Erin Flavin, a senior religion major at Texas Christian University, reacts to her dance partner, Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, during a Flash Mob at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum Thursday August 25, 2011 afternoon on the TCU campus in Fort Worth, Texas. Cuban was supporting Frogs for the Cure, which benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the fight against breast cancer. Photo by Fort Worth photographer, Robert Hart.Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, joined students at Texas Christian University Thursday, August 25, 2011 to rehearse for 1,500-person flash mob sponsored by Frogs for the Cure, which benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Photo by Fort Worth photographer, Robert Hart.

Cuban danced with the mob and posed with every student who asked for a photo-op. I watched him pose with a couple hundred kids during the hour he was there.

Cuban clearly had a blast.

These and other images from The Robert Hart Studio are available in my searchable online archive:

Advertising Age writer, Simon Dumenco, aka: The Media Guy, bitch-slapped AOL’s The Huffington Post for stealing data from his story, then providing a “disingenuous link” to his June post titled, “Poor Steve Jobs Had to Go Head to Head With Weinergate . . .”

It seems The Huffington Post picked the story up, cherrypicked the best data and wrapped it up with a flaccid, “See more stats from Ad Age here” link.

THP has thrived by “aggregating” and “curating” content from real publications with real reporters, real editors and real overhead. The New York Times‘ Bill Keller calls it piracy. Here in Fort Worth, we have another word for “aggregating” and “curating.” It’s called rustling and Arianna has assembled an impressive herd since launching THP a few years ago.

When accused of piracy/theft/plagiarism/rustling, etc., Huffington’s defense is that THP’s link drives traffic to the offended sites. It’s this point that Dumenco disputes and disproves with Google Analytics numbers.

The numbers, unlike Huffington, don’t lie.

Read the entire Dumenco story to see The Huffington Post‘s apology for getting caught.

Here’s an excellent story from Rob Haggart’s APhotoEditor.com blog by photographer Bill Cramer on how he and Fast Company photo editor Lisa Parisi negotiated changes in the magazine’s contract that worked for both parties.

There’s also a brief interview with the magazine’s photo director, Leslie Dela Vega.

On finishing a recent Texas Highways assignment in Arlington I saw the sunset and figured I’d swing a few blocks west and drive by the stadium to see if I could make a picture of the Superbowl XLV site.

This is what I came up with. Wish I’d had a runner jogging down that path in the foreground. I gotta remember to keep a runner in my jeep for these types of shots.

This and other images from The Robert Hart Studio are available in my searchable online archive:

In this video interview at Livebooks.com, photographer/author/lighting shaman, Joe McNally, talks about the role of his blog and the difference it makes in attracting new clients. Great information here for photographers from an outstanding photojournalist/teacher. Check out Joe’s blog.

Tim Oren, managing director and co-founder of the Pacifica Fund, shared his thoughts on the future of reporting via his blog, Tim Oren’s Due Diligence: Letters From an Inhabited Dataspace.

As Yahoo and AOL morph into media companies that employ both reporters and editors, Oren makes some interesting points on the opportunities and the pitfalls of picking up where MSM is leaving off.

Seems as if everyone is shooting video of their studio shoots. That’s a good thing.

Check this out: “V” magazine’s video of the Maybelline calendar shoot. Dallas native and former winner of the Fashion Dallas/Kim Dawson Model Search, Erin Wasson, is featured.

Check out San Francisco photographer Peter Berlanger‘s excellent time-lapse video of how a MacWorld magazine cover comes together, from studio shoot to finished product.

Thanks to David Hobby at Strobist for posting this.

Here in Texas it’s called, “Calling Bullshit,” and that’s what Malcolm Gladwell does so eloquently in his review in The New Yorker of Chris Anderson’s latest book, “Free: The Future of a Radical Price” (Hyperion; $26.99).

Thank you, Malcolm, for stepping up. I’ll spare you my thoughts on Anderson’s premise, because Gladwell does such a brilliant job of shooting it full of holes.

However, I have emailed Chris Anderson and requested my free copy of “Free: The Future of a Radical Price” because I’m dying to see if this model works for Chris.

I’ll let everyone know when my copy arrives.

“INSITE” arrived unannounced in my email this morning and it’s a typically snazzy Neiman’s presentation. The Jason Wu interview on page 2 is a quick 10-questions that left me wanting to know more. A “shop Jason Wu” link at the end of the Q&A would have been handy. Granted, there’s a half page “shop Jason Wu” image on the same page that links to his wares but for usability’s sake, it needs to be in the Q&A.

Page 3′s “The Definitive Piece This Fall: The Over-The-Knee Boot” sports a quick video intro of a leggy NYC model crossing the street and it’s an eye-catcher, and again, I want more but it dumps me onto a page where I can select from a menu of designer boots. I need more cowbell. Who says the over-the-knee boot is the definitive piece this fall? Seems like an excellent opportunity to quote Anna or any number of fashion high-priestesses who’ll tell me WHY it’s the definitive piece this fall. I’m here, I’m shopping, ENGAGE ME!!!

Which brings us to Page 4′s “Outside the Box: Gift (shouldn’t that be ‘Gifts’???) for the Newlyweds” needs some clever “Daily Candy-ish” banter to liven it up. I’m married, but definitely not ENGAGED!

On page 5, the Father’s Day video, “Of Mouse and Man” is a clever and ENGAGING pitch that showcases a variety of gorgeous manly neckties. It’s so cool I’d like to email it to my friends, but because Neiman’s didn’t give me that option and because it’s a Flash video with no link, I won’t, or can’t. Note to “INSITE” team: Make it viral. Gimme a link I can email!!!

Page 6 is pure advertising, but that’s okay, they’re trying to sell me stuff–it’s Neiman’s and I expect that but if this is an e-zine, then let’s keep a decent content-to-advertising ratio. In eight pages, I’m gonna allow you one or two that are pure sales pitch.

Page 7 is a calendar. Okay.

Page 8 is a teaser to the upcoming issue, but nowhere am I told if this is a daily, weekly or monthly ezine. Why is that? Why doesn’t Neiman’s want me to know when to expect the next issue?

Nowhere in the email announcing the debut of “INSITE” am I told ANYTHING about the publication. It’s simply a VERY DISTRACTING Flash image that quite literally flickers off and on caused me concern that my broadband connection was failing. Lose the flicker. Just because we CAN do something “cool” with Flash, doesn’t mean we SHOULD.

Debut-wise, “INSITE” has descended the staircase without doing a face-plant but she’s gonna need to make up points during the interview and curtsey events. She needs to speak to us and let us know how smart she is. She needs more CONTENT.

She needs more cowbell.