I am leading a technical communications discussion at CMMA’s Fall Conference in Park City, UT next month to kick-off the Monday session which I am very excited about. I was asked to participate on a panel about YouTube in the enterprise at the Scottsdale, AZ conference last year and I think I was controversial (or opinionated) enough to keep things interesting so I’m hoping to generate some good discussion at the next meeting as well. I thought it would be funny to show this video because it demonstrates what can go wrong when people are put in charge of communications who don’t have the right tools to “keep things afloat”. I’m hoping to post my presentation so others can benefit so stay tuned if interested. I’m also hoping to have it recorded so I can post it up on my blog but we’ll see if I have rights to do so. If nothing else I’m sure I can get someone to record it from my camera for me.
Category: Videos
The Taxi Driver and the Angry Customer
I watch CBS News each night and part of the reason I love CBS News is they try and incorporate positive news stories. Most news channels focus so much on what is going wrong in the world instead of what is going right. If this video doesn’t move you, you probably need to look at yourself. Great story…
Mankind Is No Island
Mankind Is No Island from Daniel Spratlin on Vimeo.
“Using images found on street signage in Sydney and New York, Jason van Genderen shot this entire movie on a cell phone! “Mankind is No Island” is a cleverly crafted visual and musical narrative, whose production budget was a whopping $57! Winner of the TropFest NY 2008 award, the world’s largest short film festival, this is three and half minute experience that will leave you inspired.” Source: http://www.dailygood.org
63 Years At UPS
How inspirational! For seven decades, 87-year-old Marty Peters has worked for UPS and now holds the record for the longest-working employee at the company. Dean Reynolds reports from Detroit.
Student Reporter Interviews President Barack Obama
Wireless Electricity Demo
A TED talk demonstrating wireless electricity. How cool is this?
Linux Baby Rocker
The guy who made this video and I would get along beautifully. Haha…brilliant!
Julie and Julia Review
Went and saw Julie & Julia tonight which was overall pretty good. In case you missed the trailer for the movie, according to IMDB it is about “Julia Child’s story of her start in the cooking profession which is intertwined with blogger Julie Powell’s 2002 challenge to cook all the recipes in Child’s first book.” I certainly stayed with it mostly due to the fact that it was a movie with half of the story about a woman who blogged about her passion for cooking. I would say if you are a person who doesn’t like to blog or who doesn’t like to cook I’d at the very least wait for it to come out on DVD. I would give it a solid 7 out of 10. You definitely get a Julia Child accent going on after seeing it so watch out. Bon Appetite!
Inside the White House: Letters to the President
Christopher Langan: The “Smartest Man in America”
I found this video on YouTube and have to say it is very interesting. Langan has one of the highest IQ’s of anyone ever measured, one which even exceeds Einstein’s. Ironically, he worked as a bouncer in Long Island and when you see the video you can understand why he may have chosen that as his career. His story very much reminds me of Good Will Hunting, a movie about a genius who decides to be a janitor and construction worker despite his intelligence.
Additional Parts of the Documentary
You can watch part two and part three of the video, but for some reason I found those videos to be a bit disturbing because he starts to compare himself to God and discusses people’s right to breed (woah you are taking things a little too far in my opinion).
I mean yeah I have heard people joke that some couples in the world shouldn’t have children but where do you draw the line, and who are we to say they can’t? I understand his theories about keeping “mutations” out of the gene pool, but it got a little Hitlerish for me and lost interest and frankly some respect for him.
If you watch all three videos, let me know what you think, maybe I am missing the point (I’m no genius). Interesting stuff, hope you enjoy the video.
Exceptional Intelligence
Langan’s IQ is reportedly one of the highest ever measured, exceeding even that of Einstein.
Unexpected Career
Despite his genius, Langan worked as a bouncer in Long Island, similar to the fictional character in Good Will Hunting.
Controversial Views
In later videos, Langan expresses concerning ideas about eugenics and compares himself to God.
Discussion Questions
- How does extreme intelligence impact how someone relates to society?
- Why might someone with extraordinary abilities choose not to pursue traditional academic or career paths?
- At what point does intellectual confidence cross over into problematic territory?
- How should we respond when brilliant minds express ideas that seem morally questionable?