One of the trippiest, most wonderfully odd music videos ever…

Tiga “Shoes” from AlexandLiane on Vimeo.… more

It’s an odd thing to spit into a vial and send your saliva FedEx across the continent. So it was that curiosity tempted me a few months ago to try out 23andMe‘s personal genetics test.

Basically, you order a kit online for $399. It arrives a couple weeks later. You spit in the special vial, seal it up, and send it off. And another few weeks later an email arrives that tells you that your online profile has been completed. Pretty easy, actually.

The confidential (yet privately shareable) report summarizes your genome scan and provides you with a variety of health, traits, and ancestry – complemented by a rich library of background research.… more

Competitive Advantage Is Fleeting (And It’s Okay to Admit It). An interesting HBS article by Rita McGrath.

One implication of hypercompetition that has not yet gotten the attention it deserves is that the skill of getting out of things and re-focusing your organization is likely to be just as important as spotting opportunities and moving to capture them. I suggest that the vast majority of companies struggle with letting go, while the more adroit strategists make the necessary judgment calls and move on.… more

Recess was the best, wasn’t it? Ah, well, here’s a pretty cool program out of New York that seems to be recapturing that fun and exercise for a wider audience: Punk Rope!

Punk Rope Salutes March Madness 3-31-09 from Tim Haft on Vimeo.

Punk Rope is a playful mash-up of recess and boot camp that’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Each class is a unique blend of creative calisthenics, group conditioning drills, relay races, rope jumping, and core training. Students come in all ages, shapes, sizes, and fitness levels. Everybody is welcome! … more

I’ve posted previously about how great Patrick Watson songs and shows are (I’ve seen at least 14 of ’em!). It’s been fun watching this band improve and earn the acclaim they are now almost universally receiving. Their latest album, Wooden Arms, dropped last month and is start-to-finish wonderful. If you like pop-piano-acoustic-percussive type tunes, take a listen. And watch this beautifully shot takeaway show by Vincent Moon.… more

Banksy at the Bristol City Museum. Brilliant, yet again.… more

For all your New Yorker-style cartoon needs (for birthday cards, books, presentations…). Gigundo Industries Inc.… more

The word “publicacy” was coined by Scott Cleland, author of the insightful web policy The Precursor Blog, as a needed antonym to “privacy”. In the age of Web 2.0 social networks, mobile phone GPS, cload computing, and a growing variety of “wisdom of crowds” data analysis, the “publicacy ethos” – that “if technology innovation can make information public, it should be public and that there should be no permission or payment required to access, use or remix this new ‘public’ information” – becomes an increasingly important subject for discussion and debate. As this NY Times article explains, you’re leaving a digital trail and tracking that trail is valuable learning – both commercially and societally.… more

If you haven’t done so yet, set aside 80 minutes and watch the preview that Google delivered last week of its forthcoming Wave communication platform. You’ll be hearing a lot about it soon, I’m sure. Wave may very well replace email and will certainly play some key role in consolidating the oodles of social media services competing for our attention.

Impressive in its scope and ambition, obviously, but also a very good sign that Google has created Wave to be open source and “federation” friendly.… more

It’s the industrial design equivalent of science fiction: 100 completely unreal inventions.

(Thanks Clay)… more