My favorites for week 42, 2009

Something to watch: my favorite video clip of the week – about changing the world

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could change the world as shown in this cool animation video about an Origami World ? Of course this won’t work, since you share this world with 6.8 billion other human beings. But what, if you could create your own world … ?

Something to discover: my favorite bookmark of the week – about the size of our planet

We know: Size doesn’t matter. Our planet Earth is really small compared to our sun. And can you imagine how small our sun is compared to e.g. Antares,  a red supergiant star in the Milky Way galaxy ? Check out this site for some insightful visualization of the size of our planets compared to our sun and other suns: The Size Of Our World.

Something to enjoy: my favorite photo  on flickr under a Common Creative license – about pumpkins

"Free Pumpkin #1" by makdune. Halloween is coming up, folks, time to buy some sweets to be prepared for the kids invasions before it is too late ! This photo by Andrew Taylor from Poulsbo, United States, is may be not that spectacular, but nicely done with this white background.

Something to talk about: my favorite quote of the week – about the struggle between individuals and “power structures”

The struggle is always between the individual and his sacred right to express himself and the power structure that seeks conformity, suppression, and obedience. ~ William O. Douglas ~ This struggle indeed always existed – in societies and in any form of organizations, like in companies for instance. In the era of social software and Web 2.0 this struggle becomes more exciting, since it shifts some power away from the “power structures” to the individuals.  Are you brave enough to grab that opportunity to speak up, to share what you know and what is on your mind ?

My favorites for week 41, 2009 – about the unexpected and more

Something to laugh: my favorite comic strip of the week – about potential career goals

How to prepare for the unexpected in a conversation with your employees ? Well – you can’t, since it is unexpected. You’d better prepared for anything.

Something to watch: my favorite video clip of the week – about the unexpected in a presentation

How to prepare of the unexpected in a presentation ? Well – you can’t, since it is unexpected. The speaker here is doing pretty well, he simply describes what is happening.

Something to discover: my favorite bookmark of the week – about a nice flash performance

Scared to click on the PLAY button ? Do it and you will see a nice flash-music-dance-performance type of thing. Don’t worry, it doesn’t take forever. A nice one-minute-break for you so to speak. Enjoy !

My favorites for week 27, 2009

 

Something to laugh: my favorite comic strip of the week – about scapegoats

Why do we always try to find a scapegoat ? Whether there is a traffic jam, a hot summer or a late project, why do we feel better once we think we know who is guilty of that ?

Something to watch: my favorite video clip of the week – about the Web Site Story

Do you like musicals ? If so, you most probably know the West Side Story, this famous musical by Leonard Bernstein. I have seen it in several variations as a movie and on stage. The video today is a West Side Story parody – and a parody on the modern internet: “Web Site Story”. Nicely presented and funny !

Something to enjoy: my favorite photo  on flickr under a Common Creative license – about … my home

"Hi Frog !" by axel_magard. This time with one of my own. Wednesday evening has been a strange evening. It has been real hot ( still is here in Germany ) and after having a glass of white wine I suddenly grabbed my camera and took more than 100 shots in my house and garden. Some sort of very strange creativity boost or something like that. Mostly I took close-up shots of little details  and often from strange perspectives. More than 40 of those photos I uploaded to my flick account. If you like to see more of those, come and explore my photo set “At Home” on flickr.

Something to talk about: my favorite quote of the week – about speed vs. quality

In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right. ~ Ellen Goodman, American journalist (1941 – ) ~ In journalism only ? I think nowadays this tension exists everywhere in companies, projects and the economy. I know of projects where most things have been very uncertain except the finish date of the project. What exactly to deliver by then obviously has been secondary. In that sense Robert Byrne is right when he says: “Doing a thing well is often a waste of time.”

My favorites for week 25, 2009

This is an excerpt of last weeks “fun@work “ posting in my company internal blog ….

Something to surprise: my favorite "I really didn’t know this" of the week – about neutron stars

Did you know that a neutron star typically has a diameter of 20 kilometer, that 1 cubic centimeter of neutron star material weights 1 billion tons, that the gravity of a neutron star is 1 billion times higher than on our planet, thus a particle would need two third of light speed to escape, we probably have 1 billion neutron stars in our galaxy, that a neutron star is born out of a supernova with amount of material below 4 to 5 times of our sun, otherwise a black hole would arise, that similar to our planet neutron stars have a solid surface but are liquid inside, and have a supra liquid zone full of neutrons ? Source: bild der wissenschaft 7/2009

Something to enjoy: my favorite photo  on flickr under a Common Creative license – about a red bus … where ?

"IMG_8682" by gengish. Nice shot by gengish skan from Italia. Unfortunately it does not come with any useful title or description. I would guess it has been taken in London. Does anyone recognize the building in the background ?

Something to talk about: my favorite quote of the week – about being nice to others

Wait a minute, a comic strip in the section where usually quotes appear ? Did my blog editor mess up this posting ? Nope, this Garfield comic strip comes with a nice quote, don’t you think ?

My favorites for week 26, 2009

This is an excerpt of my weekly “fun@work “ posting I usually throw into my company internal blog at the end of every week.

Something to surprise: my favorite "I really didn’t know this" of the week – about dolphins

"dolphin’s dance" by kalandrakas. Did you know that dolphins can sleep with one half of their brain while the other half is awake ? and that this is a pre-requisite for them to survive since other than human beings for instance they need their brain to breathe, and that birds can do the same thing, thus sleep while they are on a long distance flight ? Source: bild der wissenschaft 7/2009

Something to enjoy: my favorite photo  on flickr under a Common Creative license – about the beating hearts of the Buddhas

"The Beating Hearts of the Buddhas" by Stuck in Customs. Trey Ratcliff had to get up quiet early in the morning for this amazing shot, and in the description to this photo he lets us know the details how he actually created it.

Something to talk about: my favorite quote of the week – about telling and writing

I take the view, and always have, that if you cannot say what you are going to say in twenty minutes you ought to go away and write a book about it. ~ Lord Brabazon ~ In that sense blogging might be a good communication tool. Instead of writing a book about something, why not contributing your wisdom in little pieces through a blog ? Unless you want to make some money of course …

My favorite quote of the week: about knowledge

We no longer have a coherent conception of ourselves, and our universe, and our relation to one another and our world. We no longer know, as the Middle Ages did, where we come from, and where we are going, or why. That is, we don’t know what information is relevant, and what information is irrelevant to our lives.

~ Neil Postman ~

Knowing more means knowing less ? People in the Middles Ages got clear answers to their questions – but not because they knew more than we do today, it was more because their knowledge has been more limited. Less open questions, more answers. Even their answers might have been wrong or at least incomplete.

Whenever one tries to increase his knowledge he better should be prepared to encounter more new questions than answers to old questions. Knowledge is exploding, our horizon is moving away from us, we start grasping that we actually don’t know a lot. We know that we know nothing. Who said that ? Right, Goethe’s Faust.

My favorite flickr CC photo of the week: about a suncrack

"Suncrack" by Evgeni Dinev.

No idea what a suncrack is ? Me neither, but it is the title of this wonderful shot by  Evgeni Dinev from Bulgaria. Evgenis has more awesome shots in his stream of flickr photos – worth to check out !

My favorite quote of the week: about the world as a comedy. Or more a tragedy ?

"The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those who feel."

Alfred Horace Walpole

In these times of financial crisis, recession and when you see a lot of your colleagues having to leave the company – do you experience this more as an obscure comedy or a sad tragedy ? Or do you prefer to close you eyes and try to ignore all of this. The latter can be the most healthy approach to deal with this, a survival tactic to avoid depression.

Whether you more think about it or more feel it certainly depends on how much you are affected. Did you loose a lot of your money or do you see others loosing their money ? Did you loose your job or do you just see others leaving ? People are actually very different in reacting on those hits. Some grow stronger, may be see it as an adventure, as an opportunity to start something new. Others might be almost destroyed by what is happening to them.

Now what: is the world more a comedy or a tragedy ? I guess it is both at the same time.

My favorite flickr CC photo of the week: about The Force

"Day 53 – Brick (Levitation)" by AlwaysBreaking.

Is The Force with you ? Nice idea by Gary H. for this photo. He claims he has not used Photoshop for this. In case you don’t know what I am talking about, read here.

My favorite flickr CC photo of the week: about a maze of mirrors

"Maze of Mirrors" by laanba.

Somehow I love this photo because of the message it delivers. Laurie writes in her description of the photo: “As I was wandering around near the Alamo I came across a place called "The Mirror Maze." You KNOW I had to go in.
Here is an example from the maze. I know it looks like it is a straight hallway, but you couldn’t walk more than one or two of those triangle wedges before you ran into a mirror. You had to wear gloves so you wouldn’t get the mirror dirty. It was so much fun.”

I found this to be a nice analogy with project management or life in general. You create your plan and think you can travel along the timeline as you planned it and convert your gantt chart into reality. But then all the unknowns get into your way and start messing up the path you intended to follow. You can create plans, but you can not see the future. The future you see ahead of you is simply your assumption how it will be, an illusion.