Topics Off Topic

From Scott Wilkening, Project Manager: A cocktail of creativity, ingenuity, and passion. This is how problem-solvers are incubated. He recommends Gever Tulley's 4 minute TED video on the lessons kids can learn at his Tinkering School.

Some other recommendations from around the office:

• From MSNBC.com, "Stub Your Toe? Say 'Sh#!' You'll Feel Better: Shouting sweat words has a powerful pain-killing effect, study shows"
  
• From the Guardian.co.uk, "Collapse in illegal sharing and boom in streaming brings music to executives' ears"
• And a powerpoint slideshow from Ed Schipul, "Non profits and the Web: May the (social media) force be with you".
  

07.13: Point of View

I read a fascinating article this morning where the author, for a different perspective, when he travels by air, he arrives early, gets a drink and goes to the arrivals area at the airport. He sees the disconnected, reconnected, trials and tribulations and the emotional side of what air travel can facilitate.

This is a choice of how to be and to be different that the rush-rush, hassled traveled impacted by TSA, schedules and a neat point of view to choose.

07.12:One Person's Trash is Another One's Trash

Over the weekend, we heard that the lake community where my parents live was having a clean up day the next morning. So I figured, "great, I will take the kids and we can help out." Good plan and good execution. See photo with respective trash hauls.

During the roadside walk, trash gathering, my five-year old continued to have questions like, "why don't people keep trash in their car?" and "there are a lot of smokers (cigarettes) thrown around. That's not very nice is it?" (My wife and other son were working from the other end towards us.) During the finding of a paint bucket, I heard, "Well you don't see that every day," from the insightful youth.

It was a good experience for all and proves, to me, that kids do say what's on their mind and usually get right to the point.

Oh and he got poison ivy too.

07.10.09: Seeking the Outlier

For both a project we are working on and a new prospect, I am struggling to find that extra ummph, that x factor that can make the strategic recommendations and the execution of tactics have even more impact.

For example, we have conducted a number of interviews with thought leaders and I am now trying to prioritize into recommendations and then rank the recommendations. The choices are tough. The investment is important.

Yet how to bring the input together and put together an innovative approach that can lead to real impact and reach both a large population and those normally hard to connect with? That's the outlier I am trying to find.

Convergence

On Wednesday of this week, this year, I was enticed with writing the date all day long. Why? Because it was seven - eight - nine, or July 8, 2009. So what?

Yet as inspiration goes it got me thinking. So stick with me. After seven - eight - nine comes 10. In the advertising world, most still images of watches (often in commercials as well) are taken at the time 10:10. This is for a number of reasons including having both hands facing upwards is optimistic, the hands swept away from noon do not clutter the brand name, the overly-civil Swiss prefer that the hands not be at 6:30-ish, thus blocking their recognition and so on.

For me, this typically marks a transitional time of the morning. Most of my getting settled's done. My coffee's gone. I am hungry, looking forward to lunch. The mid-section of the country is now accessible at work, etc.

So seven - eight - nine got me to realize that the 10 o'clock hour is a pivotal one for me. So I plan to try to post about relevant ideas and lessons that are part of what I am doing each day at 10:10, or so.

We will see.

All Couch and No Play Makes Jack a Sick Boy

Wowzers, new childhood obesity stats out in this article from USA Today, says hospitalization of overweight youth rose tremendously, increasing medical costs associated with childhood obesity from almost $126 million in 2001 to almost $238 million in 2005.

The hospitalization of heavy children has skyrocketed in recent years, a study shows.

The number of hospitalizations of kids and teens, ages 2 to 19, with a primary or secondary diagnosis of obesity nearly doubled between 1999 and 2005, climbing from 21,743 to 42,429, according to a study published Thursday on the Health Affairs website.

These were stays for obesity-related conditions such as asthma, diabetes, gallbladder disease, pneumonia, skin infections, pregnancy complications, depression and other mental disorders.

The estimated costs for these hospitalizations increased from almost $126 million in 2001 to almost $238 million in 2005. This cost for Medicaid rose from $53.6 million in 2001 to about $118 million in 2005.

Related to this, we're excited to say we just completed a project for The Outdoor Foundation that we hope will lead to getting more kids outside and being active. In short, the web-based curriculum, featuring interviews of experienced outdoor leaders, aims to help volunteer mentors feel more comfortable and confident when leading groups of youth in outdoor activities. And in turn, we hope to see more youth out and about, staying healthy and active, exploring and playing in the great outdoors!

You can check out the website, here. And see what Josh Thomas, Principal, Topics Education has to say about this growing epidemic over on his personal blog, Environmental Dad.