Growing Fast

The 2008 Inc. 5,000 Fastest Growing Private Companies In America went live yesterday. From dog biscuit makers to nanoscope manufacturers, the site has a short profile, based on interviews with the CEOs, of each of the 5,000 companies. There are also feature articles and slide shows such as The Top 10 Woman Owned Companies and When The Boss Is An Adrenaline Junkie. It's pretty inspiring, especially if you are entrepeneurially minded. I contributed 55 of the 5,000 profiles—and had a blast working on the project.

I Toad You So

Yeah, no that's not a toad, it's a frog. There I was at my favorite Thai grocery buying Chinese noodles for this really yummy stir fry I make and was drawn to the frozen food section like an ant to a candy cane. The section is stocked with amphibians shrink-wrapped in their natural form: unskinned, unchopped, heads on, tails on, antennae on, like they were freeze dried running down an alley. I'm not a brave eater: no eggs in any form except hard boiled, nothing that catsup has touched, and I don't like to be in the same room as a tuna salad. But a frog in a bag? Give it here.

Never Before Advertised Wildlife Gear

Just in time for the autumn wildlife season: this supersoft cotton long sleeve Chicago Area Wildlife Society t-shirt. Navy with contrasting white stitching, it's perfect for viewing, wooing, shooing, or ignoring wildlife. If you know me personally, you may be thinking: Why is she pawning that shirt off as new; she's worn it every day since January. It's true, I've had a carton (from SMALL to XLARGE) for a while now, but it has been a busy year OK and I've just gotten around to posting this delicious shirt for sale on Etsy.

Nothing To Dig Here

I was hopped up on researching the "Hey C'mon I Gave You An Article Now Make Me An Internet Sensation" icons that appear at the bottom of so many onlinozines (Slate, Huffington Post, Salon, etc.) but I bored of the project half way through and am not pursuing that thread after all, much to the relief of one reader who said the whole idea was boring from the get-go and demanded more gummi bear art (comments lines now closed).

And I can't say much about social bookmarking or Delicious that isn't covered in the clever video How To Explain Delicious To Your Parents. If you bookmark a lot, or want to but don't because your bookmark list already stretches down your monitor, over your keyboard, onto the floor and out the back door, check out Delicious. There should be a word for the joy that comes from having organized what was once a mess. Georderlich.

Is a post only talking about what you're not going to talk about really a post? Well, here's something. Is this not the cutest logo ever? It's not actually a logo, it's more of a mascot for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They sell shirts with the little guy + cat and I'd almost shell out the $29 for one just because it's so darn cute but they don't specify whether the shirt is 100% cotton. So I'll just visit their site every day and gaze at it for my daily dose of gosh darn balls to the wall cuteness.

You Say Gummy, I Say Yummy

Today's blog was supposed to be about bookmarking with del.icio.us but I was sidetracked by something even more delicious: gummi bear inspired art. I came across Jason Freeny (above) quite by accident, and I must say my life is the better for it. Jason creates art that can quite literally described as eye candy. You can buy a 12" x 12" print of Anatomie Gummi Bär for a mere $59.


If you are the more three-dimensional type, perhaps I can interest you in a gummi bear rug. This one's not for sale sadly, but you can view YaYa Chou's other gummi bear sculptures at galleryrevisited. The blog includes a convincing plea not to lacquer gummis and an argument that the green gummi is not as vibrant as it once was. At first I thought she meant the green gummis you buy in the store are not as vibrant as they once were but she was referring the green gummis in her art fading over time.

Tomorrow: delicious.com

Rabbit Sighted

I'll be the first to admit: it's been a slow week at the Chicago Area Wildlife Society. So all heads in the CAWS development office sure torqued when this bunny picture came over the wire. Yes, this is not PhotoShop trickery; it's an actual rabbit in an actual Chicago area yard. Keep those dramatic urban wildlife photos pouring in. Isn't that font in the photo cool? It's called "vtks alcalina" (no idea why) and you can download it and loads of other fonts free at dafont. Most are True Type, sadly—but, free is free.

The Great Firewall of China

Despite assurances of complete Internet access, Olympic journalists trying to Google their way out China are butting up against censorship. You can't visit Amnesty International or Falun Gong's web site from inside China, but there's no restriction on access to condoms. If you can't equate The Beijing Olympics to "a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practised without discrimination of any kind" (from IOC's web site), what the heck—why not equate The Olympics with sex, as with this "cheeky" Chinese ad campaign?

Pretend you're an Olympic journalist and see what you can google from within China at www.google.cn. If that's too much effort, the work is already done for you: view U.S. results vs. China results for a number of search terms at Blogoscoped.