A Creative Look at Capitalism, Public Policy, and Pop Culture
- Podcast: Practically Ideal, Episode 7
*Still late in editing and posting the ‘casts. Not late in recording them, though. This one was recorded last week.
Obama’s proposed financial regulations aren’t terrible, but are they motivated by prudence or populism? The NY Times’s new revenue model also has potential, but needs to be pulled off the right way.
Bob reports on the latest in the Microsoft/Google/Apple frenemy love triangle: Bing may become the default iPhone search engine.
And we recap the Golden Globes, that less-credible stepsibling of the Academy Awards.
Listen here:
Download directly: Practically Ideal Episode 7 (Right-click and select “Save Link As…”)
Or via iTunes:
As always, music is provided courtesy of Devin Martin and David Wesson from the Emergence and Charles Jischke. I encourage you to follow the links and check them out further.Listen
Popularity: 24% [?]
- Why Twitter Kicks Ass
I just had the coolest experience, all thanks to Twitter. I’ll explain.
One of my heroes is Shawn Phillips.
[Background: I used Shawn's brother Bill's Body for Life program quite successfully when it came out about ten years ago. I lost a lot of weight and got in great shape. A few years later, somehow the program's effectiveness had diminished for me. Then I heard Shawn in an interview with Ken Wilber on the old Integral Naked website, and I was excited about some of Shawn's updates to the program. A little later, Shawn came out with Strength for Life, which explained his new insights and put the whole thing together in a new and improved program that extends into being an effective person with strength to be successful at life, not just get big muscles or hit a target weight. Thrilled, I jumped into the new routine last year and felt my fitness (and life) starting to get back up to where I wanted it to be. I'm back on a Transformation cycle, starting yesterday, ready to kick it in gear and get up to my peak physical condition in twelve weeks.]
Since both Shawn and I are now on Twitter, I figured I’d give a holla that I was starting his strength program and was pumped about it. He hit me back with an encouraging “right on!,” which made my day right there. But it gets better. His reply came just as I was tweeting my latest podcast episode. Apparently, he noticed my podcast and started listening, tweeting that he was enjoying the ‘cast!
Here’s the exchange:
LoganBeaux @shawn_phillips Started a transformation cycle today. Feel great! Now enjoying a Full Strength shake. Let’s rock this shit! 9:30 AM Jan 24th from web
Shawn_Phillips @LoganBeaux Right on! RT @shawn_phillips Started a transformation today. Feel great! Enjoying a Full Strength shake. Let’s rock this shit! about 2 hours ago from CoTweet in reply to LoganBeaux
LoganBeaux Podcast ep 6 is a week late but it’s now live! Google/China, Conan/Leno, Twitter/Facebook, Midseason TV http://lbeaux.com/?p=446 about 1 hour ago from web
Shawn_Phillips@LoganBeaux enjoying the show! RT : Podcast ep 6 live! Google/China, Conan/Leno, Twitter/Facebook, Midseason TV http://lbeaux.com/?p=446 39 minutes ago from Power Twitter in reply to LoganBeaux
LoganBeaux@Shawn_Phillips Thanks! I’m honored. Been a huge fan of yours since I heard you on Integral Naked w/ KenW! RT @LoganBeaux enjoying the show! 16 minutes ago from web in reply to Shawn_Phillips
Which is why Twitter kicks ass. A personal hero is listening to my podcast, all thanks to Twitter.
Popularity: 24% [?]
- Podcast: Practically Ideal, Episode 6
*I’m late getting this episode up. We recorded it a week ago.
Google has second thoughts on its presence in China after suffering a cyberattack, but is its response the right thing to do? And Conan and Leno, what a circus!
Twitter and Facebook seem to be getting more and more like each other. Is this a good thing?
This episode also contains our midseason TV check-in.
Listen here:
Download directly: Practically Ideal Episode 6 (Right-click and select “Save Link As…”)
Or via iTunes:
As always, music is provided courtesy of Devin Martin and David Wesson from the Emergence and Charles Jischke. I encourage you to follow the links and check them out further.
Popularity: 24% [?]
- Big Love Season 4 Premiere Critics Roundup
*WARNING: SPOILERS*
Well I’m still waiting for Comcast to get someone over here to fix my cable so I can watch the Big Love season premiere. So I may as well provide links to the reviews I’ve been reading in the meantime.
Salon.com (Heather Havrilesky): “And this is where ‘Big Love’ really succeeds: By demonstrating the challenges of holding together an elaborate, unwieldy group of individuals, the drama presents an exaggerated portrayal of the very fragile nature of the nuclear family.” (more…)
Popularity: 64% [?]
- Podcast: Practically Ideal, Episode 5
The security theater being imposed on us after the Christmas Day underwear bomber gets the Practically Ideal treatment this week. Then we turn to our comparison of the Nexus One and the iPhone. I still like the iPhone, but could see myself being happy with a Nexus One. Bob’s holding out for a physical keyboard and is sticking with his G1.
Bob declares 2010 the year of the e-Reader, and we break down what needs to happen for e-Books to break big.
Finally, we give our Big Love preview. Season 4 started Sunday. If you’re not watching it yet, we’ll talk you into it!
Listen here:
Download directly: Practically Ideal Episode 5 (Right-click and select “Save Link As…”)
Or via iTunes:
As always, music is provided courtesy of Devin Martin and David Wesson from the Emergence and Charles Jischke. I encourage you to follow the links and check them out further.
Popularity: 30% [?]
- Same-Sex Marriage Ban Unconstitutional? Sadly, I’m Not So Sure.
Opening statements began today in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the constitutional challenge to Proposition 8. I’m torn. The libertarian in me strongly supports same-sex marriage, and if the challenge is successful it means gay people can marry in California. On the other hand, though, I just don’t see how, exactly, Prop 8 violates the US Constitution. And the libertarian in me is also uncomfortable with judges getting too loosey-goosey with the Constitution. (more…)
Popularity: 38% [?]
- Big Love Blueballs
Here’s an interview with Big Love co-creator Will Scheffer with lots of juicy info.
Here are the latest HBO previews:
Clip 1 (watch full-size in popup window)Popularity: 40% [?]
- I Really Wish I’d Seen This Graph Before Law School
The bimodal distribution of law school grads’ salaries:
(Via Felix Salmon via Tyler Cowen.)
Popularity: 29% [?]
- Google Getting Its Conscious Capitalism On
Q&A with Google energy czar Bill Weihl in the NY Times, talking about Google.org’s goal of making alternative energy sources cheaper than coal.
This passage highlights the combination of deeper purpose and profit motive (and explains the necessary organizational setup to do it effectively):
The reason Google.org is not just a foundation is that lots of people believe that if you want to have a big impact at scale on the world, then you need to go beyond what a 501(c)3 can do, which is to make charitable grants, so you need the ability to invest in companies, to do engineering projects, to do things that might at some point actually make money.
We’d be delighted if some of this stuff actually made money, obviously; it is not our goal to not make money. All else being equal, we’d like to make as much money as we can, but the principal goal is to have a big impact for good.
That could almost be read right out of the John Mackey playbook.
Popularity: 28% [?]
- Difficult Conversations Outline
[Probably my main interest in law school was conflict resolution. As a result it's an area where I have a not insignificant amount of experience and theoretical knowledge, if I do say so myself. One of my favorite groups is the Harvard Negotiation Project. They've put out a lot of great material in the field (e.g., the classic negotiation book Getting to Yes.)
I recently composed, for a separate project, a brief outline of the book Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most, by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen. The book offers fantastic practical advice for changing the way we look at and participate in tough conversations involving relationships, offering criticism, emotionally-charged situations, etc.
The summary is short and a little rough, but I wrote it because I couldn't find anything better for free on the Internet. So even though it's nothing fancy I'm posting it here in the hope that it may be of some benefit to my fellow conflict resolution Googlers.]
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Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
When conversations start to get difficult, usually three conversations are going on, but we’re often not consciously aware of all of them: (more…)
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