Stay out of Debt Song

Here's a clip from one of Gilligan's Island best episodes where Shakespeare's Hamlet is set to music. (Couldn't all Shakespeare be improved this way?)  The tune is the Toreador song from the opera Carmen. The theme: stay out of debt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXId5jOTxdg&feature=related

Leadership Skills from Captain Kirk

As a long-time Star Trek fan, one of my favorite stops during a mid-west vacation last year was at the Future Birthplace of James T. Kirk in Riverside, Iowa. I love the time-travel irony - Future Birthplace indeed.

It's funny how often Star Trek pops up. The first space shuttle (experimental only alas) was called Enterprise.

At the Armstrong Air & Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio you can take your photo alongside lifesize images of all the Star Trek captains (pictured above). 

In college a roommate wrote a paper comparing McCoy, Spock and  Kirk to the Id, Ego and Super Ego respectively.

Natuarally a blog entitled Five Leadership Lessons From James T. Kirk, in Forbes magazine no less, caught my attention:

1. Never Stop Learning
Kirk’s reputation at the Academy was that of a “walking stack of books”. (Before the reboot in the recent movie which made him more of a rebel.) He defeated a Gorn in personal combat becuase he recalled how to make gun powder and a primitive gun in an age of phasers. He out-thought the "unwinnable" Kobayashi Maru test and beat it.

2. Have Advisors With Different Worldviews
The original Star Trek had a dynamic with Kirk, Spock and McCoy that was never again matched. Three very different worldviews working together, not always peacefully.

3. Be Part of the Away Team
It was never very realistic that Kirk led the Away Teams into danger alongside the red shirts. But it was fun and is often a sign of great leadership when the leader rallies the men from the front lines. The next generation was more typical with Picard on the ship and Riker (his #1) leading the Away Teams.

4. Play Poker, Not Chess
Life is more like poker with bluffs then the rigid rules of chess. Kirk was a master of the bluff and outthinking his opponent.

5. Blow up the Enterpirse?
Kirk's first love of his life was the Enterprise. But in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock he destroys it in order to defeat the Klingons and take their ship. Good leaders are driven by passion but that passion can lead to a dead-end if blindly followed, never changing. Great leaders know when to curb their passion, setting aside past successes that have reached their peak, and begin something new.

Bottom Line

Just like James T Kirk,

"we need to keep exploring and learning. We need to ensure that we encourage creativity and innovation by listening to the advice of people with vastly different opinions. We need to occasionally get down in the trenches with the members of our teams so we understand their needs and earn their trust and loyalty. We need to understand the psychology of our competitors and also learn to radically change course when circumstances dictate. By following these lessons, we can lead our organizations into places where none have gone before."
- Alex Knapp

Walt Disney

"I don't make pictures just to make money. I make money to make more pictures."
-Walt Disney

On this day, Dec 15, 1966, Walt Disney passed away at age 65. This year also marks the 110th anniversary of Walt's birth on Dec 5, 1901. I was raised on everything Disney with Micky Mouse & friends on the wall, Disney records as Christmas gifts (I still love the soundtracks to Robin Hood and Aristocats), Disney story books, Wonderful World of Disney on TV, watching Jungle Book at the theater, visits to Walt Disney World, etc. This all seemed quite natural at the time but an article on PJ Media points out Disney was quite the innovator and "invented" many of the experiences I took for granted.

1. Animation

Steamboat Willie (1928), starring Mickey Mouse, is credited as the first animation synchronized with sound and music. Watch it on Youtube to see how clever it was and remember - sound was NEW! Four years later Disney produced Flowers And Trees (1932) in Technicolor and won the first Academy Award for animation. The Old Mill in 1937 was the first short film to use a multiplane camera and it also won an Oscar. [Multiplane means the sun/moon is painted an one cell layer, then middle ground, then foreground and then the "actors" on top. They are stacked with space between each layer and filmed together. The advantage is 3-D depth to the film; you can move in for a close up and the moon in the sky remains small while objects in the top cells get larger.]  1937 also saw the release of "Disney's Folly", a full length cartoon called  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. To the surprise of everyone (but Disney) it was a smash success and won another Oscar for Walt (along with seven honorary dwarf Oscars presented by Shirley Temple).  Disney never stopped experimenting with Animation. Fantasia (1940) mixed classical music with dinosaurs & dancing hippos; Song of the South (1946) mixed live actors with animation.

2. Education

Disney "had a long history of commitment to artists’ training." He held regular classes taught by masters of various media. Zookeepers brought live animals in for the animators to learn how to replicate natural movement. Many animators that created companies to rival Disney were trained by Disney studios. Walt promoted the creation of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and the school opened on land donated by the studio.

By the way, something to look for in recent Disney films; not content just to copy from the past, each film has a visual theme that motivates the animators. In Hercules look for Greek design with red/black colors, sharp angles, pottery & patterns. Look at the Asian animation style in Mulan, etc.

3. Merchandising

We expect toys from films today but Disney was a trailblazer in merchandising.  The studio earned 2.5 to 5% royalty on every item bearing the image of Mickey Mouse (and they are legion). Some of his movie/TV songs became hits like “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” and  Davy Crockett. You would think Hollywood had learned the power of merchandising from Disney but when George Lucas made Starwars, Hollywood saw little profit in it and let Lucas keep all the merchandising rights (big mistake).

4. TV

As early as the 1930's Disney refused to sell the rights to his films to others,

…everybody wanted to buy all our old product. We wouldn’t sell it. We wouldn’t hear of it. We wanted to handle it ourselves, make good use of it.

And indeed he did make "good use" of his films. He discovered he could release the films every 7 years to profitable runs. He made a TV Christmas special in 1950 on NBC and another the following year. In 1954 Disneyland the TV series debuted on ABC with a mix of B&W and color. A few years later he moved to full color back on NBC with  Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color.  Walt reused films and created new content for his Wonderful World series. He also started another new hit show, The Mickey Mouse Club. Today we have an entire TV channel owned by and featuring Disney material.

5. Theme Parks
An entire park dedicated to cartoons? Who would have believed it? Since 1955, "Disney theme parks led the industry as the gold standard of excellence in amusement park entertainment."

Bottom Line

PJ Media sums it up nicely,

"Disney filled many roles in his 65 years: artist, husband and father, philanthropist, anti-Communist, filmmaker, and even the original voice of Mickey Mouse. But his greatest role was as an American innovator. From animation to television to theme parks Disney left his mark on our culture and enhanced our lives."

P.S.

The 1928 release of Steamboat Willie resounds to this very day. It's my personal theory that Disney Studios will do anything to keep the copyright from expiring on Mickey Mouse. In copyright law 1923 is a special date, all books and other works published before 1923 have expired copyrights and are in the public domain. Works from 1923-1963, published with notice and with copyright renewed, are protected for 95 years. In theory Mickey becomes public domain in 2023 but as has happened many times in the past century, US copyright keeps getting extended for longer and longer periods. In 1998 the Sonny Bono Act (also called the Mickey Mouse Protection Act by Lawrence Lessig) added 20 years of copyright protection keeping Mickey Mouse from entering the public domain in 2003.

Emergency Alert System Nationwide Test

"This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. The broadcasters of your area in voluntary cooperation with the FCC and federal, state and local authorities have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency."

This afternoon at 2pm (Eastern Standard Time) the Emergency Alert System, or EAS, will launch its first nationwide test. I'm sure you're familiar with the "this is only a test" that occurs periodically on TV and radio. The purpose of today's test is to assess the reliability and effectiveness of the system in alerting the entire public.

Today's test will involve only "broadcast radio and television, cable television, satellite radio and television and wireline video services" that participate in the EAS.  The Emergency Alert System transmits emergency alerts and warnings to the American public at the national, Tribal, state and local levels. A typical alert of a weather threat or child abduction makes sense at local and state levels. It's hard to imagine a national alert short of war or significant terrorist attack or major disaster such as an mega-earthquake or tsunami.

While local/state components of the EAS are tested on a weekly/monthly basis, there has never been an end-to-end nationwide test of the system. Only a complete, top-down test of the EAS can provide an appropriate diagnosis of the system's performance.

Although the nationwide EAS test may resemble the periodic monthly EAS tests that most consumers are familiar with, there will be some differences. The audio message will say "this is a test", however due to limitations of the EAS, the video test message may not be the same and may not indicate "this is a test" for everyone. In some cases there may be no image at all. FEMA and the FCC are working with organizations representing the deaf and hard of hearing to prepare that community for the nationwide test.

This test is being conducted on November 9 because this date is near the end of hurricane season and before the severe winter weather season begins. The 2 p.m. EST broadcast will minimize disruption during rush hours while ensuring that the test occurs during working hours across the country.

Bottom Line

The test will last approximately 30 seconds at 2pm EST, Nov 9, 2011.

Updated Nov 10

The test showed many areas with room for improvement. ABC News asks,
National Emergency Alert Test: Total Failure?

"Some people never saw an alert, others said the audio was distorted and there were even claims that Lady Gaga’s song “Paparazzi” was playing instead of the correct audio. On KABC-TV in Los Angeles, a screen flashed with the EAS graphic for several minutes, but there was no audio or information given.  ...
On the television feeds at ABC News’ headquarters in New York City, CNN ran a preview graphic saying, “Soon: Emergency Test Alert,” but the actual test never ran. Both ESPN and Fox News teased that the test was coming up, but it never happened. On MTV, it was afternoon programming as usual."

The FEMA administrator says, "I apologize for the disruptions that people went through. But we need to test things to find out what works and what doesn’t work.”

Loud Commercials

Nigel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
Marty: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel: Exactly.
Marty: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten.
- This is Spinal Tap

Do you find loud commercials annoying? Have you thought, there ought to be a law against that?

According to Wired.com there is a law but it does not help. The FCC regulates the maximum volume that a show or ad may use. TV shows broadcast most of the time below this maximum; saving the max for gunshots, explosions, yelling, etc. (See graph above)  Many ads set the volume to max for the entire 10-30 seconds since they don't need to worry about a difference between normal and loud.

I'm reminded of the harpsichords vs the piano. Bach (1685 – 1750) was a master of the harpsichords but it had a serious limitation - all notes had the same loudness. Around 1700, Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori created a new instrument where the loudness of the note matched the force with which you hit the key. He called the "quiet-loud" in Italian, PianoForte. It was very difficult to make, very expensive, and smaller than the modern Piano with just 5 octaves of keys. Bach disliked the early models but by mid-century the quality had improved and it was the instrument of choice for Mozart(1756 – 1791). Beethoven (1770–1827) pushed the instrument beyonds its limits in dynamic range and was famous for breaking the PianoFortes. From 1790-1860 the instrument was strengthened and improved to become the modern Piano.

So TV shows are like Pianos. Played at a modest level of with occasional fortissimo of loudness for effect. Ads are like harpsichords - played a one level only - loud.

Bottom Line

If you really hate loud commercials, write to your congressman asking for a better law that regulates the average loudness as well as the maximum.