Talkable tweets from Word of Mouth Marketing Association [WOMMA] 2009 summit

View more presentations from Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

‘Dizzy & me’

Cheraw, S.C.

A stop in Dizzy Gillespie’s hometown for a photo op. Visit Cheraw’s website.

Facebook: Segmenting your friends into lists

Alison Driscoll at Mashable tells you how to use facebook privacy settings and avoid disaster

Facebook Friend Lists can be utilized for a variety of purposes, but the biggest draw for the average user is that they can label their friends for easy adjustment of Profile Privacy Settings. Creating Friend Lists may sound harsh or judgmental, but this categorization happens every day in real life; Facebook just allows you to put it to good use.

The Prince and the mattress

Prince Charles shows how to not try out a mattress. Photo No. 12 here

I slept on orange juice cans

and I’m looking forward to reading Gail Collins’ new book When Everything Changed. A NYT reviewer called it a “smart, thorough, often droll and extremely readable” history of American women’s social and political history since that groundbreaking year: 1960. And I wish it were required reading for every woman under 40.

The review is here.

Colorblends tulips

The Gudoshnik collection from my favorite tulip company, Colorblends.

beautiful, scary

An absolutely gorgeous look at our earth:“Home” by Yann Arthus Bertrand

Those fun Facebook quizzes–the ACLU wants u to take theirs

The ACLU facebook quiz. When you’re done, you may want to contact mark zuckerberg and demand privacy rights on facebook.

Thomas Berry R.I.P.

Geologian at–hopefully–the birth of the ecozoic age.

NY Times obituary here

 From here on, the primary judgment of all human institutions, professions, programs and activities will be determined by the extent to which they inhibit, ignore or foster a mutually enhancing human-Earth relationship.

Excerpt from The Great Work:

We live in a political world, a nation, a business world, an economic order, a cultural tradition, in Disneyworld. We live in cities, in a world of concrete and steel, of wheels and wires, a world of business, of work. We no longer see the stars at night or the planets or the moon. Even in the day we do not experience the sun in any immediate or meaningful manner. Summer and winter are the same inside the mall. Ours is a world of highways, parking lots, shopping centers. We read books written with a strangely contrived alphabet. We no longer read the book of the universe.

More at CommonDreams.org 

‘The case for working with your hands’

Excellent piece in NYTimes, “The Case for Working With Your Hands by Matthew B. Crawford. Don’t knock it.

In the boardrooms of Wall Street and the corridors of Pennsylvania Avenue, I don’t think you’ll see a yellow sign that says “Think Safety!” as you do on job sites and in many repair shops, no doubt because those who sit on the swivel chairs tend to live remote from the consequences of the decisions they make. Why not encourage gifted students to learn a trade, if only in the summers, so that their fingers will be crushed once or twice before they go on to run the country?

Earth Day email from the Piedmont Environmental Alliance

 

HAPPY EARTH DAY from Piedmont Environmental Alliance

This email was sent by Piedmont Environmental Alliance
1959 N Peace Haven Rd., #257
Winston-Salem, NC 27106
United States

You’ve probably already received hundreds of tips on what you SHOULD do for Earth Day – and maybe they’re now a big mish-mash in your brain. Here are ten things you SHOULDN’T do. 

  
1) Don’t drive like a teenager, speeding up and slowing down and weaving in and out of traffic. Such aggressive driving can lower fuel efficiency by 33%. Accelerate gently and stay with the traffic to save gas and money.

2) Don’t use cleansers and personal care products that contain triclosan or other antibacterial agents. Public health officials worry that antibacterials (in cleansers, window cleaners, and soaps are causing us to become resistant to antibiotics. Use simple soap (like Dr. Bronner’s castile soap) and hot water for cleaning, and body soaps and lotions that do not say “antibacterial” or “fights germs” on the label.
 

3) Don’t go shopping without a list! According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, people waste about 30% of their household food budgets buying groceries that eventually expire and have to be thrown out. Know what you want to buy before you hit the store aisles – you’ll buy less, buy more of what you’re likely to use, and reduce the impact your shopping has on the planet. Then put your list on your refrigerator so you don’t forget what’s inside.
 

4) Don’t leave the lights on when you leave the room. You could save as much as $100 a year in electricity costs by turning off a 100-watt lightbulb when you’re not using the light.

5) Don’t leave the computer on if you’re going to be gone longer than two hours. Don’t leave the monitor on if you’re going to be gone longer than 20 minutes. If you plug your electronics into an energy-saving power strip, you can reduce the energy they use by as much as 40%.
 

6) Don’t leave the water running when you brush your teeth. Turning off the tap when you brush your teeth can save up to 8 gallons of water a day, 240 gallons a month, saving hundreds of dollars on your water bill each year.
 

7) Don’t buy “snack packs” that come wrapped in cardboard and plastic. Small individual packages use more energy and resources to manufacture and transfer, and are often twice as expensive as the same product sold in a larger bag or box.

Don’t use so much shampoo, soap, lotion, make-up, gel and perfume. More than 25% of all women and one of every hundred men use at least fifteen products daily, according to a survey of 2300 men and women, exposing people to hundreds of chemicals during the course of a day. Can you reduce the number of products you use by at least three?

9) Don’t buy anything new. Remember the 3 R’s of eco-friendly living? They begin with “reduce” (the other two are “re-use” and “recycle”). If you need to shop, start with EBay.com, Freecycle.org, the neighbor’s yard sale, or the community vintage or thrift store.

10) Don’t sit at your computer all day. Get outdoors for at least an hour to remember why Mother Nature is worth protecting. Besides, if you’ve accomplished all the other don’ts on this list, you deserve to take a break!

Source:  http://www.biggreenpurse.com

 

 

VOTE EARTH: switch off lights at 8:30 tonight for one hour in observation of EARTH HOUR

Earth Hour 2009

Gallows humor: ‘The Job’ at YouTube

‘tips and tricks for fixing misbehaving gadgets’

From “Low-Tech Fixes for High-Tech Problems” by Paul Boutin in  NYTimes, Feb. 18, 2009

It could happen to anyone: you dropped your cellphone in the toilet. Take the battery out immediately, to prevent electrical short circuits from frying your phone’s fragile internals. Then, wipe the phone gently with a towel, and shove it into a jar full of uncooked rice.

Plus lots of other helps. Like how to use tin foil to significantly extend your router’s range .

Lost in translation: letter from a financial svcs co

Dear Investor:
The XXXX Due Diligence Program is a rigorous and disciplined framework to help us identify, select and monitor premier investment management firms as sub-advisors within each asset class and investment style of our Foundation Options. From time to time, changes are necessary based on the outputs of our review process. Outside of the due diligence program, we also assess the strategies appropriate to offer retirement plan clients, including factors such as demand.

Translation:

Things are crazy out there and we have no idea what happened to the people who used to be our fund advisors–maybe they lost their jobs? We have no idea. So we found some new people. But in order to continue to milk you with fees to offset your tax savings–and cover our asses legally–we’re sending this letter that even someone with a Ph.d can’t understand.

In honor of Earth Day April 2009

Plant a little tree–as the saying goes–in whose shade you’ll never sit.

reduce, reuse, recycle–plastic bags into …

Monkeys

A little harsh, but valid points made here [and love the old filmstrip style].

Watch this video if you’re going mattress shopping

Leonard Pitts’ ‘Shamsia is back in class’

Inspiring and disturbing, Leonard Pitt’s Jan. 28 column in the Miami Herald:

So this story for women and girls — and for men and boys who want the fullness of life for them — is offered as simple inspiration, a reminder to be defiant and courageous when others want them to be stupid things.