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  • Live at the Magic Bag, Ferndale, MI

    • 6 out of 10
    • Supersuckers
    • Man, there's nothing like good, old fashioned, rock and roll... add a bit of industry resentment to that with a double-shot of cynicism, and you get one of the best "new" rock bands going. This album
  • Bowie at Beeb: Best of BBC Radio 68-72

    • 10 out of 10
    • David Bowie
    • The companion CD to a BBC television concert, BBC Radio Theatre has some of the best renditions of many of Bowie's best songs throughout his career. "I'm Afraid of Americans" is substantial

  • Rock Spectacle

    • 8 out of 10
    • Barenaked Ladies
    • These guys know how to put on a live show, and whomever recorded this knows how to capture one. Rock Spectacle is one of the warmest-sounding recordings I've ever heard, and totally fills a room at a
  • Mezzanine

    • 6 out of 10
    • Massive Attack
    • "Black Milk" knocks me off my feet in this collection of moody and eclectic songs. Massive Attack uses samples and keyboards in a very unique way, but not all the songs pack the same punch.

  • Odyssey Number Five

    • 10 out of 10
    • Powderfinger
    • Guitar-driven rock out of Australia, Powderfinger has not seen much exposure in the States, but should get a nod for their toe-tapping songs. Building off their previous release, "Internationalist" (

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Best Advice, Intelligent Optimism, Midwest Teen Sex Show and More

You know, being the odd egg isn't always a bad thing, especially in an environment that fosters inclusion versus cliques that exclude those with behaviors and ideas not inline with the group's.

If you work in corporate America then you'll have likely spent time at any number of "diversity" seminars where our differences are highlighted as a positive thing and inclusion is this year's equal opportunity concept of significance.

What the Fortune 500s fails to realize is that you can't create a program that talks about acceptance and inclusion and expect the rank and file to lock-step to it if the company does not change its culture to embrace these concepts. Mere programs and sound bites during all-hands meetings won't get it.

It's usually just lip service paid to keep bureaucrats and bean counters happy. Companies that REALLY want to include everyone in its day to day operation do so without the need of programs. In fact, leading companies -- ones that everyone else in the industry looks up to -- lead their respective industries because they foster environments that nurture eccentricities, oddness, and obtuse views. They know that it is from these unconventional viewpoints that new approaches to problems can be found, that new ways to do things are noted, and new opportunities are realized where there was none noticed by conventional views.

Actually, looking at problems a bit different than how we see things personally is a good thing too. It doesn't mean you need to toss out everything your parents taught you every time someone comes up with a coherent thought, but it never hurts to look and listen to the eccentrics. You never know where your next lesson in life is coming from.

Being an eccentric does not mean that you walk about mumbling incoherently to yourself, looking disheveled, and eating Fig Newtons dunked in buttermilk. It just means that you see things differently, and as we've already established, different can be good.

Take Dan Gilbert for instance, he looks like a normal guy, not someone who founded Quicken Loans Inc. I would suspect he might tell you he's a normal guy as well, but he has a few oddnesses of his own. For instance, ask him what is the best advice he's ever gotten and he'll say, "A penny earned is just a penny."

Huh?

He explains what that means in the second episode of the Fortune podcast, The Best Advice I Ever Got. Other episodes offer insights from Kobe Bryant, Felix Dennis and others.

There are six episodes of The Best Advice I Ever Got and none are much longer than a minute. More episodes are added weekly.

Not odd enough for you?

How about a guy who says germs are our friends? I'm not talking about the bacteria you find in yogurt or the bugs they use to make biodiesel. I'm talking about the germs that inhabit the grungiest, nastiest, filthiest places all around us.

Jurriaan Kamp of Ode Magazine says that we over sanitize ourselves to such an extent that our bodies don't know how to handle germs. He sites studies where farmers who habitually shovel cow poop were five times less likely than the non-shoveling populace to get lung cancer. The germs in the airborne poop dust somehow inhibits the likelihood of cancer, he suggests.

Is he nuts or is he on to something? I'm not sure, but I know I don't want to start making pies out of what comes out of the south end of a northbound bovine to find out.

Be that as it may, if you'd like to hear more of what Mr. Kamp has to say on the subject the check out In Praise of Germs, one of seven episodes of Ode's podcast titled Intelligent Optimism.

I like the name, "Intelligent Optimism." It implies that we have a lot to look forward to, a lot to be happy about if we would only look at stuff more closely and we might see things differently.

There are many subjects in mainstream society that are considered too touchy to talk about openly. The problem is that these subjects are often the very things we need to talk about openly.

Take sex for instance, I find it amazing that we keep the physicality and the psychology of sex under so much mystery that its a wonder we ever procreate at all. And it's shameful how we hide even the most basic knowledge of sex from our youngsters. I mean geez, no matter how much we try to hide it, sex is everywhere and if we take some of the mystique out of it then maybe we wouldn't have so many dangerous freaks running around.

It take so off-center thinking to come up with a way to talk about taboos in an open forum. And that's just what you get with the Midwest Teen Sex Show podcast.

OK, first off, you know exactly what this show is about so warning you that it contains content that may not be suitable for the very young should be redundant, but I've done it anyway.

What's cool about the Midwest Teen Sex Show is that they don't mind talking about any subject as long as has to do with sex. Dating, breasts, sexually transmitted diseases, and a whole lot more is covered and they do it in such a way that you completely understand what's being said. I'm not talking about watching some trussed up spinster lecture about abstinence. Each subject is accompanied by skits that humorously illustrate the topic.

Again, not for the wee ones unless you are truly open-minded about the subject.

There are more than 20 episode of the Midwest Teen Sex Show and I think all are worth watching regardless of age and experience. I can guaranty you'll learn something.

Grab all episodes at the iTunes Store.

And while you're at the store check out the new HD freebies. You can get webisodes of Battlestar Galactica, the pilot of Patrick Swayze's new show, The Beast, and others. May as well give that new HD TV you bought over the Holidays a workout, right?

Find more free stuff at the iTunes Store below (and direct links are back!)


Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.

2 comments from the community.

You can post your own below.

Julio said:

“Again, not for the wee ones unless you are truly open-minded about the subject.”

So…
open minded = letting “wee ones” watch a filthy show
close minded = keeping young eyes from seeing filth

I’d say the close minded one is the AUTHOR of this article for making such an assumption.  Why is the show “filthy”?  Take a look at the picture of the scantily clad woman holding the sign.  She clearly does not respect herself.  And that’s just it.  People say that those who oppose lame brain sex shows are afraid of sex… but NO.  The people who fear sex are the ones who always try to make jokes about it, and the ones who use contraception.  They are hiding from sex.  The sanest people, and the people who do not fear sex, are the ones who respect it, and treat it with dignity - and who do not hide from the consequences of sex by using contraception.  They are real about sex from first to last.  But people who take their pictures in underwear and make TV shows from it… they are like gradeschoolers commenting on the Sistene Chapel.

   Quote

Vern Seward said:

Hi Julio,

I won’t comment about the opinion you’ve posted; opinions are like private parts, everybody has one. (Some have two!)

I will, however, comment on the following statement: “So?
open minded = letting ?wee ones? watch a filthy show
close minded = keeping young eyes from seeing filth

I?d say the close minded one is the AUTHOR of this article for making such an assumption.”

When I wrote what I wrote I made no assumptions at all. It was a joke. I believe that it was obvious enough to be recognized as such because no reasonable person would sit a child in front of any show aimed at adults as this show clearly is.

I’ll admit that it wasn’t a knee-slapper, but I don’t think it could construed as an attack on anyone’s morals.

As for the disposition of my mind, it is open enough to allow that there are other schools of thought on any given subject, and that those lines of thinking can have merit. It does not mean that I adopt anything that comes my way, but I can and do listen to any reasonable discourse.

Given this I hope that many will agree that my mind is sufficiently open (even if my spelling sufficiently sucks). That’s good enough for me.

As to your opinion, I’d be happy to talk about it if you wish to contact me directly.

Vern Seward

   Quote

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