The 2nd worst part of smoking

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Quote of the day comes from XM Ben who stopped smoking three weeks ago:

“I was very glad I didn’t have to keep stepping out on the back porch to light up in the cold. That has to be the worst part of smoking…that, and the cancer.”

I read his post shortly after watching the first in a series of reports by ABC News that had some really scary stats: Twenty-four percent of American men and 19 percent of women continue to light up; three-quarters of long-term smokers will have serious health problems; smoking will kill half of them; less than five percent actually succeed in kicking the habit.

Hang in there Ben.

Steve Rubel on corporate blogging

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“In an ideal situation –weekly or even daily– someone is pumping the weblog with fresh compelling content. But any old content won’t do. Corporations interested in blogging need to add value to people’s lives. That’s the biggest key to a successful corporate blog that keeps people coming back. So what do I mean by add value? I mean give us a reason to read your blog. Give us something we can’t find anywhere else. Provide information that your customers, partners and prospects care about, not necessarily what you care about. Be a resource and a connector.”

Google disrupting advertising business?

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Google is also preparing to disrupt the advertising business itself, by replacing creative salesmanship with cold number-crunching. Its premise so far is that advertising is most effective when seen only by people who are interested in what’s for sale, based on what they are searching for or reading about on the Web. Because Google’s ad-buying clients pay for ads only when users click on them, they can precisely measure their effectiveness – and are willing to pay more for ads that really sell their products.

— From an article in the NY Times by Saul Hansell

5,655,320 pieces of digital crap

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Phil posted our spam/virus stats for September. 95% of our inbound email is spam. And I’d say that percentage holds true for the crap that hits my USPS mail box. A bunch of shit I didn’t ask for and don’t want. As we used to sing back in the 60’s… deep in my heart, I do believe… there will be a day when we only see/hear messages that we want to hear. It’s closer all the time. So spam on you annoying turds. Make it while you can.

Best Songs of the Rock Era

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I was hoping someone had posted this and it makes perfect sense to find it on John Sandford’s “official website.” If you know who John Sandford is, you know who Lucas Davenport is: main character in a very popular series of novels. In Broken Prey, Lucas’ wife has given him an iPod and a certificate for 100 songs from iTunes. Woven throughout the novel are scenes in which Lucas tries to decide whether a particular song should or should not make his “Best Songs of thte Rock Era” list. A fun plot element that concludes with said list at the end of the novel. The thought of trying this myself is somehow exciting and frightening at the same time.

I suggested to Radio Randy that he should invited readers to nominate songs and he post the current 100. As a “better” song comes in, it bumps something else. Eventually, you wind up with his “best” and he heads off to iTunes. I’d love to see Terry McVey’s list as well.

Living Healthy Podcast

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LHP_Studios_2749

For months now, I’ve been noodling around ideas for a podcast. We have several projects underway at work and the only way to really get a feel for what’s happening “in this space,” is to get your hands dirty, as it were.

The Living Healthy Podcast features Dr. Henry Domke, a family physician here in Jefferson City. Henry is unique in that he might talk with a patient for 20-30 minutes before laying on a hand. It finally dawned on me that a weekly chat with Henry might make a pretty interesting podcast. I approached him with the idea…he loved it… and we posted the first show yesterday.

Twenty-seven years (anniversary)

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Today was/is our 27th wedding anniversary. Barb and I have been together 33 years. I sent her flowers and she bought me a certificate for three massages. Barb has asked for a new, larger TV for the living room. Tonight we drank a few beers and went to Chili’s for burgers. You tell me, did I marry the right girl?

Comedy Central’s Motherload Net coming November 1st

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“The Motherload Net will consist of five video-based channels featuring a mix of clips from Comedy Central’s programming as well as original content produced specifically for the broadband network.

“We’ve taken everything that is great about Comedy Central and shifted it into broadband,” explained Comedy Central president Doug Herzog. “They can program it themselves.”

The channels, offering more than 450 video clips at launch, are: Originals, TV Shows, The Daily Show with John Stewart, Comedians, and Cult Classics. Each channel will be updated five days a week, with a total of 50-80 new clips being added each week.”

Three groups of journalistic awareness of weblogs

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Group 3, “growing smaller every day, is completely unaware of what has happened in the past few years. They don’t know what a blog is. They are still upset that the company started a website and they don’t believe they should have to write for it.”

From an article by Paul Conley (“Learning the basics of conversational editorial“) in which he describes three classes of journalistic awareness of weblogs. [via E-Meida Tidbits]