Our friend Robert Patterson is working on a theory about how successful modern workplaces organize themselves as tribes. He interviewed Dan, Nathan, and I about how this theory holds up in the world of silverorange (short answer: pretty well).

Read the full interview at Robert’s weblog: The Human Workplace – silverorange.

I love the photo Rob chose – it’s the entire silverorange crew hanging out back-stage at a Sloan show in Toronto (Sloan is a client). The Sloan guys were gracious and kind – and only look slightly bored in the photo.

In addition to being an internet baron, I am also a brilliant inventor. I have deemed two of my recent inventions worthy of sharing with you, humble reader.

Invention the First

Low-fat toothpaste. The first reaction I usually get, after the brilliance of the idea washes over my confidant, is a simple question. Does toothpaste even have fat in it? I don’t know, who cares?

If you give me a Gillette-8-blade-shaving-experience sized advertising budget and something to deaden the pangs of my conscience, I could sell this.

Here’s how the TV-spot would go:

[Blond model with doctor-esque white lab coat (low-cut) and scientastic thick-rimmed glasses purses lips and asks:]

“Did you know that over 15 years, you can swallow as much as 200 calories from your toothpaste?”

[Pierce Brosnan look-a-like in similar doctor gear enters, notices how slim blond-doctor-girl is. They embrace.]

Run this tv-spot during the SuperBowl and I could sell enough low-fat toothpaste to wipe the artificially whitened smile off of the faces of any Proctor & Gamble executive.

Invention the Second

It is a line of clothing for pre-teen girls (tweens) from the design house, Hugo Boss. It is called:

Hugo Girl

Say it out loud and put the emphasis on the “go”.

The media is a buzz today with the news of the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq. I have no doubt that he was a bad dude. However, it’s worth taking a look at how this is being presented and covered.

See this screenshot of the CNN.com US home page. Note that they went to the trouble of framing and matting photo. I can only assume that some framing shop in Washington D.C. got a call from a Whitehouse aide with the weirdest rush-job they’ve ever had.

For bonus points, you can click the photos of the dead man to watch video of the actual bombing that killed him.

We’re getting pretty used to this kind of media presentation by the US government. It’s worth stepping back and taking a look at how absurd things have become. They framed it. Are they going to hang it up in a dining room?

I’ve got what is clearly a brilliant idea.

A sit-com/drama (a dramady?) about a doctor who, when push comes to shove, is the decider. It’s ER meets Scrubs meets The West Wing meets Commander in Chief meets Grays Anatomy meets Scarborough Country.

I call it, George “W”, M.D.

I wonder if I can get Ian Williams to write the pilot…

Having voted earlier this evening for the Green Party in the Canadian federal election, I left the poling station with a strange sensation.

Given all the talk (some of it my own voice) of how little a vote counts, and how ineffectual a partisan political system can be, it is easy to be cynical (and I am) about the value of voting. For example, tonight I voted for a candidate and party who have virtually no chance of winning in my riding.

That said, there is something remarkable about participating in a collective decision with tens of millions of others.

Voting makes me feel small, insignificant, and powerful.

Update: Again doing something in common with tens of millions of others, I’ve turned on the TV to watch some election coverage. I’m back to feeling cynical.

Stuart Brand’s peculiar Long Now Foundation has been hosting a series of seminars on long term thinking in the San Francisco area over the last couple of years. The list of speakers is impressive and most of the talks are available for download in Ogg Vorbis or MP3 format.

Particularly good talks include Roger Kennedy’s Political History of North America from 25,000 BC to 12,000 AD (Ogg Vorbis, MP3) from which I learned for the first time of the remarkable Pyramid-like structures in Illinois. Paul Hawken also gives a great talk (Ogg Vorbis, MP3). I had the pleasure of hearing Hawken speak here in Charlottetown a few years ago where he chided us for having potatoes from California in the local supermarket (our province is famous for it’s local potato production).

The latest talk (just last week) is by Ray Kurzweil (Ogg Vorbis), who’s ideas I wrote about in the early days of this weblog.

The series is worth following and the foundation does a great service in its organization and free online distribution.

As I announced here just under a year ago, I’m engaged to be married this coming Friday (July 22nd). In the months leading up to the proposal, I did a lot of thinking about what it means to be married. In the last year, my fiance and I have also spoken about the meaning of our upcoming commitment. I thought I would share a bit of the rationale for why I decided to get married.

What makes marriage such a daunting choice is its permanence. Divorce rates aside, you are making a commitment for the rest of your life. Forever.

One thing we wondered was, can we truly understand a permanent commitment? “Forever” is really just an abstract thought that I’m not sure we can ever truly understand – even when limited by our own lifespan.

Does the current “version” of yourself really have the capacity (or even the right) to make a commitment that the “you” in 10 years, 20 year, hopefully 50 years, will be held to?

I finally came to grips with this paradox (how can you make a commitment for a longer term than you’ve even been alive or can understand) when I realized that this is the very essence of marriage. This is exactly why marriage is important.

In addition to being an act of love, commitment, and hard work, marriage is an act of faith. I am making a commitment greater than I can truly understand. Rather than rendering the commitment hollow, though, the true and honest intention to uphold such an unfathomable commitment is what elevates it from the realm of legal matters to the realm of the spiritual and sacred.

Oh, and the gifts, dancing, and a honeymoon are cool too.

This afternoon Peter Rukavina, Dan James, and I recorded a new session of Live at the Formosa, live at the, uh, Formosa.

Live at the Formosa is an occasional radio show (I’m still ashamed of the word “podcast”, but I’ll get over it) we record at the Formosa Tea House, a regular lunch haunt of ours. We talk about technology, the universe, and everything.

This is our longest session to date (about an hour-and-a-half). So far I’ve never been sure that I would actually listen to any of these shows if I weren’t in them. However, people seem to have enjoyed them, and I think there is some compelling discussion in this episode.

Peter has the show notes and download available on his site: Live From the Formosa Tea House, Session Four.

I have some cool friends.