Random

• They're letting us vote on the proposed designs for the Guam version of the US quarter dollar coin. This is the one which received my online click. The design is less busy, less cryptic, and will generate more tourist dollars than the other choice. And I just like it. What do you think? ~ Link

• Inconvenient Truths: "10 Green Heresies" -- even if not swallowed whole the issue is worth discussing. ~ Link

• Google has volunteered to store your health records. ~ Link

• MBA programs are bailing on China -- too much red-tape -- not enough English proficiency ~ Link

• Quotable: Facebook is the precursor of something I'm calling mass interpersonal persuasion. That is a new phenomenon and the most important thing to happen in the world of persuasion since the advent of the radio over 100 years ago. Radio changed the game for persuasion because it allowed a message to be broadcast to thousands and millions of people, which was previously not possible...

Facebook takes very strong interpersonal influence dynamics -- the way people persuade each other face-to-face in small groups with peer pressure, reciprocity, flattery -- and allows those to be used on a mass scale because your social networks are built in. Friends influence friends, who influence friends, and that keeps rippling out. They can reach people very quickly for very little cost and ordinary people can set these in motion. It doesn't require a big broadcasting company or a big PR campaign. If you get the right message in the right way, you'll effect millions of people. Facebook has been the best platform for that, but I think in the future it will be commonplace. ~ Stanford University professor BJ Fogg

• Crash course in San Francisco business etiquette for non-Americans (and the suits living east of the Rockies -- who never quite get the whole California thing) ~ Link

• Kent Anderson is asking good questions about how it is that 83% of the churches in the Covenant are in the unhealthy zone. ~ Link