Aggregated Ideas Feeds
Displaying 5 items from each of 19 feeds. Items within the past 36 hours are flagged as "new."
The Women Of Jesse James
Before: Sandra Bullock. American Sweetheart. Oscar Winner.
After: "Kat Von D." Reality show "star." 
Source: Eclecticity | 3 Sep 2010 | 8:30 pm | NEW
David Jablow ... sent over a note to check out this intense project that he is working on painstakingly filling in all 38 sheets of a 1960s doodle pad that all have the same image of a woman with bits missing. He is drawing 38 scenarios and posting them all to Flickr here, with the intention to ultimately have them published in some form or another when the project is completed soon.
Source: Eclecticity | 3 Sep 2010 | 8:07 pm | NEW
Pickled and Preserved
Source: Eclecticity | 3 Sep 2010 | 7:58 pm | NEW
Joshua Allen Harris' Inflatable Bag Monsters
Paper or plastic?
Plastic please.
Source: Eclecticity | 3 Sep 2010 | 7:56 pm | NEW
Freakonomics: The Movie Out Today on iTunes Only
Source: Freakonomics | 3 Sep 2010 | 12:04 pm | NEW
Report from a Mission Blue hope spot: The Sargasso Sea
Mission Blue supporter Richard Rockefeller reports: Light winds, clear skies, a leisurely agenda and frequent laughter belie this group’s intensity of purpose. We are a collection of TEDsters, Bermudian government officials, scientists, media folk, and of course, Dr. Sylvia Earle, 2009 TED Prize Winner — spending a few days in the azure waters of the Sargasso Sea, the “golden floating rainforest of the sea,” as Sylvia has called it. On a mini version of April’s TED Mission Blue Voyage in the Galapagos, we are here to learn about the mysteries of the Sargasso Sea — another of Sylvia’s “hope spots” — and its critical value to life on earth. And we are here to help protect the entirety of it — more than a million square kilometers — if we can.
We motor out over the shallow — and healthy-appearing, I’m happy to report — reefs of the Bermuda Bank, through islands and strands of viscid, exotic smelling, light grey and pink coral spawn, which we photograph and collect in paper cups for closer examination. The spawn is often clumped together with lacy yellow Sargasso weed, or Sargassum, which spawns, in turn, endless puns about the ocean’s “sargasms,” etc.
Sargassum is named for the Sargasso Sea, a huge gyre created and bounded by the four great currents of the Atlantic Ocean. The weed often appears in patches as large as football fields, but the ones we encounter today are much smaller -– squash-court sized, at most — as the tail of Hurricane Danielle disrupted the big ones a few days ago. It looks pretty from the deck of our boat, truly golden against the deep ocean blue, but from this distance, not so very interesting after the first few patches. It is only when you get up close that the intricate structure of pea-sized air sacs on top, which keep it afloat, combined with a complex web work beneath, begin to suggest deeper secrets.
Sargassum, and the enormous sea from which the name derives, comprise an extraordinary and unique ecosystem. It not only harbors many creatures found nowhere else, it serves as an essential breeding ground and nursery to many of the species — eels and bluefin tuna, among others — that grace the waters and shores of the entire Atlantic Ocean.
Snorkeling among the weed hints more clearly at this diversity, as baby flying fish skip away across the water’s surface and comma-sized items zip among the weedy strands, too fast for these aging eyes, at least, to follow. We get a clearer view when Chris Flook, Collector of Specimens and Bermuda Lionfish Project Coordinator at the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo, comes alongside our boat and gives us a close-up view of the astonishing variety found in only a few scoops of Sargassum: baby puffers, needlefish, triggerfish, bonito and the well-disguised and rather cuddly-looking but voracious Sargassum fish. Each baby Sargussum fish, or “critter” as Sylvia calls them, is a little fingernail-sized but completely recognizable version of the adults we know.
We need to protect this incredible resource from harvesting, overfishing, dumping and other human abuse and negligence, and we need to do it soon. Compared to other large, high-seas protection efforts, this one may be relatively easy.
And as such, we hope that the completion of this conservation effort will set an example for others to follow in short order.
On Monday here in Bermuda, we kicked off our Sargasso Sea expedition by celebrating Sylvia Earle’s 75th birthday. You don’t need to know Sylvia personally to know what she wished for as she blew out the candles on her cake (a flour-and-sugar diorama of the Sargasso Sea, of course) surrounded by friends and colleagues. The wish is one that TED seeks to grant in honoring her with the TED Prize, a wish big enough to change the world.
Join us in granting Sylvia’s wish through the Mission Blue campaign -– and do your part to save the seas.
These gorgeous photos come from Look Bermuda
Source: TED Blog | 3 Sep 2010 | 12:00 pm | NEW
NASA Lauches Photo Archive on Flickr
This week, NASA rolled a big archive of historical images into Flickr Commons, giving users access to more than a half century of NASA’s photographic history. The images are divided into three neat sets – “Launch and Takeoff,” “Building NASA” and “Center Namesakes” – and they’re all copyright-free, meaning that you can share and use these images however you like. You can jump into the archive here and watch it grow over time. Thanks for the heads up @eugenephoto! They’re always appreciated…
NASA Lauches Photo Archive on Flickr is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com
Source: Open Culture | 3 Sep 2010 | 9:42 am | NEW
Gold's Magic Price
Source: Freakonomics | 3 Sep 2010 | 7:30 am | NEW
The world’s oldest living things: Rachel Sussman on TED.com
Rachel Sussman shows photographs of the world’s oldest continuously living organisms — from 2,000-year-old brain coral off Tobago’s coast to an “underground forest” in South Africa that has lived since before the dawn of agriculture. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2010, July 2010 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 14:09)
Watch Rachel Sussman’s talk on TED.com where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 700+ TEDTalks.
Source: TED Blog | 3 Sep 2010 | 7:09 am | NEW
Fellows Friday with Bristol Baughan
Dedicated to finding lasting solutions for complex social challenges, the Case Foundation supports the TED Fellows and their big ideas that draw upon leadership, collaboration and entrepreneurship to change the world. As a new feature to help other up-and-comers and social citizens, every Friday the Case Foundation asks the featured Fellow to share his or her answer to the following question:
There are many aspiring social entrepreneurs out there who are trying to take their passion and ideas to the next level. What is one piece of advice you would give to them based on your own experiences and successes?
The TED Fellows’ answers to this question will be posted on the Case Foundation blog.
Describe yourself and what you do.
It’s hard for me to articulate because I’m in the middle of a transition. I’ve been producing documentaries and launching this company called Good for the last seven years of my life. Now I’m moving in to directing. I’m starting to direct what I’m calling “commercials for ideas.” It’s trying to sell ideas like you would products but it’s really about the ideas. Ideas like self-empowerment, self-reflection, perspective.
This Friday I’m doing a shoot for this concept I have of “What do you bow to? What is the thing you have reverence for?” Whether it’s to your coffee cup, to a baseball team, to a religious icon, or something else. It’s a photo series but I’m going to turn these into commercials eventually. The idea is to start building a directing reel.
I’m also starting to do what I’m calling “personal producing.” I’ve worked with social entrepreneurs and CEOs and directors in helping them fulfill their visions. It’s like life coaching — consulting with people on making their dreams happen.
It’s a work in progress defining myself right now. I’m a producer-director and writing a feature for my directorial debut while making these commercials and building my reel.
Your undergraduate degree is in International Relations. How did you get started in filmmaking?
I took a semester during undergrad and went to NYU. I shot and directed short films there for a semester and realized that’s what I loved. But I didn’t want to stop studying International Relations. I really couldn’t get enough of learning about different parts of the world, especially peace and conflict resolution. I thought these were the kind of stories that I’d love to see films about. I went and did the hands-on work and realized that that was what I wanted, but I also really wanted to keep studying what I was studying and tell these stories.
The whole mission of Good and what I’m doing now is taking relevant stories and make them something that are accessible and move people. That’s what I’m hoping to do with these commercials for ideas.
Tell us more about your commercials for ideas. What is being bought and sold with them?
Well, right now, they don’t exist. I’m basically trying to make something between art and advertising. I’m beginning work on them just as my own passion project. I’m building a portfolio and looking for collaborators, but I want to define what the voice is and figure out my process before I start working with ad agencies and corporations.
Eventually a person I’m interested in reaching out to is Alex Bogusky. He’s a creative director that has made a ton of money working on campaigns for Burger King and so on. He’s left advertising, I believe, to make socially relevant media. I want to work with people in advertising who have been selling products for years and now collaborate with them to sell ideas that empower people.
How are your “commercials for ideas” different than anti-smoking ads or public service announcements?
I find that PSAs are usually issue-centric. For example, the issue may be smoking or that smoking is bad for you. They use body bags and images like that — which I think are great to trigger a response — getting people to respond in any way to any kind of media right now I think is a real challenge. But what’s interesting for me is, what is the level underneath why people are smoking? That’s where I’m trying to dig into.
For example, one idea I have is basically anti-littering and anti-smoking wrapped up into one. When people are smoking they throw cigarette butts on the ground. There’s a disconnect between themselves, this piece of trash, and the Earth. So I’m going to be focusing on that moment where the cigarette butts leave the hand.
Instead of just focusing on the addiction and making people feel bad about themselves, there are a number of levels to what we’re looking at, a number of ways to approach it. We’re leading with the idea, not the issue. Instead of doing a PSA that says stop smoking, I’m going to focus on the amount of cigarette butts that have accumulated and what it’s doing to the environment. So it’s a backdoor into an old argument and it’s trying to find fresh ways of approaching something that helps people to reflect on the issue in a new way.
There are many aspiring social entrepreneurs out there who are trying to take their passion and ideas to the next level. What is one piece of advice you would give to them based on your own experiences and successes?
The Case Foundation is committed to giving a voice and platform for social entrepreneurs, innovators, and changemakers like the TED Fellows who are coming up with big ideas that can change the world. Read this Case Foundation/Fellows Friday question and answer every week on the Case Foundation’s blog.
I think for social entrepreneurs the definitions of success are still under construction, which is what makes it so exciting. It is up to us to define what “success” is.
On the film side I have experienced some incredible critical success, which for me was important because I wanted to make things that moved people. And if it moved people then they would show up to see it, I reasoned. But really it was only a few people that would show up to see some of these movies. That wasn’t considered in the industry — or by any standards — a financial success.
And that was a lesson I had to learn: letting go of the result and the expectation that things are going to be a certain way, and that it wasn’t a success if people didn’t show up. It’s more important to recognize what is it that I love about this, which is storytelling and filmmaking. And that’s what’s going to continue motivating me.
In your recent “Approaching 30 … Spiritually” article on The Huffington Post you said this transitional period in your life feels like “adult puberty.” What would you say about your life right now — are you still in the awkward stage?
In that blog I was saying that I was experiencing growing pains. It’s different now. I’m definitely still in a moment of transition, but instead of feeling this awkward fear of the future, I’m feeling newly motivated by a new energy. Basically, I’ve spent the last year and a half healing and becoming more aware of what motivates me from my center, from the core. And trying to recognize how much of that is ego and how much is really following what I love. So now I have a sense of direction in a way that could easily do a U-turn or change, but feeling less anxious about that.
You co-founded a company, your documentary film Racing Dreams won the jury prize for Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival last year, and you’re are a TED fellow. How can you feel like you’re floundering?
When I turned 27 and was starting to have this sense that my identity isn’t completely equal to what I do for a living, I became motivated to figure out why I didn’t feel fulfilled. It took me going through the pain of leaving the job that I always thought I’d have and the company that I thought was my baby, to recognize that I’d built myself a trench.
It was a beautiful trench and I loved it and we had such a great time in it. But the trench was a belief that this was the only place for me and this is where I’m meant to be. When I recognized that I was in this trench I realized, “Oh! I see that there’s this whole world out there full of opportunity. But I need to climb my way out of this trench.” The trench was this belief that this is what I was meant to do and if I can’t make this work then I’m a failure.
So once I was able to climb up out of that trench I could then see all around me all the trenches that I’ve always had which are the beliefs that I’ve had about myself and the world and how I’m supposed to make a difference because of the opportunities that I’ve been given. So now it’s kind of recognizing which of these beliefs are ones that are serving me and which ones aren’t. Now I’m taking time to figure that out — I think you’re always kind of figuring that out — and recognizing trenches of beliefs.
Helping people out of trenches where they hold on to beliefs so strongly that no longer serve them is something that I’m really excited to do. I can do it for other people. I’ve established the success of doing that. Now I’m thinking I have a few visions of my own to fulfill. What do I need to do to really believe that and then go for it?
I had thought the job I had was the only thing for me. When I recognized that that couldn’t be right because it no longer was fulfilling me, then I was floundering. Floundering has a negative connotation but it’s more like figuring out that you can do anything. How do you let go of the idea that your value is tied to a specific organization or company? I find that most people go through that when they leave a job or are fired from a job — especially something that they care about.
Do you have advice for people who are looking for the passion and maybe feel like they’re floundering?
I think people tend to know what they’re passionate about. Knowing exactly what that looks like in the world or the workplace — that’s a different story. That comes through following a lead. If you feel that you enjoy something you should follow it, take a step in that direction and then sit there patiently for just a little while and things will start to happen.
I’m finding that people who haven’t taken the leap to follow their passion are battling with a sense of unworthiness. One idea I’m dying to sell is: dig into your own shit. Dig into the parts of you that limiting you. Whether that’s through therapy or yoga or any kind of healing. Opening yourself to healing. That to me feels like a really radical step in believing that you’re capable of going after whatever it is you want.
How will your TED experience impact your next steps?
TED was totally awesome. TED embodied for me in a clear way how people from diverse backgrounds coming together to approach something is when incredible things can happen.
Sitting at a table at TED were a composer and a lawyer and a geneticist and an actor and we were all brainstorming how to tell the story of TEDPrize winner Jose Abreu — the way to market his idea. Totally awesome.
The idea of bringing people from diverse backgrounds together to approach a problem is how I want to make everything.
Source: TED Blog | 3 Sep 2010 | 7:04 am | NEW
How Panhandlers Spend Money
Source: Freakonomics | 3 Sep 2010 | 6:49 am | NEW
Little BIG Video #38 Strategy: The Story is More Powerful than the Brand
In video number 38 from The Little BIG Things Video Series, Tom describes just how powerful storytelling can be and argues that's why it's essential to turn your brand into a story.
You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 1 minutes, 55 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Strategy: The Story is More Powerful than the Brand.
Source: The Tom Peters Weblog | 3 Sep 2010 | 4:23 am | NEW
It stinks to be CEO
It's time for a new breed of chief executive. I have a proposal.
There are really terrible jobs in the world. President of the United States comes to mind. Maybe once it was okay, but now? Where's the fun in it? It doesn't pay half enough. Everybody's out to move your cheese. Even higher on the list of things you probably never want to do when you grow up, however, is a surprising entry. The job of chief executive officer as currently configured just might be the most impossible, demanding, annoying one on the planet.
Yes, as spring has moved into this long, hot summer, the news has brought us several representatives of the breed who have gone spectacularly down in flames or should soon, all things being equal. The trend is clear. It's now virtually impossible for a demented, high-profile narcissist to hold the position of CEO. That's bad news for business. Who else is going to want it?
Let's look at a few recent cases of note. Tony Hayward was the CEO of BP, as the world knows, having witnessed his sheepish, ruddy countenance during the tortuous history of the gulf oil spill. During the crisis Hayward did what CEOs always do: made excuses, tried to justify his company's miscreancies, displayed contempt for idiots who didn't buy his act, and was insufficiently adept at simulating empathy for other people. This usually works for ultra-senior officers. This time around the media made lunchmeat out of him. The game has changed! Now he has his life back, as he wished.
And then there's Mark Hurd. A very capable CEO was Mark. He did good things for Hewlett-Packard after the company had suffered for years under another spectacular washout, who has now wisely decided to enter the political sphere. At first, it looked as if Hurd had suddenly morphed into a familiar entity, abandoning use of his capacious brainpan in order to follow the instructions of his naughty inner man. With fiduciary improprieties too! Amazing! Astounding! But wait. Along with his slide down the exit ramp of the airship of state came a big platinum chute, reportedly in the neighborhood of $40 million. You don't usually give that to a guy guilty of crimes against the state. So we can stay tuned on that story, with a keen eye trained on the sometimes bizarre and always fascinating HP board of directors.
Which brings us to Lloyd Blankfein. No, Lloyd isn't out of the catbird seat yet. But Lloyd exists at this point simply to demonstrate how deeply, dramatically, stunningly unlikable the corporate CEO can be. Every time We the People begin to feel a little bit of confidence that Wall Street just might have learned something, become slightly less greedy or arrogant? There's Lloyd. Whoever is running Lloyd's image work should tell him one thing immediately: Lloyd. Don't smile.
What, then, is to be done? What are the alternatives? Are there any? Democracy? No. I worked in a theater company once that purported to be one. It devolved into a dictatorship of the proletariat run by the most neurotic individual in our group. Government by committee? I think not. Anybody who has tried to get a decision out of a Japanese corporation knows what that process looks like, with vast, evaluative silences stretching between apparent agreements that actually mean no. How about a fully empowered board? Have you looked at your board lately? I mean, they're very nice guys, but how much time do they really devote to your situation, given their other duties and hobbies?
No. We're stuck. We need the position. The only answer is to look for a new kind of animal to fill it. One who doesn't cut a profile. One who operates quietly from his secret aerie. One who is capable of having fun without making a spectacle of himself. One too timorous to monkey with his expense account. One who has no need of sexy consultants. One who is willing to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent to his craven board, and then, when it's over, take his $100 million package and fade away in polite silence.
Stand back, world. I'm ready.
Filed under: bingstuff
Source: The Bing Blog | 3 Sep 2010 | 12:00 am | NEW
Archive: August 2010
 | Propaganda Posters of World War Two Warped, Twisted "Hall of Mirrors" vs. Actual Truth |
 | The Light Ages: Used CD Art & Invisibility Cloak Emerging ways of playing with light in art and technology |
 | A Round-up of Unusual Globes Measure Your Ego with a Globe |
 | Dwellers In The Abyss: Ugly, Monstrous Fish Abyssal Gigantism Galore |
 | Unsung Heroes: Vintage Garbage & Sanitation Trucks Fighting the Second Law of Thermodynamics |
 | Abandoned Houses of Super Villains Stalin, Lavrenti Beria, Osama Bin Laden' Haunted Residences |
 | Biscotti Bits Mixed Links & Images Incl. "Super Giant Rainbow Bubbles" |
 | Biscotti Bits Mixed Links & Images Incl. "Disney's Future Highways" |
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Link Lattes
Source: Dark Roasted Blend | 2 Sep 2010 | 3:55 pm | NEW
Animated Noir: Key Lime Pie
Put simply, you’ll probably never see a noir film quite like this. Key Lime Pie was directed by Trevor Jimenez in 2007, and recommend on Twitter by Joaquin Baldwin, a talented young animator featured on Open Culture some months ago. It runs a quick 3 and a half minutes.
Animated Noir: Key Lime Pie is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com
Source: Open Culture | 2 Sep 2010 | 3:33 pm | NEW
Grumpy Old Men?
Source: Freakonomics | 2 Sep 2010 | 11:32 am
Quotes Uncovered: Memorable Movie Lines
Source: Freakonomics | 2 Sep 2010 | 10:00 am
Keep your goals to yourself: Derek Sivers on TED.com
After hitting on a brilliant new life plan, our first instinct is to tell someone, but Derek Sivers says it’s better to keep goals secret. He presents research stretching as far back as the 1920s to show why people who talk about their ambitions may be less likely to achieve them. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2010, July 2010 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 3:16)
Watch Derek Sivers’ talk on TED.com where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 700+ TEDTalks.
Source: TED Blog | 2 Sep 2010 | 7:42 am
How Transparent Should Boards Be?
| Published: | September 2, 2010 |
| Author: | Jim Heskett |
The case study for this month is inspired by the Hewlett-Packard board, which deserves some kind of award for continuing to supply business schools with years worth of materials on corporate governance.
One can only speculate on what Mark Hurd did to warrant being asked to resign as CEO of HP, and on the board's discussion leading up to the decision. But we know that the board let Hurd go without cause, meaning that he qualifies for about $40 million in severance pay. (We also know that his contract failed to specify what "cause" might mean, making it very difficult for the board to invoke the provision anyway.) The board announced that its reasons for the dismissal were that Hurd failed to file accurate expense reports and that he was accused of sexual harassment, the latter charge even the board itself decided was groundless. The value of the company immediately fell more than $13 billion.
Now assume that you're one of nine independent directors of the Acme Corporation. It has come to your attention that the CEO has appropriated resources for his personal use and acted in ways that violate the stated values of the organization, values that he has espoused during his five-year tenure. According to the firm's contract with him, these are "cause" for dismissal if the board chooses to invoke them. The two executives making the information available to the board are the only ones who know anything about the CEO's violations.
During the board's discussion of how to respond, those supporting his firing for cause remind the others that such an action could be easily defended by the evidence. They say that they also support firing for cause because they object in principle to paying him $25 million for options that would vest automatically if he were not fired for cause. They note that any disclosures associated with the action represent the kind of transparency to which shareholders are entitled in any event.
A second group supports his firing, but not for cause. They also object to paying him $25 million, but note that it will be accompanied by a "quitclaim" letter settling the case with an agreement that the CEO will make no further statement about the matter. This group argues that if the CEO is fired for cause, it will almost certainly result in a lawsuit in which the details of the CEO's behavior and the board's deliberation will be publicized in the business press for weeks, further depressing the price of the stock. They remind their colleagues that the board's primary responsibility is to shareholders and the value of their stock, and that firing for cause will penalize them more than the alternative.
One board member argues that the CEO should be warned, given a final chance, and allowed to keep his job.
As a director, which course of action would you support? Why? Does your action reflect your views about board transparency? How transparent should boards be? What do you think? 
Source: HBS Working Knowledge | 2 Sep 2010 | 7:00 am
Excellence Always: the Cruise
Tom is speaking today to NARTA/National Associated Retail Traders of Australia. NARTA supports/supplies the other-than-big-box retailers in Australia and New Zealand. The feisty independents will soon confront the likes of Costco and Best Buy. (In a first, Tom is speaking aboard ship—the Seabourn Spirit—en route from Dubrovnik, Croatia to Venice.)
Source: The Tom Peters Weblog | 2 Sep 2010 | 4:00 am
What Makes Us Human?
Some of the most basic questions about human existence (how did we develop language? why do we love music and art but kill in war? how did we develop certain eating habits? etc.) come back to a more singular question: how are we different from chimpanzees? This question is slowly getting answered by some of today’s leading primatologists and evolutionary biologists, including Robert Sapolsky, Daniel Lieberman, Richard Wrangham, Jane Goodall, Steven Pinker, all featured above.
What Makes Us Human? is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com
Source: Open Culture | 1 Sep 2010 | 11:26 pm
Syllabus & Book List for Sci-Fi Newbies
Always wanted to read science fiction? But never knew where to start? io9, a blog dedicated to futurism and sci-fi, has you covered. Today, they published a handy sci-fi syllabus/reading list “intended to introduce the novice student … to the major themes in the genre, as well as books and authors who are representative of different eras in SF lit (including the present day).” The io9 reading list breaks down a vast body of sci-fi literature into six useful categories – 1) Foundational Works/Classics, 2) Utopias and Dystopias, 3) Robots, 4) Aliens, 5) Space Travel, and 6) Science Fiction as Political Philosophy. Wells, Lovecraft, Huxley, Orwell, Dick, Asimov, Gibson, Heinlein, LeGuin – they’re all on the list.
Related FYIs: you can find many of HP Lovecraft’s writings online here. Thanks Julie for the recent heads up.
Also, you can download an audio version of Huxley narrating A Brave New World here.
Syllabus & Book List for Sci-Fi Newbies is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com
Source: Open Culture | 1 Sep 2010 | 5:50 pm
Seven Ages of the Body
This new video from Cambridge University, featuring archaeologist John Robb, gives you a quick and visually appealing introduction to how humans have understood something we take for granted – our own bodies. Covering 10,000 years in six minutes, Robb takes us from the “Animal Body” and “Sexualized Body” of the Mesolithic and Neolithic Ages, to the “Politicized Body” of the Classical Age, “God’s Body” of the Middle Ages, and finally “The Body as Machine,” the metaphor we have been living with since 1500. And we wrap up with the “Body Digital,” the body of the future, and “Multiple Bodies.” This video comes from the Cambridge Ideas series available on Cambridge’s YouTube channel.
Seven Ages of the Body is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com
Source: Open Culture | 1 Sep 2010 | 2:02 pm
Mega Dashboards and Instrument Panels
 Link - article by Simon Rose and Avi Abrams Mind-boggling Arrays of Dials and Switches Ever since man invented machines for transportation, we’ve had instrument panels and dashboards - from the steamships of the nineteenth century, the first cars and planes, through all the developments in land, sea and air transport throughout the twentieth century, not to mention spacecraft. For this article, I’ve avoided car and aircraft dashboards and panels, which we’re all quite familiar with, but here’s a fascinating look at some interesting, and at times mind-boggling, arrays of dials and switches.  (The S.S. Independence ghost ship' control panel. Photo by Troy Paiva, LostAmerica) If you were sitting behind the wheel of the Model T Ford from 1923, there really wasn’t too much to distract the driver at all. Dashboards have certainly come a long way since then.  (images via 1, 2) 1. Space Craft This shot shows the interior of the Space Shuttle. Bewildering perhaps to the ordinary citizen, but somehow those pilots can make sense of it all.    (image via, click top image to enlarge) Another great cockpit of the Space Shuttle, this time we're inside "Atlantis":   (image credit: NASA, via - click image to enlarge) Technology has of course advanced tremendously since the early days of space exploration. This shows the Mercury spacecraft from 1960:   (images via 1, 2) This Gemini spacecraft from the sixties shows just how cramped the early space vehicles were. It’s hard to imagine spending two weeks or so in something like this, orbiting the earth:  (image via) This instrument panel is from the Apollo command module used for the moon landings (below left); while picture on the right shows the Apollo lunar module panel:  (images credit: Adam Shane, 2) This is only a fragment of much bigger panel, see the whole here:  (images via) Click on this page to see a typical Appolo control panel, with explanation for every module. here is only a fragment:  (click to enlarge, image via) On the Soviet side of the space race, here we have the information display system for Soyuz Spaceships (this page does neat comparisons between American and Russian control panels):   (images via 1, 2) This is the control panel and instrument board of the Soviet Union’s Vostok spacecraft (including the three-axis hand controller):  (image via) The "Vostok" control panel below also looks very interesting, but don't get mixed up - this is the "Vostok" analog musical synthesizer, not a spacecraft (although it might launch you into outer space with its groovy sounds):  (image via) Here are some more Soviet spacecraft's control panels: this is interior of Russian manned space ferry vehicle TKS -  (images via) Make sure you visit this Japanese site. It will surely satisfy all these space craft control panel maniacs out there! 2. Trains Seemingly chaotic and intimidating "control panels" of various Russian-made steam engines from the 1920s and 1930s:    (images via 1, 2, 3) Modern trains have significantly less confusing control panels and instruments. See these dashboards from a good old Japanese train, and modern German high speed train, for example:   (images via Christopher Denney Lane, Dominik Mann) 3. Airships The "Hindernburg" was a gigantic, and sadly doomed, airship that met its fate in flames (more info). Here’s a member of the crew giving instructions though the speaking tube on a Zeppelin airship from the 1930’s:  (images via) Various Hindenburg airship instruments can be seen on this site. Elevator Wheel, Elevator Panel, Ballast Board (left) and Gas Board (right):   (images via) 4. Boats and Ships On to water and ocean going craft now. Seen in the boiler room of the the HMS Belfast, British WW2 battle cruiser:  (image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthijs/82616861/) Here is a neat wood finish dashboard from a pleasure boat:  (image via) While here we see the collection of multiple instrument panels belonging to the significantly larger Norwegian Star cruise liner:  (images via 1, 2) These two pictures might appear to be taken in a plane or helicopter, or even inside an early space vehicle, but actually depict the cockpit of a hovercraft:  (images via) Bonus: And finally, the only car dashboard featured here is the legendary instrument panel of the iconic 1966 Batmobile, from the sixties TV show. Holy gadgets, Batman, as you might be tempted to say - more info here:   (images via 1, 2, Nate Truman) Check out this rare view of a dashboard of the MiG-29 "Fulcrum" Russian fighter (more info). Click here to enlarge for fascinating detail:    (images credit: Gennady) Read More in "Gadgets" Category! -> Simon Rose is the author of science fiction and fantasy novels for children, including The Alchemist's Portrait, The Sorcerer's Letterbox, The Clone Conspiracy, The Emerald Curse, The Heretic's Tomb and The Doomsday Mask.  Permanent Link... ...+StumbleUpon  ...+Facebook  |
Source: Dark Roasted Blend | 1 Sep 2010 | 11:42 am
Recent Books from our Cool Friends
Tom's great friends and former partners, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, have a new book out called The Truth About Leadership: The No-Fads, Heart of the Matter Facts You Need to Know. They've devoted their lives to leadership, so this is one you won't want to miss.
Bob Sutton has a new book coming out in September called Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best... and Learn from the Worst. Not only that, according to Bob, "we just put together a quiz that people can use to help determine of their boss is good or bad—and whether he or she lives in a fool's paradise."
Don Tapscott also has a book coming out in September called MacroWikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World.
David Meerman Scott's new book is Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead:What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History. Tom has quoted Jerry Garcia for years and wholly subscribes to the "give lots away for free" aspect of their marketing philosophy.
Sally Helgesen has a new book out called The Female Vision: Women's Real Power at Work.
If there's a single person we'd recommend you listen to about social media, it's Chris Brogan. Thankfully, he published a handbook this year called Social Media 101: Tactics and Tips to Develop Your Business Online.
And someone who never ceases to surprise us with revelations about human behavior, Dan Ariely, has a new book called The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home.
This doesn't fit precisely within the theme of this post, but we want to point you to an excellent resource. Our good friends and colleagues Robert Thompson and Mike Neiss have started a series of podcasts that they cleverly call Thought Grenades. Have a listen.
Source: The Tom Peters Weblog | 1 Sep 2010 | 9:13 am
The technology of the heart: His Holiness the Karmapa on TED.com
His Holiness the Karmapa talks about how he was discovered to be the reincarnation of a revered figure in Tibetan Buddhism. In telling his story, he urges us to work on not just technology and design, but the technology and design of the heart. He is translated onstage by Tyler Dewar. (Recorded at TEDIndia, November 2009 in Mysore, India. Duration: 25:24)
Watch His Holiness the Karmapa’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 700+ TEDTalks.
Source: TED Blog | 1 Sep 2010 | 8:47 am
Multinational Firms, Labor Market Discrimination, and the Capture of Competitive Advantage by Exploiting the Social Divide
| Published: | August 31, 2010 |
| Paper Released: | August 2010 |
| Authors: | Jordan I. Siegel, Lynn Pyun, and B.Y. Cheon |
Executive Summary:
Women and ethnic minorities are frequently discriminated against in the labor markets of both developed and emerging economies, particularly in opportunities for management positions. Multinationals entering such markets must decide whether to aggressively hire and promote the excluded group, thus reaping the benefits of their underutilized talent, or conform to local practice and avoid provoking some bigoted policymakers, executives, purchasers, and/or supply agents. In this paper, HBS professor Jordan Siegel, Lynn Pyun, and B.Y. Cheon find that multinationals gain significant competitive opportunities by scanning the host-market social landscape, identifying social schisms in the labor market, and exploiting such schisms by actively hiring and promoting members of the excluded group to positions of management responsibility. Key concepts include:
- Foreigners achieve a competitive advantage by exploiting the social divide in a host market.
- This competitive advantage is not unique to foreigners. However, foreign multinationals, who are not affected by prior social network obligations, may often find it easier than some domestic firms to in effect form an alliance with the excluded group. Foreign multinationals can exploit market failure where the excluded group is talented but underutilized.
- This competitive advantage is associated with a significant profit benefit, and one that is only very slowly being whittled away through imitation.
Abstract
The organizational theory of the multinational firm holds that foreignness is a liability, and specifically that lack of embeddedness in host-country social networks is a source of competitive disadvantage; meanwhile the literature on labor market discrimination suggests that exploiting the bigotry of others can be a source of competitive advantage. We seek to turn the former literature somewhat on its head by building on insights from the latter. Specifically, we argue that multinationals wield a particularly significant competitive weapon: as outsiders, they can identify social schisms in host labor markets and exploit them for their own competitive advantage. Using two unique data sets from South Korea, we show that in the 2000s multinationals have derived significant advantage in the form of improved profitability by aggressively hiring an excluded group, women, in the local managerial labor market. Our results are economically meaningful, realistic in size, and robust to the inclusion of firm fixed effects. Multinationals, even those whose home markets discriminate against women, often show signs of having seen the strategic opportunity. Though the host market is moving toward a new equilibrium freer of discrimination, that movement is relatively slow, presenting a multi-year competitive opportunity for multinationals.
Paper Information
- Full Working Paper Text
- Working Paper Publication Date: August 2010
- HBS Working Paper Number: 11-011
- Faculty Unit: Strategy
Source: HBS Working Knowledge | 31 Aug 2010 | 7:00 am
First Look: August 31
Comparatively little attention has been given to how managers can allocate work across tasks and time to improve workers' performance, especially on repetitive tasks. Researchers Bradley R. Staats of the University of North Carolina and Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School introduce the concept of a "restart effect"-disruptions that can stimulate worker productivity and overcome the challenges of repetitive work. Read their working paper, The Task and Temporal Microstructure of Productivity: Evidence from Japanese Financial Services.
Although the economic doldrums have taken a toll on many industries, one that is thriving is the pet and pet supply business. The new case Sniffing Out Opportunities at PetSmart provides background and strategic positioning information for both PetSmart and PETCO to enable students to develop their own Balanced Scorecards and strategy maps for the two companies.
Employee forums can be valuable sources of new ideas and strategic innovation. The challenge: How to scale up a thriving community as the company grows and globalizes. David A. Garvin and Rachna Tahilyani explore one Indian company's response to such a challenge in the case Zensar: The Future of Vision Communities.
— Sean Silverthorne
Publications
Lying to Level the Playing Field: Why People May Dishonestly Help or Hurt Others to Create Equity
| Authors: | F. Gino and L. Pierce |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Journal of Business Ethics (forthcoming) |
Abstract
Unethical and dishonest behavior has increasingly attracted the attention of scholars from various disciplines. Recent work has begun to focus on a previously overlooked factor predicting dishonest behavior: the beneficiary or victim of dishonest acts. In two laboratory experiments, we manipulate the level of resources allocated to our participants (their "wealth") and investigate whether perceived inequity from wealth that is randomly or subjectively assigned leads individuals to cross ethical boundaries through helping or hurting others. The results show that dishonest behavior is influenced by positive and negative inequity that motivates helping and hurting acts. Furthermore, a third experiment shows that people tend to discount the wrongness of crossing ethical boundaries to hurt or help others when the action restores equity.
The Private Equity Advantage: Leveraged Buyout Firms and Relationship Banking
| Authors: | Victoria Ivashina and Anna Kovner |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Review of Financial Studies (forthcoming) |
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of leveraged buyout firms' bank relationships on the terms of their syndicated loans. Using a sample of 1,590 loans financing private equity sponsored leveraged buyouts between 1993 and 2005, we find that bank relationships are an important factor in explaining cross-sectional variation in the loan interest rate and covenant structure. Our results indicate that two channels allow leveraged buyouts sponsored by private equity firms to receive favorable loan terms. First, bank relationships formed through repeated interactions reduce inefficiencies from information asymmetry. Second, banks price loans to cross-sell other fee business. These effects are additive. A one standard deviation increase in both bank relationship strength and cross-selling potential is associated with a 17 basis point (5%) decrease in spread and a 0.4 point (7%) increase in the maximum debt to EBITDA covenant. This translates to as much as a 4 percentage point increase in equity return to the leveraged buyout firm.
Download the paper http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1017857
Business Groups in Historical Perspectives
| Authors: | Geoffrey Jones and Asli M. Colpan |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Chap. 3 in The Oxford Handbook of Business Groups |
Abstract
Business groups—collections of legally independent firms interconnected by multiple economic and social linkages that exhibit widely diversified product portfolios—are viewed as the prototypical large-enterprise form in contemporary emerging economies. By exploring the evolution of the diversified business groups organized around British trading companies from the late eighteenth century until today, this chapter demonstrates that such organizational forms were also present in developed economies historically, and even today. In analyzing this historical evidence, the chapter first shows how organizational forms of business groups were employed over long time periods to control large and diversified multinational complexes. It then shows that these British business groups possessed competitive advantages and management skills residing in contacts, knowledge, information, and relationships that sustained long-lasting and successful international businesses and that gave them genuine efficiency-enhancing roles. A major contribution of this chapter is to demonstrate that its theoretical conclusion based on the historical experiences of business groups built up by the British-based trading companies with their eighteenth- and nineteenth-century origins comes close to mainstream assessments reached by the research on business groups in contemporary emerging markets.
One Report: Are You Ready?
| Authors: | Robert G. Eccles |
|---|---|
| Publication: | IESE Insight: Business Knowledge Review |
An abstract is unavailable at this time.
Read the paper http://www.ieseinsight.com/review/articulo.aspx?doc=6145&seccion=2&issue=5
Working Papers
From Bench to Board: Gender Differences in University Scientists' Participation in Commercial Science
| Authors: | Waverly W. Ding, Fiona Murray, and Toby E. Stuart |
|---|
Abstract
This paper examines gender differences in the participation of university life science faculty in commercial science. Based on theory and field interviews, we develop hypotheses regarding how scientists' productivity, co-authorship networks, and institutional affiliations have different effects on whether male and female faculty become "academic entrepreneurs." We then statistically examine this framework in a national sample of 6,000 life scientists whose careers span more than 20 years. We find sharp gender differences in participation in for-profit ventures, which we measure as the likelihood of joining the scientific advisory board (SAB) of a biotechnology firm. Compared to men, women life scientists are much less likely to advise for-profit biotechnology companies. We also identify factors that contour this gender difference, including scientists' co-authorship network structure and the level of support for commercial science at their universities. Surprisingly, we find that the (conditional) gender gap is largest among faculty members at the highest status institutions.
Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/11-014.pdf
Fluid Tasks and Fluid Teams: The Impact of Diversity in Experience and Team Familiarity on Team Performance
| Authors: | Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats |
|---|
Abstract
tIn this paper, we consider how the structures of tasks and teams interact to affect team performance. We study the effects of diversity in experience on a team's ability to respond to task changes by separately examining interpersonal team diversity (i.e., differences in experience across the entire team) and intrapersonal team diversity (i.e., whether individuals on the team are more or less specialized). We also examine whether team familiarity—team members' prior experience working with one another-helps teams to better manage challenges created by task changes and greater interpersonal team diversity. Using detailed project—and individual-level data from an Indian software services firm, we find that the interaction of task change with intrapersonal diversity is related to improved project performance, while the interaction of task change with interpersonal diversity is related to diminished performance. Additionally, the interaction of team familiarity with interpersonal diversity is related to improved project performance in some cases. Our results highlight a need for more nuanced approaches to leveraging experience in team management.
Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-145.pdf
The Task and Temporal Microstructure of Productivity: Evidence from Japanese Financial Services
| Authors: | Bradley R. Staats and Francesca Ginos |
|---|
Abstract
Sustaining workers' productivity is critical to organizations' operational success. Yet, comparatively little attention has been given to how managers can effectively allocate work across tasks and time to improve workers' performance. In this paper, we use the learning curve framework to investigate how productivity varies within task and within time (i.e., over the course of a day) in contexts where work is repetitive in nature. We introduce the concept of a restart effect—task and temporal disruptions that stimulate worker productivity—as a means of addressing challenges of repetitive work. For our empirical analyses, we use two and a half years of transaction data from a Japanese bank's home loan application processing line, totaling nearly 600,000 observations of individuals completing work at a given step in the process. We find that productivity on the current task is most impacted by experience on the same day, but the benefits of such experience decrease with time. Additionally, we find evidence for beneficial effects of both task change and start-of-day restarts on worker productivity. Together, these results offer insight into the underlying structure of productivity and suggest new ways to improve performance through the effective allocation of work.
Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/11-015.pdf
Cases & Course Materials
Atlantis Paradise Island Resort & Casino: Improving Performance with a New Vision and Mission
Lynda M. Applegate, Chekitan S. Dev, and Gabriele Piccoli
Harvard Business School Case 810-140
Atlantis Paradise Island adopted a new vision and mission to provide its guests and employees an enhanced brand experience. The dilemma Atlantis faced was how to integrate the new vision and mission into all the brand touch points in order to improve customer satisfaction and employee engagement.
Purchase this case:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/810140-PDF-ENG
Deworming Kenya: Translating Research into Action (A)
Nava Ashraf, Neil Buddy Shah, and Rachel Gordon
Harvard Business School Case 910-001
Karen Levy and her colleague, Margaret Ndanyi, have spent the last six months planning and preparing for a national Kenyan program to target school children most at risk for parasitic worm infection. One week after its launch, the program seemed to be going well, but Ndanyi and Levy knew that it still needed to be administered in almost 40 districts at thousands of schools. They wondered: Would they meet their goal of deworming over three million school children before the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2009? Would they be able to do it for less than $0.50 per child?
Purchase this case:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/910001-PDF-ENG
Deworming Kenya: Translating Research into Action (B)
Nava Ashraf, Neil Buddy Shah, and Rachel Gordon
Harvard Business School Supplement 910-027
Karen Levy and her colleague, Margaret Ndanyi, learn the results of their nationwide effort to rid Kenyan school children of parasitic worm infection.
Purchase this supplement:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/910027-PDF-ENG
Heidrick & Struggles and Standard Chartered Bank: Managing Global Key Accounts
Robert G. Eccles and Kerry Herman
Harvard Business School Case 411-011
Daren Kemp, a partner at leadership consultancy and executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, is responsible for the firm's relationship with Standard Chartered Bank (Standard Chartered). Standard Chartered is one of 94 companies in Heidrick's strategic partners program (SPP). The purpose of the SPP is to build strategic, value-based relationships with clients. Kemp joined Heidrick in 2008 and by 2010 has successfully built a strong relationship with Standard Chartered. The case describes how Kemp and his team grew this relationship and raises questions about what can be learned from this experience and applied to the other accounts in the SPP.
Purchase this case:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/411011-PDF-ENG
Zensar: The Future of Vision Communities (A)
David A. Garvin and Rachna Tahilyani
Harvard Business School Case 311-024
Zensar is a rapidly growing, mid-sized Indian IT services company with a collaborative management philosophy and innovative HR policies. One of its practices, Vision Communities, is an inclusive forum for innovation and strategy formulation. As the company grows, managers must decide how to scale the Vision Community process so that it retains its spirit of employee involvement and engagement while encompassing a larger, more geographically dispersed group of participants.
Purchase this case:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/311024-PDF-ENG
Purchase this supplement (B):
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/311025-PDF-ENG
Sniffing Out Opportunities at PetSmart
V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem
Harvard Business School Case 110-025
The pet and pet supply industry was one of the few bright lights in an otherwise dismal retail outlook in 2009. This case gives background pet retail industry information and strategic positioning information for both PetSmart and PETCO to enable students to develop their own Balanced Scorecards and strategy maps for the two companies.
Purchase this case:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/110025-PDF-ENG
The Southeast Bank of Texas in the Financial Crisis
Robert C. Pozen and Benjamin Schneider
Harvard Business School Case 310-141
The Southeast Bank of Texas, like most other financial institutions in the U.S., has fallen on hard times during the financial crisis of the past year. Now, in March 2009, the bank is faced with several choices as a result of the new reforms spawned from the financial crisis: the FDIC's Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program and the U.S. Treasury's Capital Purchase Program. Additionally, the implementation of BASEL II has left new regulations in place for capital requirements for banks. Irwin Greff, President and CEO of the Southeast Bank, faces several decisions on how to proceed with these new policies that will surely shape the future of the bank.
Purchase this case:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/310141-PDF-ENG
Tesco PLC: Fresh & Easy in the United States
John A. Quelch
Harvard Business School Case 511-009
Tesco, the world's third largest retailer, is facing problems with its launch of a new retail chain in the U.S
Purchase this case:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/511009-PDF-ENG
Source: HBS Working Knowledge | 31 Aug 2010 | 7:00 am
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