Author Archives: Mike Newman

Something I re-learned today.

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The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven

1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

– Matthew 18: 1-5 (NIV, ©2011)

Are you fit to enter the kingdom?

Whoever humbles himself like this child . . . What is childlike humility? It’s not the lack of intelligence, but the lack of guile. The lack of an agenda. It’s that precious, fleeting time before we have accumulated enough pride or position to care what other people might think. The same un-self-conscious honesty that enables a three-year-old to splash joyfully in a rain puddle, or tumble laughing in the grass with a puppy, or point out loudly that you have a booger hanging out of your nose, is what is required to enter heaven. It is the opposite of ignorance—it is intellectual honesty: to be willing to accept reality and to call things what they are even when it is hard.
– Burpo, Todd (2010). Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back (pp. 74-75). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

Who’s tweeting who?

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Twitter are notoriously guarded about user information and Twitter usage statistics. In August 2008 I wrote about the Twitter usage figures and Twitter demographics that were available – data from Hitwise and Compete.

As Twitter has grown there is more information available – yet still nothing from Twitter officially and statistics generally do not take account of usage of Twitter tools like Tweetdeck and Twhirl.

via Twitter demographics and usage statistics – data from Compete, Hitwise, Quantcast, Nielsen and Twitterholic.

10 Social Media People You Should Meet

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For all the panels, parties and networking, the best part of SXSW was meeting some truly amazing people. There was an A-List of the “who’s who” at the conference, and many of whom I had met – like Erin Kotecki Vest, Brian Solis, Stephanie Agresta, and the list goes on- and many I looked forward to meeting for the first time.

Here is my list of the top ten Social Media rockstars that I met at SXSW (in no particular order). I believe everyone should meet these influential folks in 2009:

via 10 Social Media People You Should Meet | Pelago, Inc..

Stumbling upon history

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Today I came across a quote by Earl Warren in an InfoWeek email bulletin: “Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile I caught hell for.”

Not really knowing who Earl Warren was I found out quickly he was Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court from 1953 to 1969. One of the most influential men of his day he is largely responsible for the Miranda Warning, secured a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, headed the Warren Commission that studied JFK’s assassination, affirmed inter-racial marriage, and interpreted the Sixth Amendment to require all criminal defendants to receive publicly funded counsel. Wow! Warren turned out to be a much more liberal justice than Eisenhower intended at the time of his appointment.

Other Earl Warren quotes of interest to me:

  • To get what you want, STOP doing what isn’t working.
  • The police must obey the law while enforcing the law.
  • I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.

So, other than picking up a few quotes that affirm my personal preferences this little excursion into history makes me ask the following question: if the courts wield so much power why don’t we pay more attention to them? Why don’t we learn about Supreme Court Justices like we learn about past Presidents?