Oh. My. Goodness. There is so much wrong about this, and yet, there is so much funny about this, and I'm afraid there is probably a smidgen of truth as well. Foul language galore, so you've been warned.
via Fake Steve Jobs
Though slanted a bit towards Obama in content, you can have a ringtone from Hillary, McCain, or Obama on your phone courtesy of Slate. Choose Obama's Yes We Can, or McCain's "little jerk" comment, or if you really have an annoying friend who's calls set you off, you can choose Hillary's laugh, or her saying "shame on you Barack Obama."
Don't have too much fun with these.
Noise. It can really bog you down. I know it does me at times. It's warm weather here in the Shenandoah Valley and when warm weather comes we frequently hold some small (one on one, one on two) meetings outside in front of the theatre to enjoy the weather. Unfortunately that brings noise with it. I'm not just talking about the cars and loud trucks that sometimes pass us by. Other employees and even some of our neighbors see us standing around talking and assume they can just walk up and chat. A polite, 'please excuse us we're in a meeting', usually does the trick, but the noise as already jumped into the conversation and interrupted the meeting flow.
Now, this isn't the passersby's fault. It is ours (or mine) for holding the meeting outdoors.
In my view there's a certain similarity here, though there are differences, with Robert Scoble's search for a noise reduction system whether it is brought to you by Twitter, FriendFeed, or pick your social network. Yes, I'm sure there will be some sort of noise reduction system in the future for these kind of things. The early adopters who have loads of followers will demand them, and the companies that build them don't want to see the Scoble's and the Calacanis's saying they've moved on because of too much noise.
But eventually, even with noise reduction systems, the only way to reduce the noise in any of these circumstances is to acknowledge it and know when to shut it off, whether it is Tweets, replies, comments, email, or what have you. It isn't easy, I know for a fact. I'm not talking about Scoble's first point here (choosing to remain ignorant) because that's a one way street to shutting yourself off, and as Scoble points out, all too well, can lead to those who do choose to swim in what's going on controlling the conversation in an ever decreasing cycle of cultural doom. I guess I'm suggesting that the best way is some sort of personal control and selecting when to swim and when to keep yourself on the beach, (or upstairs in the office.)
As my grandfather used to say,
"Just because the phone rings, you don't have to answer it. You do have a choice."
So, according to Clinton mouthpiece Paul Begala the Democratic Party can't win with a coalition of "eggheads and African Americans."
According to Clinton herself,
“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on" citing an article by The Associated Press.
It “found how Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”
“There’s a pattern emerging here,"
Methinks the only pattern that is emerging is one of self-delusion and sheer desperation.
I don't really consider myself an egg-head, but I guess I fall into the educated demographic. When I looked in the mirror this morning I was still white (or is that Caucasian?). I do work and work hard, and i don't think my support for Obama is wavering. Wait. Let me check.
Nope. Not wavering.
She's right. Whites who work (including the egg-heads) are the ones you need to win. If she wasn't so busy pissing most of them off with her pandering and race-baiting, she might have had a chance at it. She, and her devoted acolytes are turning this into a scrambled mess.
On another note: At least egg-heads, white or black, can count and don't keep changing the rules like a bunch of high school kids on recess. 2025.
I've been anxiously following any news about Joby's GorillaPod Go-Go. I'm not sure which is worse, Joby's penchant for missing shipping targets or Democratic Super Delegates that are holding out from declaring a preference. Something tells me the Super Delegates will come clean first. The shipping of the GorillaPod Go-Go has moved from March to April to now who knows as the web site still says shipping in April. In the end it won't matter because I'm sure the product will be a hit, but it is taking awhile.
I noticed that NewsGang Live regular Karoli has put up a post that she has abandoned CNN over some recent coverage following Tuesday's primaries in North Carolina and Indiana. I long ago turned off CNN for similar reasons as Karoli, but also because I just find their coverage of just about anything so annoying that it gave me a headache. I'm not saying other alternatives are any better because they are not, but they don't give me a headache while annoying me. CNN does.
Since we're entering a transition period between the primaries and the general election, and before Hillary Clinton declares herself an Independent and runs on her own, we'll see some navel gazing by the media outlets on how they did, that won't come close to examining just how poorly they serve their audiences with coverage that is either screaming to get ratings, or following the pack.
It appears now that this presidential election will lead to some historic changes on the political front. Maybe this year's Presidential Follies will lead to some much needed change in the media that feeds and feeds on that beast.
Somehow I doubt it.
Just when you thought it was safe to signal in a new play, the New England Patriots taping scandal is heating up again. Apparently a Patriot's assistant has sent the NFL eight videotapes showing that the Patriots did violate league rules by taping opposing team's signals.
Seth Godin nails it when it comes to the media and covering politics or any other issue for that matter. "The product they sell is drama." The only problem I have with what he says, being a guy who makes his living in the theatre, is that some of the sellers do it so poorly it gives "drama" a bad name.
Before I go to bed tonight, I think it is more than safe to say that the Democratic Primary campaign is over and Barack Obama will take the Democratic nomination for the presidency. It may go on for a bit, but that's going through the motions at this point. At the moment they are still trying to add up the final tally in Indiana with Hillary Clinton leading by about 20,000 votes. Whether Obama closes the gap or not, it is over folks.
Clinton has canceled her morning news show appointments. That's a big clue. And much of what she said in her speech tonight laid the groundwork for her eventual concession.
History was made tonight. There's more to make. We live in interesting times.
This could be an interesting development. The TimesOnline is reporting that sensors could be implanted into folks at risk of a heart attack creating an in-body-network that call 911 if a patient had a heart attack. It could also send an alert if a patient didn't take proper medication. Spooky, but heartening.
Monster.com founder Jeff Taylor wants to do for obituaries what he did for classified advertising for jobs. He's starting up a new company called Tributes.com. Supposedly, the last web page you'll ever need, it has funding from the Wall Street Journal, and to my eye plays to the ego in all of us as well as the emotions of those grieving the loss of a loved one. The idea is to sell this to funeral homes who will then use their high mark-ups to package it to customers.
The Wired.com article where I found this says that online grieving is certainly on the rise, and I'm thinking that makes a lot of sense. I'm just wondering how Twitter will fit into this.
Steve Rubel highlights some interesting information on the power of Deliberate Practice that entirely makes sense to me. In concept, deliberate practice, means if you have even moderate natural talent in an area and apply yourself, deliberately of course, to practice at least 2 hours a day. Of course you measure your progress along the way.
In sort of KFC (we do one thing right) sort of approach, I've seen this work for myself, and other artists in the theatre when they work on honing or developing a skill that a role in a play may require. Like Steve, I've never heard the concept articulated before, but I've seen it in action.
I'll have to look more into this.
The pandering is out in spades these days. I guess sensing that common sense is starting to erode the gas tax holiday plan, Clinton now, in addition to obliterating Iran, wants to break up OPEC. Yeah, like that is going to happen.
"They can no longer be a cartel, a monopoly that get together once every couple of months in some conference room in some plush place in the world, they decide how much oil they’re going to produce and what price they’re going to put it at"
That ought to win her a few votes from those angry about gas prices, but I've got a question. What about all those oil speculators who win when we lose when the price goes up? They always get their share. Can we talk about those guys too?
Following on the heels of Google's announcement of Share Anything. Anytime, Anywhere., industry leading toilet paper manufacturer, Charmin, announced today that they've added Google's sharing feature as a social networking component to their latest new products. According to a Charmin spokesperson:
"The essence of social networking is sharing. Sharing things you find on the web, pictures, videos, news articles, all sorts of information. With the advent of smaller and more mobile devices, we've seen an uptick in the trend of Stall Surfing, where an individual will carry his iPhone or other mobile device to the restroom for a little browsing while they are taking care of business. So, we've added Google's new share component to our latest products, to allow you to share any information with other users who might, or might not be stall surfing at the same time."
"It is simple really. Our new toilet paper dispenser is equipped with a WiFi connection that hooks into your home network. When you see something you wish to share with a friend or your followers, you simply choose the Charmin Share button on the dispenser, which immediately sends the item over the web to your Google shared feeds, as well as prints it out on the next sheet of toilet paper. Share on the web, or keep a hard copy for yourself or someone in your household."
The spokesperson continued, "Of course you can plug into the Twitter API, as well as other social networking tools, so that all of your followers can see what you've just shared right from your toilet seat. Share Anything. Anytime. Anywhere. Just don't squeeze it."
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