Just received this in my inbox from Seth Godin. On winning. I found the part on demagoguery most compelling:

A demagogue cares so much about winning that he’d rather wreck the system itself than lose. It’s okay, he believes, to root for the failure of the republic or to destroy civility or democracy if it leads to something that could be called a win.

Seth’s post is about winning but it just reminds me how the far right feels like it is just fine to completely trash our peacetime-democratically-elected president and government just to get what they want — to win.

What is winning? Is there a vision? Surely not just returning our country to 1776?

To an orthodoxy that runs on two documents: the Bible and the Constitution, literally read and never interpreted?

Even though our Founding Fathers were enlightenment Masons who were more afraid of an ignorant theocratical America than whatever the right is afraid of.

They’re really not afraid of any of this stuff. They’re more interested at winning. They’re more interested in the win and are more than happy to trash everything, lie through their teeth, and get caught again and again in hypocrisy — conflicting realities — to leverage fear — all FTW!

At least in Berlin, keeping a distance from your party in the Restaurant is a sign or respect.

It is considered rude in Germany for a server, der Kellner or die Kellnerin, to keep on bothering your chat, your time together, and your meal, to check up on you.

If you want something, flag down someone — German waiters are pretty good at seeing that you want something. Don’t whistle, just catch their eye or wave your hand.

German waiters generally won’t even ask how your meal is going or if you’re having a good time until they bus your plates, at which point they will ask something like “Hat es Ihnen geschmeckt?” or “Hat’s geschmeckt?” which both mean, “Did you enjoy your meal?”

So, the reason why you feel like you’re being ignored is because they think it would be appallingly rude for them to come up to your table every few minutes asking you how your meal is, if you want more wine or beer, or if you want anything else, or — heaven forbid — may I bring you the check.

So, while I can’t confirm that this is also what happens in other places around Europe and the world, I know that if you want another anything, you need to call for it; and, if you want the bill, you need to expressly ask for the bill, “Die Rechnung bitte” or “Bitte zahlen” or just make that “I am signing a check in the air” pantomime and they’ll come with your check right away.

In Germany, the tip is negotiated with the waiter or waitress (der Kellner, die Kellnerin) at point of sale, not left on the table after. So, you tip when you pay. Looking in their eyes.

So, let’s say the bill is 27 Euros and you liked the service — you would tell the waiter to keep 30 Euros out of your 50 Euro note, or just ask for 20 Euros back — there is no sneaking away with a low tip in German, you need to look the waiter in her or his eyes.

(this is especially hard when you’re learning to speak German — sorting out the math and then negotiating the change is surely exciting and you should probably practice a little.)

In Germany, 10% is the customary maximum tip, with much less being commonplace. German wait staff are paid professionals in German and the tip you leave is actually a gratuity and not the mandatory US 20%

Also, when you are a waiter in the US and you complain about how cheap Germans are when they eat at your restaurant — please consider the fact that Germans don’t assume that you’re actually on spec at the restaurant and that all your profit comes from undeclared and un-taxed cash tips and that they only tap a maximum of 10% to their wait staff, and generally closer to 5% or so.

What a lovely evening I had last night as Mark Brill, CEO, Formation — a fellow SCUBA diver — and I were taken out for a lovely traditional Slovakian dinner (especially bryndzové halušky) and an evening tour of the old city.

Today — in a couple-few hours — I will be presenting to the attendees of the Marketing LIVE 2010 Conference here in sunny, warm, beautiful, historic Bratislava, Slovakia.

Looking forward to it since I had such a great time speaking to Slovakian IT and marketing professionals back in 2008, Daily Web Conference 2008 in Bratislava, Slovakia, so this is my second time in Bratislava.

Nevtieravé spôsoby využívania internetu

28. apríl 2010, Falkensteiner Hotel Bratislava

08:15 – 08:50 REGISTRÁCIA vo foyer Falkensteiner Hotela Bratislava.
09:00 Za?iatok prednáškového programu
13:00 – 14:00 Obed
16:00 Závere?ný raut

Po?as celého konania konferencie je zabezpe?ené ob?erstvenie formou bufetových stolov.
?asy sú orienta?né. Zmena programu vyhradená

Základné informácie

dátum: 28. apríl 2010

miesto: Falkensteiner Hotel Bratislava

po?et ú?astníkov: 100 – 150

cena: 195,- EUR bez DPH  online prihláška

Komu je konferencia ur?ená

• marketingoví riaditelia a kreatívni riaditelia

• brand manažéri, špecialisti marketingu

• media planneri a media buyeri

• event manažéri, PR manažéri

Program :

Moderátor: Daniel Duriš, senior konzultant, Pizza SEO, Slovensko

Potenciál internetovej reklamy pre Slovenské firmy

• Kate?ina Holcmanová, marketingová riadite?ka, Google, ?eská republika

Nákupný cyklus spotrebite?a na internete

• Mgr. Juraj Stankay, ex – Senior Account Strategist, Google EMEA

Ako realizova? efektívnu multikanálovú komunikáciu?

• Michal Metli?ka, Regionálny riadite? pre technickú podporu predaja EEMEA, Adobe systems, ?eská republika

Prediktívne behaviorálne cielenie alebo ako cielite reklamu Vy?

• Ing. Eva Mohylová, marketingový špecialista, Internet BillBoard a.s., ?eská republika

Príklady nesprávnych požiadaviek zo strany klientov s oh?adom na ich neznalos? problematiky

• Mgr. Mat?j Novák, senior SEM consultant, Ataxo, ?eská republika

?o bude fungova? v online marketingu v blízkej budúcnosti?

• Jan Horák, marketingový riadite? pre SR a ?R, mBank, ?eská republika

Viral Marketing v sociálnej sieti Facebook

• Daniel Kremsa, zakladate? a CEO, Kremsa Design, Inc., USA

Psychológia zákazníka digitálneho veku

• Tomáš Jind?íšek, Managing Director, OgilvyInteractive, ?eská republika

Aby mobilný marketing fungoval

• Mark Brill, zakladate? a CEO, Formation, Ve?ká Británia

Online PR and Marketing – Pre?o má pre business zapájanie sú?asných aj budúcich zákazníkov zmysel

Chris Abraham, CEO, Abraham Harrison LLC, USA

This is my presentation, if you want to take a look:

Via Autoblog via The Sun: “Nicolas Cage is suing his former manager Samuel Levin for $20 million for gross negligence of his finances and for lining his own pockets at the actor’s expense. Cage is moving to sue the former manager due to the actor’s sudden cash crunch, which includes a boat load of debt and over $7 million in back taxes. But Levin has a story of his own to tell, and it involves excess on a scale that we can hardly imagine. According to Levin, the actor purchased a scad of really expensive stuff. Like a $7.5 million island in the Bahamas, 15 mansions, four yachts, a Gulfstream, 47 pieces of art and even nine Rolls-Royce Phantoms.”

Along with unemployment rates and the deficit, Bentley prices are on the rise, too, at least in the UK. Starting in April, Bentley will raise prices by 5% in the United Kingdom, citing the pound’s weakness as compared to the Euro (about an 18% depreciation in the past year). So aspiring Brits will now be paying between around £120,000 and £245,000 for those new wheels. There is no expected price increase beyond Great Britain.

Via Luxist

Justin Thorp envisions a world wherein online community managers are staffers for members of Congress and key government offices and personnel.  I like the way he thinks, What if a Congressman or Government Agency had a Community Manager?

What if a congressman or government agencies had a community manager? This would be a person that everyone in the community knew. On the Web site, there’d be a photo of them and every possible way to get ahold of them. They’d hang out at coffee shops, bars, churches, town squares, barbershops, or any public place where their constituency spent their time. I could easily walk up to them and talk to them about what my problem is or what’s on my mind.

Members of the House and the Senate have minions to respond to email, letters, calls, and faxes — they should have OCMs as well, of course.

I wonder if Sarah Susannah Katz actually looks like the header I posted above that I found on the Match.com site.

She shouldn’t be single for very long at all no matter what her age or how many children or ex-husbands.

Her real beauty is obvious — if this is in fact Sarah Susannah Katz — but it is really all in her eyes.

Does anyone know if this is the actual Sarah Susannah Katz.

I just drove out to Target on rt 1. The car’s batts were acting funny, so I wanted to get a charge on, so I went to Target so that I could buy a can opener and some laundry detergernt and dishwashing machine liquid.

I didn’t see the damage to the Pentagon. What side was it on? Anyway, aside from the a little more intensity with regards the police presence, all the roads are open and I could even travel up Independence back to the pad.

Its very weird to see it heal at least superficially so darn quickly. There are roads closed off, but I don’t see the National Guard or anything.

You have to see The President’s Analyst right away, I am watching it now out of the corner of my eye on some cable channel whilst hacking and its so cool and hip and well-adjusted and funky! Sex, politics, analysis, money, and so forth — the epitome of our culture was the sixties. Its only gone down hill from there! It was the seventies that made it sick and the 80s that killed it. From Amazon:

Greenwich Village satirist Theordore J. Flicker made one of the zaniest spy spoofs of the ’60s–the ultimate in paranoia and conspiracy. James Coburn stars as a hip New York psychiatrist recruited by his mentor to take on the president as his exclusive patient. After quitting his job because of the stress, he’s forced to go into hiding when spies from all sides want to know his secrets. The social and political satire never lets up, as the usually unflappable Coburn becomes completely neurotic. Godfrey Cambridge is hilarious as his cohort and former patient (his opening monologue about self-hatred is a classic), and so is Severn Darden, who plays a charming Russian agent. A true original with the utmost retro appeal today. –Bill Desowitz