This example really isn’t that practical, but Domino’s Pizza in the United Kingdom has a video showing how to deliver pizza with a drone.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

This is probably a publicity stunt to get people to share a Domino’s video. But it’s a good start for people looking to innovate their delivery business.

1. “Hitting squirrels with a gun is hard. Hitting them with a golf club is much easier.”

2. Small plane lands on Maine Turnpike, takes off again

3. Hitler’s food taster tells of poisoning fears

1. Listen to Jimmy Buffett

2. Write

3. Tell my wife I love her because she makes my life better every single day

4. Hike/paddle/pedal

5. Drink beer or wine (Honestly, I don’t do this enough)

6. Drink water

7. Follow the lists I make

The Boreal Design Inukshuk was my first kayak. I had many great adventures paddling around Casco Bay. It was stable in active seas and a joy to paddle. I also was able to fit everything I needed for island camping trips.

I’m selling it because I bought another kayak that fit me better.

The Inukshuk is a good kayak for bigger paddlers – even beginners. Experienced paddlers will appreciate its excellent tracking and moderate rocker that makes it very agile.

I’m asking $700 for the kayak. You can contact me at 207-619-3853 or cvn@carlnatale.com.

Specs

Google announced today that it is going to discontinue Google Reader.

There goes a major dashboard for me. My Google Reader has feeds that keep me up to date on:

• Maine news
• Steelers
• Political news
• Business advice
• Miscellaneous updates

It’s a clean interface that is available to me from any browser. It’s much easier to manage than email. And it’s about to go away.

I understand Google’s reason. It’s not making any money or advancing the brand. And apparently not so many people are using it.

But it’s so damn useful. So I’m in the market for a new RSS reader that is browser based. I don’t want to deal with another app. And I want it cloud based so my choices follow me around all my devices.

I’ve been publishing online since 1997. And one of the consistent criticisms that never went away is that the online newspaper operations were never profitable.

And this came from journalists — not the business side of newspapers. These stalwarts of the left-wing media conspiracy (you do see the sarcasm here?) became rabid capitalists.

My answer was that I would gladly quit when they fired the editorial page staff. Because those pages had no ads. They took up valuable newsprint without attracting a dollar of ad revenue.

Apparently I have some fans in Provo, Utah:

“The Daily Herald has recently made some organizational changes, and with those we have decided to change the way we present opinions in the newspaper. This is a popular section, and we will keep bringing it to you, but we will no longer be printing a daily opinions page with editorials, wire opinions and cartoons.” (via Editor’s note)

Of course this is the problem with cost-benefit analyses. Some pretty important journalism gets thrown out in the name of revenue generation.

Sports departments should be worried.

I’m thinking the problem is that we expect too much out of reader comment systems. The flaws are inherent in the system. What if journalism used reader conversation systems?

Gawker’s new comment system

Will it help or hurt the site’s young writers?

The office holiday party doesn't have to hurt this badly.

You have to love the company holiday party. Really. You have to love it or it can affect your career.

Employers want their kindness and genorousity appreciated. Kind of like “The floggings will continue until morale improves.”

So before you take a shot of liquid courage at the next holiday party, read this guide to surviving office holiday parties. Also take a look at my tips on staying sober at the party.

Like I wrote, you don’t want holiday punch to be a knockout punch to your career.

photo credit: TravOC via photopin cc

Mashable used to be one of my daily must read blogs. It kept up with the fast-paced world of social media.

Now I’m skipping it because I already know “Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon, Dead at 82.” Or how Twitter reacts to a news event. It feels like the editors are dumping everything into it to generate page views.

But here’s something totally stupid:

5 Things Google Gives Away Free

Here are five free Google things we’re pretty much all using.

 

Really? We need you to tell us that Google offers free search?

But to be fair, “Dropbox Enables Two-Step Verification” is the next thing I’m going to read because I’ve been waiting for something like this. Why is for another blog post.

Can we get a Mashable RSS feed that filters out the stupid stuff?

They’re bored. They get their homework done, and have the time to kill. Nothing else in their lives is as interesting as what they find on the Internet.

If you want children or adults to spend their time on computers more productively, then give them productive things to do. When left to their own devices, they’re going to find something to do that parents or teachers don’t appreciate.

The problem is that we’re not challenging them.

New ‘Digital Divide’ Seen in Wasting Time Online

As access to devices has spread, children in poorer families are spending considerably more time using them for purposes other than for education.

Mathew Ingram does a really good job rocking the conventional wisdom about why newspapers are having problems:

Why Clay Shirky is right and Warren Buffett is wrong

“Is Warren Buffett’s recent acquisition of the Media General chain a brilliant gamble, or an indication of his faith in the long-term prospects of newspapers? Clay Shirky argues it is neither …” (via GigaOm)

There are two key takeaways from this post:

1. The problem with newspapers is their relationships with advertisers not readers.
2. Newspaper readers never supported the cost of journalism.

I agree that the disruptive innovation that’s rocking newspapers is in advertising. But advertisers are newspaper readers. Their perceptions of a newspaper’s relevance influences the value of advertising. Not as much as the perceived ROI but it’s still a factor.

It’s hard for publishers to think of any new way to collect money beyond selling ads to their current customer base. But access to x number of readers isn’t worth what it used to be. Basically because businesses are looking for other ways to deliver their marketing messages.

The problem with innovating newspaper business models is that the new models bring in less revenue than legacy advertising models. And newspapers have expenses that were affordable in that system. But new models are going to require spending less money on:

• Print (which present it’s own set of problems)
• Salaries

Yeah, that means journalists are looking at smaller paychecks to do more than write stories. No wonder they’re such delusional fans of paywalls.

My Takeaway

It’s essential for journalists to use new forms of storytelling to stay relevant to readers. And many have embraced tools such as television, podcasting, social media and blogging. It’s time for publishers to find new ways to make money.

This sounds like a handbook for innovation. According to Jack Hitt, amateurs aren’t afraid of making mistakes or failing. And that freedom leads to progress.

Americans: A ‘Bunch Of Amateurs,’ And Proud Of It : NPR

In his new book, journalist Jack Hitt says America’s amateur spirit goes back to the nation’s origins — and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. The Europeans viewed the Americans as an “unfinished people,”…

Felix Salmon of Reuters has an idea for Big Journalism. He suggests that news organizations release news and information first to premium paying customers.

Could the NYT make money from its scoops?

“It’s entirely normal, and perfectly ethical, for news organizations, including Reuters, to give faster access to the best-paying customers.” (via Felix Salmon at Reuters)

That is unless the news organization markets itself as a champion of the right to know, freedom of information and openness.

Sure this could work for private content producers. But newspapers are public institutions.

Nice try but no cigar.

This New York Times story is about building forts for kids. But there’s more to it than that. It’s about building our own spaces. Tight, closed in spaces. It creates a feeling of safety.

Lessons in the Art of Pillow Fort Construction

Constructing the perfect pillow fort. Cost: zero. Rules: few. Comfort of a cave: high. Cleanup: well, there’s that. (via New York Times)

And it’s not just for kids. They just don’t know they’re supposed to just use couch cushions for sitting. As we grow older, we seem to go into denial instead of home-made forts. Maybe this is why I like camping so much. I find the small, fort-sized tent comforting.

And maybe our cars are portable forts.

Why do you think we like to build forts?

The New York Times uncovers a trend of young authors – young being 12 years old and up – writing books that their parents pay to publish.

Young Writers Dazzle Publisher Mom and Dad – NYTimes.com
A growing number of self-publishing companies have inspired writers of all ages to bypass the traditional gatekeeping system for determining who could call themselves published authors.

Critics being critics don’t like the idea that someone can write a novel before hitting puberty. What do they know about living?
Yeah, give it a break.

For the most part, these books are collecting dust somewhere. Or not. Many of the deals are with print-on-demand publishers. So very few trees are killed in the process.

The way I see it, these parents are subsidizing an industry about as mature as their kids. Yes vanity press is nothing new. But the process is cheaper and easier than ever. So cheap and easy that teenagers have a couple books “published.”

So this gives self-publishing a little bit of capital and traction. Hopefully it makes it less expensive for the rest of us to get published.

When researching my first piece for AMEX Open Forum, I talked to two negotiators on the value of the ridiculous offer.

The ridiculous offer puts you in the best position to get the best out of a negotiation. The other party is on the defensive and probably emotional. And then there is the anchor effect.

6 Negotiation Mistakes That Can Cost You

Small businesses should avoid these mistakes to strike the best possible deals with their vendors.

This is the kind of incident that makes me wonder if we need some sort of official journalism labels.

I’m not advocating that we legislate truthiness. But audiences need to be aware that not every content creator is dedicated to telling the truth.

‘This American Life’ Retracts Mike Daisey’s Apple Factory Story : NPR

“The story became the show’s most popular podcast and inspired a petition, signed by hundreds of thousands, demanding better working conditions for factory workers. But, now, This American Life says Da…”

I love the WTF with Marc Maron podcast for three reasons:

1. By interviewing just about everyone in the world of comedy, it creates a fascinating look at the business of comedy and how that works.
2. Maron is one of those people who approaches his career (comedy) as a craft. He cares about doing it well and puts so much thought into it. He is able to articulate that – sometimes crudely – very well in the podcast.
3. WTF is a paradigm shift. It’s a show that happens without a network or expensive infrastructure. I hate to be trite by declaring this the future of broadcasting.

Forbes’ Jeff Bervocci has a great five-minute interview with Maron. In it he covers the history of the WTF business model and advice for turning a podcast into a business.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Do curation tools better serve our storytelling instincts better than content curation tools (such as blogging, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)?

Everyone’s A Curator, Everyone’s A Content Creator

It used to be that we were all just consumers—or most of us were, anyway. We’d watch TV or read a book or listen to the music on the radio that was selected by others for us. But lately, there’s been …

Gawker thinks it can fix reader comments by letting the first commenter on a post police the subsequent comments.

Gawker Media must be privy to research that says the first commenter is never an idiot, jerk or someone with an agenda.

Gawker Will Deputize Commenters, Says Sheriff Nick Denton

Gawker plans to launch an ambitious new commenting model within the next couple months, said its founder Nick Denton at SXSW today.