to the the yearlong Mini Med School that occurred in 2009-10. The course focuses on diseases of the heart and cardiovascular system. The course is sponsored by Stanford Continuing Studies and the Stanford Medical School. Stanford University www.stanford.edu Stanford…

• Lecture 3 | The Theoretical Minimum

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:36 pm

  Lecture 3 | The Theoretical Minimum January 23, 2012 - In this course, world renowned physicist, Leonard Susskind, dives into the fundamentals of classical mechanics and quantum physics. He discovers the link between the two branches of physics and ultimately shows how quantum mechanics grew out of the classical structure. In this lecture, he works through some of the mathematics behind vectors and operators as used in physics. Stanford University: www.stanford.edu Stanford Continuing Studies: continuingstudies.stanford.edu Stanford University Channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com From:…

• 5. Stem Cells for Cardiac Repair | Mini Med School

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:24 pm

  5. Stem Cells for Cardiac Repair | Mini Med School (October 25, 2011) Associate Professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, Joseph Wu explores how stem cells may be used in the future to repair hearts that have failed. This course is a single-quarter, focused follow-up to the the yearlong Mini Med School that occurred in 2009-10. The course focuses on diseases of the heart and cardiovascular system. The course is sponsored by Stanford Continuing Studies and the Stanford Medical School. Stanford University www.stanford.edu Stanford Continuing Studies http:///continuingstudies.stanford.edu/…

• Lecture 2 | The Theoretical Minimum

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:16 pm

  Lecture 2 | The Theoretical Minimum January 16, 2012 - In this course, world renowned physicist, Leonard Susskind, dives into the fundamentals of classical mechanics and quantum physics. He discovers the link between the two branches of physics and ultimately shows how quantum mechanics grew out of the classical structure. In this lecture, he discusses some of the basic logic in quantum mechanics and then moves into some more mathematical concepts. Stanford University: www.stanford.edu Stanford Continuing Studies: continuingstudies.stanford.edu Stanford University Channel on YouTube:…

• 

  BBC News - Business

• Kodak exits digital camera market

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:42 am

  Eastman Kodak, a name synonymous with photography, is to stop making digital and video cameras.

• Greece leaders agree bailout cuts

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:35 am

  Greece agrees to the austerity measures required to gain a new bailout hours before eurozone finance ministers are due to discuss the deal in Brussels.

• US banks in mortgage settlement

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:35 am

  Five of the biggest US banks agree to provide $25bn in assistance to homeowners to settle claims over improper foreclosure practices.

• AUDIO: News Corporation profits soar

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:30 am

  Independent media analyst Theresa Wise told Radio 5 live Wake Up To Money about News Corporation's healthy results.

• Pensioners miss cold weather pay

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:26 am

  Up to 1.6 million pensioners are failing to claim benefits they are entitled to - including financial help during the cold snap.

• 

  Discovery News (Video)

• Massive Northern and Southern Lights Explained

  Discovery News

  6 Feb 2012 | 7:21 am

  Thanks to the largest solar radiation storm since 2003, beautiful aurorae have been popping up across the globe. Martin Berman talks to Discovery News Space Producer Ian O'Neill to understand how the aurora borealis and australis are created.

• Rehabbed Loggerhead Turtle Released

  Discovery News

  17 Nov 2011 | 7:21 am

  A rehabilitated loggerhead sea turtle was released by staff from the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Florida. Discovery News reporter Jessica Marshall was there to witness the turtle's return to its habitat.

• Bioluminescent Waves Explained

  Discovery News

  15 Nov 2011 | 7:21 am

  Multiple videos of bioluminescent waves off the coast of California have us wondering: What kind of otherworldly phenomenon is this? To find out, Jorge Ribas talks to a marine biologist.

• Surfer Almost Swallowed by Whale Explained

  Discovery News

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  A pair of leaping humpback whales nearly crush some curious onlookers. Jorge Ribas talks to a whale researcher to find out what the whales were doing right, and the people doing wrong.

• Mythical Roman 'She-Wolf' Cave Discovered

  Discovery News

  4 Nov 2011 | 8:21 am

  Archaeologists have uncovered the legendary grotto in which Rome's founders were said to have been nursed by a "she-wolf." James Williams reports.

• 

  Scientific American

• Shiny Science: Make Homemade Nontoxic Glass Cleaner

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  Key concepts [More]

• Why Your Romantic Partner Annoys You (preview)

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am

  Excerpted with permission of the publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc., from Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us , by Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman. Copyright © 2011 by Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman. This book is available at all bookstores, online booksellers and the Wiley Web site at www.wiley.com , or call 1-800-225-5945. [More]

• Does NIH Have a Bias Against African Americans?

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am

  Biomedical research scientists send proposals to the National Institutes of Health in the hopes of being funded. A recent study of this process, published in Science by the University of Kansas’s Donna Ginther and her colleagues, revealed that proposals from black applicants are significantly less likely to be funded than proposals from white applicants. This disparity was apparent even when controlling for the applicant’s educational background, training, publication record, previous research awards and employer characteristics. [More]

• It Detects Earthquakes and Lactose Intolerance

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am

  Nobel Prize winner C. V. Raman discovered in the 1920s that bombarding a substance with light excites its molecules and scatters the light in a signature pattern that can be analyzed like a fingerprint. Today Raman spectrometers are used in a variety of settings, but they tend to be large and expensive. A team led by physicist Manfred Fink of the University of Texas at Austin is developing a smaller, less expensive model that may improve earthquake detection and bring down the cost of some medical tests. [More]

• Champagne Glass Shape Affects Gas Level

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:17 pm

  Champagne. Do you drink it out of a narrow flute or the broader, more shallow coupe? [More]

• 

  Top News

• [Pictures] Mount Etna eruption creates spectacular show, disrupts flights

  Digg

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:30 am

  Mount Etna erupted Wednesday creating a spectacular light show that was visible from hundreds of miles around, La Repubblica reported.

• 4 Cooking Mistakes You Learned From Your Parents (and how to fix them)

  Digg

  6 Feb 2012 | 11:26 am

  Have you ever noticed that bad home cooking, the kind you choke down out of politeness to friends and family, is almost always bad in the same way?

• Photo: Abraham Lincoln commemorated by three-story sculpture of 15,000 titles

  Digg

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:30 am

  Follow @msnbc_pictures

• Foxconn hacked! here’s what they are looking at…

  Digg

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am

  Hacker group SwaggSec just released a dump of Foxconn internal information, including a mail server login/password dump and logins to various online procurement sites and Intranets. The hack seems to be a retaliation for the working conditions that have swarmed the news lately. The hackers gained access through an unpatched Internet Explorer vulnerability used by [...]

• We are Sorry - Path

  Digg

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:30 pm

  "So, as a clear signal of our commitment to your privacy, we’ve deleted the entire collection of user uploaded contact information from our servers. Your trust matters to us and we want you to feel completely in control of your information on Path."

• 

  FT.com - European companies

• Etihad records first ever full-year profit

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:23 am

  Fast-growing Gulf airline increases passenger numbers by 17% as it eyes opportunities in China, India and Australia

• Hermès boosted by Asian demand

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:04 am

  Sales in Asia and the Americas helped push up operating profit margins significantly, and luxury goods maker predicted sales growth of 10% in 2012

• GDF Suez hit by mild start to winter

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:01 am

  World’s largest independent power producer by sales reports sharp fall in profits, but is buoyed by the recent freezing weather in Europe

• Vodafone hit by weakness in Italy and Spain

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:32 am

  Growth in India and Turkey fails to offset continuing weakness due to Europe’s economic woes

• ING in €516m underlying loss

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:52 am

  Dutch bancassurer seeks to protect itself from market uncertainty as EC continues to urge it to divest its insurance operations

• 

  Financial Times - Companies

• Rolls-Royce pledges to double revenues

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:59 am

  UK engine maker issues bullish outlook for the decade as it unveils pre-tax profits up 21%

• KKR’s strong profits lead to record dividend

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:17 am

  Private equity group will pay a record cash dividend to its shareholders for the fourth quarter, as greater transaction activity boosted profits

• Pepsi to cut 8,700 jobs worldwide

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:15 am

  US drinks and snacks company moves to reduce costs by $3bn over three years to fund increased investment in its core brands

• Thomson Reuters reveals $3bn goodwill charge

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:57 am

  Media and financial information group swings to $2.6bn fourth-quarter loss related to the declining value of its markets division

• BG to delay boost in US shale gas output

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:47 am

  UK group scales back plans amid depressed prices, though it believes LNG will be more profitable in 2012 than expected

• 

  The Tom Peters Weblog

• Off the Cuff #2

  Shelley Dolley

  7 Feb 2012 | 8:17 am

  Our Off the Cuff video series is a direct response from Tom to your questions. This is the second video in the series, which poses the question, "What is the greatest piece of advice you ever received that has made you a better writer or communicator?" It's a terrific question for Tom, and he discusses not only writing influences, but touches on public speaking as well. Don't miss the Dan Pink technique at the end; it may feel excruciating in practice, but there's no denying the improvement gained.

• TLBT Video #73Strategy: Measure Innovation

  Cathy Mosca

  3 Feb 2012 | 8:46 am

  We've posted the latest video in The Little BIG Things series on YouTube. Do you think it's impossible to measure innovation? In this video, Tom offers a brilliantly simple, easy-to-implement method for ensuring that a good portion of your work meets the mark on innovation. You can find the video in the right-hand column of this page or watch it at YouTube (time: 2 minutes 3 seconds). Or, get a PDF transcript of the video's content: Strategy: Measure Innovation.

• MOAP #4

  Cathy Mosca

  30 Jan 2012 | 7:53 am

  The latest installment of Tom's "Mother of All Presentations," or MOAP, is now available at ExcellenceNow.com. You can download the PowerPoint version or a PDF. We'll be releasing a section every other week throughout 2012. Part 4 introduces Tom's conviction that encouraging your people to make friends in other functions of the organization should be a top priority. Tom says you should reward such behavior, make it an agenda item. Download Part 4 of Tom's Mother of All Presentations, and learn how and why cross-functional socialization (read, idea-sharing) is essential to business excellence.

• Race to Nowhere

  Shelley Dolley

  27 Jan 2012 | 4:51 am

  Tom has said, "We tell our kids to 'be still,' then tell them to 'read history books'—which are replete (100%!) with tales of people ... who never sat still." This is obviously not the ideal way to cultivate a talented workforce. The education system in the United States still seems to be attempting to churn out well-behaved factory workers. With the enormous pressure placed on teachers to produce sufficient test results, the classroom becomes more about test preparation than exploration and discovery. Albert Einstein, long since deceased, had this to say: "It is nothing short of a…

• Advice, For What It's Worth ...

  Tom Peters

  25 Jan 2012 | 7:20 am

  I was asked to contribute (a very few words) to a family page offering words of wisdom to a graduating high school senior. That's a serious challenge—and I literally spent days on the task. Here, for better or for worse, is the result: Rules For Living Life to the Hilt Nothing will turn out the way you thought it would. There is no bigger waste of time than making plans. Any success you have will be the byproduct of having thrown yourself headlong and without reserve into what you were most passionate about—and then ridden the wave you created wherever and at whatever speed it…

• 

  NYT > Arts

• The Carpetbagger: Oscar Nominees in the Crafts Categories

  By MELENA RYZIK

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:38 am

  The craft professions behind the movies — costume design, art direction and makeup — get a moment in the spotlight too.

• MOVIES: From the Monstrous to the Subtle

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:36 am

  Melena Ryzik visits Matthew Mungle, an Oscar-winning makeup artist, at his studio in North Hollywood to discuss his work transforming women into men in “Albert Nobbs.”

• ArtsBeat: Bands to Follow Their Frontmen Into Rock Hall of Fame

  By JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:23 am

  The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland will enshrine the bands of frontmen who have already been honored.

• Art Review: Renoir’s Full-Length Paintings at the Frick Collection

  By KAREN ROSENBERG

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am

  The emphasis in this fashion-conscious show is less on the clothes than on the traditional portrait format and the imposing scale that displays them to best advantage.

• The Carpetbagger: The Art of Goo and Innards

  By MELENA RYZIK

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am

  The Oscar-nominated makeup artist who created the subtle effects for "Albert Nobbs" also works on gorefests like "CSI."

• 

  Books

• Finding 'Life, Death And Hope' In A Mumbai Slum

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:01 am

  Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Katherine Boo spent more than three years in Mumbai's Annawadi slum. In her new book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, she profiles people living in extreme poverty — right in the shadow of luxury hotels.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Donald Hall: A Poet's View 'Out The Window'

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:30 am

  The 83-year-old former poet laureate reflects on how life has changed as he's grown older. "My body causes me trouble when I cross the room, but when I am sitting down writing, I am in my heaven — my old heaven," he says.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 'Revolution 2.0': How Social Media Toppled A Dictator

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:00 am

  Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim offers a rousing firsthand account of the Egyptian popular uprising and the power of social media to catalyze political change.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• New In Paperback Feb. 6-12

  7 Feb 2012 | 12:51 pm

  This week brings four novels about love: childhood love in immigrant Brooklyn; married love in dot-com San Francisco; intergenerational love and tension in Philadelphia; and an academic father's sometimes obtuse love for his three daughters. In nonfiction, football star Michael Oher describes his experiences in foster care.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Ancient Roman Text Offers Tips On Winning Elections

  7 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pm

  Robert Siegel talks with Classics professor Philip Freeman about his translation of the book, "How to Win an Election: An Ancient Guide for Modern Politicians." The book was written by the brother of Marcus Cicero, for when Marcus ran for office in Rome in 64 B.C. But the ancient Roman guide for campaigning still holds lessons for today's elections.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 

  Spain News

• AORA Solar En. Opens Second Plant - In Spain

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:02 am

  AORA Solar , a renewable energy pioneer and leading developer of applied ultra-high temperature concentrating solar power technology, has completed construction on its second gas turbine solar thermal power station.

• 57 arrested in child porn swoop across the country

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:02 am

  National Police note the high number of people who are repeat offenders, and that many of those arrested are highly qualified, some with expert knowledge on computers.

• Hard Economic Times Sharpen Spaniards' Sneaky Side

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:02 am

  Leather seats are disappearing from cars. Precious jewels are vanishing from drawers.

• Spain Papers Review - Thursday February 9 2012

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:56 am

  El Mundo says that Rajoy has buried the 'green shoots' and told the chamber that the situation could not be worse.

• Spain Weather - Thursday February 9 2012

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:52 pm

  There will be some relaxation in the temperatures during Thursday and Friday, but the cold will be back over the weekend, according to the Spanish Meteorological Agency spokesman, Angel Rivera.

• 

  spain - Google News

• Spain Bank Plan Seen as More of the Same, But Could Work This Time - Wall Street Journal (blog)

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:40 am

  Olive PressSpain Bank Plan Seen as More of the Same, But Could Work This TimeWall Street Journal (blog)Spain's banking sector was supported by a booming construction industry that has collapsed and is not coming back any time soon, but many of the tie-ups of the last few years were mergers in name only. Largely because of the convoluted governance Spain to revamp labour laws; reform may fall shortReutersSpain Adds 4 Billion Euros to 10-Year Benchmark BondsBusinessWeekSpain's leader says towering jobless rate to rise furtherMSN Philippines NewsNPRall 35 news articles »

• Famed Spain judge convicted of misusing authority - Newsday

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:19 am

  NewsdayFamed Spain judge convicted of misusing authorityNewsdayClick here Famed Spain judge convicted of misusing authority Originally published: February 9, 2012 8:19 AM Updated: February 9, 2012 10:08 AM By The Associated Press DANIEL WOOLLS (Associated Press) (AP) -- The Spanish judge celebrated for pursuing and more »

• Apple Thriving in Spain Where Pain Rages From Debt Crisis: Tech - San Francisco Chronicle

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:59 am

  BloombergApple Thriving in Spain Where Pain Rages From Debt Crisis: TechSan Francisco Chronicle9 (Bloomberg) -- As Spain enters its second recession in as many years, Apple Inc. is flourishing. Renovation on a 19th-century, seven-floor building with more than 6000 square meters (64600 square feet) of floor space on Madrid's central Puerta del Apple Flourishes in Spain Where Pain Rages From European Debt Crisis: TechBloombergall 6 news articles »

• Famed Spain judge convicted of misusing authority - Fox News

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:45 am

  Telegraph.co.ukFamed Spain judge convicted of misusing authorityFox NewsHe is 56, so the punishment could effectively end his career in Spain. Garzon acted arbitrarily in ordering jailhouse wiretaps of conversations between detainees and their lawyers, the court said, adding that his actions "these days are only found in Spain's Superjudge Guilty of Misusing AuthorityABC NewsSpain's leading human rights judge Baltasar Garzon convicted of wiretappingTelegraph.co.ukCases handled by Spain's Judge GarzonReutersChicago Tribuneall 249 news articles »

• Spain judge known for human rights cases convicted of exceeding authority in ... - AZFamily

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:47 am

  Spain judge known for human rights cases convicted of exceeding authority in AZFamilyAP MADRID (AP) — Spain judge known for human rights cases convicted of exceeding authority in corruption probe. Link your account to your Twitter or Facebook account for easier login! Yes! Please send me exclusive discounts and special offers from and more »

• 

  Top News

• Democratic women to Obama: 'Own' birth control mandate

  Digg

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:50 am

  POLITICO44 is the most up-to-the-minute destination for news about President Obama and his administration. Covering every news item and White House event in minute detail, POLITICO's reporters give readers a firsthand look at high-stakes presidential decisions on health care, energy, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - and countless other political battles.

• Apple to Announce iPad 3 First Week in March

  Digg

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:47 am

  Gee, I wonder what 2012 will be the year of ...

• [Pictures] Mount Etna eruption creates spectacular show, disrupts flights

  Digg

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:30 am

  Mount Etna erupted Wednesday creating a spectacular light show that was visible from hundreds of miles around, La Repubblica reported.

• The Long, Strange Quest to Find a Substance that Kills Sexual Desire

  Digg

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:16 pm

  Aphrodisiacs have a rich and often-told history — but what about their opposite? Throughout history, people have tried to find ways to suppress sexual desire.

• 4 Cooking Mistakes You Learned From Your Parents (and how to fix them)

  Digg

  6 Feb 2012 | 11:26 am

  Have you ever noticed that bad home cooking, the kind you choke down out of politeness to friends and family, is almost always bad in the same way?

• 

  USATODAY.com Feed

• Obama mandate on birth control coverage stirs controversy

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:35 am

  Republican leaders join Catholic religious groups in denouncing President Obama's mandate that health insurers offer birth control coverage.

• 911 call reveals delays in sending police to Powell home

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:31 am

  Logs show 8 minutes elapsed from time social worker called 911 to report Powell's kids were in danger to when deputies were dispatched.

• Girl fights off abductor in Walmart video

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:45 am

  A surveillance camera at a Georgia Walmart store shows a 7-year-old girl escaping a would-be abductor.

• Roman Army ran on camel power

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:20 am

  The Western Roman Empire appears to widely relied on camels, report European archaeologists

• Russian city bans gay propaganda

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:22 am

  St. Petersburg has banned the spreading of "homosexual propaganda."

• 

  Professionally Speaking

• Interview: Timothy Tosta – transformative listener

  Ian

  3 Feb 2012 | 5:30 pm

  Timothy Tosta is a cancer survivor, a seasoned hospice volunteer and a widely acclaimed speaker and lecturer. He is the author of two books and a featured columnist of the Daily Journal, California’s leading daily legal newspaper. Tim is an executive coach to legal and business communities. He also is recognized as one of California’s [...]

• Urban Life in Modern China: rush-rush to crush-crush

  Ian

  30 Jan 2012 | 6:33 am

  In 1985, controversial French sociologist Michel Maffesoli created the term “urban tribe” to describe groups of people who share common interests. The current issue of The Economist has a fascinating article about the subdivisions of urban China into various improbably named tribes (or zu in Mandarin). These include: Yi zu, or ant tribe—recent graduates from [...]

• Relevant Resources: Books to Kick Off 2012

  Ian

  27 Jan 2012 | 3:16 pm

  I help edit SPEAKER Magazine for the National Speakers Association (NSA). Each month I curate the Relevant Resources column – a list of time-saving tools and technologies. The January/February edition lists books recommended by NSA members as inspiration for the New Year. Go Ahead and Laugh: A Serious Guide to Speaking with Humor, by Rich [...]

• Manufacturing Industry: China will win, hands down

  Ian

  16 Jan 2012 | 6:11 am

  I download podcasts and listen to them on my drive to work. Today, driving my 16-year-old car which has any number of replacement auto parts keeping it on the road, listening to a 3-year-old Apple iPod, I heard two stories which described how electronics and auto parts are manufactured in China and America. Apart a [...]

• Guest Posting: Worst Brand Name Award of 2011, by Alexandra Watkins

  Ian

  13 Jan 2012 | 6:36 am

  Alexandra Watkins is the Founder & Chief Innovation Officer at Eat My Words, a San Francisco based creative naming agency known for creating unforgettable brand names. The following post originally appeared in her blog and is reposted here with her express permission. Announcing the most frightful brand name of 2011… the Head Scratcher of the [...]

• 

  Sticky Slides

• Pick your battles when pitching

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:30 pm

  Arguing until the bitter end about small facts, when the VC thinks she right because she has a reliable source (in her opinion) is not a good idea. You might be right, BUT you will not convince her, you will do no good to your credibility, and you raise doubts about how the future CEO-Board Member relationship is going to pan out. Better focus that energy in disagreements that are really worth arguing about. Pick your battles.

• Write notes after the meeting

  7 Feb 2012 | 7:30 pm

  If you are reviewing your presentation with your boss, here is a thought. Write down your notes immediately after the meeting. It makes for a better 2-way conversation as you are not scribbling all the time looking down on a piece of paper, and strangely it makes you remember things better. This article in Wired explains how your brain is refreshing the memory that is only slightly faded, that process makes future recollection stronger: Along these lines, Bjork also recommends taking notes just after class, rather than during — forcing yourself to recall a lecture’s information is more…

• Video summary in stills

  6 Feb 2012 | 7:30 pm

  Embedding video in presentations has its drawbacks. It adds another technical risk factor when setting up the presentation outside your office environment. File sizes become so big that it is hard to email a document. And a PDF version of the presentation does not show the video. As a solution, you can put in a video summary in your presentation consisting of a few key still images taken from the video. Our brain is powerful enough to make up most of what happens in between, and might even imagine the Star Wars sound track in the background when looking at last year’s Volkswagen Super Bowl…

• No need to show that monitor

  5 Feb 2012 | 7:30 pm

  In technical pitch presentations, you often have to show the application through screen shots. While a picture of the application inside a monitor frame might look nice, it is a poor way to get your audience to see the content of the screen. I would cut the monitor, cut the window bars above and below your application, and even zoom in to parts of the screen to highlight what is important. Cover everything that is not relevant (ads for example) with white boxes to keep things clean. Having said that, there might be 2 uses for the monitor shot. One for a very quick 5-second slide that enables…

• Not reality, not a cartoon

  2 Feb 2012 | 7:30 pm

  Have a look at these great images (on Fubiz) in the series “Enlightened Souls” by French photographer Fabrice Wittner. He uses images of people with a stencil-like effect and puts them on a background of a real photo. This effect might be very useful in presentation design. It is very hard to a series of images with a consistent look and feel on either stock photo sites, or Flickr. Moreover, I find that using images with real people not working very well in slides. It is too personal. This slight distortion of the characters might just solve these 2 problems in one go.

• 

  Top News

• The Long, Strange Quest to Find a Substance that Kills Sexual Desire

  Digg

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:16 pm

  Aphrodisiacs have a rich and often-told history — but what about their opposite? Throughout history, people have tried to find ways to suppress sexual desire.

• Getting Grandma to try pot

  Digg

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:30 pm

  Robert Platshorn started the Silver Tour in Florida to rally senior citizens for the legalization of medical marijuana in the state.

• Teacher Accused of Calling Haitian Student 'Chocolate Boy,' Faces Suspension

  Digg

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:46 am

  In Philip Roth's 2000 novel "The Human Stain," a classics professor, referring to two students who had never come to class, asks his seminar: "Do they exist or are they spooks?" The man eventually resigned over the remark; he didn't realize that the two students were black, and spooks was considered a racist term. It's unclear whether a teacher in South Florida made a similarly innocent slip when she allegedly called a Haitian-American student "little chocolate boy" and "chocolate that nobody wanted."

• Why People Believe Misinformation, Even After It's Corrected

  Digg

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:23 pm

  These days we are bombarded with information, much of it incorrect, and long after the political campaigns are over a lot of it will still be buried in the part of our brain where we store our memories. And new research shows that the more intensely we believe something to be true, the more likely it will resurface in the future, even if we have learned it was false.

• The War on Drugs [Infographic]

  Digg

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:26 pm

• 

  Best of Lex | The week in Lex from the Financial Times

• Facebook: doing it by numbers

  2 Feb 2012 | 12:20 pm

  Facebook needs to be assessed differently, if no less cautiously, than the internet IPOs that have gone before it

• Glencore / Xstrata: familiar path

  2 Feb 2012 | 9:38 am

  As the companies discuss an $80bn merger of equals, the creation of the first mega vertically-integrated commodities business looms

• Sony: swash buckled

  2 Feb 2012 | 9:03 am

  There is no happy ending for Sir Howard Stringer or investors as the company’s first foreign head bows out

• Shell: Big talk

  2 Feb 2012 | 8:58 am

  The business that will emerge at the end of its new four-year strategy is unlikely to look very different from that of today

• Benetton: the colour of money

  1 Feb 2012 | 12:40 pm

  The risk of holding Benetton shares is greater than the probable rewards. The label has years of restructuring ahead of it and dividends will be cut

• 

  FT Alphaville » M&A

• American Airlines creditors want merger

  Kate Mackenzie

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:19 pm

  Some American Airlines unsecured creditors increasingly feel the bankrupt airline should explore a deal with US Airways Group or another carrier, after hearing parent company AMR...

• Illumina rebuffs Roche again

  Kate Mackenzie

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:24 pm

  The US diagnostics company Illumina has rejected Roche’s $5.7bn hostile takeover bid, calling the offer “grossly inadequate” and urging stockholders not to tender their shares. Roche,...

• Glencore and Xstrata face blocking threat

  Kate Mackenzie

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:19 pm

  Several large investors have threatened to block Glencore and Xstrata’s proposed all-share merger, which would create a $90bn commodities giant in the largest global mining deal on record,...

• BHP says Xstrata Glencore deal makes little difference

  Kate Mackenzie

  7 Feb 2012 | 6:52 pm

  BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company, sees no reason to change its strategy in light of Glencore’s proposed merger with Xstrata, the FT reports. “People have...

• Glencore and Xstrata agree $90bn deal

  Izabella Kaminska

  7 Feb 2012 | 2:04 am

  Glencore and Xstrata on Tuesday announced an all-share merger that would create a $90bn giant combining the world’s largest commodities trading house with one of the biggest miners of thermal coal,...

• 

  FT.com - Tim Harford

• Five steps to an organised inbox

  3 Feb 2012 | 2:13 pm

  Tim Harford hands out tips on the important practical task of getting your email under control

• Everyone's a critic now – or are they?

  3 Feb 2012 | 1:25 pm

  A substandard romantic novel is trivial, whereas a ruined weekend tryst in Paris is a minor tragedy, writes Tim Harford

• The tricky business of measuring growth

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:12 pm

  Two experts offer a new approach to weighing economic strength, posing many good questions about the practice, writes Tim Harford

• No growth, but the LSE is looking for it

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:35 am

  Today's crisis is arguably graver than the situation in the 1930s. Given another year of this kind of growth it will be inarguably worse, writes Tim Harford

• Why have house prices stayed so high?

  20 Jan 2012 | 2:15 pm

  The reluctance for prices to slump may have as much to do with psychology as with conventional economics, writes Tim Harford

• 

  Ideas and Thoughts

• My first DE podcast

  Dean Shareski

  3 Feb 2012 | 11:09 am

  I have a heart for podcasting. Steve Dembo and Bud Hunt captured by attention way back when as they casually recorded themselves as they drove home from work. I loved the raw, authentic, casual nature of those recordings.  ​So Steve and I have talked about doing stuff with Discovery and we both share the philosophy of "just do it". So here's how this podcast was born: ​As you'll tell from the podcast, this was not rehearsed and it was pretty much uncensored. I hope it can be something where I learn more about the awesomeness of Discovery and you can too. Can…

• Understanding the Digital Divide

  Dean Shareski

  3 Feb 2012 | 5:35 am

  I need to be careful. A new job and new learning gives me plenty of excuses not to write. My mind is occupied with all sorts of things that make it challenging to be be reflective sometimes. Writing and blogging has been a critical part of my own growth as an educator and I have no intentions of that changing but I need to force myself to write. This might be one of those occasions.  Last week I visited two dramatically different conferences. FETC is one of the larger educational conferences you'll ever attend. While numbers have decreased significantly from the first time I attended…

• A Tweet For Customer Service

  Dean Shareski

  22 Jan 2012 | 4:51 pm

  While what I'm about to  share is pretty common place, i still find it fascinating largely because so many people and businesses haven't figured this out.  Friday I left for Florida. Delta lost my luggage. This is the first time I've ever had my luggage lost. According to stats, airlines are 99.5% effective in getting people their luggage to the intended destination on time. I wasn't too worried. After all, I had my golf clubs which was really most important given I had a tee time the next morning. I knew my luggage was in trouble because it never showed up in…

• Should teachers own their learning?

  Dean Shareski

  10 Jan 2012 | 8:36 pm

  What if school districts and school administrators trusted teachers to let them direct their own PD? What if the ideas of personalized learning and students owning their learning was applied to teachers?  These are questions I ask as I wonder about the ways in which schools and districts attempt to support teacher growth. In the same way schools have a hard time empowering students to own their learning, districts struggle with letting teachers own theirs. I'm not aware of any district that truly embraces the notion of personalized learning. Districts all seem to feel the need or…

• 1461 and counting

  Dean Shareski

  1 Jan 2012 | 8:49 am

  It's been nearly 1,500 days in a row that I've been taking a photo a day. I don't think I've missed more than an handful of days over that time. I continue to learn and find it now to be truly be a part of me. I don't ponder whether I'll keep doing it, I have no reason not to. It's not a chore anymore. As I've mentioned often, it's a mindfulness that has taught me a lot of things. Each year I tried to add something to challenge myself. 2008, was my first crack at it so I kept it pretty basic. 2009 I tried to create one word titles for each of my photos…

• 

  Want to Know it? Answers to life's questions

• What is the Function of the Mitochondria

  Want to know it

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:24 am

  The Mitochondria is an organelle (specialized substructure within a cell) that is most often described as the “power house” of a cell. Mitochondria are very small organelles that have two membranes, an outer smooth membrane and an inner folded membrane. The folds in the inner membrane are called the cristea. These increase the surface area of the Mitochondria and allow it to work more efficiently. Mitochondria are able to reproduce and create their own proteins and are found in all eukaryotic cells. So what do these amazing little substructures do? Read this article to find out. What is…

• What are the Early Signs of Pregnancy

  Want to know it

  8 Feb 2012 | 5:08 pm

  It can be somewhat difficult to recognize the signs of pregnancy in the early stages. Many of the early pregnancy symptoms resemble premenstrual symptoms and are often mistaken for these. Let’s take a look at some of the more common early signs and of pregnancy and how they can be detected. What are the Early Signs of Pregnancy? Missed period This is often the first sign that a woman has that she may be pregnant. A missing period is a good indicator that conception has occurred, however it is not a definite indicator. Missing a period can occur for a number of reasons such as stress or…

• Interesting Facts About Luxembourg

  Want to know it

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:57 am

  Luxembourg is a small country located in Western Europe and is officially known as The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is boarded by Germany, France and Belgium. The population of Luxembourg is approximately 511,840 and its capital city and largest city, also called Luxembourg, is home to approximately 100,000 people. It is the world most economically developed country and has the world’s highest GDP. The officially languages of Luxembourg are Luxembourgish, French and German. Interesting facts about Luxembourg Luxembourg is the only Grand Duchy left in the world. This means that it is a…

• How is Soy Milk Made

  Want to know it

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:38 am

  Soy milk is an alternative to dairy milk made from soybeans. It is suitable for vegans and people who are lactose intolerant. Many brands of soy milk have a similar nutritional content to dairy milk and most of these manufacturers fortify their product to include other important vitamins and minerals that soy milk does not naturally contain. The first evidence of soy milk dates back to around the first century AD, but it didn’t become a mainstream product until the 20th century. Let’s take a look at how modern soy milk is made. How is soy milk made? The first step of the…

• Uses of Rhodium

  Want to know it

  7 Feb 2012 | 4:32 pm

  Rhodium is a chemical element represented by the chemical symbol Rh and the atomic number 45. It is a hard silvery-white metal and is classified as a transition metal from the platinum group. It is a rare element that is only found in platinum ore or nickel ore, from which it is obtained commercially. It is extremely resistant to corrosion and this characteristic makes it viable for a number of different applications. Uses of rhodium The largest use of rhodium, about 80% of the world’s production, is as a catalyst in three-way catalytic converters. A catalytic converter is a device…

• 

  blog maverick

• Would Shareholders Give a Higher P/E to Keep Jobs in the USA ?

  markcuban

  29 Jan 2012 | 3:21 pm

  It used to be that if you owned shares of a public company, you actually felt like you owned shares of that company.  The concept of actual ownership by individuals is long gone.  Shareholders as owners are nothing but a concept , and echo from days gone by. That shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s just as rare for individuals with less than 10 figures in their networth to even consider actually buying shares as a path to ownership. But what if this were not the case any longer  ? For those of you that own shares of stocks in companies,either directly or indirectly, would you be…

• The TV Business Keeps Getting Stronger !

  markcuban

  14 Jan 2012 | 4:53 pm

  Back in my broadcast.com days we had a saying that “bits are bits”.  That once content becomes digital, it is naturally going to become available on any and all digital devices. Based on this, we always made the point to be platform and device agnostic. We didn’t care where or how people saw our content, as long as they saw it and we had the chance to monetize it. We also knew that our core value proposition to consumers was that on broadcast.com they were able to get content that they couldn’t get on TV. We had Yoga channels, we had cricket live and on demand, we had…

• Why Startups Shouldn’t Hire PR Firms

  markcuban

  13 Jan 2012 | 3:31 pm

  A quote from my book, How to Win at the Sport of  Business got picked up in multiple stories. In the book I stated effectively that “Startups should never hire a PR firm”.   As you would expect, the PR Industry was not over-joyed at the comment.  Articles were written about how incredibly valuable a good PR person can be to a startup. Actually, I have no doubt that  a smart PR person can add value to a startup.  The problem is that all things considered, it’s not enough value. The first problem with hiring a PR firm is cost.  Cash is always in short supply in startups.

• You Don’t Live in the World You Were Born Into

  markcuban

  31 Dec 2011 | 9:54 am

  I thought this was appropriate to start the new year. We all have the tendency to believe that we are living in a very advanced technological period.  We get all excited about the new tech we got at Xmas and what we read about that will soon be available to us. In reality, everything we are excited about today is going to be incredibly old and boring much faster than we ever expect. No matter what year you were born, by the time you finish(ed) high school, its (was) a completely different world. Today’s high school seniors were born prior to the World Wide Web, wireless internet,…

• The Fan Experience at Sporting Events – We dont need no stinking smartphones !

  markcuban

  24 Dec 2011 | 9:17 am

  With the season starting tomorrow, I wanted to update a blog post I did in 2010. In just the past 18 months the number of proposals for in-game entertainment have skyrocketed. It seems like every day I get a new proposal to invest in a company that is going to revolutionize the experience of going to a sporting event. Without fail the proposal starts out with some form of “with the explosion in sales of smartphones…” Then I get the meat of the pitch which is some derivative of stats, pictures, fantasy games, social sharing via FB/Twitter or some new network to replace…

• 

  Scobleizer

• Hacker News vs. Google+

  Robert Scoble

  5 Feb 2012 | 10:20 am

  I might as well have titled this “Hacker News vs Marketers.” Or “Hacker News vs Bloggers.” Or “jerks vs nice people.” But I never participate in Hacker News for a few reasons and I just was faced with these reasons again when I read the responses there to my blog post yesterday. 1. Programmers often have an attitude of “I can code, you can’t, so I am defacto better than you.” This often comes out in Hacker News comments. 2. Programmers love to bash people anonymously and then, in real life, they will come begging for PR for their companies…

• It’s too late for Dave Winer and John Battelle to save the common web

  Robert Scoble

  4 Feb 2012 | 5:02 pm

  The date was January 3, 2008. Facebook had kicked me off for running a script to try to save the common web. See, I worked with Plaxo to run a simple script. One that would have taken my contacts out of Facebook and put them back into the common web. The script did some very simple things: 1. It grabbed all my friends names. 2. It grabbed all their phone numbers. 3. It grabbed all their email addresses. 4. It gave me a simple CSV file with all that data so I could bring them back to Google, or Microsoft, or anywhere else I wanted to put them. Facebook’s answer was predictable. They shut…

• HTML 5 pushback in San Francisco? Best mobile app designers say yes

  Robert Scoble

  1 Feb 2012 | 3:39 pm

  The new Path? The one that won a Crunchie last night for great design? It’s not done in HTML 5. This morning I saw something new coming soon from Storify. Not done in HTML 5. This morning I visited Foodspotting, which just shipped hot new apps on iOS, Android, and Blackberry. Not done in HTML 5. More and more I’m hearing that designers and developers are ignoring HTML 5, especially for the high end of apps. Why? Well, Path’s founders told me it just isn’t possible to build a great user interface, the way they did it in HTML 5. Storify’s founder told me it…

• Why Facebook will be worth a half trillion by 2015: the mobile and open graph revenue it’s leaving on the table

  Robert Scoble

  1 Feb 2012 | 2:48 pm

  Lots of people think Facebook is overvalued, at about $100 billion (it just released their S1, announcing its IPO). But in talking with developers, like I did with Foodspotting’s founder, Alexa Andrzejewski, and in reading the S1 I see that Facebook has left most of the potential revenue on the table. That makes me think that the folks crying “overvalued” are nuts. Check that interview out, Foodspotting is one of the hottest San Francisco startups, aimed at people who are looking for better places to eat. Here it is from just this morning: See, Mark Zuckerberg is sandbagging…

• 2012 brings a pause in the disruption

  Robert Scoble

  31 Jan 2012 | 4:58 pm

  OK, I’ve been talking with hundreds of geeks from around the world this year at three conferences, CES, DLD, and World Economic Forum. I’m seeing a trend that is worth talking about. What is it? We’re seeing the end of one of the most disruptive ages in human history. I believe that we’re seeing a pause in the disruption. More on that a little later. Just think about all the changes humans have been asked to adopt in the past eight years. Most of us, back then, didn’t carry mobile computers in our pockets. If we did use tablets, like I did, they were expensive,…

• 

  GalleyCat

• The Hunger Games Gets Lana Del Rey Parody

  Jason Boog

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:31 am

  The parody video (embedded above)  mixes a catchy Lana Del Rey song with the mega-bestselling book series. Follow this link to watch the original song by Lana Del Rey–what do you think? The song was written and performed by comedian Holly Laurent with some extra lyrics from Martin Wilson. It contains a little NSFW language. Time Newsfeed has more: “The result of this epiphany is a music video with Laurent doing a dead-ringer imitation of sultry and controversial singer Lana Del Rey’s song ‘Video Games,’ set to lyrics inspired by Suzanne Collins’ dystopian…

• A Single Loyal App User Costs $1.81

  Jason Boog

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:07 am

  At the Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco yesterday, Fiksu founder Micah Adler revealed that it now costs it now costs app publishers $1.81 to gain a single loyal user (“people who open an app three times or more”) for a mobile app. Publishers need to factor in the rising cost of marketing an app. As you can see by the Fiksu chart embedded above, the cost reached record heights in December 2011. That figure is nearly 27 percent higher than the cost per loyal user figure for November 2011. Here’s some analysis of those numbers: “According to our research,…

• Grand Central To Publish Portlandia Guide Book

  Dianna Dilworth

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:23 am

  Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, the creators and stars of the IFC’s Portlandia, are writing a travel guide to the television show that is due out this fall. Portlandia: A Guide for Visitors will look like any other guidebook with walling tours of the city and information about landmarks and residents, but it will do so from the show’s comical perspective. Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, will publish the book in November. Grand Central executive editor Ben Greenberg acquired the title. He stated:  “Fred Armisen, Carrie Brownstein, Bill Oakley…

• How Writers Can Explore Gaia Online

  Jason Boog

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:23 am

  At the Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco today, Gaia CEO Mike Sego (pictured) introduced attendees to Gaia Online, a popular community and social game site. Here’s more about the site: “Founded in 2003, Gaia Online has grown into one of the biggest forum communities in the world. Today, Gaia is the best place on the web to discuss anime, games, comics, sci-fi, fantasy and anything else you can imagine. Plus, there are tons of other free features to keep Gaia members permanently amused.” Below, we’ve collected five ways writers can explore this community…

• Lemony Snicket to Return in 4-Book Series

  Jason Boog

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:23 am

  The fictional author Lemony Snicket will return in a four book series from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers called All the Wrong Questions. Graphic novelist Seth will illustrate the “authorized autobiographical account” of Snicket’s childhood. The series will debut with Who Could That Be at This Hour? in October. The publisher will print one million copies of the first book by the fictional author since A Series of Unfortunate Events sold over 60 million copies. Snicket is the pen name of author Daniel Handler. Here’s more from the release: “Drawing on…

• 

  nymag.com: Business and Money

• The End of Wall Street As They Knew It

  7 Feb 2012 | 3:13 pm

  After surprisingly successful financial reform, public vilification, and politics that have turned against them, the Masters of the Universe are masters no longer.

• The Ex-Lehman Banker Who Doesn’t Get Why People Hate Bankers

  8 Jan 2012 | 7:09 pm

  “That’s what Wall Street is like. You’re just waiting to get killed off.”

• 102 Minutes With Nicolas Berggruen

  12 Dec 2011 | 6:35 am

  An uptown layover with the “homeless billionaire,” who has just a few plans for saving the world.

• The Romney Economy

  24 Oct 2011 | 9:13 am

  At Bain Capital, Romney remade one American business after another, overhauling management and directing vast sums of money to the top of the labor pyramid. The results made him a fortune. They also changed the world we live in.

• They See Rich People

  9 Oct 2011 | 7:59 pm

  Wall Streeters seek psychic help.

• 

  Signal vs. Noise

• Behind the scenes: Reinventing our Default Profile Pictures

  Jamie

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:34 am

  Mister Default Here he is: our default profile picture. You may know him as “Generic Avatar”. He’s the picture you get when you create a new account and profile on Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, and Campfire. Mr. Default is a standard guy. He’s found everywhere on the web (in variations): message boards, comments, activity streams. He forces everyone to look like him regardless of gender, race, and physicality. He’s also very boring. Time for a change People don’t usually have a picture on hand to change the default avatar. What happens is none of the…

• What's your answer?

  Jason F.

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:00 am

  “If a customer asked you why, how would you answer?” This is a question I’ve been asking a lot lately. Why could be “why does it work this way?” or “why can’t I do that?” or some variation on that theme. I think your answer to those questions is a great way to measure your product. Are you happy with your answers? Are they fair answers? Are they clear answers? Would you be happy with the answer if you were the one asking the question? The goal isn’t to get to “Yes” on every answer. The goal is to listen to your answer and ask…

• No framework needed

  Noah

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:42 am

  It goes without saying that we use Rails a lot here at 37signals. Often times, when we look at a problem, we turn to Rails or something similar, because when you have a high-performance precision screwdriver, everything starts to look like a finely engineered screw. Sometimes, what you really need is a big hammer, because what you’re looking at is a nail. Our public sites – sites like 37signals.com and basecamphq.com – are a perfect example of this. Let me tell you about our journey with these sites over the years, and how we’ve landed on a simple solution that boosted…

• SaaS: Change starts easy and then gets really hard

  Jason F.

  7 Feb 2012 | 12:58 pm

  Basecamp just turned 8 years old. Here’s the launch announcement right here on this blog back on February 5, 2004. That’s a long time ago. We’ve learned a ton since then. One of the most interesting lessons has been the increasing degree to which time influences change. When we first launched Basecamp, we could iterate rapidly. We were incredibly prolific those first few months. We launched a bunch of new stuff and made rapid improvement every few weeks. Eventually it plateaued and slowed down. Why is that? Part of it is because many of the improvements we wanted to make…

• Lessons from Moneyball: don't get left behind

  Noah

  6 Feb 2012 | 7:32 am

  I recently read and watched “Moneyball”, and enjoyed both greatly. It’s a great story in and of itself, but I also found it to be an interesting parallel to the state of the “web software” industry today. Moneyball starts in the week before the 2002 baseball draft, with a set of meetings that pit Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane against his team of scouts. The scouts’ primary mechanism of evaluating players was visual – did the guy look, walk, and talk like a major league baseball player? On the other hand, Billy, with his assistant Paul…

• 

  Duarte Blog

• Creative Like a Fox! Dan Roam and I Compare Notes on Creative Process

  Nancy Duarte

  3 Feb 2012 | 6:15 am

  Dan Roam schools me on creative process. His new book, BLAH BLAH BLAH, offers awesome tips on how to utilize visual and verbal concepts to refine ideas to their most pure state.

• Are You a Fox or a Hummingbird? Dan Roam Explains Your Brain

  Nancy Duarte

  2 Feb 2012 | 6:27 am

  Dan Roam uses an animalistic metaphor to explain how your brain processes information, and reveals how to help facilitate communication between our verbal and visual minds. That and more in his new book, BLAH BLAH BLAH.

• Grammar Ain’t Just for Words Anymore

  Nancy Duarte

  1 Feb 2012 | 8:58 am

  Dan Roam used the rules of verbal grammar to build a Visual Grammar Graph that bridges the gap between verbal and visual concepts. Vivid Grammar is featured in his new book, BLAH BLAH BLAH.

• Quit Talking and Start Thinking

  Nancy Duarte

  31 Jan 2012 | 4:03 pm

  Dan Roam explains why we talk too much, and how we can use our predilection for vision to become better problem solvers. “Vivid Thinking” is one of the many gems in his new book, BLAH BLAH BLAH. 

• Obama’s SOTU: What Is, and What Could Have Been

  Greta Stahl

  25 Jan 2012 | 3:46 pm

  Last night President Barack Obama delivered what could be considered the biggest presentation of the year. In outlining his vision for America and his legislative priorities for 2012, the President attempted to persuade a variety of different audiences – including the United States Congress, business leaders and 25 million members of the American public – that he has a plan to continue improving the lives of Americans. So how did he do? Leaving aside the merit of his proposals, did he tell a story compelling enough to convince such a broad audience? Graphic recording of the State of the…

• 

  How to Change the World

• Raising Money: What Not to Say and What Not to Believe #OfficeandGuyK

  GuyKawasaki

  20 Jan 2012 | 10:46 am

  Over the past two weeks via my partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve provided templates of models for you to create enchanting PowerPoint pitches, Word business plans, and Excel financial models. They are all available for you to download from my SkyDrive account. I hope these documents and blog posts help you save a boatload of time and increase the quality of your efforts.I leave you with two sets of top ten lies: one of entrepreneurs and one of investors so that you know what not to say and what not to believe. Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs “Our projections are…

• Design a Sam Adams beer

  GuyKawasaki

  20 Jan 2012 | 8:24 am

  Now this is a fun project. I’m helping Sam Adams “tap” the knowledge of beer drinkers and crowd source its next brew. Join the party by getting the app and designing your beer: The final brew will be released in Austin in the first week of March. #sponsored

• How to Create an Enchanting Financial Forecast #OfficeandGuyK

  GuyKawasaki

  17 Jan 2012 | 1:52 pm

  This is the third post in my Microsoft partnership, and it’s all about numbers. The topic is crafting your financial forecast to include in your pitch. Bill Reichert, my partner at Garage Technology Ventures, created an Excel model and wrote this blog post. There’s a lesson in this too: Get the best person for the job. His grasp of financial models and how to present them exceeds mine by two orders of magnitude. The Purpose of Financial Projections When it comes to financial projections, there are two types of entrepreneurs: first, the “visionary entrepreneur” who…

• How to Create an Enchanting Business Plan #OfficeandGuyK

  GuyKawasaki

  12 Jan 2012 | 8:16 am

  Here is the second post in my series about planning, pitching, and launching a new business venture. In partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve created a Word document that outlines a good business plan. It’s saved to my SkyDrive folder here. Feel free to download it and use it as inspiration. And if you’re working with a partner, you can use the free Word Web App to stay in sync. I provided the PowerPoint document before the Word document because a good business plan is an elaboration of a good pitch as opposed to a good pitch being a distillation of good business plan.

• How to Create an Enchanting Pitch #OfficeandGuyK

  GuyKawasaki

  9 Jan 2012 | 8:01 am

  Welcome to the first in a series of blog posts I’ll be doing as part of a partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps. Over the next two weeks, I’ll cover everything a budding entrepreneur needs to turn an idea into an enchanting investment opportunity—from the perfect pitch to a killer business plan to financial forecasts. I’m going to start with a little dissertation on creating effective PowerPoint pitches for your company. I embedded the sample deck for you to click through by using the PowerPoint Web App. When you’re ready to get started, you can download the…

• 

  metacool

• Unabashed Gearhead Gnarlyness

  Diego Rodriguez

  25 Jan 2012 | 9:29 am

  The Fujifilm X-Pro1

• metacool Thought of the Day

  Diego Rodriguez

  12 Jan 2012 | 11:28 am

  "Most people don’t form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their calling. ...when you read a biography of someone you admire, it’s rarely the things that made them happy that compel your admiration. It’s the things they did to court unhappiness — the things they did that were arduous and miserable, which sometimes cost them friends and aroused hatred. It’s excellence, not happiness, that we admire most. ...Fulfillment is a byproduct of how people engage their tasks, and can’t be pursued directly. Most of us are…

• What's a sleestak?

  Diego Rodriguez

  5 Jan 2012 | 9:17 pm

  Where do great songs come from?  A great question, to which I must ask: what's a sleestak? Every once in a while, I become obsessive about a special tune.  Case in point, I've probably listened to Tower of Power's Knock Yourself Out several thousand times.  When I encounter a piece I like, I need to listen to it over and over and over to unlock its secrets.  It drives my wife nuts. Here's my latest obsession, a tune called Cloisonné: Readers of metacool will know that I deeply admire They Might Be Giants.  Not only is their cover of Tubthumping the official anthem of…

• Innovation principles by Markkula

  Diego Rodriguez

  24 Dec 2011 | 2:41 pm

  The genesis of these thoughts on marketing from Mike Markkula are detailed on page 78 of Walter Isaacson's intriguing biography of Steve Jobs.  In their clarity, simplicity, and actionability, they are stunning.  As a marketer, I take three lessons from them. First, they are about people.  Markets are made up of individuals.  When striving to bring something new and cool to life, we're much better off imagining the life of a single customer than we are trying to disaggregate and disambiguate mountains of anonymized market data.  A holistic understanding of the customer…

• metacool Thought of the Day

  Diego Rodriguez

  22 Dec 2011 | 12:45 pm

  "Between the unknowns of birth and death it is our love and courage, the banishment of fear, that decides if we really lived." - Steve Matchett

• 

  Andy Sernovitz | Damn, I Wish I\'d Thought of That!

• The Home Depot’s case study: How to bring your culture to life through an online community

  Andy Sernovitz

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:00 pm

  Come to our upcoming BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media conference in Dallas to hear brands like Farmers Insurance, Rogers Communications, Target, Yahoo!, NVIDIA, Hitachi Data Systems, Verizon, and Autodesk share 8 great case studies on corporate social media. You’ll get practical, how-to advice on developing your social strategy, scaling your program, driving sales, engaging internal and external audiences, and measuring it all — and you’ll see some brilliant presentations like this one from BlogWell Atlanta: One of Tia Robinson’s big ideas: Don’t be afraid to let your…

• Why would a music industry visionary be writing passionately about a turtleneck?

  Andy Sernovitz

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  Bob Lefsetz is a well-know music industry guru who covers critical issues for industry insiders. So why did he write 625 words about a turtleneck from Uniqlo? And then email it to his thousands of email subscribers? And why did my friend Josh Dorf email it to me? Not because he was paid. Not because he was part of some cheesy word of mouth advocacy program. Not because the company asked him to. He did it because true word of mouth, driven by authentic enthusiasm for amazing products, is an unstoppable force. Read this classic example of word of mouth in action: Uniqlo Andy couldn’t stop…

• Save the Date: Word of Mouth Crash Course, May 10, Austin

  Andy Sernovitz

  7 Feb 2012 | 1:00 pm

  Big news: We’re bringing back the world’s greatest word of mouth marketing conference: The Word of Mouth Crash Course in Austin on May 10. It’s the original “How to be great at word of mouth marketing” conference: 12 Real-world case studies 12 How-to classes 6 Amazing authors 1 Fast day (Yes, this is the event formerly called Word of Mouth Supergenius. We changed the name to better reflect that you’re going to learn a ton, really fast, while having fantastic fun.) Learn more here: http://wordofmouth.org/crashcourse Important: The first 100 registrants will get 50 copies of new…

• It’s not over when you turn in your homework

  Andy Sernovitz

  7 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  Some advice for recent college graduates entering the corporate world: In college, you finish a paper, you take the test, you get to the end of the semester — and you’re done. You can walk away and move on to the next project. No looking back. At work, it’s the opposite. You win when you take and keep responsibility. You own a project, you see it through, you take responsibility, and you make sure it works great for the long term. When it’s time for you to move on, you are responsible for handing off your knowledge and work to the next owner, and you’re not done…

• Pull up a chair around the fire

  Andy Sernovitz

  3 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  The purpose of a trade show booth or tabletop is to get prospective customers to come in an talk to you. You want to have a conversation. But most exhibits do a lot to block that conversation: big TV screens, laptops between the exhibitor and the prospects, or having conversations standing in front of the table so your back is to people walking past. That’s why I like this simple tabletop by Sprinklr. The fireplace catches your attention. The furniture encourages you sit down and have a deep conversation, and the whole arrangement visually draws people in.

• 

  Great Public Speaking

• Public Speaking - Use Volunteers

  Tom Antion

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:20 am

  http://www.amazingpublicspeaking.comTom Antion shows you the value of volunteers. Get volunteers by letting them attend the event for free.

• Presenation Tips - Ethnic Expressions Are Funny Only If You Are Ethnic

  Tom Antion

  6 Feb 2012 | 8:21 am

  Another well-known humorist, Doc Blakely, does a dialect bit that has been very successful, but he is extremely good at it. When using dialects, if you are not good at the particular dialect, it appears you are mocking the ethnic group to which it belongs.There are lots of funny ethnic sayings and words. Try to resist using them unless you are making fun of your own background. In a business setting, it is much too risky to joke about another person's race, religion, or dialect.If you are Polish, it may be OK to tell a Polish joke now and then. If you are Jewish, you are the only one who…

• Effective Presentations - Organization

  Tom Antion

  3 Feb 2012 | 6:10 am

  Being able to find humor, stories, quotes and other speech material when you need it is very important. It is very frustrating to know you have a piece of material, but you can't find it. Some type of system of organizing all this material is essential to efficient preparation.A file and cross-reference system will help you keep track of your material. I use both a computer and hard copy filing system. Both have advantages, so don't worry if you don't have a computer.On the computer I keep separate files for all the different topics I cover in my presentations and also for the different parts…

• Presentation Skills - Public Speaking Book

  Tom Antion

  1 Feb 2012 | 7:09 am

  http://www.AmazingPublicSpeaking.comThe "Wake 'em Up" system teaches you how to use attention gainingdevices to keep the audience with you during your entire presentation.Over 450 public and professional speaking videos.

• Public Speaking Skills - The Size of the Audience

  Tom Antion

  30 Jan 2012 | 7:01 am

  The size of your audience has a direct effect on the types of humor which are most appropriate, the expected audience response and the timing of the presentation.Members of very small business groups tend to be too self-conscious to laugh much. Use short one-liners. Be brief and informal with your humor; don't use any long stories or jokes.In small groups laughter will come more quickly. It's now OK to stretch to jokes and short stories. Your presentation will take less time to deliver than to a large group.A presentation to very large crowds in enormous rooms or venues such as stadiums will…

• 

  Mike Pulsifer Photography

• Thomas Reynolds Is A Douche

  Mike

  20 Jan 2012 | 12:20 pm

  If you're reading this on thomasreynolds.us, then what you're reading is stolen content. I've already asked him to stop taking my content for use on his blog. More than two weeks have passed and he has yet to honor my request.

• Productive Photo Walk Today

  Mike Pulsifer (a)

  4 Sep 2011 | 6:21 pm

  Yeah, it's been quiet on this blog. That doesn't mean I haven't been productive. In fact, as I'm writing this, I'm posting more of my most recent work from this morning's stroll through Martinsburg, WV. To see everything I'm putting out there, just hop over to my flickr page.  To see what I consider to be my best work, follow the link below to my little home on 500px. mikepulsifer on 500px

• 500px

  Mike Pulsifer (a)

  16 Jul 2011 | 8:35 am

  Lately, there's been a lot of noise in the photography community around 500px.com.  This is another free (with upgrades available to those willing to pay) social photo sharing site that sort of fits between flickr and Smugmug.  The big differentiator (at least for now) is the quality.  This site seems to attract more quality photographers and photographs than other sites I've visited, especially flickr.  To check it out and see my work there, check the link below: mikepulsifer on 500px

• Accepted To A Juried Exhibit!

  Mike Pulsifer (a)

  7 Jul 2011 | 5:58 am

  {EAV_BLOG_VER:21fd5f1059fe41be} I've had the good fortune of having a couple of my photographs accepted to a juried exhibit!  They're currently on display at the Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center in Frederick, Maryland until the 24th of July.

• Farquhar Press

  Mike Pulsifer (a)

  5 Mar 2011 | 10:18 am

  This is one of those objects I often drive by but never got around to shooting.  Well, today I went out there and went to town.  See more at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wvmikep/sets/72157626076363725/with/5499959020/.