On why I'm NOT thrilled about how posting a YouTube link on Google+ winds up creating a comment on YouTube. More info at:

http://www.disruptiveconversations.com/2014/01/my-unexpected-comment-on-youtube-via-the-google-integration.html

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day here in the USA and in this episode I reflect on the day and the teachings of Dr. King, Jr. - and both how far we've come and how far we still have to go.

I Have A Dream Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs

Trying to watch the NFL Playoffs tonight over the Internet, one network (CBS Sports) rocked and let "cord-cutters" watch the game (with advertising) while the other network (Fox Sports) was still stuck in the legacy business model where they require you to login with your "TV provider", which, of course, I don't have as a "cord-cutter"...

While watching the live stream of the Continental Cup of Curling tonight, I was pleasantly surprised to learn of a connection between the women's team we were watching and the city of Ottawa and the man who first taught me how to play the sport of curling...

We have a chance to watch some *amazing* curling this weekend streaming live across the Internet as some of the best teams in the world compete in the "Continental Cup 2014" in Las Vegas. The live stream can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/worldcurlingtv

More info can be found at:

http://monadnockcurling.org/2014/01/17/watch-live-this-weekend-some-of-the-best-curling-teams-in-the-world-at-continental-cup-2014/

http://www.worldcurling.org/world-financial-group-continental-cup-2014

http://www.curling.ca/2014continentalcup-en

http://www.curling.ca/2014continentalcup-en/how-does-the-scoring-work-for-the-continental-cup/

I learned a very cool trick to type special characters while on a Mac... where before to type a "ü" I would press "Alt+u" to get an umlaut and then the "u" key, now I just use what I describe in this episode... VERY cool! (And presumably only for Macs - I don't know if there is a similar trick for Windows.)

Have you planned your own funeral/memorial service yet? Does anyone know how you would like your death handled? Do you want to be buried? cremated? In this episode I reflect on how a recent experience made me realize how important thinking about these questions can be - as well as sharing that information with others.

The Jetpack plugin for WordPress now lets you publicize posts to your blog out to Google+ in addition to Twitter, Facebook and other services. In this episode I talk about the power of that and all the other features of the Jetpack plugin. More info:

http://jetpack.me/

http://www.disruptiveconversations.com/2013/12/awesomeness-jetpack-27-lets-wordpress-users-auto-post-content-to-google.html

Are you thinking of your organization as a "media company"? Are you fully embracing the opportunity the Internet provides to tell your own story in your own words? Are you enabling people within your company to rapidly create content online?

See: http://www.disruptiveconversations.com/2014/01/are-you-in-the-business-of-rapid-content-creation.html

We are creatures of story. We use stories to help us explain the inexplicable, to make sense of the senseless, and to find meaning and explain the world around us. Yet sometimes, those stories fail us...