Governmentgirl1943lp

Idea Log 31052011

My WHITE-BLACKberry TORCH!!

 

Idea Log 30052011

from the book 'Evil Plans-having fun on the road to world domination' by Hugh Macleod aka author of www.gapingvoid.com

"Create Expressive Capital"

Remember, we're all here to find meaning, including your customers.

1. First we had Human Capital. You there! Go to the next village and kill everybody because I'm the chief of this village and I say so, etc.

2. Then came Physical Capital. Land, property, factories. "I give you many camels for your daughter." etc.

3. Then came Financial Capital. Currency, credit, stocks and bonds, the root of all evil, etc.

4. Then came Intellectual Capital. Our widgets are better than your widgets because our engineers are smarter than your engineers, etc.

5. Then came Emotional Capital. People love our product more than they love our competitor's product, etc.

So what comes after Emotional Capital? Perhaps:

6. Expressive Capital. Our products make it easier for the end user to find and/or express meaning, narrative, metaphor, purpose, explanation, and relevance in his/her own life than our competitor's products do.

This is why techies get so fussy about what computer they own or code they use. Or why construction workers get so into what tools they buy. It's not just about which product gets the job well done. It's also about identity. Which product expresses its owner most favourably and powerfully to the world.

Not all products have Expressive Capital, of course. Most products are commodities. The trouble with commodities, of course, is that everyone's got one. And anyone who's ever dealt with Walmart or China knows what happens to those people.

also see:

http://governmentgirl1943lp.typepad.com/blog/2011/05/idea-log-06052011.html#tp

http://governmentgirl1943lp.typepad.com/blog/2011/05/idea-log-07052011.html#tp

http://governmentgirl1943lp.typepad.com/blog/2011/05/idea-log-08052011.html#tp

 

Idea Log 29052011

The RC Harris Water Treatment Plant will open its doors to the public for the first time since 2001. (Photo: City of Toronto)

ctvtoronto.ca

Date: Friday May. 27, 2011 2:16 PM ET

After a 10 year hiatus, the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant will be returning to Doors Open Toronto.

The landmark joins over 150 buildings slated to open their doors for the free two-day event, which pledges to be exciting for even the most knowledgeable Torontonian.

Scheduled to take place the weekend of May 28 and 29, the 11th annual architectural affair lets visitors peruse the hollows of usually off-limit buildings.

Favourites likes Toronto City Hall, where visitors can take a gander inside Rob Ford's office; and the TTC's Lower Bay station, will be back

Visitors will also get a chance to take a peek inside 38 new sites like the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant.

Dubbed "The Palace of Purification," the plant was once on the Doors Open roster but was taken off after 9/11 due to security concerns.

Built with materials like marble and bronze, the building is one of Toronto's most celebrated examples of Art Deco architecture.

Doors Open spokesperson Shane Gerard said he expects the water facility to be very popular.

"People are always interested in public buildings," he said.

Other new sites include:

TTC Roncesvalles Carhouse/Division, 20 Queensway
Built in 1895, the Roncesvalles carhouse holds 130 streetcars and serves as a work location for 105 employees. Today, the TTC building is the older of two carhouses. Visitors will get a behind-the-scenes tour of the building and see equipment used for regular maintenance.

Open: Saturday 12 p.m. – 5 p.m., last admittance 4:30 p.m.

Fire Station 227, 1904 Queen St. E.
Built in 1905, this fire station's soaring clock tower is a landmark in the Beach community. Although it has undergone significant renovations over the years, many original Arts and Crafts architectural details, such as the building's Romanesque Revival arches, remain.

Open: Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., last admittance 4:30 p.m.

Native Child and Family Services of Toronto, 30 College St., 416-969-8510With striking features such as a "green" roof planted with traditional medicines such as cedar, sweet grass and sage, this four-storey office building pays tribute to many traditional aboriginal Anishnaabe elements.

Open: Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., last admittance 4:30 p.m.

Canadian Turkish Islamic Heritage Association Inc., 336 Pape Ave., 416-469-2610Located at the corner of Pape and Gerrard Avenues, this mosque first opened its doors to Toronto's Muslim community in the early 1980s. Also known as "Pape Cami" or ‘"Pape Mosque", it is one of the city's first mosques.

Open: Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., last admittance: 4:30 p.m.

Corus Quay, 25 Dockside Dr., 416-479-7000Designed by world-renowned architect Jack Diamond of Diamond and Schmitt Architects, the state-of-the art media production and broadcast facility features street-level radio studios and a performance space that looks out onto Sugar Beach.

Open: Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., last admittance 3 p.m.

To find your way around the city during the two-day event, visitors can download one of four Doors Open mobile apps. They list useful information like opening hours, phone numbers and transportation options.

 

Idea Log 28052011

vainglory [ˌveɪnˈglɔːrɪ]

vain·glo·ry (vnglôr, -glr, vn-glôr, -glr)

1. Boastful, unwarranted pride in one's accomplishments or qualities.

2. Vain, ostentatious display.

---

[Middle English vein glory, from Old French vaine gloire, from Latin vna glria, empty pride : vna, feminine of vnus, empty; see vain + glria, glory, pride.]

Idea Log 27052011

> "My co-workers think I'm arrogant, but I'm just superior"

DAVID EDDIE | Globe Life: DAMAGE CONTROL> from Thursday-May27 Globe and Mail

 

The question: I put my foot in my mouth all the time, especially at work. I told my last boss that one of his newly hired executives was a dummy – and I got fired. A month into another job, I humiliated a partner in front of the whole team. I didn't intend to personally attack any of these people. I just saw the damage they were doing to the company and didn't respect them for that.

I am, however, tired of coming across as arrogant and a loose cannon. Sometimes I just get blinded by a moral superiority complex. My current boss has offered to hire a coach. But I am so embarrassed that it has become hard to go about my (high profile) job spontaneously and well.

One executive who fired me told me I was the most competent person he’d ever worked with, which, without social skills, is clearly not enough.

  

David Eddie is the author of Chump Change, Housebroken: Confessions of a Stay-at-Home Dad and Damage Control, the book, now in paperback.

 

DAVID EDDIE: This question was signed “the unvoluntary bitch,” and of course there are all kinds of tart-tongued remarks and acidulous observations I could make here. But that’s too easy. (Though I have to bite my lip so hard it hurts re: “unvoluntary.”)

Instead, I’ll merely say: Madam, I feel compassion for you.

You clearly have a monkey on your back – a monkey called pride, hubris or, to use more biblical terminology, “vainglory.”

Speaking of the Bible, you know how it says pride goeth before a fall? My own version, for your Eddiefication™, is: No matter how much of a hotshot you may think you are, hubris will turn you into an Icarus, and you will find yourself frantically flapping your melting wings in vain as you plummet to the cornfields before you can say: “Outplacement counsellor? Why would I, of all people, need an outplacement counsellor?”

By your own testimony, your career has been Icarus-ized before. You’ve been fired for calling someone a “dummy.” But who would you say is the real “dummy”? You, or the object of your contempt, who may be laughing it up, popping bottles of Cristal on the poop deck of your ex-boss’s yacht as we speak?

And now it looks like it could be happening again.

Okay, I’ve got some bad news, some good news and some just plain news.

Let’s start with the just plain news: Humiliating people in front of others is not “putting your foot in your mouth.” It’s a willful act of aggression. Foot-in-mouth disease (which I’ve “lived with” all my life) implies a lack of intent. You are clearly full of seething intent.

Now, if your boss is suggesting you seek some sort of social-skills coach, he clearly has some interest in keeping you around.

But here’s the bad news: There’s clearly a flag on the field vis-à-vis you. A couple more infractions and you could look up to see your desk flanked by two security guards who curtly ask you to step away from your computer before confiscating your pass card and frogmarching you into the parking lot.

At which point you may find yourself blinking in the sun, wondering: a) “Did that really just happen?” and b) “What do I do now?”

Now for the good news: At least you’ve started to wrestle with the monkey on your back.

That’s huge! Your question veers wildly from bald-faced boastfulness to agonized mea culpas. But you’ve come to recognize there is some sort of problem and you may be at least partly the cause of it.

A lot of people of your ilk never get there. They may get into the exact same type of confrontation with 10 different people in a row, but never see themselves as the common denominator.

No, it’s everyone else – the idiots, morons and “dummies” – who is out to get them. It’s amazing, and it’s all because they lack humility.

Humility is often confused with low self-esteem, but they are in fact two completely different things.

You can know you’re awesome and still show humility. Take Wayne Gretzky. Even though all through his life people have called him The Great One, he’s still all aw-shucks when he works a room or a TV interview.

Do people call you “The Great One,” madam? I thought not. Therefore, maybe you should stop talking about your “moral superiority” over others.

Oops, sorry, I said at the beginning I would refrain from tartness. But you need to seek to become more humble and treat your co-workers with more respect: This is crystal clear to me. You don’t have to be a doormat. But don’t float around with a helium-filled cranium, thinking you’re better than everyone else, either.

Humility, in my humble opinion, is no less than the mother and father of all other virtues. When you lose it, you start to lose everything else: your generosity of spirit, your ability to feel compassion for others, your sense of your place in the world and the universe.

You stand to lose your livelihood as well. And I know you don’t want that.

Article link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/relationship-advice/david-eddie/i-keep-insulting-my-co-workers---but-i-swear-they-deserve-it/article2034486/

Idea Log 26052011

Jean Patchett

was born in Preston MD. February 16, 1926. She began modeling in the mid 1940's and appeared on over 40 magazine covers. She ended her modeling career in 1963.  Ms. Patchett died January 22, 2002 in La Quinta CA.

http://www.jeanpatchett.com/home.php

 

 

 To purchase images from Vogue, Glamour, Mademoiselle & Charm magazines check the Conde Nast Store for availibility http://www.condenaststore.com/

 Jean Patchett

A young American Goddess of Paris Couture

Jean Patchett, famous Vogue model, whose face and figure defined fashion during the highly glamorous era of the 1950s and early 1960.

“A young American Goddess of Paris Couture” - Irving Penn, Vogue Photographer

<http://www.andmagazine.com/content/jean_patchett.php>

The Jean Patchett Tribute is a collaboration of the Patchett & Auer Families. Jean Patchett’s daughter, Amy Auer and cousin, Daniel Patchett; present in this tribute a vast body of Jean’s high fashion photographs from the pages of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, Charm, and Life magazines. Included are hundreds of images of Jean’s modeling ads for Christian Dior, Neiman Marcus, DeBeers, Cadillac Motors, Revlon, Botany, Julis Garfinkle Co., Bergdorf Goodman, Hutzler’s, David Levine, Nettie Rosenstein, Hartzdale, Moordale, Miron, and Avisco to name a few. There are several never before seen photos from the archives of fashion photography portfolios, and candid photographs from the Auer and Patchett families. Jean Patchett modeled from 1948 until she retired in 1963. Jean did model selectively after 1963 and was available to photographers for special assignments through the 1970s. In the 1980s Jean moved from New York City, to La Quinta, CA with her husband. During Jean’s heyday her accomplishments became legendary, as she was one of the most recognizable and popular models in American fashion couture.

The October, 1950 issue of Vogue Magazine featured Jean Patchett not just on its cover, but on almost every page of the feature section! In this publication there were five full page illustrations, 3 partial page illustrations, and 4 full page advertisements! The number and frequency of Jean’s appearances in fashion magazines was amazing. She had become the center of fashion photography, and was in great demand. Jean Patchett was referred to as the “Queen of Fashion Inc.” by fashion editors and photographers during this decade.

“An absolutely stunning creature with a signature beauty mark, Jean was a supermodel decades before the term ‘supermodel’ was coined, and, staggeringly, has had more covers than any fashion model in history,” Said agency owner Jerry Ford of Ford Models, who represented Jean in her heyday during the Fifties. "Jean Patchett was to Ford what Babe Ruth was to the Yankees."

Jean’s distinct features helped define the face of fashion for over a decade, the body of work she did is enormous, and the legacy she and fashion photographers created together is monumental. Jean Patchett was prolific, her date book documented numerous photo sessions each day in New York. The camera loved Jean and Jean loved the camera.

Jean worked in the same glamorous era as cover girls Dorian Leigh, Suzy Parker and Lisa Fonssagrives. Jean Patchett was the first star model for New York's Ford Models, a new agency when Jean walked in the door the spring of 1948. "I don't remember everyone, but I do remember her," Eileen Ford said. "You just had to take a deep breath, even then. She had on a black coat with black velvet at the shoulders and a black velvet beret--all made by her mother--and garnet earrings, bracelet and necklace. She really was a country girl."


Jean Patchett was born in Preston, a small town on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. After unhappy stints in secretarial school and attending Goucher College, at 21 years of age, Jean set her sights on a modeling career in New York. She signed with Harry Conover's agency in 1948, and moved into a Methodist rooming home for women for $13.50 a week, as she told the writer Michael Gross for his book Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women (Morrow, 1995). Within a month, however, she had left for the new Ford modeling agency. That September Jean had her first Vogue cover. In October she was on the cover of Glamour. In that same issue Glamour magazine reported that Jean spent her away-from- the-camera hours “just sunbathing and making her own clothes.” As her career sky rocketed, Vogue assignments with renowned photographers came her way. The March 1952 issue of Esquire featured Jean in the article “Beauty Is Her Business: Jean Patchett is a model in a million.” By the time she retired from full-time in 1963

Jean Patchett had appeared on more than 40 magazine covers, according to Eileen Ford. At the peak of her career, Jean was earning $50,000 a year.

In a period when models could be deliciously snooty, Jean was more modest: not the girl-next-door type, but not as sophisticated as Ms. Parker, either. She was punctual and polite, often saying ''yes, ma'am'' and ''no, sir,'' according to Eileen Ford of the Ford Agency. When she introduced herself to an editor or a photographer, she said: ''I'm Jean Patchett. You don't darn it. You patch it.''

In a photograph in profile by Erwin Blumenfeld for the famous Jan. 1, 1950, cover of Vogue, Jean Patchett's immaculate red mouth, penciled left eye and natural beauty mark became an icon for an entire decade.

Although Jean worked frequently with the photographers Louise Dahl-Wolfe and John Rawlings, Jean was most frequently associated with Irving Penn, especially after a 1949 photograph he took of her chewing pensively on a string of pearls as she sat in a cafe, a picture that came about spontaneously. These photos were for a photo-spread article for Vogue “Flying down to Lima” a romantic travelogue as lived by the model. Jean was also photographed in a shoeshine stand rubbing her tired feet, again in a real life and spontaneous moment. In later sessions, Mr. Penn would give her the suggestion of a story -- meeting a beau in a crowded theater, perhaps -- and as Jean stretched her neck longer and longer in search of the imaginary boyfriend, he would click off image after image.

She was ''a young American goddess in Paris couture,'' Mr. Penn said. Jean Patchett was among a handful of photographic models who dominated that era, a sorority that included Dovima, Dorian Leigh, Suzy Parker, Evelyn Tripp and Lisa Fonssagrives, who was married to photographer Irving Penn.

No other photograph has captured so much attention then and now, as Jean Patchett’s image in Irving Penn’s “Girl in Black & White” and no other photographer ever worked harder to bring out the distinctive quality of each model than Irving Penn. For the Vogue Magazine article “The Black and White Idea,” Penn’s picture of Jean Patchett, was the first Black & White specifically commissioned to replace the color illustrations Vogue had used on its covers since 1909. The symmetry is broken only by Jean’s sidelong glance. To help get the contrasts Penn wanted, Jean used black lipstick, improvised from mascara. The results were stunning, creating an image that became part of fashion and photographic art history. In 2008 a signed, initialed, titled, dated in ink copy of the famous photograph by Irving Penn of Jean Patchett was auctioned at Christie’s, New York for a fabulous sum of $266,500.


With stunning use of light, the Horst P. Horst photograph could be seen as a painting. Jean wears a pale pink velveteen bathing suit with a high Empire waist and finished with romper pants. The room is infused with the blush hue, and the floor virtually absorbs its color. Horst P. Horst's romantic photograph appeared in the December 2, 1955, Vogue.

The photo by John Rawlings of Jean Patchett in an open top golden brown gown with multi-strand rhinestone necklace is one of the most romantic images of Jean. This photograph by John Rawlings is timeless as his use of soft hues of taupe and gray craft a dreamlike quality. Here Jean appears silent, as if in a meditative moment, with a gentle breeze blowing through her hair and gown. This John Rawlings photograph of Jean is a classic for all ages.

When asked how Jean Patchett dressed in that period, Eileen Ford said, with pride, ''We all shopped at Loehmann's.'' Jean was a regular at the legendary Stork Club. "None of us had much money, but we managed to look the part," Eileen Ford said. "God bless Loehmann's. We'd go clear out to Brooklyn to shop there.

Jean Patchett was pursued by many men, many of them wealthy. She was seen frequently at the Stork Club, and was a regular at the Friday lunch that the club's owner, Sherman Billingsley, gave for models.

When Mr. Louis Auer V, a banker who worked on Wall Street, first met Jean Patchett in 1948, he was living at the Yale Club. Mr. Auer had graduated from Yale University just a year before in 1947. “A couple of models I knew who lived at the Barbizon said, 'We've got a girl for you,' '' Mr. Auer recalled. ''We met at a luncheonette near the old DuMont studios.'' Soon after they started going out, Mr. Auer gave Jean Patchett the nickname Pancho, which stuck. Jean Patchett and Louis Auer V married in 1951. Jean & Louis Auer V lived and worked in New York City on the East side where they raised their family; son Bart and daughter Amy.

Jean Patchett was featured on CBS Television on Edward R. Murrow’s show Person to Person on January 28, 1955. In Mr. Murrow’s introduction he said: “Jean Patchett has been the most sought after model for nearly seven years now.” Murrow, an Emmy Award winning journalist whose show was in its 2nd season, interviewed Jean in episode 22. Jean and husband Louis Auer V were broadcast live from their home in the relaxed style of Mr. Murrow’s TV journalism. The innately curious public got a firsthand peek inside the home and could hear and see Jean personally during conversations with Mr. Murrow. The discussions were opened by Edward R. Murrow from his wingback chair in the studio, while several television cameras at different locations allowed Jean and Louis to answer questions, and have conversations from various rooms in their home. The 15 minute program with Jean Patchett was during the 6 year run of Mr. Murrow’s Person to Person.

A close-up image of Jean Patchett’s face was used in the opening credits of the movie Funny Face. The story is about a fashion photographer Dick Avery, played by Fred Astaire, in search for an intellectual backdrop for an air-headed model, played by Dovima. The photographer commandeers a Greenwich Village bookstore for the photo session. While examining the photos, he notices Jo, played by Audrey Hepburn, in the background of a shot. Intrigued by her unique appearance, as is the editor of the fashion magazine, played by Kay Thompson, Jo is offered a modeling contract. She reluctantly accepts only because it includes a trip to Paris. It is a whimsical love story centering on the fashion couture of New York and Paris. Several copies of the color photo of Jean Patchett appear in the editor’s office suite. In addition, Jean’s image is seen in a collage with other leading fifties models in the “Think Pink” musical number. Suzy Parker, a colleague of Jean’s, has a credited role as a Specialty Dancer in the same musical sequence. The music was scored by George and Ira Gershwin.

Jean Patchett and Ernest Hemingway engaged in discussion during a photo session in Mr. Hemingway’s home for a Vogue Magazine article in 1950. Photographer Clifford Coffin captures this momentary pause in their conversation. Jean is holding one kitten as Mr. Hemingway is petting a second kitten, while the large Doberman rests at his feet. The photograph is a unique juxtaposition between legendary author and game hunter, Ernest Hemingway, dressed in just summer shorts while model Jean Patchett appears in a crisply pressed blouse, skirt and shoes.

The engaging interview continued for hours, while Ernest Hemingway kept Jean’s wine glass full. Being polite, Miss Patchett could not refuse the host’s generosity. According to Amy Auer, Jean later said, “By the time the session was over, I could barely walk and had a headache the next day. And the worst part was that, Mr. Hemingway smelled bad.”

It is often said that Jean Patchett made a mountain out of the mole to the right of her eye, which became her trademark years before Cindy Crawford was born. "We really made history," Jean Patchett said of her work with Penn. "To have five pictures of yourself hanging in the Museum of Modern Art! I didn't know that I was going to be doing that." Irving Penn’s work with Jean Patchett helped bring fashion photography to a new level of art. Jean Patchett’s photographs are not only part of a collection in the Museum of Modern Art, New York but also the Boston Museum of Art, Boston MA., the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, as well as other art museums and galleries. More recently Jean was represented in the “Model as Muse”: Embodying Fashion - Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York with Irving Penn’s Photograph “Girl In Black and White” and on Vogue Covers displayed. Jean may not have known she would accomplish this as well, but indeed she did leave a legacy.

Jean Patchett was honored along with Suzy Parker and Naomi Sims at the 50 Years of American Women in Fashion ceremony. Robert Riley said of Jean: “One of the most popular photographic models of our time, Jean Patchett has had a career that covered the better part of three decades, from the late Forties to the early Sixties.” “She had that balance of personality and anonymity which never overshadowed what she was wearing. Her face… could look like a thousand faces. She was wonderfully receptive to the demands of the photographer, and if those demands ran dry she had very good ideas of her own.” (Robert Riley)

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Jean Patchett’s pictures are encyclopedic. The number of photographs in black & white, and color are immeasurable. Many have survived in the archives of fashion houses, photographers’ studios, galleries, museums, in scrapbooks of admiring fans, and Jean’s personal collection.

Jean Patchett’s nephew Louis Auer VI was on vacation in London, England in 2003. As Louis walked along the sidewalk, he was drawn into a ladies fashion boutique after noticing several large black & white posters of Jean Patchett’s Vogue Covers hung on the walls of the boutique. Louis Auer VI stood in amazement looking at his Aunt Jean Patchett’s images...from the “Golden Age of Paris Couture”. it was a deeply moving and profound experience. Art and beauty lives forever in the hundreds of fashion photographs that Jean helped create.

Sadly, we lost Jean Patchett on January 22, 2002, following a bout with emphysema at her home in La Quinta, CA.

 

*I was reading an article in June Vogue where this picture and the model, Jean Patchett, was mentioned and I just spent about 3hrs saving the most beautiful pictures. Feel totally inspired. So in love with the clothes... I so want to go shopping!! My album of Jean Patchett coming soon!! She photographs beautifully!!

Idea Log 25052011

The Gashlycrumb Tinies: or, After the Outing is an abecedarian book written by Edward Gorey that was first published in 1963. Gorey tells the tale of 26 children (each representing a letter of the alphabet) and their untimely deaths in rhyming dactylic couplets, accompanied by the author's distinctive black and white illustrations.

I have 3 postcards from these series: The cover; C is for CARLA who wasted away; I is for IDA who drowned in the lake

For the entire series go to: http://takalak.narod.ru/gorey/

Idea Log 24052011

Currently following...

최고의 사랑/Choegoui Sarang/ The Greatest Love

and

醉後決定愛上你 / Zui Hou Jue Ding Ai Shang Ni / Love You

...

...

... 6 episodes each down... 10 more episodes to go... this is going to be a LONG summer!! One episode per week??? I won't know the ending till August???

Idea Log 23052011

 

Another one of my acquisitions>> THE FLATIRON BUILDING 1905 by Edward Steichen!

The original

The Flatiron, New York, 1905 By Edward SteichenU.S.A.
1905
Edward Steichen: Early Years Portfolio, 1900-1927

Edward Steichen is an immortal among photographers. His richest, most profound photographs were made between 1900 and 1927. It is from this period that Steichen selected his masterpieces and asked Aperture to publish his prints as hand-pulled photogravures–the finest of all methods of reproduction.
This printing commissioned by Steichen's son from Aperture, N.Y. in the late 1960's. Sold Out.
This hand-pulled dust-grain photogravure is printed by master photogravure printer Jon Goodman.
http://conorfennessy.1stdibs.com/store/furniture_item_detail.php?id=495537

Idea Log 22052011

Arthur Rackham Green Tiger Press Note Cards!!

Can you believe this??? My latest acquisition of 7 original Arthur Rackham vintage 'Green Tiger Press" prints!!! for 50 cents at a garage sale yesterday!!!! I almost died of excitement when I saw it in the box!! I had wanted own atleast one of these in my lifetime. I still can't believe it!!!! They are so beautiful!

My older post on Arthur Rackham can be found in an earlier entry here:

http://governmentgirl1943lp.typepad.com/blog/2010/12/idea-log-27122010.html#tp

A little introduction I found on 'The Green Tiger Press": For those of you who are not lucky enough to remember Green Tiger Press - they were La Jolla, California printers of the most delicious cards, notes & other paper fancies back in the late 1960's through to their closing in 1986. (http://www.zibbet.com/PetitPoulailler/artwork?artworkId=401895)

 

 

 

 
 

Idea Log 21052011

  

How to Wreck Your Credit Score

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703280904576247081349939332.html

Don't underestimate the harm that even one missed mortgage payment can do to your credit score—especially if you had good credit to begin with.

The severe consequences underscore that you shouldn't shrug off even an accidentally missed payment. Instead, you should pay it and call the lender right away, begging for forgiveness before it mars your credit record.

In an unusually specific commentary to lenders, Fair Isaac, the creator of the FICO score, recently spelled out the severe consequences to the credit scores of borrowers who are 30 days late on their mortgages—as well as the long-term impact of failing to repay the whole mortgage.

It isn't a pretty picture.

Being 30 days late on a house payment—even if it is an accident—can knock 100 points off a pristine 780 credit score, moving you from qualifying for the very best interest rates to the edge of subprime territory.

The actual numerical drop is less severe if your starting credit score is 720 or 680, but the impact is greater, since your new score is likely to sink to a level where new credit is hard to get and very expensive.

The FICO score ranges from a low of 300 to 850, with scores of about 750 or higher generally qualifying for the best loan terms.

The details provide a warning for anyone whose home is way underwater and is tempted to simply walk away, or considering a "short sale." That is when the sale price is less than the amount you owe and the borrower doesn't make up the difference. More than 350,000 homes have been sold this way since 2008, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

FICO officials usually dodge questions about the specific impact of actions on scores. But

Joanne Gaskin, director of FICO mortgage markets, compiled the data partly to counter incorrect information, such as recommendations that people stop paying their mortgages so they can negotiate with a lender, she says.

FICO says a foreclosure or short sale where the size of the unpaid balance is reported are equally devastating to a good or excellent credit score, reducing it by as much as 150 points, to the high 500s or low 600s. A rarer "deed in lieu of foreclosure"—in which the borrower voluntarily transfers ownership of the home to the lender—may have less impact on an excellent score.

Recovering your original score takes about seven years. That also is how long the information stays on your credit report, where insurers and potential employers can see it. Returning to a mediocre 680 score may take only three years.

Here are some other lessons from the data:

• Your past behavior counts, but your current behavior matters more.

Credit scores are intended to measure the risk that you won't repay a current or future debt. So your careful payments over many years translate into a higher starting score.

But your score takes the biggest hit of all when you are 30 days late on a payment, falling 70 to 100 points in the FICO example. It drops less when you are 90 days late and if you default. The reason? The first missed payment "captures a good deal of the risk of the consumer," Ms. Gaskin says.

• The best way to rebuild a damaged credit score, ironically, is to use credit.

Avoiding borrowing altogether means "you've frozen your credit history in a negative state," says Maxine Sweet, vice president of public education for credit bureau Experian. You will be better off using a credit card judiciously and paying it off promptly, adding good-behavior points to your record.

• A rotten score hurts more than you think.

A person with a 620 score would pay almost 12% interest on a four-year $25,000 car loan, compared with less than 5% for someone with a 780 score—a difference of almost $4,000 over the life of the loan. On a 30-year fixed-rate $250,000 mortgage, a person with a 620 score might qualify for a 6% rate, but probably wouldn't be able to get mortgage insurance, which is required if your down payment less than 20%. A person with excellent credit might land a rate less than 5% and pay about $3,000 a year less.

— [email protected]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703280904576247081349939332.html

 

Idea Log 20052011

“Transitions in life are usually marked by major events — birthdays, graduations, weddings. But the greater transitions often come out of smaller moments when we stop and look at who we are. Because each time we see how far we’ve come, we also see how far we still have to go. In order to fully transform, we might need to free ourselves of everything we’ve been holding on to. To send us on our new path — the right one. But if at the end, you find the person you’ve become is not the person you want to be you can always turn around and try again. And maybe next time you won’t be so alone when it’s over.” 

- Gossip Girl_Season4-Episode22

 

Idea Log 19052011

Risk of MARKET FLUCTUATIONs? ... but thanks to the power of dollar cost averaging, even downside fluctuations can work to your advantage."

...  

"Tom, say you decide to save $100 a month and invest it in fund XYZ. The month you start your program, XYZ is trading at ten dollars a share, so obviously you buy ten shares. The second month XYZ has dropped by fifty percent, all the way to five dollars... not good. Your $100 now buys you twenty shares. In month three, the fund has rebounded somewhat and now trades at seven dollars and fifty cents, still well under your original purchase price. You buy thirteen and a third shares. So what's happened?"

"I've lost money following your advice. That's what happened," answered Tom.

"No, you haven't," I interrupted confidently. "You've broken even. You're down two-fifty a share on your purchase at ten, you're up two-fifty a share on your purchase at five, and you're even on your final purchase."

Roy corrected us, "You're both wrong."

"I hate math," I growled. "But how can I be wrong? It's just a question of average price. Even I can figure out the average of three numbers."

"How many shares does Tom own?" asked Roy. He then quickly answered his own question: "Forty-three and a third. And how much are the shares currently worth? Seven dollars and fifty cents each. What's forty-three and a third times seven-fifty? Three hundred and twenty-five. How much had Tom invested? Three hundred. He's up twenty five dollars, an excellent return over such a short period of time."

"How the -"

"Becauses you're putting in fixed amount each month, you obtain more shares at the lower prices. You bought twenty shares at five, but only ten at ten. Basically, it means that your average cost per share will be lower than the average price per share. In the long run, or even in the short run, the bodes well for the investor.

"So one month when the stock market is struggling and your mutual fund is suffering accordingly, don't look at the situation and say, 'Darn, my holding is down.' Look at it and say, 'Eventually the market will go up and take the value of my holding with it, so in the meantime I'm going to pick up shares at a good price.' Dollar Cost Averaging is great stuff!

Currently reading..... Pg, 48, The Wealthy Barber (David Chilton)

Idea Log 18052011

Water and You: From the Globe to Your Tap

Wednesday, May 18, 7:00 pm
Free

Humans are now changing the water cycle at a global scale, but why should you care and what can you do?  In this presentation, water policy expert Dr. Rob de Loë examines the critical role of water in our lives and explores our relationship with water. He will highlight the challenges and opportunities inherent in this global issue, and give you a toolkit of things you can do to change your relationship with water.

Rob de Loë holds the University Research Chair in Water Policy and Governance at the University of Waterloo, and is Director of the multi-university Water Policy Group.

Wednesday, May 18, 7:00 - 8:00 pm

Status:  Available

 
Distinguished Lecturer Water Series

Instructor(s)/
Speaker(s):
  Rob de Loë holds the University Research Chair in Water Policy and Governance at the University of Waterloo, and is Director of the multi-university Water Policy Group.

 
Location:  Royal Ontario Museum, Level 1B
Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre
Entrance:  President's Choice School Entrance  map
Cost:  Free.

 Public (RSVP only): Free Member (RSVP only): Free     

Contact Information: 
Tel.: 416.586.5797
E-mail: [email protected]

Date/Time:  Sessions (1): 
Wednesday May 18, 7:00 to 8:00 pm
 

 

Idea Log 17052011

 
Just purchased my very own yearly membership for the Royal Ontario Museum!!! As I might have mentioned before, I have handed in my resignation and hence, this is my plan B> to spend most of my unemployed moments here!

Idea Log 16052011

GOSSIP GIRL Season 4 finale: The Wrong Goodbye coming up in approximately 30mins!!!!

"You deserve your fairytale"- Chuck/ "We make our own fairytales"-Blair

 

CHAIR! CHAIR! CHAIR!!! if they don't get together by the end of this episode, I will.......

Idea Log 15052011

When fairytales inform us that 'they all lived happily ever after', they never specify how happily - or for how long that 'ever after' lasted. If it really was for ever after, then it still must be happening now. Somewhere, in some hidden corner of our world, must be loads of ageing but blissful princes, princesses, frogs, dragons, kings and witches. Eternity is a tricky concept. We just don't have time to sit around long enough to figure out what it means. But 'happiness' is a much easier idea to understand. And it's easy to feel, too - for you this week. Don't question it too much; just enjoy.

www.cainer.com

Idea Log 14052011

"For people to achieve and grow, it's not about the title or the status.

It's about accomplishing things."

- David Cornhill

David Cornhill is a pragmatist with a vision. He has taken small regional player Altagas and turned it into a diversified energy giant. And he has some strong views on where the energy industry needs to go in being a responsible corporate citizen. When he was president and CEO of Alberta and Southern Gas, which supplied much of California with natural gas, the company was wound up. Cornhill had the unpleasant task of laying off 120 people. He took 20 of those corporate refugees and founded Altagas as a midstream gas business in 1994. Since then, the company grew into a diversified income trust before reverting to corporate status last year. Today, it is growing its business into power generation, including massive wind farm and hydroelectric projects in B.C. and gas-fired generation. Cornhill has also worked for Gulf Canada and other energy companies. He shares some of the insights gained from 25 years in the gas and power business.

AV: Bear Mountain is an ambitious wind power project, the biggest in B.C. Why did you get into wind power and what is its commercial potential for Altagas?

Cornhill: We got in the power business in the early 2000s with the acquisition of a purchase-power arrangement in Alberta. Clearly, our strategy from day one was to reduce the carbon intensity and grow our power business. When we looked at the opportunities, clearly wind fit that opportunity and we were looking at Western Canada, which we knew. There wasn’t any great vision other than we wanted to grow our power, we wanted to be responsible and generate clean power, to reduce our carbon intensity. It fit the bill. We looked at various technologies and we felt the technology we were using was reliable on capability. It fit our strategy and we went forward; we looked at how we could reduce risk, how we could work with the people of Dawson Creek and try to build a project that would create value for the community but also create value for our shareholders. When we made the choice for moving into renewables, I guess I stepped back to think what our children and grandchildren think of where we should be going. Clearly, wind power is one part of the equation to generate green power and we believe that the need for electricity will increase in our economy. It seemed to be the right thing to do for the future, for what our children will be thinking of and what they will be looking out for in 25, 30, 40, 50 years from now. It was as simple as that, and then we worked hard to bring it in on time and on budget, minimize the impact on the environment, and I think we did a good job. And that was the big insight.

AV: What is the biggest lesson you have learned as a CEO?

Cornhill: Hiring the right people is critical. And if you make a mistake, it’s dealing with it quickly. I think that talking more, communicating more – and that continues to be challenge for me, as I like to listen more than I like to talk. I always say you can’t learn a lot when you’re talking, but you sure learn a lot when you’re listening. So those are the things: you need people who can help you offset some of your weaknesses and make sure you’re aligned. I think having the confidence to make decisions and move forward and commit to them is probably the biggest learning and I think we’ve done that successfully. We’re not afraid of new challenges and new learnings and to stretch our capabilities and to work hard to make sure we’re reasonably successful.

AV: What would be the single piece of advice you would offer to a rising young executive?

Cornhill: Work and think like you’re the CEO. Make decisions that are right for the shareholders, have confidence in your employees. You need to do the work and understand that. The other is don’t get overcome by the position and the titles and everything around that. If someone’s going to be successful, it’s once you accomplish things, once you create things. For people to achieve and grow, it’s not about the title, it’s not about the status, it’s about accomplishing things; it’s about increasing societal value, not individual value. If you do the right things, your own personal wealth will increase. But if you’re all about driving flashy cars and you’re all about the status, it doesn’t fit with what I want Altagas to be. If that’s what somebody wants, they should be looking at a different company.

AV: Has there ever been a corporate move where you’ve wanted to ask for a mulligan or a do-over?

Cornhill: The decisions I made around people. I’ve often sat in a meeting and wanted to go in a direction and there was active debate. At the end of the meeting, we went in the direction that I wanted to go. Then, on reflection, you realize that you’re wrong. Then you have to go back and change the direction because you were eliminating certain points of view that were really important. Then, with time to reflect on it, and I’ve done a lot of this – I want to go this way but I’m wrong, so we should adjust to take these other things into account. The biggest thing is to be able to listen. You may not immediately say, ‘You’re right.’ But then you go back and reflect on it and you say, ‘Where I wanted to go doesn’t make sense and we should be adjusting it for these reasons.’ You should have the courage to say, ‘Let’s go this way.’ I get mulligans all the time that way.

Any final thoughts?

Cornhill: It’s hard to reflect. When you look back, it’s all about the journey. Just go out and do it. If you think it’s too complicated, you’ll never accomplish things. If you understand the simple fundamental questions and act on them, and then be willing to learn and adjust as you move down that journey, you’ll do quite well.

For the full interview go to: www.albertaventure.com/cornhill

 

Idea Log 13052011

ESTHETICS in OBJECTIVISM:

"Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgements." The purpose of art is to concretize the artist's fundamental view of existence. Ayn Rand described her own approach to art as "Romantic Realism": "I am a Romantic in the sense that I present men as they out to be. I am Realistic in the sense that I place them here and now and on this earth." The goal of Ayn Rand's novels is not didactic and artistic: the projection of an ideal man: "My purpose, first cause and prime mover is the portrayal of Howard Roark or John Galt or Hank Rearden or Francisco d'Anconia as an end in himself-not as a means to any further end."

Recommended writings of Ayn Rand on ART and Literature:

The Romantic Manifesto (1969): Ayn Rand's philosophy of art, with a new analysis of Romantic school of literature. Essays include: "Philosophy and Sense of Life." "The Psycho-Epistemology of Art," and "What is Romanticism?"

 

For more information on the Ayn Rand Institute please contact:

The Ayn Rand Institute

P.O. Box 51808

Irvine, CA 92619-1808

www.aynrand.org

Idea Log 12052011

"

A farmer will not invest the effort of one summer if he's unable to calculate his chances of harvest. But you expect industrial giants-who plan in terms of decades, invest in terms of generations and undertake ninety-nine-year contracts-to continue to function and produce, not knowing what random caprice in the skull of what random official will descend upon them at what moment to demolish the whole of their effort. Drifters and physical laborers live and plan by the range of a day. The better the mind, the longer the range. A man whose vision extends to a shanty, might continue to build on your quicksands, to grab fast a profit and run. A man who envisions skyscrapers, will not. Nor will he give ten years of unanswering devotion to the task of inventing a new product, when he knows that gangs of entrenched mediocrity are juggling the laws against him, to tie him, restrict him and force him to fail, but should he fight them and struggle and succeed, they will seize his reward and his invention."

- Ayn Rand, (Atlas Shrugged, Pg 974) 

Idea Log 11052011

from: http://gapingvoid.com/n2/

PS: I umm... I just had my final exit interview with the HR department today. I handed in my resignation on the 4th of May. It is hard to believe that after more than 2 years of service I will be leaving to become the person I was born to be. In other words, I am going to be unemployed soon with no career choice in mind but I aim to finish reading the 3 new books I just bought!

Idea Log 10052011

"If you exchange a penny for a dollar, it is not sacrifice; if you exchange a dollar for a penny, it is. If you achieve a career you wanted, after years of struggle, it is not a sacrifice; if you then renounce it for the sake of a rival, it is. If you own a bottle of milk and give it to your starving child, it is not sacrifice; if you give it to your neighbour's child and let your owm die, it is.

If you give money to help a friend, it is not a sacrifice; if you give it to a worthlesss stranger, it is. If you give your friend a sum you can afford, it is not a sacrifice; if you give him money at the cost of your own discomfort, it is only a partial virtue according to this sort of ; if you give him money at the cost of disaster to yourself- that is the virtue of sacrifice in full."

-Ayn Rand, ( Atlas Shrugged, Pg 941)

Idea Log 09052011

"Man's mind is his basic tool of survival. Life is given to him, survival is not. His body is given to him, its sustenance is not. His mind is given to him, its content is not. To remain alive, he must act, and before he can act he must know the nature and purpose of his action. He cannot obtain his food without a knowledge of food and of the way to obtain it. He cannot dig a ditch- or build a cyclotron- without a knowledge of his aim and of the means to achieve it. To remain alive, he must think".

- Ayn Rand, (Atlas Shrugged~Pg. 926)

Idea Log 08052011

THE HUGHTRAIN MANIFESTO: “THE MARKET FOR SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN IS INFINITE.” by Hugh Macleod author of _EVIL PLANS

We are here to find meaning. We are here to help other people do the same. Everything else is secondary.

We humans want to believe in our own species. And we want people, companies and products in our lives that make it easier to do so. That is human nature.

Product benefit doesn’t excite us. Belief in humanity and human potential excites us.

Think less about what your product does, and think more about human potential.

What statement about humanity does your product make?

The bigger the statement, the bigger the idea, the bigger your brand will become.

It’s no longer just enough for people to believe that your product does what it says on the label. They want to believe in you and what you do. And they’ll go elsewhere if they don’t.

It’s not enough for the customer to love your product. They have to love your process as well.

People are not just getting more demanding as consumers, they are getting more demanding as spiritual entities. Branding becomes a spiritual exercise.

Either get with the program or hire a consultant in Extinction Management. No vision, no business. Your life from now on pivots squarely on your vision of human potential.

The primary job of an advertiser is not to communicate benefit, but to communicate conviction.

Benefit is secondary. Benefit is a product of conviction, not vice versa.

Whatever you manufacture, somebody can make it better, faster and cheaper than you.

You do not own the molecules. They are stardust. They belong to God. What you do own is your soul. Nobody can take that away from you. And it is your soul that informs the brand.

It is your soul, and the purpose and beliefs that embodies, that people will buy into.

Ergo, great branding is a spiritual exercise.

Why is your brand great? Why does your brand matter? Seriously. If you don’t know, then nobody else can- no advertiser, no buyer, and certainly no customer.

It’s not about merit. It’s about faith. Belief. Conviction. Courage.

It’s about why you’re on this planet. To make a dent in the universe.

I don’t want to know why your brand is good, or very good, or even great. I want to know why your brand is totally frickin’ amazing.

Once you tell me, I can the world.

And then they will know.

Why is it called The Hughtrain? Soon after I drew the cartoon, I wrote a little manifesto on my blog, trying to explain the cartoon in more depth. I called it “The Hughtrain Manifesto”, a pun on a book that had made a big impact on me around that time, “The Cluetrain Manifesto”.

Here’s the point of The Hughtrain: Whatever you’re selling isn’t just a product of capital, it’s also a product of a belief system- your own. And understanding your belief system is crucial.

Link to page: http://gapingvoid.com/2009/06/25/my-next-book-evil-plans/

http://gapingvoid.com/

Link to main blog homepage: http://gapingvoid.com/

 

Idea Log 07052011

 

INTRODUCTION: EVERYBODY NEEDS AN EVIL PLAN

Everybody needs an EVIL PLAN. Everybody needs that crazy, out-there idea that allows them to ACTUALLY start doing something they love, doing something that matters. Everybody needs an EVIL PLAN that gets them the hell out of the Rat Race, away from lousy bosses, away from boring, dead-end jobs that they hate. Life is short.

Every person who ever managed to do this, every person who manged to escape the cubical farm and start doing something interesting and meaningful, started off with their own EVIL PLAN. And yeah, pretty much everyone around them- friends, family, colleagues- thought they were nuts.

Thanks to the Internet, it has never been easier to have an EVIL PLAN, to make a great living, doing what you love, doing something that matters. My intention is that by the time you’ve finished reading this book, you will completely concur. More importantly, you’ll actually feel compelled enough to go and do something about it yourself, if you haven’t already.

“TO UNIFY WORK AND LOVE”

Sigmund Freud once said that in order to be truly happy in life, a human being needed to acquire two things: The capacity to work, and the capacity to love.

An EVIL PLAN is really about being able to do both at the same time.

Link: http://gapingvoid.com/2009/06/25/my-next-book-evil-plans/

Idea Log 06052011

EVIL PLANS by Hugh Macleod + Linchpin by Seth Godin + Suze Orman's The Money Class =TOTAL PLUM REWARDS EARNED: 835!

Plum rewards for Indigo’s customers

Published On Tue Apr 5 2011

by Dana Flavelle Business Reporter for TORONTO STAR

Canada’s biggest bookstore has launched a new loyalty program that rewards customers for buying more than just books.

Indigo Books & Music Inc. unveiled its new “Plum” rewards program Tuesday saying it will complement its existing iRewards plan.

“This program will absolutely not replace iRewards,” Deirdre Horgan, Indigo’s executive vice-president marketing, said in an interview.

Plum will be free while the price of joining iRewards will jump by $10 a year to $35 as the program expands to include toys, gifts and anything else sold in its stores, the retailer said.

The move comes as booksellers, along with music and video retailers across North America, face increasing competition from digital content.

Indigo’s shares fell 6 cents to $12.70 on the Toronto Stock Exchange Tuesday, hitting a new 52-week low, amid ongoing turmoil in the sector.

South of the border, superstore book retailer Borders Group Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection, as has DVD rental chain Blockbuster Inc., while British-based music retailer HMV has announced its Canadian chain is up for sale.

Book and electronic retailers are losing sales to online powerhouse Amazon.com, Scott Devitt, an analyst with U.S.-based Morgan Stanley wrote in a recent report.

But some Canadian analysts say Indigo is a safer bet because of the steps it has taken to diversify itself.

“Anybody who’s strictly a book retailer is in trouble,” said Bob Gibson, an analyst with Octagon Capital Inc., in Toronto. “But Indigo is really moving away from being a book retailer.”

The retailer recently tapped Ted Marlow, a former head of clothing chain Urban Outfitters, to be its next president.

As well, Indigo will begin carrying the first of a line of exclusive store-brand gift merchandise by New York-based creative director Patrick Ramsey this fall.

Indigo is also a partner in Kobo books, one of the world’s largest retailers of electronic books.

The revamped loyalty program, which stitches it all together, is the most important cornerstone of its strategy, Horgan said.

The iRewards program, which gives customers 10 per cent off books, used to apply only to books and while it worked well for seniors and teachers, other customers said they wanted a different kind of rewards system, Horgan said.

Plum is a points’ progam. Customers earn points through purchases and then redeem those points for free merchandise at the cash register. Customers who tell Indigo more about themselves, such as their book preferences, will receive customized email offers.

As well, Indigo can offer bonus points on certain merchandise to help boost sales.

In addition to free merchandise, Plum’s most loyal collectors will receive invitations to special events, such as an annual lunch with chief book lover and Indigo founder Heather Reisman, Horgan said.

Plum is designed to tell the retailer more about customers’ preferences and also help it drive certain behaviours. It can offer bonus points on certain merchandise, for example.

In addition to discounts, its most loyal customers will receive invitations to special events, including a lunch with chief book lover and Indigo founder Heather Reisman, Horgan said.

Another reason Indigo has avoided Borders’ fate is it isn’t weighed down by excessive debt, Horgan said.

Indigo has paid off the $80 million it borrowed to buy rival Chapters in 2001, she noted.

Borders expects to close a third of its 433 stores.

http://www.thestar.com/business/companies/article/969693--plum-rewards-for-indigo-s-customers

Idea Log 05052011

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor, scientist, and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (now Edison, New Jersey) by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.

U.S. Patent#223898: Electric-Lamp. Issued January 27, 1880.

 Edison is the third most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator. Edison originated the concept and implementation of electric-power generation and distribution to homes, businesses, and factories – a crucial development in the modern industrialized world. His first power station was on Manhattan Island, New York.

Life and Beginning of his entrepreneurial spirit: Edison's family was forced to move to Port Huron, Michigan, when the railroad bypassed Milan in 1854, but his life there was bittersweet. He sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit, and he sold vegetables to supplement his income. This began Edison's long streak of entrepreneurial ventures as he discovered his talents as a businessman. These talents eventually led him to found 14 companies, including General Electric, which is still in existence as one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world.

Beginning his career: Thomas Edison began his career as an inventor in Newark, New Jersey, with the automatic repeater and his other improved telegraphic devices, but the invention which first gained him notice was the phonograph in 1877. This accomplishment was so unexpected by the public at large as to appear almost magical. Edison became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park," New Jersey. His first phonograph recorded on tinfoil around a grooved cylinder, but had poor sound quality and the recordings could only be played a few times. In the 1880s, a redesigned model using wax-coated cardboard cylinders was produced by Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell, and Charles Tainter. This was one reason that Thomas Edison continued work on his own "Perfected Phonograph."

Media inventions

The key to Edison's fortunes was telegraphy. With knowledge gained from years of working as a telegraph operator, he learned the basics of electricity. This allowed him to make his early fortune with the stock ticker, the first electricity-based broadcast system. Edison patented the sound recording and reproducing phonograph in 1878. Edison was also granted a patent for the motion picture camera or "Kinetograph". He did the electromechanical design, while his employee W.K.L. Dickson, a photographer, worked on the photographic and optical development. Much of the credit for the invention belongs to Dickson. In 1891, Thomas Edison built a Kinetoscope, or peep-hole viewer. This device was installed in penny arcades, where people could watch short, simple films. The kinetograph and kinetoscope were both first publicly exhibited May 20, 1891.

On August 9, 1892, Edison received a patent for a two-way telegraph. In April 1896, Thomas Armat's Vitascope, manufactured by the Edison factory and marketed in Edison's name, was used to project motion pictures in public screenings in New York City. Later he exhibited motion pictures with voice soundtrack on cylinder recordings, mechanically synchronized with the film.

Officially the kinetoscope entered Europe when the rich American Businessman Irving T. Bush (1869–1948) bought from the Continental Commerce Company of Franck Z. Maguire and Joseph D. Bachus a dozen machines. Bush placed from October 17, 1894, the first kinetoscopes in London. At the same time the French company Kinétoscope Edison Michel et Alexis Werner bought these machines for the market in France. In the last three months of 1894 The Continental Commerce Company sold hundreds of kinetoscopes in Europe (i.e. the Netherlands and Italy). In Germany and in Austria-Hungary the kinetoscope was introduced by the Deutsche-österreichische-Edison-Kinetoscop Gesellschaft, founded by the Ludwig Stollwerck of the Schokoladen-Süsswarenfabrik Stollwerck & Co of Cologne. The first kinetoscopes arrived in Belgium at the Fairs in early 1895. The Edison's Kinétoscope Français, a Belgian company, was founded in Brussels on January 15, 1895, with the rights to sell the kinetoscopes in Monaco, France and the French colonies. The main investors in this company were Belgian industrialists. On May 14, 1895, the Edison's Kinétoscope Belge was founded in Brussels. The businessman Ladislas-Victor Lewitzki, living in London but active in Belgium and France, took the initiative in starting this business. He had contacts with Leon Gaumont and the American Mutoscope and Biograph Co. In 1898 he also became a shareholder of the Biograph and Mutoscope Company for France.

In 1901, he visited the Sudbury area in Ontario, Canada, as a mining prospector, and is credited with the original discovery of the Falconbridge ore body. His attempts to actually mine the ore body were not successful, however, and he abandoned his mining claim in 1903. A street in Falconbridge, as well as the Edison Building, which served as the head office of Falconbridge Mines, are named for him.

In 1902, agents of Thomas Edison bribed a theater owner in London for a copy of A Trip to the Moon by Georges Méliès. Edison then made hundreds of copies and showed them in New York City. Méliès received no compensation. He was counting on taking the film to the US and recapture its huge cost by showing it throughout the country when he realized it had already been shown there by Edison. This effectively bankrupted Méliès. Other exhibitors similarly routinely copied and exhibited each others films. To better protect the copyrights on his films, Edison deposited prints of them on long strips of photographic paper with the U.S. copyright office. Many of these paper prints survived longer and in better condition than the actual films of that era.

Edison's favorite movie was The Birth of a Nation. He thought that talkies had "spoiled everything" for him. "There isn't any good acting on the screen. They concentrate on the voice now and have forgotten how to act. I can sense it more than you because I am deaf." His favorite stars were Mary Pickford and Clara Bow.

In 1908, Edison started the Motion Picture Patents Company, which was a conglomerate of nine major film studios (commonly known as the Edison Trust). Thomas Edison was the first honorary fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, which was founded in 1929.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison

One of Edison's famous quotations :

"If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward."

 

Idea Log 04052011

Moguls & Movie Stars: A History Of Hollywood (2010)

There are many legends surrounding the history of Hollywood-some of them true, some of them false, and some wilder than you imagined! This Turner Classic Movies documentary series traces the development and growth of the American motion picture industry from the days of Thomas Edison and Edwin S. Porter through the rise of showmen such as Jesse Lansky and Cecil B. DeMille, to the World War II era, the arrival of television, and beyond. <> Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital stereo; Subtitles: English (SDH), French; bonus footage. 7 episodes on 3 discs. 7 hrs.

http://shop.tcm.com/product.asp?sku=D82829

Episode 1: Peepshow Pioneers (1889- 1907)

Audiences were watching projected images as early as the 18th century. But the pictures were drawings, and they didn't move. That would come in the 1880s. The first movie pioneers were self-taught engineers and tinkerers, itinerant entertainers and street-smart showmen. The first film producer was probably the man known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park," Thomas Edison. He perfected a machine that created pictures that moved, although much of the credit belongs to his assistant, W.K.L. Dickson, the industry's first director. From the beginning, American movies were special, but they were influenced by breakthroughs overseas. From France, the brothers Lumiere, owners of a family photography lab, brought scenes of everyday life to the screen, while an ingenious magician, George Melies, created special visual effects that still have the power to amaze. In America, early moviegoers were astonished and amused by almost anything that moved - from vaudeville acts and boxing matches to three-minute gag reels. After a series of odd jobs, ambitious Edwin S. Porter found motion pictures in the early 1890s. While working for Edison, Porter was soon shooting and selling his own. Porter would create one of the first movies with a story, The Great Train Robbery. At the turn of the 19th century, while the movies were being born, America was experiencing a burst of technological ingenuity. The country's social fabric was being transformed by millions of new immigrants. The newcomers arrived with dreams, and many came with the will and imagination to make those dreams come true. The first generation of American movie makers joined with other innovators and entrepreneurs to create a totally new kind of entertainment and an art form that would transform the world. Adolph Zukor, once a successful furrier, joined with Marcus Loew in 1905 to establish a string of "penny arcades." Zukor would eventually found Paramount Pictures, and Loew would create a major theater chain. Carl Laemmle, the future founder of Universal Pictures, was another immigrant entrepreneur who saw promise in making a penny or nickel at a time. The Warner family settled in Youngstown, Ohio. Four brothers - Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack - started their movie careers as itinerant showmen, screening movies from town to town. From Hungary came William Fox, who was raised in poverty but found movies a path to success. Louis B. Mayer was the son of an immigrant junk dealer who, like other founding moguls, began as a theater owner. New York quickly became a business and distribution center, but the first "Hollywood" was in Ft. Lee, N.J. Here, the first great American film director, D.W. Griffith, learned his trade and began to develop the foundations of motion picture storytelling. The popularity of movies was unprecedented, and so was the profit potential. Realizing this, Edison joined a group of investors and equipment manufacturers, including Eastman Kodak, to corner the market. They established the Motion Picture Patents Company and demanded royalties from anyone who made movies. The pressures of the trust forced independents to look elsewhere, to the far-reaches of Los Angeles, with the safety of the Mexican border a short distance away. An unlikely southern California hamlet was about to become the world famous capital of motion pictures.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1759310/episodes

Episode 2: The Birth of Hollywood (1907- 1920)

Episode 3: The Deam Merchants (1920- 1928)

Episode 4: Brother, Can You Spare a Dream? (1929- 1941)

Episode 5: Warriors and Peacemakers (1941-1950)

Episode 6: The Attack of the Small Screen (1950- 1960)

Episode 7: Fade Out, Fade In (1960-1969)

http://www.tcm.com/moguls/index.html#/home

 *I will be making an entry on Thomas Alva Edison tomorrow!!!

 

Idea Log 03052011

HAPPY MOTHER's DAY to my MUMMY hajur

"My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint."(a quote by Thomas Alva Edison)

Nepali Mother's Day 2011> 3rd May

Mother's Day (Mata Tirtha Puja)

The Nepalese people have always been family oriented. They take great pride in their ancient tradition of closely-knit family unit. This sort of kinship is not only the result of religious teachings, but also due to various festivals and ceremonies, which brings the family together and strengthens the family ties in the Nepalese society.

Such is the festival of "Mata Tritha Puja" which in English is "Mother's day" . This festival falls on the last day of the dark fortnight of April or early May. It is a day when one shows appreciation and gratitude to his/her mother for her unconditional love and undying support.

On this day, each house bustles with activities and everyone, regardless of age, participates. There aren't much religious ceremonies but the fact that it is a day for mothers, calls for celebrations for she is the one who keeps the family together through ups and downs in life. Even the small children dig into their savings to buy gifts for their mothers. Sons and daughters living separately, come with presents and delicacies to spend time with their mother. It is a day of reunion for married daughters with their mothers. The entire day is filled with festivities and merry making.

Those who don't have a mother pay obeisance to Mata Tirtha, which is a sacred site of pilgrimage and holy bathing. It lies six miles south - west of central Katmandu, consisting of two pools-the larger for bathing and the smaller is famous as the place where one "looks upon one's mother's face".

Legends reveal that in the ancient times the region was ruled by a cowherd king. One of his cowherds was so depressed by his mother's death that he went to pray and make offerings at a water storage pond in the forest on this day. Miraculously his mother's face appeared and her hand accepted the offerings. Thus its called Mata Tirtha, where many hope to see their mother's face. Alot of folklores are attached to this site, some of which are tragic. But whatever it maybe, people still believe that paying homage to this site will bring peace to their mother's departed soul. So for this reason people come from distant places, on this day, to show their reverance.

Thus, Mata Tirtha holds a very profound meaning in each person's life. For a mother, is a figure present in everyone's life. This day gives each child a chance to show the depth of his/her feelings for her.

Article by Padmakshi Rana (http://www.nepalhomepage.com/society/festivals/motherday.html)

 

Idea Log 02052011

 

Home made Ddeokbokki @ work for lunch. I love my co-worker! Gomawoyo Belle Unni~ as much as I love ddeokbokki!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tteokbokki, also known as Ddeokbokki is a popular Korean snack food which is commonly purchased from street vendors or Pojangmacha. Originally it was called tteok jjim (떡찜), and was a braised dish of sliced rice cake, meat, eggs, and seasoning. Tteok jjim an early variant of modern tteokbokki, was once a part of Korean royal court cuisine. This type of tteokbokki was made by boiling tteok, meat, vegetables, eggs, and seasonings in water, and then serving it topped with ginkgo nuts and walnuts. In its original form, tteokbokki, which was then known as gungjung tteokbokki, was a dish served in the royal court and regarded as a representative example of haute cuisine. The original tteokbokki was a stir-fried dish consisting of garaetteok (가래떡, cylinder-shaped tteok) combined with a variety of ingredients, such as beef, mung bean sprouts, green onions, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, and onions, and seasoned with soy sauce.

 

Idea Log 01052011

The Teahouse of the August Moon

 

“Machines have always been my mortal enemy, Colonel.  I don’t believe they are inanimate.  They are full of malice and ill will.”

 

“Democracy is a system of self-determination.  It is the right to make a wrong choice.”

 

“Pain make man think, thought make man wise, wisdom make life endurable.”

 

“It is evil for the soul to depart this world laden with envy or regret.”

 

“Life itself is a battlefield with its own obscure heroes.”

 

“I used to worry a lot about not being a big success….I've made peace with myself somewhere between my ambitions and my limitations.  It’s a step backwards in the right direction.”