Building robots

The First Lego League (FLL) is a touchstone for 2,500 smart youngsters in Arizona alone--it puts on robot-building competitions.
We had debate club, which still exists, of course, but now a new set of competitions has claimed the stage. 

Go to http://firstlegoleague.org for more info on how to get started, how parents can help, and a raft of other information.

Like debate, there is an assigned "topic" for the competition, such as a recent one--caring for the elderly.

The teams--300 in Arizona--compete in three parts--building miniature robots that can perform prescribed tasks (the Robot Game), developing a solution to a problem (Project) and achievement of Core Values of teamwork, graciousness, and helpfulness.

This is not some science fair deal, which often was dominated by parental input. Adults cannot even touch the robots or a team is thrown out.

One team in Arizona--all girls--met every Saturday for months and interviewed a 100-year-old woman to learn her needs, which led to inventing a chair for her. Their robots could turn on a mini-television among other tasks.

They had to learn and use calculus.

Big companies also assist and talk with the kids. What do you want to bet they are also looking for ideas?

The Lost Studebaker

Article this morning in the Arizona Republic (paywalled, so I can't send you the url) on a display of model cars put on by the Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild. This was a contest for teenagers in the 1950s and 60s.

Many of the car-minded teens went on to work for the big car companies.

Legendary car design Harley Earl was a key player in this contest.

Harley Earl figures in a screenplay I cowrote with filmmaker Ross Stansfield.

So does famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy--who worked on many popular designs in the last century--including Studebakers.

Log line of our script: Three offbeat teens build the the car of the future with a little help from the masters of the past.

For more info on this story and on us...go to http://raymondloewyandtheloststudebaker.blogspot.com/

The guy across the street from me has a shade tree business upholstering cars and often has fabbie vehicles parked in front.

Know anyone who loves cars and wants to make a movie? Someone rich?

He had an Ideo

As depicted on 60 Minutes, http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50138327n, David Kelley is a chatty fellow brimming with offbeat ideas about good design.

But the iconic news show also went a little fanboy over his friendship with the late Steve Jobs, who apparently groused at Kelley sometimes, urging him to do better. Kelley also had cancer--as did Jobs--but I was not sure where that fit in. I am sure Jobs did not mean that.

Kelley is the inventor of "design thinking." This means one person gets an idea and another adds or subtracts or hares off into something different. Sort of intellectual Zenga, but it sounded to me like brainstorming.

In Kelley's company, Ideo, though, this resulted in the basic shape of the computer mouse and many other housewhold items. I wish 60 Minutes had done more on that--but I didn't get the memo.

I have a mouse question. If it had been wireless all along, would it be called a lozenge? I mean--no tail, no mousiness.

Secret patterns of the universe--or a ditch

I got some of those new Earthscape stamps issued last October. These are pix taken from a couple of hundred feet above earth--or from space.

The scenes are natural, agricultural and urban.

The glacial one--pictured--is ice calving off Alaska's Bear Glacier.

There is also a subdivision pictured in another, little boxes.

I live in a little box--and believe me it looks better from space. I guess I could use a weed whacker.

The cliched idea is that there is unseen beauty all around us. Or at least pleasing sights. Can't really argue with that--and at least they did not doll up the slums of Rio or anything.

Oh--you can get these stamps if you want. Call (800) 782-6724. They are good forever. By the way, is this a creative idea--this forever thing--meaning your costs may go up, but you don't charge more?

Product naming: Is a rose as smelly as a sabertooth?

I wish I had been around in the Days of the Caves, because so many more things needed naming then than now. "Tree," "Rock," "Aieee, Sabertooth!" Many cultures believe that by learning or speaking the name of an item you can both impart power to it and rob it of its essence. Isn't your name an important aspect of you? Well, that's no less true of the products you are selling.

The Internet has really changed the Name Game. Every word in the dictionary has been claimed and purchased. To use a name, you need to buy it from someone. But you also could coin one. Flooz.com. Or take one that's completely unlikely to be used for a serious purpose: Maybe THWIM.

I used to name for a major branding company in New York. They give me a creative brief before I start. Go ahead, write one for your company or product. If it's a company name, they describe the mission, all the divisions, the customer. And, most importantly, the "culture." Serious, old-line, conservative? Happening, zany, light-hearted?

If it's a product, they will provide a few notes on the uses, how it differs from competitors, the major features. And, again most importantly, they will provide a list of words describing the customer or feeling the product should engender in the buyer: "very cool," "icebergs, "rushing water," "cleansing." Can you guess? Toothpaste.

I take it from there. I won't reveal my secret techniques, but most of them involve the standard creative process--input project into brain and wait for output. I carry a pad everywhere for a few days, free associate, and then look through source material (say a computer magazine for a software name) and toss around memes (life is not long enough to describe those here) and concept fragments. A name goes on the list, I roll it around on tongue and brain, and sometimes--"Oh, ick"--I hit the delete key.

     I do a list of about 300 names or 150 taglines. The client chooses. They never like the ones I like best. And that's the name of that tune.

Wake up!

Did you know orange is the favored color of the insane? Yup.

I used to work at the American Chemical Society--straight out of college. This is a very bracing video of the Day-Glo paint factory.

http://www.bytesizescience.com/index.cfm/2013/1/8/Inside-Dayglo-The-Worlds-Most-Color-Factory

As Day-Glo says "Color. Only Better." http://dayglo.com I love orange--be forewarned.