Paramount Books' Spring Offerings

Paramount Books (my publisher) has uploaded their new Spring Catalog (PDF). Lots of interesting-looking books listed, including one I liked a lot.

Mine's in there somewhere.

Life would be very strange if ...

I do the Facebook, MySpace, Twitter things mostly to keep up with what's going on out here in the ether. I'm not sure they'll last - or at least be as popular and influential for very much longer. They get boring, repetitive. When you get older, you have better things to do. And most young folks eventually get older, and are replaced by even younger folks who'll find other crazy things to do that'll be fun and exciting for them, so ....

Steve Hall of AdRants and AdGabber blogged this video produced by a young comedy group in England. What if real life were like Facebook? It got me laughing:

April: Unused Ether

Remember: We're not talking about rejects. Or orphans. If anything, they're strong, sturdy, independent - and need no adulterating annotating from me.

This Month's Unused Ether:

Retirement Isn't Hard. Not Like Killing a Man without Breaking Eye Contact!

Web 55.0: The Baby Boomer’s Gift

The boom, in all its cohorts, hits homes

Gardening industry designs 'cool tools' for baby boomers

A Longer Goodbye

Baby Boomers Make Largest Positive Impact on Business for U.S. Paint Contractors

getback

Advertising on Social Networks Ineffective

Red Hat Society Turns 10

Debbie Does Divorce

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Unused Ether: February

Unused Ether: March

Beers and Innovation: Coming of Age

Hi Chuck

I thought you would be interested to hear about the upcoming NMK (New Media Knowledge) Coming of Age event on Tuesday 27th May 2008 in London, UK, as it focuses on communicating with, and creating content and websites for, the mature market online. We’d be very pleased for you to mention it on your blog if you think it’s appropriate ....

For full details, speaker information and booking, visit:
Beers and Innovation: Coming of Age

Elizabeth

Elizabeth Varley
Events Consultant
NMK
www.nmk.co.uk
—
Elizabeth -

.... Sure, I'll mention it. I know Dick Stroud, and Kevin Lavery of Millennium. I spent some time with them last year in England while on a speaking/consulting tour. Before that, we'd met in New York and Chicago, respectively.

Chuck

**********
I might've called it Warm Beers & Bloviators. (Just kidding, my friends across the pond ...) I wish I were going - and bloviating. And drinking.

Bookmarked Brains: The International Longevity Center

Second in a series:

One of my regular stops in the ether is The International Longevity Center. It’s a site that’s easy to navigate and filled with all sorts of goodies. The Newsroom is often updated, and I like their blog – where I’m often introduced to other worthwhile blogs/sites by people leaving comments.

Some of their publications are downloadable at no cost, others are reasonably priced. Here’s a freebie I sent to a bunch of people recently.

And their varied and impressive Projects makes the ILCUSA not merely a Think Tank but a Do Tank.

Founder and CEO Robert N. Butler has and is having an interesting life (if you can believe Wikipedia). He’s written a new book: The Longevity Revolution: The Benefits and Challenges of Living a Long Life. Bob Moos of The Dallas Morning News has a wonderful piece on the book and the man:

The Longevity Revolution
Dr. Robert N. Butler, who has spent his career studying older people and caring for them, calls the extraordinary human accomplishment "the Longevity Revolution" and says that "what was once the privilege of the few has become the destiny of the many."

Dr. Butler's 50-year career has been one of firsts. A pioneer in the field of aging, the gerontologist became the founding director of the National Institute on Aging in the '70s, created the first geriatrics department at a U.S. medical school in the '80s and established in the '90s the International Longevity Center, the first policy research organization devoted entirely to aging.

And a few weeks ago Ronni Bennett of Times Goes By interviewed Dr. Butler:

The TGB Interview: Dr. Robert N. Butler
I discovered Robert N. Butler, M.D. when I first started researching aging a dozen years ago through his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Why Survive? Being Old in America. My copy, even in hardback, is tattered and worn now, Post-It noted and marked up to within an inch of its life, as it is one of the “bibles” I regularly use to think about aging and as a reference for this blog.

I’ve written about casually flinging around the concept of ‘longevity’ in advertising and marketing. Be careful. However, using it to position a product or service - and the excellent work of The International Longevity Center - are apples and oranges. Don’t confuse them.