Some stuff I’m reading this week…
This is truly brilliant.
I still can’t believe that millions of total strangers who have never so much as laid eyes on me had the right to vote on my rights and equality at all, let alone that they voted against them. If this was, in fact, an unconstitutional proposition, it means they did not have that right. It won’t change the fact that they voted how they did, but it will take some of the pain away.
Artist Zilly Rosen of soon-to-open Buffalo, New York bakery Zillycakes has made this piece of art using 1,240 cupcakes to display Senator Barack Obama. 1,240 cupcakes, people!
Barack Obama is one of the most radical management innovators in the world today. Obama’s team built something truly world-changing: a new kind of political organization for the 21st century. It differs from yesterday’s political organizations as much as Google and Threadless differ from yesterday’s corporations: all are a tiny handful of truly new, 21st century institutions in the world today.
The election of Saguaro’s Barack Obama as 44th, and first African-American president marks itself as a truly historic election.
WOWOWOWOW:
“The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for them during the Democratic primaries, Obama was recorded saying, “I don’t consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, ‘You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.’ So when Brian Williams is asking me about what’s a personal thing that you’ve done [that's green], and I say, you know, ‘Well, I planted a bunch of trees.’ And he says, ‘I’m talking about personal.’ What I’m thinking in my head is, ‘Well, the truth is, Brian, we can’t solve global warming because I f—ing changed light bulbs in my house. It’s because of something collective’.”"
There has been a major pr run-up to the 12/1 launch of Talenthouse.com – “a new entertainment company that gives artists a global online home to share their work and have the opportunity to be discovered by the best minds…
“The tools have changed,” Trippi said. “It’s Web 2.0. (Obama) did it due to these tools.”
Former vice-president Al Gore says he was overwhelmed by Barack Obama’s victory in the presidential election, and says he believes it could not have happened without the Internet.
That’s also why, during the postwar period, the British government protected its auto manufacturing sector with tariffs, bailouts and government-backed mergers. In the process, what had once been a country with four of the world’s best-known car companies now has no domestic automakers at all.
Last night, I was proud to be a member of the community who congratulated Tony Bacigalupo for the launch of New Work City. As a member of the team for these past few years, last night, a couple of people ask me what had happened to my involvement in coworking and New Work City.
Better Place is a venture-backed company that aims to reduce global dependency on oil through the creation of a market-based transportation infrastructure that supports electric vehicles, providing consumers with a cleaner, sustainable, personal transportation alternative.
The official site for Tesla Motors, makers of the Tesla Roadster, the high-performance electric sports car. Electric cars from Tesla Motors are developed with an emphasis on design, performance, and efficiency.
The first Operating Prototype achieved over 230 Miles per gallon!
Five years ago, Aptera’s founder Steve Fambro endeavored to design and build a passenger vehicle that was safe, comfortable, and more fuel-efficient than anything ever produced. This aspiration, combined with his background in engineering, led him to an intensive study of aerodynamics, and composite aircraft construction. He hypothesized that a low-drag, aerodynamic body shape could be achieved without sacrificing comfort, drivability or safety.
Here is the good news: the bold steps that are needed to solve the climate crisis are exactly the same steps that ought to be taken in order to solve the economic crisis and the energy security crisis.
Economists across the spectrum — including Martin Feldstein and Lawrence Summers — agree that large and rapid investments in a jobs-intensive infrastructure initiative is the best way to revive our economy in a quick and sustainable way. Many also agree that our economy will fall behind if we continue spending hundreds of billions of dollars on foreign oil every year. Moreover, national security experts in both parties agree that we face a dangerous strategic vulnerability if the world suddenly loses access to Middle Eastern oil.
NOTHING in the motion of a single bird or a single fish, no matter how graceful, can prepare a scientist for the sight of 10,000 starlings wheeling in formation over a cornfield, or a million minnows, threatened by a predator, snapping into a tight, polarized array.
It would be easy to hand some of the credit for the Obama victory over to social media–in fact, a number of industry voices have already done so. But to look to social technologies as a, or even THE, reason that the campaign succeeded would be to shortchange both the campaign and the technologies behind it. Obama gained leadership because he believed in the power of people to create change–and he harnessed the right social tools to mobilize this power toward a shared vision and goal.
The wealthy and corporate interests who dished out billions of dollars this election season will be swarming over Washington to get their agendas passed. The energy giants will demand “clean coal,” nuclear power and offshore drilling. More big corporations facing bankruptcy because of their corruption and greed will demand taxpayer bailouts.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Barack Obama starts doing a weekly YouTube video and also fireside chats for the 21st century by allowing people to filter up questions to him that he might answer.”
The president-elect already has said he’ll have a five-day online comment period before signing any nonemergency legislation, so Americans can be part of the process.
I got the idea for this as I was surfing the US Presidential candidates websites late Monday night, looking for ideas for online ADHD advocacy from my last post. As an Adult ADHD coach who has ADHD, I wanted examples to help raise awareness of Adult ADHD.
Behind the scenes look at the strategy behind the Obama Campaign.
When Charlie Kratzer started on the basement art project in his south Lexington home, he was surrounded by walls painted a classic cream. Ten dollars of Magic Marker and Sharpie later, the place was black and cream and drawn all over.
Well in my mind people place too much stress on the Internet and other new technology. It is very useful – but as tools placed in the hands of skilled organizers, not as a substitute for them. It made it easier for people to alert the campaign that they wanted to help and easier for the campaign to plug these individuals in to ongoing efforts.
Really. This is wild. He mustn’t know….
Stingray Media Group, the ultimate karaoke experience!
By recognizing that the Golden Rule is fundamental to all world religions, the Charter for Compassion can inspire people to think differently about religion. This Charter is being created in a collaborative project by people from all over the world. It will be completed in 2009. Use this site to offer language you’d like to see included. Or inspire others by sharing your own story of compassion.
Obama understood that he had become a giant screen upon which Americans projected their hopes and fears, dreams and frustrations. Maybe such a person never really existed, couldn’t exist, but people wanted a savior nonetheless. As a bestselling memoirist he had created a mythic figure, a man named Barack Obama who had searched and quested and overcome travails, who had found an identity and a calling in public service. Obama recalled that he often joked with his team, “This Barack Obama sounds like a great guy. Now I’m not sure that I am Barack Obama, right?” He added, pointedly, “It wasn’t entirely a joke.”
“An effective Web site design conveys brand and presents information with a clear hierarchy,” says Mendell, who has led several award-winning site redesigns, including BNET’s. “A functional site creates intuitive access to all the content.” Here’s Mendell’s take on Obama v. McCain online.
How could these companies be so bad for so long? Clearly the combination of a very un-innovative business culture, visionless management and overly generous labor contracts explains a lot of it. It led to a situation whereby General Motors could make money only by selling big, gas-guzzling S.U.V.’s and trucks. Therefore, instead of focusing on making money by innovating around fuel efficiency, productivity and design, G.M. threw way too much energy into lobbying and maneuvering to protect its gas guzzlers.
Normal person + anonymity + audience = total fuckwad
The bad news is that recovery, though boosting employment, may prove unsatisfying. Our new economic era may lapse into a state of “affluent deprivation.” That’s an unfamiliar term. It doesn’t mean poverty. The United States will remain a wealthy society. Rather, “affluent deprivation” signifies a state of mind. People feel poorer, because their sluggish income gains get siphoned off into higher taxes, energy costs and health spending. Though these all involve benefits, they don’t pay everyday bills or cover people’s routine pleasures. There’s an approaching collision between private and public wants—government spending for everything from retirement benefits to defense to the repair of roads and bridges.
It’s the first visible result of a major transition-team effort to make Obama’s conversations with the electorate more direct. In addition, members and supporters of the White House media upgrade want more input opportunities for the public.
Many of the changes, if adopted, also would curb the power of a traditional but often unpopular middleman between presidents and the populace: the mainstream media.
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