The “Art” of Obama

Well, with the month of January 2009 now behind us, I thought it only fitting to blog something about B.O.  Every possible adjective and superlative has already been used to describe Jan 21st, 2009…”historic day”, “day of destiny”,”redemption day”… you get the idea.  So instead I figured I’d share something that I think had a lot to do with making Jan 21st, 2009 a reality; the making of the Obama image of hope and change in America.  My guess is that by now, almost everyone in the US has seen the iconic image below (unless they live in a cave or bomb shelter):

The image was created by Shepard Fairey and commissioned for use by Obama’s campaign.  Fairey was a relatively unknown artist prior to Obamamania… his roots stretch back to LA as a street artist.  His story is pretty amazing… check out his interview with Charlie Rose: 

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10047

as well as his interviews on NPR:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99466584

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96224796

The NPR interviews discuss how the popularity of the Obama “hope” icon ultimately led the Presidential inauguration committee to commission Fairey to create the official 2009 inauguration poster show below.  Pretty amazing that an artist that began his career creating illegal street art has now created a poster with the official government seal on it!

Also, if you’re interested, check out Fairey website to see his collection of artwork:  http://obeygiant.com/

“Lamp Post School” in India

I had been meaning to read this article in DeloitteLife and finally got a chance today. 

It’s an inspirational story about a Deloitte consultant in India that started a school for poor kids called the Lamp Post School.  Check out page 7 of the latest DeloitteLife magazine below for the full story.  He got the idea to start the school one day when he was walking home from work and saw a huddle of poor but mentally hungry kids reading together at a dimly lit lamp post.  One thing led to another, and pretty soon several Deloitte employees started a school in the basement of the Deloitte India office building with 25+ students back in 2004.  Many of these “street kids” are now headed of to college… remarkable. 

http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/us_Deloitte_Life_Winter_2008.pdf

Mathematical Freak of Nature!

No matter what your field of study, you will find this TED talk by Arthur Benjamin “magical”:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/arthur_benjamin_does_mathemagic.html

Also, if you are really interested after watching the talk, check out Arthur’s website: http://www.math.hmc.edu/~benjamin/

He has published several books.  I might need to get his “easy” book (Secrets of Mental Math) and read it with my son, Rohan, some day so he can show off to his friends and be a “smart-ass” with his math teacher – j/k…well, sorta

“Stroke” of Genius

I’ve started watching  ”TED’s Top 10″”:  (http://www.ted.com/index.php/themes/top_10_tedtalks.html)

Watched 2 talks yesterday that were both excellent and “good for the spirit”

The first and most notable is Jill Bolte Taylor’s talk about her major stoke ~ 10 years ago.  What makes the talk so enlightening is Jill’s profound ability to describe what it really “feels like” to have a stoke (she is a brain researcher after all) and the shifts in consciousness between the left and right hemispheres of her brain.  But she is not an “ivory tower” freak that explains things in a inaccessible and intellectual way; she describes it with feeling, emotion… and most of all compassion.  You have to watch it for yourself to understand what I’m talking about…

The second talk was from Tony Robbins.  I always love this guy’s energy, attitude and swagger.  Most of the things Robbins talks about here are things I have heard from him before.  Back in the day, I bought his 10 CD set for ~ $250 and drove my wife crazy listening to it in the car   She told me I was a big dork for buying it, but then found herself listening to it… and even quoting it at times (I love when that happens!). 

What struck me about Robbin’s talk were a few things:

• I never knew about the story of how and why he started his non-profit to feed the homeless; it is a great story.
• I had no idea he was so vulgar… and funny!  He is much more reserved in his CD’s and audiobooks.
• The story at the very end about how he brought people from different backgrounds together in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 is gripping and gives me hope that people can resolve their differences and live in peace by negotiating and listening.

Hans Rosling on TED.com

I must admit I had never heard about Hans Rosling until I watched his talk on TED.com.  Check out the talk here:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html

Absolutely amazing stuff.  I read his bio after watching this and checked out the website for his former company, GapMinder.  Not surprising, Google bought his company in 2007 and turned it into a gadget that can be downloaded on iGoogle: http://www.google.com/ig/directory?url=www.google.com/ig/modules/motionchart.xml. 

You can actually upload your own time series set of data here and create your own motion chart.  Pretty cool stuff… maybe I will find an excuse to create one of these sooner of later for work or play. 

Rosling makes data come alive, and I definitely agree with his premise that there is a big difference between the tons of data that we have floating around the internet and truly useful information.  His take on transforming data into useful ways is very unique and helpful for anyone that needs to present data to an audience.

Bill Gates interview on Charlie Rose

Just saw this interview today.  http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9875.

Great interview, and you really get a sense for why Gates “left” (he is still a board member) Microsoft to lead the B&MG Foundation.  What I found most interesting though was when Charlie asked Gates where he goes to learn new things.  One of Gates favorite activities is to listen/watch lectures while exercising – especially courses on Macro/Micro Economic Theory, Disease, Biology, etc.  He mentioned that he orders CD/DVD’s from The Teaching Company – www.teach12.com.  I definitely need to check this out.  Will let you know what I find out…