In the year 2000 . . .

Conan O'Brien references aside, I think we're finally in the funky, technology infused future that decades of science-fiction writers dreamed of...

Self-Repairing Materials

Invisibility Cloaks

This Really Cool Nokia Concept Phone



As my friend Marvin Mills so aptly put it, "... between invisibility and healing rubber, I think I am going to be a super hero."

Surprising Stat of The Day

From Kotatku, a gaming blog...

"Halo 3: You kids sure love your stupid suicide vids. Microsoft reckon over 100,000 Halo 3 films are uploaded every day, which they say is 30% more than are uploaded onto YouTube. Egads."

Corporations and Positive Social Change

Great link from the Freakonomics blog... In a recent study, social scientists found a strong evidence of enlightened business management philosophies being applied outside the office and into the community. Great read.

While on the subject of corporation and positive social change, I think many of WalMart's current efforts deserve more attention from the general public. While the world's biggest retailer is often maligned for cheap labor and the loss of the "mom and pop" store, they are doing a phenomenal job in pushing an agenda of environmental sustainability. Every supplier to the mega-chain now has to ensure that each product/packaging is at a minimum threshold for environmental harm. Of course - their formula is debatable - but it is a great start. The contrast between government and industry action in this arena is astonishing...

Radiohead's In Rainbows Remix

As time goes on and I re-listen to Radiohead's In Rainbows, I'm more convinced it's one of the best albums in the last 5 years. If you love the album, but need another Radiohead fix, check out this (legal and free) remix performed by an Oakland, CA group called Amplive (who includes a rapper from Jurassic 5). It's pretty sweet, and makes for great driving or running music. I love the remix of 15 Steps.

Link courtesy of Josh Spear.

Vocab Nerd

Yeah, I'm kind of a vocabulary nerd. I love learning new and unusual words to describe typical situations. At work, I sometimes make my bosses scratch their heads because of my mental thesaurus, and then I bring things back down to a high school level.

I found this website the other day from a very cool productivity site, Dumb Little Man. It's a Visual Thesaurus... You type in a word, and get a network diagram of related words. Love the visual concept.

Bruce and Arcade Fire Onstage

It's been a busy two weeks, trying to launch some new products.

I caught this link from Arcade Fire's website. It's from October 07, and though I'm not a huge Bruce Springsteen fan, the videos are still pretty cool. Bruce and Arcade Fire play together on "State Trooper," an old Bruce tune, as well as "Keep the Car Running.

Led Petition

I heard about this on NPR the other day... Many Led Zeppelin fans, me included, were sad to see that this storied band only played one reunion show together this past January. Evidently, someone started a petition to get Zeppelin to play some shows in the US. It's ludicrous to think that Zeppelin would need a petition to understand their popularity; they know who they are and how big their fan base is.

It's wishful thinking, but my fingers are crossed nonetheless.

http://www.youchoose.net/campaign/led_zeppelin_world_tour

Bar Lights

Classic Twin Cities Bars: Psycho Suzi's and Nye's

The Riddle

Andrew Razeghi, one of my favorite professors at Kellogg, has just published his second book, entitled The Riddle. I just got my copy in the mail, and I'm very exited to read it. According to the book cover, The Riddle Andrew is trying to shed light on is innovation and the eureka moment.

If his books are even close to the quality of his classes, then this book is a very good investment. I can't wait to mark this thing up with a ready supply of post-it flags.

Modu Operandi: The Modular Mobile

Very interesting product development from a company by the name of modu. Check out BusinessWeek's articule on the concept here...



It's a modular mobile phone - snap on a keyboard when you want to email, and take it off if you are heading out for a night on the town. I love the idea. According to BusinessWeek journalist Olga Kharif, it's almost like Transformers for adults.

Link courtesy of extratexture.com.

Great Campaign Art

I discovered this artist, Shepard Fairey, on Josh Spear a few weeks ago. I'm a big fan of the Obama portraits on Progress and Change.



Note to the artist - can you please render this photo?

Health Advisory

My good friend, Andrew Miller, informed me this week that his brother's band, Health, is gaining in buzz among those in the LA music scene. BJ Miller, Andrew's brother, is the drummer, and he lends his hard-stomping rhythms to the band's wholly experimental sound. Their sound is unique, mixing in heavy bass drums, industrial guitar thrashes, and the occasional high-pitched scream. The lead singer's falsetto at some times provides a ethereal spaciness to the songs, and at other times, a horrifying shriek. So far, my favorite track is Glitter Pills.

Check them out on Myspace for a quick listen...

.Kenny Kellogg's review here...

RockYou

I learned about this company through some of the media and communications people I work with. It's pretty interesting to see the process of companies emerge from the advent of myspace and Facebook. RockYou, among other things, is paid placement for your Facebook apps. They started out as an outfit putting together Facebook aps, and had a good amount of success. (SuperWall is one of their apps).

RockYou is putting their Facebook success to work, and they leverage this network of apps as an advertising network. Besides their portfolio of Facebook apps, they will guarantee installs of your app for $0.75 each. Pretty cool idea.

Annie Chun's Miso Soup

I love this stuff...
Available at Trader Joes and Whole Foods...