Brindle Media

Archive for the ‘Quality of life’ Category

The social networks that Nicholas Christakis discusses in his TED presentation this past summer aren’t the high-tech internet-driven social media which that term now tends to infer but actual interactions between live human beings.

What can we learn from these insights?

Thanks to Daniel Anstandig at McVay Media for making me aware of Nicholas Christakis’ TED talk.

This week was our wedding anniversary so I was in our local Saratoga Springs, NY Hallmark store looking for a card for my wife. While I was perusing their selection, I noticed a video display and was amazed to discover that Hallmark is embracing Augmented Reality.

Here’s a video posting from MommyReporter:

I first discovered AR last summer around this time and have been fascinated by its potential. Most people are still unaware of Augmented Reality but now that a mass appeal company like Hallmark is employing this technology, I expect to see a lot more market penetration for AR during the next 12 months.

Here’s a link for the Hallmark website:

http://bit.ly/86tjXH

Your thoughts?

Earl N. Brindle died on a Saturday night in early December, 2006 just a few weeks shy of his 87th birthday He and my mother started dating when they were 16 and had been together for 71 years. The only time they were apart was for four years during World War II. They were married 66 years ago this month.

Dad was born in Raynham, MA., the son of the late Thomas H. and Gertrude (Smith) Brindle. He was a resident of the small Rhode Island village where I grew up since 1947 where he had owned and operated the former Earl N. Brindle Insurance Agency.

Dad served as the Treasurer of the Greenville Vol. Fire Dept., a trustee of the Greenville Baptist Church, he was the first chairman of the Smithfield Sewer Authority (He was amused that the town named the sewage processing plant after him), he served on the Board of Directors for the Greenville Public Library, and in 1999, was inducted into the Smithfield Heritage Hall of Fame. He was also a WWII Army Aircorp Veteran serving in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater as part of the ground crew which took care of the cargo planes which flew over the hump from India to China.

That’s my father’s official bio. But it doesn’t really tell you much about the man.

Something I discovered after my father’s death was that in the summer of 1929 when he was 10 years old Dad and his best friend hitchhiked from Cranston, RI to Raynham, MA and then back home again. That’s a distance of more than 30 miles. And it was back in the day when cars were still relatively rare and most roads were either dirt or two lanes. Today’s equivalent would probably be a couple of 10 year olds hitching a couple of hundred miles from home.

When Dad was a boy, some kid threw a rock which hit my father in the head and all but blinded him. From that day forward, he had to wear glasses with lenses as thick as Coke bottle bottles and his dream of becoming a pilot was ended. Dad didn’t complain about it. He just “made the best of it.”

My father was in the insurance business but he wasn’t a hard-sell kind of guy. Dad was a little ahead of his time because his approach was what would be described today as “consultative”. Of course, he wanted to do a good job for his company but he felt that the best way to accomplish that was by doing what was right for his customer. It wasn’t uncommon while I was growing up to have the phone ring at midnight or 2AM with someone calling to say that they had been in an accident or that there’d been a fire at their home. When that happened, Dad would help them through it and make sure that his customer got what they were owed from the insurance company.

Dad wasn’t really a social kind of guy. He was friendly, amusing and a good conversationalist in a social setting when he had to be. But my sense is that he was somewhat of a loner and, given the choice, would have avoided social scenes. Nevertheless, Dad was generous with his time and several people became his clients when he stopped to give them a helping hand with a flat tire or some other car problem.

When he was a young man, Dad had joined a local Providence insurance firm and had been a rising star in the company. After 20 years with the firm, Dad asked for a raise. My brother and I were heading off to college and , although Dad appreciated some of the perks and small salary increases that he’d been given over the years, he still felt that he was being underpaid. His employer interpreted Dad’s request as ungrateful and impertinent, fired him and then sued my father for potential business he might take away. Amazingly, the judge upheld the company’s position and ordered my father to pay the company $10,000 (approx. $ 100,000 in 2010 dollars) for potential business that he might take away. It was an unjust and devastating decision, especially with two kids about to head off to college, but Dad just hunkered down and started his own business.

My father was a man who had the courage of his convictions. He tried to be open-minded and just. And he tried to accept others on their own terms as who and what they were. Nevertheless, he wasn’t afraid to speak out about what he considered to be right and wrong.

When Dad was chairman of the Smithfield Sewer Commission, an unpaid position, he devoted a lot of time and energy to make sure that the town got the best and most economical system available. Some cynical folks accused him of being corrupt because they assumed that anyone in that position must be taking bribes. I’ll always remember one meeting which I decided to attend when I drove home for a visit. My father didn’t know I was there but during a break in the meeting he went to the lobby for a drink of water. While he was there alone, a group of 7 or 8 men who were about half my father’s age approached him menacingly. They disagreed with his position on whatever issue was being discussed and they were trying to bully him. As I watched, the group started closing in on my father and I thought I was going to have to step in. But Dad just stood his ground, stayed calm, explained his opinion and walked away. It was quite a performance and I was proud to be his son.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve started to notice similarities between myself and my father. Our body types are more alike than I’d once thought. I like learning new things and sharing information with others that might help them to increase their understanding or improve their life. Although perceived by some to be an outgoing socializer, my nature is to be somewhat of a loner. At home, I’m not handy. Neither was he. But I know it and hire experts. He tried to do it himself. Then we brought in the experts!

Through his actions and his words, Earl N. Brindle taught me about being a generous and compassionate friend and neighbor, about being a trustworthy and equal partner in marriage, about being a good parent and about being focused on getting the job done right.

My dad. His life ended three years ago but his spirit is with me on this Father’s Day.

Earlier this year, I showed you how augmented reality can be used as part of the clothes shopping experience. Now, YOUReality and metalio have created an Online Retail Visualization 3D tool to help you see how furniture, appliances, electronics or other accessories might look in your current living space.

And for your iPhone:

How soon do you think it will be before you start taking this type of technology for granted?

Have you ever been at a large event and become swept up with the crowd in the emotion of the moment? Have you found yourself choking up while watching someone cry on TV? Or have you suddenly found your mood lightening when someone enters the room in a happy mood?

Recent research has shown that the human brain contains something called “mirror neurons” . When we see or hear someone else experiencing an emotion , these “mirror neurons” cause us to experience that emotion, too.

I envy Robert Krulwich his ability to make science interesting.

Here’s my question. If your brain can’t tell the difference between whether YOUR body is doing something or instead you’re watching someone else do it, why would you put yourself through the stress of watching a horror movie?

Dr. Nick Morgan, author of Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma , believes that by understanding the concept of mirror neurons you can become more effective in communicating your ideas to others.

And here’s some animation which does a great job of explaining how “mirror neurons” were discovered.

I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts about this research.

With their tendency towards neutrality, I guess it’s not too surprising that Dutch citizens are reluctant to interfere in other people’s fights. This is presenting a problem for the Dutch government because public employees are frequently being confronted by aggression or actual violence. To encourage people to help public workers when they’re being violently confronted, the government has created an augmented reality billboard, placed above a busy intersection in Amsterdam. The billboard shows a real-time view of the street below but superimposes a green screen-filmed street fight into the otherwise empty curb space. As passersby stop to stare at themselves on the billboard, they are confronted with a tense altercation occurring right in front of them. Check it out:

Mashable reports: “The Dutch government hopes the ad will provoke a feeling of shame by showing citizens what they look like when they ignore such situations. It’s an ambitious and complex emotional experiment that injects AR into daily life. It’s also inspiring intense interest from Amsterdam pedestrians.” Your thoughts?

Just so you’ll know, I’m not employed by a radio station nor an individual or company which owns radio stations, I am not related to anyone who works in radio, and I’m not a shareholder in any company which owns radio stations. Although many years of my career were spent in radio, I am not a water bearer for any company which owns music-oriented broadcast radio stations.

That said, I find AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka’s remarks at a recent musicFIRST Coalition press conference on Capitol Hill pretty offensive.
Trumka said: “The reckless greed that drives Wall Street is the same as the unconscionable greed that drives the handful of conglomerate corporate radio executives that control 75 percent of our nation’s radio stations. If you care about music, if you care about the right of Americans to get paid for their work, if you care about doing what is right, be a part of the good fight for our performing brothers and sisters.”

“The unconscionable greed that drive the handful of conglomerate corporate radio executives that control 75% of our nation’s radio stations”? Nice rhetoric, Mr.Trumpka but what about the unconscionable greed that drives the handful of foreign-based record companies that abuse their relationships with their artists?

Lets review some facts. There are a little over 11,000 commercially licensed radio stations in America. Around 20%, of those facilities are owned by companies which control 100 or more stations. Clear Channel’s controls 11% and the remaining 9% is split up among 7 or 8 other companies. In other words, 80% of American broadcast stations aren’t owned by companies which Rich Trumka and musicFIRST could describe as “conglomerate corporate radio”.

Chairman of the House Labor and Education Committee, George Miller (D-CA) said: “The important thing to remember is this: Passage of the Performance Rights Act will stop corporate radio from continuing to exploit the labor of working Americans – Americans who spend decades passionately honing their craft to produce works that resonate with our inner angels.”

Chairman Miller appears unaware that these radio stations which he accuses of exploiting musicians are actually investing millions of dollars in air time to promote the careers of musicians and providing FREE commercials by exposing those artists’ music to the audiences that these stations have invested millions of their marketing dollars to aggregate.

At this point, some reader will ask: “But don’t those radio stations limit the number of artists and songs that they play and isn’t that unfair?”

The stations limit the number of artists and songs that they play based on what their listeners want to hear. Research has shown that most radio listeners prefer a limited number of songs on a station’s playlist. The particular songs may change over time but the aggregate number of songs remains relatively constant. It’s even been noted that iPod and Pandora users eventually limit their playlists after their initial enthusiasm for discovery wanes.

Although I’m no longer involved with the radio industry, I did spend many years programming stations and being “worked” by record industry representatives to increase exposure on those songs which were most important to their labels. Increased exposure meant and still means increased revenues for the foreign-owned record companies who are, to quote Chairman Miller, “continuing to exploit the labor of working Americans.”

Tom Taylor writes in his daily column for Radio-Info.com under the headline

“The fight over FCC regulation of the Internet hits Capitol Hill – and partisan politics”
The Dems generally see a role for the Commission to regulate broadband providers in the name of consumer protection. The Republicans – at least several Senators who spoke up at Wednesday’s Senate hearing – don’t think the FCC has the authority. This goes back to last week’s D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals “Comcast” decision, which said the FCC couldn’t force the Philly-based media giant to treat all customers equally. (That’s also going to be called the “Bit Torrent” decision, because Comcast said it needed to choke down some traffic to extreme users of the file-sharing service.) The New York Times says Chairman Julius Genachowski now faces a strategic decision. He could choose to “re-classify Internet services as a utility similar to telephone service, to overcome the court decision.” Until the Bush Administration, the FCC did claim regulatory powers, under the theory that Internet services were akin to telephone service. Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican, basically told Genachowski this week “don’t do it”, because (in her words) “the legitimacy of the agency would be seriously compromised.” Why’s this important to radio? A lot of “radio” in the future is going to be consumed over the Internet. The question of who gets to set the rules about Internet traffic matters to radio – a lot.

Personally and professionally, I have mixed emotions about a regulated Internet. The idealist part of me wants the Internet to remain an eternally wild and open frontier for exploration and creativity. However, the skeptical adult businessman in me believes that sooner or later some cynical corporate entities will engineer the Internet version of a land grab and create barriers which can endanger the freedom of expression which it now offers. In an ideal world, business leaders would strive to create win-win situations but too often we’ve seen them turn corrupt and greedy with a sense of entitlement and a disdain for the customers they serve. Under that scenario, a watchdog like the FCC makes sense.

Your thoughts?

Your can read Tom Taylor’s columns at http://tinyurl.com/TomTaylor

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The way you think of and read magazines is about to change. Watch this short video about how Viv is creating editorial content for their digital-only magazine specifically with the iPad in mind.