How not to do them:
Dr. Lorraine Fisher-Katz commits every public presentation blunder and PowerPoint faux-pas known to man while addressing a group of young undergraduates in Boston…before it is revealed that she is an actress hired by their professor to highlight the importance of good presentation skills. Sadly, there remain serious people in the business world who would benefit enormously from sitting through this short “workshop”.
A masterpiece in Comic Sans Serif.
How not to do it:
Wow. I will leave it to you to determine whether Chris Young was seriously running for mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, or auditioning for American Idol. Kudos to the interviewer for keeping a straight face throughout the excruciating, preachy song.
More on the Chris Young phenomenon here and here.
Although it is not brand new, the award for Best Thing Of The Day has to go to a discovery that I only just made – the Lego Architecture Studio set.
Apparently it retails for around $150 USD and looks to be worth every darn penny.
Wired.com reports that the set comes with no instructions for constructing any one specific building, but rather with a hefty user manual that walks you through different architectural styles and practices, enabling the lucky owner to experiment with their own interpretations:
Architecture Studio, a new set from Lego, comes with 1,210 white and translucent bricks. More notable is what it lacks: namely, instructions for any single thing you’re supposed to build with it. Instead, the kit is accompanied by a thick, 277-page guidebook filled with architectural concepts and building techniques alongside real world insights from prominent architecture studios from around the globe. In other words, this box o’ bricks is a little different. Where past Lego products might have had the happy ancillary effect of nurturing youngsters’ interest in architecture, here, that’s the entire point.
Seventy-three different kinds of bricks are included in the set. But bricks are easy to find. It’s the guidebook that’s truly new. Its pages offer accessible overviews of basic architectural concepts, along with illustrated exercises for exploring them in Lego form. Pages on negative space and interior sections, for example, encourage budding builders to think not only about how their miniature creations look from the outside but also in terms of what sorts of spaces they contain within them.
What a brilliant idea. I was already impressed with the initial sets in the Lego Architecture series, such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fallingwater” house, pictured below:
But even here the user is only following the preordained instructions transcribed from the original architect’s design. With the Lego Architecture Studio set, one is given all manner of different blocks, a thoroughly detailed and useful guide to help get into the architect frame of mind, and a blank slate on which to play. Brilliant.
Definitely one for the Christmas list.
A good ongoing series from Sullivan, focusing on the need to stand up to the ever-increasingly authoritarian, intolerant regime of President (Dictator) Vladimir Putin, particularly as his Kremlin policies relate to freedom of the press and civil rights (especially for gay Russians).
Jamie Kirchick’s tactic:
Michael Scherer claps:
American reporter and pundit Jamie Kirchick did the cable news medium proud by ambushing a conversation about Bradley Manning on RT, the cable channel funded by the Russian government, to attack Russian President Vladamir Putin over his government’s anti-gay policies. Truly. Great. Cable. Television.
Zack Ford points out that, contra Kirchick, RT has covered Russia’s anti-gay laws – but “much of the coverage has been used to justify it.” Recent Dish on protesting Russia’s anti-gay policies here.
The day cannot pass without mention of today’s excellent Google Doodle – an animated nighttime street scene, set to the music “Claire de Lune” by Claude Debussy:
A nice effort, very well made.
Semi-Partisan Politics 