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• Most Topular Stories

• Romance survey [infographic]

  Holy Kaw!

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:02 pm

  Via Hotels.com. Infographics to put you in the mood. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• The Weird interview

  Seth's Blog

  Seth Godin

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:06 pm

  To celebrate the launch of Squidoo's new UpMarket magazine, we got permission to post an audio interview I recently did with Darren Hardy of Success. You can find it here. Thanks for listening.

• Click And Mortar: Zynga Signs Deal With Hasbro For Real-World Toys and Games

  TechCrunch

  Eric Eldon

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:30 pm

  Mobile app developer Rovio has famously turned its Angry Birds game into a popular toy franchise, but most other new-fangled gaming companies haven’t spent much energy going this route. But now social gaming leader Zynga is, per a big licensing deal with Hasbro. The long-time toy and board game maker is paying Zynga to turn games like FarmVille, CityVille, and its other hit titles into real world products. Details on what this will look like are scant in the press release, so I’m left guessing what this is going to mean. Fluffy pink FarmVille tractors? Lego-style CityVille…

• Is Perfectionism Stalling Your Productivity?

  @ProBlogger

  Darren Rowse

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:04 pm

  We’ve all been there … You sit down to write a post. You get the opening line down, but half-way through the second sentence, you go back to tweak the first. A bit further on, you decide to chop up the paragraphs you’ve done so far and rearrange them … but on second thought, is that really the better option? In two minds, you “finish” the post, then spend a half-hour writing and rewriting the “ideal” headline. Finally, happy(ish!) your cursor hovers over the Publish button … but you just can’t press it. You decide to give it some…

• LinkedIn Hits 150 Million Members

  Mashable!

  Todd Wasserman

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:26 pm

  LinkedIn on Thursday announced it has 150 million members in its network, a 20 million increase over November. The figure was disclosed in a press release the company issued Thursday announcing its fourth quarter and full-year 2011 results. The company posted revenues of $167.7 million, beating the analysts’ consensus of $160 million for Q4. Earnings were $0.06 cents per share, which was on target. LinkedIn’s stock was up more than 5% in after-hours trading. The Q4 revenue figure was a 105% jump over the same period in 2010. Revenues for full-year 2011 was $522.2 million, a 115%…

• 

  Holy Kaw!

• Romance survey [infographic]

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:02 pm

  Via Hotels.com. Infographics to put you in the mood. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Do aliens go invisible by 'going green'?

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:24 am

  As we discover more and more planets around other stars, the Fermi Paradox is becoming, well, more paradoxical. The Fermi Paradox simply asks the question "where are they?" Our Milky Way galaxy is so big and so old -- and we are estimated to be accompanied by at least 100 billion planets -- that aliens should have visited us by now. Instead, when we peruse the heavens, we are faced with the Great Silence, which is one of the biggest challenges to modern astronomy. Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink | Leave a…

• Mysterious sounds reported around the world

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:23 am

  People around the world have reported hearing strange sounds from the skies over the past month. Sometimes they describe it as a hum or low rumble; other times it’s a whine, thump, or even a melody. Often the sounds have been recorded and posted online, fueling rumors and conspiracy theories. One blogger wrote, "either the world is ending, aliens are landing or everyone is getting hoaxed. Or, possibly, there’s an actual scientific explanation for the mass amount of YouTube videos capturing bizarre sounds that are being heard around the globe. Are we witnessing the beginning of a…

• Costa Concordia: an ecological time bomb

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:21 am

  As workers begin to extract the half-million gallons of fuel in the shipwrecked cruise liner, locals are worried that their pristine waters are in danger. Reporting by Rossella Lorenzi. Written and produced by Rossella Lorenzi and Martin Berman. Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Inside Syria's capitol: nervously normal

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:18 am

  As the violence in Syria continues to escalate, Syrian citizens are arming themselves to resist their oppressive regime. For days, Homs, the third-largest city in Syria, has endured shelling, tanks and attacks by heavy weaponry. Syrian protestors react with more violence against forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, resulting in all-out war zones in some residential neighborhoods. Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• 

  Seth's Blog

• The Weird interview

  Seth Godin

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:06 pm

  To celebrate the launch of Squidoo's new UpMarket magazine, we got permission to post an audio interview I recently did with Darren Hardy of Success. You can find it here. Thanks for listening.

• 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…

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  TechCrunch

• Click And Mortar: Zynga Signs Deal With Hasbro For Real-World Toys and Games

  Eric Eldon

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:30 pm

  Mobile app developer Rovio has famously turned its Angry Birds game into a popular toy franchise, but most other new-fangled gaming companies haven’t spent much energy going this route. But now social gaming leader Zynga is, per a big licensing deal with Hasbro. The long-time toy and board game maker is paying Zynga to turn games like FarmVille, CityVille, and its other hit titles into real world products. Details on what this will look like are scant in the press release, so I’m left guessing what this is going to mean. Fluffy pink FarmVille tractors? Lego-style CityVille…

• Music Labels’ Joint Venture, VEVO, Shows Pirated NFL Game At Sundance

  Jason Kincaid

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:04 pm

  Over the last decade the major music labels — and their trade organization, the Recording Industry Association of America — have established a repeated pattern of attacking consumers in the name of squelching illegal file-sharing. Piracy, they claim, has been the industry’s undoing, accounting for an over 50% drop in sales since 1999 (the industry likes to discount the impact of legal per-song music downloads via services like iTunes, and the myriad other changes facilitated by the rise of high-speed Internet connections). Their efforts to combat piracy are often draconian: threatening…

• You Can Buy Me Love, But Please Don’t Buy Me Gadgets

  Jordan Crook

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:52 am

  Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and the majority of us are likely scrambling to find that special gift. (The rest of us, meanwhile, are cursing couples.) A Valentine’s Day gift is usually more important than others because it’s a one-on-one situation, unlike Christmas or birthdays. Just one gift, to just one person — and it better be good. With that in mind, I’d like to address an article out of AllThingsD this morning that sourced information from PriceGrabber’s Valentine’s Day Dashboard Report. The report took information from February 4…

• The Google+ Platform Roadmap From Director Of Engineering David Glazer

  Josh Constine

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:49 am

  It won’t stop with Google Search Plus Your World. When asked if we should expect more integrations of Google+ into Google products, G+ director of engineering David Glazer said at today’s Inside Social Apps 2012 conference, ”Yes, where it’s good for the user. I think there’s more places to make people happy by showing them content they care about.” At the first major speaking engagement about its social network, Glazer also discussed user acquisition, monetization, and support for brands. Regarding Google+ expanding into more Google properties,…

• AT&T, Google Among The Biggest Online Advertisers — comScore

  Anthony Ha

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:47 am

  As part of its 2012 US Digital Future in Focus whitepaper, comScore looked at the online ad landscape and found a mix of old and new names. The report includes a list of the top 10 display advertisers in the United States (all of this data is US-only), as measured by impressions. AT&T topped the list, as it has in previous years, but there’s a newcomer — Google, which delivered 40.4 billion ads for products like Chrome, Google Offers, and Google+. Large brand advertising on the Internet is growing in general, comScore says. To quantify that, it measured the number of advertisers…

• 

  @ProBlogger

• Is Perfectionism Stalling Your Productivity?

  Darren Rowse

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:04 pm

  We’ve all been there … You sit down to write a post. You get the opening line down, but half-way through the second sentence, you go back to tweak the first. A bit further on, you decide to chop up the paragraphs you’ve done so far and rearrange them … but on second thought, is that really the better option? In two minds, you “finish” the post, then spend a half-hour writing and rewriting the “ideal” headline. Finally, happy(ish!) your cursor hovers over the Publish button … but you just can’t press it. You decide to give it some…

• 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…

• 

  Mashable!

• LinkedIn Hits 150 Million Members

  Todd Wasserman

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:26 pm

  LinkedIn on Thursday announced it has 150 million members in its network, a 20 million increase over November. The figure was disclosed in a press release the company issued Thursday announcing its fourth quarter and full-year 2011 results. The company posted revenues of $167.7 million, beating the analysts’ consensus of $160 million for Q4. Earnings were $0.06 cents per share, which was on target. LinkedIn’s stock was up more than 5% in after-hours trading. The Q4 revenue figure was a 105% jump over the same period in 2010. Revenues for full-year 2011 was $522.2 million, a 115%…

• FarmVille Toys Are Coming: Zynga and Hasbro Sign Licensing Deal

  Christina Warren

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:14 pm

  If Angry Birds and Cut the Rope can have toys, why can’t FarmVille? Social gaming juggernaut Zynga is teaming up with toy maker Hasbro to create a “wide range of toys and gaming experiences” based on Zynga properties and brands, a release read. The first products are expected to hit the market in Fall 2012. The agreement gives Hasbro license to develop and distribute an array of products in various toy and game categories for Zynga’s various properties. The companies will also be able to co-brand merchandise, which could potentially lead to digital product tie-ins. The…

• Hipstamatic Releases Lens for New York Fashion Week

  Lauren Indvik

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:02 pm

  In conjunction with New York Fashion Week, iPhone photography app Hipstamatic has released a cool-toned lens (i.e., filter) designed to capture the aesthetic of classic American beauty. The lens was developed in partnership with fashion photographer Chiun-Kai Shih, whose work has appeared in GQ, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, among other well-recognized publications. This is the second lens Hipstamatic has developed with Shih to commemorate NYFW. Last year, the pair released a lens called “Chunky,” which gives images a highly saturated, hazy glow. A spokesperson for Hipstamatic…

• Apple Hit With 250,000 Signatures Protesting Labor Conditions in China

  Kate Freeman

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:46 pm

  Fair-labor organizers delivered 250,000 signatures to Apple stores in six cities around the world on Thursday in protest of the company’s working conditions in China. Apple’s main factory, Foxconn, has faced numerous accusations of providing an inhumane work environment to Chinese workers. “It’s hard to hear tales of people jumping off buildings and using their hands until they can’t anymore,” said senior organizer of Change.org William Winters, who delivered a stack of petitions to the San Francisco Apple store on Stockton Street. The rest of the 250,000…

• Live LOLz: Cheezburger Plans Grammy Awards Memes in Real Time

  Brian Anthony Hernandez

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:35 pm

  I Can Has Cheezburger plans to turn the 54th Grammy Awards into a laughing matter by giving viewers an outlet to write funny captions for red carpet and ceremony photos. The “Live LOLing” event starts Sunday at 4 p.m. PT when Cheezburger’s ROFLrazzi site, Twitter profile and Facebook page will begin publishing Grammy images with humorous captions — in lolcat meme format. People can click “Recaption This” to plop their own witty text on the photos. Participants can then share their creations on their social networks. Cheezburger editor in chief Emily Huh…

• 

  ExploreMusic

• Rival Sons Interview

  Corina Hitchcock

  31 Jan 2012 | 2:27 pm

  Mike Sullivan chats with Rival Sons at Cherry Cola’s Rock N’ Roll Cabaret in Toronto. Rival Sons is an American blues-rock band from Los Angeles, California. Musically they have been compared to Led Zeppelin, The Kinks, and The Rolling Stones.

• Interview with Dave Rosen of The Parlor Mob

  Corina Hitchcock

  29 Dec 2011 | 12:11 pm

  Mike Sullivan sits down with Dave Rosen from The Parlor Mob. The Parlor Mob is a rock band from New Jersey.

• Interview and Performance with The Pack A.D.

  Andrew Dick

  22 Dec 2011 | 8:29 am

• Adam Cohen Interview & Performance

  Corina Hitchcock

  19 Dec 2011 | 1:21 pm

  Ira sits down with Adam Cohen.   Adam Cohen is a Canadian singer-songwriter and frontman for the band “Low Millions”. His father is musician Leonard Cohen. Adam Cohen: “What Other Guy”: Adam Cohen: “Beautiful”:

• The Best And Worst Things Ever! (of the week) – 12/16/11

  Adam Morrison

  16 Dec 2011 | 11:01 am

  Now that Dr. Conrad Murray has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson’s death and has been sentenced to a maximum of four years in prison, there’s just one question on everyone’s mind: what is online casino portal OnlineGamblingPal.com going to do with the strands of MJ’s hair that they bought in an auction? Notice the difference in sanity between the first part and the second part of this quote: “Since we’re big Michael Jackson fans, we want Michael to continue to rock and ‘ROLL’ forever,” said Jack Mason, spokesperson for…

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  Wired Top Stories

• Built to Last

  Mike Isaac

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:56 pm

  Motorola's newest Droid Razr is just like its predecessor in almost every way -- except for the addition of a positively huge battery.

• R.I.P. 'Laney,' The Dog Who Inspired the Military's Robot Pooches

  Noah Shachtman

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:53 pm

  Before there was the BigDog ? the Pentagon's remarkably lifelike four-legged robot ? there was a German short-haired pointer named Laney. The brown-speckled pooch inspired one of the military's most bizarre and captivating technology projects, its gallops and marches witnessed by millions on YouTube. This week, word spread among the small circle of Defense Department researchers who knew Laney that she had passed away. She was 12 years old.

• A Texas Jury Now Deliberating Who, if Anyone, Owns the Web

  Joe Mullin

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:25 pm

  The fate of the openness of the interactive web is now in the hands of a jury in Texas, weighing testimony from the Web's early pioneers about the validity of a patent claim on features such as embedded video. A loss means that nearly every major U.S. website could owe thousands to millions of dollars to an obscure patent-licensing company based in a small-town in Texas.

• FCC Teardown Reveals Lytro Camera Secrets

  Christina Bonnington

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:06 pm

  The amazing Lytro camera was recently torn down by the FCC, which revealed its processor, sensor, and other innards. The teardown also sheds light on what sort of features we could expect from Lytro in the future.

• Origami Robots Run Only on Air

  Dave Mosher

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:38 am

  Powered by nothing more than puffs of air, robots molded from paper and silicone rubber can bend, twist, grip and even lift more than 100 times their weight.

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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…

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  NYT > Home Page

• Pentagon to Loosen Restrictions on Women in Combat

  By ELISABETH BUMILLER

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:00 pm

  Women will be permitted to serve closer to the front lines, but still not in combat — angering some advocates who say the rules do not go far enough.

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

  By KAREN ROSENBERG

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:58 pm

  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.

• Greeks Reach Deal on Austerity to Meet Condition of Bailout

  By RACHEL DONADIO and NIKI KITSANTONIS

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:53 pm

  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.

• Olympic Hopeful Missy Franklin Loves Her High School Team

  By KAREN CROUSE

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:40 pm

  Missy Franklin, who holds the world record in the 200-meter backstroke, has passed up about $150,000 in prize money and more in endorsements to swim for her Colorado high school.

• Libya’s New Government Unable to Control Militias

  By ANTHONY SHADID

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:33 pm

  The Arab world’s most sweeping revolution is foundering as the interim Libyan government seems to be paralyzed by its lack of power to control competing militias.

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  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…

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  Fast Company

• "Words With Friends" Board Game Coming From The Makers Of Scrabble?

  Kevin Ohannessian

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:14 pm

  Hasbro and Zynga announced today that they have entered into a global partnership. With this license, Hasbro will be making a variety of toys and board games using Zynga's brands, with the first products expected to be released in the coming Fall. There will also be co-branded merchandise. "It's exciting to partner with Hasbro as we share a common vision for play and a mission to connect the world through games," said Zynga CEO Mark Pincus in a statement--funny, since much of Zynga's success has come from Words With Friends, a game that incorporated changes to scoring, a heavy social aspect…

• The Google Wallet Hack Is Not The End Of The World (Or Even NFC) As We Know It [Update: Google Reacts]

  Kit Eaton

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:30 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…

• Ford's Nancy Lee Gioia On Leading Where The Rubber Meets The Road

  Lydia Dishman

  9 Feb 2012 | 8:05 am

  In her 30 years with Ford Motor Company, Nancy Lee Gioia’s learned a thing or two about teamwork, sparking innovation, and being a driving force in what was once considered a man's industry. Nancy Lee Gioia’s been with Ford Motor Company since 1982, when she was hired as a graduate trainee in the electronics division. In the 30 years that followed, she’s held a variety of positions in electronics architecture, manufacturing, and engineering in different divisions.Now, as the company’s director of Global Electrification, Gioia drives strategy and planning for the next generation of…

• Fast Talk: How This Bartender Is Rebooting The Condom

  David Zax

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:41 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 U.K. 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…

• 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…

• 

  RollingStone.com: Music News

• Lana Del Rey, Skylar Grey Perform In L.A. to Honor Jimmy Iovine

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:40 am

  After an impressive video tribute looking back on a career that has seen him work with John Lennon Bruce Springsteen Dr Dre Eminem and Lady Gaga to name a few Jimmy Iovine joked "Oh that thing gives me a headache" The producer and executive was honored at LA's Village Studios last...

• Bret Michaels New Album to Include Duets With Loretta Lynn, Jimmy Buffett

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:35 am

  Bret Michaels' upcoming solo album Get Your Rock On will include a few friends "Loretta Lynn and I are gonna redo 'Every Rose Has It’s Thorn' together" he tells Rolling Stone "And for me growing up in a family that my father loved country music and Coal Miner’s Daughter this is...

• Van Halen Rocks the L.A. Forum for Thousands of 'Friends and Family'

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:35 am

  There were still kinks to be worked out last night at what David Lee Roth called "the final dress rehearsal" for Van Halen's upcoming North American tour Onstage at the Forum in Los Angeles Roth happily admitted "I forgot the fucking words!" halfway through "China Town" one of several songs...

• 'Portlandia' Book Due in November

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:05 am

  Portlandia the IFC sketch comedy show starring Wild Flag's Carrie Brownstein and Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen will gets its own book later this year The comedy duo have signed on to pen Portlandia A Guide for Visitors for Grand Central Publishing an imprint of Hachette The book a parody...

• Clarence Clemons' Nephew Jake Clemons Joins the E Street Band

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:05 am

  Bruce Springsteen has announced that Jake Clemons - the nephew of former E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons - will be taking over sax duties for his late uncle on the forthcoming "Wrecking Ball" Tour He will be perform in a horn section alongside trombonist Clark Gayton trumpeters Curt Ramm...

• 

  Kings of A&R

• Antonia Vai

  Dean Cramer

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:30 am

  Buzz Track: Moth to a Flame Antonia Vai has become a Kings favorite. This Swedish singer-songwriter manages to capture a haunting vibe without sacrificing melody. She is working on her debut album and typically performs in Stockholm. Her self produced songs are quickly becoming an underground internet sensation while landing an article in Nöjesguiden, the biggest Swedish entertainment guide, where she was listed as the “Next Up And Coming”. Contact: Antonia.morvai@hotmail.com    

• Katy Tiz

  Dean Cramer

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:59 am

  Buzz Track: City Boy UK artist Katy Tiz is generating a buzz. She will travel to Los Angeles for writing sessions in February while meeting record execs. For fans of Katy Perry and Lily Allen. Check out the song City Boy. Contact: Roger.ivm@gmail.com

• Life Down Here

  Dean Cramer

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:22 am

  Buzz Track: All That You Are Rock act Life Down Here who are fresh on the scene will release a full length which was produced by Jay Baumgardner (Bush, Evanscence). They will perform at The Roxy on February 18th. Check out the video for the track All That You Are. Contact: eshkurkin@gmail.com

• Walk off the Earth signs with Columbia

  Dean Cramer

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:55 am

  Columbia Records strikes a deal with Walk Off The Earth, the band known for covering Gotye’s smash hit Somebody That I Use To Know which garnered over 50 million YouTube views.

• Lexie Hofer

  Dean Cramer

  7 Feb 2012 | 8:01 am

  Buzz Track: Love Sick Singer-songwriter Lexie Hofer has become a Kings favorite after listening to her newly recorded album. Originally from Kansas, she relocated to Los Angeles and recorded her debut album in Nashville following in the footsteps of Taylor Swift.  Our other favorite tracks include Hostage and Butterflies. Contact: triple.threat@att.net  

• 

  Tour maps for bands mentioned in this article

• Live: tour map of concerts

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:41 pm

  check out this map of Live upcoming shows , get alerts of concerts nearest you Mentioned 97 times http://music.alltop.com, has 54321 myspace fans

• Three: tour map of concerts

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:38 pm

  found today: map of Three upcoming shows , get alerts of concerts nearest you Mentioned 43 times http://music.alltop.com, has 54321 myspace fans

• Down: tour map of concerts

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:34 pm

  very useful: map of Down upcoming shows , get alerts of concerts nearest you Mentioned 39 times http://music.alltop.com, has 113022 myspace fans

• James: tour map of concerts

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:31 pm

  very useful: map of James upcoming shows , get alerts of concerts nearest you Mentioned 34 times http://music.alltop.com, has 54321 myspace fans

• Heart: tour map of concerts

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:28 pm

  very useful: map of Heart upcoming shows , get alerts of concerts nearest you Mentioned 18 times http://music.alltop.com, has 66339 myspace fans

• 

  Music News, Reviews, and Gossip on Idolator.com

• Adam Levine Starts Record Label, Signs ‘Glee’ Star Matthew Morrison

  Becky Bain

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:51 pm

  After doling out advice on The Voice, Adam Levine believes he can shape a star off camera, too. The Maroon 5 frontman has announced the launch of his own record label, 222 Records, and his first signee is Glee star Matthew Morrison. “Starting my own label has been a long-time goal of mine and I am thrilled to be at the point in my career where it is finally happening,” Levine said. “I am excited for everyone to hear Matthew’s forthcoming album. Great things are in store for him with this release.” Expect Mr. Schue’s sophomore LP sometime this spring. [Via…

• Grammy Awards 2012: We Pick Record Of The Year

  Becky Bain

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:18 pm

  We’ve shared our 2012 Grammy picks for Best New Artist, Song Of The Year and who we think will take all the Pop and Dance categories — now let’s take a look at who’s up for Record Of The Year. The nominees in this category are basically a mirror image of Song Of The Year, with Kanye West’s “All Of The Lights” swapped with Katy Perry’s mega-hit “Firework.” Can Perry make the Recording Academy go ahh-ahh-ahh and triumph, or is the unstoppable force of Adele too big to beat? Head below for our predictions. RECORD OF THE YEAR Adele,…

• Adam Levine Gets Punched By Terry Richardson (PHOTOS)

  Erika Brooks Adickman

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:48 am

  Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine is the pop star du jour to drop by Terry Richardson’s studio. Unlike the photog’s latest shoot with Lady Gaga, the Voice coach remained fully clothed (a pity, that). The dapper singer kept things casual in a t-shirt and jeans and didn’t seem to mind all that much when Terry socked him one right in the kisser (for the sake of art, of course). Check out the Grammy nominee’s shoot, but be warned there is one pic where Adam holds up M.I.A.’s favorite finger. Then tell us below, or on Facebook and Twitter, what you thought of the…

• Lana Del Rey Has ‘Lovecat’ Covered

  Robbie Daw

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:24 am

  This week’s chart upstart Lana Del Rey graces the front of model fanzine Lovecat’s Women Who Rock Issue. Ellen Von Unwerth snapped the pics, and Born To Die songstress Lana had the following to say: “My biggest indulgence is being an artist. I still think it’s beautiful that I make music for a living. The music videos that I make myself are expensive and it takes money to clear all the copyrights… My second indulgence is diamonds. I have a jeweler in Brooklyn named Uri and he makes me all my custom gold and diamond pieces-grills, triple rings etc.” Catch more…

• Kanye West, Jay-Z, Chris Brown, Rihanna & Lana Del Rey Nominated For MTV Woodie Awards

  Becky Bain

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:01 am

  What good timing for The Throne to drop their visually bonkers live concert video for “Ni**as In Paris” today, as Kanye West and Jay-Z have been nominated for a Performing Woodie at the 2012 mtvU Woodie Awards. Elsewhere on the nominees list is Chris Brown and Rihanna, who compete against one another for the EDM Effect Woodie for their electro collaborations with Benny Benasi on “Beautiful People” and Calvin Harris on “We Found Love”, respectively. And it looks like college kids have got a soft spot for Lana Del Rey, as the nearly-chart-topping chanteuse is…

• 

  Tour maps for bands mentioned in this article

• Kanye West: tour map of concerts

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:41 pm

  found today: map of Kanye West upcoming shows , get alerts of concerts nearest you Mentioned 38 times http://hip-hop.alltop.com, has 842447 myspace fans

• Live: tour map of concerts

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:38 pm

  found today: map of Live upcoming shows , get alerts of concerts nearest you Mentioned 25 times http://hip-hop.alltop.com, has 54321 myspace fans

• Down: tour map of concerts

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:34 pm

  found today: map of Down upcoming shows , get alerts of concerts nearest you Mentioned 21 times http://hip-hop.alltop.com, has 113022 myspace fans

• Lil Wayne: tour map of concerts

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:31 pm

  found today: map of Lil Wayne upcoming shows , get alerts of concerts nearest you Mentioned 14 times http://hip-hop.alltop.com, has 1240148 myspace fans

• RICK ROSS: tour map of concerts

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:28 pm

  very useful: map of RICK ROSS upcoming shows , get alerts of concerts nearest you Mentioned 13 times http://hip-hop.alltop.com, has 54321 myspace fans

• 

  Psychology Today Features

• Reading The Opposite Sex

  kschreiber

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:00 pm

  Can men and women ever understand each other?

• Seeking Solitude

  kschreiber

  7 Feb 2012 | 11:00 pm

  The necessary art of alone time.

• Would You Be Your Own Friend?

  tbrown

  6 Feb 2012 | 11:00 pm

  We're often blind to the not-so-wonderful traits we possess—but quick to point them out in others.

• Noise, Noise, Noise!

  kschreiber

  5 Feb 2012 | 11:00 pm

  How to turn down the volume in an increasingly loud world—and why you should.

• Brand: Me

  tcp

  4 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pm

  Are you a Mac or a PC? And just what does that say about you?

• 

  PsyBlog

• Multiple-Choice Tests: Why Sticking With Your First Answer is (Probably) Wrong

  Jeremy Dean

  7 Feb 2012 | 6:34 am

  What's the best strategy for taking a multiple-choice test? The standard advice for multiple-choice tests is: if in doubt, stick with your first answer. College students believe it: about 75% agree that changing your first choice will lower your score overall (Kruger et al., 2005). Instructors believe it as well: in one study 55% believed it would lower students' scores while only 16% believed it would improve them. And yet this is wrong. One survey of 33 different studies conducted over 70 years found that, on average, people who change their answers do better than those who don't (Benjamin…

• Duck/Rabbit Illusion Provides a Simple Test of Creativity

  Jeremy Dean

  31 Jan 2012 | 10:06 am

  Are you creative? Try this simple test... The well-known known illusion above can be seen in two ways: as both a duck and a rabbit. Which do you see first? And if you see one, can you also see the other? Most people see the duck first and can flip between the two representations, but the question is: how easy is it for you to flip between them? Does it require real mental strain, or can you do it at will? Wiseman et al. (2011) had a hunch that the ability to flip between representations is related to creativity. To test this participants were given a simple test of creativity which involves…

• Powerful People Feel Taller Than They Really Are

  Jeremy Dean

  24 Jan 2012 | 9:05 am

  Experiment demonstrates how a powerful feeling feeds back into self-perception of height. Language can reveal all kinds of truths about our psychology. Take these expressions: He's the big man on this project. We look up to her. Lady Gaga is huge. He puts her on a pedestal. It's not hard to see the strong association here between size and power that's embedded in the way we talk about the relations between people. The reason why is almost too obvious to bother stating: larger people quite often do have more power. As children our parents, teachers and all our authority figures are taller than…

• Why Stories Sell: Transportation Leads to Persuasion

  Jeremy Dean

  18 Jan 2012 | 10:10 am

  Psychological research on persuasion suggests that stories which transport people are more likely to be persuasive. Marketers have known for years that stories are a powerful tool for persuading people. That's partly because stories (unlike statistics) are easy to understand. That's why politicians try to persuade us by telling stories about their vision of the world. They do spout statistics as well, but normally only in support of some kind of grand narrative. We instinctively understand that people resist being told what to do, but will respond to the moral of a story. So we try to…

• The Amazing Power of Regret to Shape Our Future

  Jeremy Dean

  12 Jan 2012 | 8:41 am

  Why people are reluctant to exchange lottery tickets, but will happily exchange pens. Regret might not make a list of the most powerful emotions. It would probably include things like anger, happiness, jealousy, sadness and especially for us English, embarrassment. We tend to think of regret as essentially a backward-looking emotion. We regret things in the past, like not trying hard enough in school, how we treated a friend or the things we said to our partner in the heat of an argument. In this sense you might argue that it's useless: why regret something you can't change? But regret isn't…

• 

  Mind Hacks

• goCognitive 2.0

  tomstafford

  4 Feb 2012 | 5:30 am

  We’ve reported before on the Univeristy of Idaho’s goCognitive project. It’s a enticing collection of videos and demonstrations, including many guest spots by the glitterati of cognitive neuroscience. The site has more free video content in cognitive neuroscience than before – and it is more easily accessible as well. Check it out

• Dressing psychologists as wizards in court

  tomstafford

  4 Feb 2012 | 1:53 am

  From overlawyered.com we hear that in 1995, New Mexico state senator Duncan Scott introduced a legislative ammendment providing that When a psychologist or psychiatrist testifies during a defendant’s competency hearing, the psychologist or psychiatrist shall wear a cone-shaped hat that is not less than two feet tall. The surface of the hat shall be imprinted with stars and lightning bolts. Additionally, a psychologist or psychiatrist shall be required to don a white beard that is not less than 18 inches in length, and shall punctuate crucial elements of his testimony by stabbing the air…

• A treasure hunt for the mysteries of mind and brain

  tomstafford

  21 Jan 2012 | 6:22 am

  I’ve published a couple of free ebooks recently: Explore your blind spot shows you how to reveal the gap we all have in our visual experience of the world, and discusses what it means about consciousness that this gap is kept hidden from us most of the time. Control Your Dreams, co-written with Cathryn Bardsley and illustrated beautifully by Harriet Cameron, tells you how to have lucid dreams, those dreams where you realise you are dreaming and can take control over reality. Both books are written as treasure hunts – travel guides, but for exploring inner space. When you start…

• The peak experiences of Abraham Maslow

  vaughanbell

  19 Jan 2012 | 4:48 pm

  The New Atlantis has an in-depth biographical article on psychologist Abraham Maslow – one of the founders of humanistic psychology and famous for his ‘hierarchy of needs’. Maslow is stereotypically associated with a kind of fluffy ‘love yourself’ psychology although the man himself was quite a skeptic of the mumbo jumbo that got associated with his work. The association is not so much because of Maslow’s focus on self-actualization, a goal where we use our psychological potential to its fullest, but because of his association with the ‘human…

• Gimme Shelter

  vaughanbell

  16 Jan 2012 | 5:44 pm

  The Rolling Stones launched their career in a social therapeutic club, designed to help troubled youth with communication skills. The club became legendary in rock ‘n roll history but its therapeutic roots have almost been forgotten. Eel Pie Island is a small patch on the River Thames famous for the underground club that earned a place in 60′s history for hosting the cream of jazz bands and rock n’ roll outfits. Less well known, is the story of how the club was created as a therapeutic environment to help troubled youth. Its place in music history has been recounted many…

• 

  ScienceDaily: Psychology News

• Right hand or left? How the brain solves a perceptual puzzle

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:20 am

  When you see a picture of a hand, how do you know whether it's a right or left hand? This "hand laterality" problem may seem obscure, but it reveals a lot about how the brain sorts out confusing perceptions. Now, a new study challenges the long-held consensus about how we solve this problem.

• Memory strengthened by stimulating key site in brain

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:00 pm

  Ever gone to the movies and forgotten where you parked the car? New research may one day help you improve your memory. Neuroscientists have demonstrated that they can strengthen memory in human patients by stimulating a critical junction in the brain.

• Study to determine whether fish oil can help prevent psychiatric disorders

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:30 am

  A new study was designed to test whether Omega-3 fatty acids improve clinical symptoms, and help adolescents and young adults (ages 12 to 25) who are at elevated risk for severe psychiatric disorders function better in school, work and other social environments.

• Flipping a light switch in the cell: Quantum dots used for targeted neural activation

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:27 am

  By harnessing quantum dots, researchers have developed a new and vastly more targeted way to stimulate neurons in the brain. Being able to switch neurons on and off and monitor how they communicate with one another is crucial for understanding -- and, ultimately, treating -- a host of brain disorders.

• Physical activity yields feelings of excitement, enthusiasm

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:27 am

  People who are more physically active report greater levels of excitement and enthusiasm than people who are less physically active, according to researchers. People also are more likely to report feelings of excitement and enthusiasm on days when they are more physically active than usual.

• 

  World of Psychology

• Is There an App for Monitoring Your Happiness?

  John M. Grohol, PsyD

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:15 pm

  I recently ran across two different, new apps in development for smartphones and iPhones, both of which purport to measure a person’s mental health, happiness and even depression completely passively. (“Apps” are tiny pieces of software that run most commonly on portable devices.) This, of course, is a Big Deal, since one of the major stumbling blocks of the thousands upon thousands of health apps are their need for something or someone to input personal health data. Without personal health data, health and mental health apps are generally pretty useless. The method to…

• Google Pulls the Plug on SuperPoke Pets, Players Sue

  John M. Grohol, PsyD

  9 Feb 2012 | 8:35 am

  If you give people the opportunity to leverage their personal social networks online to play a game, you should probably think long and hard before you shut down that game. Of all companies you’d think might be smart enough to “get it,” Google would be at the top of my list. But in a demonstration that apparently some companies don’t really give much thought to such things, Google decided to shut down the popular SuperPoke Pets game, after buying the company that owned it. (Which begs the question — why buy a company only to shutter its popular products?) The…

• Is It Time to Start Dating Your Spouse?

  Nadia Persun, PhD

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:38 am

  Small talk. That smile. You are special. How sweet. Be mine. Love you. I am yours. Only you. Soul mate. True love. Marry me. Live happily ever after. You got together with your life partner for many reasons: shared perspectives and outlooks, physical attraction, shared spirituality, shared professional lives, etc. But you also enjoyed one another’s company because it’s fun! In the beginning, you did not have much but each other, but it was enough. There were sweet words, long phone talks, walks and candlelit dinners. You had meaningful conversations, shared your dreams and goals, planned…

• Video: Recovering from Cheating

  John M. Grohol, PsyD

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:46 am

  Last week, Drs. Marie and Dan covered the general aspects of cheating in relationships. It’s a common enough problem that as many as 1 in 5 relationships will face a cheating partner. So how does a relationship recover from cheating? How do you make amends with it personally? I’m pleased to introduce the second in a series of interviews and conversations with two of our resident therapists about a wealth of mental health topics. In this installment, Marie Hartwell-Walker, Ed.D. and Daniel J. Tomasulo, Ph.D., TEP, MFA answer the question of how to recover from cheating in this…

• Interview with Margarita Tartakovsky

  Jamie Hale

  8 Feb 2012 | 5:34 am

  Recently I had the chance to ask Margarita Tartakovsky, an associate editor at Psych Central, a few questions about eating behavior.  She blogs regularly about eating and self-image issues on her blog Weightless. Q. Why doesn’t the current model of treating obesity — only telling people what and how much to eat — work for most people? A. Great question, because the current model definitely doesn’t work. I can’t remember who said it, but there’s a saying that if you want to gain weight, go on a diet. Diets have a failure rate of about 95 percent. People may lose weight…