More here....
http://callhart.com/crazy/2010/09/newest-creations-from-edgar-mueller-aka-super-artist-aka-the-chalk-guy/
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Chicagos Chalk Guy is Back !
Hard to believe this is chalk..
More here....
http://callhart.com/crazy/2010/09/newest-creations-from-edgar-mueller-aka-super-artist-aka-the-chalk-guy/
More here....
http://callhart.com/crazy/2010/09/newest-creations-from-edgar-mueller-aka-super-artist-aka-the-chalk-guy/
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Wait For the iPad 3
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/apples-ipad-2-the-waiting-game-ahead-of-a-potential-sales-boom/45221?tag=nl.e539
Once we’ve seen the child of light, for real, we’ll know more. In the meantime, let’s get started.
Reason 1: The iPad 3 is coming
Yes, last time I said not to buy an iPad because the iPad 2 was on the horizon. Now, I’m telling you not to buy an iPad 2 because the iPad 3 is on the way. There’s a reason.
All indications are that the iPad 2 is a mere mid-season design refresh, shrinking the size a bit, adding a camera where a camera was always expected, and keeping the display the same.
Apparently, Apple couldn’t get the Retina display ready in time for a spring launch, so they’re just going ahead with a paen to the masses, and launching the iPad 2.
Mark my words: if you get an iPad 2 now, you’ll be deeply disappointed when the iPad 3 comes out.
Reason 2: AT&T only
So, now that we’ve finally seen an actual Verizon iPhone, what about a Verizon-based iPad? If you read all the rumors, you won’t hear even a whisper of Verizon. Why?
If the iPad 2 is substantially the same hardware as the original iPad, it’s going to have the same communications gear. The Verizon iPhone is a completely different machine under the covers and has to be because Verizon’s network is so different.
So if the iPad 2 is really what Apple always intended the original iPad to be, which means — essentially — the same basic design, no Verizon.
Expect Verizon as part of the big redesign in the iPad 3.
Reason 3: No removable storage
The rumor mongers ran amok over the past few weeks with the theory that the iPad 2 would have an SD slot. This, of course, violates Apple’s basic Gestapo approach to hardware design, and was unlikely to be part of the iPad 2.
Now, the rumoristas are reporting that there won’t be an SD card slot, removing any practical, non-camera advantage of the iPad 2 over the original iPad.
Reason 4: You already have an iPad
Face it. If you’re foaming at the mouth over the iPad 2, you already have an iPad. It’s just an obvious point. If you haven’t already purchased an iPad, then you have some control over your purchase urges and you’ll wait and see what the market has in store.
But if you’re reading this, getting more and more worked up, shaking your fist, and screaming, “Gewirtz!” into the drop ceiling of your mom’s basement, then you already have an iPad.
The iPad 2 is the same machine. Sure, there might be a little more RAM and it might hurt your tiny, little hands a little less to lift it, but that’s about it. Yes, we’re hearing there’s a camera, but the sad truth is that if you’re one of those rabid Apple fanbois still living in your mom’s basement, no one other than your mom wants to see your face.
Save your money.
Reason 5: Competition
Without a doubt, every electronics manufacturer has noticed the insane success of the iPad. To Apple’s credit, none of them has managed to compete on both functionality and price. As our own Jason Perlow reports, no one else has Apple’s supply chain advantage.
But the past doesn’t equal the future and there will undoubtedly be interesting competitors, especially coming from the HP/Palm partnership and from the Android world. Sure, there will be horrid, little Android tablets littering the land, but there will eventually be real contenders.
At that point, you might want to look for an open device that will allow you to use your hardware the way you want, without Mommy Apple holding your hand all the way.
Well, except for you angry Mac fans living in the basement. We know your story.
Reasons 6-11: The more things stay the same
No matter how exciting it is that Apple’s introducing a new product, and no matter how much you think any Apple introduction should be enshrined as a national holiday, the fact is that this promotional event is merely that: promotional.
Much of the iPad’s original limitations are still out there. I draw your attention back to my original 9 reasons article and present to you a short list of iPad disappointments that probably will still remain disappointments:
* Reason 6: There’s still no USB port
* Reason 7: You still have to use iTunes
* Reason 8: There’s still no way to wirelessly synchronize your bookmarks
* Reason 9: Kindles are still much less expensive
* Reason 10: You can still only run software approved by Apple
* Reason 11: It still can’t be used as a standalone computer
So there you go. Eleven reasons. If you haven’t bought an iPad, the iPad 2 might be a worthwhile buy, especially if you want to spend $600 on the very best Angry Birds game console ever created.
But if you already have an iPad, save your money. Some day, your mom may insist you move out and you’ll need that money for rent (or to buy an iPad 3).
Once we’ve seen the child of light, for real, we’ll know more. In the meantime, let’s get started.
Reason 1: The iPad 3 is coming
Yes, last time I said not to buy an iPad because the iPad 2 was on the horizon. Now, I’m telling you not to buy an iPad 2 because the iPad 3 is on the way. There’s a reason.
All indications are that the iPad 2 is a mere mid-season design refresh, shrinking the size a bit, adding a camera where a camera was always expected, and keeping the display the same.
Apparently, Apple couldn’t get the Retina display ready in time for a spring launch, so they’re just going ahead with a paen to the masses, and launching the iPad 2.
Mark my words: if you get an iPad 2 now, you’ll be deeply disappointed when the iPad 3 comes out.
Reason 2: AT&T only
So, now that we’ve finally seen an actual Verizon iPhone, what about a Verizon-based iPad? If you read all the rumors, you won’t hear even a whisper of Verizon. Why?
If the iPad 2 is substantially the same hardware as the original iPad, it’s going to have the same communications gear. The Verizon iPhone is a completely different machine under the covers and has to be because Verizon’s network is so different.
So if the iPad 2 is really what Apple always intended the original iPad to be, which means — essentially — the same basic design, no Verizon.
Expect Verizon as part of the big redesign in the iPad 3.
Reason 3: No removable storage
The rumor mongers ran amok over the past few weeks with the theory that the iPad 2 would have an SD slot. This, of course, violates Apple’s basic Gestapo approach to hardware design, and was unlikely to be part of the iPad 2.
Now, the rumoristas are reporting that there won’t be an SD card slot, removing any practical, non-camera advantage of the iPad 2 over the original iPad.
Reason 4: You already have an iPad
Face it. If you’re foaming at the mouth over the iPad 2, you already have an iPad. It’s just an obvious point. If you haven’t already purchased an iPad, then you have some control over your purchase urges and you’ll wait and see what the market has in store.
But if you’re reading this, getting more and more worked up, shaking your fist, and screaming, “Gewirtz!” into the drop ceiling of your mom’s basement, then you already have an iPad.
The iPad 2 is the same machine. Sure, there might be a little more RAM and it might hurt your tiny, little hands a little less to lift it, but that’s about it. Yes, we’re hearing there’s a camera, but the sad truth is that if you’re one of those rabid Apple fanbois still living in your mom’s basement, no one other than your mom wants to see your face.
Save your money.
Reason 5: Competition
Without a doubt, every electronics manufacturer has noticed the insane success of the iPad. To Apple’s credit, none of them has managed to compete on both functionality and price. As our own Jason Perlow reports, no one else has Apple’s supply chain advantage.
But the past doesn’t equal the future and there will undoubtedly be interesting competitors, especially coming from the HP/Palm partnership and from the Android world. Sure, there will be horrid, little Android tablets littering the land, but there will eventually be real contenders.
At that point, you might want to look for an open device that will allow you to use your hardware the way you want, without Mommy Apple holding your hand all the way.
Well, except for you angry Mac fans living in the basement. We know your story.
Reasons 6-11: The more things stay the same
No matter how exciting it is that Apple’s introducing a new product, and no matter how much you think any Apple introduction should be enshrined as a national holiday, the fact is that this promotional event is merely that: promotional.
Much of the iPad’s original limitations are still out there. I draw your attention back to my original 9 reasons article and present to you a short list of iPad disappointments that probably will still remain disappointments:
* Reason 6: There’s still no USB port
* Reason 7: You still have to use iTunes
* Reason 8: There’s still no way to wirelessly synchronize your bookmarks
* Reason 9: Kindles are still much less expensive
* Reason 10: You can still only run software approved by Apple
* Reason 11: It still can’t be used as a standalone computer
So there you go. Eleven reasons. If you haven’t bought an iPad, the iPad 2 might be a worthwhile buy, especially if you want to spend $600 on the very best Angry Birds game console ever created.
But if you already have an iPad, save your money. Some day, your mom may insist you move out and you’ll need that money for rent (or to buy an iPad 3).
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Fanny Packs on the Runway
The nylon fanny pack has been a joke for 20 years. But now it's making a comeback,
To Mr. Mispelaere, they represented "motion, dancing and celebrating the sun." In a nod to these free spirits, he set out to revive an accessory that has been decidedly démodé for at least two decades: the fanny pack.
His $325 DVF belted satchels hitting stores this month aren't actually called fanny packs, of course. Mr. Mispelaere refers to them as "hands-free bags"—a name, he says, that helps convey "a functional shape, but with a touch of glamour, a touch of luxury and a touch of seriousness."
As designers firm up their final picks for the Thursday launch of New York Fashion Week, Mr. Mispelaere is considering putting the bags back on the runway at his Feb. 13 show.
Fanny packs, small bags that fasten around the waist, are among the most reviled accessories in modern culture, carrying inevitable associations with "scary American tourists at the Louvre," says designer Isaac Mizrahi. He hasn't sent one down the runway since 1992. "You either love them and make them part of your life or you fight them until the end," he says.
As it turns out, more sartorial types now are butting in on the look, even as they shun the "f" word. Korean-American handbag designer Sang A Im-Propp, who sells an alligator version for $1,995, calls hers a "belt bag." The term "fanny pack," she says, "is just eww, so cheesy, so tacky, so horrible."
A fanny pack is "not something I would ever think about or talk about," says designer Reed Krakoff. This, despite the fact that the utilitarian leather "apron wraps" shown at his spring 2011 fashion show in September seemed "fanny-pack-like" according to Women's Wear Daily. Mr. Krakoff—who has driven more than a few bag trends in his other role as creative director at Coach Inc.—says his eponymous packs are "inspired by a functional aspect of something but less about actually carrying something." Indeed, most have no pockets.
That sense of fashion whimsy piqued the curiosity of Beth Buccini, co-owner of the influential New York boutique Kirna Zabête. Last summer, while browsing photographs on the Internet, Ms. Buccini became intrigued by an image of an attractive young woman sporting a fanny pack at the Coachella music festival. She turned to her business partner, Sarah Easley, and said: "It's time."
Ms. Buccini emailed Ms. Im-Propp, the handbag designer, to ask if she would be interested in designing a "frilly fancy fanny pack " for the high-end retailer to sell exclusively on Fashion's Night Out, the Vogue-sanctioned Manhattan shopping event that coincides with the autumn New York Fashion Week.
Dreaming up a wave-like design and a belt that fastens in the front or back, Ms. Im-Propp named the style the "Rise belt bag." After it sold out at the Kirna Zabête event last September, she created more versions for her own spring and fall collections.
Celebrities, increasingly keen to emphasize lower-body curves, have been early adopters. Singer Rihanna was captured by paparazzi while wearing a Louis Vuitton fanny pack on a trip to London in late 2009. Ciara, in her "Gimmie Dat" video, pairs stripper heels and a leather bustier with a giant red fanny pack that spells the word "FLY."
Belted satchels have adorned the waists of men and women for centuries. The Greeks attached small animal-hide bags containing coins to their belts. Crusaders wore "alms bags" pinned to girdles fastened around their midriffs, a convenient way to distribute money to the poor.
In the mid-20th century, the fanny pack—then worn with the bag to the rear—emerged as a popular sporting accessory among American skiers and bikers. The pouch was adopted by cautious New Yorkers in the 1970s, "when mugging was a significant threat" recalls Simon Doonan, creative ambassador-at-large at Barneys. That's when the pack rotated 180 degrees, to the front of the body.
The look enjoyed a fleeting moment of fabulousness in the late 1980s when Chanel featured a quilted version on the runway, but soon thereafter it was relegated to the status of TV gag. On an early episode of "Seinfeld," Jerry Seinfeld points to George Costanza's fanny pack and says that it "looks like your belt is digesting a small animal."
Louis Vuitton helped reignite the fanny-pack fad last year after putting new styles on the runway. Hermès gave the trend a luxury lift with its slender $4,675 "Kelly Bandeau," set to arrive in stores for spring.
Some international designers have a cultural reason to back away from the word "fanny." Innocuous slang for the gluteus maximus in the U.S., the word is an obscenity in the U.K. and Australia, where it refers to female genitalia. In those countries, fanny packs are typically known as a "bum bags." The French call the style "le sac banane," a mocking reference to the banana shape of the pouch.
Despite the lampooning, the usefulness of the item has never eluded true believers.
Bernadette Connor, a 33-year-old attorney in Seattle, credits her fanny pack with freeing her from the tyranny of large handbags. Her last bag, which she says "was the size of a Labrador puppy," was too cumbersome to carry on her bike, inspiring her to downsize to a black LeSportsac nylon fanny pack.
In Los Angeles, 30-year-old fashion designer Lizz Wasserman says she rotates her wardrobe of 20 different fanny packs because they are simply the most convenient way she can think of to carry stuff.
"If you go out dancing, a fanny pack is very necessary," she says. "Especially if you don't want other people dancing with you."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704422204576130223571019968.html#printMode
Lil Darlin' - 2 Performances - 47 Years Apart
"The Diamonds" topped the charts with "Little Darlin'" in 1957 and here they are again 47 years later.
http://www.flixxy.com/the-diamonds-little-darlin-1957-2004.htm
Thanks to the Big Boy for this...
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Flo of Progressive Insurance > Funny People Behind the Famous Ads
Stephanie Courtney, Flo in the ubiquitous Progressive Insurance ads, says she's OK "as long as I get to do my improv shows."
Stand-up comedian Pete Holmes had an audience of more than 100 million people last month. As the snarky voice of the stock-trading baby in commercials for the online trading site E*Trade, Mr. Holmes and his two recent Super Bowl spots were part of the most-watched TV event in U.S. history.
Normally, when Mr. Holmes performs, it's for audiences of hundreds—gigs at New York comedy clubs, colleges or the occasional taping of a Comedy Central special. He doesn't do finance.
"I know about as much about investing and banking as an actual baby," he says.
Across the country in West Hollywood, seven members of the Groundlings improv troupe dash onto a bare, tiny stage, and Stephanie Courtney announces to the 90 or so people in the audience: "Welcome, everybody! It's Wednesday! That means it's time for the Crazy Uncle Joe Show!"
Ms. Courtney looks vaguely familiar, but only vaguely. Without the maraschino red lipstick, bumped-up hair, head-band and clinic-white apron, she doesn't bear an especially close resemblance to "Flo," the insanely perky hostess she plays in ads for Progressive Insurance.
Mr. Holmes and Ms. Courtney live a double life in show business. The pop-culture icons they portray are known to more people than many movie stars. But in their chosen fields, as actors or stand-up comics, they are still struggling for recognition, roles, and a living wage.
The commercials are steady work and steady money—six-figure money, in fact. Mr. Holmes says the year before he booked the E*Trade gig, he went on the road to do 60 colleges over five months, "sleeping in different hotels in Iowa, driving through the snow" of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. That whole tour, he says, "paid roughly one third of what I've made from E*Trade in a year."
But these performers also face the danger that their corporate celebrity will overshadow the work they care about, or even detract from it. A 2007 obituary for Canadian actor Dick Wilson, who played Mr. Whipple in hundreds of Charmin commercials, said he was making $300,000 a year, working just 12 days. But as he rose to become the third best-known American (in one poll) behind Richard Nixon and Billy Graham, the once-prolific actor essentially stopped winning roles. "I've done 38 pictures and nobody remembers any of them. But they all remember me selling toilet paper," he said.
There was a time when a comedian's route to the top was well marked: Work the club scene, strive for years to get on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson, then hope you kill—and your life changes. Steve Martin broke on Carson, then "Saturday Night Live," put out a platinum-selling comedy LP, and for a time was packing large arenas.
Now, cable and the Web have fractured the comedy scene into a million funny pieces. Not all are profitable. Many aspiring comedians produce Web videos at their own expense, hoping it leads to something that pays. Doing ads can pay the freight along the way.
"The industry's almost backwards in a way. There's no defined path anymore," says Matt McCarthy, a 31-year-old, burly, red-bearded New York comedian who portrayed a constantly outdone cable installer in commercials for Verizon FiOS TV service.
At the Groundlings show, Ms. Courtney is wearing a black v-neck Journey T-shirt over snug jeans. Her hair is completely normal—flat and wavy with a glint of red. Over 90 minutes she'll pretend to be an elderly British lady building with an erector set, a cross-dressing Army commander and an unconscious 1980s prom date who awakens singing the Thomas Dolby song "She Blinded Me With Science." During one improv, a phone jingles in the audience, and without breaking character she tilts her head and says to her stage partner, "Does your neighbor play the xylophone?"
Ms. Courtney had been auditioning in Los Angeles for years, after leaving stand-up comedy in New York. She became a main-company member at Groundlings and has won bit parts in TV shows such as "Men of a Certain Age" and movies including "The Heartbreak Kid."
"I always thought I would have supporting parts, then get bigger supporting parts, and get a character actor's career going," she says. She was auditioning for commercials to pay the bills and having little luck, booking "under one a year," she recalls. But she nailed the Progressive audition ("They were like, 'Can you be a little more quirky?' and I was, 'Oh sure'"). Since 2007 she's taped 53 spots as Flo. A Facebook fan page for Flo has 2.4 million "likes."
These days, the comics doing ads insist they don't feel it's demeaning. "There's no difference between commercial and sketch as long as it's funny," says Mr. Holmes.
Not long ago, movie stars such as Brad Pitt and Mel Gibson felt the need to sneak away to Japan to earn a few extra bucks making commercials. Ellen Page went from an Oscar nomination for her hipster "Juno" star turn to ads for Cisco Systems the year after the Academy Award show. Old-timers may gag—would Lenny Bruce plug a mutual fund?—but the wall between art and commerce appears to have collapsed.
The road to permissibility is paved with irony. Some of the hippest comedies on TV, including "30 Rock" and "The Colbert Report," have turned product plugs into winking inside-jokes. During his fake 2008 presidential campaign, Mr. Colbert admitted it was "tawdry" and "cheapened the process" when his coverage of the race was called "The Hail to the Cheese Stephen Colbert Nacho Cheese Doritos 2008 Presidential Campaign." But the "product integration" was real. "30 Rock" plugged Verizon Wireless as Tina Fey said, "Can we have our money now?"
Last June, Will Arnett and Jason Bateman, stars of cult-fave sitcom "Arrested Development," launched DumbDumb, a serious business venture described as a "sponsor-driven comedy studio" whose mission is to "produce and star in branded…programming for all platforms that match not only a brand's personality and marketing objectives but Arnett and Bateman's well-known comedic tone." Bud Light made fun of product placements in a Super Bowl commercial this year with moviemakers festooning a swashbuckling scene with beer logos so they could "get tons of free stuff."
"The idea of 'selling out' doesn't really mean the same thing anymore," says Wilson Standish, a trend analyst at the Intelligence Group, a firm owned by Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists Agency that supplies research to Comedy Central. "The Y generation understands that you need financial backing to pursue your dreams, and as long as you're not compromising your artistic integrity, it's OK."
Michal Czerwonka for The Wall Street Journal
Mr. Holmes ad-libbed the line "It's haunting" to describe a fellow infant's dance moves in one commercial.
Make no mistake: Stand-up comics, pound-for-pound, remain more judgmental than mothers-in-law—it's their job. But the judgment these days isn't over whether you've done a commercial—it's whether it's funny. Says Andrew Donnelly, an L.A. stand-up who voices an animatronic turtle in ads for Comcast high-speed Internet service: "Your commercial might be on between 'The Office' and '30 Rock.' You better be funny,"
Mr. Holmes's words for the E*Trade baby essentially are unscripted. He'll riff on a provided theme in a studio, then watch footage of the kid in the onesie to add flourishes. Preparing one spot—with the baby teasing an infant buddy on a red-eye flight from a Vegas bachelor party—Mr. Holmes saw his baby waving his arms around and ad-libbed, "He dances like this." Then the baby blinked and looked into the camera, and Mr. Holmes added: "It's haunting."
Flo's ad-libbed quips (like "…or a big, tricked-out name tag!") are the product of Ms. Courtney's years working on comic timing. From day one, she says, the director of the commercials encouraged her to improvise.
"When I saw the first commercial, I thought, this is sort of showing my wackier side more than some of the stuff I've booked that's, like, comedy," she says.
Most performers in commercials don't make life-changing money. They often work for scale, a minimum negotiated by the Screen Actors Guild: $592.20 per day of work, plus a declining fraction in residuals as the commercial airs, down to $51.65 per showing. There are separate rate schedules for network, local and cable TV, and it can add up to a healthy middle-class lifestyle. But celebrities—and performers in long-term campaigns like Ms. Courtney and Mr. Holmes—may graduate to more lucrative deals, says Doug Ely, a commercial agent at AKA Talent.
"I'm sure Stephanie has a multiyear contract," Mr. Ely says. "Let's say she gets $100,000 per year, though I'm sure she gets substantially more than that at this point. They'd contract for x amount of work that includes commercials, print ads, radio, personal appearances."
Ms. Courtney declined to talk about her deal, but concedes, "It's definitely changed from where I was. But where I was, was a one-room studio, really hand-to-mouthing it. Now, to not freak out if you have to go to the dentist or something, it's made life a little easier."
Mr. Holmes also didn't want to be specific, but added: "When it's all said and done—many recording sessions, many rewrites, rerecords, and after they've all aired for a year— you're looking at about the starting salary of an ophthalmologist."
Ms. Courtney feels she can dodge both the stigma of doing commercials and the straitjacket of being pigeonholed for playing one character so well.
"There's no 'it's her!' factor" when she performs, says Groundlings colleague Roy Jenkins. He says sometimes when celebrities perform at Groundlings, the audience laughs at everything because they're famous. "She doesn't get that," he says.
Mr. Holmes never mentions his gig as the baby when he performs because, he claims, he doesn't have material about it.
"They've never really given me a talking-to about what I can and can't discuss on stage," he says. "But for me it's good business to not be, 'Hey, I'm the E*Trade baby! Imagine if the baby was doin' this…' and humping the air, or whatever."
Thursday, February 17, 2011
He Said to Me....
He said to me . ... . I don't know why you wear a bra; you've got nothing to put in it.
I said to him .... . . You wear pants don't you?
He said to me ... . ......... Shall we try swapping positions tonight?
I said .. That's a good idea - you stand by the stove & sink while I sit on the sofa and fart
He said to me. ... What have you been doing with all the grocery money I gave you?
I said to him . ..... Turn sideways and look in the mirror!
He said to me. . How many men does it take to change a roll of toilet paper?
I said to him .. .. I don't know; it has never happened.
He said to me. . Why is it difficult to find men who are sensitive, caring and Good- looking?
I said to him . . . They already have boyfriends.
He said..What do you call a woman who knows where her husband is every night?
I said. . . A widow.
He said to me.... Why are married women heavier than single women?
I said to him .. . .. Single women come home, see what's in the fridge and go to bed.
Married women come home, see what's in bed and go to the fridge.
Thanks to Carolynn for this one.
Fun fact: Wilma's full name is Wilma Pebble Slaghoople Flintstone
Monday, February 14, 2011
For Dog Lovers and Friends Who Need To Smile !
An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard.
I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home and was well taken care of.
He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on his head; he then followed me into my house, slowly walked down the hall, curled up in the corner and fell asleep.
An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out..
The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard, walked inside and resumed his spot in the hall and again slept for about an hour.
This continued off and on for several weeks.
Curious I pinned a note to his collar:
'I would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is and ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap.'
The next day he arrived for his nap, with a different note pinned to his collar:
'He lives in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3 He's trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I come with him tomorrow?'
thanks to Rabea for this one !
Sunday, February 13, 2011
UM & MSU Game Ball Delivered From Above
Delivering game balls to the official before a football game isn’t normally a big deal.
But during a recent showdown between Michigan and Michigan State in Ann Arbor UM officials decided to look to the skies.
That’s how, after a year in the planning stages, Sgt. Adam Sniffen of the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, jumped from a Cessna several thousand feet above Michigan Stadium and parachuted into the largest football stadium in the country.
Most fascinating perhaps is the tipping point where you can actually start to hear 109,933 crazed fans screaming as this expert paratrooper — who hasn’t missed a target in more than 800 career jumps — comes in and sticks the landing at the 3-yard-line.
Thanks to the Big Boy for this.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Sandy Becker Show from WNEW in 1950's
Show Intro
Classic Outtakes
Soupy and Sandy Reminiscing
Hambone in Color
That Happy Feeling - Bert Kaempfert - "Sandy Becker" theme
Classic Outtakes
Soupy and Sandy Reminiscing
Hambone in Color
That Happy Feeling - Bert Kaempfert - "Sandy Becker" theme
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Data Mining and Security Implications
from:
http://mrisblog.com/2011/02/reality-check-ahead-data-mining-and-the-implications-for-real-estate-professionals/
Posted on February 2, 2011 by MRIS_CMO
MLS is a 100-year old institution that expertly aggregates and houses most, if not all, of real estate’s most critical data. Today, our data is currently being leveraged, sourced, scraped, licensed and syndicated by a grand assortment of players, partners and members. It’s being utilized in ways never imagined just a decade ago. Or, for that matter, six months ago.
The result: a plethora of competitive, strategic, financial and security-based issues have surfaced that challenge every MLS, as well every single one of our members/customers.
I think about this all the time. During my recent visit with my son KB – a college junior – he told me about how Google recently came to his campus offering everyone free email, voice mail, Docs (to replace MS Office) and data storage – an impressive list of free services for all.
I asked him why this publically traded company would give away its products for free. Despite his soaring IQ and studies in information systems technology, he couldn’t come up with an answer.
Searching Google on my laptop I presented KB with the following Google customer email (September, 2009) that read:
“We wanted to let you know about some important changes … in a few weeks, documents, spreadsheets and presentations that have been explicitly published outside your organization and are linked to or from a public website will be crawled and indexed, which means they can appear in search results you see on Google.com and other search engines.” Note: once data is available on Google searches, their business model calls for selling advertising around that search result.
Bear in mind this refers to published docs and not those labeled as private – a setting within Google Docs that of which not all users are aware.
I also presented him with the specific EULA (End-User Licensing Agreement) language that states how a user grants a “perpetual, irrevocable, royalty free license to the content for certain purposes (republication, publication, adaptation, distribution), extending to the provision of syndicated services and to use such content in provision of those services.”
I recounted for KB how back in March of 2010, we learned in the national news that: “A confidential, seven-page Google Inc. “vision statement” shows the information-age giant is in a deep round of soul-searching over a basic question: How far should it go in profiting from its crown jewels—the vast trove of data it possesses about people’s activities?”
Source: Wall Street Journal August 10, 2010
This chart above shows that nearly 85% of respondents are concerned about the practice of tracked online behavior by advertisers.
Then, a Wall Street Journal article titled “What They Know” was posted which discusses how companies are developing ‘digital fingerprint’ technology to track our use of individual computers, mobile devices and TV set-top boxes so they can sell the data to advertisers. It appears that each device broadcasts a unique identification number that computer servers recognize and, thus, can be stored in a database and later analyzed for monetization. This 3-minute video is a must-see!
By the way, they call this practice “Human Barcoding.” KB began to squirm. As we all should.
Data. Security. And real estate
So what do “innovative” data mining and monetization methods now in use by Google and others, mean to real estate – specifically the data aggregated by an MLS and then shared around the globe?
We all must first grasp what happens to listing data when it’s collected and syndicated into “the cloud”, as well as the human transaction interactions that follow from start to finish (and beyond, actually).
Second, we need to understand how business intelligence and analytics are being applied to the data generated by real estate transactions today. If there is a monetization to the data without the knowledge and permission of the rightful owner, then, potentially, agreements need to be negotiated (or renegotiated) and modified to get in step with today’s (and tomorrow’s) inevitable ways of doing business. I’m not in any way opposed to data mining per se, the issue at hand here is fair compensation for the data on which it is based.
Here’s why the latest developments regarding Google (and others) are vitally important:
* The world of leveraging digital information is changing very rapidly. As businesses push harder and deeper in their quest to monetize data, information, bits/bytes and mouse clicks, we must establish clear and informed consent on who exactly owns the data, who should control it and how it should be monetized. Protecting OUR “crown jewels”, if you will.
* What do you know about “Human Barcoding”? It’s time for industry leaders to research this new phenomenon and begin to establish the basis for an industry position as it pertains to residential real estate.
* How do we, as an industry, determine the real value of data beyond the property-centric context? As true business intelligence and data mining progress in our industry, we need “comps” to build upon to derive a valuation model.
* What exactly is the MLS’s role? Are we the “stewards” of the data (on behalf of our customers) that emanates from the property record and the subsequent transaction and electronic interactions between all the parties connected to it? How should the MLS industry confront the challenge?
We all certainly remember when the national consumer portals planted their flag(s) on this industry and, by association, MLS territory. Their rationale then was that they would help drive “eyeballs” and traffic to the inventory. Indeed they have. But, looking back, it all came with a pretty steep price tag.
For example, referral fees were subsequently replaced with advertising revenues that more often than not started chipping away at the edges of the broker’s affiliated business models (mortgage, insurance, etc). Now, as a result, the margins of the business are perilously thin from a broker’s perspective.
The roots of the MLS began as a business to facilitate a fair distribution of commissions and compensation amongst brokers. It’s safe to say, dear Toto, that we are no longer in Kansas anymore. Given the digital landscape, where value can be derived in so many unique ways, the fact that others whose motives for increasing the value of the asset are potentially suspect, it’s critical that we convene right now to assert an intellectual lead on what is happening here, or at least make the conscious decision to step aside.
I’m sure there are many other questions and reasons why this is “mission critical” to us. But what I’ve offered, with the help of several really smart folks in the industry, provides a good starting point. We welcome all industry commentators on this topic. Thanks in advance for sharing ….
John L. Heithaus Chief Marketing Officer, MRIS (john.heithaus@mris.net)
Ps – a “tip of the hat” to Greg Roberston of Vendor Alley for starting us on this path after his excellent post “Inside Trulia’s Boiler Room”*. I also benefited mightily from the comments of David Charron of MRIS, Marilyn Wilson of the WAV Group and Marc Davison of 1000watt Consulting, and I extend my appreciation to them for sharing their perspectives.
* After this story ran, the You Tube video interview with a Trulia staffer was made “private” and is now inaccessible. Vendor Alley’s analysis of the video provides an excellent overview of the situation.
You might also be interested in:
1. Tax Data I have been thinking about real estate public records tax data lately. Before becoming a product manager, I spent nine years in the MRIS Data Management Department bringing tax data collection in-house and looking for ways to provide the most timely and accurate information available. We started out with a...
2. Google Agonizes on Privacy as Ad World Vaults Ahead http://on.wsj.com/aaAG3Y If anyone wonders about the future of our privacy in terms of commercialization, this is a must read article. I’m left wondering how this shakes out if Google decides to truly enter the real estate business. There’s a great section here on how you can protect yourself via browser...
3. 8 ways social media can rock your real estate world Social media is a powerful tool for real estate professionals. These tools allow you to tap into these already created networks and forge deeper personalized relationships. Also it doesn’t take an expert to be really great at social media, and it’s fun! Here are some ways that you can use social...
4. Lessons from True Marketing Geniuses (and Applying it to Real Estate) Like many of real estate professionals, I’m a real live marketing geek that is a perpetual student of the “latest and greatest” in what really and truly works to capture the hearts, minds and wallets of consumers everywhere. So today I found a great link to the top 10 viral...
5. Fact or fiction? The health-care law and real estate tax Last weekend’s Washington Post, always a fountain of interesting things, ran this article. For more, go to: http://bit.ly/bKXfWX Rumors are flying that the health-care legislation Congress passed this year will impose a sales tax on all real estate sales. But the rumors are based only partly on fact. Although there...
http://mrisblog.com/2011/02/reality-check-ahead-data-mining-and-the-implications-for-real-estate-professionals/
Posted on February 2, 2011 by MRIS_CMO
MLS is a 100-year old institution that expertly aggregates and houses most, if not all, of real estate’s most critical data. Today, our data is currently being leveraged, sourced, scraped, licensed and syndicated by a grand assortment of players, partners and members. It’s being utilized in ways never imagined just a decade ago. Or, for that matter, six months ago.
The result: a plethora of competitive, strategic, financial and security-based issues have surfaced that challenge every MLS, as well every single one of our members/customers.
I think about this all the time. During my recent visit with my son KB – a college junior – he told me about how Google recently came to his campus offering everyone free email, voice mail, Docs (to replace MS Office) and data storage – an impressive list of free services for all.
I asked him why this publically traded company would give away its products for free. Despite his soaring IQ and studies in information systems technology, he couldn’t come up with an answer.
Searching Google on my laptop I presented KB with the following Google customer email (September, 2009) that read:
“We wanted to let you know about some important changes … in a few weeks, documents, spreadsheets and presentations that have been explicitly published outside your organization and are linked to or from a public website will be crawled and indexed, which means they can appear in search results you see on Google.com and other search engines.” Note: once data is available on Google searches, their business model calls for selling advertising around that search result.
Bear in mind this refers to published docs and not those labeled as private – a setting within Google Docs that of which not all users are aware.
I also presented him with the specific EULA (End-User Licensing Agreement) language that states how a user grants a “perpetual, irrevocable, royalty free license to the content for certain purposes (republication, publication, adaptation, distribution), extending to the provision of syndicated services and to use such content in provision of those services.”
I recounted for KB how back in March of 2010, we learned in the national news that: “A confidential, seven-page Google Inc. “vision statement” shows the information-age giant is in a deep round of soul-searching over a basic question: How far should it go in profiting from its crown jewels—the vast trove of data it possesses about people’s activities?”
Source: Wall Street Journal August 10, 2010
This chart above shows that nearly 85% of respondents are concerned about the practice of tracked online behavior by advertisers.
Then, a Wall Street Journal article titled “What They Know” was posted which discusses how companies are developing ‘digital fingerprint’ technology to track our use of individual computers, mobile devices and TV set-top boxes so they can sell the data to advertisers. It appears that each device broadcasts a unique identification number that computer servers recognize and, thus, can be stored in a database and later analyzed for monetization. This 3-minute video is a must-see!
By the way, they call this practice “Human Barcoding.” KB began to squirm. As we all should.
Data. Security. And real estate
So what do “innovative” data mining and monetization methods now in use by Google and others, mean to real estate – specifically the data aggregated by an MLS and then shared around the globe?
We all must first grasp what happens to listing data when it’s collected and syndicated into “the cloud”, as well as the human transaction interactions that follow from start to finish (and beyond, actually).
Second, we need to understand how business intelligence and analytics are being applied to the data generated by real estate transactions today. If there is a monetization to the data without the knowledge and permission of the rightful owner, then, potentially, agreements need to be negotiated (or renegotiated) and modified to get in step with today’s (and tomorrow’s) inevitable ways of doing business. I’m not in any way opposed to data mining per se, the issue at hand here is fair compensation for the data on which it is based.
Here’s why the latest developments regarding Google (and others) are vitally important:
* The world of leveraging digital information is changing very rapidly. As businesses push harder and deeper in their quest to monetize data, information, bits/bytes and mouse clicks, we must establish clear and informed consent on who exactly owns the data, who should control it and how it should be monetized. Protecting OUR “crown jewels”, if you will.
* What do you know about “Human Barcoding”? It’s time for industry leaders to research this new phenomenon and begin to establish the basis for an industry position as it pertains to residential real estate.
* How do we, as an industry, determine the real value of data beyond the property-centric context? As true business intelligence and data mining progress in our industry, we need “comps” to build upon to derive a valuation model.
* What exactly is the MLS’s role? Are we the “stewards” of the data (on behalf of our customers) that emanates from the property record and the subsequent transaction and electronic interactions between all the parties connected to it? How should the MLS industry confront the challenge?
We all certainly remember when the national consumer portals planted their flag(s) on this industry and, by association, MLS territory. Their rationale then was that they would help drive “eyeballs” and traffic to the inventory. Indeed they have. But, looking back, it all came with a pretty steep price tag.
For example, referral fees were subsequently replaced with advertising revenues that more often than not started chipping away at the edges of the broker’s affiliated business models (mortgage, insurance, etc). Now, as a result, the margins of the business are perilously thin from a broker’s perspective.
The roots of the MLS began as a business to facilitate a fair distribution of commissions and compensation amongst brokers. It’s safe to say, dear Toto, that we are no longer in Kansas anymore. Given the digital landscape, where value can be derived in so many unique ways, the fact that others whose motives for increasing the value of the asset are potentially suspect, it’s critical that we convene right now to assert an intellectual lead on what is happening here, or at least make the conscious decision to step aside.
I’m sure there are many other questions and reasons why this is “mission critical” to us. But what I’ve offered, with the help of several really smart folks in the industry, provides a good starting point. We welcome all industry commentators on this topic. Thanks in advance for sharing ….
John L. Heithaus Chief Marketing Officer, MRIS (john.heithaus@mris.net)
Ps – a “tip of the hat” to Greg Roberston of Vendor Alley for starting us on this path after his excellent post “Inside Trulia’s Boiler Room”*. I also benefited mightily from the comments of David Charron of MRIS, Marilyn Wilson of the WAV Group and Marc Davison of 1000watt Consulting, and I extend my appreciation to them for sharing their perspectives.
* After this story ran, the You Tube video interview with a Trulia staffer was made “private” and is now inaccessible. Vendor Alley’s analysis of the video provides an excellent overview of the situation.
You might also be interested in:
1. Tax Data I have been thinking about real estate public records tax data lately. Before becoming a product manager, I spent nine years in the MRIS Data Management Department bringing tax data collection in-house and looking for ways to provide the most timely and accurate information available. We started out with a...
2. Google Agonizes on Privacy as Ad World Vaults Ahead http://on.wsj.com/aaAG3Y If anyone wonders about the future of our privacy in terms of commercialization, this is a must read article. I’m left wondering how this shakes out if Google decides to truly enter the real estate business. There’s a great section here on how you can protect yourself via browser...
3. 8 ways social media can rock your real estate world Social media is a powerful tool for real estate professionals. These tools allow you to tap into these already created networks and forge deeper personalized relationships. Also it doesn’t take an expert to be really great at social media, and it’s fun! Here are some ways that you can use social...
4. Lessons from True Marketing Geniuses (and Applying it to Real Estate) Like many of real estate professionals, I’m a real live marketing geek that is a perpetual student of the “latest and greatest” in what really and truly works to capture the hearts, minds and wallets of consumers everywhere. So today I found a great link to the top 10 viral...
5. Fact or fiction? The health-care law and real estate tax Last weekend’s Washington Post, always a fountain of interesting things, ran this article. For more, go to: http://bit.ly/bKXfWX Rumors are flying that the health-care legislation Congress passed this year will impose a sales tax on all real estate sales. But the rumors are based only partly on fact. Although there...
Monday, February 7, 2011
$100,000-A-Second ... Analyzing SuperBowl Ads
Video link to commercials
video link to commercials:
story from:
Superbowl highlights...
...Green Bay capitalized on three turnovers to win Super Bowl XLV.
...FOX Sports demonstrated its belief anything worth doing is worth overdoing — and covered the game as if watching is an American’s patriotic duty...
...and Fergie managed to keep all her vital areas covered during the surreal “Tron”-like halftime show.
Now for the much-ballyhooed tradition of analyzing the ads, and whether they delivered a mega-bang for the $100,000-a-second bucks shelled out by sponsors.
For the most part, Madison Avenue’s creative whiz kids whiffed this year, with an uninspired collection of would-be 30-second masterpieces. Granted, The Force was strong with Volkswagen — and that priceless kid in the Darth Vader costume, which went viral before kickoff — even if it won’t get me to drive a Passat. Other than that, I’m hard-pressed to remember many of the spots from the horde of car companies that crowded into the game this year.
Similarly, the dot-coms mostly misfired, in what felt like a kind of strange throwback to 2000. CareerBuilder and Etrade, notably, merely offered new variations (chimpanzees and talking babies, respectively) of what they’ve done before — nothing to get excited about. The exceptions, by happenstance, were both automotive: CarMax.com, which played off old-time customer service versus today; and Cars.com, which delivered a funny spot with the message that it’s not always a terrific idea to go first.
Meanwhile, GoDaddy — which creepily pasted Joan Rivers’ head on a voluptuous woman’s body — fired off a major dud, as did Doritos.
Here are the rest of the highlights, lowlights and everything in between.
WINNERS
Coke: Wow, its CGI spot, with the fire-breathing dragon tamed by a Coke, resembled “The Lord of the Rings” and kept you guessing about what product it was for until the payoff. If the idea is for these commercials to be as big and bold as the game, mission accomplished. The cola maker also delivered a little silent gem, with two lonely sentries in the middle of nowhere sharing a soda.
Bud Light: A mixed bag overall, but Anheuser-Busch’s product-placement spot, with beer logos popping up throughout an action movie, was shrewd, and another featuring trained dogs serving drinks was amusing. Those almost atoned for the company’s lame spots, like the one where a fix-it show decorates a kitchen with beer.
PepsiMax: A thought-balloon date, where all the guy keeps thinking is “I want to sleep with her” before Pepsi diverts his attention, was among the funniest spots.
Kia: An Optima gets zapped by aliens, among other things, in a commercial so visually arresting it made me wonder if (or maybe wish) I was smoking something. But it was hard to ignore.
“Thor”: Of all the movie spots, this one for the Marvel comic-book hero looked the most tantalizing — excluding the various presold sequels, like the next “Transformers” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
Chevy: The idea that Chevy’s electric car, the Volt, represents a historic bridge to the future was well-realized and compelling.
Bridgestone: A helpful beaver saves a motorist? OK, a little “Caddyshack”-esque, but pretty good. And while I’m not sure what retrieving an errant email has to do with Bridgestone tires, that spot was mildly funny, so two thumbs up.
Skechers: Kim Kardashian, sweaty and sexually suggestive. ’Nuff said.
LOSERS
Doritos: Funny animals and physical comedy are supposed to be an unbeatable combination, but having a dog jump into a closed glass door isn’t funny (ask Michael Vick), even if it backfires. Ditto for the guy who ignores personal boundaries in his love of leftover Doritos cheese.
PepsiMax: More lame broad sight gags: a guy getting hit in the nuts with a soda can and a second, in which a woman gets nailed in the head — which is about as uninspired a punch line as one could imagine.
Sony Ericsson: Maybe the weirdest spot of the day — a spy-like chase, leading to a green robot, with grafted thumbs — made me want to throw up much more than buy an Android smartphone.
Chevy/Audi: Interesting that both Chevy and Audi went with the “Our car is young and hip” approach by making fun of old people. So they tick off the old people driving them, without appealing to the young ones.
Best Buy: Having Ozzy Osbourne and Justin Bieber in the same commercial sounds funny on paper. On TV, not so much.
IFFY
Chrysler: While I get the idea of trying to make buying an American car a patriotic gesture (“Imported from Detroit,” it said in closing), the dramatic build-up and messenger — Eminem? — felt slightly out of whack.
Motorola: While I admired the idea behind spoofing Apple’s famous “1984” ad in promoting the Xoom tablet, the nuance of that was lost in the execution. A missed opportunity.
Verizon: OK, so Verizon service can work with the iPhone now. Got anything else to share?
Teleflora: It’s smart to run a commercial for flowers right before Valentine’s Day, but no bouquets for this one otherwise.
...FOX Sports demonstrated its belief anything worth doing is worth overdoing — and covered the game as if watching is an American’s patriotic duty...
...and Fergie managed to keep all her vital areas covered during the surreal “Tron”-like halftime show.
Now for the much-ballyhooed tradition of analyzing the ads, and whether they delivered a mega-bang for the $100,000-a-second bucks shelled out by sponsors.
For the most part, Madison Avenue’s creative whiz kids whiffed this year, with an uninspired collection of would-be 30-second masterpieces. Granted, The Force was strong with Volkswagen — and that priceless kid in the Darth Vader costume, which went viral before kickoff — even if it won’t get me to drive a Passat. Other than that, I’m hard-pressed to remember many of the spots from the horde of car companies that crowded into the game this year.
Similarly, the dot-coms mostly misfired, in what felt like a kind of strange throwback to 2000. CareerBuilder and Etrade, notably, merely offered new variations (chimpanzees and talking babies, respectively) of what they’ve done before — nothing to get excited about. The exceptions, by happenstance, were both automotive: CarMax.com, which played off old-time customer service versus today; and Cars.com, which delivered a funny spot with the message that it’s not always a terrific idea to go first.
Meanwhile, GoDaddy — which creepily pasted Joan Rivers’ head on a voluptuous woman’s body — fired off a major dud, as did Doritos.
Here are the rest of the highlights, lowlights and everything in between.
WINNERS
Coke: Wow, its CGI spot, with the fire-breathing dragon tamed by a Coke, resembled “The Lord of the Rings” and kept you guessing about what product it was for until the payoff. If the idea is for these commercials to be as big and bold as the game, mission accomplished. The cola maker also delivered a little silent gem, with two lonely sentries in the middle of nowhere sharing a soda.
Bud Light: A mixed bag overall, but Anheuser-Busch’s product-placement spot, with beer logos popping up throughout an action movie, was shrewd, and another featuring trained dogs serving drinks was amusing. Those almost atoned for the company’s lame spots, like the one where a fix-it show decorates a kitchen with beer.
PepsiMax: A thought-balloon date, where all the guy keeps thinking is “I want to sleep with her” before Pepsi diverts his attention, was among the funniest spots.
Kia: An Optima gets zapped by aliens, among other things, in a commercial so visually arresting it made me wonder if (or maybe wish) I was smoking something. But it was hard to ignore.
“Thor”: Of all the movie spots, this one for the Marvel comic-book hero looked the most tantalizing — excluding the various presold sequels, like the next “Transformers” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
Chevy: The idea that Chevy’s electric car, the Volt, represents a historic bridge to the future was well-realized and compelling.
Bridgestone: A helpful beaver saves a motorist? OK, a little “Caddyshack”-esque, but pretty good. And while I’m not sure what retrieving an errant email has to do with Bridgestone tires, that spot was mildly funny, so two thumbs up.
Skechers: Kim Kardashian, sweaty and sexually suggestive. ’Nuff said.
LOSERS
Doritos: Funny animals and physical comedy are supposed to be an unbeatable combination, but having a dog jump into a closed glass door isn’t funny (ask Michael Vick), even if it backfires. Ditto for the guy who ignores personal boundaries in his love of leftover Doritos cheese.
PepsiMax: More lame broad sight gags: a guy getting hit in the nuts with a soda can and a second, in which a woman gets nailed in the head — which is about as uninspired a punch line as one could imagine.
Sony Ericsson: Maybe the weirdest spot of the day — a spy-like chase, leading to a green robot, with grafted thumbs — made me want to throw up much more than buy an Android smartphone.
Chevy/Audi: Interesting that both Chevy and Audi went with the “Our car is young and hip” approach by making fun of old people. So they tick off the old people driving them, without appealing to the young ones.
Best Buy: Having Ozzy Osbourne and Justin Bieber in the same commercial sounds funny on paper. On TV, not so much.
IFFY
Chrysler: While I get the idea of trying to make buying an American car a patriotic gesture (“Imported from Detroit,” it said in closing), the dramatic build-up and messenger — Eminem? — felt slightly out of whack.
Motorola: While I admired the idea behind spoofing Apple’s famous “1984” ad in promoting the Xoom tablet, the nuance of that was lost in the execution. A missed opportunity.
Verizon: OK, so Verizon service can work with the iPhone now. Got anything else to share?
Teleflora: It’s smart to run a commercial for flowers right before Valentine’s Day, but no bouquets for this one otherwise.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Top 10 Things to do on Valentine's Day
- Have Sex in a Public Place (or a New Public Place) – what a way to surprise your partner on Valentine's Day! Make sure you find a place that's public but still hidden enough that the thrill is still there but you won't surprise anyone...maybe. Some ideas might be a park, empty classroom, golf course, hot tub...you get the picture. Be creative and have fun but be responsible about the place you choose.
- Go on a Wine Tasting Tour – if you have local winery you can visit then that’s perfect! If not then create your own wine tasting adventure by picking out some of your favorite wines and then try pairing them with some fruit or cheese.
- Take a Trip to Disney World – I know...when you think of Disney you think of kids running around everywhere but I asure you, Disney has plenty to do for adults. Try staying in one of their premier resorts and letting them set up a package for you where your meals and drinks are included for a fun change of pace.
- Make a Human Sundae – blind fold your partner and tease them by turning them into a human sundae. All you need to do is raid the kitchen and fridge for the most common sundae ingredients (make sure your lover likes them as there would be nothing worse to kill the mood then a mouthful of something they don't like). Common sundae components include chocolate syrup, caramel, cherries, strawberries, bananas, ice cream, and chopped nuts...YUM!
- Try on Lingerie at a Local Store – this is a great way to really tease your partner and get them worked up for lovemaking later. Victoria's Secret is a great place to start or if you're not sure where to go, try searching the internet for local lingerie shops near you. Let your partner pick out their favorite outfit and purchase it to take home with you.
- Make a Rose Petal Bath – this is an oldie but goody and never ceases to knock the socks off your partner and make them fell like the angels are smiling down on them. It's really simple and you can make it special by adding your own unique touches. Try making a rose petal trail to the bathroom where a warm bubble bath is already waiting. Use candles and low lighting to set the mood and maybe have some of their favorite goodies like chocolate covered strawberries waiting for them so there's nothing for them to do but get undressed and get in the bathtub.
- Pic Nic in the Park - one of my absolutely favorite things to do with my honey is spend time at the park so a private pic-nic is perfect to kick off Valentine's Day. It doesn't even have to be a full meal. It can just be a good wine, some cheese, and maybe some fruit to pare with everthing. You can make everything yourself or pick up something from one of their favorite restaurants for a special treat.
- Read a Sexy Book Together - grab a really sexy, provacative book and start reading it together. Find something that is erotic enough to get you both in the mood for some really hot sex afterwards!
- Couples Massage - I LOVE a good massage...it's so relaxing and comforting. Make an appointment for a couples massage together in the same room so you can gaze into each other's eyes and daydream about the night ahead.
- Stay in a Local Hotel - stay in a local hotel and pretend your out of town on a trip. There's something really exciting about the idea of pretending to be somewhere else so bring a bottle of wine and your favorite outfit and pretend like your a tourist for the night.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
1994 Today Show - What Is The Internet, Anyway ??
Seventeen years ago, Mrs. Doubtfire was dominating the box office, and The Today Show’s Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel had no freakin’ clue what the internet was.
Putting several links here, NBC is trying to take this down, view it before it's gone.
http://www.metatube.com/en/videos/48476/Today-Show-January-1994-What-is-the-Internet/
On 1/24/94 the morning anchors stumble over the identity and jargon of the technology that has come to define the past decade.
Gumbel is unclear how you pronounce “@”, Katie Couric suggests “about”, and no one wants to say “dot” when they read “.com”.
Confusion with lingo aside, The Today Show cast has to ask a crew member to clarify how the internet works. Do you write to it like mail? Is it just in Universities? Does it require a phone line?
This was less than two decades ago, and it’s a wonderful reminder of how unprepared the mainstream media was for the innovation that was about to sweep the globe.
As the crew member says of the internet, “…it’s getting bigger and bigger all the time.” What a delightful understatement.
To be fair, it wasn’t just Couric and Gumbel who were clueless, most of the population was too. Even those who were in the know couldn’t quite grasp how much things would change. Yahoo was just being founded around the time of this Today Show video clip, but none of today’s biggest online players (Google, Facebook, etc) were even conceived of in 1994.
That was only seventeen years ago.
Just ten years after this segment aired, Google would make its IPO and create some of the internet’s richest billionaires. It’s amazing that it takes such a short amount of time (less than 20 years), for a single technology to go from being obscure and outside the general mainstream media to becoming central to modern society and the home for a growing segment of the media.
It really makes me wonder what technologies are out there today, on the fringes of public awareness, that are going to explode in the next decade and radically alter global civilization. Like the internet, such technologies may have been under development for decades before they finally ‘takeoff’ and change the world.
If we had been paying close enough attention maybe we could have seen the internet coming. Some did.
http://singularityhub.com/2011/02/01/whats-the-internet-hilarious-video-of-nbcs-the-today-show-in-1994/
Putting several links here, NBC is trying to take this down, view it before it's gone.
http://www.metatube.com/en/videos/48476/Today-Show-January-1994-What-is-the-Internet/
On 1/24/94 the morning anchors stumble over the identity and jargon of the technology that has come to define the past decade.
Gumbel is unclear how you pronounce “@”, Katie Couric suggests “about”, and no one wants to say “dot” when they read “.com”.
Confusion with lingo aside, The Today Show cast has to ask a crew member to clarify how the internet works. Do you write to it like mail? Is it just in Universities? Does it require a phone line?
This was less than two decades ago, and it’s a wonderful reminder of how unprepared the mainstream media was for the innovation that was about to sweep the globe.
As the crew member says of the internet, “…it’s getting bigger and bigger all the time.” What a delightful understatement.
To be fair, it wasn’t just Couric and Gumbel who were clueless, most of the population was too. Even those who were in the know couldn’t quite grasp how much things would change. Yahoo was just being founded around the time of this Today Show video clip, but none of today’s biggest online players (Google, Facebook, etc) were even conceived of in 1994.
That was only seventeen years ago.
Just ten years after this segment aired, Google would make its IPO and create some of the internet’s richest billionaires. It’s amazing that it takes such a short amount of time (less than 20 years), for a single technology to go from being obscure and outside the general mainstream media to becoming central to modern society and the home for a growing segment of the media.
It really makes me wonder what technologies are out there today, on the fringes of public awareness, that are going to explode in the next decade and radically alter global civilization. Like the internet, such technologies may have been under development for decades before they finally ‘takeoff’ and change the world.
If we had been paying close enough attention maybe we could have seen the internet coming. Some did.
http://singularityhub.com/2011/02/01/whats-the-internet-hilarious-video-of-nbcs-the-today-show-in-1994/
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A great and easily identifiable costume idea (thanks to a spiffy "tricked-out name tag"), check out how you can make your own Flo costume:
Things You'll Need
Putting together your Flo (Progressive Insurance Girl) costume
Step 1: Get a brown wig in a shoulder length or flippy style. If you can't find one, pick up any long brown wig and use scissors to cut it to shoulder length like Flo's style and add sideswept bangs.Step 2: Put the wig on and top it with a blue headband. Back comb underneath the part that lies behind the headband for a slightly teased look and hairspray it and your bangs in place.
Step 3: Put on a white polo shirt, white pants, and a white apron over them. You can easily find these clothing items if you don't already have them, or just pick up a plain white cooking apron.
Step 4: Add a light line of liquid black eyeliner for a catlike efect that helps to widen Flo's eyes on the commercial. Add some bright red lipstick for a very exhuberant look.
Step 5: Make your own pins, nametags and badges. Grab some white poster board and cut out two rectangles of equal size. (Approximately 2" x 3.5") Poke a safety pin through the back of one of the rectangles in the middle and fasten it with the pin part on the outside.
On the second rectangle, write "FLO" in blue Magic Marker. Add a long blue line going across the top and a shorter yellow line next to it (See photo). Glue the front of your nametag to the piece with the safety pin. Wait until it dries to pin it to your apron.
Step 6: You can repeat the process above with a circular pin that says "I heart Insurance" (See photo again for reference). Instead, cut two circles and write "I heart Insurance" on the front piece with Black and Red Magic Markers. Wait until the glue dries and pin it to the other side of your apron.
Step 7: Voila! Let the good times "Flo"!