One of the biggest months of the year is coming up in Indianapolis. It’s time for the Indy 500 which is going to have events throughout May happening in the city. I’m wondering if anyone with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway or IndyCar is going to step up to the plate and have a social media command center like that which was available for Super Bowl XLVI.

I think it was pretty well proven how effective and useful a resource like that can be for a large event with lots of attendees.

I believe setting up a permanent command center that could be used for a variety of events would be a good move for the city. Perhaps it could be run by a not-for-profit organization that would be in charge of organizing the staffing, obtaining the resources and managing the space for future events.

What if, as part of any large convention that came to town, the city had this offering of setting up a command center to monitor the social media airwaves and Internet to handle questions, disseminate information and promote the event and the city?

Sounds to me like a great plan! Who’s in?

What’s your story? Have you been impacted by breast cancer? Share your story here.

Mastermind Behind Brain Extravaganza

Dr. Jill Taylor is a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist, or brain scientist, and motivational speaker. In 1996, she suffered an unusual kind of stroke, called an arteriovenous malformation. Full recovery took eight years of intense therapy to gain her brain function back. She published her memoirs about her experience in a book called “My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey.” As an advocate for brain health issues, she has been the National Spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Tissue Research Center and the president of the Bloomington chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Dr. Taylor is a resident of Bloomington.

All about Brain Extravaganza

Dr. Taylor developed her artistic side during her long recovery from stroke, and she came up with the idea of Brain Extravaganza to raise awareness of the amazing and complex functions of the human brain. The project consists of 22 enormous sculptures of brains to be on display in highly visible locations in Bloomington and the IU campus.

The brains are made of fiberglass, and each is to be decorated by a different artist. Artist Martina Celerin, a Bloomington resident, is decorating her brain in two distinct halves, one green and one black, to signify bipolarism. Joe LaMantia, also from Indiana, is placing animals on one half and faces on the other half as a depiction of the different perspectives of the two brain hemispheres. Each brain has a sponsor to help cover the brain’s cost of $3200.

Brain Health and Disease

Brain Extravaganza is intended to encourage people to think about what amazing things healthy brains can do. The project can also make you think about the potential for disturbances in equilibrium and cures for brain illnesses. Brain disorders include depression, schizophrenia, bipolar and meningiomas, or other brain tumors. Modern technology is increasingly effective at treating disorders. For example, Bloomington-based IU Health Proton Therapy clinic uses a highly specialized radiation procedures to treat brain tumors.

Now that you’ve been warned, don’t be alarmed when you start to see or hear about giant brains appearing in Bloomington. Instead, admire the artwork and, as Dr. Taylor hopes, take some time to consider the incredible functions of the human brain. Located 50 miles south of Indianapolis, Bloomington is just a quick day trip away, so it’s easy to make an effort to see each of the brains in Brain Extravaganza. .

About the author: Matt Herndon is a freelance writer living in the Indianapolis area. As a native Hoosier, he enjoys helping others discover the exciting things happening Indiana. You can follow Matt at @Just_Matt_.

After a few discussions with people in the office this little conspiracy theory just popped up in my head.

What if the Colts release Manning today merely to avoid the required $28M bonus payment due to him on Friday. It’s my understanding that would make him a free agent and available to sign for any team he wanted to (that will afford him).

But, what if Peyton still wants to be a Colt and remain loyal to Indianapolis and the city and retire with the team he helped make great. He’s been tremendous for this city and fans of the Colts. What if, instead, he resigns with the Colts with a new contract that works in some kind of give and take for the $28M he just “lost”, but stays with the team in a fashion that works for him, Irsay, the Colts, the city and even Andrew Luck?

What do you think? Possibility? Or am I just Positively Dreaming?!

Here’s the deal. Back in the day (let’s say, 1981-1982), when I was an impressionable 5 years old, my parents bought me my first computer, a Commodore Vic-20. I had to literally copy and type line after line of text from a BOOK onto the computer screen to MAKE a game to play. A single keystroke error meant the game wouldn’t play. Of course, “game” meant something like “draw a blue line”. When I shut the computer off, the game disappeared. After a while, we got a peripheral CASSETTE TAPE DECK that contained a SINGLE game already programmed on it, and took a good 3-5 minutes to load. WAY better than half an hour of typing!

Fast-forward to 1987-1988 (Living On A Prayer!) and my middle school, progressive for its time, had a room full of green-texted black screened monster PC’s that ran Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego off 5 1/4″ disks, and had an afterschool club for tiny elementary-school aged Dungeons and Dragons players (I never did understand the appeal of that game).

When high school came, I got my first desktop computer of my very own. It was a second-from-top-of-the-line, 486 SX 33MHz (yes I said MHz, not GHz, – and no, we couldn’t afford the DX2 66MHz) but it had a FULL COLOR 15″ VGA monitor. It cost my parents almost $3,000 in 1989 dollars, they considered it an investment in my future.

Oh, my desktop was badass and I was a geeky little 9th-grade dynamo. I traded files and played text-based games via BBS’s. I once even connected a microphone and had a very crackly, laggy phone conversation with a friend one town away VIA COMPUTER RUNNING THROUGH DIAL-UP. Yes, I had a perfectly good phone right beside me, that I had to unplug to use the computer, but long-distance calls, even to the next town, were expensive, yo! A free local call to the local modem farm was free! (except for the monthly access fee, of course) I dabbled in ANSI artwork, I twiddled with autoexec.bat and config.sys, I pirated my first copy of Windows 3.11 from the kid down the street.

Essentially, I learned a new language and literally grew up with computers. Friends traded disks to share programs, non-telephone conversations developed via caveman-esque online forums, one-color monitors turned to 16-color. My first laptop had DUAL 3 1/4″ floppies (no hard drive, of course).

Then, one of my very best friends parents bought him an Apple Macintosh Classic II 16MHz and everything went to hell in a handbasket. Here’s how typical conversations went between me (486SX owner) and him (Mac owner):

• 486SX: Your computer has a nice compact form! You need to borrow some disks?
• Mac: Nope, none of your programs work on my computer.
• 486SX: Oh, weird. Hey, doesn’t your screen have color?
• Mac: Nope.
• 486SX: I’m confused. Is that seriously a 9″ black and white screen?
• Mac: Yup.
• 486SX: Oh. Ok, whatever. That’s a neat drawing program you have, can I steal it?
• Mac: Nope, none of my programs work on your computer either.
• 486SX: Are you sure? That can’t be right. Just gimme the disk and I’ll… wait… where’s the eject button?
• Mac: There is no eject button.
• 486SX: Are you sure? That can’t be right. Just right-click and choose “eject”.
• Mac: There’s only one button on my mouse.
• 486SX: Your computer doesn’t play nice with other computers, has a 9″ black and white screen, and is too cheap to include an eject button or a second mouse button? Your parents paid HOW much for that?
• Mac: Shut up man, Macs are cool. Macs are the future.

———————

Let’s extrapolate to future products, shall we?

• Mac: Check out my new iPod!
• 486SX: Cool! Where do you get your music from?
• Mac: I am forced to pay $1 for every song via iTunes.
• 486SX: Are you sure? That can’t be right. Oh, BTW, your battery’s running out, you probably need to switch out the AAA’s.
• Mac: I can’t. The battery isn’t replacable.
• 486SX: Your music player doesn’t play nice with other .mp3 players, MAKES you pay for songs, and is too cheap to include a replacable battery. You paid HOW much for that?

————————

• Mac: Check out my new iPhone!
• Android: It’s got a small screen, none of the apps work with other phones, you’re STILL forced to buy music from iTunes, it only has one button, and you STILL can’t replace the battery. You paid HOW much for that?

———————–

Fine, you get the idea. So what, after all these years has made me take a (brief) pause to consider buying an Apple product? In a word, Instagram.

I’ve got an ORIGINAL Motorola Droid, which really seems like a relic now that it’s been on the market for (gasp!) three whole years.

Apparently, or so I’ve learned, Apple engineers have managed to stuff the world’s ONLY good cell phone camera into the iPhone 4S. Then some dudes came up with a software program – Instagram – to showcase it, and their program went viral. Instagram photos are ALL over Twitter and Facebook, and it annoys me. That an Apple product has a truly superior piece of HARDWARE in one of their devices that, to date, has no equal – the camera.

Fine, it’s true. Neither Motorola, nor Samsung, nor LG, nor any of the other cell phone manufacturers can seem to make a GOOD camera that matches that inside the iPhone.

Am I going to get an iPhone because it has the best camera on the market?

Seems unlikely, but stranger things have happened.

Dr. Greg Magnusson is a Veterinarian in Indianapolis at Leo’s Pet Care and may or may not be a future iPhone owner.

Here’s a 90 second video produced by Matt Dial of the Indy Star from pre-game ceremonies to wrap-up after the big game.

Indianapolis Super Bowl Village from Paul D'Andrea on Vimeo.

Hat tip to @cjtheisen for sharing the link to this video on Facebook.

Here’s an infographic that ExactTarget put together that gathers some information about the social media activity that happened more as an event and not directly tied to the efforts of Indianapolis. I would be curious as to how the Indianapolis stats would have played into this graphic.

This infographic is brought to you by ExactTarget a leader in Email Marketing, and Social Media Marketing.

That’s not the case for Brian Alano who invested over three years and 30,000 pieces to build a replica of the home of the Indianapolis Colts.

Rock Cola Mile High Club Sandwich - Super 46 Sandwich Conference Champion (Click to Enlarge)

Go ahead, click that image. See the Mile High Club Sandwich in all of its splendor! Then, go visit the Super 46 Sandwich contest page RIGHT NOW and vote for Rock Cola.

Here’s the deal. If you’ve never had the Mile High Club Sandwich from the Rock Cola you owe it to yourself to get one as soon as possible. But that shouldn’t keep you from voting. Vote, then eat, then realize you were right all along to vote. Next time you’re in the city and looking for a place to eat, let me know and I’ll escort you to the Rock Cola myself.

I need you to send you friends to this post or directly to the voting website and have them vote as well. We need to pull this in for the little guys on the east side of the city of Indianapolis.

Go vote NOW!

Tip: Are you on Pinterest? Pin the photo above to your wall (or re-pin mine) and ask your friends to help us out and vote. Are you on Facebook? Like this post using the buttons above and ask your friends to vote. On Twitter? Share the link and ask your friends to vote. Google+? Share it and ask your friends to vote. Getting the hint?