Holiday medical myths dispelled: "children did not behave differently after eating sugar ... When parents think their children have been given a drink containing sugar (even if it is really sugar-free), they rate their children's behaviour as more hyperactive."

In 1983, a man named Cliff Young showed up at the start of Melbourne's ultra-endurance race, 543.7 miles long, wearing overalls and work boots. He was 61 years old. Read the story.

Prepositions matter. There's a difference between investing all your assets in something, and investing with someone.

For decades, investing guides and gurus have preached about diversification: don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Diversification means, don't invest all your assets in the same thing (stock, bond, or asset class). But it really doesn't say anything about who those assets are with - i.e. how many different brokerages you have.

Who would want to manage multiple brokerage accounts with Schwab, eTrade, Ameritrade, keeping asset mixes balanced across all three of them? That's not what diversification means.

But as the Madoff scandal broke, several "expert" financial commentators asked about the victims, Why didn't they diversify?

Clearly the portfolios were diversified - these were savvy investors who watched their statements carefully. Their assets were in the right assets, at least on paper; the problem was that they were with the wrong guy.

Here's hoping that someone in the MSP will clear up this distinction for those expert commentators.

Madoff scandal indicative of Wall Street's larger Ponzi scheme, says NYT's Krugman. He's right. The best investing book I've ever read is Unconventional Success, by Yale's investment manager, David Swensen. In it, he clearly lays out the customer-hostile practices followed by many mutual funds, the mostly powerless SEC, and other actors. And he published this in an up market, in 2005.

See also: Notes on the financial crisis, and Greenspun's take

But now, because one possibly risky incident (read the article), they've shut it down for everyone - even in other cities, where this great program has spread.

Operation Santa Claus was a genuine good experience: good for the post office workers who collected the letters; good for the donors who gave time and money to help those less fortunate; and good for the recipients, many of whom would get nothing for Christmas (especially in 2008) were it not for this program.

And in 100 years and who-knows-how-many cities, and countless thousands of families helped, there's one reported risk to the system. And so the post office shuts it down? Maybe they had no choice; maybe their lawyers advised them on what liability lawsuits cost these days. But the outcome is a net loss for everyone involved, and an example of poorly set priorities as a society.

With this closure, the system says: protecting against a single one-in-a-bazillion incident is more important than offering an outstanding service, for 100 years, to thousands or millions of people.

Yes, one can certainly avoid risk by increasing security. But it comes at a cost to the experience.

How to Make Friends by Telephone: scanned 1940s-era guide. Especially for next year's Uncle Mark, in the phone-tips section, I really need to remember: use a normal tone of voice, rather than saying glub-glub mo-blon.

NYC's Algonquin hotel is loaning guests an Amazon Kindle, pre-loaded with a book of their choice. Good hotel experience, if you can afford it these days.

See also my customer experience review of the Kindle.

Uncle Mark 2009 is the #2 best gift guide this year, among 101 sites ranked by Dvice. Thanks, all.

(Oh, and download Uncle Mark 2009 here.)

Bitter but interesting NYT op-ed rant against the publishing industry: "you friends of celebrities penning cookbooks, you train wrecks just out of rehab, you politicians with an agent but no talent -- stop soaking up precious advance money."

I especially like Churchill's quote that writing a book is "a horrible, exhaustive struggle, like a long bout of painful illness." That's about right.

See also: Secrets of book publishing I wish I had known

Spotted in the elevator of the San Francisco Marriott, above the door where they have a panel of advertisements:

Someone at the Marriott didn't bother to buy the rights to the stock photo. (They couldn't take a picture of their own beer?)

See also:

• Ad for a new store experience (not just a store, you understand)

• Gingerbread sailing ship spotted in SF

Terry Border will give a new handmade sculpture to one person drawn from everyone who comments on his Gel 2008 video.

'Tis the season for office parties. To get in the mood, here are three office crews, all in San Francisco, acting up.

Below, pirates from the company Instructables attack the crew from Three Rings...

Then zombies from Three Rings attack Instructables...

And finally, the crew at Digg in San Francisco get their groove on:

Wikipedia's foundation is getting an $890,000 grant to make the editing process easier. A worthwhile project (and something that CG could sink its teeth into).

(thanks, Murray)

Christoph Niemann's personal history with coffee is accompanied by wonderful images - including my favorite, at right, a graph of his coffee (and bagel) loves and hates over the years.

I'm happy to announce the new Gel Videos site, where I am sharing entire Gel presentations online and inviting your comments:

http://gelconference.com/videos/

So far there are six videos available (see below), and we will be adding more every week or so.

The purpose of Gel Videos is to share the ideas and inspiration we've seen at the Gel conference - with diverse speakers and topics covering design, art, technology, business, and other areas relating to good experience.

I want you to be a part of it, too, by adding your comments to enrich the discussion about how these speakers relate to good experience, and what patterns they're bringing out that we can learn from.

What I'd like you to do:

1) Watch some of the videos below

2) Email the link to friends and colleagues

3) Blog & tweet about Gel Videos - we need to share these widely!

4) Post a comment on one of the videos to continue the discussion

5) If you like what you see, please join us for Gel 2009... and sign up before the ticket price jumps in two weeks.

And now, the videos!

Gel Videos viewable right now:

• Terry Border, artist, Bent Objects - a bizarre and often hilarious look at everyday objects posed in unusual photos

• Marc Salem, mentalist - featuring an audience exercise commenting on "how the mind creates reality and meaning"

• Kelly Dobson, artist and technologist, MIT Media Lab - showing how good, and natural, human-machine interaction can be

• Alex Lee, president, Oxo International - intriguing case study of rare Oxo products created by inventors outside the company

• Henning Rübsam, choreographer and dancer - discussing the importance of dance, and the elements that create the experience

• Jim Bumgardner, hacker - blending music, math, technology, visual beauty, and some audience participation

- - -

Enjoy the videos - and again, please share it with the world: Gel Videos.

(If it's easier to remember, you can also point to gelvideos.com .)