“Right now you are hovering outside my door. You want to talk to me about this, but you hate that you have to come to me. You understand that this is too big a hurt to deal with on your own and I understand that there is nothing I can say to make this hurt go away. You will want me to make the pain stop. You want this to be something I can fix for you. This ache, however, is not dinner. It’s not a new pair of shoes or travel arrangements or homework. I cannot “fix” this, and my inability to do so will help confirm what you’ve been suspecting for a while now. Parents are not Gods. We are just normal people, men and women, doing the best we can. Understanding this will make you feel both relieved and terrified. On top of everything else you are feeling, it will also annoy the hell out of you.”

A letter to a 14-year-old daughter with a broken heart. 

Beautiful. And probably applicable to many with broken hearts beyond the 14 year-old-mark as well. 

Source hellogiggles.com

Where data and creativity meet: Confessions of a quant, Madison Avenue’s “Hitman.”  I had the pleasure of getting to work with Becky as part of a previous agency life, and let me tell you, she is a force to be reckoned with - one woman in the industry you’ll want to know. This article she wrote for Fast Company describes the niche she’s created for herself (and others) as a creative data strategist.In a world where they operate under the radar, Becky briefly pulls back the curtain to explain how data strategists can be a key contributor to success: “A hit man has two mandates: Find the mark and hit it. In a creative agency, the quantitative hit man must find the mark, ensure that we can consistently hit it, and observe the work’s effectiveness. In doing so, data strategists push creative agencies to clearly define what success looks like and delineate the factors that contribute to a clean and relevant hit.”

Where data and creativity meet: Confessions of a quant, Madison Avenue’s “Hitman.” 
 
I had the pleasure of getting to work with Becky as part of a previous agency life, and let me tell you, she is a force to be reckoned with - one woman in the industry you’ll want to know. This article she wrote for Fast Company describes the niche she’s created for herself (and others) as a creative data strategist.

In a world where they operate under the radar, Becky briefly pulls back the curtain to explain how data strategists can be a key contributor to success: “A hit man has two mandates: Find the mark and hit it. In a creative agency, the quantitative hit man must find the mark, ensure that we can consistently hit it, and observe the work’s effectiveness. In doing so, data strategists push creative agencies to clearly define what success looks like and delineate the factors that contribute to a clean and relevant hit.”

Godlike great programmers: the scientists arguing for religious belief.  Usually science and religion are pitted against each other. And if not pitted against each other, separated. “If God is outside of nature, then science can neither prove nor disprove his existence,” Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health once wrote. So it’s interesting, then, to find that more scientists are using science in arguments for believing in (and yes you read that correctly, in, as in not against) a kind of supernatural.  

Godlike great programmers: the scientists arguing for religious belief. 
 
Usually science and religion are pitted against each other. And if not pitted against each other, separated. “If God is outside of nature, then science can neither prove nor disprove his existence,” Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health once wrote. So it’s interesting, then, to find that more scientists are using science in arguments for believing in (and yes you read that correctly, in, as in not against) a kind of supernatural.  

Source newyorker.com

*TIME and Space: A picture of Earth through time.* (Rosie’s Pick of the Week)  I’m a sucker for time lapse and TIME have nailed it with their latest project, appropriately called Timelapse, powered by Google. Taking images of Earth collected from satellites as part of a joint mission between the US Geological Survey and NASA (called Landsat), Google and TIME “tell the pretty and not-so-pretty story of a finite planet and how its residents are treating it - razing even as we build, destroying even as we preserve.” It’s fascinating to explore, and reading about the computer power it took to create the stuff is pretty impressive.

*TIME and Space: A picture of Earth through time.* (Rosie’s Pick of the Week) 
 
I’m a sucker for time lapse and TIME have nailed it with their latest project, appropriately called Timelapse, powered by Google. Taking images of Earth collected from satellites as part of a joint mission between the US Geological Survey and NASA (called Landsat), Google and TIME “tell the pretty and not-so-pretty story of a finite planet and how its residents are treating it - razing even as we build, destroying even as we preserve.” It’s fascinating to explore, and reading about the computer power it took to create the stuff is pretty impressive.

Source googleblog.blogspot.co.uk

If this was a pill, you’d do anything to get it.  This article in The Washington Post paints a sad picture for the elderly when it comes to a legacy of a healthy system built for acute care. HQP, Health Quality Partners, however, was trying to change this. HQP enrolls Medicare patients with “at least one chronic illness and one hospitalization in the past year.” Then, they send a trained nurse to their home on a regular basis (every week or every month), regardless of if they’re sick or well. And it’s working: They’ve reduced hospitalizations by 33% and cut Medicare costs by 22%. But alas, our medical money favors drugs and the program is being shut down. It sounds like it’s because of politics and making money for the hospitals instead of about keeping people healthy. Or am I misunderstanding?  High-res

If this was a pill, you’d do anything to get it. 
 
This article in The Washington Post paints a sad picture for the elderly when it comes to a legacy of a healthy system built for acute care. HQP, Health Quality Partners, however, was trying to change this. HQP enrolls Medicare patients with “at least one chronic illness and one hospitalization in the past year.” Then, they send a trained nurse to their home on a regular basis (every week or every month), regardless of if they’re sick or well. And it’s working: They’ve reduced hospitalizations by 33% and cut Medicare costs by 22%. But alas, our medical money favors drugs and the program is being shut down. It sounds like it’s because of politics and making money for the hospitals instead of about keeping people healthy. Or am I misunderstanding? 

Source Washington Post

Pole dancing goes classy. 
 
Admission: I’ve taken a pole dancing class. (I’ve admitted this several times in less public situations and been surprised by how many gals have tried it, so maybe it’s more common than I thought.) I was not, however, wearing what one would call a sexy outfit. Instead it was part of my attempt to find some form of exercise that I didn’t find boring. And I was shocked with how much strength it required. For weeks leading up to the class (and afterwards), I put my Chrome into incognito mode and watched videos of girls on YouTube dancing on poles, but never came across this. It’s beautiful. 

Source youtube.com

THE WORST ROOMReblogged from THE WORST ROOM

The worst room: Trying to find affordable housing in NYC.    
 
There are rooms without windows going for upwards of $1k a month in NYC. Reading this blog, I’m reminded of how crazy special some cities are for people to make these kinds of sacrifices. I’m also reminded of my rent when I lived in Athens, GA, an arguably equally special city: $450/month for a room with a walk-in closet, an en suite bathroom, a private terrace and walking distance to a community pool. Sigh. ;)

theworstroom:

West Village, Manhattan. $1900.00

“Loft bed setup with workstation”

8 things we’ve learned from engaging with 200MM+ people in social. Some great advice from community and content managers at 360i on how best to engage with your fans within social. My favorite? “Don’t get too comfortable with best practices.” Because the social landscape is always changing, it’s important to test (& re-test!) strategies on an ongoing basis. More here. High-res

8 things we’ve learned from engaging with 200MM+ people in social. 

Some great advice from community and content managers at 360i on how best to engage with your fans within social. My favorite? “Don’t get too comfortable with best practices.” Because the social landscape is always changing, it’s important to test (& re-test!) strategies on an ongoing basis. More here.

“The Tsarnaevs’ chosen weapon, the pressure cooker bomb, only killed three people, but wounded almost 300; Adam Lanza’s choice of weapon, a Bushmaster automatic rifle, killed every single one of his 26 targets, minus one lucky child who escaped. The New Yorker’s John Cassidy already wrote a great meditation on what might have happened if the Tsarnaevs used automatic weapons, not crude bombs. (Certainly they wouldn’t have been charged with possessing “weapons of mass destruction.”)”

Adam Lanza vs the knock-off jihadis.

Why is it that we know so much about the suspected Boston bombers, yet so little about Adam Lanza? As Joan Walsh points out, “the Tsarnaevs’ chosen weapon, the pressure cooker bomb, only killed three people, but wounded almost 300; Adam Lanza’s choice of weapon, a Bushmaster automatic rifle, killed ever single one of his 26 targets, minus one lucky child who escaped.” But is the choice of weapon the reason we’re more interested? Or is it just that we have more information to sift through? (Adam Lanza destroyed his computer hard drive and was relatively inactive on social media whereas the two Tsarnaev brothers were quite active.) I’m not sure if there’s a single reason or answer as to why, but it is interesting to think about.  

Source salon.com

How Mother Jones turned itself into an online “secret tape” factory. 

Remember the video of Mitt Romney criticizing the 47%? Mother Jones was the site that shared it with the world. Since then, they’ve also released a secret video of GOP consultant Frank Luntz calling Rush Limbaugh “really problematic for the Republican party.” Washington Bureau Chief, David Corn, jokes that they ‘bought an ad in the Super Bowl asking people to send us their tapes,” but then more seriously gives some insight into how it’s become a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. (+ The story of the guy who filmed the 47% video!)

Source Mother Jones

“But if empowerment, that much abused and much diminished term, means anything it means being able to say no as well as yes, without censure or shame. It means neither being reflexively condemned as a volpe cattiva—a wicked fox, as the Italian press translated her nickname—nor submitting unthinkingly to contemporary pressures. It means the freedom that Isabel Archer claims for herself at the outset of “The Portrait of a Lady,” when her aunt tells her that she has transgressed English social norms by sitting up late talking with the gentlemen. “I always want to know the things one shouldn’t do,” Isabel says. “So as to do them?” her aunt asks. “So as to choose,” she replies. That freedom remains the common desire of young women; it is elusive now, as it was then.”

Foreign Story: Commentary on Waiting to be Heard. 
 
I didn’t follow along as closely as others, yet the trial of Amanda Knox was hard to ignore. And soon (now?) her book, Waiting to be Heard, hits the shelves. Instead of focusing her commentary on guilt or innocence, Rebecca Mead instead focuses on the naiveté and sexcapades of Knox whilst abroad (which, it sounds like, is the focus of the book as well). Though I have to say the best part of this article wasn’t a nod to Waiting to be Heard, but instead to The Portrait of a Lady when Isabel Archer is telling her aunt that she’s tossed social norms aside, staying up late talking with gentlemen.

Source newyorker.com

Clouds over Cuba.  This interactive documentary recently won a Webby which prompted me to (finally) check it out. It’s stunning. And having little insight into the Cuba Missile Crisis, I found it especially interesting. Even if you don’t want to watch the whole thing (though fair warning, you’ll probably get sucked in), it’s worth exploring for the user interface alone. High-res

Clouds over Cuba. 
 
This interactive documentary recently won a Webby which prompted me to (finally) check it out. It’s stunning. And having little insight into the Cuba Missile Crisis, I found it especially interesting. Even if you don’t want to watch the whole thing (though fair warning, you’ll probably get sucked in), it’s worth exploring for the user interface alone.