You suck at photoshop

These 'You suck at photoshop' tutorials are masterpieces of intelligent executions edutainment. Slickly produced and very funny. (Educational too if you're looking to pick up some photoshop skills.)

I love this kind of smart-ass information delivery. After I get the 'corporate' look and feel stuff done for Sendside I'll be looking to stimulate the rest of the economy with just this type of tongue-in-cheek delivery. 

Horses

It's not often that I speak kindly of our horses. The car my wife drives around in smells like horse, my house sometimes smells like horse, even my daughter often smells like horse.

But they're not all terrible.

This is my daughters horse Moon and even I'm impressed with this photo of him jumping.

Of course, he smells like horse too. 

Kidgrater: The newest child toy from China.

China's newest import, the KidGrater

Led paint, choking hazzards, unsecured magnets that may cause intestinal blockages step aside, KidGrater is sure to get the job done.

With China's adherence to child safety seen as... optional, the KidGrater is sure to find niche that's yet to be discovered by such palid child-offing tools as lead paint and poorly attached magnets. This is perfect to increase the average IQ in US playgrounds.

While Beijing has no official comment on the Kidgrater, numerous officials have told media sources off the record that it's an attempt to address the sissy like attitudes of American parents.

"Well give the round-eyes something real to complain about", said on official. "We've tested this extensively and eight times down the KidGrater was the where most kids lost interest. But we're building one for every playground in America."

Increasing evidence that China is becoming a world power. 

ImageKind: Jeff Barson & those other artists.

It's just slightly odd to look at my own work.

 
Of course, I've seen it all before. I spent much of my live in a dark room late at night drawing and painting it. The stories of those days have prevented more than a few college kids from pursuing an art career.

As another oddity, I often parallel being an artist to startups. Endless hours spent alone working on something that you hope someone will eventually want when you're done. 

ImageKind is a long tail artist aggregator. I like them. In the past they've been extremely responsive.

They're smart too. They've built ImageKind on top of existing printing technologies. In effect, wrapping technology around and existing market and need.

They also let me relive a few of the glory days of autographs and ascots. 

Blogging from Utah: Dooce & Dude.

Having met a number of Utah bloggers and read any number of Utah blogs, I can say this. Dooce (pronounced 'Duce') from Heather B. Armstrong stands sole.

 "This website chronicles my life from a time when I was single and making a lot of money as a web designer in Los Angeles, to when I was dating the man who would become my husband, to when I lost my job and lived life as an unemployed drunk, to when I married my husband and moved to Utah, to when I became pregnant, to when I threw up and became unbearably swollen during the pregnancy, to the birth, to the aftermath, to the postpartum depression that landed me in a mental hospital. I’m better now."

 Where most of the 'guy blogs' I read are decidedly on the techie or business site, It's nice to see that someone else exists.

It's seems that Heather has decided to give voice to sarcasm. Vive le difference. 

The human bite wound: 12 times more common in men.

Men are 12 times more likely than women to sustain severe human bite injuries for which surgery may be necessary, according to a study published in the July issue of the Emergency Medicine Journal.

Injuries are most likely to occur during brawls at weekends or public holidays and in most cases alcohol is involved.

The researchers reviewed the 92 patients requiring assessment for human bite wounds by the plastic surgery service at St James's Hospital Dublin, Ireland, between January 2003 and December 2005. Eight five of them (92%) were men and the 92 patients had a total of 96 bites.

Alcohol was implicated in 86% of the injuries and illicit drugs in 12%. Seventy per cent of incidents resulting in a bite wound had occurred during the weekend or on a public holiday. Seven out of ten bites were to the face and 65% of the facial injuries were to the ear.

Bites became infected in one in five patients and infection was most common when patients waited longer than 12 hours to seek medical attention. Only 14% of the patients reviewed have or plan to undergo reconstructive surgery for the damaged caused by the bite.

Human bite wounds are a relatively common reason for referral for plastic surgery and there are two main types: the occlusive bite with or without tissue loss which occur when teeth close on the skin and have been seen in several high profile contact sporting events, including the Tyson-Holyfield boxing match in 1997; and the 'fight bite' when flesh on a closed fist is pierced by a tooth.

The authors say: 'The incidence of human bite wounds is largely unknown because many minor injuries do not present to the emergency department for medical assessment.

'The human bite injury is a deceptive wound and because of the potential for infective, functional and aesthetic complications it requires prompt treatment.'

The human bite injury: a clinical audit and discussion regarding the management of this alcohol fuelled phenomenon
http://www.emj.bmj.com

Another Honorary Fight Club Member.

It's the least we can do for this poor guy.

Amanda Monti, 24, flew into a rage when Geoffrey Jones, 37, rejected her advances at the end of a house party, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

She pulled off his left testicle and tried to swallow it, before spitting it out. A friend handed it back to Mr Jones saying: "That's yours."

The Sopranos, HD TV & other assorted tidbits.

I'm a Sopranos lover. Here's a couple of thoughts from the last week (Including the Sopranos final episode which just aired.)

 

• They (the Sopranos family) didn't get wacked.
  
• HD TV is absolutely the only way to watch anything. I bought two HDTV's last week (a 47 inch for the regular TV and a 42 inch for my studio) I'm blown away. It reminds me of my inlaws comments on discovering that a microwave was actually much easier to cook with than a stove... "Now we know". (My wife's not as enthused as I.)
  
• It pisses me off that everything's not in HD.
  
• HD has reached the tipping point since now I have two of them.
• Park City is due an angel group of some sort.
• Phil Burns had better throw some of that Daily Spike traffic my way since he's said such nice things about me.
• Squarespace is hand's down the best blogging software.
• I've got to be more diligent with Fight Club.
• I need to exercise more and get back in fighting shape.
  
• There are a couple of startups that are of interest to me. It's an interesting time.
• I love Land Rovers but gas at $3 is killing me.
  

The Real Geek Squad: Fighting terrorism with your slide rule.

Geeks can be fierce.

 
Via CNN.com: Cyber-spies tracking terrorists through the web.

 Resembling a modern-day Clark Kent, Weisburd is a boyish 40-something former computer programmer who decided to use his background and skills to track terrorists following the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

He's proved himself a force to be reckoned with, fighting -- and winning -- a war waged against the "dark side" of the Internet.

To do this, Weisburd poses as a member of the Islamic Brotherhood, using what he's learned from al Qaeda's terrorist networks to glean information and then pass it on to the appropriate people -- whom he calls "associates."

These "associates", says Weisburd, may or may not necessarily be affiliated with law enforcement.

To emulate and catch the bad guys, Weisburd adopts their language and behavior, noting that it's rare to be kicked out of a terrorist community forum for being "too radical."

"If somebody reports on the latest terror attack, then the Brothers usually think that's a cool thing, so they'll respond with praise for the bombers. That would be appropriate behavior," says Weisburd.

Weisburd's reputation has earned him the nickname "the vigilante" in cyber space, a legacy he's eager to shrug off.

"If I was a vigilante running a Web site, I would hurt you," says Weisburd.

"If I find that you're running a Web site for al Qaeda, I'm not going to hurt you. I'll report you to people that will ask you to come quietly, and if you don't go quietly, they may hurt you," he says.

The paradox of unlimited choices

Via Presentation Zen:

Happiness, decisions, & the paradox of unlimited choices

 If some choice is better than no choice, and more choice is even better than that, then how can still even more choice — a seemingly unlimited array of choices in fact — not be a kind of decision-making nirvana where people make both better decisions and are happier about those decisions? Do not more choices and a greater number of options lead to better decisions? And if so, why then are people unhappy with their decisions even when a decision is a good one? Why do people feel regret even when they choose well?...

Learning to love constraints
 At the end of the book Schwartz ends with 11 ways we can end the crippling effect of too much choice or  “the tyranny of small decisions.” The last one in the list is simply this: “Learn to love constraints.” I recommend the book, but you can save your money and get a pretty good feel for the book’s content by watching this 2005 presentation by Barry Schwartz at TED (below). This is a good presentation, though you will surely have some tips to offer him on both slide design and on the issue of making appropriate fashion choices on the day of your presentation.

“Imagine finding yourself lost on the open road. You finally see a lone gas station up ahead, you’re hungry to discover the route back to the freeway. You ask the attendant for directions, and he begins to offer plan A and plan B and plan C, each with varying degrees of specific detail. Rather than finding the clear, simple, and concise directions you were seeking, your brain is now swimming in a sea of even greater confusion. Clear, simple, and concise directions are all that you want.”

We've all had a similar feeling while using a poorly-designed website, application, or even a cell phone that did everything under the sun except make calls that didn't drop halfway through a conversation.

Simple, clear, concise
As daily life becomes even more complex, and the options and choices continue to mount, making designs which are clear, simple, and concise becomes all the more important. Clarity and simplicity — often this is all people want or need, yet it’s increasingly rare (and all the more appreciated when it’s discovered). You want to surprise people? You want to exceed their expectations? Then consider making it beautiful, simple, clear…and great. The “greatness” may just be found in what was left out, not in what was left in.

Moose on the loose.

Saturday we had a moose in our back yard eating the grass. This video of the wily beast was shot from our back deck by my wife.

Trolley Square shootings in Salt Lake.

If you're in Utah and have the news on, you've heard that there was a shooting tonight at Trolley Square. Five dead and others in critical condition.

I just missed it.

I was downtown looking at a new location for a medical spa with my buddy Shane. We decide to go eat and since Shane had his four year old with him, he suggested the Spaghetti Factory in Trolley Square since everyone gets ice cream.

We left about 30 minutes before the gunman walked in that very door and started shooting. Events are fuzzy but it sounds as if five people were killed and some critically wounded.

You never know when your life will change. 

During my 10 years in Manhattan I saw guns pulled five time in anger but no shootings. Gun violence is becoming a part of everyday life in America.

Niche Blogging: Designing a niche for the non blog savvy.

I've created a few niche blogs for my non blog-savvy family.

Niche blogging is certainly the best way to grow a readership. Between this blog and Medical Spa MD, my personal blogs have 12,000 unique monthly visitors, 1000 rss feed subscribers, and almost 100,000 page loads.

The Medspa MD blog has the most of everything. Why? It's a niche. Medical Spa MD is targeted almost exclusively at physicians in the US who have, or are interested in having, a cosmetic medical practice or medical spa. I built that blog for them, a niche.

So I've started some niche blogs for my family members who like or might benefit from blogging. There's...

• Pony Tail Club - A girl & her horse: I've been after my daughter and wife for a while to start this blog. We've got a whole spiel. I'm the doubting father who pays the bills but doesn't really get what all the hubbubs about. As I expressed for a long time to my wife, the targets not only girls with horses but all girls who've ever liked horses. Interestingly, since I've taken on the doubting father role I've even been chastised by an old woman named Maple who says, " These girls are doing hard work and the last thing they need is a mean man in the house. You just be nice."
  
  
• Kid Agent - A Hollywood Talent Agent: For my sister who's down in LA putting movie deals together and managing stage moms. Unlike the venture tech community, Hollywood insiders don't really blog. I've decide that this is a great opportunity for my sis and I've told her so. She's just had a baby but I've got high hopes for what she'll do. The benefits to her will be increased 'talent flow' and status. I'm intent on making her the Michael Arrington of Hollywood. Perhaps I should go with Talent Crunch.
  
  
• Entertainer - An actor in New York: I've got a buddy, Yoshi Shiraki, who's changed his name to Christopher Becerril. Yosh is half Japanese and half Mexican. He's lived in London and NY as a top stylist at Vidal Sasoon, boxed Golden Gloves, and tried out for the US Olympic Team in the Skeleton. (When no one retired he didn't make the team so he got himself Mexican citizenship and solicited Mexico to create a skeleton team of one.) So once his blog gets off the ground, it should be an interesting read.
  
  
• A Chestnut Pony: Once my daughter had her pony blog up I had to make one for her cousin Elle if just to keep Pony Tail Club from being overrun with comments.

I've fired up a few others but those are the leaders. If you're looking to give blogging a run, design your niche and know your target. It's a startup stupid... get your groove on.

Sundance Film Festival: Show some love.

Chris read my post on Sundance and was kind enough to extend an invitation for a drink at his party booth. Thanks Chris, I'll be by next week to take you up on that.

That got me wondering...

I'd already tried to hook up Evan Williams (the one who launched Blogger and sold it to Google) with some sweet passes. That deal fell through but It got me thinking.

Anyone else out there willing to offer some help?

If you have any parties, passes, or pull, lemme know (jeffbarson at gmail).

Because I don't have any pull this year. Maybe it's time to start calling in some chips?

Have your penis removed and cut into small peices by your angry surgeon.

Some of you know, some of you don't, that I own Surface Medical and run a blog for physicians in cosmetic medicine over at Medical Spa MD.

I deal with physicians all the time and regularly comment on the differences between the regular practice of medicine and retail cosmetic medicine. Here's a comment on the differences between medicine in the US and other countries. 

The unpleasant business of the angry, penis removing doctor: Now you might feel a little prick.

...Surgeon Naum Ciomu, who had been suffering from stress at the time, had been operating on patient Nelu Radonescu, 36, to correct a testicular malformation when he suddenly lost his temper.

Grabbing a scalpel, he sliced off the penis in front of shocked nursing staff, and then placed it on the operating table where he chopped it into small pieces before storming out of the operating theatre at Bucharest hospital.

...Vice-president of the Romanian Doctors Union, Vasile Astarastoae, said: 'Ciomu's case is a dangerous precedent for all Romanian doctors. In future doctors may have to think very carefully about what work they undertake.'

Because obviously, the last thing you want is a doctor thinking carefully about the work they're doing.

 While medicine in America might not be perfect, it's better than checking out of the hospital with your penis in a baggie.