Acronym heaven

→  December 4th, 2008  →  Blog

I’ve written before about the phenomena of TLAs in consulting (three-letter acronyms – which is itself a TLA), but sometimes the acronyms go beyond three letters. They can range from widely used acronyms acronyms you can sort of pronounce “EBIAT” (Earnings Before Interest After Tax), and sometimes they’re client-specific acronyms which defy all attempts to [...]

Sovereign Wealth Matters

→  November 28th, 2008  →  Blog

My friend Serena, who you may know as one of the co-founders of My Mom is a Fob and My Dad is a Fob, is currently trying to find a way out of Thailand, something which protests at Bangkok’s two airports has made much more difficult. I wish Serena and her family the best of [...]

Shadow Sculpture

→  November 27th, 2008  →  Blog

Over on Xhibiting, I just made a post about something I saw on an excursion through San Francisco’s lovely Golden Gate Park last Sunday: One exhibition, by Bay Area artist Jin Feng,  in particular, caught my eye (images from Jin’s website): They may appear, at first glance, to be merely a set of ink sketches, [...]

Eco-sound

→  November 19th, 2008  →  Blog

(cross posted from Xhibiting) Eco-chic seems to be the newest thing in product design. These concept design Bonsai speakers from JVC from their Sound Garden collection carries on this trend (HT: Inhabitat). Made from some type of eco-plastic (which hopefully is as eco-friendly as it sounds), these devices are stackable speakers (as shown below) which [...]

Reaching Out

→  November 18th, 2008  →  Blog

(Cross-posted from Bench Press)Inspiring students to be interested in (or at least to value and respect) science is something which the scientific community has unfortunately passed on to under-prepared teachers. This has serious consequences. When leading US politicians can pander to the public by asserting that vaccines can cause autism or that fruit fly research is pointless, I [...]

Dilbert on business projects

→  November 13th, 2008  →  Blog

I always hate phase two – I much prefer actually staying in my lair. (Source)

What happens when you don’t accept our $100 bid

→  November 10th, 2008  →  Blog

Circuit City, Anthony and I reached out to you and countless other troubled firms with our bid of $100. We presented some of our awesome strategy to revitalize your core business. Yet you turned us down. And what happened? You’re now seeking bankruptcy protection. Circuit City Stores Inc. filed for bankruptcy amid rising competition from [...]

Neutrophil attack

→  November 9th, 2008  →  Blog

(Cross posted from Bench Press) I was going to write a long essay about how web technologies have advanced to the point where science can be shared and discussed and shown in sophisticated ways through the web. But, rather than bore you with those trivial details, why not just show you. Before the Web: Read [...]

50 things about Barack Obama

→  November 9th, 2008  →  Blog

Who knew the UK kept such good track? (HT: Guy Kawasaki) Things I consider to be awesome (with my commentary in italics): • He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics (he likes comics? hell yeah) • He was known as "O’Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball (that is a kick-ass nickname) [...]

The Universal Law of Whiteboards

→  November 8th, 2008  →  Blog

is that, regardless of where they are (as this has held true for the whiteboards I saw in academic scientific research as well as in consulting), regardless of what it’s for, as long as they’re used, they always wind up looking like this: (HT: PhD comics)