Written by Gina Trapani

Last week we asked a simple question: How will you use Google Wave? Over 600 responses later, we’re sending Wave nominations to the people who had the best use cases. Here are a few.

Education: Increasing Interactivity and Collaborative Learning

Dozens of teachers, students, and academics of all stripes wrote in saying that they need better and faster ways to communicate and collaborate in and out of the classroom. Middle School Technology Coordinator Dov wrote:

I am taking part in a program called Powerful Learning Practices (PLP, or PlanetP, if you like). PLP is a professional development model that immerses educators into environments that allow them to learn literacies of 21st Century teaching. The goal is that the teachers bring this new paradigm of learning and teaching back to their schools, becoming its best advocates. While the impact isn’t as large as, say, the crew of the Enterprise saving a planet from Klingon destruction, it has the potential to affect thousands of teachers and students.

Sound dry? Dov created the animation here to illustrate the point. (Your invite is en route, Dov.)

Whether or not teachers know about Wave, students are chomping at the bit. High school junior Sean wrote:

In my AP European History class, my fellow students and I are always struggling to keep up with taking notes. After each class we all email each other the notes that we took, and it’s always up to us to compile all of the important info, and figure out the validity, etc. With Google Wave, we could have one master notebook, where we could verify all the info, highlight what will probably be the most important for the international exam, and just improve the process of studying completely.

Education might be the obvious place Wave could be put to good use. But readers in healthcare, journalism, transportation, research, disaster relief, and business want it, too. Here’s what they said.

Healthcare: Getting the H1N1 Vaccine Out Faster

Brian is a CDC consultant in Atlanta, GA. He wrote in:

My group is supporting H1N1 vaccine distribution, including planning, shipping, and communication. We have a team here in Atlanta, Department of Health and Human Services people in DC, and the distributor, based in Dallas. Also, the team in Atlanta is spread over 4 campuses. We use email, intranet, shared drives, etc. to collaborate. We meet CONSTANTLY, leading to lots of meeting recaps, duplicated work, and wasted time. As the situation changes (doses manufactured, quarantined, distributed, people infected, etc.), we are constantly updating plans and tracking numbers for reporting. Documents are stored in shared drives. Updates are sent via email. Wave would allow much easier tracking of changes to our documentation and communications. Before anything goes out the door, it has to be checked by 3-4 people after being worked on by another 3-4. If we could all work simultaneously on a message, it would greatly cut our time and thus get messages out to the public (or even to HHS, the distributor, or the manufacturers) much, much faster.

Transportation: Controlling Air Traffic

James is a Traffic Management Coordinator at the Philadelphia International Airport Control Tower. He said:

My job is to reduce departure delays and to maintain an efficient flow of air traffic into and out of the Philadelphia International Airport. Currently we utilize a Google Spreadsheet to share real-time departure and weather issues, airport construction updates, and snow removal operations with the airlines and other interested parties. I’m excited at the prospect of being able to embed real-time weather radar gadgets to provide users an up-to-the-minute graphical look at the weather. We currently use the chat feature on Google Spreadsheets but it appears that the more robust communication capabilities in Wave would greatly enhance our communication with the airlines. The ability to review conversations and data will help us to further reduce delays at Philadelphia International Airport. This will result in a savings of time for passengers, reduced fuel and operating costs for the airlines, and fewer complaints from both.

Journalism: More Complete and Collaborative News Reporting

Like education, collaborative journalism also seems like a natural fit for Google Wave. Interestingly, just as many student newspaper contributors wrote in for Wave invites as professional papers.

Casey is a reporter who covers government and politics at the Arizona Republic, the largest newspaper in Arizona (and one of the country’s 10 biggest, he says). Casey wrote:

Google Wave will be enormously useful to reporters collaborating on stories. Currently a colleague and I are working on a story involving safety issues at Arizona prisons. This involves a lot of digging through records, interviewing people and transcribing the tapes, and writing up what we’ve found. Because we work in different offices, it can be hard to keep track of where each of us is in our reporting. Wave could help us organize our reporting and collaborate on the writing by making the process transparent in real time. With a couple more invitations, editors could follow our progress and insert questions into our stories. Lastly, there’s great potential here for crowdsourcing. We could start waves seeking public input on our stories, and incorporate those questions and answers into our reporting. Because we could supplement our questions with documents and a variety of links, I see the potential for crowdsourcing much greater on Wave than it is (so far, anyway) on Twitter and Facebook.

Martin is an associate editor at a tri-weekly community newspaper in Camden, S.C. He wrote:

We don’t really collaborate on stories and/or projects except in the most step-by-step manner. A staff reporter writes a story. I edit it. My editor does a second edit as she lays out our pages. I proof those pages before they she sends them to our printer. If one of us has a question, we either get up and walk to the other person’s desk or speak to them on our phone extensions.

My hope for Google Wave comes in two pieces. First, I’d like to be able to more fully engage our sources, especially those we deal with via e-mail, so that we’re really having a conversation with them on-line. They can see what we’re writing about them as we’re interviewing them and help us fine tune the copy. We can ask them questions we might not otherwise think of when working in more traditional methods.

Second, if I, as associate editor, am in on the wave one of my reporters is having with a source, I might chime in with a question of my own or, in a private aside, nudge my reporter into a different line of conversation.

Furthermore, if they write their story as a wave before putting it into our actual news software, we can be having a back and forth on refining the copy before it goes to our editor.

Saving Babies: Protecting and Helping Children

In the original contest announcement, I only half-joked that readers who would use Wave to "save babies" would get invitations. Amazingly, several people in medicine, human rights, security operations, and the foster care system told us that’s what they’d (indirectly) be doing with Wave.

For example, Maggie is a Case Supervisor for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Orange County, CA. She wrote:

I supervise advocates who donate their time to develop a relationship with a child in the foster care system and then advocate on behalf of that child with social services, the court system, school, etc. We are a voice for children who have been removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect.

We have a very basic database for case noting and minimal contact management. Last week we moved from Microsoft Exchange Server to Google Apps. My colleagues seem to be enjoying the new system and it has been hugely rewarding to put the power of Google into their hands. Now they can check their email on their phones while they are in court, at home or in the field. Our organization is 95% donation-based, so any tools that we can put into the hands of our staff that stretches a donor’s dollar means more services for abused children.

Each of the supervisors has a caseload of about 40 volunteers who are communicating with many other individuals and professionals in a child’s life. Keeping track of that communication is a big job. As officers of the court our advocates also submit regular reports to the judge outlining the child’s progress and wishes. Creating that report is a collaborative process that Google Wave could streamline.

Creative Pursuits: Collaborative Storytelling

Some of our best-written submissions came from creatives who want to easily collaborate on things like television and movie scripts, poetry, podcasts, blog posts, fiction, comics, and storyboards.

Christopher is currently working on his MFA in Creative Writing. He wrote:

One of the largest problems we face during class occurs during large workshop groups, trying to take in all the various criticisms of a particular story or poem. The usual routine is giving everybody in the workshop a copy of your story, then they all write notes on their copies, give you comments orally (which you write down.) You’re left with up to fifteen different copies of your story, with very different notes in all of them. I would like to use Google Wave to both write and workshop short fiction. Each student can comment anywhere in the text, other students can discuss the comments along with me. I can make changes in real time, while I’m also speaking to the class or listening to their criticism. This will allow me to accomplish everything I need to do to prepare a revised draft of a story during the time my story is being workshopped.

Sam actually wrote us a poem that captures what’s so interesting about Wave for artists:

Wave at me please

I know you’ll be pleased

to give me a Wave

and make my day

I’m a student you see

but not geeky

I don’t do business

or philosophy

I’m studying theatre

you know the arts

and creating new work is my favorite part

we work on group projects

from movement to scenes

and currently there isn’t much textual collaborating

I want to use Wave in the creation of art

from the writing of grants

to the more fun parts

Just think of a play being written in Wave

by a collaborative group,

it’s something I crave

So….

Wave at me please

I know you’ll be pleased

to give me a Wave

and make my day

Family Life: Updating Loved Ones on Health Issues

Keeping concerned parties updated on a loved one’s illness is a pain in the buttocks with email, so more than one person named that as their intended use for Wave. Caregiver Mike wrote:

I am looking after an elderly lady named Liz. She is well at the moment but does suffer from spells of confusion and forgetfulness. Liz is a widow but has a large and caring family. Unfortunately they are spread all around the country (none live within two hours drive) and have families and jobs of their own… At the moment I send out a weekly group email detailing what’s happened to Liz over the days of the previous week. The family then reply with any questions or suggestions etc. Even with Gmail conversations, answering and replying to six responses and further ongoing replies back and forth becomes confusing and very time-consuming. Wave could greatly improve our communications. I would open a new wave at the beginning of each week, inviting all the family to it, and add content on a ongoing current basis. This would mean the family would be far more up to date than they are currently and their responses and queries would be spread out (and inline), far more manageable and more current. Also due to Wave playback, when someone has been away, catch up would be simple.

Research: Getting Results Faster from Around the World

Like students and journalists, researchers need ways to work together across long distances. Thomas wrote:

We are a group of infectious disease researchers at Stanford University with collaborations around the world. One current project has collaborators in Australia, Pakistan, The Gambia, Pittsburgh, and Davis. Currently most collaborations happen through email and phone conferences. Writing collaborations generally happen using Word via email although Google Docs is occasionally used. I use Google Docs for personal things daily. The first thing I would hope to use Wave for would be writing journal articles collaboratively. Virtually all scientific journal articles have multiple authors, although most of the writing falls on a single author. This would help make it more of a group effort. Right now, the main author emails the draft of the manuscript out to all authors and the input from the others could be redundant (waste) or it could conflict, which isn’t bad, but the debate could be further explored within the Wave environment with input from all members of the group. I envision a great time savings by consolidating meetings with actual writing and hope it would also be useful in early development of new collaborative projects and have high expectations for many other useful applications.

Foreign (and Mother-in-Law) Relations: Translating Real-Time

One of the sweetest Wave use cases we got came from John, who said:

My wife is from Germany and I have never had a conversation with my mother-in-law because I do not speak German and she does not speak English. I know it may sound odd to most guys, but I really would like to talk to her and just for once be able to say hello and thank her for all she has done. I would use Google Wave to finally be able to talk to her. The real time translating feature it has is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in an app. A service like this would break barriers that I could only dream of achieving. (I’ve tried learning German, and I failed in the most epic fashion.)

Fun: Organizing Little League

Yet another John is one of the organizers of a youth baseball league, who wants to use Wave to make that easier:

We have over 400 players ages 4-14. We have about 40 teams that share a facility with 4 fields. This is about 80 coaches/assistant coaches, 10-12 board members, 10 umpires, a full time grounds crew person, a volunteer grounds crew (parents), etc. etc. We use Dropbox to share league files and email/cell phone to communicate, Eteamz for our league web site, MS Access for our player database. Endless collaboration issues exist with organizing a league like this—rainouts, field issues, umpire coordination, game time changes, teams can’t make games at last minute, concession stand needs volunteers, etc. Email strings become impossible to follow as various people "tack on" their comments and also add additional issues. Important issues have dropped in the cracks because of the complexity of the coordination required—this results in a reduced level of satisfaction with participating in the league. It is all-volunteer—anything to help the kids have the best experience possible would be greatly appreciated.

Disaster Relief: Saving People Stuck on Rooftops

Oneal wants to have Google Wave’s real-time updating capabilities in place in case of a disaster. He explained exactly how that would work using a recent and tragic example. Oneal wrote:

You may have heard about tropical storm "Ondoy" (international name Ketsana), which ravaged the Luzon island of the Philippines on September 26, 2009 leaving at least 300 dead, hundreds more injured, some missing, and thousands homeless. At the height of the calamity of the storm, people were trapped on the roofs of their houses unable to leave due to the pounding rain and flash floods that reached over 30 feet in some areas. Their only means of communication was SMS or text messaging which is prevalent in the Philippines, where almost everyone has a cellphone capable of texting. They would use this to contact their friends and family and ask them to inform the Philippine National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) and the Philippine Military efforts for help. The military and local governments deployed boats immediately to stricken areas to pick up those most critical in need like the elderly and children. Hundreds of thousands were stranded in their homes with rapidly rising water, some were there for over 12 hours. Including the immediate relatives of my fiancée.

Regina, my fiancée, like many who still had electricity and internet access, immediately posted information on Facebook on which areas needed help, who needed to be picked up and rescued. What the situation was in certain areas was instantly posted on people’s Facebook status and their timeline showed where the typhoon was most damaging. Local rescue teams and TV stations relayed this information and systematically rescued those most in need.

Her family spent the night in the attic of their 2 story house as the waters reached waist level on the 2nd floor. They were rescued at 6am on September 27, after almost 14 hours on the roof and attic. The internet was invaluable in the saving the residents of the Philippines when it was hit by a devastating typhoon. People here utilize text messaging and the web, particularly social networking to coordinate and disseminate information. Facebook, Multiply and Twitter were the perfect platforms for these efforts by the average citizen. I perceive that Google Wave will be the next step in online collaboration and will allow people to communicate in real time with each other in a vastly better way that other social networks are doing now.

While I understand that Google Wave will benefit most when many people are using it, getting in early will help Regina to understand it better and eventually assist people in using the service when it is rolled out to the public. Due to this, I am requesting a Google Wave invitation for my fiancee Regina.

One is on the way to her, Oneal.

Events: Planning a Wedding

Tiffany is getting married, and she thinks Google Wave would help. She wrote:

I am coordinating my wedding with a dozen or so friends/family and various vendors, from all over the country. I live in Texas, the wedding (and my mother) is in Florida, my maid of honor lives in Massachussetts, you get the idea. Currently, we use the telephone and email to exchange ideas, sometimes Skype if we’re lucky enough to be on at the same time. I also have a notebook where I paste pictures of inspiration, jot down links, sketch ideas that I will hold up to my webcam or snap a photo of the page to show others. Seriously. Wave would improve wedding planning SO MUCH. We can all share ideas and see who has jumped in on what jobs in what order. We can use plugins to embed venues, caterers, dresses. I can embed a Wave in my wedding blog, which I link to on theknot.com, a wedding planning site that connects you to all sorts of local and national wedding resources. We can Wave simultaneously, which will save us from typing a long response, only for someone else to send something else faster that changes what we just spent time writing (don’t you hate it when that happens?). You know how the bride, her bridesmaids and her mother all get when they start brainstorming and delegating. Imagine if we were all in the same room. It would get rowdy. This way, with Google Wave, it will be organized, documented and editable. It will also be a great way for my fiancee to track our progress and see whose ideas are who’s and approve or disapprove at will. It will make the perfect planning tool for the perfect wedding.

Family Life: Organizing a Busy Schedule

Randy wants to keep Wave in the family. Randy wrote:

I am part of a very large extended family, with a vast number of activities going on all at the same time. Besides kids and adults attending school, we have soccer teams (players and coaches), music, choir, construction projects, etc. Our problems are in keeping track of schedules, and also detailed plans of the projects. Like soccer schedules, who’s bringing what tools for a construction project (and when), who’s bringing what food to meals, etc. We currently use Google Docs, both the word processor and spreadsheet, along with email and Google Calendar. Several users use smart phones instead of computers for this purpose. There isn’t a single location for our interaction, its spread across several places. I hope that Google Wave will provide a single point to acces our shared information.

Sam agrees that organizing a busy family life is a task cut out for Wave and made a video to describe what he’d use it for:

Thanks to every single person who sent in their Google Wave use case. Over 50 invitation nominations are going out today from us to the people listed here, and the ones we didn’t have room to feature on-site. Congratulations to the winners! Put Google Wave to its best use.

How do you envision using Google Wave in your work or play? Let us know in the comments.

Written by Focus Editors

Fans of FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia might chuckle at the idea of gleaning serious business advice from such a silly show. Between Frank’s bluntness and Deandra’s cluelessness, the characters are hardly captains of industry. But a little imagination goes a long way, and business lessons are practically jumping out of the TV screen at executives open-minded enough to see them. So take a break from the usual platitude-filled management texts, sit back, and learn the 25 things It’s Always Sunny can teach you about business.

Stick to proven business models

Too many entrepreneurs go wrong trying to "reinvent the wheel." Rather than sticking to businesses that have worked for countless other people, they stake all their hopes and dreams on "the next big thing" that’s sure to awe the world. So it was refreshing (and hilarious) to see Frank respond to the recession by wrecking Dee’s credit to bootstrap a door to door sales business hocking knives and vacuum cleaners. It didn’t help that he sliced his hand open while demoing the merchandise – or that Dee purposely dumped wine on a prospect’s floor – but they had the right idea! When times are tough, you can usually bank on time-tested business models.

Don’t be afraid to seek help

Another common failing of the entrepreneur is taking the "go it alone" spirit to extremes. But you need not do it all!  In the episode "Dennis and Dee go on Welfare", Dennis and Dee shamelessly fake a crack addiction and mental retardation to game the system and receive unemployment benefits for weeks. Unfortunately for them, they got a little too caught up in their new personas and developed real crack addictions for the duration of the show. Nevertheless, the underlying lesson is sound: don’t be afraid to seek help when your workload becomes too much for one person to bear. Whether it’s from a small business development center or even a fellow executive, help is never far away.

See the opportunity in everything

One thing the whole cast of It’s Always Sunny never shies away from doing is exploiting opportunity – even if it means exploiting their siblings. Take the mortgage crisis episode, where Dee announces that she is going to be a surrogate mother. Rather than wishing her well and getting on with life, Dennis and Charlie showed up to the surrogate family’s house posing as a gay couple whose child Dee supposedly agreed to have in order to "negotiate a higher price for that womb." Like all successful businesspeople, they looked past the surface all the way to the opportunity that (they thought) lurked beneath.

Get serious about cost-cutting

The "underage drinking" episode offers a terrific lesson in cost cutting, albeit in a questionably legal way. The gang notices an increasingly younger crowd coming into Paddy’s for drinks (who of course are never carded or denied booze) and the light bulb immediately goes off. Since high schoolers are new to the bar scene, they wont easily know whether a drink has a little alcohol or or a lot. Sensing a golden opportunity to rake in full price for less booze, the gang transforms the bar into a safe haven for underage drinking and eventually score prom dates with some of the clientele. The lesson? Never overlook a chance to sell less for more. Keeping prices steady while moving less inventory is a sure-fire way to cut costs.

Keep business and personal separate

One of the oldest adages in business is to keep your personal and professional lives far, far apart. Mac learns this lesson the hard way in the episode "Mac Bangs Dennis’ Mom." After engaging in what he believes to be a passionate bedroom romp with Ms. Reynolds, Mac is crushed to find that it was little more than a casual one-off to her. Heartbroken and disillusioned, he then spends the remainder of the episode pathetically trying to woo her back, to no avail. On the show and in life, it’s pretty tough to be productive when your judgment is clouded by matters of the heart. Let this serve as a cautionary tale to all businesspeople against intermingling business and personal affairs!

Act the part

Business is unlike many fields in that no one really cares what degrees you have, training you have received, or asses you have kissed. It’s all about results. This is why, when interacting with esteemed professionals, you can go a long way simply by acting the part. Dennis and Mac pull this off in the mortgage crisis episode, applying the timeless good cop/bad cop routine to their assumed roles as real estate agents named "Honey and Vinegar." Despite lacking any experience as agents, Dennis and Mac successfully (albeit forcefully) convince a couple to buy their foreclosed property. Similarly, composing yourself in a manner similar to experienced professionals in your field can give you a boost in earning their cooperation and respect.

Take initiative

While Dennis and Dee were gaming the unemployment system, Charlie and Mac have a ball with hookers in a stretch limo when Charlie decides to steal some of the money sitting in Frank’s bank account. While the conniving pair are eventually caught, Frank is surprisingly lenient toward Charlie, recognizing that his bold decision to steal is proof that he has decisive leadership abilities. Mac, on the other hand, was castigated for being a follower and a thief. The takeaway here is to be seen as the one stepping up and setting a direction within your company (within ethical boundaries, of course!)

Dress for success

We can’t exactly call Dennis’ attempt at running for political office a "success" but make no mistake: the women who told him he was handsome (while ignoring his campaign promises) highlight a valuable tip. Like it or not, appearance matters in business and in life. Study after study confirms that people who are perceived as being attractive get promoted higher, win more elections, and generally make more favorable impressions on people. Of course, not even Dennis’ good looks could rescue his campaign from sabotage by Charlie’s illegal campaign contributions…

Fire deadweight employees

One positive aspect of recessions is the opportunities they create for firing dead weight employees. Dennis and Mac sieze upon this in "The Great Recession", when Frank’s financial insolvency forces them to start assessing the bar’s efficiency. Despite longtime employment at Paddy’s, it turns out that Deandra’s skills as a bartender are seriously lacking! When challenged to prepare a drink she is actually unable to mix something as simple as a Mojito, offering instead to "crack open a beer" she claims is complex because it comes in a cold-activated bottle. Employees as clueless as Deandra permeate every company with more than a few dozen people, and you should use the recession to jettison as many of them as possible.

Don’t be discouraged by failure

Let’s face it: the It’s Always Sunny cast is pretty mean toward one another. Consider the following dialogue from "Charlie Goes America All Over Everybody’s Ass"

    Dee: I am not a failure!
    Mac: Dennis, what is it that you call it when somebody tries to do something but doesn’t succeed?
    Dennis: Uh, that would in fact be a failure.

Dennis was definitely right in that scene, but in business, this is exactly the wrong attitude to have. Read up on some of America’s biggest business success stories and you will find the failed projects and false starts that paved the way for their eventual rise to stardom. In fact, it would be hard to think of a highly successful businessperson in any field who instantly succeeded out of the gate. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, for instance, both dropped out of college before striking it big in technology. So don’t take early failures to heart – keep trying.

Foster a competitive environment

Die-hard It’s Always Sunny fans will remember the "clothes off pose-off" that Frank puts Dennis and the others through in order to select a model for the Paddy’s billboard. While we certainly don’t advocate throwing laundry detergent in your employee’s faces, this episode teaches us about the value of fostering a competitive environment at work. Forcing Dennis to endure all of these humiliating trials lets Frank gauge how serious he is about modeling for the bar, and challenging your employees will serve as a test of character and ability for them as well.

Retain a strong legal counsel

One of the most memorable It’s Always Sunny scenes takes place in "Dennis and Dee’s Mom is Dead", when a lawyer is called in to explain what was written about the twins in their mother’s will. Needless to say, Deandra belligerently ordering the lawyer to relay insults to her deceased mother did not exemplify a productive legal relationship. So in this case, the lesson is to do the opposite. Rather than ignorantly mouthing off to your lawyer, try to keep things civil, because in today’s litigious society you never know when you’ll need him to get you out of a bind.

Give your customers a reason to come back

In "The Great Recession", Dennis and Mac are at a loss for how to increase customer loyalty at Paddy’s until a visit to Dave & Busters inspires them to create special currency that can only be spent at the bar. Pass this special money out, their thinking goes, and people will have no choice but to buy more and return to Paddy’s over and over again. Sadly, Dennis and Charlie’s customers bilk the bar for free booze and never buy any more of the currency, but the thinking was good. Businesses that make it easy and convenient for customers to spend money often generate more loyalty, which means more sales in the long run.

Use other people’s money (or property)

It would’ve been easy to call the road trip off when the Land Rover blew its tires in "The Gang Hits The Road" and Charlie, who previously never left Philly, was eager to do just that. But Frank, ever the opportunist, saw a way to keep the dream alive – using Deandra’s new car. By piling into her tiny red 4 door the gang discovers several advantages over using the Land Rover, including easier access to the beer and (at least for Frank) more leg room. The business lesson? When your own resources aren’t enough, try using other people’s money in the form of partners or investors. By shifting risk from you to them, you maximize your chances for success while avoiding any of the downside.

Practice social responsibility

In "The Gang Gives Back", Mac can be seen lamenting how he has to perform 120 hours of community service for "accidentally burning down a building." Seconds later, he admits "I would rather have to pay a huge fine than give back to the community." But is this the right attitude for business owners to take? We think not. In these post-Enron and post-bailout times, business leaders should be on the up and up in their communities, ready, easier and willing to step up and serve wherever an opportunity may arise. Don’t want for messy circumstances to force you into it after the fact.

It’s not what you sell, it’s what you stand for

Dennis was on to something when he told Charlie that Paddy’s needed to sell merchandise that reflected their "take no prisoners, rock and roll lifestyle." While it’s debatable that they actually live that lifestyle (and even more debatable that a Paddy’s-branded thong reflects it) they were definitely on the right track. People don’t simply buy a good or a service. Rather, they buy a perception or an attitude that goes along with it. As a business owner, your task is to identify the way your product or service makes someone feel and position yourself as a company who can offer that feeling.

Delegate tasks

It doesn’t take Charlie long to use his newly appointed role as manager of Paddy’s to begin delegating all his unpleasant tasks to the others. In the episode "Mac Bangs Dennis’ Mom", such chores as sweeping and scraping human waste off the bathroom walls are referred to as "Charlie work" because of how Deandra and Dennis are forced to do it while Charlie builds houses of cards from an office chair. Here we see a classic lesson of management: delegate menial tasks to surrogates so you can free up time for the "important work." Of course, whether that work truly is important is as debatable in real life as it was on this episode.

Use the latest technology

In "The Gang Hits the Road", Mac implores Dennis to get a GPS device for the car rather than relying on  maps from the 70’s to get them to the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately Mac’s request falls on deaf ears as Dennis nostalgically likens using old maps to doing things "the old fashioned way." Funny as this may be for the characters of a comedy show, no business should attempt to operate this way in real life. Always strive to give yourself and your employees the best tools for the job, rather than forcing them to function with inferior technology from bygone eras. It may seem expensive at first, but the results will vindicate you in the end.

Appeal to your target market

"America’s Next Top Paddy’s Billboard Model Contest" finds Frank, Dennis and Mac putting their heads together to decide what should go on Paddy’s new billboard. Frank is first to offer his suggestion: "two gorgeous girls, up there, giant cans, me in the middle with my thumbs up!" The gang quickly decides that Frank is too ugly to be the man in the middle but keep the idea and go on to hold a competition to find the two gorgeous girls. In doing so, the gang is displaying more than humor; they are displaying a business lesson. Any business, big or small and regardless of what it does, needs to appeal to its target market. Laughable as this episode may be, the average bar patron is definitely attracted to beautiful women and the idea that perhaps a night at the bar will land them one.

Look for profit in problems

Some of history’s greatest fortunes have involved savvy businessmen devising creative ways to solve painful problems. In "The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis", Dennis, Charlie and Mac set up shop with a folding table, barrels of gasoline and funnels outside of a real gas station, begging drivers to buy their gas for slightly less than the pump price. Sure, there were some difficulties with this particular approach -Dennis rightly asks Charlie how he plans on "counting" the gas they pour into cars, and Mac’s idea of blowing fireballs to attract attention isn’t the brightest marketing strategy ever devised – but look at the big picture. Here are a couple of guys who saw widespread dissatisfaction and made an honest effort to solve it.

Read up on your industry

One of the funnier scenes in "Charlie’s Drunken Idea" is Dennis and Deandra’s argument about college. While taking a break from scheming, Deandra argues that she isn’t intimidated by big words (such as "caregiver") because she took psychology classes in school. Dennis wittily counters that she failed all those classes while he got a minor and passed all his, to which Deandra retorts that "three quarters of a a major is a lot bigger than a whole minor." No matter who won this argument, it’s pretty clear that neither Deandra nor Dennis got much lasting value from their college education. You, on the other hand, should continuously study your industry or market to stay on top of new trends and opportunities. Whether it’s a Wall Street Journal subscription or a glance at some industry-related RSS feeds, it’ll go a long way toward keeping you ahead of the curve.

Any publicity is good publicity

Smart business owners are always on the lookout for ways to create buzz about their offerings. A case in point (albeit a rather disturbing one) can be found in "The Gang Exploits a Miracle", where Charlie spots a puke stain in the back office that looks like the Virgin Mary. Rather than scolding Charlie for sleeping at the bar, Frank exhibits yet another display of opportunism, seeing something in the puke stain that no one else sees. While the others bicker over how it got there or the deeper significance of what it might mean, Frank opines "it could be a miracle, it could be bullshit. There’s only one thing we know for sure – it’s a God damn goldmine!" So begins a shameless attempt at converting the Christian crowd into Paddy’s customers by luring them in to see "Paddy’s pub, the home of the blessed mother." Before long, Frank is even soliciting donations from them like the collection plates at church. The lesson here is obvious: nobody is going to create buzz for you. If you want people to hear about your place of business, you need to give them a reason to visit

Hone your sales skills

Fads come and go in the business world, but no skill is more timeless than sales. The guy who brings in the money will never be poor for long. Charlie attempts to be that guy by affecting the look and sound of a Texas oil tycoon while selling gasoline door to door with Dennis. Bursting out with hackneyed Southern phrases like "Why you’re lookin’ all sorts of good" and "we’re itchin’ like a hound to give you a-somethin’ you want", Charlie goes in for the kill, makes his sales pitch with unrestrained unenthusiasm. As with many of these examples, the intentions matter more than the results. No one wants to buy things from an obnoxious fool, but if you have a good product or service, you should certainly put your best foot forward and confidently speak to its strengths during sales pitches.

Put work in its place

Charlie’s brief stint in mail delivery reminds us all why nobody likes a workaholic. Overcome by stress and anxiety, Charlie concocts an elaborate conspiracy theory that every mail employee he cannot find and whose mail he cannot deliver does not exist, claiming that "half the employees in this building have been made up" and "this office is a God damn ghost town." Exasperated by Charlie’s incompetence, Mac begs him to realize that "not only do all of these people exist, but they have been asking for their mail on a daily basis." Upon hearing that Charlie re-routed their pink slips to Siberia, Mac lapses into a panic attack over losing his health insurance. What this teaches us is to put work in its place. While workplace disasters are never pleasant, they are rarely as bad as we make them out to be, and  little perspective goes a long way.

Think value, not price

Without intending to, Deandra gave us all a business lesson by blithely handing over her credit card for a pair of $700 shoes. Exclaiming "well I’ll tell ya what, you pay for quality, there’s so much crap out there these days", Dee forks over the cash for the superior product without a second thought. Yes, her card was declined, but what did you expect? Once again, ignore what happened on the show and apply the lesson to real life. As a business owner, you could cut corners by using the cheapest suppliers, lowest-paid employees or worn out equipment, but all you are really buying is a handful of problems waiting to blow up in your face at the worst possible time. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish when it comes to running your business, or you’ll regret it later.

Collected by The Manolith Team

There has been a sharp rise recently of so-called geek girls, and the sad fact is that many, if not most, of these women are nothing near geeky. While the elusive geek girl does, in fact, exist, she’s much less common than most would care to admit. There are criteria that must be met to make a proper geek girl; she must be geeky, she must be a techie, and she must be hot. Too many misconceptions are throwing off the curve, and people need to understand that receiving a 300 page phone bill does not make a girl geeky. It makes her a stereotype that is far older, and less respectable. We’re here to set the record straight, with these 12 women who all qualify as the hottest geek girls to have graced the Internet’s tubes of fame.

Marina Orlova

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This 28 year-old Russian vixen doesn’t spend her time bouncing around in front of a camera just for kicks – she’s out to educate in the process. Originally an etymologist, Marina found that applying her considerable knowledge in an unorthodox fashion was a quick way to beat the economy, and in 2007 Hot for Words was born. Averaging at over two million views per video, Marina pretty much owns YouTube. She’s been singled out by Wired, G4, and Cosmopolitan as one the world’s sexiest geek girls, and we’re tipping our hats as well.

Jade Raymond

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She may be one quarter Aussie, a quarter Chinese, and half Canadian, but this geek girl is 100% awesome. She produced Assassin’s Creed in 2007, and she’s the sequel’s executive producer this year. She’s spent time working for Sony Online and Electronic Arts, two of the biggest names in the industry. One thing’s for certain; Ubisoft is one lucky gaming company to have her guiding their code.

Marissa Mayer

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She may be called The Cupcake Princess, but Marissa Mayer is no joke. She’s Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google. What’s that mean? It means within the walls of Google, what she says goes. She studied artificial intelligence at Stanford, and before she became the first woman to work at Google, she worked for UBS in a Zurich lab.

Veronica Belmont

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Gorgeous and aptly named Veronica Belmont began her career as an A/V nerd out of Boston’s Emerson College. She’s since hopped coasts and now spends her time in San Francisco, attending tech events and hosting tech shows for people like Sony and Revision3. That’s when she’s not busy podcasting, or logging hours on her PS3.

Jolie O’Dell

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Jolie has a pretty solid history as a writer and journalist, and though she’s technically freelance, spends most of her time these days over at Read Write Web. Unlike most geeky goddesses, this redhead is actually pretty down to earth, even downright girl next door in the way she interacts with people. Add this girl to your reading list – You won’t be sorry.

Olivia Munn

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No man can make it through a day in the life of a modern geek without the sight of Olivia Munn somewhere in his periphery. Whether she’s in a Wonder Woman outfit, or a Princess Leia bikini, she’s everywhere. And for good reason – She’s gorgeous. She’s become the face of not only G4, but all geekery as well, due to her long-running success as co-host of Attack of the Show.

Jessica Chobot

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Born Jessica Lynn Horn, it’s understandable that Ms. Chobot prefers a pseudonym. With looks like hers, the constant threat of bad punnery must have been stressful, to say the least. She’s a huge anime nerd on top of being a staff-writer for IGN, and if that’s not enough, she dabbles in Maxim and FHM in her spare time. She’s been on G4’s Attack of the Show several times, and is most noted for licking what is arguably the luckiest PSP ever built.

Morgan Webb

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Morgan’s shown her resilience matches her geekiness by outlasting nearly every other employee who worked alongside her at TechTV before it merged with G4 in 2004. Since then, she’s steadily cemented her fame by not only hosting X-Play, but also making appearances in nearly every other tech show and convention possible. She’s even spent time writing for FHM, responding to despondent, horny gamer nerds once a month in her own column.

Amber MacArthur

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Another Canadian, Amber came down from the deep north to work for Microsoft, and even spent time in San Francisco working for Razorfish. She hangs out with Leo Laporte on a regular basis, and she’s hosted or made appearances on a laundry list of tech shows and podcasts over the years.

Felicia Day

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Felicia may have started off in the realm of pure acting, but she drifted into something much deeper when she helped create The Guild. Geeks everywhere suddenly became aware of the notoriously pale, gorgeous internet-star when episodes of the severely under-funded show began popping up in their inboxes. She’s now a full-blown web-celebrity now, and unlike many, works hard to earn her place in geeky lists everywhere.

Natali Del Conte

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This native Californian now hangs out in New York, and she’s serious business. She’s one of CNET’s senior editors, and she’s worked with Wired, TechCrunch, PC Magazine and a host of newspapers and other publications. She’s an experienced podcaster, and she’s made appearances on numerous other tech shows and broadcasts, including G4’s Attack of the Show.

Leah Culver

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Leah Culver was a co-founder of Pownce (now defunct), and now codes for Six Apart. She’s largely responsible for OAuth, which you probably used on at least one website today. She’s obscenely cute, and codes better than you do. She’s got a thing for old VW’s and Diet Coke, which pretty much makes her awesome.

Written by Gimundo

Ever heard of Stanislav Petrov?

Probably not—but you may very well owe him your life.

Petrov, a former member of the Soviet military, didn’t actually do anything but that’s precisely the point.

In 1983, Petrov held a very important station: As lieutenant colonel, he was in charge of monitoring the Soviet Union’s satellites over the United States, and watching for any sign of unauthorized military action.

This was the Cold War era, and suspicions were high; on September 1, the Soviet Union had mistakenly shot down a Korean aircraft it had believed to be a military plane, killing 269 civilians, including an American Congressman. The Soviet Union believed that the United States might launch a missile attack at any moment, and that they would be forced to respond with their own arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Several weeks after the airplane disaster, on September 23, another officer called in sick, so Petrov was stuck working a double shift at a secret bunker, monitoring satellite activity, when “suddenly the screen in front of me turned bright red,” Petrov told BBC News. “An alarm went off. It was piercing, loud enough to raise a dead man from his grave.”

According to the system, the United States had launched five missiles, which were rapidly heading into Soviet territory. The U.S.S.R. was under attack.

All Petrov had to do was push the flashing red button on the desk in front of him, and the Soviets would retaliate with their own battery of missiles, launching a full-scale nuclear war.

“For fifteen seconds, we were in a state of shock,” he told The Washington Post. “We needed to understand, what’s next?”

Though the bunker atmosphere was chaotic, Petrov, who had trained as a scientist, took the time to analyze the data carefully before making his decision. He realized that, if the U.S. did attack, they would be unlikely to launch a mere five missiles at once. And when he studied the system’s ground-based radar, he could see no evidence of oncoming missiles.

He still couldn’t say for sure what was going on, but “I had a funny feeling in my gut,” he told The Post. “I didn’t want to make a mistake. I made a decision, and that was it.”

Luckily for all of us, he decided not to push that button. Later, his instincts were proven right—the malfunctioning system had given him a false alarm, and the U.S. had not deployed any missiles. Thanks to Petrov’s cool head, nuclear war had been narrowly averted, and millions of lives were saved.

Unfortunately, Petrov didn’t exactly receive a heroic reward from the Soviet military: Embarrassed by their own mistakes, and angry at Petrov for breaking military protocol, they forced him into early retirement with a pension of $200 a month. Petrov’s brave act was kept secret from the outside world until the 1998 publication of a book by one of Petrov’s fellow officers, who witnessed his courage on that terrifying night.

Since the book’s publication, Petrov has been honored by the United Nations and presented with a World Citizen Award, and there has been talk of giving him the Nobel Prize. Still, the humble Russian scientist plays down his role in averting a nuclear crisis: “I was simply the right person in the right time, that was all,” he said in the upcoming documentary, The Red Button and the Man Who Saved the World.

We’ve got to disagree with him. Sure, he may have done nothing but in this case, it might just be the hardest thing to do.

By Kathryn Hawkins for Gimundo, the site for good news, served daily.

Written by B. of STFU, Parents

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been on Facebook, shaken my head and thought, “I haven’t seen you in 10 years, but I know your infant son is constipated?” or “Where did we meet again? And why do I know that your 4-year-old is still breast-feeding?”

You don’t have to be a parent to overshare, and not all parents do. But to those moms and dads out there telling the world every detail about little Catharyn or Jackson, this list is for you. Here are the Top 10 Reasons Not to Talk About Your Kid on Facebook:

1. The Gross-Out Factor / I’m Eating Over Here

Just because you’re a parent now doesn’t mean you’re allowed to gross me out. As tempting as it may be to show the world Mackynzie’s potty-training accomplishments, her bathroom habits do not qualify as news. And if what you’re eating for lunch can be classified as ‘afterbirth,’ I don’t need to know how it was prepared (or that you ate it at all). Keep your gag-worthy observations to yourself, please.

2. Our Parents Didn’t Do It

Our parents’ generation didn’t make daily announcements to all of their friends about diaper explosions, so why should you? “Because I can” isn’t an answer. Tell us what we want to hear: First steps, first ‘I Love You’s. The nice stuff. Then maybe tell us about you. Your friends miss you.

3. No One Cares

Everyone is thrilled you’ve made the ultimate sacrifice and become a parent. But no one is as thrilled as you are. Keep that in mind.

4. They Will Grow Up to Hate You

There’s one sure way to ruin the years of trust you’ve built with your children, and it’s putting their puberty on blast. It is not OK to post about your adolescent daughter’s reproductive milestones, nor will your son think it’s funny if you joke about his “long showers” on the Internet.

5. We Don’t Want to Go to Jail

Your toddler is in a naked phase, and it’s totally healthy and adorable. But creepy perverts don’t exclusively visit “pervert Web sites,” so keep the crotch shots — innocent as they may seem — to a minimum. Thanks.

6. You Sound Like an A-hole

Don’t bring your child to an adults-only event, and definitely don’t brag about it on Facebook. Announcing gift registries when you’re pregnant or for your kid’s half-birthday party over your status is just plain tacky.

7. Uh, Shouldn’t You Be Doing Something Else?

If your child accidentally bonks his head or falls off the couch — especially while you’re on the computer — it’s a bad time to update your status.

8. You’re Scaring Us

The girl we were friends with would not upload a birthing video where we can see her “Britney” or photographs of her newborn’s “exit.” You are frightening your friends. Who are you?

9. It’s Just Weird

Starting a Facebook page for your kid is as weird as starting one for your cat. I don’t want 8-week-old Elijah to “comment” on my status about health-care reform. And please stop using sonograms or pictures of your kid as your profile image. It’s one thing to post a picture of the two of you together; it’s another for your identity to completely disappear the minute you get pregnant.

10. Your Child Comes Off as Annoying

Less is more. I’m happy to hear about your child, but using Facebook as a prop to remind me of his every development (“OMG, Aiden just rolled onto his back!!”) kind of makes me resent him. Not to mention, why would I want to babysit your rambunctious toddler when I know he prefers to poop in the grass? Some things are better left unsaid.

Written by Katharine Shilcutt

It’s official: flu season is here and it’s hit with a vengeance. Television news reports deliver frightening messages from the Director of Health and Human Services while we’re forced to watch Matt Lauer get a flu shot on the Today Show, and our moms keep calling us to remind us to get plenty of rest and not to share drinks with the other kids in the office.

So while we’re slathering ourselves in Purell and homeopathic elderberry tinctures in what will surely be a futile effort to keep the swine flu at bay, here’s a list of our favorite comfort foods and drinks for when the flu inevitably strikes.

Photo courtesy of Tammy’s Recipes

5) Milk Toast: A foodstuff that seems to have dropped off the radar as of late, milk toast was popular up through the 1950s and 60s as a digestive and calming agent for sick children everywhere. It’s still just as good today. Toast a piece of bread and melt some butter into it. Meanwhile, heat some milk (on the stove in the microwave) with a little bit of cinnamon and sugar in it. Pour the hot milk over the toast. Voila — instant comfort food, we promise.

4) Hot Tea: Sure, it sounds simplistic. But there’s nothing like a steaming mug of green tea to cleanse your snotty palate or a hot cup of chamomile to help you sleep off the aches and fever of the flu. Not to mention the steam will help clear your sinuses, and the hot water will help rinse that nasty gunk from the back of your throat. (A little hit of whiskey and honey in there never hurt, either.) Drink up!

3) Macaroni & Cheese: Perhaps the ultimate comfort food, sick or well, there is no one who will turn down a bowl of creamy macaroni and cheese no matter how poor they feel. The good money in this situation is on Luby’s mac & cheese to go, although the Kraft blue box is passable, too (but who wants to “cook” when they’re sick?).

2) Ginger Ale and/or 7-Up: Sure, they’re mostly sugar and carbonation, but sips of these cold beverages between nibbles of Saltines do wonders to calm the stomach and bring to mind fond memories of your mother tucking you into the couch on a weekday afternoon as you watch old Three Stooges episodes and recuperate. Yes, orange juice or Pedialyte is probably better for you. We don’t care. Sugary soft drinks are where it’s at when you’re sick.

1) Chicken Soup: Oh, that seems obvious, does it? Well that’s because it’s the best thing on earth for making you feel better when you’re a phlegmy, sweaty, sore mess with bedhead that would scare Nick Nolte. While a can of Campbell’s will do in a pinch, the real deal — made with chicken thighs, real chicken stock, lots of carrots and onions and celery, and fresh noodles — is what will cure what ails ya.

Written by Cory Jones and Justin Halpern

Relationships are a lot of work.  They can end in happiness, but most often, they end in a passive aggressive battle.  We decided we’d show you the stages of most relationships.

Collected by holytaco

This money is funny. LOL

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