Today we got the newest PASIV sleep device to test out and Sam was our guinea pig. He went all the way down to Limbo (got himself killed jumping off a building in the third level of a dream- silly Sam) but we were able to pull him out.

For giggles, we hid his totem while he was under and you should have seen how panicked he got when he woke up! It was awesome- I wish we had taken a picture of it.

Disclaimer: Porter Novelli does not support Mind Crime or the use of the PASIV device for anything other than legitimate dream research.

The Madeleine is to baking what a steak is to the cooking world. If you know how to bake a Madeleine and a steak, you can probably survive the zombie/robot/alien/nuclear apocalypse.

The Madeleine is simple, yet infinitely complex depending on the preparation and execution. First, disregard the name. A Madeline is nothing more than a buttery, cake cookie. From Wikipedia, “Madeleines are very small sponge cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions. Aside from the traditional molded pan, commonly found in stores specialising in kitchen equipment and even hardware stores, no special tools are required to make madeleines.”

I imagine ingredients will be scarce in whatever apocalypse occurs. However, the Madeleine can be made with four simple and easy to find ingredients: flour, butter, eggs and sugar/honey. The only specialty item you need is a Madeline pan, which can likely be looted in the event of the apocalypse.  I also imagine that raiders or post-apocalyptic n'er do wells would invite anyone into their clan if they had a fresh batch of Madeleines.

How to bake Madeleines in the event of an apocalyptic disaster:

Before disaster

1. Buy a solar powered oven. About $230 on Amazon. Good to be prepared.

After said disaster

1. Raid a specialty baking store or even the home department of your QFC for a Madeline pan. (Do not raid store if apocalypse has not yet occurred)
2. While at the store in #2, get some flour, sugar or honey. Best not to get eggs or butter, probably rancid.
3. Go to a farm and get some fresh eggs and churn your own butter.
4. Bake Madelines:

a)      Preheat oven to 350°F.

b)      Butter each Madeleine mold in pan and dust with flour, tapping out excess.

c)       Melt 9 tablespoons unsalted butter

d)      Cook until butter turns golden brown, stirring often, 3 to 4 minutes. Set browned butter aside.

e)      Beat egg whites, sugar and all purpose flour in medium bowl until mixture is blended and smooth

f)       Add browned butter; beat to blend. Spoon 1 tablespoon batter into each prepared Madeleine mold.

g)      Bake Madeleines until tops are just dry and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 12 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Gently tap Madeleines out of molds.

Like that, you’ve learned how to turn an innate, (mostly) inedible set of ingredients into my favorite baked goods and survive whichever post-apocalypse environment that you are in. This is the quickest and easiest cookie on the planet. 20 minutes start to finish and you can be the head pastry chef with any post-apocalyptic gang you want.

A few of personal highlights (and, let’s be honest, a rundown of their swag) included checking out:    

Matt Miller of ZDNet, who was particularly checking out the latest Droid phones all evening, posted a great recap and photos of the event here at ZDNet.com.

-Meghan Lockhart

My first attempt was an epic failure. Tried to make Devonshire cream, but ended up with something resembling thin vanilla yogurt. I tested my second attempt at a classic whoopie pies on the staff here at Porter Novelli. Confident in my whoopie pie skillz I was ready for the big day.

My personal conception of the whoopie pie was comprised of white chocolate cake with a raspberry, marshmallow fluff and lil' bit of homemade raspberry jam dusted with cocoa powder.

The competition began at 11 am. The judges: the Long Winter's John Roderick, Chamber of Commerce head Michael Wells, ice cream entrepreneur Molly Moon, the Stranger's Christopher Frizzelle, Chelsea Lin of Seattle CitySearch and the community attendees. The challengers: 11 other amateur and professional bakers from the corners of Seattle. 24 different pies with 144 pies total. Gone by noon.

The results. I lost to a 7 year old girl, though her pie was super delicious. The little girl an d Audrey McManus tied for "Best Classic Whoopie Pie." "Best Overall" and "Most Interesting" went to Heather Earnhardt of Volunteer Park Cafe.

It is hard to get upset over losing a baking competition and I can honestly say it was a lot of fun. From the Slog, "[to] the baker who put raspberry jam in the filling. It was the perfect summer touch." Thanks Chris Frizzelle. In the words of Tugg Speedman, "It was an honor just to be nominated."



But no matter how much I like the show, I don’t think I’d ever name my child after one of the characters- no matter how sexycool he is. Apparently though, I am in the minority since according to the baby name trend report put out by BabyNameWizard.com, Castiel is gaining ground as the most popular boy’s name for 2010.

Yes, that’s right. I said Castiel. As in, the angel of Thursday. As in, a character on Supernatural. 

For more laughs, check out the lists for girls and boys below. At a quick glance, I see names that refer to a True Blood character, a car brand, a country singer, a race of ten-foot tall blue people from Pandora, a pretentious clothing brand, and the half octopus/half-mermaid witch who stole Ariel’s voice in The Little Mermaid.

Also, wasn’t Dashiell one of Santa’s reindeer?

Name your children whatever you want to name them. No matter what, other children on the playground will find some way to mock even the most normal of names. May I suggest enrolling your child in karate lessons now?

Over the past year, office tenants in the Porter Novelli Seattle office have come in to work in the mornings to find a used coffee stirrer placed in front of the coffee pot. At first, no one mentioned the nearly daily occurrence but many people noticed the mysterious stirrer and some have even speculated on the reasoning behind the placement.

“I thought someone was leaving an offering to the coffee gods,” Brent Camara, a witness, said. “He is a wily and capricious god and demands many offerings throughout the day.”

Dubbed simply as the “Phantom,” workers have begun to speculate on his or her identity.

As Amy Smith, another witness to the Phantom’s work throughout the months, said: “Every day I see those sticks, and I wonder...hmmmm who put them there? It is SUCH a mystery!"

The Phantom recently escalated their attacks on kitchen cleanliness by using a fork in place of the usual stirrer, causing even more- (turn to page A5 for additional content)

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Yes, I’m being totally passive-aggressive and no, I don’t care. I’m sure I’ll get hate email for this but it’s gotta be done, folks.

For the past… I don’t know… year, someone’s been leaving their used coffee stirrer next to the coffee pot. It might be because the recycling and garbage bins are too far away from the counter (cue: extreme sarcasm) or it could be that the Phantom Stirrer has truly good intentions and would like the next coffee-addict to take advantage of a used straw.

In the first case, the Phantom Stirrer is simply lazy or forgetful. Or both.

In the second case, the Phantom Stirrer is a sweet but misguided coffee lover.

I choose to believe the latter (because Porter Novelli people ROCK and don’t you forget it) but let’s ask the entire office in an informal poll:

When you see a used stirrer with dried coffee stains in front of the pot, do you:

• Use it
• Make a face and leave it there
• Throw it away

If you want to participate, please leave your answer in the comment section. For the curious at heart, I usually do the second or third choice, depending on how grouchy or helpful I feel in the mornings.

Anyway, this week we ran out of stirrers so what did the Phantom do this morning? They got fancy!

That’s right. Instead of simply carefully shaking their cup to mix creamer into their coffee, the Phantom chose to use a fork. You see that everyone? That’s creativity. That’s thinking outside of the box. That right there is in-no-va-tion.

Honestly, it may or may not be one person. There might be more than one Phantom (unlike the Highlander, in which there can only be ONE). Whoever you are, wherever you sit, all I have to say is: Congratulations- you helped me come up with a Fizzle-Pop post and a poor imitation of a news article.

Tragedy struck in Philadelphia, Pa. last week when a barge hit an amphibious World War II vehicle on the Delaware River leaving two passengers dead. The vehicle, more commonly known as a duck boat, was part of a city land/water tour and carried 37 passengers. Prior to the collision, the Duck experienced an engine fire caused by a malfunction and needed to drop anchor to prevent from drifting. While suspended in the river, a barge collided with the vehicle sending all passengers into the water. Reports have since surfaced that the crew of the Duck tried to alert the barge of their presence but a mate on the river barge had not been present to perform the duties of a lookout. This is the latest incident involving the amphibious vehicles which many believe to be a risk to passengers, especially given the vehicles were mainly used during World War II.

This latest Duck incident could have serious implications for tourism in major cities all the way up to the Pacific Northwest. One of Seattle’s most popular tourist activities is our own “Ride the Ducks.” Since 1998, the Ducks have given tours of the Emerald City year round with the summer months among the most popular. Captains serve as entertainers for their passengers as they point out historical landmarks and tell tales of the city. On more than one occasion last summer I would run along the waterfront only to be passed by a duck boat blasting “Eye of the Tiger” or some other clichéd pump-up song as encouragement for the many runners and bicyclists. Passengers make duck noises, cheer and clap as they pass through the streets and honestly…well they just annoy the rest of us trying to make our way home from work. But the point is, the Ducks are a highly successful and popular ride through the city mixing education and entertainment and despite my faint cynicism, still bring a smile to my face when I see how happy the people are.

Following the Philadelphia tragedy, several cities suspended operations of similar duck boat tours. Ride the Ducks of Seattle continues to operate and boasts an excellent safety record for the their vehicles but it was necessary for the company to respond. They issued the following statement on their Web site in response to the incident:

“Ride the Ducks of Seattle is an independently owned and operated company and we're proud of our safety record. Our thoughts go out to the people involved in the tragic accident in Philadelphia, but we are operating tours as normal today.”

It is uncertain whether the recent accident in Philadelphia has affected the Ride the Ducks of Seattle business but given the circumstances, I have to question the company’s response. On its own, the above statement seems to be the bare minimum the company should have done to communicate its safety record to potential customers and offer sympathy. Of course, they do separate themselves from the incident by declaring independent ownership and do well to boast their safety record, but it’s not enough. If I were in charge of the crisis communication for Ride the Ducks Seattle, I would have done the following in addition to the statement:

• • Suspend business for a day to acknowledge the tragedy and perform maintenance checks on all vehicles.
  • Work with local media to communicate the efforts of the company to ensure passenger safety.
  • Create a fact sheet with statistics about safety (injuries) and maintenance (frequency, scope, etc.).
  • Create a video showcasing the training of crew to ensure the safety of passengers. Crew includes captains, deckhands, mechanics, and others.

Although actions like shutting down tours for an entire day would significantly impact business and raise awareness of the accident, possibly even bringing the safety conversation to the forefront, communicating the steps the organization takes regarding safety would be a proactive step for the business and in the long run would reassure consumers’ faith in the tour company.

What happened last week in Philadelphia is truly a tragedy and my deepest sympathy goes out to the friends and families of those involved in the unfortunate accident. It’s never easy dealing with a crisis and as a communicator even more difficult developing a plan of action following. The Ride the Ducks of Seattle, while not officially linked to the accident in Philadelphia, is still involved based on the similarity of services between the two. The company owes it to its customers to show the steps they take to make their tours safe and unfortunately, I feel a basic statement at the top of their Web site just does not do the job.

The Mashable Summer Mash Event kicked off this past Saturday here in Seattle. Mashable  hosted networking, drinks, food and giveaways for everyone that attended. It was a great turn out to kick off their summer tour and I had to take the opportunity to give PN Seattle a little shout out from the Bing.com photo booth. Mashable’s next stop is San Francisco on July 14th.

Check out more fun photos from the event here at Mashable.com

Anyway, here’s what he thinks:

myPhone 4 (Kevin Wren)

The good: It’s pretty rad and I say that with utter objectivity. Everything that made the iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS great is all there. There are four improvements that stand out immediately . Its screen resolution is so crisp that you can see this dude weep in delightful HD. Another bright spot, a second, front-facing camera, which allows for FaceTime video chat. This first seems like a novelty because the other caller needs an iPhone 4. However, once you find a buddy with the new iPhone (and a wifi connection) you’ll be chatting face to face over bowls of fruit loops in no time. The rear camera with flash is long overdue and greatly improves picture quality. The faster processor in the thin body is also pretty sweet.

The bad: AT&T…mostly. Dropped calls and shoddy 3G. It was recently discovered that Apple’s formulas for detecting cell strength are incorrect. This means that full bars don’t actually mean full bars. Apple has promised to fix this with the next OS update. Please team up with Verizon Apple, preferably right when my contract with AT&T is up, whenever that day comes.

The ugly: Design issues. In a perfect world no one would drop their phone. However, clumsy people like me exist and the world isn’t perfect. Dropping the phone flat on its front or back and you have a shattered mess. Worst of all, holding the phone along the outer titanium antenna on the bottom left corner interferes with the signal and will reduce signal strength to Stone Age status.

A little girl passed me with her dad while I sat waiting out front of the Apple store. She looked up and asked her dad why everyone was waiting in line. He told her we were waiting for a phone. “Just a little phone?” she winced. It is much more than a phone, little girl. I’m sure she’ll be in line for the iPhone 12 one day.

The original video: Some guy flipping out over a double rainbow

The response video: A tribute song.

Enjoy!