via 9gag.com
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Marriage quest fails, so Dallas woman offers free wedding - Interesting Idea
Close to a year ago, Lisa Linehan launched a plan.
She wanted to get married.
Using a little ingenuity, the World Wide Web and passion, she launched Project Husband.
Linehan's goal was to tie the knot on February 15, the same date her grandparents wed years ago.
She has the dress, the church, and even the ring ready to go, but her big day is about to become someone else's.
It's now been nearly a year since Linehan vowed she would marry the man of her dreams.
Since then, she's had to kiss a lot of frogs, but still no prince has materialized.
"I went out with over 80 different guys, and the main thing I learned is that girls fall in love with the idea of the wedding way before guys ever do," Linehan said.
She received more than 56,000 views of a video that showed her singing about her quest for a groom.
We showed you how bridal businesses donated her wedding dress and the wedding cake and the wedding ring — but there will be no wedding for Lisa Linehan.
"I could have just done it to do it, but that's not what its about for me," she said.
It's about finding her soul mate, like her grandparents did. They were married for 46 years. February 15 is their wedding anniversary.
That's why Linehan was so determined to walk down the aisle on the same date.
But since her quest didn't turn up Mr. Right, she wants to do the right thing.
"I have a social work background, and I love to see good things happen in the community," she said, "so I thought if I'm not ready to get married, then someone else should get married."
A wedding giveaway is in the works. Couples with an interest just need to go to Project Husband to share their love story.
"The ideal couple is a couple that is completely in love and can demonstrate that commitment and that inspiration to all of us who are looking or who are in relationships," Linehan said.
In the meantime, Linehan will continue responding to potential suitors, because she won't give up on love.
Couples can upload their stories and their photos to Project Husband online. Visitors can vote all over the world and choose who will get this free wedding balued at $55,000.
Linehan hopes to have the big announcement by the end of next month.
E-mail ddenmon@wfaa.com
via wfaa.com
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Automotive Digest: Retail Gasoline Price Forecast through 2015
Retail Gasoline Price Forecast through 2015
Industry Report - Jan-Feb 2011
Significance of the Data
Over last year there has been very little volatility in world oil market – spot price of 1 barrel of crude oil has remained broadly stable around $70 to $80ALG has increased number of forecasting sources considered for oil prices – consensus continues to indicate less inflation in oil and gas pricesBased on information, ALG lowered annual outlook for average retail regular grade gasoline in 2013 from $3.95 to $3.78ALG now thinks it will take until 2015 for gas prices to once again pass $4 per gallon markOn average, forecast has positive impact on residuals, although there will be marked variations by segmentVehicles w/ low MPG ratings will be most positively impacted, while vehicles w/ high MPG ratings will be negatively impacted
A Devaluation of "Friends" May Be Driving Trust in Thought Leaders - Steve Rubel
Key points in this post..
- There's been a decline in trust in "a person like myself" and regular employees, arguably because of "over-friending"
- Trust in credentialed experts (70%) and company technical specialists (64%) is soaring
- Informed publics (media consumers) need to hear things three to five times for it to effect a behavior change
- To stand out and build trust, businesses must activate internal thought leaders across several spheres of media
Additional analysis...
This morning in Davos our CEO Richard Edelman unveiled the key findings of the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer - an annual survey. There's a lot to dig into here. However, I want to highlight three data points that underscore a critical theme that my colleague David Armano and I detailed in our recent trends deck.
The takeaway: to stand out in a very cluttered media world, organizations must increasingly activate their internal subject matter experts as thought leaders and do so across several spheres of media - traditional (WSJ, CNN, etc.), Internet upstarts (eg Business Insider, Politico), corporate/owned platforms and social.
Let's dig into the data.
First, over the last several years there's been a decline in trust in "a person like myself." It's down four percent in the last 12 months. Some 47% said they trust this group, which is down from 68% in 2006. An analysis: I believe the reason for this is that, as more of us join social networks, there's been a devaluation in the entire concept of "friendship." A separate survey found that people don't know 20 percent of their Facebook friends. Consider that "unfriend" was Oxford's word of the year for 2009.
Second, the Trust Barometer revealed rising confidence in credentialed experts (70%, an increase of 8%). This is a trend that began last year. In addition, for the first time we looked at the credibility of technical specialists inside a company. Trust in this group is off the charts (64%). This hits home the need to identify those with expertise inside a company who can engage across different channels, many of which today are digital - or will be soon. Note that this differs from trust in a regular employee, which is down to 34% from 42% in 2006.
Finally, our Strategy One research team looked at what's required to effect a behavior change in a cluttered media world. It's not pretty.
The data found that informed publics (media consumers) need to hear things three to five times from just as many sources before it sinks in. In the most developed countries like the US and UK it's even higher - a staggering nine times or more. This means organizations must secure multiple impressions across a diverse array of media sources, some that we don't control, others that we increasingly do. Advertising won't cut it. It's the least trusted form of communication, according to the study.
Embedded below and on Scribd is a mini white paper that outlines the findings. I dig into this every year and use it to advise clients in how to develop integrated strategies that span both PR and digital engagement. This year the takeaway is clear: trust in 2011 requires activating credible thought leaders who can not just talk but act (what we call Public Engagement) and do so across this "cloverleaf of media."
Now it's your turn. We encourage you to join the conversation. Here are links to our various digital embassies ...
via steverubel.com
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Gateway Church’s Internet Pastor Interviewed in USA Today
Gateway’s Internet Pastor Interviewed in USA Today
My new friend (although we’ve been virtual friends for the past several years) Vince Marotte was interviewed by USA Today for an article on using the Internet to help people spiritually. Here is an excerpt from the article:
‘Vince Marotte, Internet pastor for the non-denominational, 5,000-member Gateway Church in Austin, launched its website two years ago. It invites people to submit a 400-character prayer (slightly less than three Tweet-lengths), by first name only, at gatewaychurch.com/help.
The site has handled more than 300 requests so far.
It promises, ‘Share with us where you are struggling to connect with or follow God and Gateway Church will pray for you.’
‘Our Web page is an extension of everything we do,’ says Marotte. It also offers live chat online prayer available a few hours a week, ‘just like when you go to church and there’s someone there to pray with you.’”
Read the rest of the article here.
What are other creative ways you’ve seen people build community on the web?
One Response to “Gateway’s Internet Pastor Interviewed in USA Today”
Thanks for the love man!
Vince recently posted..Twitter Housekeeping
Leave a Reply
via ericbryant.org
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
The sexy factor for those between young and old - Great take on aging women.
I ran to the medicine cabinet. Just glancing at the first few paragraphs of the New York Times article, "Currently Struggling as a 'Formerly'", and I knew I was going to need Band-Aids. This might hurt. Maybe some salve too. Yes, definitely some salve.
The profile of Stephanie Dolgoff, blogger and author of My Formerly Hot Life: Dispatches From Just the Other Side of Young explores the limboland for what she calls adult 'tweens (between young and old). But she places that age in the 30s and 40s!
Ouch! Bandage number one.
I contacted Barbara Hannah Grufferman, author of The Best of Everything Over 50.
Did you see this? I ask her. She had.
As an active and fit woman in her 50s who is very interested in style, the latest restaurants, still gets the wolf whistle on occasion, and does not in any way, shape or form consider herself a 'formerly' . . . I was shocked that the author would view a woman between the 30s and 40s as a 'formerly.' How in the world will she feel when she's in her 50s? I would have to assume "way way over the hill and beyond the horizon." …from where I'm sitting, the years between 30s and 40s are not ones to which I would attach the world 'aging,' she said.
Yeah. I set the salve aside, and felt safe enough to read on.
The closet was ground zero for Ms. Dolgoff's "crisis of fashion," the moment several years ago when she realized her clothes weren't working: She had put on a leather skirt from Diesel purchased five years earlier, and, she recounted: "I couldn't tell if I looked like downtown rocker girl or like I was upholstered in Jennifer leather. … "Trends are for little kids," she said dismissively. "You can easily go from expressing certain aspects of yourself to looking like you're in a Halloween costume."
Waaah. Salve, bandaids, wound licking. I have a leather skirt. I like it.
But I was brave enough to go look at her blog, formerlyhot.com. I have to say, of the top 20 how-to-tell ifs… I agreed with three-quarters of them.
Uh-oh.
I called my friend Matt.
"The thing is," he said, "and I know it doesn't make you any less depressed — while most women have that period in their 20s/30s where they can turn heads and get a certain amount of extra license from that, most men never get that. Physically, we are plain and less interesting."
His "salve" was basically, 'hey, at least you were once.' And he sent me Seinfeld dialogue! (Random tangent, but useful information: Men quote Seinfeld as often as Nora Ephron, in You've Got Mail, says they quote The Godfather.)
Matt: "As Elaine Bennis said on Seinfeld (I think I may have quoted this before)….": (Me: See?)
Jerry: Well, I was walking around naked in front of Melissa the other day—
Elaine: Whoa! Walking around naked? Ahh... that is not a good look for a man.
George: Why not? It's a good look for a woman.
Elaine: Well, the female body is a... work of art. The male body is utilitarian, it's for gettin' around, like a jeep.He was right — cold comfort.
Then I got a call from Pam Sherman, blogger and author of The Suburban Outlaw. In her late 40s, I asked if she considered her self a "formerly"?
"Formerly hot?" she shot back. "I'm finally hot! I tell my husband he married his second wife first. I look so much better now than I did when I married him at 22!" I laughed. "I'm so hot I don't even have to wear high heels anymore," she added.
This brought me back to the article, and some fashion advice I liked:
Nor should a 40-year-old go too far into Day-Glo. "What makes retro look cute is the discrepancy between the person's age and the era it came from," she said. "If you were alive during the time the look was first in vogue, it can look as if you've saved your outfit for all these years."
I was happy to hear her say that. I have a good friend who wears all her '80s clothes just because she can still fit into them. It's not a good look.
I was starting to warm to this not-hot idea — a little.
On her blog, Dolgoff'shares a link: The 5 Very Best Things About Getting Older. I agree with Dolgoff on most of these too (as does Grufferman in her book, on point 4 about the sex).
But I would add a little more. Worrying, or wondering, or whatever, if you're hot all the time is exhausting. And time consuming. And maybe beside the point. As Tina Brown with her Women in the World summits and Jean Houston's sage classes, Marie Wilson's putting women in the White House, Geena Davis's media training, and so on and so on, and…
We've gotta whole new kind of hot going on. And this flame goes much deep and glows much brighter. Like a candle morphing into a laser. You have no idea how hot things are gonna get.
Related stories: After-50 Operating Instructions; Now Women Are EPIC; Geena Davis Takes Aim.
Share Strong! Email this story to a friend
Word Lens More Than Pays for Two Years of Bootstrapping With Its Impressive Launch -(Thanks @Plesko!)
Word Lens More Than Pays for Two Years of Bootstrapping With Its Impressive Launch
January 18th, 2011
By Kim-Mai Cutler 1 Comment » Share
It was an app two years in the making, but a blowout week more than made up for the time and money Otavio Good spent bootstrapping Word Lens — the first arguably useful augmented reality experience.
Almost perfectly fit for Arthur Clarke’s famous saying that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” Word Lens is a translation app. If you open it up on your iPhone and hold it up to any sign in Spanish, it automatically translates it, replacing the foreign words in the viewfinder with English.
But besides its magical demo, the impressive thing about the company is that Good and his partner built the optical character recognition and translation technology from scratch. Word Lens doesn’t rely on Google Translate, because Good doesn’t want the app to be totally dependent on a steady Internet connection. For all he knows, a tourist could be in an isolated, rural part of Bolivia or Colombia. If you don’t understand a sign, it’s not like you can wait for a connection to show up. So everything has to be done locally on the phone.
Because it was designed specifically for this task, Good says WordLens’ OCR probably works better than any off-the-shelf technology for on-the-fly augmented reality translation.
Good initially got the idea for WordLens while he was traveling in Germany and wanted to understand what he was reading. He told a friend about the idea while they were attending the computer graphics convention SIGGRAPH and spent the next few weeks building a “lame, little prototype.”
Not knowing if his project would really even work, he quit his job at Sega shortly afterwards. (It helped that he had built up and sold a roughly 50-person company called Secret Level to Sega four years ago.) So Good had funds to bootstrap his project for awhile. About a year ago, he showed it to John DeWeese, another programmer working on a similar idea at Hacker Dojo down in Mountain View. He joined on full-time shortly afterward.
A breakthrough came when they were trying to test taking snapshots. Testing WordLens was painfully slow: they had to take a snapshot of a phrase in a foreign language, plug in a USB drive and copy the file over. In an experiment, they replaced that by hooking up a video cable to film phrases in Spanish, and Voila!
It became apparent that WordLens should work in real-time with video. Humans were just much more capable at auto-correcting and tilting their phones to get a better view of text than software was at figuring out how to correct distortion or compensate for poor lighting.
He and DeWeese also had to come up with translation technology. For starters, they created a dictionary and did basic word-for-word lookups. They also did some statistical translation work, using European Parliament transcriptions in multiple languages to see which translations were statistically most often paired with each other. The problem with that method though, is that certain terms don’t match up to their colloquial meanings. For example, the word “house” in that context isn’t referring to someone’s home. It’s talking about a part of Parliament.
Because of its more basic approach to translation, Word Lens isn’t always perfect. It’s just meant to give the user a basic sense of a phrase’s meaning.
“We do have an unhappy category of users I call the ‘linguistics professor.’ They usually say the grammar is outrageous or that we got the masculine-feminine version of words wrong,” Good said. ”Those people were expecting it to be something it was never intended to be. It’s meant to be a tool for tourists.”
The easiest part of Word Lens’ technology is actually replacing the words with translated text. Because the OCR has already identified the text and understands how much space it takes up, Word Lens can sample the surrounding color and simply replace the words with their translation.
It always uses a basic all caps, Arial font. Adding font-matching, Good says, would end up being too distracting. If WordLens was constantly adjusting the translation and toggling between serif and sans-serif text at the same time, it would probably be too much.
After Good felt he nailed the basics enough for friends to travel abroad and find the app useful, he launched it to an explosively receptive audience. The initial YouTube video garnered more than 3 million plays. While Good wouldn’t reveal numbers, he’s more than paid for the costs of him and DeWeese building the app over the last 2 1/2 years. He recently bumped the price up to $9.99 from $4.99 too.
Good seems fairly intent on keeping control of the company, but that isn’t stopping investors from reaching out. Because he’s sold a company before, he’s had enough funds to bootstrap QuestVisual (the name of the parent company) for two years and afford a Financial District office for it.
He concedes though, that if anyone could threaten his business, it would probably be Google. Already, the search giant released a version of Google Translate with an experimental “Conversation Mode” that lets you record yourself and then plays a translated recording of your words. Plus there’s already Google Goggles, which can initiate searches from photographs.
However, the upside of not relying on the cloud — as Google would — is that it may take several years before mobile broadband in foreign countries is readily accessible and fast enough for a web-based competitor to emerge. That leaves a healthy market of tourists for QuestVisual.
But the downside of handling everything locally is that Good doesn’t get statistics back on usage or on whether people seem to be happy with the translations. For now, he’s relying a lot on forums and anecdotal feedback.
Next up are versions of the app in other languages, probably starting with European languages first. Then perhaps other platforms. The software is written in such a way that it isn’t iPhone specific, so it’s easier to port to other platforms like Android. (It even required a bit of assembly language.)
“I think I can put together as good a programming team as anybody and I intend to make a really high quality product,” Good said.
Photo taken by Robert Scoble
To dig deeper into the social gaming market, check out our new report: Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2011.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
5 Conversation and Interaction Tips - An Old Chris Brogan Article Worth Reading!
I had a phone call yesterday with someone very important, and important to me. But for the life of me, I couldn’t recall a single word of what we’d talked about. (If I’d followed my own hack and written the conversation directly into the contact notes section in Gmail, I’d be saved, but I didn’t.) I really faltered for a short while, so this gave me some thoughts on how it could go differently in the future.
Conversation and Interaction Tips
- If you’ve met someone only once or twice before, and then run into them at a conference or other social gathering, introduce yourself again, complete with some tidbits from the last talk. Say, “Hey Heidi. I’m Chris Brogan. We talked at PodCamp Boston about video podcasting for farmers.” That way, she has every chance in the world to save “face,” and also get immediately back into the time frame of when she met you, and what happened. This works much better than, “Hey Heidi!” and then you wait to see if they remember you. That’s really just low-handed at that point.
- If you’re forgetful, state it up front. Don’t try to play catch up. “I’m really sorry, Russ. I know we were having this call to talk about something important, but I can’t find my notes, and I’m blanking. Could you lead off?” It’s straightforward, and gets the other person on your side. (Only a jerk would be terribly offended).
- Make that person number one. It’s just downright rude to do the crowdsurfing eyeball thing while talking with someone. But here’s one way to move through a crowd a little faster. Upon shaking hands and reconnecting, make your first statement after re-acquainting yourself, “Oh Casey, I have so much I want to talk with you about, but I’ve got to run off in just a second. Will you be around for a while?” Then, you can have a few minutes of conversation, putting Casey at the focus of your attention, and she’ll understand when you have to leave after a few minutes. Be honest about this.
- Share the wealth. You’re passionate, and want to tell the other person all about your project and your perspective, but be sure to ask them engaging questions about what he or she are doing. Be genuinely interested. Find out what they’re passionate about. Learn as much in those few minutes as you can, because it’s way more fun than talking about the weather.
- Close with something actionable. If you need NOTHING from this person, ask them, “How can I help you with your goals? What can I be thinking about in my day to help you be successful?” If you have needs, ask them to consider contacting you for a follow-up meeting, or for whatever you need. Taking donations? Ask them if you can help them decide on sending money to your event? (I’m doing a lot of that now). It will make the conversation feel more valuable.
There are variations, and this isn’t exactly for every conversation you have, but I think these tips will be useful to your interactions around professional settings. I’m learning more than anything else in this new world that the connections you make are more important than any line of code you write, or any song you perform. It’s what you do to grow your personal network and develop a system of friends and colleagues that will sustain you in the future.
–Chris Brogan is passionately creating an audio and video podcast company. He writes about it often at [chrisbrogan.com]. He’s also co-founder and Organizer of PodCamp Boston, and is looking for participants and donations alike. Stop by.
via lifehack.org
15 Interesting Facts about Dreams
Written by Bored Panda
Dreaming is one of the most mysterious and interesting experiences in our lives. During the Roman Era, some dreams were even submitted to the Roman Senate for analysis and dream interpretation. They were thought to be messages from the gods. Dream interpreters even accompanied military leaders into battles and campaigns! In addition to this, it is also known, that many artists have received their creative ideas from their dreams. But what do we actually know about dreams? Here are 13 interesting facts about dreams – enjoy, and what’s most important, don’t forget to share your dream stories in the comment section!
1. You Forget 90% of Your Dreams
Within 5 minutes of waking, half of your dream is forgotten. Within 10, 90% is gone.
2. Blind People also Dream
People who became blind after birth can see images in their dreams. People who are born blind do not see any images, but have dreams equally vivid involving their other senses of sound, smell, touch and emotion.
3. Everybody Dreams
Every human being dreams (except in cases of extreme psychological disorder). If you think, you are not dreaming, you just forget your dreams.
4. In Our Dreams We Only See Faces, That We already Know
Our mind is not inventing faces – in our dreams we see real faces of real people that we have seen during our life but may not know or remember. We have all seen hundreds of thousands of faces throughout our lives, so we have an endless supply of characters for our brain to utilize during our dreams.
5. Not Everybody Dreams in Color
A full 12% of sighted people dream exclusively in black and white. The remaining number dream in full color. Studies from 1915 through to the 1950s maintained that the majority of dreams were in black and white, but these results began to change in the 1960s. Today, only 4.4% of the dreams of under-25 year-olds are in black and white. Recent research has suggested that those changing results may be linked to the switch from black-and-white film and TV to color media.
Read the full article on http://www.boredpanda.com
via bspcn.com
The 5 Most Overused Expressions On The Internet
Written by Hortense
As someone who has been moderating comments for over two years (and using the internet for about 17), I’ve seen a lot of internet slang fads come and go. But there are some phrases, it seems, that just won’t die:
I’m not going to go so far as to say these phrases should be outright banned (mostly because that never works) nor am I going to deny using any of these phrases at one point or another (everyone has at some point, I’m sure), but lately it seems like it’s getting harder and harder not to feel slightly irritated when coming across one of the following phrases, which seem to have overstayed their welcome by at least four years:
5. “DIAF/Die In A Fire.”
This is one of those expressions that people throw out in order to let everyone know just how much they HATE somebody, as dying in a fire is perhaps one of the worst possible ways to die. I really, really hate this expression. I’ve always hated this expression. How did this expression ever get popular? It’s one of those things that is strictly internet-only: if you ever went to some random party and pointed to another human being and said, “That’s Alan. I hope he dies in a fire,” everyone would look at you like you were Patrick Bateman in a dress and then whisper, “That was a bit much, right?” as soon as you hopped off to pet a kitten or talk about American Idol or what have you. And even if you don’t agree with my personal distaste for the phrase (and wish that I, too, would DIAF), you have to at least admit that the phrase is really, really tired. It’s so old and overdone at this point that it’s akin to saying “get bent” or “drop dead” or “stick a rubber hose up your nose” or what have you. I’m not telling you you can’t hate people, internet. God knows I wouldn’t take that away from you. But when your go-to attack phrase is as overused at this one, it probably needs to die, too, in whatever horrible way you can imagine it to.
4. FAIL:
“Fail,” as a concept, can be fun. Look at FailBlog! You can easily laugh at whatever dumb/funny stuff gets thrown up there, because it is, in fact, a failure of sorts, but one that finds success in being awful/unusual, and therefore actually ends up winning in some bizarro Bad News Bears kind of way. But “fail” has replaced “awesome” as the word that everyone needs to pull back on by roughly 9000%. Your inability to finish breakfast at the diner last week was not a “Pancake Fail.” Your mascara getting in your hair is not a “Cosmetics Fail.” Fail is catchy and easy to use, which makes it the -ista of internetisms, attached to everything to make it conversationally trendy. You don’t have to give it up completely, but if you’re using FAIL! to scold the government and FAIL! to mock your cat’s inability to piss in the litter box and FAIL! to recall that time you ate a paper clip, the phrase itself kind of loses a bit of power, doesn’t it?
3. “THIS.”
We have all done THIS. This! THIS THIS THIS! SO MUCH THIS! THIS!!!! THIS THIS! It’s a more enthusiastic way to say, “Yes, I agree, you’ve completely captured my thoughts on this subject and expressed them in a way I couldn’t quite express myself. Thank you, fellow internet user. You are correct, and I appreciate your input.” And that’s fine. I get that. It’s a relief, sometimes, to see that someone has perfectly put together the thoughts that are floating around in your brain. But lately it seems that “THIS” has taken on a life of its own. People tend to get annoyed in forums when people pipe in with “me, too!” or “I totally agree!” but somehow, “THIS” gets a pass, because it’s more definitive, and currently quite popular as an internet tool of expression. But “THIS” can actually be detrimental to a conversation, especially when the THIS! poster only posts that one word, and nothing else. Yeah, you agree, but why? For what reasons? Why is whatever this comment is so very THIS to you? Why can’t it be THAT? It’s one of those things that’s fine in moderation, but used too often, the very emphasis it’s supposed to provide—that whatever comment it follows is a definitive statement or the truth, end of story, thanks for playing, have a nice day—becomes watered down and meaningless.
2. TL; DR/ “Too long; didn’t read.”
People are still doing this! In 2010! (They are also using too many exclamation points! And by they, I mean me! THIS! Epic Fail!) I have no idea why this still exists. If something on the internet is too long for you to read, I’m sorry. Life is hard. Go to Twitter.
1. “Wow…just, wow.”
NO, JUST NO. This is maybe the most annoying phrase in internet history. “Wow…just wow,” is one of the laziest remarks you’ll see in any comment section, because it requires no thought whatsoever while implying that the reader does, in fact, have several thoughts on whatever brought them to the brink of implied speechlessness. It is never “wow, just wow.” That phrase holds a million reactions, all watered down into a cliche, and it’s unfortunate, in that some of the best emotional reactions to seriously weird/insane/disturbing/amazing things on the internet could be written in place of this tired, tired, tired remark, and they aren’t. If something has moved you to the point where you have no words, fine. But don’t throw out three overused words to express it. If you’re able to hit your keys, go beyond “wow, just wow,” and explain why you’re so amazed/horrified/blown away by whatever it is you just read/saw. Either that, or skip to another site and catch the latest trend that’s suddenly bordering on overexposure by posting a picture of someone you want to have sex with alongside the caption “UNF,” which the Urban Dictionary defines as the “Universal Noise of Fucking.”
So there you have it. Like I said earlier, we’ve all done these things. We’ll all, myself included, probably do these things again, millions of times. But I don’t think it would hurt to consider, at the very least, pulling back on a few of these phrases, at least for a little while.
All requests to STFU, DIAF, tell me things are full of win, TL; DR, or a total fail, yell THIS! or paste a picture of a cat saying something funny can be posted in the comments below.
Here’s Christian Bale. UNF, am I right?
[Image via Natalie Dee.]
via bspcn.com
Recruiters Change Employee-Hunting Tactics
By JOE LIGHT
As recruiters wade cautiously back into hiring mode, they're throwing out their old playbooks. Rather than sift through mounds of online applications, they are going out to hunt for candidates themselves.
Bloomberg NewsSodexo's U.S. unit has cut job posts on third-party sites since the recession started. Above, its Paris offices.
Many plan to scale back their use of online job boards, which they say generate mostly unqualified leads, and hunt for candidates with a particular expertise on places like LinkedIn Corp.'s professional networking site before they post an opening. As the market gets more competitive again, they are hiring recruiters with expertise in headhunting and networking, rather than those with experience processing paperwork.
Inundated by online applicants, McLean, Va.-based government contractor Science Applications International Corp. plans to cut the number of job boards it uses in the coming fiscal year to six from 15 or so, says company vice president Kara Yarnot.
SAIC has asked its 125 U.S. recruiters to find candidates for analyst, engineering, and other jobs on professional social networks instead.
"It's almost a throwback to the old, dial-for-dollars method of recruiting," says Ms. Yarnot. "We need to reach candidates earlier, before they're being pursued by competitors."
About 24% of companies plan to decrease their usage of third-party employment websites and job boards this year, according to a December survey from the Corporate Executive Board Co., a business consulting firm. Meanwhile, nearly 80% of respondents said they plan to increase their use of job-board alternative methods this year, such as employee referrals and other websites like Facebook Inc. or LinkedIn.
Food services company Sodexo USA, owned by Paris-based Sodexo SA, slashed the number of jobs it posts to third-party job boards by more than half since the recession started, says vice president of talent acquisition Arie Ball. The number of applications to some executive openings at Sodexo rose more than 50% to 300 since the downturn started, Ms. Ball says, but the increase brought many unqualified candidates.
"Recruiters had to put in all this extra time to read applications but we didn't get benefit from it," she says. Now, the company is hiring different types of recruiters who specialize in headhunting, including finding candidates to poach from competitors, rather than those who are good at processing and filtering applications.
Companies are adapting their plans as they start hiring again after the downturn. Between November 2009 and November 2010, the total number of job openings rose 32%, according to the Labor Department.
Job seekers who were reluctant to leave their existing jobs—as well as unemployed workers sitting on the sidelines—have begun casting about for opportunities, too. Between December 2009 and December 2010, recruiters saw a 17% increase in applications per opening, according to the Corporate Executive Board.
The trend has in many ways been a boon for job boards, which say they haven't noticed any impact from some companies' pullback. But some of the largest sites acknowledge that the new environment means they must do more to keep customers happy.
In the coming months, Monster Worldwide Inc. plans to roll out technology that ranks candidates based on how well their applications fit requirements set by the recruiter, says chief global marketing officer Ted Gilvar. The product has been available to some customers since late last year.
Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc. remains concerned that relying too much on job boards could be bad for business.
Melissa Mounce, the company's senior vice president of corporate talent acquisition, says the company became concerned that its slow response time to applications was hurting its retail bank's brand. "Someone who applies for a bank-teller position might also be a customer or potential customer, and we were letting those applications fall into a black hole," she says.
PNC has reduced its overall spending on general job boards, such as Monster and CareerBuilder, but still uses niche boards, like Dice.com for tech professionals, when the need arises. "We used to post everything, but in this environment, you have to think strategically," she says.
Additionally, the company is currently reorganizing its recruiting staff to better handle the tens of thousands of applications it receives in a given month. Instead of using senior recruiters to filter through the company's applicants, lower-level screeners process them first and only hand off the most-qualified. A separate set of recruiters actively searches for more experienced candidates who aren't likely to come in through a job board.
via online.wsj.com
Thanks for sharing Jennie Loev!
Monday, January 17, 2011
The New Starbucks Trenta Cup Is Bigger Than Your Stomach
The New Starbucks Trenta Cup Is Bigger Than Your Stomach
To satisfy the unquenchable gullets of America's brand-name coffee drinkers, Starbucks will introduce a 916ml Trenta cup. That's more than the average capacity of the human stomach, and enough caffeine to stand in for a defibrillator.
Of course, it's not much—if any—different from a Big Gulp or any movie theater's large beverage container. But for some reason coffee's just that much more insidious. You'll be able to sample one for yourself when the Trenta rolls out nationwide by May 3rd. [Image credit: National Post via Laughing Squid]
Send an email to Brian Barrett, the author of this post, at bbarrett@gizmodo.com.
Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.Half of each "Venti" sized drink consists of ice, its nowhere near 591 ml. ReplyTommy Five promoted this comment
So the stomach actually expands to over 2.5x its normal size when you are eating and drinking. Thats why you can handle Thankgiving Dinner or a food eating competition without blowing your stomach.On another note, I love coffee and love Starbucks. I only wish they sold black coffee in a larger size too! Reply
Big deal, it's only a 32 oz (ish) cup. I easily drink a 32 in one sitting. Heck, a Burger King MEDIUM is a 32. Reply
Starbucks is the McDonalds of the coffee world and I have little appreciation for both. A real "Carmel Macchiato" isn't anything near what they've trained you to believe. Reply
Just be careful of future heart failure. Before there was Starbucks, my grandfather used to drink several thermos-fulls of coffee per day, amounting to something like 30 cups of coffee. Later in life, his doctor attributed his heart pains to the coffee and told him to stop. He dropped down to 3 cups per day and the pain went away! Then he decided it was just a coincidence and started drinking 9 cups per day, but the pains returned, and since then he's been on 3 cups per day, and thank G-d, still ticking. These new Starbucks things, FYI, are about 4 cups. Reply
We just need Morgan Spurlock to make a movie about it and things will go right back to normal. Reply
Damn. Next they'll release the Quaranta, and before we know it, everyone will be buying the Starbucks Cento, which is a full two-liter bottle of coffee!-IMP ;) :) Reply
Starbucks is the only thing that keeps me going most days...BTW, my previous Starbucks (in Connecticut) had Trenta about 6+ months ago. Thought it was already nationwide... Reply
I've drank a two liter of soda more than once.Anyone who can't drink one liter of something has the stomach of a six-year-old girl. Reply
Starbucks, Starsucks!! The crappiest coffee out there! I hate it and then some, so their new gimmick won't convince me to go back there!Can't beat Tim Horton's coffee!! The best there is! Reply
FlawedHero promoted this comment
OK it's official: I can't go to Starbucks anymore. I'm one of those people who can't bring themselves to use companies' dumb-ass names for their products. So when I go to Starbucks I order a "small coffee", "medium coffee", or "large coffee", depending on how asleep I am and how far I expect to wander from the nearest bathroom. Because Starbucks has three sizes, this works for me...never yet found a counter worker (you won't catch me calling them barristas, either) who couldn't immediately figure out that when I order a 'medium' that's a 'grande' in marketing-speak. But now, will a 'medium' be a grande, or a venti???? Aaah, fork it...I'm goin' to Peet's. They sell coffee in English. ReplyEdited by DeeDawg at 01/17/11 5:54 PM
This only matters if you've eaten. If you haven't, then your pyloric sphincter will not close and will allow the drink to pass directly to your small intestine for quick absorption. This is also why eating before consuming alcohol slows and lessens intoxication. Replystan_i_am promoted this comment
By the time someone gets halfway through their trenta sized order of coffee, the drink is going to be cold already. Why would anyone who even remotely cares about the taste of their coffee get one of these? Wait...Why would anyone who even remotely cares about the taste of their coffee go to Starbucks in the first place? ReplyKrackato-ATOMIC COLLIDER! promoted this comment
Damn, 916ml?? Bottle of wine is 750ml.Couldn't imagine drinking that much coffee -- but then again, I couldn't imagine drinking ANY coffee because coffee sucks! Reply
Well at least they're staying consistent now. Tall, Big, 20, 30. Unless the next measure is Green then we're good. Reply
In order to view comments on gizmodo.com you need to enable JavaScript.
If you are using Firefox and NoScript addon, please mark gizmodo.com as trusted.
via gizmodo.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
