I’d rather Bing with the sinners than Google with the saints

If you’ve ever thought that Google (or Bing, in my case) is used for the simple pleasures of locating, researching, or buying a product and service, connecting to old friends or finding new ones, finding love, music, art, directions, a restaurant, sheet music, etc… you’re right. If you Google.

It's not so much of an innocent act, apparently, if you Bing.

Take a look at the upper screen shot that shows the results of a very simple search I did on Google about how long ago I started on Twitter. It shows what Google thought were the most likely places I wanted to go after typing in just the first couple of words. I could be mistaken, but it looks like a lot of long-distance-running farmers had been Googling recently.

Then take a look at the lower screen shot that was the result of the same exercise on Bing. Don’t look now, but apparently, the guys and gals who’ve been Binging have been up to some not so down-on-the-farm types of activities. That, or it’s a whole lot of professional athletes who are facing random drug testing…

Kevin Bacon's not gonna be happy about this

You shouldn’t be surprised to know that there’s significantly fewer than 6 degrees of separation between you and anyone else on the planet.

These findings come from a new study by scientists from Facebook and the University of Milan. Before you poo-poo it because it was sponsored by 2011’s version of Big Brother, consider that the cohort for the study was 721 million people. Facebook users, yes, but also a full 10% of the world’s populations. Zoinks.

Also not surprising that this ever-increasing shrinkage of the world is being driven in part by the digital world in which we all live. I think for the first time in my life, I can say “Duh!” to something I read in the New York Times: “The research underscores the growing power of the emerging science of social networks.” Wow. I think Lolcats could’ve figured that one out.

For all you social media naysayers who would argue that “friends” takes on relative meaning since it’s likely that you really know a very small percentage of your Facebook friends, please take one stupendously big step forward and join us in the 21st century. As Cornell computer science professorJon Kleinberg says in the article, “It’s the weak ties that make the world small.”

What a great articulation of how social media is bringing people together. Someday we’ be playing three degrees of Kevin Bacon. The only question is how soon, and how much more you’ll have to imbibe if you’re playing the drinking game version.

And PS, a shout-out to Mr. Bacon himself, who I heard speak very impressively and entertainingly at TEDx Midwest about SixDegrees, the charitable organization he's created and maintained.

Miracles are always sweet

99.9% of the time, when something seems too good to be true, it is.

The Miracle Berry seems like it’s the other 0.1%.

I first heard of Miracle Berry from Homaru Cantu, the mind-bending chef of Moto restaurant, a temple of molecular gastronomy in Chicago. He spoke at Chicago Ideas Week about a berry that could make sour things taste sweet. He also talked about a lot of pretty fantastic stuff that night, including menus you can eat. So I figured it was boastful hyperbole and I forgot about it.

But it made me curious.

As I read more and more about it, I got more and more fascinated by a product that can do a whole lot more than make lemons taste very un-lemony. For example, Miracle berries have been given to cancer patients in a Florida hospital whose tate buds have been dulled by chemo. It helps them eat more and prevent weight loss.

Does this feel like a wonder drug to you? Why then do you think the the FDA won’t approve it?

One rumor has it that the sugar companies made it go away in the ‘70’s.

Conspiracy theories aside, it does seem to be legit, and it does warrant more than a head scratching. Miracles are always sweet, and this one's no different. Read up about it and social media-ize it with a few friends. Let’s build a community around the Miracle Berry and see if we can’t get it into more people’s mouths.

Vanilla. Camouflage. Wallpaper. Plain toast.

Do you want to be any of those things?

Didn’t think so.

I can think of a lot of brands (and people) that would enjoy inhabiting that world. They abhor the idea of unwelcome attention. They’re plugging along, calmly and safely, thinking of all the things that could wrong if they took a misstep, luxuriating in the warmth that is complacency, misguided as it might be.

Problem is, they’re at risk of fading into the background, never to be heard from (or purchased) again.

Brands should want attention, welcome or otherwise. It’s what gets people to notice and be interested, and once you have that, you have the possibility of connection. Once you have connection, you can work your way up to loyalty. And that’s the shizz.

Speaking of connection, a new ad campaign from Benetton is getting a lot of attention, good and bad, for connecting people a little too closely. They‘ve even had to pull one of them.

Benetton has a history of provocative ads that usually have nothing to do with the product, but everything to do with their philosophy of unity. Bing or Google Benetton and look how much press they’re getting. For a fashion brand, buzz is everything, and Benetton will never be vanilla. More like Amarena black cherry swirl.

And ps, those are some sick photoshop skills!

Look up before it’s too late

I know a “book” is a relative concept. You can read a “book” on a Kindle or an ipad. You can “turn” “pages.”

I’m not going to go old man crazy on you and tell you how reading devices are ruining reading. Because that would be an understatement.

What they’re really doing is ruining human communication.

Actually, the reading device conundrum is part of a bigger digital dilemma. At the epicenter is texting, and according to Sherry Turkle, who spoke at the Chicago Humanities Festival over the weekend, its affect on the increasing deterioration of actual human interaction. She has a new book on the subject. The NYT liked it.

It’s unsettling when you see people texting during a funeral, or families who sit at the same dinner table staring at their own screens. Nauseating, even. For many reasons which she articulates. And I’ll add one more:

The future revolves around forming communities. Bringing people together to connect and think and create and solve. It’s what Twist lives for and does every day. Because you have nothing if you don’t have community. And while there may be plenty of communities online, you can’t do anything if you don’t look up and talk to one another.

So let’s use technology to create communication, not break it down. I double dog dare you to take a walk with a friend and leave your blackberry/iphone etc behind. You can meet him on eharmony, or talk with her about a book you e-read. Start online if you must. But eventually, just go on a walk. Talk, connect, discuss, develop.

And look up. You never know what might be up there.

The most audacious rapper in the world

You can have Jay-Z, Kanye, Tupac, Biggie, and both M and M. To me the greatest wrapper in history is a 76-year old Bulgarian.

He’s wrapped the Reichstag, the Pont Neuf, and islands in Florida; he’s erected gates in Central Park, and umbrellas in Japan and California.

Next up is Southern Colorado, where Christo is getting closer to approval to Over The River, where he’ll suspend almost six miles of giant panels above a 42-mile stretch of the Arkansas River.

As usual, he has to go through countless rounds of talks with various governmental agencies to get approval, and he’ll finance the project with his money, earned through sales of his work. But he’ll get there. He’s smart and he’s persistent.

His life long partner and collaborator, wife jean Claude, died in 2009. They were fated to be together, having been born on the same day.

I’ve been a huge fan for a long time, and volunteered to help build the umbrellas in California. I was turned down, not by a form letter, but by a personalized letter from Jean-Claude, sent in an envelope stuffed with postcards of Christo’s work.

Admirers cite different reasons for loving the work. For me, it’s the pure audaciousness of the projects. Big, beautiful, and impossible not to notice. As simple as child’s drawings, yet so complicated, and so amazingly, incredibly original.

Check out Over The River. See the gift a truly audacious artist can give.

Serpentine, Shel!!!! Serpentine!!!

If you ever saw (the original) In-Laws with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin, you’re smiling now. One of the funniest scenes in a movie, ever.

Why is a direct path boring but going back and forth is fun? What makes hairpin turns and Silly Straws so much fun? Why is a kickoff return with seventeen laterals more entertaining than a straight-up-the-field return?

And don’t even get me started on body shapes.

Even making a curvy motion with your finger in the air is more fun than making a straight line. Go ahead, try it. Do it with a flourish. Pretend like you’re conducting a symphony. Lassooing a cow. Cracking a whip. Yee-ha.

And in the case of this spoon, curvy is highly functional, too. It’s the best kind of curvy. I found it at Argo Tea; you hang your spoon on the lip of your cup so you can store it between stirs without getting your saucer all wet and coffee-y.

Poo-poo it if you must but for hot beverage drinkers who like to stay dry this is a very happy spoon. And it's got a curve in it, so that makes it more fun right there. I'll take a dozen.

Can I get your digits?

No surprise, but the population growth of our great planet is growing. Within that fact, there’s good news and bad news.

The bad news: We’ve picked up speed, doubling to seven billion over the past fifty years. Resources are stretched. The poor get poorer.

The good news: More people means more cool ideas, more possibilities to put your head together with your universal brothers and sisters, more opportunities to find ways to work together to think up something smart, productive, profitable, beneficial, and fun. Solve the growing problems with even bigger ideas.

See where you stand in the chronological order of the world, and take pride in your digits. Then get together with someone and get thinking.

Gives new meaning to giving someone your number.

Read it and don’t weep. I dare you.

The best writing makes your heart skip a beat. It projects a movie in front of your eyes filled with images that compels your brain to consider them undeniably real.

The best writing comes from a place where otherworldly feelings live comfortably. Where once in a while, you have to close your eyes in the middle of a sentence to be able to fully digest and appreciate it. The best writing can make you cry from joy. And from sadness.

Ultimately the best writing comes from deep within the heart, where experience has been synthesized into love. And that’s certainly true of Mona Simpson’s eulogy for her brother Steve Jobs.

If someone were ever to send me something and say “Read it and weep,” this would be it.