World's Biggest Talkers Spread the TED

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Ogilvy Buenos Aires just tapped into the world's largest blabber mouths – taxi drivers – to help spread the word about TED. Get ready to watch this "new media" explode in popularity.

via thedenveregotist.com

Such a good idea. Surprised no one had thought of this before.

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

Nearly 100 Fantastic Pieces of Journalism

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Nearly 100 Fantastic Pieces of Journalism, curated by Conor Friedersdorf, an associate editor at The Atlantic, where he writes about politics and national affairs. Divided by category, these must-reads are his personal picks for the best nonfiction of 2010. This list is perfect for Instapaper and is a great way to explore subjects you love and discover new areas of interest. 

Here are some of my favorites by category:

The Art Of Storytelling

THE NEW YORKER
The Mark Of A Masterpiece by David Grann
A painting done by a famous artist can be worth many millions of dollars. An imitation is basically worthless. Art historians used their expertise to differentiate between the two - until recently, when Peter Paul Biro began using fingerprints on canvases to authenticate works scientifically.

VANITY FAIR
The Case Of The Vanishing Blonde by Mark Bowden
Private investigator Ken Brennan was given a mystery: who raped, beat and left for dead a 21-year-old blonde woman? She couldn’t remember her attacker. The police gave up on the case. This is the story of the man who broke it open, and the steps that led him to a perpetrator no one else suspected.  

 

Crime & Punishment

WIRED
Art Of The Steal by Joshua Bearman
Gerard Blanchard has been compared to a criminal Rain Man. His story is like every larger than life heist film you’ve ever seen - but this scourge of the world’s bank managers is a real person.

OUTSIDE
The Ballad Of Colton Harris-Moore by Bob Friel
“In the Northwest’s San Juan Islands, best known for killer whales and Microsoft retirees, a teen fugitive has made a mockery of local authorities, allegedly stealing cars, taking planes for joy rides, and breaking into vacation homes. His ability to elude the police and survive in the woods has earned him folk-hero status. But some wonder if the 18-year-old will make it out of the hunt alive.” 

 

Sports & Leisure

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
What Is I.B.M.’s Watson? by Clive Thompson
A generation ago, an I.B.M. computer beat Garry Kasparov at chess. Now the company has made a machine that plays Jeopardy. Can it win?

THE OBSERVER
Video Games: The Addiction by Tom Bissell
What hobby took over Tom Bissell’s world even more than his cocaine habit? Playing Grand Theft Auto.

 

Science, Religion & Human Nature

ESQUIRE
Invasion by Tom Junod
The subject is ants: “If you think the numbers sound like abstractions, if you wonder what deranged census-taker came to the conclusion that in the shadow of each and every human being there lives a hidden host of 1.6 million, well, that only means you haven’t attempted the experiment of peacefully coexisting with them.”

VANITY FAIR
The Genesis 2.0 Project by Kurt Anderson
The Large Haldron Collider “exists in a near-magical realm, a $9 billion cathedral of science that is apparently, in any practical sense, useless.” A look at the secrets physicists hope it will unlock. 

 

On Birth, Death, & The Afterlife

THE TIMES OF LONDON
The British POW Who Broke Into Auschwitz - And Survived by Jake Wallis Simons
A 91-year-old veteran of World War II reflects on one of the most audacious acts of that conflict - and why he risked his life to bear witness to history.

GQ
Are You Sure You Want To Quit The World? by Nadya Labi
On an Internet message board, an anonymous figure was befriending people contemplating suicide - and pushing them to go through with it.

 

Multimedia Matters

ESQUIRE
TV’s Crowning Moment Of Awesome by Chris Jones
(If you enjoy the piece, also listen to Act Four in this episode of This American Life.)
Terry Kniess performed better than anyone in the long history of The Price Is Right - so well that producers freaked out backstage as he racked up winnings. Was it luck? Skill? Or did he cheat?

THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS
Generation Why by Zadie Smith
A review of The Social Network. And a meditation on the ways that technology can shape and change how we think and behave toward one another.

 

The Innovative & Creative

SLATE
Kanye West Has A Goblet by Jonah Weiner
Rather than tell us how the celebrity profile might evolve in the age of Twitter, the author shows us - and gives Gay Talese a run for his money.

THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Anosognosic’s Dilemma (Parts 1 through 5) by Errol Morris
On the intractable problem of not knowing what you don’t know.

 

Food

FORTUNE
Inside The Secret World Of Trader Joes by Beth Kowitt
Everything you ever wanted to know about the innovative grocery store chain and its uncanny ability to deliver tasty, original fare at bargain prices.

THE NEW YORK TIMES
The 36-Hour Dinner Party by Michael Pollan
Friends. Food. And the ultimate backyard cookout.

 

Profiles

NEW YORK MAGAZINE
The James Franco Project by Sam Anderson
That most rare of magazine features - a celebrity profile with an unfamiliar narrative.

ESQUIRE
Roger Ebert: The Essential Man by Chris Jones
The defining portrait of America’s most famous movie critic, the cancer that cost him his jaw, and the unexpected turn his career has taken after all these years.

 

This Is A Business

DESIGN OBSERVER
All Those Numbers: Logistics, Territory and Walmart by Jesse Lecavelier
What the discount retailer - the largest private employer in the United States - can teach us about design and efficiency.

VANITY FAIR
Beware Of Greeks Bearing Bonds by Michael Lewis
“How on earth do monks wind up as Greece’s best shot at a Harvard Business School case study?” Michael Lewis descends on the country to find out, and discovers a peculiar brand of fiscal madness.

 

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,

Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

Tina Fey shows Google's Eric Schmidt who is really wearing the Bossypants

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Tina Fey is smart, really smart. Tina Fey is funny, really funny. This becomes evident when she delivers a smart truth with such wit and aplomb that you don't notice it is sneaking into your brain while you are laughing.

Here Fey talks with Google's Executive Chairman (and former CEO) Eric Schmidt about her management style, the rules of creativity, and her new book Bossypants.

We recommend the book very much and in particular we recommend the audiobook, read by Tina herself making the text extra funny.

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

Yo-Yo Ma, cellist and Lil Buck, dancer, improvise a new ballet

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via washingtonpost.com

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The world-famous cellist in a suit and a young man in a baseball cap make an unlikely pair. Until the music starts playing and the young man starts slowly moving, his body bending and collapsing to the mournful tune. A friend of Yo-Yo Ma’s, the cellist, caught Lil Buck dancing on YouTube and paired the two for a collaboration for an event to bring the arts back into schools.

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

The University of Twitter: a short course in Political Philosophy in 7 parts by Alain de Botton

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Blog favorite Alain de Botton (have you met Alain?) recently held a crash course in Political Philosophy via seven tweets:

1: Plato: We should be ruled not by leaders chosen by a majority, but by those who are most intelligent.

2. St Augustine: We should not try to build paradise on earth. Aim for tolerable government, true government only possible in the next life.

3. Machiavelli: Politician must choose between serving the interests of country and the interests of Christian morality. Can’t have both.

4. Hobbes: Rulers not appointed by God, but by people and if they can’t guarantee their security, they can be legitimately kicked out.

5. Smith: The market cannot alone create a moral community. Civil society must nudge capitalists to be good through emulation and honours.

6. Karl Marx: The ‘profit’ of a capitalist is in essence theft, the stolen life and labour of the proletariat.

7. J.S. Mill: Governments should not tell people how to live, they should give them the preconditions to make their own choices.

 

To learn more about Alain de Botton: web, wiki, facebook, twitter

Some of his books:
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
The Architecture of Happiness (Vintage)
How Proust Can Change Your Life
Status Anxiety
The Consolations of Philosophy

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, ,

Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.