Photo: Ron Fell
Beautiful shot, thank you!
(click on pic for larger image)









"In doing your project, don't wait for others; go after them and make sure it gets done." William Swanson

Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management: unwritten rule number ten...

"This rule is about perseverance...Don't be passive, don't just react, and don't assume.

Decide and act. Make sure everybody is on the same page and moving out with you. Ask for help if you need it. Understand what it will take to keep the project moving.

Follow-up is essential and will help ensure success of the project. When done, be sure to share the credit."

They must have research (but so did New Coke): The National Association of Newspapers launches a literacy campaign, celebrity spokesperson included. Optimus Prime. You can't make this stuff up. (Thanks to Rex for the tip)

Early odds: Six to five against the XM Sirius hookup. Potentially the greatest single sale of Mel's career but can he close? This deal is pure politics. No matter the outcome it will be interesting to watch. Meanwhile, Doc opines...

"I don't care how diverse the programming becomes, it's still coming from too few companies. When the choice gets down to one, I guarantee that programming will have a homogenous quality to it. There's already a self-sameness to both Sirius and XM, and that's sure to be the case with Xirius or whatever they call the new company."

"Many listeners, which we used to call "consumers" are now also producers, for themselves and others. Where does satellite radio fit in that picture? I don't think even Mel Karmazin knows. Meanwhile, the whole system continues to leverage an understanding of How Radio Works that is, to say the least, not current — much less future-proof." Read Doc's entire post here.

Commercial radio has self-destructed: Howie Kurtz writes...

"In short, I think the appeal of satellite radio transcends Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey, and baseball and football games. It's filling a void created by the utter sameness and existential lousiness of commercial radio. Just as the timidity of broadcast television gave rise to cable, the same thing is happening on the radio side." Read Howie's take, Satellite Synergy, here.

At Pacifica programmer Ernesto Aguilar's blog, Rolas de Aztlan, he offers up 3 Reasons Why XM/Sirius News is Good for Radio here.

As only The Onion can: Onion XM/Sirius MOS here. Bravo!

"Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination." John Dewey

"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing." Alfred Einstein

"Every man stamps his value on himself. The price we challenge for ourselves is given us by others. Man is made great or little by his own will." Johann Schiller

Bonus: Crazytopics

Bonus 2: "You can't swing a poodle in business without hitting a tail-wagging-the-dog scenario, where some process, policy, procedure, or program controls user happiness. Where we become slaves to the needs and demands of the IT department, efficiency, accounting, PR, legal, marketing, next-quarter's results, Upper Management, etc. We've heard all of the justifications and excuses. Worst of all, these decisions are nearly always made by people with the least amount of contact with Actual Employees, let alone actual customers." Outstanding! Well said. Read more from Kathy Sierra