"Time for a Brand New You" (Financial Times)

"What do people say about you when you are not there? This may not be a question you have asked yourself before. But your successful, politically astute colleagues will probably have spent quite a lot of time thinking about their reputation, image and impact on others. So perhaps you should start thinking about it. Your career prospects depend on what They are saying about You.

This is the era of the “personal brand”. A decade ago, the management guru Tom Peters urged business people to work on “the brand called You”. Some laughed at the shameless vulgarity. Others felt it too outlandish to take seriously..."

"Kiva: We Let You Loan to the Working Poor"

Make small loans to people in need around the world, get paid back, and do it all over again!!

"Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world..."

Social Capitalism: Fast Company's 2008 Social Capitalist Awards

I'd never heard about Social Capitalism, so when I read about it in Fast Company magazine last week I wanted to discover what it was all about.....especially since at first glance it sounds a bit contradictory.

Definition: "Social-Capitalism as a theory challenges the idea that Socialism and Capitalism are mutually exclusive. Social-Capitalism posits that a strong social support network for the poor enhances capital output.

By decreasing poverty, capital market participation is enlarged..." (Wiki)

Unfortunately...."International Olympic Committee Agrees to Internet Blocking at the Games" (International Herald Tribune)

"BEIJING: The Chinese government confirmed Wednesday what journalists arriving at the lavishly outfitted media center here had suspected: Contrary to previous assurances by Olympic and government officials, the Internet would be censored during the upcoming games.

Since the Olympic Village press center opened Friday, reporters have been unable to access scores of Web pages - politically sensitive ones that discuss Tibetan succession, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown of the protests in Tiananmen Square and the sites of Amnesty International, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers known for their freewheeling political discourse..."

"Lion that Loves Humans"...this is amazing!

Dynamic Architecture, in Dubai, UAE

Another amazing project from Dubai! This 80-floor rotating tower is set to be completed in 2010. 90% of the tower will be built in a factory and shipped to the construction site. The entire tower will be powered from turbines and solar panels. Enough surplus electricity should be produced to power five other similar sized buildings in the vicinity. The turbines will be located between each of the rotating floors. They could generate up to 1,200,000 kilowatt-hours of energy. The solar panels will be located on the roof.

Song: "Landed", by Recloose

No video, but the song is on you tube. It's got a beatbox, froggy, jazzy feel :)

Song: "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" by Saint Etienne

Old-school down-tempo 90's jam.

Song: "Don't Stop", by the Brazilian Girls

Funky, chill, boppy :)

Song: "What Ever Happened?", by The Strokes

Rocking & rolling, but not exactly Rock 'n Roll.

Song: "C-C" (You Set the Fire in Me), by Tom Vek

Frank Gehry's "Dancing House" (The Fred & Ginger Building), in Prague, Czech Republic

I used to walk along the Vlatva river in Prague while I studied there in '99 for a semester, always awed and happy to see Fred & Ginger dancing in large above and next to me. It's amazing how a material as sharp and fragile as glass was constructed into a form that appears to flow and evokes the image of a swaying female dancer. If he doesn't catch her, she'll shatter.

Frank Gehry's Fisher Center @ Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

I stumbled upon Gehry's floating and folding performance center at Bard College in the Summer of '07 while driving around exploring the Hudson Valley area. The back of the building is a bit disappointing and disconnected design-wise from the more visible front and sides. It's a reverse mullet of a building: party up front, business in the back.

"Untouchable By Birth, Undaunted as a Politician" (International Herald Tribune)

"LUCKNOW, India: Kumari Mayawati, a daughter of so-called untouchables and India's most maverick politician, stunned the nation last year when she won majority control of India's largest state with an inventive political coalition that fused votes from up and down the ancient Hindu caste pyramid. Now, with national elections only months away, Mayawati has emerged as the most important low-caste politician in India's history, and she is asserting herself as a rainbow coalition leader whom all Indians can trust to be their prime minister one day. How far she will rise remains to be seen. But there is no disputing her importance..."

2 Quotes from Comedian Steven Wright

- "What's another word for thesaurus?"
- "When I first read the dictionary, I thought it was a poem about everything."

"Gore Seeks 100% Green Energy" (from Financial Times)

"The US should aim to generate all of its electricity from zero-carbon energy sources within a decade, Al Gore, the former vice-president, urged on Thursday."

"...Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute, an environmental group, said: “We need to change the debate in this country from what we can’t do to what we can. America has led every major technological shift in the last 100 years, and we can lead the next one as well. The problem is not technology, it is political will...”

Learning how to blog

I'm learning as I go, so watch for changes and please give me any tips on how to create/enhance a blog!

Dancing Matt!

"There are no weekend box office charts for online videos. But if there were, near or at the very top of the list right now might well be a four-and-a-half-minute video called "Dancing," which more than four million people have viewed on YouTube, and perhaps another million on other sites, in the just over two weeks since it appeared. It's the online equivalent of a platinum hit, seeping from one computer to the next like a virus..." (from International Herald Tribune)
2008

2006

"What Makes A Viral Ad?" (from CNN)

"(CNN) -- How do you create something that people want to spend more time with, and also want their groups of friends or social community to spend more time with? In this award-winning viral, a John West "spars" with a grizzly bear over a fish. The answer lies in the idea that it's "oh so viralicious," it's got to be shared -- with your friends and colleagues at the very first instance, at that second. And what will drive that is the power of that idea -- its creativity, its point of view, or sheer genius in expression." (from CNN.com)