Sometimes, when I see something like Why You’re Fat: Where Dreams Become Heart Attacks (warning: not safe for the queazy), I think about how hard it would be to get such an elegantly simple, yet deep-fat fried idea past all the committees and lawyers and boards of a business or organization devoted to preventing heart disease.

But one look at it can make anyone (and by anyone, I’m thinking of some teenage boys I know) start thinking more about what I eat.

Lesson: Using conversational media is not all talk.

(Sidenote: The site is being run on Tumblr.com, the same platform used for PassionCreatesCommunity.com, some similar — but much less graphic — story telling.)

[Cross-posted in RexBlog.com.]

According to The New York Times, it seems that the newspaper’s last typographical face-lift was in 2003, but it wasn’t until last night that I noticed that they use at least four different fonts on their front page. They cap some, but not others. Some run ragged while others are left-aligned. I’m not sure what made me notice it now, but I’ll never look at their front page the same way again. Perhaps this is an example of how when print design is truly successful, the reader doesn’t even notice. And maybe that’s the whole point.

I’ve been live-blogging (blogging about something while it is taking place), and more recently, live-tweeting, conferences for a long, long time.

The first time I ever attended a gathering of bloggers (it was, supposedly, the first time any group devoted to “business blogging” ever gathered), I knew that the world was changing because the most interesting conversations were taking place real-time among the people in the audience, not those on the panel (see #9 on my post after the meeting).

Conferences that are filled with tech people have long recognized the reality of the “backchannel,” or electronic ‘note-passing,’ taking place at any gathering. The early geek-favored backchannel of choice was (and for some, still is) IRC, but Twitter is now the audience real-time conversational medium of record. I witnessed, and I guess participated in, one of the first and still most famous melt-downs caused by such audience conversations: a session at the 2008 South by Southwest Interactive Festival that involved the lack of interview skills of the individual moderating a session feature Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Last Friday, I was on a panel at a conference put on by the Online News Association attended primarily by TV and newspaper journalists involved in their companies’ online efforts (with some bloggers also in attendance). A large number of people in the room were online or taking photos or shooting video. While I’m on lots of panels and speak to different groups quite often, this was the first time I’ve been so aware that a back-channel was actively occurring. (Although, come to think of it, a few months ago at BarCamp Nashville, something I said from the audience to a panelist lit up Twitter among those in the room.)

Fortunately, last Friday, people were saying nice things on Twitter and the blog posts I’ve seen were kind to me.

But this morning, conference organizer, the Knoxville News Sentinel’s Jack Lail, posted the accompanying video and I winced at my choice of a phrase to describe how I wouldn’t care if I upset people by moderating comments on a newspaper forum.

I apologize if I p-o’d anyone.

Team Hammock is lacing up its shoes once again to participate in the Country Music Marathon and Half Marathon on Saturday, April 25, in Nashville.

It’s one of the biggest races in the country, bringing together more than 40,000 runners and walkers—and among those will be at least two of us here from Hammock. That’s right, Jamie Roberts and I have already committed—and started training. (For anyone keeping count, the score is Editorial Department: 2, Art Department: 0).

Jamie and I both participated in the race last year, and if you’re on the fence about joining us, we can honestly say the cotton candy-flavored Go-Gurt at the finish line makes it worth every step.

We’re so excited about the prospect of eating cotton candy-flavored Go-Gurt again, that we’ve already started training for the race. For those of you who plan to be at the start line on April 25, we’re sharing a few of our favorite tips for the first month of training for a half or full marathon.

• Jamie says the right mix on your iPod is key. While iPods are forbidden on race day, they sure help all those training miles much more bearable. Upload your fastest-paced songs and intersperse those with more mellow tunes (for the breaks you’ll take in between spurts of sprinting or power walking).
• Lena can speak from experience when she says, “Get the right socks.” If you’re prone to blisters, find socks that are made of synthetic fibers—cotton socks are this runner’s worst nightmare.
• Whether you’re planning to walk or run the full or the half marathon, you’ll quickly find out that limber muscles will make training—and race day—much easier. Start good stretching habits in the first week of training so that by race day tight muscles won’t even be on your radar.

In an effort to get more of my fellow workers to sign up for the race, I’m going to be using forceful intimidation, bribery, blackmail and good old fashioned guilt trips. Check back in a few weeks to see if it worked.

Longtime readers of MyBusiness are familiar with the topic that dominates the cover of the February/March 09 issue of MyBusiness—how Big Labor is trying to make it easier to unionize workplaces. The issue has always been there, but it’s always taken a backseat to all of the other issues that affect our readers’ ability to own, operate and grow their businesses. That’s because despite Big Labor’s efforts, they never could have convinced a majority of lawmakers—or the president—to pass their proposed card-check system. Until now.
The new Congress and president are focused on the economy and how to pull America out of a recession now, but NFIB expects them to turn their attention to card checks soon. Thus, our cover story—“Face Off: NFIB challenges Big Labor.”