powered by technology from Evolution Robotics, an Idealab company.  Wowee, the maker of Rovio, has some really cool products. I bought their helicopter package at Costco, which was cool, but it only lasted about one day before breaking.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Branded applications that people want to play with…

Scoble interview video about Context Optional.

Kidnap is driving 60,000 users per day to its sponsor, the Travel Channel.

“When success is usually measured in fractions of 1% click throughs, there must be a better way, and it starts with making the internet a better place.” [link to undercurrent]

check this out – link to engadget.

thought this article written by Clayton Christensen and Jerome Grossman and Jason Hwang is particularly good.

From my own research:

Twenty-five percent of the U.S. community population are reported to have one or more of five major chronic conditions:

• Mood disorders.
• Diabetes.
• Heart disease.
• Asthma.
• Hypertension.

Total expenses for people with these five major chronic conditions accounts for ~ 49 percent of total health care costs.

And, I’ve heard that all chronic conditions actually represent around 85% of spending.

The really interesting thing to me is that technology is well positioned to disrupt current models of care for these chronic conditions. Internet-based interventions can potentially treat mood disorders and hypertension (in lieu of expensive pharmaceuticals and other consumables). The Internet can also be used to more effectively manage diabetes and heart disease, to decrease the risks of these diseases, as well as prescribe preventative measures for those in the population at risk of these conditions.

I’ve heard the analogy that routine healthcare (checkups) etc. should be treated like a car’s oil change, an out of pocket expense, and insurance should be structured, to focus on catastrophic or emergency health.

great article on Dean [link].

Is blogging a dying medium?  Is Twitter taking over?

Roger von Oech (creative think) is taking a break.

Fraser (disruptive thoughts) rarely posts anymore.

Eric Olson (Olson’s Observations) is on a hiatus.

Nick Baum has stopped.

Jeffrey Davis (waterlog) has retired.

Snake Coffee hasn’t posted since April.

Michael Osofsky on Innovation has slowed to a crawl.

Kareem Mayan hasn’t blogged since July.

Even Michael Arrington hasn’t posted on Crunch Notes in ages.

Susan Wu hasn’t posted since February.

David Cummins (no posting since may), I’m still waiting for you to repurpose your blog.

Shak Kahn – I miss China White.

Simply beautiful (link).