Getting 4 year old crazy

Freedom!

You gotta love this video by George Michael, even after all these years. It's never a hard thing to watch....ever! Naomi, Linda, Cindy, Christy, and Tatjana.

Robots as Caregivers

I am reading an article in the November 2nd issue of the New Yorker that talks about the future of robots being caregivers. It's written by Dr. Jerome Groopman, and the piece is called ""Robots that Care: Advances in technological therapy." The piece talks about robot researchers at the University of Southern California developing robots who assist patients recovering from strokes as well as working with Alzheimer patients. It's a fascinating piece, especially when it talks about how robots, as caregivers, need to be different with patients who are introverted versus extroverted. Maya Mataric is the lead scientist. Here's her take on it:

Mataric concluded that, as with human caregivers, temperament would be a key factor. The robots would need to be able to judge whether a patient was introverted or extroverted, and know how to respond in the appropriate manner.

To test their theory, Mataric and her team categorized the personalities of healthy volunteers, using the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and observed their responses to robots that were programmed to behave as introverts or extroverts. A robot’s degree of sociability was defined by how far it positioned itself from the patient, the speed of its movements, and its type of communication. For people who were more extroverted, Mataric programmed the robot to move close. “We are not talking sociopathically close, because we always maintain three to four feet of
safety distance between the user and the robot,” she explained. “But, with the extroverted robots, they move into your area, and talk with a slightly higher pitch, more words per unit time, and they say things that are more forceful,
like ‘Come on, you can do three more. I know you can do better than that.’ ” The more introverted robots were programmed to stay farther away from the user, to gesticulate less, and to speak with a slightly lower pitch and at a slower tempo. “You don’t want to make the introversion glaring,” Mataric said. The introverted robots also said more soothing things and offered more praise.

To read the whole article go to "Robots that Care," New Yorker, November 2, 2009

New Boyz Concert Divas

We're sending this to our friends at Saturday Night Live. When you see Kristen Wiig do this in about a week or two, you know where you first saw it. The Jerkesses have arrived!

Mavericky

What the heck does this word mean? Actually, nothing, but boy does it sell books for Sarah Palin. But maybe it really is an affectionate longing for "Maverick." Riverboat ring your bell!

Isaac's personal style

I love teenagers. I know they can drive us all nuts, but man, they are so into finding their own voices of expression. This week, my son Isaac (age 13) got his braces. He didn't hesitate what color he wanted them to be - BLUE - so that he could show everyone with his wonderful smile that he is a Big Blue New York Giants fan. Everyone's got their own style, and favorite color. Gotta love teenage conviction.--John Anderson

The Fun Theory

There's a market for anything

How 'bout...Viking thrasher rock?

Sure.

OPRAH FLASH MOB

As hard as this day is, for all of us, there is still such great positive up energy out there in the world that we have to tap into whenever we can. Here's just one wonderful example of that - OPRAH Flash Mobbing with the Black Eye Peas...You go O! 24th season, and getting better all the time.

Eight years ago today

It was eight years ago today when I watched with my own eyes both Towers fall before me. I will never forget that day, and will never forget all those people who died, and the pain and suffering that their families continue to feel, especially today. --John Anderson

Collaboration with in-house creative

We are finding that more and more of our clients want us to work with their in-house creative capabilities. In this very challenging environment, it makes complete sense because it maximizes the internal resources of the client with an added boost of creative energy from us. We're going to share some examples of this in the coming weeks.

Moma blues

I always seem to miss seeing something at Moma because I always plan on going on Tuesday - when it's closed. There's an exhibit there right now by a Chinese artist named Song Dong called Waste Not where where he collects the contents of his mom's house over the last 50 years. Need to see that. Stuff as art. When's Moma coming to my house to collect all my things? --John Anderson

Chairman Mao Child

Komen Global Race for the Cure

Sharon Rapoport and John Anderson of The Farm were honored to attend a special reception held by the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure folks at their Washington DC office to launch their first Global Race for the Cure. We met incredible women from Egypt to Greece to Germany to South Africa, who will be spearheading Race for the Cure events in their respective countries this year. Sharon walked with fellow cancer survivors (which included John's sister, Mary Enright and Sharon's close friend/fellow survivor Brenda Foster) in the Breast Cancer Survivors hero walk, and then joined 50,000 supporters to walk the 5k event on Saturday. John ran. It was an incredible experience.

Fear

Whatever floats your boat

Sid lives on with "My Way"

An original in the truest sense of the world.

Levi and Freerunning

Gotta love this guy...he's art in motion

Joe Torre: the Yankee Years

I've been reading Joe Torre's memoir about his years as a Yankee manager. It covers all the glory years of their four World Series titles - '96, '98,'99 and '00, as well as all the years after, especially that incredible 2001 Series right after 9.11. I recently bought the DVD, "Nine Innings from Ground Zero" by HBO, which covers that historic time. It's something every New Yorker should see. Listen, we really miss Joe here at The Farm. What a class act. Not to say our new Joe, Joey G, isn't class either. It's just there can only be one Joe manager, and he's no longer with us. What were they thinking when they let him get away to the Dodgers? --John Anderson

Gabrielle Hamilton, the best chef ever

We just learned that Gabrielle Hamilton has been nominated for Best Chef in New York City for the James Beard Awards. And we knew her when! Her restaurant, Prune, has been our favorite place to go for all time in the City. And now we are never EVER going to get a table, right Ms. G?

Gabrielle actually catered Sharon and my wedding way back in 1992. She dug a hole with her own hands and grilled a whole lamb in the ground after filling the hole with charcoal! We knew back then she would go big time.

You have to love some of the comments she made about the nomination to Time Out New York. Here's just a few:

What does your nomination as the only woman in the Best Chef NYC category mean for you, personally and professionally?

It means it fucks things up, and undermines all the potential joy of the nomination. In a way, I tend not to spin out on that stuff. I can’t help but think they needed to pick a girl, and of the girls, I’m pretty good. I could go down that path for hours, but I’m not going to. I’ll just say that I’m honored.

What will you be wearing to the awards? The ceremony is, after all, the Oscars of the food world.

You’re just like my female staff at Prune! The minute they found out, they were like, “What will you wear?” I don’t know—it’s supposed to be long, right? It says evening attire. I know how to clean up, so I’ll clean up just fine. We’re decidedly not Hollywood types, we’re not trained for this sort of thing. We spend a lot of time eating pork. To see us with burn marks on our arms in these fancy clothes… We’ll figure it out.

If you win Best Chef NYC, what will you do to celebrate?

The same thing we’re already doing—just going to the party for the fun of it. We might come back to Prune with a couple of very close friends and eat burgers.

Most beautiful girl in the room

Great way to go into the weekend.

College tour

The college tour is a very interesting phenomenon. You would think that after all these years, most of them would be about the same. But they aren't. I am early to the game, travelling this spring break with my sophomore son who wants to get a jump on the whole process. This trip was the mid-Atlantic tour. We visited George Washington University, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, and today we go to William & Mary. Granted there are many similarities. All schools have students lead the tours. They point out the general history of the school, the size of the student body, the security procedures on campus, and the all-important mess halls. But what is very different is the intro talk. At Georgetown, it was lead by the Dean of Admissions, a pretty dry affair, Powerpoint-heavy. Johns Hopkins, meanwhile, was given by this incredibly impressive senior co-ed who gave a commanding 45 minute talk in front of 200 people WITHOUT notes. She is an international studies student going on to the London School of Economics. Perhaps the favorite was a combo talk, admissions person and student, at GW. Today, it's on to William & Mary after a much needed break yesterday - my son off to Busch Gardens, and me and Mom off to the outlet stores. --John Anderson

Any guesses?

Glass Fish

Glass blowing in the wind

Lost Generation @ age 50

You got to love this video done for AARP that asks the BIG question: What will you be @ 50?

Check this out for a mind blender:

What's Love got to do with it?

New York mag's Madoff cover

US Airways Flight 1549 trip via animation

A Glimmer of Hope?

The market went up today..does it mean that we are going to finally start a turn upwards in the market based on the fact this is the Year of the Ox in the Chinese New Year calendar? Let's hope so. There's two problems here, however. First, this ox is red and second, perhaps far more importantly, an ox is a castrated bull...so what the hell do we do with that information?

A Bad Snow Day

With all the snow pounding down on our heads, we had to post this shot of Isaac Anderson taken a few years back when he really REALLY didn't want to be out there making a snowman. If you click the pic, you can see just how miserable he really is out there. Gotta love the drool on the side of the jacket. Spring is nearly here..hang in there everybody!

Abbey Road Live

Since it seems we are going back in time anyway, thanks to the stock market, we figured it wouldn't hurt to hear some great Beatles music from a tribute band called Abbey Road Live. We were a bit skeptical when we were first invited, because when you see Beatles tribute bands, they are usually trying to look like the Fab 4 and doing all their early bubble gum songs. Well, Abbey Road Live dresses up a bit 60s style, but they don't try to act or look like John, Paul, George and Ringo. They all sing, like the originals, but they take on the hardest stuff the Beatles ever wrote - the late Beatles catalogue that was never performed publicly (except for that stint they did on the rooftop). ARL begin by playing the WHOLE Abbey Road album! After a break, they followup with just about the entire Sergeant Pepper album, and then throw in a healthy mix of The White Album to boot! They do a bit of the early stuff, but Revolver hip, not the poppy early stuff.

They can play over 100 Beatles songs..they take requests and deliver.

These fellas are out of Athens GA, so if you get a chance to see them, go. You might see a little girl running wild through the audience, being chased by her nanny. She's adorable, and she's the guitarist/keyboardist's daughter. Coo coo kachoo ka coo coo kachoo. Learn more about these guys at http://www.abbeyroadlive.com.

Here's a compilation hit list by Abbey Road Live:

Chicken Houses going bust!

I just saw an article about the demise of chicken houses across the country in this week's Wall Street Journal. It reminded me of my Granddaddy Anderson who by day made his living making feed for my great-uncle's company, Bayshore Foods in Easton, Maryland. They made feed for Frank Perdue, coming up with a proprietary feed mix that made chicken skin "yellower" which they marketed as healtier. Granddaddy saw the huge potential of Perdue's company, and so invested in four chicken houses where he raised chicks for Frank. I remember chasing the chicks around inside the chicken house when I was a little kid, which infuriated Granddaddy because he was worried that when the chicks all stacked up in a corner that his investment would suffocate. I just loved seeing all the feathers kicking up all over the place and the chicks squawking by the thousands.

Now chicken houses are going out of business, not because of disturbing little kids like me, but because of this disturbing economy. My granddaddy had put all of his nest egg in one basket, and won. This is not the case now. The chicken farmers are getting left with an empty nest of bankruptcy. ---John Anderson


If you've never been in a chicken house, here's a virtual tour:

Radio Radio

We've been reading a lot lately about how bad radio companies are doing. In The Wall Street Journal, Clear Channel bonds are really low because investors are worried whether the company is even going to be around in five years. Same goes for Sirius/XM satellite radio. Well, we haven't given up on these guys yet. The solution, we think, is to try and work back some of that wonderful local/regional pizzaz and identity that radio was once famous for.





Hey, radio people, get those crazy DJs back on the air...that do their own thing. Back in the day, it was dudes like the Wolfman.


Then, maybe just maybe it will be a brand new day for R-A-D-I-O.

Strike the Pose

The Football Yankees - Pittsburgh Steelers

Well, I guess there is no question now who is the greatest team in football - the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steeler Nation is only going to grow after the Steelers secured their sixth Super Bowl title. Congrats to all those black and gold fans everywhere. The Steelers are now the football version of the Yankees. --John Anderson

My heroes

I finally sent off to my editor last week the book that I've been writing. It is a breast cancer caregiving book for men when their loved ones are diagnosed. I have had four women go through breast cancer in my life - my wife, my sister, my mom and my mom's best friend. My mom died from breast cancer, unfortunately, in 1988, but Caryl (mom's best friend who was my babysitter growing up), Sharon (my wife) and Mary (my sister), pictured here from left to right at the Race for the Cure in Washington, DC are still here, thank God. They are my true heroes. --John Anderson

Remembering the the Water Cube in Beijing

This is such an amazing piece of architecture. It will be remembered long after Michael Phelps isn't.

The Push/Pull of Life

Ha ha ha