This is just amazing to watch.
Although there is some question as to the legality of flying drones through a fireworks display, it’s just really cool to view it.
Video: Woman Chased by ‘Stampeding Herd’ of Rabbits
I had no choice but to post it. This is too outrageously cute.
As it turns out, there’s an island overrun by rabbits in Japan. This woman made the mistake of feeding some of the rabbits and they chased her down!
In weird food news…
Should you be reading this column while consuming a meal, you might want to press pause on the eating thing. Although neither of these two stories is overly graphic, they do cause the eewww-factor meter to rev up.
Bizarre food news item #1:
Making cattle ecstatic the world over, scientists recently grew hamburger in a lab without harming any of our bovine, cud-chewing friends.
To do so, they took stem cells extracted from a biopsy of a cow and grew 20,000 muscle fibers. (Bet you won’t find that recipe in the “Joy of Cooking.”) When ready, these fibers were cut open and straightened — after all, who wants crooked meat? — and pressed together to form hamburger. Although biologically identical to beef, it isn’t actually beef. Moreover, before you fire up the barbeque for some good petri-dish burgers, you might want to be aware of the cost. Whereby “traditional” ground beef sets you back about three or four dollars a pound, this grown-in-a-lab version costs more than the average price of a house; about $340,000!
So why might a six-figure hamburger be of interest?
Well, aside from eventually being able to help feed more people, our appetite for meat means that about 30 percent of the Earth’s useable surface is covered by pasture land for animals, compared with just four percent used to feed humans. Moreover, livestock accounts for about five percent of carbon dioxide emissions and 40 percent of methane emissions. Summed up, cows are inefficient as food and they’re quite gassy. Who would have thunk?
Needless to say, a hamburger requiring a mortgage to finance it has a few hurdles to overcome, but the doctor who created “Frankenmeat” is confident that in two decades — when it’s more affordable and more tasty — people will actually prefer it.
To increase the appeal and give it better taste, he plans to add lab-grown fat cells and perhaps even bone cells for those who want a fully lab-cultured T-bone steak. Speaking for myself, I’m pretty competent at growing fat cells. I’ll be glad to share a few.
Which leads to… [Read more…]
Change in Pace: 3 Ways to Improve Boring Meetings
Meetings are boring, but surviving them seems to be a right of passage in the American workforce. Part of your job description could probably be listed as “endure endless meetings” – even when you are the manager running the show. Meetings do not have to follow the same stale formula without any deviation. You can make the exception to the rule through mixing extra planning and liberal doses of creative thinking into these office gatherings.
Involve everyone
The simplest antidote to a boring meeting is to get everyone involved in the discussion. People become more invested in a meeting when they feel like their presence matters.
Involve the entire group in a meeting and you can enhance the quality of decisions. A study done at Cal-State Northridge found that group discussions are effective in making more information available, generating more ideas, reducing individual bias and producing a decision with fewer errors.
It can start with taking attention away from the person leading the meeting and turning the spotlight back on the group. Encourage people to speak out with ideas and suggestions. Ask open-ended questions. Breakout into group discussions. Give everyone in the meeting a chance to get involved in the decision-making process.
Avoid information overload
Meetings can feel overwhelming if there is too much information to take in all at once. You can prevent this problem by setting an agenda ahead of a scheduled meeting. The agenda can guide what things are discussed in the meeting and offer a road map for the direction of the meeting.
It helps to tackle one issue at a time. Multitasking can serve a good purpose in some situations, but can be a negative influence in a meeting. WebMD notes that the average person can actually lose time shifting between two tasks and take longer to accomplish each task.
One meeting cannot focus on every problem at hand. Set priorities and tackle issues one at a time in order of importance. When things are more specific, it can allow for shorter meetings and better results.
A good rule of thumb is to focus on the issues that are most pertinent to the people in the meeting. This will make it easier to solve problems because you can involve those same people in creating a solution. It allows them to take ownership of the meeting and become more engaged in driving the discussion in positive directions.
Make it count
Meetings represent a significant investment of both time and money. There is no excuse for having a meeting that does not accomplish a tangible purpose.
Make each meeting count by following up on the decisions made in the meeting. The founder of GoDaddy, Bob Parsons, notes that effective leadership requires always moving forward. A leader, according to Parsons, should never stop investing, improving or doing something new because a lack of improvement causes organizations to die.
When you solve problems in meetings, apply those solutions outside the conference room. A meeting that produces measurable results is not a waste of time. Measure progress and offer positive reinforcement to the whole staff when goals are met. It will reinforce the original meeting’s value.
About the Author: Samuel Perry is a PR consultant who lives in Arlington, Va.
Photo used from Flikr by Robert Couse-Baker
Video: Dumb Things We Do
Actually, this is a video called “Dumb Ways to Die” and, to be honest, I’m not sure how this is inspirational – but it’s funny in a public service kind of way. So, what the heck, I wanted to share it.
In reality, it’s an ad from Australia about how to be safe around trains. However, I assure you you’ll be signing it before the day is done.