So many books, so little time!

So many books, so little time! My girlfriend recently introduced me to Bookins.com, a book exchange website. Basically you list all the books you want to trade and the books you want and the system matches you up with your counterpart. You get points when you send out your own books and you can use those points (and $4.99 for shipping) to get books from others. I have gotten a bunch of new books and need to figure out which to read first:

1. Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey - I liked A Million Little Pieces and really like My Friend Leonard by Frey

2. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - I really liked his other book: The Kite Runner

3. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell - I really liked The Tipping Point but could have done without Blink

4. The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World by Jacqueline Novogratz - book from a fellow TEDster

5. My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands by Chelsea Handler - I heard this is really funny.

So many good choices...which should I read when I finish my current book Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris?

Behind the Glass

During tonight's Giants vs. Eagles game, they showed VP-Elect Joe Biden in the Eagles' owners box and he was behind a tiny piece of bulletproof glass. I guess they mean business but they better hope he doesn't stand up...

Friendster it was fun while it lasted

I joined Friendster back in July 2003 when it was just getting off the ground. Back then, it took forever for photos to load and the site was pretty buggy but in the end, there were no alternatives.

Fast forward 5 years and Facebook is now king. They figured out how to attract users and keep them entertained. For a while, I used both sites. Uploaded photos to both sites, updated my profile on both sites and updated my blog on both sites. However, I, like all of my friends, began transitioning my content and time away from Friendster earlier this year and haven't blogged on the site in 4 months.

Today I received my periodic "Friend Update" email from Friendster and there was only 1 update listed in the email. I decided to login to see the activity and out of my 154 friends, that was the only update anyone made in a month!

Goodbye Friendster, it was fun while it lasted...

Walmart is Selling Out

I ended up on Walmart.com today and noticed they have two pretty large 3rd party ads on their home page. I think it would make sense if they were promoting goods sold by Walmart but they were totally unrelated to Walmart's business. I saw ads from Citi, Sylvan Learning Centers and Classmates. I thought this was totally random. They must be making a boatload of cash to give up this prime real estate on their site.

Documenting History - On Paper

Another interesting result of the election was the increase in sales of newspapers today. Newspapers flew off shelves at all the newstands around the city today. Word on the street is that The New York Times printed an extra 175,000 newspapers today (they usually print 300K) and the Daily News printed an extra 100,000 copies. People stood online at the NY Times Building in midtown for hours to get one of the extra copies. You can even find copies of The New York Times on eBay for $250!

The last time there was a run on newspapers like this, it was 9/11. I still have those papers but unfortunately, didn’t get any today….

Election Fever

For the first time in my 12 years of voting, I actually had to wait in line for 45 minutes to place my vote. Regardless of whether you voted for Obama or not, you have to be happy that people actually gave a crap about this election and came out in force to vote.

Typing "Obama Victory Celebration" into YouTube.com brings up more than 800 videos documenting the jubilation after last night's crowning of Obama as the country's next President. It's great to watch them and see how excited people were about the election results.

Hopefully, future elections will garner similar attention...

I'm a Voting Machine....

I, like many Americans, voted in the historic elections today and there is one thing that really stands out in my mind from my experience this morning. It wasn't the 45 minutes I needed to wait in line to vote or the fact that the woman checking IDs somehow remembered me from voting last year. What really stood out was how old and crappy the voting machines were. We live in one of the most affluent and technologically advanced societies in the world and yet, we are still using voting machines that are old than me! All day on the news there were stories about this voting machine failing or that one that needed 3 hours to get fixed. Why not use some of that $700 billion bailout and buy some updated machines? It would save us all a big headache....

Competing Subway Ads

I rode the subway today for the first time in a long while (I am now a bus commuter!) and thought it was funny that the Shuttle Trains were all plastered with ads for "Cities of the Underworld" on The History Channel while the stations were plastered with ads for "Dexter" on Showtime. The weird thing was that both shows air at the exact same time on the same day! Talk about competing advertisements....

James Nachtwey's Wish - Publicize XDR-TB

Today is the culmination of my year and a half long project with the TED Conference (www.ted.com). PR Newswire launched our Times Square distribution in conjunction with the TED Conference's 2007 TED Prize winner announcements including Bill Clinton, EO Wilson and James Nachtwey back in March of 2007.

Today, James Nachtwey's wish comes true as his photos depicting the results of a drug-resistant strain of TB are displayed on digital signs and projected onto buildings around the world.

PR Newswire/MultiVu provided distribution of a video slide show of these images to The Reuters Sign in Times Square and the Fashion Show Mall sign in Las Vegas.

For more details, see email below from Chris Anderson, the TED Curator.


=================


Dear friends of TED,

In the midst of a horrifying story, here is cause for hope.

Over the past year, hundreds of individuals and companies associated with TED have collaborated in a spectacular TED Prize project, launching today, to raise global awareness of XDR-TB.
(What is XDR-TB? Please visit http://www.xdrtb.org and prepare to be shocked and moved.)

The next step is yours. I am today calling on all friends of TED to do their part in spreading the word. Forward this email, blog, write, broadcast, talk with your family, friends and work colleagues. You can quickly add your name to our advocacy effort by clicking the 'Sign' button here.


This is a race between the ability of a deadly, mutated bacteria to spread, and our ability to spread awareness first. Health authorities know what needs to be done, but politicians and the public at large don't have XDR-TB on their radar. That's what James Nachtwey's powerful TED Prize wish is all about.

I am so proud of what he and the TED community have made possible. Tonight, and over the next few days his breath-taking pictures are being projected at scale in public places in some 50 cities all over the world. Details are here.


Huge thanks are due to:
- Our main project sponsor, the global medical technology company BD who are at the forefront of TB diagnostics.
- TEDster Jon Kamen and his amazing team at Radical Media who created the slideshow, print campaign, logos, and messaging around xdrtb.org.
- DEMOS who volunteered production services for all UK events, including projection of images on National Theater of London.
- Phantom Galleries LA who did the same for all LA Events, including Elevate Film Festival
- Printers Coloredge who created prints of the photos and large scale vinyl images.
- Akamai for their powerful web distribution.
- Mammalfish who built our website
- Peer 1 who offered their web services
- Mode Studios our Technical consultant
- Health consultancy Global Health Strategies and TEDsters Stefan Sagmeister and David Rockwell for their strategic advice

Our Digital Screen partners generously donated time, energy and space to play the Nachtwey slideshow around the world and on every continent. Kudos to:
- Urban Screens
- Streaming Museum
- JM Network
- PR Newswire
- Drishtipat Creative
- The Global Festa
- Eye Candy Media

If this inspires you to get more involved in this cause, please consider supporting one of these organizations:
- RESULTS – Advocacy organization who will drive forward the call to action.
- Stop TB Partnership – Helping to make a difference with the awareness created.
- WITNESS - will collect user generated content around this issue and create a network of people working together to push forward awareness of XDR TB.
- Medecins Sans Frontieres – NGO who helped James gain access to countries to document XDR-TB
- Partners in Health - NGO who helped James gain access to countries to document XDR-TB

A huge thank you to the TED team who worked on this, led by TED Prize Director Amy Novogratz and project producer Bonnie Calvin. And of course none of this could have happened without the inspiring, spectacular photography and vision of one of the great photographers of our time, James Nachtwey. It's been an honor to work with him and to see this wish come true.

My best,
Chris Anderson, TED Curator


DISCLAIMER:
The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent PR Newswire or MultiVu’s positions, strategies or opinions.