Think Pink, White House: I think the WH looks great in pink!
THE White House became the ‘Pink House’ today in a visible show of support for Breast Cancer Awareness month.
The presidential mansion was bathed in a rosy hue by coloured spotlights for one night only, drawing a crowd of tourists, as soon as dusk fell.
October is observed as Breast Cancer Awareness Month every year, by public service groups, medical professionals and government agencies that combine to promote awareness of the disease.
The American Cancer Society says about 207,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women will be diagnosed this year and nearly 40,000 women will die from the disease.
via White House goes pink for breast cancer | Herald Sun.
lyrics, places, Colorado, kith/kin: Can’t wait to show Molls and Liv Colorado for the first time … and I always think of my brother when I think of John Denver and this song …
And the Colorado rocky mountain high
I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky
You can talk to God and listen to the casual reply
Rocky mountain high
via Rocky Mountain High Lyrics by John Denver.
random, college, Harry Potter, children’s/YA literature: .. lives… breathes.. HP … I wonder what her roommate thinks? U. of C. senior lives, breathes Harry Potter :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Metro & Tri-State.
food, my kids, South Africa: My kids would beg to differ … Mott’s Original for them. Very interesting … applesauce is not a staple in South Africa … or pbj for that matter.
Imagine our surprise when we tasted seven brands from the daunting array of styles crowding the shelves (“natural,“ ”original,” and ”home style,” to name but a few)—and found that our runaway favorite contains sucralose, the same artificial sweetener in Splenda.
via Applesauce – Cooks Illustrated.
gLee, tv: It was a good scene.
The crucial scene involves Sue talking about how she used to pray for God to help cure her sister with Down Syndrome, but since he never responded, she stopped believing. Murphy said that he didn’t care if audiences agreed or disagreed with the sentiment, but he did want to start a conversation and invite people to not be afraid of discussing serious issues in the open.
via ‘Glee’ Co-Creator Ryan Murphy on the Show’s Music, His Favorite Scene, and Guest Star Gwyneth Paltrow – Speakeasy – WSJ.
water resource management, followup:
For a year now, Lake Lanier – which reached devastating levels caused by drought – has maintained “full pool.” 1
via Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News | ajc.com.
Desmond Tutu, people, apartheid, history, South Africa:
Despite such heavy thoughts, Tutu smiled frequently. He peppered his conversation with hopeful statements about cultivating “a culture that respects human rights.” South Africa’s “apartheid was not the last word,” he said. He still believed people from diverse backgrounds can ultimately weld themselves together and work together as a society. One of the best lessons of his life, he said, is that “there are some extraordinary people in the world.” He remained, in short, hopeful.
via Desmond Tutu: ‘Apartheid was not the last word’ by Keith Graham | LikeTheDew.com.
Desmond Tutu, people, religion, history, South Africa, 2010 FIFA World Cup: Loved this interview … even the quote about Milo …Molly loves Milo!
Even when it comes to religion, Archbishop Desmond Tutu can’t resist a joke. He begins his interview with a prayer then, asking an assistant for a milky cup of Milo, says: “If you put any water, you are not going to heaven.”
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That in spite of all the horror of injustice and oppression, and the sense that those who perpetrate evil tend to appear invincible, the texture of our universe is one where there is no question at all but that good and laughter and justice will prevail. In the end, the perpetrators of injustice or oppression, the ones who strut the stage of the world often seemingly unbeatable — there is no doubt at all that they will bite the dust. (Laughs) Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!”
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Anyone who was not thrilled by the World Cup needs to go see their psychiatrist. The pride. The amount of people flying the flag. It was just crazy! We have shown the world. We have shown ourselves. We can meet deadlines. We build state of the art stadiums. We can actually control crime. We have got the ability. We [can] make every South African proud [and] feel they matter. One has a great, great exhilaration about the possibilities. [Then there are] the young people in our country. They take your breath away. Man! They really can make this country hum. The sky is the limit now. So I am excited about that. My sense is that we are a scintillating success waiting to happen.
via Retiring from Public Life, Desmond Tutu Reflects on God, Forgiveness and South Africa’s Future – TIME.
culture, media: Another woman thrown into the spotlight by a philandering husband … but why is this an occasion to bash Jenny Sanford.
Marta Salinas, the Chilean miner’s wife who stayed home to watch her husband Yonni Barrios’ miraculous rescue on TV (so he could greet his mistress), out-classed Jenny Sanford in the cheated-on-wife category. Senora Salinas’ husband was the 21st in the line of men who one by one came up a straw tube Wednesday to a very different world than the one they tunneled away from last August.
Television crews, book agents, long lost family members and a watching world were there to greet them. Their extraordinary grace after spending more than two months trapped half a mile underground (the first 17 days with no contact from above), and the order, mutual trust, cooperation and respect they apparently maintained among themselves in their cavern, epitomized the complete civilized inverse of Lord of the Flies social behavior.
Apparently that dignity extended to their families. Barrios’ wife of 28 years told the New York Times, “He has another companion,” and added, “I’m happy for him, and if he remakes his life, good for him.”
via Wronged Wife of Chilean Miner Out-Classes Jenny Sanford.
history, random: punch drunk …
punch is misunderstood. It has a serious, largely unappreciated pedigree, flagged by cameos in the 18th- and 19th-century novels of Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray and Henry Fielding, Mr. Wondrich said.
To reintroduce and redeem it as something less blandly sugary and fizzy — as something nobler and better — than what most of us typically encounter is the mission he has taken on, and who better for it? His interest in history runs as deep as his thirst for beverage experiences on the banks of the mainstream, and he has the handsomest punch ladle I’ve ever laid eyes on, more than 200 years old, with a whalebone handle. He got it on eBay two years ago, and it perfectly suits him. Mr. Wondrich himself looks vintage, his bushy trademark goatee less an ironic statement than a slightly dandyish nod to the chin topiary of yesteryear.
The above punch bona fides, along with many others, are on eloquent display in his new book, “Punch,” to be published by Perigee on Nov. 2. In his fetchingly wonky way, Mr. Wondrich, 49, has given the book not just a subtitle, “The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl,” but also a sub-subtitle, “An Anecdotal History of the Original Monarch of Mixed Drinks, With More Than Forty Historic Recipes, Fully Annotated, and a Complete Course in the Lost Art of Compounding Punch.” I quote it in its entirety because it describes “Punch” as succinctly as I could.
As in one of his previous books, “Imbibe!,” a highly regarded look at the American cocktail pioneer Jerry Thomas, Mr. Wondrich trots out staggering amounts of research, producing a work of sociology and anthropology as much as mixology. But this one has a bit of a hurdle to clear.
All this fuss over … punch?
Mr. Wondrich admitted that not too many years ago, he also thought of it “as a category without respect — and not deserving of it. Punch was either stupidly frilly or stupidly basic.”
via The Tipsy Diaries – Punch, the Drink of Dickens, Redeemed – NYTimes.com.
mascots, The South, pc-ness: I love it when there is a reason for a mascot … so Old Miss choose a bear to replace their very politically incorrect Colonel Reb … why the bear … read on …
Colonel Reb, meet your replacement.
A decision by the University of Mississippi to replace Colonel Reb, the school’s longtime mascot, with the Rebel Black Bear is meeting some resistance.
Colonel Reb was formerly the University of Mississippi’s mascot.
On Thursday, the University of Mississippi announced the successor to its former mascot, a white-goateed, cane-toting Southern plantation owner that many have criticized as racist and anachronistic. The new mascot? The Rebel Black Bear.
Supporters of the old mascot were quick to find flaws. For one, an artist’s design shows a brown bear, not a black one. The animal was chosen based on the short story “The Bear” by William Faulkner, himself a former student, in which a bear is killed. Not exactly inspiring on the football field. And how original is a bear mascot?
via Ole Miss Resolves One Mascot Controversy and Creates Another – NYTimes.com.
pop ups, business model, NYC: Again, I love this idea of a pop up business … but this one is only around for three weeks … not fair!
Waris Ahluwalia–best known for his appearances in Wes Anderson films and for his self-made “House of Waris” jewelry brand–has launched a pop-up tea room in New York City, open for only ten days.
“I always knew I would do tea,” Waris tells Fast Company. And he finally got the chance when he issued the House of Waris Design Challenge–the winner of which was Swiss architect, Christian Wassmann–and then took over a temporary pop-up space under the New York City High Line and created the House of Waris Tea Room. It serves Darjeeling tea, biscuits from England, and of course hosts Playboy parties. As for the tea itself? “I brought to market a product in three weeks,” says Waris, implying just how entrepreneurial the actor really is.
via Wes Anderson’s Waris Ahluwalia Pops Up a Tea Room Under NYC High Line | Fast Company.
education, science: Do you engage in free choice science learning? Who says you can’t teach old dogs new tricks.
Much of my information derives from an excellent article in the American Scientist by John Falk and Lynn Dierking. They present studies showing that school is not where most Americans learn most of their science. Instead, knowledge is acquired via what is called informal science education or free-choice science learning. And while Falk and Dierking stress that current efforts to improve formal science education should be pursued with vigor, they lift up the imperative to also maximize opportunities for adults to pursue inherent levels of curiosity relating to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
So how do Americans engage in free-choice science learning?
Studies indicate a variety of sources. Adults may be pursuing a hobby, like gardening or tropical fish or star gazing, and devour relevant information. They may take their children to science museums and zoos and pick up information and curiosity in the process. They may be afficionados of NOVA or Discovery Channel. They may consult the internet when they — or family members — incur a disease or when a disaster like the Gulf oil spill occurs, seeking to better understand what’s going on. They may bookmark 13.7 or Chet Raymo or Carl Zimmer or Kahn or Seed and avail themselves of scientists’ attempts to make their passions accessible. They may frequent a science café.
via Stronger And Smarter: Informal Science Learning In Rural American Libraries : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture : NPR.
random, writing, history: Interesting thought … does a good editor check these things today?
Betsy, Peggy, and Sally all strike me as common 18th century names, but Linda really does not. However, it was a very common name when Johnny Tremain was written (1944), so I have a feeling that’s how it snuck in. To be honest, I’m a little disappointed with the author for including what seems like such an anachronism in an otherwise well-researched book, but I did learn something important from her slipup: Always be conscious of what you name your characters, even the minor ones.
People’s names and how they’re chosen say a lot about a given culture, and giving your characters names that accurately reflect the time period you’re writing about is another way to make your setting richer. Were names chosen from the Bible? From words that have positive connotations in that culture’s native language? Look at inscriptions, censuses, birth and baptismal records. (And if your novel takes place in 20th century America, the Social Security Administration has lists of the 1000 most popular baby names for every year since 1880.) But please, don’t take a name that’s popular today and give it to a Puritan child – unless it’s that rare name that can survive the ages.
via Wonders & Marvels — A Community for Curious Minds who love History, its Odd Stories, and Good Reads.
restaurants, business models: One of my favorite restaurants, Panera, is trying a slightly different business model? What would you pay, more or less?
Around 4,000 people a week visit the restaurant, which is operated as a non-profit entity under the brand Panera Cares. About 65% pay the recommended amount. The remainder are roughly divided between over-payers and those who pay less or nothing. An attempt by cynics working in a nearby courthouse to break the system by paying pennies for an armful of sandwiches and soups was blocked by limiting the offer to one meal per person in the restaurant. The store is close to breaking even. There are plans to open more “shared responsibility” restaurants soon, including one in Detroit—albeit in the sort of neighbourhood where many people should be able to afford the full asking price.
via Fast-food restaurants: Dough rising | The Economist.
advertising, twitter, facebook: Do you follow any companies or products? I follow the airlines on twitter and a few on fb …
HOW much attention is a big annual conference for marketers paying to the growing importance of social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to help reach consumers? Well, speakers are saying “fans,” “like” and “hash tag” almost as often as “touch points,” “benchmark” and “prioritize.”
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But if the results of a survey taken during the opening general session of the conference on Thursday are projectable on a large scale, marketers may still need some schooling on the dos and don’ts of social media. Asked to describe how its use has affected sales, 13 percent replied that they did not use social media at all. Eleven percent said sales had increased a lot, 34 percent said sales increased “some” and 42 percent said they had seen no change.
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The success of the “Smell like a man, man” campaign for Old Spice was fueled by its acceptance in social media, Mr. Pritchard said, listing examples like the 140 million times that video clips for Old Spice — official ones created by the company and parodies created by consumers — had been viewed on YouTube.
The brand’s followers on Twitter increased by 2,700 percent, he added; they now total almost 120,000.
The currency the campaign has earned in social media has pushed it into the popular culture. Mr. Pritchard showed the audience a spoof that was recently introduced by Sesame Workshop in which Grover suggests that his young viewers “smell like a monster on Sesame Street.”
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The Coca-Cola Company, which already has several feeds on Twitter, plans to soon add another, Joseph V. Tripodi, chief marketing and commercial officer, said in an interview before his speech on Thursday.
The new feed will be for company news, he said, joining, among others, one for the Coca-Cola brand (twitter.com/CocaCola), one for the exhibit at corporate headquarters (twitter.com/WorldofCocaCola) and one written in the voice of Dr. John Pemberton, the inventor of Coca-Cola (twitter.com/docpemberton).
via Advertising – Marketers Compare Notes on Using Social Media – NYTimes.com.
history: Can you guess what the 100th item was? BBC – A History of the World: Neil MacGregor unveils the 100th object.
creativity, business, motivation: what would you do?
What we should be is inspired by the model of the MacArthur awards. If you’re in management, any slack time you give a talented employee to pursue an idea is a mini “genius grant.” It doesn’t have to be a half-million dollars — a chunk of release time might suffice. The key, really, is the signal that such creativity is valued and the recognition that people tend to come up with great stuff when they’re allowed to take an occasional flyer.
I’m curious to hear from HBR readers how creativity is cultivated in the ranks of their organizations. Does your management give out anything resembling a genius grant? And here’s what I’m most curious to hear: if you got one — say half a million to build on your past work and push it into interesting new territory — what would you do?
via Award Your Own Genius Grants – Julia Kirby – Our Editors – Harvard Business Review.
business models, economy, csr: socially responsible giant?
Wal-Mart has made a push to show it is a socially responsible giant; it now, for instance, offers better health benefits than most of its retail rivals, and is requiring suppliers to limit their carbon emissions. Yet Wal-Mart has struggled at cracking the big cities amid stiff opposition from organized labor—even as its archrival, Target Corp., and other big-box chains such as Best Buy Co. make a steady march into urban areas with similar products, stores and nonunion workers.
via Wal-Mart to Go Smaller in U.S. – WSJ.com.
architecture, design, movies: Three of my favorite topics all rolled into one.
The first US film festival celebrating the creative spirit of architecture and design will feature a dynamic selection of feature length films, documentaries and shorts.
via Architecture and Design Film Festival.
Molly, family, idiosyncracies, kith/kin, history: Molly used to drive me crazy asking the question, “So who was the first person on the highway?”
On this day in 1915, Atlanta welcomed the Dixie Highway Motorcade, the first group of tourists to use the newly completed Dixie Highway.
via Facebook | Atlanta History Center.
Apps: So what do you think an augmented reality app is? 🙂 Four Augmented Reality Apps You Actually Want on Your iPhone | Mac|Life.
resources, libraries, kudos, Charlotte: Nice resource, although dated, PLCMC! Hornets’ Nest.
random, nicknames, Charlotte: Can you think of any others?
The Queen City, The QC, Crown Town, and The Hornet’s Nest are all nicknames for Charlotte, North Carolina, US.
via Charlotte, NC: “The Hornet’s Nest” :: Try Handmade.
Daniel Pink (@DanielPink)
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