"Unexpected" Posts on ValleyZen

Prof. Jeremy Bailenson is turning heads (real and virtual). With all the media attention he has received lately for his research at Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL), you might suspect he was making use of multiple avatars to sit in for all these interviews.

The New York Times, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Science Magazine, and The TODAY show have got Prof. Bailenson in the media spotlight right now.

Today TIME magazine features…

“If you want to be at the heart of the intellectual universe come to Stanford,” said Stanford Law School Dean, Larry Kramer, introducing Jonathan Zittrain to a pumped-up pro-Stanford audience at the Ritz Carlton, San Francisco. This book signing event was organized by Dean Kramer and Stanford Law School in an effort to recruit the Oxford professor and internationally-known cyberlaw scholar to come to Stanford.
“There is no place like Stanford Law School,” Zittrain agreed and began his talk centering on his latest book, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It. Flanked by giant digital images from the book, Zittrain described the magic of the early Internet…

It’s been an exciting two months for ValleyZen.com. Since launch the blog has been:

• Featured on the home page of CNET News
• At the top of the Science & Technology page of leading Italian paper Corriere della Sera
• Covered by CBS Sci & Tech Correspondent Daniel Sieberg for a nationally syndicated radio segment
• Written up on the CBS TechTalk Blog.
• Feature article in CalLaw.com THE RECORDER.
• Invited as a guest on ABC KGO-TV’s View from the Bay…

“A microcosm is contained within a tea bowl.”

In Silicon Valley, a microcosm is contained within a Persian rug. This is the story of Pejman Nozad and 323 University Avenue – where a world of influential ideas came out of his Persian rug.

Pejman’s good karma began with a University Avenue Persian rug store–the Medallion Rug Gallery. The business prospered and soon his acumen led him to purchase office space down the street at 165 University Avenue. He rented the space to start-ups in exchange for equity. Google, PayPal and Danger…

Episode 4 of Tim Draper VC Samurai is being released today! From machine guns to music, this episode has it all. Tim Draper and Drue get a nerf machine gun demo from DFJ’s Warren Packard. A shootout in the DFJ offices ensues – Duck! Then, Drue performs a shakuhachi improvisation for Tim in his office. And the grand finale –Tim surprises Drue with a Samurai Flip…

Today we are releasing the much-anticipated Episode 3 of Tim Draper VC Samurai. Tim Draper gives us a tour of the Men’s Room at DFJ with his famous sheep painting, a DFJ masterpiece. Follow these links if you’ve missed the trailer and Episode 1 or Episode 2…

Zen lessons from a master of the unexpected. Last night I met Werner Herzog, acclaimed German filmmaker, at a special screening of his latest film, Rescue Dawn, starring Christian Bale. In a career spanning 54 films, Herzog has dragged a steamship over a mountain in the Peruvian jungle, hypnotized a cast for a shoot, filmed on a volcano ready to explode, and boiled and eaten his own shoe…