the logo board game

are you one falsely believing that marketing does not work on you? buy this game.

you will discover you know far more about corporations and their ad campaigns than you care to admit.

nerf for distance

all business is serious business. some just get to play more at work. this article about the design process at nerf at wired.com

what readers want

the short answer: nobody knows. traveling the internet world of experts gives a wide range of opinions:

good content (what's that)

personal stories (not really anyone's business, unless empathy increases readership. then we're all for it)

solve the readers problems (you don't have any of those, right?)

publish regularly

don't publish too regularly; it's confusing (thank you dueling experts; and one of them is condescending. really, too confusing. come on, we live in 3 second attention spans. more, more, more...)

respond to comments (this one we believe)

anticipate what the readers want (psychics have their own blogs)

tell the readers what they want (we really like this one)

we are certain we can give the reader what they want. just tell us in the comments. no magic. no guessing.

you know it would be a cool experiment. you offer a topic. we here at mentalogica noodle about a bit. give an opinion. see if we can make somemone angry (or happy).

our intent is to serve our interests while integrating yours.

how 'bout that: no links.

your password is still terrible

follow this link. check your password. realize how weak it is. and then change it.

good. now you've done that.

now give 14'35" to this busting of password myths. then, go to your tech group tell them you know better. because, now you do. and begin the revolution in password security your workplace so desperately needs.

merry (vintage soviet space program) christmas

we found this image post at boingboing.net with this link to the larger collection.

instagram versus your photo

we found this over at digitaltrends.com. read it.

we want you to stay informed. privacy evolves almost daily in todays digital world.

imagine you sent family pictures to aunt sally. she then uses your photos to earn money from your face. for some reason your face is perfect for their new label. a label covering a salsa jar, a juice bottle, whatever you can imagine.

now, is this the same problem instagram faces?

who owns the profit gained from your picture?

some of these concerns must involve a right to privacy. some CEO's (fb) want you to believe those days are over; that privacy is a bygone concept. it seems unlikely that all or even most of us believe this. but we seem unable to restrain ourselves. we trot our lives out to the internet. and then are mad when everyone knows our business.

you owe it to yourself to think about your posts, your comments, your uploaded photos. gather some wisdom and filter your choices. be smarter with your words and pictures. and much of this won't matter to you. make a choice. have an opinion.

is Facebook really viable longterm?

why does Facebook constantly send potential friends lists to email? with 1 billion users in sight, how could anything go wrong?

perhaps a real look at users, ad click through rates, purchases because of the ads, and frequency of use per user would reveal weaknesses.

consider that instagram owned by Facebook removed high quality images from twitter. twitter pics must be a threat. and with hundreds of millions of users why are high quality photos on twitter a cause for concern?

let's all think about this for a bit. somewhere out there is the innovator with the idea to reinvent social platforms. please start your own business. Facebook google and the like want to pay you great out of college salaries so they can own your ideas. they took chances. so should you.

Social Media: no one wants your real opinion

give the people original content. its what they want. is it really?

each day there are millions of retweets. people make near identical comments on myriad items. we don't want ideas that are uncomfortable. sharing the same ideas gives us belonging.

we find a community. do we lose ourselves to common opinions?

these short essays appear to generate comments. we hope people will argue in the comments. but we intend argument in the logic sense. present premises. support a conclusion.

perhaps we should offer more inflammatory or emotionally charged content.

and to follow: why is huff post so popular? no idea. it's just another link curating website with a few bloggers. nothing interesting.

christmas tree fires

the answer: average 230 each year. see more at the National Fire Protection Association

end of days - mayan calendar

so you have read story after story. this suggests that the world did not end. though some may wish it. through all of this talk of calendars and the end of life, many of us never gave any time to learning anything at all about the calendar.

for example, that image; aztec calendar. but give some time to the article where we found the image

these civilizations, now only remnants, had amazing sophistication (in some areas; we can't admire all of that history), an academic acumen.

it may not have been the end, but some of us may have considered: have I spent my time well? am I ready to go?

recommended education site

explore edudemic.com along with them we recommend these brain exercising phones apps mix some learning with the halo, skyrim, far cry, sleeping dogs, minecraft, and on and on.

amazon book reviews

this discussion of book reviews at amazon though curious stood out for one reason. amazon takes 33 cents of every dollar spent on books in america. that is powerful insight into the sales giant.

many of you think the reviews are suspect or overdone. well, they are. manipulations, family relations, crowd sourced positive reviews. and one reviewer that managed 25,000 book reports. how?

does it matter? buy a book. actually read it. then post your review.

kindle titles available: 1,794,988

and when we searched the term "book" at amazon: 45,807,508 titles

children's book illustrators: the brothers hilts

the book: the insomniacs. a look at a family finding happiness living their "days" during the night.

the illustrations show the colors and contrasts of the nighttime. shadows move through angular images. blues, blacks, yellow, red. the often simple color palette supports the stark beauty of the night.

recommended for picture book aficianados.

quirkology

recommending quirkology at YouTube. if you want to waste time, then at least learn some tricks to fascinate and annoy your friends.

welcome to security beacon

if you are not a computer expert companies like security beacon are your friend. even small busineess must protect their date and keep away malacious programmers.

some of the content at the site can be technical for the novice. we need experts like this to kee p us out of harm's way.

their profile photo

you don't need no education (sorry r. waters)

at edudemic.com. an article considering the use of social media, text messaging, and free university courses. education will be very different five years from now. maybe your teacher will be sending you homework help through facebook, twitter, pinterest, or whatever may have replaced these in five years.

check this out from University of Colorado. is this you?

facebook privacy controls

it seems you may spend some of every day scouring the social platform. remove your tag from photos. ask for picture removal from uploaders. yes, you may now shore up your privacy with even more time on facebook. read and study their privacy controls. decide what matters to you.

in the meantime here is a video from an innovative musician/comedian Reggie Watts:

TED talks

someone will steal your data

we are more and more complacent with our use of mobile devices and payment strategies. our finance and money information is on our mobile device. Verizon researchers take a look at the near future of secutiry breaches. summarized here in this article at net-security.org

your greatest risks are stolen smartphone, weak password, unencrypted phone, fraud and deception tailored to your life. phishing becomes more refined, more accurate, more plausible. many will remeber the "we lost our passport scenario".

give your self a better password today. consider using only guest checkouts for online purchases. create habits that avoid the chance for losing your phone.

then having read the article consider how much corporations must do to achieve their opwn security. it can't be perfect.

skyscrapers: follow up - elevators

more on skyscraper heights and potential limitations - from contributor j.l. maybe you are the future engineer to solve these problems.

the article mentions a lift manufacturer (elevators) in Finland testing tech with a 1,000 foot deep elevator shaft.

even if its not the KONE Corporation , visit their site anyway. because you know elevators are cool. or would you rather walk the steps?

tweet threats

consider this news from nbc. there are many in the world of the micro-blog placing their unfiltered thoughts to hundreds of millions of others. there should be consequences for such actions.

these thoughts expressed in public lead to criminal action. this is a public comment. so many of us get to read it. this is not a private thought.

the micro blogs are not filtering for you. you had better do it yourself. you are accountable.

a threat against a president brings government agents to your door. is this appropriate now?

you give - instagram takes

perhaps your likeness will give instagram its next baby food star or wheaties box. you gave away your privacy when you made your picture available to the public. And 100 million users most definitely makes a "public".

there is no right or cause to complain. if you don't want your life in everyone's face then stop putting it there. let instagram have its candy. it will take millions of you to leave before instagram would care. until millions abandon the platform your complaints have these equivalents:

Said at McDonalds: I'm never eating here again

Said at WalMart: I'm never shopping here again.

we guess that if 10,000,000 leave then maybe the photo sharing site will not use your picture to their benefit.

remember the first purpose of any business is profit. so there is profit in your pictures. just not for you.

skyscrapers 1 mile high and taller

many thanks to a guest contributor for sending us this.

perhaps you want the penthouse that sits atop a building taller than mt. everest

read this article at theatlanticcities.com

the elevator ride may take a while. but at least falling from that height is a short trip. just a few minutes.

Burj Kahlifa in Dubai has current record

thinking about pinterest

fair warning: never have looked at pinterest. plan to explore it in the coming weeks. this idea expressed by a user of the site:

where was your family while you were constructing the most fabulous dining room ever?

all of us participating in these virtual communities are guilty of this. (pause briefly to through rock from inside of glass house)

this graphic from mashable.com a great site you should be visiting.

more information on twitter and tweets

reviewing twee.co

a site with easy to follow analysis of twitter trends. and the added feature: backtrack through the day in 20 minute intervals. watch trends come and go.

today is the first time we noticed a German hashtag take the number one spot. #IchLiebe1D

this graphic at semiocast.com check the article.

ibis air finds us with our flying car post

ibisair.com we encourage you to check their website.

we are glad to find partners providing niches for innovation and giving it place on the internet.

this is a video showing the ICON A5. we found this at ibis air.

twitter gives back all your tweets

at tech crunch some ideas for what yu may do with the thousands of unread tweets you wrote during important or useless times in you life. Perhaps this becomes the "dear diary" you never kept.

find yourself some program to analyze your words & patterns

make a pretty graphic from a word cloud

evaluate your life. and realize we all spend too much time avoiding real conversations. and ignoring those closest to us; all to micro-blog and thus micro size who we really are

at mentalogica we send out one or two each day

not our graphic. found at briansolis.com

short homage to the social media catfish

“Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.” ― Oscar Wilde

and because catfish are in no way appealing in pictures, here instead a poem mentioning catfish

Poets of Summer

Pollywogs and dragonflies

Salamander slime

Some are dreamt and summer schemes.

Mud Daubers on the cattails

Catfish on the hook

Crawl daddy in the cranny.

Crickets with backward knees

Buzzing honey bees

Poets of a summer dream.

Martin Hunter

What could replace Facebook?

just because one day the company may claim 1 billion users does not make it invulnerable. there was a time when we all traveled by horse. and certainly the industries built around the use of horses fought to keep the automobile off the streets.

right now facebook may consider itself unbreakable. but why would you spend a billion dollars on instagram. say what you may. you wanted to eliminate a threat.

so much of what goes out into that world is unread, unconsidered, and unloved. much as what we type here today.

what will replace or really challenge the large social media companies.

let us suggest it will be very small social media companies. sites for your neighborhood. not just groups lost in a social media ocean. but a social site just for your maple street neighborhood. no one else sees it. it only concerns people you see every day.

and when you can't talk right away you can strengthen your community online at maple_post.com

12 year old 100m 11.72 seconds

watch this 22 seconds. ignore the yelling.

focus on the gap this 12 year old covers.

the current fastest U. Bolt 9.58 seconds. could this fellow be 2.5 seconds faster in 5 years?

Competitive threats to Facebook

we wonder often what will replace facebook. friendster, myspace. always evolving. check here.

the Guardian (British Newspaper) creates their own social media app

Follow us on twitter @mentalogica

Your first words explained: TED talks

this will take 20 minutes out of your day.

this deserves your time

know more than the person next to you. you don't have to share your sources. tell other people these things when the moment works. nobody likes a know-it-all. until they are wrong.

then you're friends make fun of you. totally worth it.

Origami Egg Roll: the Crane

Origami 折り紙

ori meaning "folding", and kami meaning "paper"is the Japanese art of paper folding.

It started in the 17th century AD. The goal is to transform a sheet of paper to sculpture with folds and bends, no cuts.

Flying Car Pal-V

because it's cool; that's why

2'58" and totally worth it

Social Media Slang - Troll

A troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community. Their intent: to provoke others. A troll wants to take your blog, twitter, social network conversation and to wreck it.

An original troll: our fellow beneath the bridge. Three Bill Goats Gruff. A Norwegian tale many of us know: De tre bukkene Bruse. If you don't know this one. Find it for yourself.

the symbols on your iPhone

many of us must wonder what the symbols are on some of our electronics. we want you to see this slideshow at gizmodo.com

and now you know.

Frank Lloyd Wright Gingerbread Fallingwater

a seasonal architectural treat. the Mill Run, Pennsylvania house completed in 1938 for the department store family, Kaufmann. See the facts at fallingwater.org

see the edible at mymodernmet.com

#OneofMyFavoriteMovies

tonight on twitter. and currently number 3 world wide. the top ten grossing films of all time accounting for inflation. (must maintain some scholarship here) at boxofficemojo.com

yes there are actually 200. we want you to know just the top ten. ignore the rest.

you should already know the winner.

buffer box: now with google

combining two logos and two color sets:

facebook likes & twittter followers

likes and tweeters. we covet them. we pursue them. we are probably sad when we have an un "like" or a de-"tweet".

is any of it meaningful?

(from the socialskinny)

what facebook pages did you like last week? how about yesterday? don't check your page. you can't remember can you.

are you following 1000 @twitters.what's number 237 doing? right now. you don't know. if you are honest with yourself you probably don't care.

so right after you "like" the mentalogica page and follow @mentalogica on twitter. go read a book. some of you will remember them. they are those head or hand sized things with paper and words and titles. but please; books about vampires or zombies are not allowed.

#youneedtounderstandthat

now at twitter. we think we communicate when we talk. all of us know that just isn't true.

take the time to watch a conversation. watch body language. is the listener engaged by the speaker. what happens when the speaker gives a pause. does the listener remark at all on what was just said.

not usually.

the new speaker says something of self. nothing of what they just heard. you do this too. you just don't care. or you just don't notice.

figure this below. good luck!

from a russian blogger

interesting blogs and diaries are everywhere. look outside the United States: bearone's blog

most of us will need the translate button. you will see the weaknesses of translating programs. but unless you are fluent both written and spoken in Russian you will be entirely lost.

find new ideas. everywhere.

top 5 blogs December 2012

is any of this your fault?

1. huffington post
2. tmz
3. businessinsider
4. engadget
5. perezhilton

contained in this list are the keys to success for sites and blogs. in the next few weeks mentalogica will be examining the content at these sites. we will update our opinion based considerations as we find find them. we are searching for ways to impact your life. we want you to stay with us for one or two minutes for each visit. in todays world we discover this may be more than the average web reader can handle. don't be average.

pearl harbor day

each year, this day arrives. and each year we forget to think on it before the 7th. soon most of America will have only third generation links to this day; our day of infamy.

for the Japanese this was Operation AI. for America it was a numbing surprise, an awful shock. the world had already been at war for 4 years. though there were many opinions for American involvement. we did not enter outright until those 353 Japanese fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes came out of the West that Sunday morning.

2,402 Americans killed and 1,282 wounded

December 8. Now Monday. War on Japan.

it seems every generation the world around will have a defining moment. some of us will have many.

USS Arizona

amateur web philosophy

don't beg. don't self promote. do write original content. do link to other sites. don't link to other sites. don't write more than 100 words. do write extended essays. do this do that.

how does a site become popular. the experts have no sure idea. they will take all the money you will give to sell you certainty.

sometimes new ideas click with many. sometimes with none. people don't know what they want until they see it. or someone has enough money and influence to tell them what they want. (think fruit named company).

will anyone read this? the experts say you want original content. we're supposed to pretend we don't care. but, if we didn't care why would we have this site at all.

we say none of us really know what we want.

but, if we consider long enough we may figure what we need.

what do you need?

#In2013YouBetterNot

trending on twitter today.

these are new year resolutions. we make the. some keep them. some don't

look here at statisticbrain

visit this site more. many interesting perspectives on americans.

wise leadership

consider yourself and your boss. hopefully you are the boss.

what will you do differently after reading this leadershipfreak.wordpress.com?

how would you answer the question below?

visits to mentalogica

our thanks to visitors from the following countries (so far)

1. Australia
2. Belgium
3. Brazil
4. Canada
5. Finland
6. France
7. Germany
8. Japan
9. New Zealand
10. Poland
11. South Africa
12. South Korea
13. Spain
14. Sweden
15. Ukraine
16. United States

dale chihuly glassblowing and the iPhone

noticed at mashable the dale chihuly glassblowing app

look here to see what you can afford: the app or the originals

insurance premiums by the mile

now from metro mile how much would you pay?

lets look at the chances the guy who hits you has no insurance in these 10 cities

TSA, history of

we promised a look at the TSA and its history. recent congressional hearings battered the agency.

by ejfox. Learn about data visualization software.

egypt from the beginning

about one hour ago: the presidential palace attacked.

see egypt's story from beginning of recorded history to November 2012 with this profile at BBC.

give yourself the perspective so many of us lack.

karma mobile

here's is innovation worth knowing: social wi-fi hotspot by karma through Clearwire at youkarma.com

how many total years so far spent in social media?

you probably never thought about this. the answer is: 230,060 years

here is something that is 200,000 years old: this underwater ocean grass

recommendation: hopemob.org

yesterday in a tweet we promised to feature hopemob.org in a post. there is too much good going on there to only feature one item. we love their sense of community. we love that they anchor all of us as a global community when they say "Let's..." find a cause. participate. watch for locked stories to become available. do some good.

$100,000 a year to design digitals apps

become an app developer, but do it right. contracts. business plan. business model. strategic plan. or you may earn that $100,000 only once. at guardian.co.uk

look at this graphic below to see some average revenues for apps. keep working. you may develop the next wildly successful boardgame rip-off.

someone already bought this $14,999.99 LEGO

if you wanted to buy this 14k gold LEGO, you are already too late

36,000 LEGOs produced every minute and many more facts at gizmodo.com

your cellphone should be under your pillow

at technewsdaily.com you don't use your cell phone enough

Coca Cola: more than a soft drink

a coke can do so much more for you than get you wired and anxious

just look at all these uses at homesessive.com

Google versus Amazon: Buffer Box

Google purchases a company start up that may let it compete with Amazon's delivery behemoth Buffer Box

Data Center Runs on ... just look for yourselves

microsoft always innovating

sewage powered data center

fastcoexist.com's title is better than mine

Tattoos and the QB: Kaepernick

Read about this developing controversy with C. Kaepernick's tattoos

14% of us have tattoos according to statisticsbrain.com

5ThingsOnMyChristmasList

Americans will spend an average of $854 this year on Christmas gifts.

See the trends at americanresearchgroup.com/holiday/

run cheetah run

watch this cheetah move it! very slowly

Canada crowdfunding- Indie no gogo

at the globe and mail

Canada wants to protect online start-up investors. Have you used indiegogo or kickstarter?

how much would you spend on a record player?

the most expensive record player look

at bornrich.com

do you believe in ghosts?

now on you tube with quickly increasing viewer numbers

a ghost prank

how many of us believe in ghosts? about half

ThoughtsDuringSchool

we daydream or sleep most of the day during high school. how many aren't bored at school.

an indiana survey of 81,000 students tells us 2% aren't ever bored at school.

LookAtMyAwesomeDogPic

Dogs. Not all of us have them. Not all of us love them. But what are the breeds we most love? Big graphic. Give it a look.

Attractive: what does that mean?

Trending now on twitter. 5ThingsIfindAttractive.

Juergen Schmidhuber a computer scientist has thought and researched the idea of beauty. He says the most beautiful faces are the most average and simplest to remember. Somehow we are able to turn these beautiful faces into easily stored visual memories. Read many of his ideas at his THEORY OF BEAUTY &LOW-COMPLEXITY ART page.

Low complexity, beautiful face

Google offline in Brazil

at latinlink while Google is offline in Brazil here are 25 facts about internet usage in Brazil.

cyber monday: past sales

at www.comscoredatamine.com

5 years of sales data in a graphic. Some are predicting $1 Billion in sales today.

Kaepernick: Quarterbacks and IQ

at ESPN.com a sample Wonderlic Cognitive Aptitude Test. A test used commonly in the NFL as a measure for mental ability.

The original work on this test comes from Wonderlic in 1936. Take the sample test. 50 is a perfect score. Then read this article about Kaepernick and his score. How did you do?