THESCRAPBOOK

Spotlight Ideas have a list of the top 100 branding, design, SEO, strategy, marketing, PR, media blogs. Totally based on their own opinion by the way, there’s no data or rigour behind it, and indeed some are more interesting than others, but it’s a good selection for all of us in “media land”, whatever your discipline. It is perhaps focussed on those who use words and phrases such as ‘marketing mix’, ‘integrated’, ‘holistic approach’, ‘communications’, ‘brand conversations’ or something equally appropriate for the 2008 version of Bullshit Bingo!

TOP 20 BLOGS

• PSFK - Cultural and business trends
• Seth Godin’s Blog - Branding / general business ideas
• Branding Strategy Insider - Branding: general
• Russel Davies - Account planning
• Jaffe Juice - Marketing: general
• One Degree - Digital marketing
• Micro Persuasion - Digital trends
• Pronet Advertising - Online marketing
• BannerBlog - Online advertising
• AdRants - Advertising news
• Search Engine Land - SEO and affiliate marketing
• Richard Edelman - PR: general
• PRBlogger - PR and technology
• Social Media Explorer - Social media: general
• Centre Networks - Social networking
• ProBlogger - Blogging
• Copyblogger - Copywriting
• David Airey - Graphic design
• Logic + Emotion - Design: general
• Ads of the World - Advertising ads archive

The rest are available to view here though I warn you, I steal many of my entries for TheScrapBook from these so it kind of undermines my postings… ah well, in the interests of the new media age and all that!

I read a lot of shit books over the holiday (no link, cos that’d be unfair) but I read two great ones that I highly recommend. The first is Herd: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing Our True Nature, by Mark Earls. I can genuinely say I’ve not read a business / marketing book that I’ve agreed with so much for a very long time. It’s filled with the sort of accessible psychology and sociology that you’ll have read in the likes of Tipping Point but with an applicability and research rigour that I certainly will quote from.

Looking at a “new” (though actually founded upon our core animal nature) approach to marketing based on the power of groups, Herd explains the ‘why’ of our struggles to influence mass behaviour. It reveals that most of us misunderstand the mechanics (the ‘how’) of mass behaviour because we have misplaced notions of what it means to be human.

Earls challenges some of our deepest ideas to reveal the truth about who we are and what marketers, managers, and governments can do to set about influencing mass behavior. He reveals that most of us misunderstand the mechanics of mass behavior because we have misplaced notions of what it means to be human.

Mark Earls challenges some of our deepest ideas to reveal the truth about who we are and what marketers, managers, and governments can do to set about influencing mass behavior. Bold in its conception and engaging in its execution, Herd offers the most radical new theory of consumer behavior in a generation.

The other one was No Country For Old Men, which is a beautifully written tale about greed, opportunity, and old age. I’ve not seen the film yet, but the book is stunning.

We’ve mentioned TED before, and it truly is the most inspirational series of lectures, across a broad range of subjects; some of which are not obviously relevant to our lives and careers but all of which enrich us. The Top Ten TED Talks are what they say on the tin. Check the video on the linked page to see a highlights reel, or the links below to view the individual videos themselves. To inspire you a little, consider the most popular talk, viewed 2 1/2 million times and counting, which features neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor, who observed her own stroke while it was happening.

Top 10 TEDTalks of all time
1. Jill Bolte Taylor: “My stroke of insight”
2. Jeff Han: “Touchscreen demo foreshadows the iPhone”
3. David Gallo: “Underwater astonishments”
4. Blaise Aguera y Arcas: “Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo”
5. Arthur Benjamin: “Lightning calculation and other ‘Mathemagic’”
6. Sir Ken Robinson: “Do schools kill creativity?”
7. Hans Rosling: “The best stats you’ve ever seen”
8. Tony Robbins: “Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better”
9. Al Gore: “15 ways to avert a climate crisis”
10. Johnny Lee: “Creating tech marvels out of a $40 Wii Remote”

image courtesy of Open Learning blog

Just been offered a ticket by my friend and colleague, Mark, to go to Russell Davies’ Interesting 2008. No idea what it’ll be like, but hopefully it will be interesting! Cheers mate.

Get yours here

Russell writes, “My blogging experience has taught me that technology can create real, important, sustaining connections between people separated by geography and all sorts of other things. It’s taught me that generosity can be its own reward but that there’s also real tangible benefits in sharing your ideas and your time with people.”

EDIT: The info for Interesting is being updated here

   view the talk on the TED website - Joshua Klein on crows.

What do Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray, or Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, or Newton and Leibniz, or Joseph Priestley and Carl Wilhelm Scheele, or indeed Galileo in Italy, Scheiner in Germany, Fabricius in Holland and Harriott in England all prove?

“Scientific genius is not a person who does what no one else can do; he or she is someone who does what it takes many others to do. The genius is not a unique source of insight; he is merely an efficient source of insight.”

In the New York Times, Malcolm Gladwell explores the phenomena of multiple insights being discovered by more than one person at a time in history. To what extent are scientific discoveries inevitable? Great article that spans from dinosaurs to telephones and back, challenging our common understanding  of invention and its origins. In the article, Gladwell offers an inside look at Intellectual Ventures, a hodgepodge think tank made up of innovators and geniuses of all walks, the brightest of the brightest in medicine, science, and technology.

More here, at the NYTimes page.

The image comes from here, where you can see the whole evolution, via NotCot 

Typical, you wait for decent interfaces to explore the night sky and then two come along at once!

From Microsoft and Hubble, the Worldwide Telescope

From Google and NASA, it’s Google Sky

malcolm gladwell. you should really know this man’s work. here’s a palatable introduction (pun intended). great speaker, and witty with it!
on a side note… thanks for explaining the “do you have any grey poupon” line! one of those American advertising jokes that we never get in the UK.