Interesting Reading: 2/11
Lovely Charts
http://www.lovelycharts.com/
"Lovely Charts is an online diagramming application, that allows you to
create professional looking diagrams of all kinds, such as flowcharts,
siremaps, organization charts, wireframes, and many more..."
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The Open-Door Bailout
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/opinion/11friedman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
"Leave it to a brainy Indian to come up with the cheapest and surest way
to stimulate our economy: immigration.
"All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and
Koreans," said Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express newspaper. "We
will buy up all the subprime homes. We will work 18 hours a day to pay for
them. We will immediately improve your savings rate - no Indian bank today
has more than 2 percent nonperforming loans because not paying your
mortgage is considered shameful here. And we will start new companies to
create our own jobs and jobs for more Americans."
...We don't want to come out of this crisis with just inflation, a
mountain of debt and more shovel-ready jobs. We want to - we have to -
come out of it with a new Intel, Google, Microsoft and Apple. I would have
loved to have seen the stimulus package include a government-funded
venture capital bank to help finance all the start-ups that are clearly
not starting up today - in the clean-energy space they're dying like flies
- because of a lack of liquidity from traditional lending sources."
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Paris self-service bicycles are vandalised, stolen and sold
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5697094.ece
"It was introduced to roaring success - hailed by environmentalists and
cycling enthusiasts as the ideal solution to congestion on the streets.
But life is now proving brutish and short for the Vélib, the self-service
bicycle that the city of Paris introduced 18 months ago.
So far, 7,800 of the "damage-resistant" grey bicyclettes - which can be
hired for up to "1 (87 pence) per half-hour" have simply vanished, while
11,600 have been vandalised, their operating company said yesterday.
Hung from trees, thrown in the river or shipped to foreign parts, the
Vélib bikes have met much more aggressive treatment than expected when the
first of the 20,000 of them were docked at their 1,250 stations in July
2007. The damage has forced JCDecaux, the advertising company that
supplies them to the city, to replace most of the original bicycles at a
cost of more than "400 each."
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Aviary
http://aviary.com/home
"Aviary is a suite of powerful creative applications that you can use
right in your web browser. We're on a mission to make creation accessible
to artists of all genres, from graphic design to audio editing. Sign up
for an account today to start creating, sharing, and collaborating with
our community of artists."
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Google Chrome's Cute Promotion in Japan
http://www.psfk.com/2009/02/google-chromes-cute-promotion-in-japan.html
"Google's foray into the war for browser supremacy, has yet to be widely
adopted in Japan. In an attempt to bolster the market share, and appeal
to the playful culture, Google has released a cute little advertisement
which hopes to capture the spirit of the browser.
The time-lapse animation is clear and carefully rendered with precise
audio and fantastic artistic direction. It is impressive to see how labor
intensive such a short simple ad is. To understand the process of
creating this ad be sure to check out the Picasa gallery of the work
behind the scenes. Google Chrome Japan is hoping to encourage more use of
the recently patched browser that now holds about a 1% share of the
market.
"
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Hard Times, Good Intentions: Moral Marketing In A Recession
http://threeminds.organic.com/2009/02/moral_marketing_in_a_recession.html
"...It seems that "appropriation" is the word of the year. And the message
is about weathering the storm...together.
So as we brace for the continuing impact, a consensus is forming that
online marketing (and, in particular, social media) is a cheaper, more
measurable solution for the economic climate. Traditional awareness
campaigns are being branded as extravagant and doomed to fail. But the
argument goes beyond just the financials, and the strategy spreads beyond
messaging."
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BikeGlow
http://www.bikeglowlights.com/
"A bicycle safety product, the BikeGlow" Safety Light illuminates the
entire bike frame at dawn, dusk, or night, dramatically increasing the
visibility of the rider, specifically from the side. Running on 2 AA
batteries, the battery pack attaches to the seat post, and the BikeGlow
Safety Lights wraps around the frame and is secured with the provided
attachment strips. When riding in less than optimal lighting, rider pushes
on button on the battery pack and frame light is on."
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