| Bob Stewart: The Inventor Of Game Shows Posted: 11 May 2012 04:00 AM PDT 
It may not be a useful product, but what Bob Stewart invented has kept millions of people entertained for years. He created the game show. This historic man recently passed away at the age of 91, leaving behind quite the legacy, reports The New York Times. Mr. Stewart's long-running hit shows, which also included "Password" and the "Pyramid" franchise, relied on his belief that simplicity could fascinate viewers, Fred Wostbrock, a co-author of "The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows," said in an interview on Monday. "Bob had a talent for tapping into Americana, meaning real people: a pricing game, a game of occupations, trying to get you to say one word," Mr. Wostbrock said. "These are what I call communication games — not music shows, not a stunt show, not a singing competition. They were a lot different from the shows at the time and a lot different from what's on TV now." As Mr. Stewart himself put it, in an interview for the Archive of American Television: "Once you cause somebody at home to talk to the set aloud, even by himself or herself, then you've got a good game show. You want them to say, 'It's number 2! It's number 2! It's number 2!' before the moment of truth comes out."
Photo by Matthew Simoneau 
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| WA|HH: Spray Makes You Drunk And Sober Again In Seconds Posted: 11 May 2012 03:30 AM PDT 
Mail Online: ‘A spray of WA|HH and the shock is immediate, like a sensorial alarm.’ Each WA|HH canister, which contains 2 milliliters of alcohol, delivers just 0.075 milliliters per dose, a thousand times less than a cocktail. People who puff will even be able to pass a breathalyzer test moments after ingesting the spray. Flash Quantum and Demon Quantum, the two WA|HH flavors, each cost $26.
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| This Evil Birthday Clown Will Frighten Your Kids Posted: 10 May 2012 12:13 PM PDT Don’t hire this clown if your children have coulrophobia (the irrational fear of clowns): Dominic Deville stalks young victims for a week, sending chilling texts, making prank phone calls and setting traps in letterboxes. He posts notes warning children they are being watched, telling them they will be attacked. But Deville is not an escaped lunatic or some demonic monster. He is a birthday treat, hired by mum and dad, and the 'attack' involves being splatted in the face with a cake. 'The child feels more and more that it is being pursued,' said Deville. 'The clown's one and only aim is to smash a cake into the face of his victim, when they least expect it, during the course of seven days.' If the boy or girl manages to avoid the 'hit', they are given the cake as a birthday present. Well, that's alright then. The frightening fun can be stopped at any time, which is handy for parents who have second thoughts and don't fancy the cost of child therapy. The Evil Birthday Clown’s website is here. Just in case you frighten easily, I’ve included the photo after the jump and not before. 
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| Niche Biz: White House Chimney Sweep Posted: 10 May 2012 11:54 AM PDT 
Businessweek: Jeff Schmittinger, the owner and founder of Wisconsin Chimney Technicians in Waukesha, Wisc., has been cleaning the chimneys at the White House for 19 consecutive years and three administrations, and he still hasn’t been paid. To be fair, he never asked for a dime. Schmittinger first volunteered for the gig in 1993, after hearing President Bill Clinton address Congress about the dire state of the federal deficit. Wanting to do his part, he called the White House and offered to clean the 35 chimneys at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for free. “I didn’t think they’d take me up on it,” he admits. “I was shocked.” The job has gotten easier over the years; when he first showed up, the chimneys were caked with soot from countless presidencies. He used two vacuums during that inaugural clean, he says, “because we weren’t going to leave the White House and have it not be a white house anymore.” 
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| No More Weddings and Babies: Just Dogs Photography Posted: 10 May 2012 11:09 AM PDT 
Sunshine Coast Daily: Buddy and Gemma are perfect glamour models. They don’t complain, need a make-up check and aren’t vain. But sometimes the slobber can get in the way of a good shot. The two golden retrievers were the first models to pose for Donna Cameron-Prosser in her new business, Just Dogs Photography. With more than 20 years photography experience, Mrs Cameron-Prosser was looking for a change from the usual weddings and babies. 
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| Agent to the Youtube Stars Posted: 10 May 2012 10:59 AM PDT Telegraph: Such are the realities of fame in today’s interconnected world. Never, in the history of show-business, have so many become known so fast for doing so little. If you have a phone with a video camera (which pretty much all do these days) and access to the internet, then you have the tools you need to go “viral” – the term for a film that spreads rapidly over the web. It’s created an attention-seekers’ paradise, with only one drawback: until recently none of them had been able to work out how to make any money. Many of the videos that have topped the charts since YouTube was founded in 2005 – like the “Evolution of Dance” (a six-minute dance routine that has been watched almost 200 million times) – have earned next to nothing for their creators. And some of the creators not only failed to profit, they didn’t even want to be famous in the first place. To you, they’re just funny videos, but to Damian Collier they’re business opportunities. Video of the “Evolution of Dance” after the jump. 
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| Farmers’ Market Customers Wanted Something “Meatier” Posted: 10 May 2012 10:52 AM PDT 
Indianapolis Star: When Angela Abney of Bargersville made a few trips through area farmers markets, she noted that customers might appreciate something meatier than vegetables and plants. “A lot of people want to know where their food comes from,” Abney said. “People are a lot more health-conscious now.” Knowing that families seek “free range” and “hormone-free” products, this Purdue University freshman saw a customer need and a business opportunity. Soon after celebrating her 18th birthday last year, Abney launched Red Barn Meats.
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| Farmers Should Package Fruits & Veggies Like Junk Food Posted: 10 May 2012 10:47 AM PDT 
Central Valley Business Times: …Even though Americans are concerned about obesity, the stand-alone marketing of a “healthy benefit” to mainstream consumers isn’t enough to increase consumption of fresh vegetables — evident by the overall flat consumption rate of fresh vegetables in recent years. T What’s needed, says the report, is for produce firms to put more emphasis on creating value-added products that are not only healthy, but also easy to prepare. “As grower-shipper processors look to increase sales of fresh vegetables, we believe the solution really lies with the concept of healthy convenience,” says the report’s author, Karen Halliburton Barber, assistant vice president and senior agricultural analyst for FAR. “The idea is to give consumers the best of both worlds: the healthfulness of fresh vegetables and the convenience of processed foods.” The report references a recent argument posed by the New York Times, stating that fresh, unprocessed, so-called “real food” is no more expensive than processed “junk food.” Rather, the deterrent from healthy food eating among mainstream consumers has been the inconvenience of time it takes to prepare the food. Grower-shipper processors should invest in more product differentiation, including producing vegetables with naturally enhanced micronutrient content and bolder flavors, the report says. It also suggests that processors offer more ethnic vegetables and flavorings and cater to local and regional appeal. Photo by Kyle May. 
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| What Kind of Bookstore to Start in the Age of Amazon Posted: 10 May 2012 10:23 AM PDT 
Forbes: Imagine for a moment what it would feel like if people walked into your company and used the lobby to call your competitors and buy their products. That's standard consumer behavior in a bookstore. People browse, find a book they like, pull out their smart phone, and order online. Making an intuitive leap, Jeff wondered if the opposite could be true? Maybe access to the vast universe of digital content could also save the bookstore. Maybe the bookstore, while limited in inventory, could evolve in the digital world and become a destination where people had access to every digitized book ever published. To truly compete, he would also have to solve consumer's expectations for instant gratification and delivery. Jeff needed a complete production, distribution, and fulfillment model. He has likely shocked a lot of people by building one in his own backyard. Essentially, Jeff installed a printing press to close the inventory gap with Amazon. The Espresso Book Machine sits in the middle of Harvard Bookstore like a hi-tech visitor to an earlier era. A compact digital press, it can print nearly five million titles including Google Books that are in the public domain, as well as out of print titles. We're talking beautiful, perfect bound paperbacks indistinguishable from books produced by major publishing houses. The Espresso Book Machine can be also used for custom publishing, a growing source of revenue, and customers can order books in the store and on-line. You can walk into the store, request an out-of-print, or hard-to-find title, and a bookseller can print that book for you in approximately four minutes. 
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| Today in Entrepreneurial History: May 10 Posted: 10 May 2012 07:24 AM PDT |
| Fighting A Good Marketing Battle Posted: 10 May 2012 05:00 AM PDT 
Fox Small Business Center: Avoid a Feud
If a strong competitor has begun to pull away some of your customers, avoid a direct marketing confrontation with them. In other words, do not put out marketing pieces that essentially denigrate a rival. Your Initial Attack
If you have a limited budget and, seemingly, an unlimited number of competitors, try starting your marketing campaign with a "splash". Fight Where You Can Win
The lesson: be mindful to compete in an area where you stand a chance of winning.
Photo by Tobias Toft 
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| Inventor Lives/Promotes Low Power Lifestyle Posted: 10 May 2012 04:30 AM PDT 
The Mainichi: A refrigerator made of highly conductive metal, surrounded with water and insulated can keep a temperature of seven to eight degrees Celsius even outside in the daytime during summer. A dehumidifier he created with a nearly endless lifetime that sells for 23,000 yen is a hit product that sells around 200 units a year. At his studio, Fujimura uses natural gas and pressure cooking pots to make rice rather than electric rice cookers, which use the equivalent of 2 GPs nationwide a year. For lights, which are 10 GPs, and computers, 3 GPs, he is careful to turn them off when not needed. He gets lighting through windows in the roof and cleans with a broom. He also uses solar and hydroelectric power generation. Although Fujimura has over 10 buildings on his wide lot, he only pays around 40,000 yen a year in electricity fees to Tokyo Electric Power Company.
Photo by Ed Kohler 
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