How the states got their shapes

How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein (who looks so strikingly similar to Ben Stein that they could very well be related) had potential to be painfully boring and dry, or thrillingly exciting and full of obscure, interesting bits of knowledge. It was, at times, both. Here's my top five favorite bits of trivia:

Why does Tennessee's northern border seem to stagger instead of riding a straight line? Because people along that border bribed surveyors so that they would be listed as residents in their state or county of choice...and they bribed those surveyors with locally made moonshine.

What state is Ellis Island in? It's in New York and New Jersey. The original boundary between those two states was an invisible line under water between the two states. Jersey got to keep everything attached to their mainland, and the land underwater to the official border running along the bottom of the Hudson (which is why when riding in the Lincoln Tunnel, you cross into New York halfway through the tunnel. Developers expanded Ellis Island in the 1890s due to the crush of immigrants coming to the country, and did so with land dredges from the bottom of the Hudson. In 1998 the Supreme Court ruled that all the parts of the island made up of the dredged silt (about 80% of Ellis Island) belong to New Jersey.

Which is the widest state? Actually, from east to west, Hawaii expands over 1,000 miles.

What's with all those square states in the west and midwest? The US government wanted to make the new states as equal as possible...so, where they could, they made them 3 or 4 degrees tall and 7 degrees wide. The founders of our nation wanted our rules and our map to convey the ideal of equality.

Why even bother with Rhode Island? Well, it was developed as the first colony devoted to the idea of religious freedom...much unlike Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland and others. They got their colonial charter and expanded beyond the Aquidneck Island to encompass more land...and got their official royal charter in 1663.

For someone who has driven or ridden through 48 of the 50 states, this is the kind of stuff that hits just the right nerdy buttons...though it was even a bit too nerdy for me at times. Some of the semantics of the border disputes seemed more clinical than passionate. That said...It was definitely a worthwhile read, and something I'll likely go back to before taking a trip to another state or making another long drive.

Predicting the future?

It's Friday...which means it's time again for something fun. The story comes from i-am-bored who was linked by Techcrunch, who was linked by Fishbowl NY.

KRON, a San Francisco TV station did a story in 1981 about something that sounded like something out of make-believe: getting your newspaper at home without even opening your front door.

The story talks about a brand new service which allowed the '2,000 to 3,000 home computer owners in the area' to sign up to receive the newspaper on their computers over the phone.

The near-mocking tone of the reporter and anchor (why would you spend money to get the paper on your computer when you can just buy it on the street for twenty cents?!?) is what really makes this story a trip into the way back machine. What emerging technology is out there today that we may react to like this in 25 years?

I wanna use my computer on the TV!

On a site that addresses issues often related to TV and the internet, it seems only logical that there'd be a mention of how to integrate the two...literally.

For years I wondered: how can I see my laptop on my TV screen? I knew there had to be an existing, simple solution...but that solution evaded me for years. I didn't even figure it out until I came home one day, and my roommate Guillaume Andrieu was watching his laptop on my television.

I was in shock! What advanced foreign technology had Guillaume recently discovered that allowed him to operate and view the content of his laptop on my decidedly outdated TV? The answer, he explained was an S-Video cable.

Nearly every TV from 1991 to last year was built with an S-Video input...and most laptops are built with an S-Video output. All you need is an (aptly named) S-Video cable to connect the two, and then tell your computer to send the video signal through the cable (usually with a command like hitting the "Fn" key along with the "F5" key) and you'll see your computer screen on the television.

There are also cables that convert S-Video to RCA jacks (those little red, yellow and white round plugs used for older video games and DVDs) as well as standard S-Video to S-Video cables.

It's rare to find such an elegant solution for an obvious problem...and figured anyone reading this blog would appreciate that as much as I do.

The art of the status update

My friend Lisa Holm posted an interesting article in her Facebook status. Its a blog piece about, ironically enough, Facebook status updates.

For those of you somehow unaware, Facebook is a social networking application that allows you to post a 140 character update of your status...and the statements that people use to occupy that status can range from bizarre to utilitarian to intensely personal.

The piece Lisa posted goes through the different kinds of posts people normally put, and declares that 'Facebook is now officially open to the oldsters.'

It's a worthwhile read: http://www.good.is/?p=15011&gt1=48001

Urbandictionary.com

Have you ever come across that little bit of slang that everyone seems to recognize...except for you? Maybe it's a clever acronym being used on a website or in a forum (like NSFW - meaning Not Safe For Work) or something a bit more crude being bandied about by the IT guys (RTFM for example...something NSFW, btw). Maybe it's just some expression that part of the slang at your new job or school, or a team name being used at a game of trivia at the bar.

Urbandictionary.com is here to save the day.

Just as Wikipedia has become the default place to go when seeking out common knowledge, UrbanDictionary is the place to go when seeking out common language.

In addition to an extensive database of words, expressions, and acronyms the site also has a 'word of the day' email that can range from political (see obamama) to business (like blind transfer) to topical (like 'Land it in the Hudson').

To accommodate the multiple interpretations that slang words can carry around the country (and the world) there are multiple entries for many words...and each one is voted up or down by readers...so that the most popular definitions rise to the top.

BE WARNED - Like most slang, there's plenty of foul, inappropriate language used on the site. That said, it can be an invaluable reference...especially when you're faced with the situation of not knowing what a slang word means and are too embarrassed to ask.

Kthxbi!

I don't understand...

One of my favorite internet memes is that of Oolong, the rabbit.

The meme started in 2001 when the context of a post on 4chan wasn't really clear, and instead of stating that the context of the post was unclear, the respondent simply said:

I have no idea what you're talking about...so here's a bunny with a pancake on its head

The picture, and the rabbit soon became a part of the internet lexicon, and the meme lasted for two solid years before dying down in 2003.

As with many things internet-related you can delve into this story as deeply as you like, or simply ignore it in favor of more substantial fare...but don't worry. This rabbit doesn't care:

Hulu - the brainless way to watch TV on the web

More and more, I find myself surprised to discover how many people have STILL never heard of Hulu. I initially heard of it in some TV industry publications about the future of video on the web, and the conclusion among those smarter than me about this is that Hulu.com gets it.

The great qualities about Hulu seem endless:

• Great, established, popular, new content from FOX and NBC that comes in on a daily basis (Simpsons, The Office, Monk, SNL, Prison Break, Family Guy, etc)
• no requirement to register
• looks great when played full screen (you can even play it on your TV - it's easy...but that's something to be explained in the near future)
• takes only seconds to buffer (over a broadband connection and a decent machine)
• FREE MOVIES! (and not crappy movies either...how about The Fifth Element or Liar Liar!)

Here's their little explainer video, but I'd recommend just checking it out for yourself!

BitTorrent

The use of torrents has exploded over the past couple years...and it's done so for good reason. BitTorrent is way to download huge files (like movies or software) quickly and easily. However, most of the explanations I've read on how torrents work are extremely hard for non-technically minded people to understand. For example, here's the start of an entry in Wikipedia:

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used to distribute large amounts of data. BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files, and by some estimates it accounts for about 35% of all traffic on the entire Internet.^[1] The initial distributor of the complete file or collection acts as the first seed. Each peer who downloads the data also uploads it to other peers, even after they have dismounted the original seed. Because of this...

Look at these words: file sharing, protocol, files, distributor, seed, dismounted...no wonder people who aren't technically minded are scared off by all this talk.

In a way, the people who use bitTorrent like it that way - the inexperienced user won't look past all this complicated jargon to fully understand how powerful and useful this system is - and the users who *DO* get it will be left alone to do whatever they want.

The fact is that BitTorrent is simple to use, once you have a very practical understanding of how it works.

There are two pieces that you need to start downloading files using bitTorrent - the software and the torrent file:

Software - this is a program (like uTorrent...my personal favorite) that can read a torrent file and download what you're looking for. This is also referred to as a "client" or "client software"

Torrent file - This is the file that tells your computer where to get the file you want. You can download torrent files from any number of free sites (such as isohunt or torrentscan) or membership sites (like Demonoid)

As an example - let's say you want to download 'America's Army' a free video game created and distributed by the US military. First, you would need to download some torrent software (assuming you haven't done so already), then just do a search on a torrent site (like isoHunt), find the torrent for 'America's Army,' download it, and open the torrent file with the software. That's it!

There are some illegal applications for torrent use, such as downloading files that aren't free or things you haven't already paid for...but those are issues for the lawyers to handle, and I'm no lawyer.

Though there are some drawbacks; the files don't download instantaneously, which could mean a wait of hours or sometimes days depending on the size of the file. Also, sometimes you'll get a bad torrent - especially if what you're looking for is obscure - and the file may never show up at all.

That said, it's little wonder more and more people are using bitTorrent.

Can graphs be fun?

Yes...just ask the fine submitters at Graphjam.com

Its Friday, so its time for something fun from the interwebs.

Graphjam is a site where really creative people have found ways to merge the boring, generic excel graphs and have morphed them into clever pop-culture references.

Submissions are voted on by visitors to the site...and the very best submissions take a minute for you to decipher. Like a personalized license plate, but more clever. Check it out.

Help implementing your devious plan

Let's say you're an up-and-coming Dr. Claw (from Inspector Gadget) or Brain (from Pinky and the Brain) and you need some kind of start screen for your computer. You need way to monitor the world in advance of implementing your plan for domination of it...what do you do?

Well, if you were on VSL daily email list, you'd already know where to go - henchmanshelper.com. The site is a collection of live cameras from Dusseldorf to Prague and atmospheric conditions over areas of the US...even a world sunlight map so you'll know when to implement your devious plans so they happen under cover of night.

VSL (which stands for Very Short List) emails a daily collection of clever and interesting links, cleverly captioned pictures, and interesting (albeit sometimes bizarre) products. Yes, VSL has ads, but they are very clear about what is sponsored and what they really like.

The concept behind VSL is to find a way to shine the light on interesting sites or products on the internet that you may not have otherwise known about. In their words they point "to excellent new (and sometimes vintage) entertainment and media that haven’t been hyped to within an inch of their lives."

Like most successes, it isn't rehashing information you already know...instead it points out deals and links you may have likely missed out on otherwise. Most refreshingly, it is presented in a fun, casual way that makes their regular emails fun and worthwhile reading...which is, really, the way the intarwebs were supposed to be, right?

The future of journalism...

There's a fascinating series of articles from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism about the future of the medium. The first section appears to be geared mostly to newspapers...but, seeing as newspapers are in more dire circumstances than local TV, they are the most likely to take on major changes (and thus, eventually learn the lessons that local TV will be forced to endure in the near future). I'm still working my way through it all, but here are a few highlights from what I've read so far:

"The future of journalism is selling expertise, not content...We are operating in the most creative phase of the media industry’s history. A time when broadcast, text and social media are colliding." - Edward Roussel (To Prepare for the Future, Skip the Present)

It is the nature of disruptive technology that we almost always get it wrong when we try to guess the real use and impact of a new invention. The debate is over. Hand-inked bibles, horse-drawn carriages, pagers: A few still exist, but they have mostly been overtaken by newer technology. The same is true for the monopoly of the publisher. Journalists no longer control the message. -Katie King (Journalism as a Conversation)

[Jeff] Jarvis, who teaches at the City University of New York, argues that journalism today is a “process not a product.” Journalists must sift, sort and curate the news, he contends. “Do what you do best. Link to the rest.” The question Jarvis poses is this: Do we need more information or do we need, as a society, journalists dedicated to finding the gold nuggets amidst this raging river of content? -Katie King (Journalism as a Conversation)

I also came across The Daily Beast as a result of my reading these pieces. They call themselves 'curated news aggregation,' both a fascinating term and a potential model for the future. Its definitely something worth checking out...

Just imagine...

the challenges that are waiting for our next president...

Now it's official

We all know how the vote went, but it isn't official until it crosses the wire.

Cool inauguration stories

Just a quick post to link to a couple cool stories about the inauguration.

First, THIS STORY from Politico (written by Michael Calderone about the different considerations the networks are having to take into account for the big day.

also, THIS STORY (referenced by a producer friend of mine, Deanna Siste, as well as Lost Remote) from the New York Times about CNN.com's new mission - to create fans who LOVE the site.

Have you seen any interesting stories? Let me know...post something in the comment section below!

The Ghost Map

Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map, a story about an 1850s Cholera outbreak in London surprised me in a couple of ways.

Initially, I expected the story to somehow surprise me in a very fundamental way...but that's not really what Johnson was going for here. WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get), it's the story of how a disease outbreak unfolded, and the two men who ended up cracking the code of its cause and cure.

Once I got past the let down of failing to find a mind-blowing surprise waiting for me (Johnson does little to hide the cause or resolution during the telling of the story - this is no mystery novel) I grew to enjoy the clear way in which he describes the approach and thinking of John Snow and Henry Whitehead. The book allows you to understand the way in which they approached the problem and the (assumed) thought process they undertook.

The epilogue of the book brought me to the kind of writing that I really enjoy from Johnson - multi-threaded contemporary commentary from a scientific and cultural bent. The reason for the meat of the book is a bit more personal.

Johnson's undergrad thesis was on epidemiology, and his graduate work in literature focused on Victorian society...so the intersection of those tow ideas in this book made for a natural confluence of interests. Though the amount of detail in the book is substantial, it's not overwhelming, and it is explained in Johnson's usual fashion of approachability without condescension.

That said, though I appreciate the reasons for his departure from his (in my view) traditional style...I certainly appreciate the final chapter of the book where he returns to the style for a few fleeting moments. His fascination with the topic grows on you as you read it...but I personally have a rough time trying to practically absorb the problems and world-view from so long ago and let it color the way I now see the world.

It's that adjustment of the way I now see the world that separates good books from those that truly fascinate me, and sadly I didn't find this book to cross that line.

An interesting segue

The Segway personal transporter is an invention that encourages all the worst characteristics about the U.S.: laziness, useless technology, and conspicuous consumption. It takes the worst stereotypes about our culture and bundles them all up in one machine.

The inventor of the Segway (Dean Kamen), however, has taken his profits from that invention (and his other, more medically beneficial inventions) and decided to use them in a way that could actually help humanity. He's developed the Slingshot water purifier and the Stirling engine generator.

These two boxes, each about the size of a washing machine can take any source of liquid (in Kamen's words: 'anything wet') and turn it into purified drinking water. The other can use anything flammable (cow dung, for example) and turn it into enough power for a small village (about 70 low-energy light bulbs).

The invention was announced last year (Newsweek wrote an article, as did Wired on their blog) but I'm just now getting around to hearing about it. There's a mention of it near the end of the book The Ghost Map by (you guessed it) Steven Johnson. Expect a review of it in the coming days...

O'Reilly producer

Its Friday, so it's time for something fun!

The tape of Bill O'Reilly cursing and yelling during a taping of Inside Edition came out in the middle of last year, and by itself is very entertaining, but the guys at barelypolitical.com did something that made this thing much, much more creative and entertaining.

They imagined what his producer was saying to him as this meltdown went on...here's their take on what might have happened:

Why are faxes still around

Lots of madness in work today around the plane crash into the Hudson river. It's an amazing story, likely to be titled "Miracle on the Hudson" by a made for TV movie in the near future.

A close friend of mine, Devon Sayers, noticed that the newsworthy beginning and end to President Bush's career may, in fact be plane crashes (9/11 and today's crash on the Hudson)

That said, I'd like to point out this interesting piece from Wired about something I hadn't thought to wonder about until I read it: why are fax machines still around?

I mean, we have email and teleconferencing and PDF files...so why would there still be a need for such antiquated technology? Read this brief piece to find out their answer.

Radiolab

Radiolab is a radio show from WNYC, New York Public Radio, that deals with science and technology...but to couch it in that way makes it sound like NOVA or some other super-boring public programming. By their own definition, however:

Radiolab is a show about curiosity. Each episode is an investigation - a patchwork of people, sounds, stories all centered around one big idea.

The show is primarily produced by two people - Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich. I'd first come across Robert Krulwich when I was learning about how TV works. I'd gotten my first job at WOFL in Orlando, when I'd started shadowing the people in the different parts of the newsroom. Throughout this self-imposed training, I'd learned how hard it is to write stories, shoot video, and craft words and pictures together into something poignant and useful.

After realizing how hard it was to do such a thing, I sought out places on TV where news was presented in a clear, intelligent, and entertaining way. The search led me to two places: Frontline on PBS (which is some of the most amazing television being created right now...almost without equal) and Nightline. This is Nightline several years ago, when they would take one issue and focus on it in depth for the entire half-hour.

Robert Krulwich did a story about the 2004 election and how political parties had shifted their focus from trying to convert people into die-hard party members (and make them vote) and instead to focus on people who were leaning towards their party and bring them solidly on their side. He told the story with interviews and personal stories, of course, but also with the use of animation to explain exactly what was meant by a "wobbly two" (essentially someone who is leaning in favor of a party, but neither die-hard nor neutral). I was hooked.

Krulwich has a way of distilling the very complexities that make up human existence in a way that not only make them clearer, but let you feel like you've been in on the joke the entire time.

Jad Abumrad is a radio producer...though he doesn't care so much about news as he does about SOUND. Abumrad is an audiophile in the purest sense. He isn't the guy who spends $40,000 on audio cables, but he's the guy who lives to expose people to sound in a way that tells a story they would have never expected to notice or appreciate.

The first time I came to truly appreciate the way Jad thinks is when I was exposed to the opening of Radiolab's Morality program in which he asks two questions:

First scenario: There are five men working on a railway, and a train is bearing down on them - they don't see it, and you can't shout to them to warn them. If you do nothing, the five men will die. However, next to you is a lever, and if you pull the lever you will make the train shift tracks onto a track where one man is working. He will be killed, but the five other men will be saved. Do you pull the lever?

Second scenario: Ok, same thing, the train is coming, and five people are working on the tracks...however this time, you're not standing next to a lever, you're on a bridge overlooking the tracks. Next to you, though, is a large man, and if you throw him off of the bridge, the conductor of the train will see him, and stop the train, saving the five men.

Most of the time, the people who are asked if they should pull the lever say they would pull the lever, but they also say they would not push the man off of the bridge. Why? It's the same accounting, right?

The way this is presented got me hooked on the combination of the talents of Krulwich and Abumrad. There's really nothing else like it. Other amazing introductions he's crafted are for the show on Emergence (a topic now close to my heart, thanks to this show and Steven Johnson), Choice, and this week's episode Yellow Fluff and Other Curious Encounters.

I can only ask (if I could beg you in person, I would) to take 3 minutes of your life, to listen to the introduction to the show, Time.

This intro gives me chills and hits me in a way that lets me know there are brilliant people who see the world in a beautiful way...and can convey it to you in a way that may improve the way others see the world.

A second amazing thing about these shows is how they stand up to repetition. In the book "Everything bad is good for you" (again with the Steven Johnson stuff) Johnson points out that the shows that have a lasting imprint on contemporary culture (Simpsons, Seinfeld, Family Guy, even) stand up to multiple viewings. They each have such an amazing attention to detail in the crafting of the show that on the second and third go-round you absorb more from the show than you did the first time. Radiolab has this endearing characteristic as well...so that even if you like it the first time, you'll like it even more on each successive listen.

Radiolab - what can I say about it that hasn't already been said about Leonardo da Vinci?

Jake and Amir

There's something so refreshing and stupid-funny about Jake and Amir, a video blog/web series about two real co-workers at CollegeHumor.com who sit across from each other: Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld.

Like most funny, popular things on the web, its attraction is hard to describe. Amir is the hapless, kiss-up poser who idolizes Jake, the everyman, regular guy. It's essentially your typical comedy duo with Jake as the straight man.

The best way to describe it is to show you a few of their episodes (which each run about two to three minutes) so you can see what it's like for yourself. If you don't see them here, though, CollegeHumor just signed a deal with MTV, so you may see them there soon.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Ace from Jake Hurwitz on Vimeo.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Nutrition from Amir on Vimeo.

The Medici Effect

Frans Johansson has taken on an interesting, albeit potentially fruitless task. Johansson teaches in his book The Medici Effect, how people and corporations can embrace and encourage innovation from among their ranks. The only problem is - very few corporations will ever implement the necessary changes.

Don't get me wrong - the book is brilliant. One example: Johannson talks about the concept of risk homeostasis. Don't let the term intimidate you; the concept is simple and brilliant: people are hard-wired to allow for a certain amount of risk in any given situation. If the situation itself is dangerous, they will approach it with care, but if the situation is relatively benign, then they'll be more careless.

For example, when your local department of transportation spends millions of dollars to make a road or highway safer, the end result is NOT fewer crashes - because people drive on those safer roads MORE recklessly (to meet their hard-wired allowable amount of risk).

Another example: child-proof lids to medication have actually been found to INCREASE the number of poisoning among children. Why? Parents are more careless about leaving medicine around their kids, now that it has a child-proof cap.

The entire book is very well thought out and researched, and chock full of examples to follow so that individuals can get a better sense of how to really create groundbreaking innovation. He talks about working 'at the intersection' of two different fields, then using the combination of skills and concepts within those fields to generate truly innovative ideas.

I found the thing very helpful personally, as it speaks to the kind of mindset that generative and creative PEOPLE need to cultivate in order to become innovative and creative individuals...but the idea of foisting these concepts onto an organization is just downright silly.

Perhaps whether these corporations actually implement the ideas isn't really the point; the point is to be available for expensive speaking engagements, and to realize your clients will FEEL more innovative, without genuinely applying these ideas. If a company is to truly foster innovation among the ranks of all its employees, further ideas should be considered.

• Companies should regularly host gatherings where staff members from different divisions congregate to come up with new ideas, and those ideas should receive genuine feedback.
• Focusing on low-hanging fruit (really easy-to-implement ideas) is a cop-out for taking on the work of real innovation.
• Innovation should be encouraged and mentored within different parts of the company...and mandatory implementation of ideas should occur.
• A regular meeting where a tiny portion of the budget is allocated to implement an idea every quarter should happen, and people from all segments of the company should be encouraged to participate. The money MUST be spent in that quarter, mandating action from senior executives as well as input from staff.
• The implementation of innovation must be the sole focus of one person or group, and their evaluation must include metrics for the QUANTITY of ideas followed up on (instead of on the number of successes, removing the focus on from how polished an idea is to the sheer brute-force mindset of quantity of ideas).
• The economy continues to falter in the US, and companies are looking for places to balance their expenses. Cutting of R&D and innovation are the first places to look - especially at large, publicly-traded, quarter-to-quarter focused enterprises. Companies that fall into that trap will become cautionary tales for the coming generation of business leaders.
  

The Medici Effect will give you a lot to think about, both in terms of its potential effect on the corporate sphere and in your personal evolution. Johansson has succeeded in compiling an amazingly insightful book - but I wonder if he gets discouraged by all the lovely feedback he gets from corporations, only to see them follow the same directional line of development they always have. For his sake, I hope he views a successful speaking engagement is a victory in itself - or else he may become a very discouraged man.

Metalsome

Unless you happen to live here in Atlanta, you've probably never heard of anything like Metalsome. Though the concept is commonly understood here now, there's still only one band I know that does anything like it in town.

Metalsome is a full rock band that allows you to become a rock start - at least for one song. They play the entire song live, and you get to sing. There are monitors showing the music video for the song behind you, and the lyrics are on a monitor in front of you...if you happen to get stage fright.

The best thing about the Metalsome experience isn't that you hear some amazing (and amazingly terrible singing) but that the energy and excitement of the person on stage can easily work it's way out into the crowd. You find everyone else signing along to a song that, in other circumstances would be aggravating background noise.

Check out this (poorly shot) clip from inside a Metalsome show last night at 10 High in the Virginia-Highlands neighborhood of Atlanta - you can see the girl on stage really getting in to signing the song, and crowd feeding off that energy (at about 1 minute into the clip) and singing along with her.



I really like the idea that people will still come out to be involved in a larger group of strangers...whether it's a concert, or poetry, or even just going out to get coffee and talking to someone new. It's so easy to get all you need through technology, without having to go out and interact with new or different people - Metalsome reminds me that technology may never be able to fill all our needs

The different kinds of smart

I wrote in yesterday's post about the different kinds of smart people - referencing a couple ideas I'd heard in the past.

The best consolidation of those ideas, and the one that hit closest to home, is this paper from Carol Dweck, a professor at Stanford. I initially found it through a posting on boingboing, but ended up putting a diagram from her piece on the back cover of all the new training manuals for the CNN assignment desk.


Dweck says that some people have a "fixed mind set" for intellect or achievement - meaning that you are either born with a certain ability or you aren't, and there's not much you can do to change your circumstance. Some athletes believe that the talent they have is innate, and practicing too much is foolish...what's the point when nothing you do will affect whether you have the inborn ability or not.

Others, she says, have a "growth mind set" towards intellect or achievement - meaning that applying the right kind of practice and effort can improve your ability and outcomes. These people may fail, but they take lessons from that failure, and use those lessons to strengthen their abilities for the next attempt.

These different outlooks are both hard-wired, and the your personal view will be plainly obvious on just a tiny bit of self-evaluation.

I think that what separates the truly special intelligent people out there is this difference - the growth mind set. The growth mind set, if you have it or can find a way to cultivate, means that anything in the world is really possible. The other kinds of people may succeed, but deep down they'll never feel that they did the work needed to earn what they got, only that the inborn characteristics they happened to have carried them to success.

Unassuming intellect

Malcolm Gladwell has written a pair of famous books: Blink and The Tipping Point...both of which are worth reading. In fact, some would say they're increasing become part of the conversational pop-science lexicon...you know, one of those books (like Sun Tsu's Art of War) that people like to talk about at parties...and that other people pretend to have read - even if they haven't.

Gladwell has an interesting characteristic I'm growing to appreciate more and more - unassuming intellect. I worked with a reporter in Orlando named Scott Fralick, and he told me something that's sat with me for years. He pointed out that intelligent people like to be challenged on a piece of knowledge, because they want to find out about things they don't know, so they can learn more. Not-so-smart people will be intimidated by someone who calls them on something they don't know, because their identity rides on being all-knowing about everything in a certain field. They get defensive and brutal when challenged, falling back on their educational credentials or breadth of experience.

I'm still trying to understand these different types of people (and try as hard as possible to be the former), but much like Steven Johnson, Malcolm Gladwell is definitely one of the natively intelligent ones. He's smart, and conveys that intellect in approachable ways that all of us can appreciate. If you haven't read one of his books (which, you kinda should, since they're short and really enlightening) just read this latest piece of his about how football coaches and schools try to find the best people for the job.

Yes, it's in the hoity-toity New Yorker...but don't let that throw you - it's good stuff.

If you'd prefer, you can also listen to a discussion with Malcolm Gladwell at the 92nd street Y at Robert Krulwich's Giants of Science series on iTunes (Robert Krulwich, also, is an intellectual bad ass when it comes to simplifying complex ideas, though I've mentioned that before).

Who else do you think is smart, and makes you smarter just by being exposed to them? Let me know what you think...leave a comment.

The future of local news??

I've been half joking and half serious this week in the newsroom when I've asked: "Is this the future of local news?"

What you see pictured here (and clickable for your enjoyment) is from a copy of WeGotBusted.com's periodical titled "Who's in Jail in the ATL."

It's a collection of mugshots, some of them broken into unique categories like "Repeat offenders" "Sex Offenders" and, my personal favorite, the "Oh No You Didn't Hair Mugs."

The magazine is available around the city for $2...I picked it up at the BP on Boulevard between Freedom Parkway and Ponce.

While somewhat joking, I do kind of wonder, though...as local news appears to be trending to lower budgets, daily crime news, and the accumulation of as many eyeballs as possible, could this really be the future of TV journalism?

What do you think??

What's that song??

There's a classic episode of Married With Children from 1991 in which Al drives his family crazy while he tries to remember an old song. The problem? He only knows a tiny bit of it, and sings that part to anyone who'll listen. Here's the clip:


A website I was just told about today, midomi.com, is here to actually solve this problem. Hum a bit of that song that's been stuck in your head all day and Midomi can identify it for you! I tried two songs...a random Billy Joel song that's been stuck in my head, and an Outkast song. It worked on Billy Joel, but not Outkast (though, maybe the software would just prefer I let 'Kast bust flows on their own).

A little favorite section of mine is where people record themselves singing popular songs. It's just as cringe inducing as karaoke, without all that awkward eye contact. They even have an application for the iPhone.

Just another great way that the internet is working to make our lives a little bit easier...

The most bad ass kid ever

Pictured to the right is a bad ass kid.

Nine year-old Drew Heredia was out walking a dog with a female friend when a pitbull ran up and started attacking the girl's dog. When the girl tried to get the pitbull to stop, it started attacking her.

Drew leapt into action...unwilling to allow the ferocious mongrel to continue. He "jumped on the pit bull and applied a choke hold that he learned at a local Brazilian jiu-jitsu studio."

Drew kept the dog in a choke hold until animal control arrived...and the girl and her puppy were safe. They were both taken to the hospital, but are expected to recover. He's my hero. Check out the video below from KGPE:

Steven Johnson is smarter than you...

but don't feel bad. He's smarter than me too.

I first came across his work after he was interviewed in an episode of Radiolab titled "Emergence" (also the title of his phenomenal book on the subject). Radiolab is a radio show from WNYC that delves in scientific, technical, or metaphysical issues in a way I've never, ever encountered. The team that puts it together (Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich) is the perfect combination - Abumrad is a sound engineer and audiophile, Krulwich is an award winning science journalist from ABC. I'm sure I'll blog about them more in the future...suffice it to say they're bad ass.

(listen to a stream of the Emergence episode or download it...you'll be hooked after 5 minutes)

I finished Steven Johnson's book "Everything Bad is Good For You" last month, and it's made for great conversation ever since. He approaches the 'common knowledge' that pop culture is making people stupid (especially TV and video games) and is rotting the brains of our kids.

He starts by taking on TV and engages the reader by suggesting a comparison of the TV shows of today (Lost and 24 are two good examples) to popular TV shows from a couple decades ago (Cheers, Murphy Brown). The sitcoms of yesterday had a predictable layout, a joke at the beginning, a plot that played out among a few key characters, a story arc that followed one story line, and a joke at the end that tied in to the opening scene. Today's shows, in comparison, don't follow just a few characters...they have multiple ongoing sub-plots involving dozens of characters engaged in deep social interactions. Each show ties in to the previous shows in specific ways that only have context in comparison to earlier shows. Even recent comedies (Seinfeld and Simpsons) can be enjoyed again and again, since they have subtle jokes and references that play out the more you repeatedly view the shows.

Even the trash TV of today - reality shows (Survivor, the Apprentice, the Pick Up Artist) should be compared to their equivalent from the recent past - game shows. Compare Survivor to Family Fued, and the added levels of complexity are plainly obvious. Earlier (and even current) game shows give you the rules up front, and have an obvious beginning, middle, and end...but reality shows often don't tell you the rules as the play out, and each successive show build on the previous one.

He starts addressing video games by explaining them to people who may not have played them - pointing that video games of today are not about who can push the buttons as quickly as possible or memorizing button combinations. Games like Pac Man and Asteroids are nothing like the games of today...but not just in terms of how realistic they look. Current games, like Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto depend on the player to figure out what the rules are, how to interact with the environment, and how to proceed. It's a much more complicated proposition than simply shooting everything or eating all the power pellets.

Steven Johnson has a new book out this week, and though I haven't bought it yet don't get the wrong idea. The only reason is that I got his earlier book The Ghost Map as a Christmas gift, and I'd like to read that first. He has a blog on the interwebs as well...but don't let the fact that he's on CSPAN or in the New Yorker intimidate you. He's not one of those arrogant intellectuals who use complicated words in the name of precision (when, usually, it's just to show off all the research the author has done or education they've endured) - Johnson is a fantastic writer, and a model for the way nerdy people everywhere should be: pragmatic, approachable, and genuinely interested in the way the world works. Most importantly, he knows how to explain it to the rest of us.

Password strength and Twitter Hacks

I was about to link to this great story (found through boingboing) about the 500 weakest passwords people use (here's a little hint - "123456" and "password" may not be the best to use). You can find the whole list here.

So, this is where I'd planned to go on and on about how awesome boingboing is, when my friend Adam Gilman gave me a heads up on a story on techcrunch. Apparently someone hacked into Rick Sanchez's twitter account (along with Britney Spears and Bill O'Reilly).

Just another cautionary tale: be careful with your passwords or else hilarity will ensue (possibly at your expense).

Marketing to the Social Web

I'm currently reading "Marketing to the Social Web" by Larry Weber...a brief, though comprehensive look at the new applications of marketing on today's internet . The book was written in 2007, which is important as anything over two or three years old feels dated (especially in the realm of social networking, which has only really taken off over the past 4 years or so).

It feels like the most coherent and professional thing I read so far, as relates to such a nascent field. He takes you through all the steps of developing a marketing campaign for the web, and utilizes a few case studies to emphasize the considerations that specific companies would face (as well as how he would choose to go about solving them).

It is these case studies in particular that give you a really great sense of how smart this guy is, and his ability to apply laser-focus to the issues big companies face when trying to take advantage of the immense capability of the internet in general (and social media in particular).

He references successes in advertising on the web, such as the Gillette campaign designed to counter the popularity of the scruffy, unshaven look on guys (see one of the viral videos they posted on the site, which is now, unfortunately, down) as well as failures such as fordboldmoves.com (which has also since been taken down.)

The Ford site, the company proclaimed that it was genuinely looking for customer input to take a bold new direction in the way they do things, and became, in practice, a series of ads with little user input (comments of even the slightest negative or constructive tone were deleted and ignored, and only positives left on the site...leading to its demise.)

Among the most patently obvious (though often ignored) pieces of advice for corporations is this:

As technology and markets evolve, you can't simply create a site and leave it unchanged. If you don't regularly improve the community's benefits on terms that make sense to the members, your site could fade away. Remember Friendster

I was a bit surprised at how tricky it is to find insightful books about marketing on social media (or, actually, anything at all)...but Weber's book has been full of insight. Check it out on Amazon here...or wait for the second edition, slated to come out next month. He also has a website related to the book. Do you have any suggestions on other insightful books to read? Leave me a comment!

Nerdiness and Skill

Some people love video games so much that they feel the urge to do something to make them better. Video Game platform emulators (ways to make your computer work like an old school NES or Sony Dreamcast) were invented by people just like this.

It is the rare occasion when nerdy interest in video games actually intersects with genuine skill at something else. Such is the case with Andrea Vadrucci and his drumming ability. This guy from Italy has written and performed drum tracks for the classic Super Mario Bros. series of games...and the performances are amazing.

He just posted his rendition of Super Mario 3 (embedded below) but his entire catalog can be listened to on YouTube as well as MySpace. I particularly like what he did with the Barber of Seville

Top tech flops of 2008

Found this article through a link on Asylum...a fun place to breeze through occasionally fun and interesting content.

It's a list of the top tech flops of 2008...included are the painful demise of E3, and (uh-oh) the hologram on CNN. That hologram got so much hype and free press - I think it was worth it. Not to mention, the rumor is that they got it for free, since the Israeli company that created the technology was willing to provide the infrastructure to "beam people in" to New York wanted the publicity.

In the interest of full disclosure, I work at CNN on the National desk.

Check out the link below to see what else made the list:

http://www.switched.com/2008/12/31/top-tech-flops-of-2008/

New year, new number?

Something brief and nerdy trivia for ya while you watch football, nurse your hangover, or just relax (or, if you're in news like me...working in the newsroom).

The new year marks the use of a new number on our calendars, but did you know there are such thing as "illegal numbers?" Yes, in the United States.

It sounds like a communistic concept, but it exists for a couple reasons. for one example, HD and Blu-Ray DVDs are encoded using a process that requires both the DVD and the player to be able to communicate and ensure that you're using the genuine article. Hackers figured out what that number was, so that they could make free copies of HD and Blu-Ray DVDs and distribute them online. They even created the flag shown to the right to tell people what it is (The code for the color values in the flag combines to create the number). Eventually, DVD equipment manufacturers and DVD makers had to change the number because it'd been publicized.

You may be wondering: what's the number? Well, it's normally shown in hexadecimal (or Base 16 for the math inclined) but in standard decimal notation the number is:

13,256,278,887,989,457,651,018,865,901,401,704,640

Another example is in the instance of child porn. Digital files, including pictures, are just a series of zeroes and ones...so if you have child porn images on your computer, you are in possession of an illegal numbers (and you deserve to be shot in the crotch and bled out until dead).

Here's more info on illegal numbers, and the DVD encryption key discussed above.