The World, Filtered*

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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Don't go to business school
http://www.squidoo.com/Alternative-MBA
 
Seth Godin is offering a sixth month Alternative MBA for a handful of
folks who want to make change. See quote below, read the blog, forward to
someone who is interested and apply.

"Six intense months working with a few other amazing people (and me.)
 
There are plenty of reasons to get an MBA, especially in a down economy.
I'm not sure exactly what they are, though. A typical MBA might take two
years out of your life and cost you more than $150,000 in tuition and
opportunity cost.
 
On this page, I'd like to invite you to consider (and apply for) something
very different.
 
First, I'll describe what's in it for you, then I'll explain how to apply.
Please read all the instructions before hitting the send button. Thanks
for checking this out."
 
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.Tel Them Where to Find You
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/tel-them-where-to-find-you/
 
On Wednesday, companies and organizations can register Web addresses with
a new top-level domain, .tel. The new domain, which stores and encrypts
contact information directly into the Domain Name System, has the
potential to become a phone book for the Internet.
 
A .tel domain name links to the contact information of businesses,
organizations and individuals. Information can include telephone numbers;
links to Web sites, including a Facebook or MySpace page; e-mail
addresses; instant messaging names, and, if you wish, identities for
virtual games like Xbox Live or Second Life.
 
"It's a simple idea. And simple ideas are sometimes the best," said Matt
Mansell, the managing director at Mesh Digital, the parent company of
DomainMonster, an ICANN-approved registrar. "It will just need to get some
traction."
 
Because the data is stored in the DNS, rather than on a server, when a
person updates a phone number or address using their .tel account, it is
automatically updated in the address books of their friends who have their
.tel information stored on a smartphone or other mobile device.
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Top 100 Anthropology Blogs
http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2008/12/top-100-anthropology-blogs/
 
"It doesn't matter if you're studying capuchins in South America or the
social interactions in American college bars, there is a blogger out there
who shares your interests. University students, academics, professors and
those who just love anthropology have helped to create a great assortment
of online discourse about the field. We've compiled a list of 100 that are
definitely worth a read."
 
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The New Examined Life
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122852285532784401.html
 
"…Part experimentation, part self-help, such "personal informatics"
projects, as they are known, are gathering steam thanks to people like Mr.
Felton who find meaning in the mundane. At their disposal are a host of
virtual tools to help them become their own forensic accountants,
including Web sites such as Dopplr, which allows people to manage and
share travel itineraries, and Mon.thly.Info, for tracking menstrual
cycles. Parents can document infant feeding schedules with Trixie Tracker.
And couples can go from between the sheets to spreadsheets with Bedpost,
which helps users keep track of their amorous activities….
 
…The culture of sharing information online has shifted in recent years,
from a focus on blog ramblings to the ubiquitous micro-movements of
posters' daily lives. Microblogging sites like Twitter have become
commonplace. President-elect Barack Obama, for example, had his own
Twitter account and used it to keep his supporters up to date on his
campaign's daily comings and goings. (It's been silent since the
election.) Facebook's News Feed feature initially drew criticism from
members because it offered a running log of users' minute postings and
updates, but has since became a core part of the Web site's community.
Some sites collect data automatically for their users. Last.fm keeps a
record of all of the songs users have listened to, and Netflix keeps track
of members' movie-watching habits.
 
It's a natural progression from people sharing things like movies, photos
and videos," says Dennis Crowley, founder of Dodgeball, an early
social-networking service for mobile phones which was sold to Google in
2005. "What's left to share? Basic data."

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