Below are videos that I took this morning on my iPhone of a fire on Fifth Avenue and 22nd Street in the Flatiron District of Manhattan. I shot five quick videos that show the fire engines pulling up to the location, the ladders being hiked up to the roof to find the cause of the fire, and the reaction of the people on the street.
I transferred the videos from my iPhone to YouTube, then I wanted to post them here. Normally, I would just cut and paste the links from YouTube. You would then have to click on each one of the links to see the videos. A colleague showed me how to embed the videos into my blog post so the videos can be played from.within my blog, rather than sending you to the YouTube site to view them.
What I am about to explain can only be done on blog posts or websites. You cannot embed a video in an email. Facebook automatically embeds videos for you, but it is interesting to learn how it is done on other sites.
1-First go to YouTube and select the video you want to embed.
2-Press the “share” button. Normally you would then select to “share” it in email, Faceboo,k or Twitter.
3-Instead of selecting which way you want to “share” it, click on “embed.”
4-Copy the code that appears in the box right near “embed.”
5-Go to the website where you want to embed the video and paste the code in.
6-The actual video will then show up on the page instead of the link.
It is so cool. Look at my video posts below. I embeded all of them to show up as videos, not links.
Tree down on 61st between Second and Third Avenues. Photo by DigiDame. The good thing about this was that people stopped to look at it, smile at each other and take turns taking pictures.
Next photo-Eliot Hess captures lightning in Flatiron District, NYC, on his iPhone during storm just the way pal Steve Greenberg told us all how to do it. Hold finger on camera shutter button till you see the lightning strike and then release immediately.
The big news in the technology press today was that Yahoo’s new CEO is a six-month pregnant executive from Google. Marissa Mayer was vice president in charge of local and location services at Google. She was there for 13 years (the 20th employee) and was very involved in Google Maps, Google Earth and Zagat. Mayer was reportedly instrumental in the 2011 purchase of the world famous restaurant guide/review bible. I read someplace that she was the former girlfriend of Google founder Larry Page (meow). Her husband is Zachary Bogue, a lawyer and a significant investor in big time start-ups (good move). She started at Yahoo a few days ago.
As much as I am a feminist, I was very surprised that Yahoo would hire someone who is going to be slightly pre-occupied with an overwhelming change in her life in the Fall. I should be the last woman on earth thinking this, because I went back to work three weeks after my daughter was born. The truth is I had a C-Section on a Sunday at 4pm, and by Monday morning I was already on the telephone barking orders to HWH employees.
This was all pre-Internet.
Today in the world of virtual workspaces, Mayer should have it much easier because she doesn’t have to physically be anywhere to lead Yahoo once again into greatness. Sources tell me she is very smart, practical, serious about her work and most of all, knows how to make things happen. Those are the ingredients of a woman who can have it all. It is also going to depend on Mr. Bogue. Mayer cannot be filled with guilt when she has to work, which could be the greater part of her day. It doesn’t matter how many you have in help. If your husband or partner is not willing take a full share (plus, plus) of parenting, then a woman is constantly confronted with the question of whether she is doing the right thing. If you have a husband or partner who makes you feel that your child is getting the best care, then a woman has a free head to focus on her work. I was very lucky. My husband was my business partner yet was extremely involved with our daughter and loved being a kid again with her.
I was very involved in raising my daughter, but I was really in charge of security and health. Don’t laugh! I spent most of my free time making sure she was safe, healthy and secure. My husband was one of her friends. Sometimes they talked for hours about fantasy stuff like Dawson’s Creek. It used to drive me crazy listening to them in the car. I was relegated to the back seat with the dogs on our three hour trips to the Hamptons. In those days, I would think to myself, “Who are they talking about? Who are Dawson, Pacey, Jen and Joey?” I was also very lucky when I hired the best nanny in the world. It was just a matter of luck. She took better care of our baby then what we were disciplined to do. Most of the time, our daughter looked like she came out of a gift-wrapped box. The truth is that we became a blended family. Our nanny’s children spent weekends and holidays with us. Today we are still all close.
Now I want to tell you the real reason why I wrote this post. If there was a backlash about Marissa Mayer getting the position because she is having a baby in early October, I would have gone on a rampage on her behalf. For most of my career I have witnessed so many male executives who were not focused solely on their work, but abused their positions to better their personal lives. I am not going to get into specifics, but I could write a book about how many hours I spent with male clients talking and consulting about their girlfriends, their extra martial affairs, the gifts they needed to buy, their golf game, how drunk they got last night, their boats, fast cars, the trips they were taking,how I was going to make them famous for their career sake, and could I introduce them to…………whatever the next job choice was at the moment.
You might ask me why I didn’t extricate myself from these encounters or one-on-one discussions that was neither my business or responsibility. The only answer is that in the early days of my career, pre-internet, you spent more personal time with people and this was a bonding experience I didn’t shy away from. As long as we were getting work done, and there were solid results from my agency each month for each client, I lent an ear on personal topics, Today , I have little tolerance for this. Then again, I’ve heard it all.
I feel I have every right to conclude that Yahoo made one of the most strategic and forward-thinking marketing moves ever. They have now set the standards for other companies as well. Women all over the world have gained a new respect for a company that deserves every bit of it because of what they have accomplished in the past, and what they will gain in the future.
The Internet is now the wild west for Hollywood. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, YouTube, independent websites, entertainment websites, cable and TV network websites, Facebook, Twitter, other video services, are all producing content to start their own channels.
The most miraculous aspect of this development is that the playing field is now leveled. Everyone and anyone can start their own video channel and aspire to be Cecil B. DeMille. This is such great news for those of us who want to act or be behind the camera. The biggest challenge is producing quality content and knowing how to promote your channel to get additonal unique visitors every month. That is exactly what I confront with Digidame.
The Internet has also become a new platform for big name talent to find new ways of reaching audiences and attracting sponsors. A lot of the middle men are cut out. There is a bigger chance to make more money on the Internet than being beholden to big Hollywood studios who control everything.
Let’s see how Jerry Seinfeld fares on the web.. For his first attempt he partnered with Sony Pictures Television’s Crackle Service.
His new web series called, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, debuts on July 19 at 9pm. Seinfeld does what Seinfeld does best. He made another show about nothing. Just listen to the comments from Larry David. From nothing comes a lot of good laughs but, of course, you have to be a Seinfeld fan. I am.
Seinfeld interviews fellow comedians over a cup of coffee. The list of guests scheduled to appear include Ricky Gervais, Alec Baldwin, and maybe even you. Why do I say that? Anything is possible. The number of episodes, the length, and all the talent have not been announced yet. It doesn’t have to be.
You all know what a smart phone is. For those of you who don’t, it is a mobile phone with more advanced computing features. The first smart phones mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile phone and a camera. Today’s smart phones also have portable media players, digital photo and video cameras and GPS navigation capabilities plus 700,000 apps.
Now we are entering the world of smart cars, smart roads, smart parking and smart public transportation. I am sure after that we will find ourselves involved in smart clothes, smart food, smart furniture, smart exercise, smart arts, and yes, smart travel.
Many of the car companies today are advertising smart cars with all the latest gizmos like navigation, voice recognition, remote controls, and automatic sensors. Bill Ford, Executive Chairman of the Ford Motor Company, has been trying to stay ahead of the curve by looking way into the future to see how we can cure some of the traffic challenges drivers face today by just applying smart technology.
Ford said the answer to traffic problems is not to build more roads. “When Americans began moving west we didn’t add more wagon trains, we built railroads. To connect our country after World War II, we didn’t build more two-lane highways, we built the interstate highway system. Today we need that same leap in thinking for us to create a viable future. We are going to build smart cars, but we also need to build smart roads, smart parking, smart public transportation systems, and more. We don’t want to waste our time sitting in traffic, sitting at toll booths, or looking for parking spots. We need an integrated system that uses real-time data to optimize personal mobility on a massive scale, without hassle or compromises for travelers. That’s the kind of system that’s going to make the future of personal mobility sustainable.”
Here is some of his thinking:
1-A smart road system that automatically changes traffic lane direction based on timing and congestion levels.
2-Automobiles that signal a network system when they run into traffic jams on the highway. The signal warns cars behind them to change course and take a different route.
3-Traffic jam alerts on the dashboard so drivers have the option to proceed to the next metro train stop. Drivers hop on a train to work, and then after work take the train back to the station where they parked their car.
4-Red traffic lights that switch to green if no other cars are approaching.
5-A smart phone app that automatically books parking spots and then alerts the location to drivers.
Some of these ideas may sound a little farfetched. Not so! Just remember life before Google.
I want to credit CNET for distilling some of this information so we can get a snapshot of what is going on in Detroit. I also included links from Ad Age, Geek.com, Popular Science, Science Daily, The Car Connection, and Wired for additional information. I even gave you a clue to what each story is about. Simply fascinating!
Most smart phone users often forget, or don’t even know, that they can edit photos from their camera roll.
Go into the camera roll and click on the edit link on the top right (check around the margins in case the edit link is located someplace else on your cell).
Then check for icons for rotate, auto enhance on, tap red eye (eliminates red eye), and crop (change photo size).
Experiment. The more I investigate, the more functions I find.
I get very moved by people who took personal and business chances long before it was commonplace, as it is today in the digital world. Today, pioneers are applauded whether they succeed or don’t quite make it. Back in the 1940s, it was rare to hear about people who were willing to make bold moves in their careers, especially women.
The following story is about Estelle Ellis Rubenstein, a marketing pioneer at Seventeen Magazine. She died over a week ago at the age of 92. I started my career at Women’s Wear Daily in 1966. I know what it was like for women to exert themselves in those days, much less 20 years before.
I just wanted to honor Estelle Ellis Rubenstein by placing her story in my blog. Women like her have been an inspiration my entire life.
I am searching for someone, anyone, who read rock star Steven Tyler’s book “Does The Noise In My Head Bother You? A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir.” He dedicated it to his mother Susan Rey Blancha Tallarico.
I want to discuss the little known secret he shared with his readers.
The reason why I feel this is a justified DigiDame topic is because Tyler is 64. He is a very different 64 than most of us. He does have the same aches and pains but his spirit is forever young. I know that many of you are asking why I would be so enamored with a guy who has been basically a drug addict most of his life. He admits in his book he blew $20 million on drugs over the years.
I guess the reason why I find him so fascinating is because of his creativity and energy. He is so far out there that I loved every minute of his book. Even when he was a youngster in Sunapee, New Hampshire, (he still has a home there and goes every chance he gets) he was an independent thinker. He had the freedom to be creative and make alternative choices.
Maybe we all live vicariously through people like Tyler. He is a father of four, a song writer, received a doctorate at Berkeley, another one at UMass, Boston, a poet and painter, and a person who learns something new on a daily basis. He is so far from the norm that he makes us all feel like we live in an ageless state, even if it is only for a performance, an interview, or his book. When he shared “His Little Known Secret,” with his readers, I felt 19 again. I felt what he felt and I didn’t want to let go. This is how he explains it. “When I heard The Everly Brothers’ “I Wonder If I Care So Much” and those double harmonies….I lost my breath! No one ever did those anguished teen love songs better than them. ‘Cathy’s Clown,’ ‘Let It Be Me,’ ‘So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad),’ and ‘When Will I Be Loved?’ Oh man, those hearts trending Appalachian harmonies!
“Those harmonic fifths. I mean, G-d lives in the fifths, and anyone can sing harmonies like that….that’s as close to G-d as we’re going to get short of a mother giving birth. Behold the act of creation — divine and perfect.
“If you have any doubts about this, take a deep breath and hold a note with someone, a friend, your main squeeze, your parole officer. Ahhh, when two people hold the same note and one person goes slightly off that note you will hear an eerie vibration–it’s an unearthly sound. I think in those vibrations there exists very strong healing powers, not unlike the mysterious stuff that the ancient Shamans understood and used. “Now sing in fifths, one sings C and the other G. Then one goes off key …that’s dissonance. Fifths in musical terms are first cousins and in those fifths there’s a magical throb. If you close your eyes and you touch foreheads, you’ll feel a wild interplanetary vibration. It’s a little known secret, but that’s how piano tuners tune a Steinway. G-d and sound and sex and electric grid–it’s all connected. It’s pumping through your blood stream. G-d ‘s in the gap of synapses. Vibrating, pulsating, that’s Eternity Baby.”
TV War Zone Queen, Christiane Amanpour, commented on blogging in the August Issue of Vanity Fair.
Asked if foreign correspondents are war junkies, she replied “That’s the biggest pile of crap. If you want us to be the eyes and ears in our field, not people spinning in blogosphere or sitting in armchairs opining about what’s going on in the rest of the world–you need people who are willing to go to the battlefront.”
My daughter Whitney has turned into a locavore. Her heros are Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp. She is very serious about saving the farms of America. Instead of accepting gifts from family and friends for her 30thbirthday, she asked everyone on her blog, called “Pleasure and Pain,” to contribute money to Farm Aid. Her goal is to raise $30K.
Basically, most of the money will be raised online.
Whitney explains, “Thousands of family farmers in the United States are pushed off their land every year. As large factory farms are replacing them, the quality of our food is severely diminished, and our environment and our food security is in danger.”
DigiDame 