"I quote others only the better to express myself." Michel de Montaigne

"Creativity is the defeat of habit by originality." Arthur Koestler

"If you want to get lucky...it pays to be ready." Michael Bierut

Today's image: This Way by photosapience. Wonderful. Thank you for sharing!

Radio execs continue to have important and valuable missed opportunities at hand. More here (including comment by Mel Taylor).

Local, local, local: Google gets a dedicated GOOG-411 button on new phones. Release here.

Make it urgent

Fred Jacobs revisits last month's kerfuffle related to the new GSD&M creative from the HD Radio Alliance and suggests an industry dialogue. He's right. Fred's post here. What is obviously missing in all of this - so far - is any sense of urgency on the part of Peter Ferrara. Disclosure, transparency, creative collaboration, ongoing open and candid industry conversation are needed going forward. Needed now! This is becoming less about the new creative and more about leadership. Peter, do the right thing, take the lead, make 2008 the year of dramatic game-changing difference, of real progress for HD Radio. P.S. You'll find a great many of radio's best and brightest willing and ready to answer the call.

Face time, again: Free the Scoble 5,000!!! Kara's take here...

"All that information on Facebook is Robert Scoble’s. So, he should–even if he agreed to give away his rights to move it to use the service in the first place (he had no other choice if he wanted to join)–be allowed to move it wherever he wants."

Dave Winer lends his usual uncommon good sense to this...

"It's a big effin loop we're in. One of these times around one of the companies that feels (incorrectly) that they have a lock on their users, will voluntarily give it up and be a leader in Generation N+1. I've never seen it happen, but in theory I think it could...So Facebook has the opportunity to be a crossover company, part of the next generation -- or a last gasp of the generation that's about to run out of gas. It's their choice. And it's fitting somehow that Scoble is the poster child for users in this cycle."

More Dave w/comments here.

Robert writes Facebook disabled my account and weighs in here (hundreds of comments and counting - good show).

LATER: We learn Robert was alpha testing Plaxo Pulse.

The lesson here is not about ToU or portability of personal data or the myth called privacy. The lesson here is don't be messin with alpha-geeks. More on data portability here.

Bubble 2: Plaxo for sale? $100 mil? Timesman Andrew Ross Sorkin has the story here.

Resolution, Read More: Brad puts up a one page summary of the Thomas P.M. Barnett suggested reading list. Outstanding. Highly recommended list, here. Thanks Brad, and TPMB! Earlier comp on Tom's site here.

"Don't follow trends, start trends." Frank Capra

"There are only 3 colors, 10 digits, and 7 notes; it's what we do with them that's important." Ruth Ross

"The first thing a great person does, is make us realize the insignificance of circumstance." Emerson

Create your own social network for anything - in less than two minutes - for free. That's what Ning now has on offer. Kudos to Marc Andreessen. Get all the details here. Marc has also written a good post about The three kinds of platforms you meet on the internet. Level 1 - Access API (e.g., Flickr, Delicious); Level 2 - Plug-in API (e.g., Facebook); Level 3 - Runtime Environment (e.g., Salesforce.com). A good read here.

Being #1 requires no explanation: As true today as when it was first said by Paul Drew. Kudos to programming ace Brian Kelly and his team. 103.7 KISS FM is again #1 18-34, with double digits no less. While it's only a trend you can bet the farm (without worry) that these guys have a lock on #1. When next you hear or read that the youth market is not listening to radio don't buy it. Brian Kelly and his team are proving this notion to be nonsense. The truth of the matter is too few understand how to put on a show for the youth market and fewer still are getting it done. Brian Kelly is the exception that makes the rule. Teens and the 18-34s will listen when you give them something worth their bandwidth.

Today's image: sometimes the road gets rugged and it's hard to travel on... by dlemieux. The image was one of the top fifty finalists in the Smithsonian Magazine's annual photo contest. Congrats to Diana! Awesome image, thank you very much for sharing.

Courage: The Dan Rather story is sad, very sad. You may read the work of Gold, Reich and Parker, Dan's 32 page complaint here (in PDF, thanks to TMZ). Read the view of Mary Mapes along with 295 comments, and counting here. Read Rather Revolting, the post by Michael Rosenblum with comments here.

Bonus: The 10 rules of Twitter (and how I break every one) - Scobleizer. 62 comments and counting. Rock on Robert! There is only one rule - there are no rules!

Bonus 2: Xobni. Are you an Outlook user? You can not live another day without Xobni. Very cool, very smart. Not open to the public, yet. Chase all the action on their blog here. The thesis is your email usage is a social network - agreed. Genius!

Image: Wolf vs. Sheep by Hugh MacLeod. Bravos Hugh! Thank you for sharing.

"In the absence of money, we'll have to make do with talent." Sir Michael Balcon

"There are no rules in film-making. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness." Frank Capra

"Studio executives are intelligent, brutally overworked men and women who share one thing in common with baseball managers: They wake up every morning of the world with the knowledge that sooner or later they're going to get fired." William Goldman

Lewis Lazare writes about the iPhone "...we can only tip our hat to Apple for having successfully executed one of the most impressive buzz campaigns in marketing history" Read Lew's column here. Those in the know tell me the AT&T connect is s l o w. Scobleizer and son are first in line at the Palo Alto store, follow the action here.

The King and the heiress = 3.2 mil: Biggest audience of 2007 for the King but fails to make the man's top forty shows of all time. Perspective: 14 years ago, the Al Gore v Ross Perot NAFTA debate captured 16.8 mil, that King show remains the record high of basic cable.

Congrats & cheers: DDB Chicago for bringing home the Lions and to Pete Stacker the great voice of the winners, DDB's Real Men of Genius for Bud Light. Steve Newcomb and his Powerset team out of stealth mode. David Garland named Time Out Chicago publisher. Vinnie Malhotra promoted to EP ABC News' weekend. Pownce. WBA Wunderkind Michelle Vetterkind.