luni, 19 martie 2012

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics


Downhill Expert Alejandro Paz Riding a Rock Garden Like Crazy

Posted: 19 Mar 2012 03:15 PM PDT



This video isn't for the squimish. Watch Peruvian cyclist Alejandro Paz riding with a bicycle and GoPro helmet camera in a local rock garden like crazy.


Tom and Jerry in Real Life

Posted: 19 Mar 2012 02:41 PM PDT

So they do exist huh. A tiny wood mouse stands up to a cat and scratches it on the nose. Looking like a scene from a Tom and Jerry cartoon, the fight saw 'Jerry' escaping under the fence and back into the woods where 'Tom' had earlier caught him.


Photographer: Malcolm Case-Green Via Telegraph


45 Funny TV and Movie Screencaps

Posted: 19 Mar 2012 01:12 PM PDT

This batch of screencaps includes moments from Modern Family, The Simpsons, Parks and Rec, Community, Daria, Big Bang Theory, Garth Marenghi's Dark Place and much more.


























































































Via: pleated-jeans


The Evolution of SXSW from Music Festival to Interactive Launch Pad [Infographic]

Posted: 19 Mar 2012 01:04 PM PDT



Since 1987, SXSW has morphed into an interactive, film and music conference and festival that brought together 19,364 attendees in 2011.

Austin-based app development firm, Rocksauce Studios, has created an infographic that dissects the interactive portion of SXSW, and proves why this conference is the new popular techie playground.

Click on Image to Enlarge.


A Research-Based Guide to Brainstorming Linkbait - or Anything Else

A Research-Based Guide to Brainstorming Linkbait - or Anything Else


A Research-Based Guide to Brainstorming Linkbait - or Anything Else

Posted: 18 Mar 2012 01:52 PM PDT

Posted by Carson Ward

SEO (and inbound marketing) consultants, agencies, and in-house professionals rely upon their creativity to solve problems every single day. Just compare an experienced SEO to an industry thought leader—or a failed piece of linkbait to a fantastic piece—to see the difference that creativity makes. Nowhere is creativity more important than in the creation of content.

 
“Content quality matters a lot. So a lot of time, in the SEO world, people will say, ‘Well, you have to have good, unique, useful content.’ Not enough. Sorry. It's just not enough. There are too many people making too much amazing stuff on the Internet for ‘good…’”
 
 
Content rarely attracts natural links by merely being useful, but by being unique and creative. Every good link-loved piece of content has a creative idea, and every creative idea comes from brainstorming. Whether spontaneous or planned, individual or group-based, brainstorming is nothing less than producing unique or novel solutions that help us fix problems and achieve our goals. 
 
So, how can we be more creative?
 
Science.
 
XKCD - Stand back, I'm going to try science!
Courtesy of XKCD
 

Enhancing Individual Creativity

 
Many of us have been brought up with the myth that creativity is something you either have or you don’t. Fortunately, that’s not entirely true. A “lack of creativity” may in fact have a lot more to do with bad habits your brain has gotten into – and can get out of. 
 

Love the Obstacles, Define Constraints

The best advice I can start with is also the most counter-intuitive: set constraints. Don’t think about everything – think about one thing. Research indicates that specific obstacles stimulate our brain and our creativity1  – probably because we are wired to overcome obstacles and solve problems.
 
Release from Deception Dan Webb - Shroud
Artists like Francesco Queirolo, Dan Webb, and William Shakespeare realize the constraints of their medium, perhaps allowing them to sculpt marble into net, wood into a flowing bag, and rigid iambic pentameter into Romeo and Juliet.
 
When you start thinking about it, putting constraints on brainstorming makes perfect sense. Brainstorming linkbait with a broad directive like, “brainstorm ideas about electronics” is extremely difficult. When you start with broad topics, your mind spends (or in this case, wastes) a lot of time trying to determine what information to filter out, while tending to bounce between topics that you think about often or have thought about recently. You’ll have much better results by starting with specific obstacles and questions, such as “how can we show people that (iPhones/Android phones) are the way to go?”
 
Set your linkbait constraints before you even try to brainstorm: budget, medium, tone, topic, etc. 
 

Get Motivated, Invest Personally

Unsurprisingly, people are more creative and come up with better ideas when motivated, especially when that motivation is intrinsic2. And that’s the tricky part: we can’t just flip a “care more” switch. There are certainly things that an organization can do to – and we’ll discuss some of them later – but my two suggestions revolve around the fact that anonymity breeds mediocre creativity.3
 
First, we are likely to be motivated working for people that we actually talk to. Building barriers between SEOs and clients might make calls less awkward, but it can also reduce the SEO’s intrinsic motivation. Next, consider how to get your name(s) on work and ideas. I recently noted here that my intrinsic motivation to create great content soars when my real name is attached to something. When I created anonymous content on an old site, the content was at best mediocre. With my name attached, I want to make it better and unique.
 

Learn and Try New Things

Yes, we should learn about marketing, design, and writing – but we should also learn more about the people involved and the industry they work in. It should come as no surprise that subject-matter expertise and knowledge lead to creativity.4
 
Don’t just learn about new things – do new things! People who are open to new experiences tend to perform better on creative tests and achievements in their lives.5 6 7 Get used to breaking out of your routine. Meet people from different cultures, learn new skills (Photoshop? Juggling?), and try that new brand of ketchup! The worst thing that could happen is that you could become more satisfied with your life.8
 

Take Care of Yourself

It’s always important to take care of yourself and stay healthy, but here are some things that you can do personally to make yourself better at coming up with ideas for linkbait (or anything else):
  • Get plenty of sleep at night: REM sleep, specifically, makes us more creative. Preventing interruptions to deep sleep is, therefore, just as important as getting enough sleep.9 10
  • Exercise: Exercise improves your health and mood, but it also independently enhances creativity.11;
  • Mood: For the type of tasks common to business and online marketing, being in a good mood can make us more creative. Never be apathetic.12 13 14 15
Companies who rely heavily on employee creativity may do well to encourage and/or fund employee visits to sleep clinics and gyms. Taking responsibility for our own creativity, however, sounds a lot like taking responsibility for our own happiness. 
 
When trying to brainstorm solutions to problems and useful content/linkbait strategies, the answer is rarely to “do more work.” The seemingly paradoxical, yet research-backed truth is this: taking the time to sleep and work out gives us more free time by making our minds more efficient all day.
 

Enhancing Group Creativity and Efficacy

When you make an individual more creative, you make the group that he/she is a part of more creative. Additionally, the group can have a strong positive effect on the individual’s creativity.16 One key to brainstorming creative linkbait (or anything else) is leveraging this powerful and mutually-reinforcing relationship between group and individual creativity.
 

Brainstorm Individually, Discuss Together

Brainstorming with others yields ideas that we may have never thought of on our own, but it can also slow us down from running with our own ideas. In fact, people tend to come up with more ideas on their own when compared with a traditional brainstorming group due to the “production blocking” effect of group work.17
 
The solution (and this is important) is to generate linkbait and strategy ideas by harnessing both individual and group creativity.
  1. Get everyone together and explain the problem or goal. Remember what we learned about constraints.
  2. Have individuals write down their own ideas, and then present their ideas one-by-one.
  3. After (and only after) everyone has presented their ideas, discuss them all as a group.
  4. If you need to choose or prioritize ideas, have each group member write or send their own rankings for each idea.
Groups following this process (called “nominal groups” in research) routinely out-perform even the best-run “traditional” brainstorming groups.18 19 20
 
It would probably be wise to plan brainstorming at least a day in advance and encourage team members to get plenty of sleep and learn a little bit about the topic, as we know that this makes the individual more creative.
 

Meet in Person, Use Large Groups

Groupthink is your enemy in group brainstorming, especially if your brainstorming group is large (and large groups do usually come up with more and better ideas21 22 23). Also, remote meetings are a bad idea. Those people calling in tend to add less to the group, probably because they are less engaged and more distant. Research also shows that electronic brainstorming (with anonymous or masked idea generation and voting) is less productive.24 25;
 
Where possible, group brainstorming should occur in person, with up to 12 participants for important brainstorming sessions. 
 

Create Diverse Groups

Imagine that you’ve just duplicated yourself, along with all of your memories and experiences. 
 
“I was just thinking the same thing…”
 
You would, no doubt, get along with your other self, but you would be unlikely to brainstorm ideas that you (or you #2) couldn’t have thought of separately. Perhaps this is why research indicates that groups that are diverse are more creative.26 27
 
When forming a group to brainstorm the next set of juicy linkbait ideas, we would be wise to include people of various ages from diverse backgrounds with different interests and experiences.
 

Build a Creative Company Culture

I’ve chosen to focus on things that everyone in an organization can do to enhance their own creativity and the creativity of their teams or brainstorming groups. In the future, I would like to write about what companies and their managers can do to make their companies more creative. A good start would be reading Teresa Amabile's How to Kill Creativity.
 
By working at Distilled, I have instantly become more creative. Not only am I intrinsically driven to work with the company long-term, but the company encourages and supports innovation. I remember staring at Will with a sense of confusion as he told us to “fail faster.” What he understands is that to be a creative and innovative company, you have to take (smart) risks. Icarus flew too close to the sun and fell hard and fast – but the Wright Brothers defied gravity in a way that seemed impossible.
 
Never underestimate the impact of company culture on creativity. Companies that encourage, support, and invest in innovation can prevent themselves from turning into slow, boring, and risk-averse corporations.
 
I am by no means claiming to be the world’s leading expert on creativity research, but I have taken experts’ research to uncover actionable ways to solve problems more efficiently and effectively. Creativity is so much more than artistic originality or idea generation – it’s a necessary element to solving problems and achieving defined goals. 
 
What do you do to enhance your or your teams’ creativity?
 

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POTUS Grabs a Pint

The White House Your Daily Snapshot for
Monday, March 19, 2012
 

POTUS Grabs a Pint

President Obama left the White House Saturday afternoon to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by grabbing a pint of Guinness at the Dubliner, an Irish pub near the Capitol.

Check out some photos from his visit.

Photo of the Day 031712
President Barack Obama visits the Dubliner, an Irish pub in Washington, D.C., with his Irish cousin, Henry Healy, center, and Ollie Hayes, a pub owner in Moneygall, Ireland, on St. Patrick's Day, Saturday, March 17, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog:

First Question: What do you want to ask the White House Press Secretary?
We’re pleased to bring back an online engagement series that utilizes social media to answer questions from citizens across the country.

A Call to Action: Let's Move!
First Lady Michelle Obama last week joined Olympic athletes and local school children for a mini-Olympic Games. But the day wasn't all about medals -- the kids learned that participating in sports is about learning new skills, getting stronger and faster and more agile.

Weekly Address: Ending Subsidies for Big Oil Companies
President Obama says that America needs an all-of-the-above energy strategy that invests in new technologies and ends the $4 billion in annual subsidies to oil companies that are earning historic profits.

Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

11:00 AM: The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing

11:30 AM: The President meets with senior advisors

12:30 PM: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney WhiteHouse.gov/live

3:45 PM: The President meets with Secretary of State Clinton

5:00 PM: The Vice President attends an event for Senator Bob Menendez

5:05 PM: The President attends a campaign event

WhiteHouse.gov/live Indicates that the event will be live-streamed on WhiteHouse.gov/Live

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Seth's Blog : When should we add marketing?

When should we add marketing?

In the Mad Men era, we added marketing last. Marketing and advertising were the same thing, and the job was to promote what was made.

In the connection era, the marketing is the product, the service and most of all the conversations it causes and the connections it makes.

Marketing is the first thing we do, not the last. Build virality and connection and remarkability into your product or service from the start and then the end gets a lot easier. Build it into your app, your book, your movie, your insurance policy, and the red soles of your shoes.

What if the product is boring, someone asks...

Well, you get to decide what you make. If you're entering a competitive field and you intend to grow, the best plan is to revisit your starting assumption and make something else.

 

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duminică, 18 martie 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


Raucous Caucus: Largest Missouri Caucus Shut Down Before Delegates Chosen

Posted: 18 Mar 2012 10:04 PM PDT

Those awaiting complete returns from the Missouri caucus may be in for a long wait. The St. Charles County caucus was shut down before delegates were even chosen.

St. Louis Today reports Raucous GOP caucus in St. Peters is shut down
In St. Charles County, which was to have been the biggest single prize of the day, the caucus was shut down before delegates were chosen after a boisterous crowd objected to how the meeting was being run, including an attempted ban on videotaping. Two supporters of presidential hopeful Ron Paul were arrested.

At other caucuses, participants gathered outdoors as the appointed locations turned out to be too small to accommodate crowds or waited for hours as organizers worked through procedural questions.

Even before the day's events took a rancorous turn, state Republican officials said the winner of the caucus would not be officially known until next month. But with the confusion surrounding St. Charles, and many more delegates available in a pair of caucuses next weekend, the primary picture for Missouri may have only become murkier Saturday.

In Ballwin, participants were shut out of an appearance by White House hopeful Rick Santorum because the City Council chambers had reached its 118-person capacity.

The caucus in St. Charles County, which was held at Francis Howell North High in St. Peters, was adjourned after police said they were going to "shut us down," according to Matt Ehlen, the Republican activist who was named chairman of the meeting.

However, several individuals at the caucus said much of the consternation revolved around Ehlen himself. Ehlen became chairman after a voice vote, but the head of the county GOP organization failed to recognize any other candidate.

"All of sudden he's the chairman and the place goes nuts," said Tim Finch, a Paul supporter from Dardenne Prairie. "This is not how it's supposed to work."

Some of Paul's supporters were also irked by an announced ban on video recording, with organizers asking police to help enforce it.

When the objections reached a fever pitch, the meeting was shut down without any delegates being awarded.
I received an email from a cameraman who was arrested at the caucus for videotaping the event. Here is the footage.



Link if video does not play: Missouri Caucus Rigged Fraud

Second video showing the fraudulent selection of caucus chairman.



Link if video does not play: St. Charles MO Hijacked Caucus

Real Clear Politics now shows Missouri Caucus results moved from March 17 to April 21.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


China Halts 10 More Airbus Orders; Global Trade Wars Not Winnable and Should Not Be Fought

Posted: 18 Mar 2012 07:01 PM PDT

In retaliation for the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme, China Halts 10 More Airbus Orders
China has suspended the purchase of 10 more Airbus jets, two people familiar with the matter said on Thursday, raising the stakes in a potentially damaging trade row over European Union airline emissions charges.

The move to delay the purchase of extra A330 planes brings to $14 billion the value of European aircraft caught up in tensions over the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme, which has angered countries including China, India and the United States.

It comes amid urgent efforts to find a solution to the row, which airlines fear could provoke an aviation trade war capable of causing travel disruption and hitting air traffic rights.

The row is over a cap-and-trade scheme which could levy charges for carbon emissions for flights in and out of Europe.

Foreign governments say the EU is exceeding its legal jurisdiction by charging for an entire flight, as opposed to just the part covering European airspace.

"Aircraft sales are different from selling wine or cars, you can't switch the sales button from off to on from one day to another. A red traffic light in aircraft sales can destroy years of sales efforts and damage-repair will take years," said Rainer Ohler, head of Airbus public affairs and communications.
Trade Wars Not Winnable and Should Not Be Fought

This is exactly the kind of spat Romney is bargaining for when he threatens to label China a "currency manipulator".

China is of course a "currency manipulator". Then again the Fed is an "interest rate manipulator" hoping to sink the US dollar. The EU wants the euro to fall (just not collapse), and Japan has intervened to sink the Yen. Switzerland's central bank has intervened to suppress the value of the Swiss Franc.

In short, every major nation on the planet is manipulating currencies either directly or indirectly via interest rate policy.

Global trade wars are not winnable. If Mitt Romney is elected and he does what he says he will do, expect a devastating collapse in global trade.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Stress Test Farce Shows Bank Shares Still Are Not Cheap

Posted: 18 Mar 2012 10:19 AM PDT

Last week the Fed conducted yet another "Stress-Free" test purposely designed to conclude banks are in better shape than they really are. The parameters seemed strict.

  • US recession marked by a 50 percent drop in stock prices
  • 21 percent drop in housing prices
  • Joblessness soaring to 13 percent
  • An even worse recession in Europe

15 out of 19 banks passed based on a measure of "regulatory capital". The four stress test failures are Citigroup, Ally, Suntrust and MetLife.
"In fact, despite the significant projected capital declines, 15 of the 19 bank holding companies were estimated to maintain capital ratios above all four of the regulatory minimum levels under the hypothetical stress scenario," the Fed said.

The exercise opened the door for some of the most capital-flush banks to immediately announce new or higher dividend payments to shareholders, after the Fed prevented or limited such payouts by a number of the banks last year following a similar examination.

JPMorgan Chase announced a 20 percent dividend hike and a $15 billion share buyback program, while Wells Fargo also sharply boosted its planned dividend.
Bank with Negative Tangible Equity Passes Stress Test

Anyone who can think knew in advance the stress test would be a farce, but Jonathan Weil dug up the real dirt in his Bloomberg report Class Dunce Passes Fed's Stress Test Without a Sweat.
The most important thing to understand about the Federal Reserve's latest stress tests is what they were not intended to do. Their purpose wasn't to test whether the nation's biggest banks could survive a financial blowup like that of 2008 without government assistance.

Rather, the Fed designed its tests to measure the effects a hypothetical crisis would have on banks' regulatory capital. Capital is the financial cushion a company has available to absorb future losses. While the Fed would like for us to believe that regulatory capital is the same thing, it's quite different. And too often it bears little resemblance to reality.

Citigroup Inc. (C) was deemed well capitalized under the government's methodology when it got bailed out in 2008. So was CIT Group Inc. when it filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

How stressful were the Fed's tests? One anecdote stands apart: Regions Financial Corp. (RF), which still hasn't paid back its bailout money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, passed.

The footnotes to the company's latest financial statements tell the story. There, the Birmingham, Alabama-based lender disclosed that the loans on its books were worth $8.1 billion less than what its balance sheet said, as of Dec. 31. By comparison, the company's tangible common equity, a bare-bones measure of net worth, was $7.6 billion.
Weil went through Regions' balance sheet, using the company's own footnotes as to fair-market values of their financial assets and liabilities and concluded "Regions' tangible common equity was negative $525 million as of Dec. 31."
In short, the test was a joke, although it had its intended effect. Shares of Regions and other large banks soared, and Regions raised $900 million selling common shares on Wednesday. The company, which hasn't reported an annual profit since 2007, plans to use the money to help repay the $3.5 billion it got from the Treasury Department in 2008.

Regions probably would have failed years ago if not for its federal backstop. Instead, it now has a stock-market value of $9.1 billion. Clearly the Fed wanted it to attract new investors, and those who put fresh capital into Regions this week believe the government won't let it die. That about sums up the company's value proposition. In other words, we're all still on the hook.
Bank shares may look "cheap" but they aren't. The latest "stress-free" test by the Fed proves as much. How much longer the market lets the Fed get away with this nonsense is anyone's guess. I would have thought silly season would have been over long ago.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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sâmbătă, 17 martie 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


Public Union Wage Bargaining Ends at National Level in Great Britain

Posted: 17 Mar 2012 08:17 PM PDT

I am pleased to report the end of collective bargaining at the national level. Unfortunately, I am talking about the UK, not the US, and also unfortunately, local wage bargaining will remain in place.

The Telegraph reports National pay rates will be scrapped in budget.
Millions of teachers, nurses, civil servants and other public sector workers are to lose their right to national pay rates, the Chancellor George Osborne will announce in next week's Budget.

George Osborne will say that public sector employees in poorer parts of the country should have their pay frozen until it is brought into line with local private sector workers.

Mr Osborne originally intended to introduce local pay rates in April 2013, but has decided to bring the plans forward by a year in an attempt to boost growth.

The move is likely to be met with a furious response from unions, which are already threatening industrial action over cuts to pensions.

The Chancellor will publish figures that show that in some parts of England and Wales public sector workers earn almost a fifth more than those in equivalent jobs in the private sector.

The Treasury argues that the pay gap leaves private companies struggling to compete for the best staff against public sector organisations, whose workers also enjoy better pensions and job security.

The National Union of Teachers said it was calling a one-day strike in London on March 28 as the next step in its pensions campaign. Mr Osborne, however, is determined to push ahead with the reforms to pay and pensions. The Treasury wants to base the plans on a local-pay system introduced for staff in courts under the previous government.
This is a start, but if you are going to incur the wrath of labor unions, and Chancellor Osborne surely will, then you may as well go all out. The correct move is to end bargaining altogether. If unions don't like it, too bad. If they can make more in the private sector, they can go for it.

Public unions bankrupted Greece, they will bankrupt Spain, they have the UK and the US on the verge of ruin, and they have bankrupted numerous US cities already.

Correct Policy Trifecta

  1. End public union collective bargaining completely
  2. End all prevailing wages laws including Davis Bacon
  3. Institute National Right-to-Work Laws

Unlike parimutuel horse-racing bets, any order will suffice.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


James Grant Says Bond Market Is "Bubble of Modern Banking, a Desert of Value; Gold a Reciprocal Faith in Bernanke"; Time for an "Office of Unintended Consequences?"

Posted: 17 Mar 2012 10:41 AM PDT

James Grant, publisher of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, talks about Federal Reserve monetary policy, the bond market and investment strategy. Grant, speaking with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television's "Money Moves," also discusses the Chinese economy.



Link if video does not play: Bond Market 'Desert of Value'

Select Interview Quotes

Grant: The Fed seem bent on suppressing this most elegant thing we have called a price mechanism, the movement of price that determines all manner of things in a market economy. Yet the Fed seems bound and determined to superimpose its will in place of the price mechanism. Take the bond market for example, the Fed has hammered down yields directly and indirectly and in response people are throwing money at things like high-yield or junk bonds. These are the prices the Fed wants, but are they the right prices? No not necessarily.

Deirdre Bolton: How is a bond investor to deal with this current environment? You are calling actually for a bear market in bonds, am I correct?.

Grant: I have forever. So I am no help there. But it seems to me a bond investor is almost better off in cash. If you were to go out 10 years in a US treasury security you earn yield of approximate 2%. To remain in cash and be flexible you sacrifice those 2%. The bond market is a desert of value.

Deirdre Bolton: What does this mean for gold?

Grant: The price of gold is the reciprocal of the world's faith in the deeds and words of the likes of Ben Bernanke. The world over, central banks are printing money as it has never been printed before. The European Central Bank has increased the size of its balance sheet  at the annual rate of 89%. It's amazing. The Fed is far behind at only 15%. The Bank of England 67% over the past few months. These are rates of increases in the production of paper currencies we have never seen in the modern  age. It takes no effort at all. They simply tap the computer screen.

Time for an "Office of Unintended Consequences?"


Grant proposes the Fed start an "Office of Unintended Consequences" to study all the things that go wrong with Fed policy.

I believe Grant is speaking tongue-in-cheek. We certainly do not need such an office. Instead, we need to abolish the Fed.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List