"It has never been my object to record my dreams, just the determination to realize them." Man Ray

"Only from the entirely old can the entirely new be born." Bela Bartok

"Getting caught is the mother of invention." Robert Byrne

Today's image: Firestarter by TravelingRoths. Very interesting capture. Thanks for sharing.

Smart dead tree guy shares wisdom

Let's start our own fire this week with two stories and a jump worth your bandwidth...



Three women walked into a public restroom to find the water running. They complained loudly and continuously about the horrible people who left that faucet on. They kvetched about the insensitivity of the horrid perpetrators. On and on they griped. What, indeed, was the world coming to?

A fourth woman walked into the restroom, looked at the running faucet, and turned it off.

There are complainers in this world and there are doers.

Second story...


Recently, a friend of mine told me a story about Mike who went to Seattle to visit a friend. Mike encountered an old priest who got up early every morning, made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and walked downtown and gave them to the homeless.

Mike was moved by the old priest’s good works. So when he got home Mike wrote the priest a check and sent it to him saying it was to help his ministry. A few weeks later Mike got the check back in the mail with a note written on the check – “make your own damn sandwiches.”

These stories are taken from a speech delivered to dead tree circulation execs. Newspaper circulation leaders need to make their own sandwiches was the wake up call by Tim McGuire. Now at Arizona State, Tim previously served as editor and SVP at The Star Tribune in Minneapolis. Here's a bit more...


"Newspapers as we know them have a problem. It is a big, nasty, transformational problem. Arguments about whether it could have been avoided are the territory of second-guessers with too much time on their hands. The fact is newspapers have this problem because the world marches on.

All products have life cycles and the golden age of the newspaper product was from the 1950’s through the mid-to late 90’s. There is a lot of loose talk about newspapers being dinosaurs. If that is true, the meteor hit newspapers in the mid-90’s. It’s called the Internet."

One could easily subsitute "Broadcasters" for newspapers. One could and you should. Here's the advertised jump. If you read just one item today, click only on one link today, please let me recommend this one. You'll thank me later. Read and send a link to those you know who are serious about making something happen. Bravos, Tim! Well said.

Get social: Google bows Friend Connect - an app that helps to make any site social. Conference call today (12:30 pm Eastern) to discuss, replay available. Kudos to team Google. More info here.

Bonus video: Mark Williamson, Dash Technologies at Web 2.0 must see video. Congrats and cheers to Rob Curry on a very cool presentation. Jump to blip.tv here, use the right nav to find and view the video by Mark Williamson. While you're there check out Google's Matt Cutts - he offers an excellent talk on spam.

Podcasts - Best of: Hugh and the Rabbi, Episode 4 (Audio, MP3). Good show guys! The Gillmor Gang, on decentralized Twitter (Audio, MP3). Great discussion, follow-on to an earlier cast on Twitter, FriendFeed, and other Live Web apps. Kudos, Steve, well done.

Buzz: BlackBerry Bold. 60 Photography Links You Can't Live Without via Cameraporn - thanks to the uber-cool Thomas Hawk for the tip.

Congrats & cheers: Chris Anderson & team TED on the smash that was Pangea Day. [Related - highlight reel]