Great Talk. Humility & Confidence.

Wise words of enlightenment from Lindsay Wagner

"The basis of our religions say that there is life after death, but then we really don't act as if there is, we don't have that kind of faith that there is." and so much more wise insights in this short segment worth watching. Awesome.

She does a lot of inspirational & spiritual work. Visit her website http://www.lindsaywagnerinternational.com/index.html for more.

2012 Ferrari FF

Not happy with this direction Ferrari...
2012 Ferrari FF
UNCRATE | JANUARY 21, 2011
http://www.uncrate.com/men/cars/sports-cars/2012-ferrari-ff/
Need a car capable of hauling the kids around but not ready to give up on your dream of a red Ferrari sitting in your ... read more
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Get to Know Bethany McLean, one amazing lady.

Bethany McLean

So now that I've had some time to put some videos together, I wanted to share one of my favorite figures in the financial world. This is Bethany McLean, she has written The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron and the recent release All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis. The latter is unique in that it explains how the current financial system collapsed and it is not about the details of what happened after the fact.

She received her degree in English and Mathematics from Williams College and worked as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs prior to writing for Fortune and currently writes for Vanity Fair.

I've been waiting for someone who could articulate the fundamental flaws that lead to the crisis in the first place. She does so without bias, which I applaud her for, especially since many have no doubt there was premeditated complicity in the construction of this disaster along with its gains and losses.

If you have the time to watch these videos, I'm promise they will be well worth the investment. You can get a nice sense for financial institutional interplay, as well as the intricacies of financial products. The discussion of mortgage-backed securities is especially good as well as risk/credit ratings and its significant play into financial products.

My favorite video is the C-Span Interview of Bethany McLean and I recommend watching this first. There is also the video below a Charlie Rose interview, but I find it does not maximize the interviewee's flow of ideas.

Enjoy!

1 Minute Art

The picture to the left is from a great site Recovering Lazyholic, a photographer constantly 'struggling with her laziness'. Her website says she's based somewhere out in Austin. The site is fun and nostalgic. One of my favorites is 1 minute photoshop thoughts. Also check out '12 Steps'.

Another cool site is Unevolved Brands. This is the making of a graphic/ logo designer Graham Smith. It pretty much breaks down major corporate logos into simple colored circles. To the right is the logo of my favorite Google. The site is made more fun, since the process is approached like that of a puzzle. Try guessing the logo and Mr. Smith will promptly congratulate you when you've guessed correctly in the comments.

Why go to Africa?

Nice work by Carlos Andres Gomez (Penn '04) reciting 'Africa'.  Check out this video of his performance from the 2010 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Legacy of Environmental and Social Justice Poetry Slam at the Yale Peabody Museum.  Thanks to Matt Rosler at Dueling Tampons for the post. You can visit Carlos Gomez's site at CarlosLive.com.

Book Watch: Steven Johnson on Innovation

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
Author: Steven Johnson
Pulisher: Riverhead Books
Release Date: October 5th, 2010

Steven Johnson is a best-selling author writing about technology, science, experience.  I am looking forward to his new book coming out this week.  I am especially fond of his work because it involves examining nexus points of multiple disciplines, and, as I believe, these are the most important points for us to focus on, as academics and as a society.  The places where we come together (as well as where fields of study come together) are the most powerful, since they involve applied integration.

BTW, check out the final rendering of the drawing in the second video... very cool.