amanda.plyley.name

Music from the Pacific Northwest and more - opbmusic

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:16:15 -0700

Music from the Pacific Northwest and more - opbmusic

The way conventional foie gras is made is “an insult to...

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:49:55 -0800

The way conventional foie gras is made is “an insult to history.” Great talk.

Dan Barber: A surprising parable of foie gras (via TEDtalksDirector)

Rare Snow Covers Portland : Natural Hazards Portland, OR...

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:44:05 -0800

Rare Snow Covers Portland : Natural Hazards

Portland, OR from space. It’s been an unusual week!

"Renaming the department would signal that Mr. Obama seeks to move away from a bankrupt structure of..."

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:40:24 -0800

“Renaming the department would signal that Mr. Obama seeks to move away from a bankrupt structure of factory farming that squanders energy, exacerbates climate change and makes Americans unhealthy — all while costing taxpayers billions of dollars.”

- Op-Ed Columnist - Obama’s ‘Secretary of Food’? - NYTimes.com

School lunches. A good explanation of the problem and an...

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:36:30 -0800

School lunches. A good explanation of the problem and an alternative solution.

Videos - CHOW

"I’ve learned that this election is about the heart of America. It’s about the young..."

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:39:25 -0800

“I’ve learned that this election is about the heart of America. It’s about the young people who are losing hope and the old people who have been forgotten. It’s about those who have worked all their lives and never fully realized the promise of America, but see that promise for their grandchildren in Barack Obama. The poor see a chance, when they often have few. I saw hope in the eyes and faces in those doorways.”

- My wife made me canvass for Obama; here’s what I learned | csmonitor.com

"Comcast Corp. often resolves dozens of customer-service issues a day over Twitter. Several months..."

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:04:35 -0700

“Comcast Corp. often resolves dozens of customer-service issues a day over Twitter. Several months ago, employees of the cable operator started mining public Twitter accounts to detect issues people were having with their service, from faulty DVRs to troubled Internet connections. The Philadelphia-based cable giant now has a seven-person team that works to help resolve those issues over Twitter or by looking up customers’ contact information and calling them at home.”

- Twitter Goes Mainstream - WSJ.com

I think I’d be a little creeped out to have Comcast call me at home a few hours after I tweeted about them. But then again, if someone’s offering to fix my problem, that’s not nothin’.

PBS FRONTLINE: coming 10/21: heat For years, big...

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:22:12 -0700

PBS FRONTLINE: coming 10/21: heat

For years, big business—from oil and coal companies to electric utilities to car manufacturers—has resisted change to environmental policy and stifled the debate over climate change in America and around the globe. Now, facing rising pressure from governments, green groups and investors alike, big business is reshaping its approach to the environment. With the election looming, FRONTLINE producer Martin Smith investigates what some businesses are doing to fend off new regulations and how others are repositioning themselves to prosper in a radically changed world.

Great video by Free Range Studios in support of Van Jones’...

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:59:18 -0700

Great video by Free Range Studios in support of Van Jones’ book The Green Collar Economy.

Stories from The Green Collar Economy: Greencorps Chicago (via GreenForAllOfficial)

The 4 Kinds of "Free" - Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:17:39 -0700

The 4 Kinds of "Free" - Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog:

Love this post. Great visualizations that succintly sum up interactions that would take many words to describe. And a great example of some of the connections we’re seeing happen at a greater pace as new exchange and communication platforms emerge.

Microsoft ends 'Bill and Jerry' ads as it preps to answer Apple

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:28:27 -0700

Microsoft ends 'Bill and Jerry' ads as it preps to answer Apple:

Yesterday, Valleywag wrote that Microsoft was canning its $300 million ad campaign featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld after only two commercials. Today, it turns out the ads won’t…

Where Our Money Goes

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:25:04 -0700

Where Our Money Goes:

The New York Times has created an interactive graph that illustrates where the world’s discretionary income goes. Four categories are charted including clothing & footwear, electronics,…

"This is the paradox of ambient awareness. Each little update — each individual bit of social..."

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:15:32 -0700

“This is the paradox of ambient awareness. Each little update — each individual bit of social information — is insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane. But taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends’ and family members’ lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting. This was never before possible, because in the real world, no friend would bother to call you up and detail the sandwiches she was eating. The ambient information becomes like “a type of E.S.P.,” as Haley described it to me, an invisible dimension floating over everyday life.”

- I’m So Totally, Digitally Close to You - Clive Thompson - NYTimes.com

"Social scientists have a name for this sort of incessant online contact. They call it “ambient..."

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:14:25 -0700

“Social scientists have a name for this sort of incessant online contact. They call it “ambient awareness.” It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye.”

- I’m So Totally, Digitally Close to You - Clive Thompson - NYTimes.com

Business Week: How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:01:18 -0700

Business Week: How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands

"The trend slips under the radar of national data, but phone calls to various city governments..."

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:56:47 -0700

“The trend slips under the radar of national data, but phone calls to various city governments reveals a strong uptick in bike commuting this year…”

- New bike commuters hit the classroom, then the road | csmonitor.com

"Second, in order to cement your status in the cultural elite, you want to be already sick of..."

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:13:18 -0700

“Second, in order to cement your status in the cultural elite, you want to be already sick of everything no one else has even heard of.”

- David Brooks - Lord of the Memes - NYTimes.com

Oil support you

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 00:56:10 -0700

Oil support you:

By Kate Sheppard

John McCain’s call for more offshore drilling has resulted in an influx of oil money to his campaign coffers, as we reported earlier this week. Yesterday, Campaign Money Watch…

"A survey of “100 ‘forward trendsetters’ in NY, SF, LA, and Miami [was] to create..."

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 00:16:24 -0700

“A survey of “100 ‘forward trendsetters’ in NY, SF, LA, and Miami [was] to create their 2008 Favorite Green Brands Index. …The survey found that their trendsetters made a (sometimes false) correlation between brands that favored minimalist design - like Apple and Method - with green practices.””

- 2008 Favorite Green Brands Index | Marktd

Surprise! Hit Song is Secretly a Commercial

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:47:57 -0700

Surprise! Hit Song is Secretly a Commercial:

R&B singer Chris Brown has a top 10 hit out at the moment called “Forever”. It’s actually number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 right now, and it’s gaining in popularity. It may even reach #1.