blink (underscore)

OK, so most everybody has a good book recommendation. So here's mine for this sunny June 29 morning. Blink (don't know how to underline, and I am not going to call IT again!) is an excellent book, worth a good read. It is also available on CD (narrated by the author). I think you will find it interesting and helpful. The author is Malcom Gladwell, who also wrote The Tipping Point and Outliers - also excellent. Outliers is currently on the NY Times Best Sellers list.

Blink is about "thinking without thinking", when that process is helpful, and when it can get you into big trouble. I particularly liked the "Warren Harding effect", which has nailed me a few times.

The First Corvettes--1953

In January, 1953, Chevrolet displayed a concept car, known as the "Corvette", at the Motorama <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorama>, held at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. Hidden inside the new car were microphones, capturing the comments of the curious public. The feedback was surprising and generally quite positive. Fortified with this public reaction, and with the market intelligence that Ford was developing a roadster (Thunderbird) for production, Chevrolet decided to start manufacture of this interesting vehicle. As soon as possible.

The Corvette could have been produced with a steel body, but there were those in GM that were interested in a new material system, then know as "fiber glass reinforced plastics", or FRP. Molded Fiber Glass (MFG) was one of the very first commercial producers of FRP products, beginning modestly in Ashtabula, OH, in 1948. MFG received a visit from two Chevrolet engineers in 1953, who thought MFG was interesting - but far too small to be an automotive supplier.

Bob Morrison, founder of MFG, thought differently, and eventually convinced GM to contract with MFG for over 100 FRP parts for the new Corvettes. That is a great story, and will be the subject of additional blogs.

PS---Bob Morrison was my father.

Teaching an old dog new tricks

Good grief! I never, ever thought I would be writing a blog. It is going to take a lot of coaching as I am not of the IT savvy generation. In fact, I can remember when TV was first introduced here in NE Ohio, and ATM's, cell phones, personal computers. The technological progress that has been made in the past 100 years surpasses all the rest of known history. So, I will be blogging about subjects that interest me, and perhaps a few followers. Right know, this old dog is trying to learn how to do this, so that I can impress my daughter how IT literate Dad has become. Perhaps it is never too late.