Perhaps you’ve seen the viral video about Caine’s Arcade made out of cardboard boxes, tape, and smiles. The young Mr. Monroy is being interviewed and reported on by the major media. Behind his wonderful passion, there are at least nine hidden lessons for all entrepreneurs and makers.

1. He asked permission

This may seem crazy to say given our zeal with the idea to “Seek forgiveness rather than permission” but let me explain. Caine could have toiled away in some corner of his Dad’s auto parts store. He could have sat with a gaming device or read a book all summer. He could have done something unremarkable and just sat quietly doing the norm. But instead, he asked permission to use some unused space and recyclable materials. Sure, he’s nine years old and we might argue that kids should ask permission.

Permission can set you free. You don’t have to get permission, but it creates engagement, collaboration and can inspire others because it invites them into the effort.

2. He sought to serve others

As you watch the video and hear the interview conversations, it was all about what games people would enjoy most (or at least that he hoped people would enjoy). His passion is infectious, as my colleague, Caleb Melby points out (link below). I believe it’s infectious because Caine’s passion is focused on what others will experience. I imagine that Steve Jobs zeal was equally focused on the customer experience with the iPhone, iPod and iPad products. The customer experience is what completely drives Jeff Bezos of Amazon. Mr. Bezos reportedly has an empty seat for the customer reserved at meetings.

3. He had a benefactor

With indie filmmaker, Nirvan Mullick, a chain of wonderful events is set in motion. Nirvan highlights and explores how a young entrepreneur’s mind, and more so his heart, is compelled to create something fun, hip, and cool – for himself and others. Without Mr. Mullick, you have to wonder if Caine’s efforts would have captivated as many, but that’s thankfully irrelevant at this point. Many entrepreneurs toil in isolation for a lot longer. I’m glad that the two met and certainly believe it was meant to be.

4. The visual is clutch

Even without Mr. Mullick, Caine certainly understood the importance of making something visually appealing and having a story. Each game or creation seems to have its own story. It has a reason for being part of the cardboard arcade. Not every product or service lends itself to such visuals, but Caine built a story into the physical games and he had reasons for each part.

5. More than Xbox

When you have the third pick in the first round and the third most desirous player in the draft is one you have no use for, you are not supposed to be in a position of strength.

But Vikings general manager Rick Spielman turned what looked like a bad hand into a good one.

The Vikings had no use for Trent Richardson because they already have Adrian Peterson. But other teams, most notably the Browns and Bucs, had plenty of use for Richardson. The Dolphins had some interest in the pick too. And other teams were sniffing as well. Because there was more than one team interested, the Vikings had leverage.

ICONThe Vikings were able to trade back, acquire more picks and still land their guy in USCs Matt Kalil.

The calls were coming all week. Trickling in at first, until a couple hours before the draft. The Vikings could have made a deal early in the week, but they waited.

The Browns made a fine proposal, offering fourth, fifth and seventh for the right to swap first rounders. And the best part about it was the Vikings had to move down only one spot. Spielman told me he assumed the Browns wanted Richardson, but he never asked. He pulled the trigger shortly before the draft.

The Browns took Richardson. Spielman still had his choice of the two top players on the Vikings board, left tackle Matt Kalil and cornerback Maurice Claiborne.

Both are excellent players, the highest rated at their positions, Spielman said. They both would have filled a big need for us. Both positions are important. The argument could be made for either.

Some made the argument for Claiborne. The Vikings could have used him to neutralize Calvin Johnson, Brandon Marshall and Greg Jennings, especially given the fact that the Vikes are planning on playing more man-to-man, fire zone and three deep coverage with the new influences on their coaching staff.

But the NFC North had something to do with the Vikings wanting Kalil, too. The Vikings have to deal with Julius Peppers, Clay Matthews and Kyle Vanden Bosch twice a year.

And Spielman figured its more difficult to find an elite left tackle than it is an elite cornerback. You look at free agency, he said. You see some receivers available, some corners. But rarely do you see a left tackle on the open market. The only way to get a premier left tackle is if you are in the position we were in. If we didnt take him now, when would we get the chance?

Taking Kalil allowed the Vikings to fill two needs because it enabled them to move previous left tackle Charlie Johnson to left guard. It also enabled them to give second year quarterback Christian Ponder a better chance to succeed.

So Spielman drafted Kalil. And he kept drafting, taking 10 players to help restock his team. In 2011 the Vikings selected 10 players. Nine made the team. The Vikings are getting young in a hurry.

With extra picks in his pocket, Spielman dealt his way back into the bottom of the first round to select safety Harrison Smith. As was the case with Kalil, Smith can make the Vikings better at positions other than his own.

Our coaches had Harrison at the Senior Bowl, he said. We know what he was like in meeting rooms, we understand his character and his intelligence. The players in the middle of your team, you want them to be able to give direction and set the tone from an emotional standpoint. He can do that. Plus there was a dropoff at safety after him.

For a guy who was supposed to be in a bad spot, Spielman did alright.

Follow me on Twitter: @danpompei

By Mark Frauenfelder at 1:31 pm Tuesday, May 1

Franoise Mouly is one of my heroes. She and her husband Art Spiegelman published RAW, an astounding large-format comic book that was a big inspiration to me when I started bOING bOING as a print zine in 1988. (Im still waiting for a full-size hardback that reprints the first 8 issues of RAW, Volume 1). For the last 20 years, Franoise has been the art editor of The New Yorker.

Blown Covers: New Yorker Covers You Were Never Meant To See is her new book. Its a collection of New Yorker covers that were either rejected, caused an outrage, or have an interesting story behind them.

Of the cover above, Franoise says, In 1993, we published this cover by David Mazzuccelli as the trial of the four men suspected of the bombing of the World Trade Center got underway. There were bomb threats to the magazine, and the image was vehemently denounced — at the time, most in the media were weary of labeling the men involved as Arab or Muslim terrorists.

Below, 11 more covers and cover concepts for The New Yorker, with commentary by Franoise Mouly.

We asked Chris Ware, who drew this weeks cover, Mothers Day, to discuss the New Yorker covers that inspired him. He wrote a charming ode to the women artists of The New Yorker, where he confessed to having a soft spot for Gretchen Dow Simpsons blank observations of beaches, grass, and whitewashed homes — the peopleless screen doors, walls, shingled roofs, and beach pebbles of the nineteen-seventies and eighties.

Each cartoonist I work with has his own approach and understanding of what makes a good
New Yorker cover. In 1993, Tina Brown, who was only the 4th editor since 1925, turned to
cartoonists like Art Spiegelman to revitalize the magazine. This was Arts published Mothers
Day cover at a time when tattoos were becoming widespread.

A few years later, Spiegelman offered this other sketch for a Mothers Day imageit didnt
get approved.

Sometimes it looks like an artist is poking fun at the more sedate New Yorker covers. This was proposed by M. Scott Miller, years before Janet Jacksons wardrobe malfunction. He claims that the inspiration for this jet is an experience familiar to anyone who follows classical ballet.

Cartoonists use clichs, but a good image will use clichs and well-known images to say something new. Harry Bliss make us realize that, sadly, time passes (left). When female bombers made their appearance in the news, in 2002, Danny Shanahan used the same trope to make an entirely different point (above).

I have an idea for a backtoschool issue, said Anita Kunz back in 1998, Its Monica Lewinsky sucking a Presidential lollipop… It could be drawn in crayon, very childlike. Please let me know if you can use it. Once the artist has a good idea, she can strengthen her point with the style she uses to render it.

At the height of the Lewinsky affair, Art Spiegelman proposed this sketch titled Clintons Last Request. When a word like blow job, which you never dreamt of finding in the paper is on the front page every day, he explains, I had to find a way for my image to be as explicit without being downright salacious.

In a sketch that Art Spiegelman proposed during George W. Bushs first term, Kings dream becomes a nightmare as black leaders like Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice provide cover for George W. Bush.

In the fall of 2005, videos began making the rounds showing what happens when pieces of Mentos candy are dropped into bottles of Diet Coke. Barry Blitt first tried his idea with two children or two businessmen before finding the right and frightfully funny combinationtwo Arab men. All versions make fun of terrorism, but only that one makes fun of our own fears.

As of this week, the Freedom Tower has now become the tallest building in New York City — and the third tallest in the world. Speaking of my own personal fears, well be moving into that tower in 2014. Back in 2002, when models of the projects for the World Trade Center site were put on display, Blitt sketched Osama bin Laden and his second-in-command reviewing the proposed designs.

When this image by Barry Blitt came in, David Remnick, the editor who makes all the nal decisions was o on a trip, but he asked me to show it around. My colleagues, all word people, laughed heartily yet they concluded it didnt work because neither the Pope nor the scandals plaguing the Catholic Church had anything to do with Marylin Monroe. Oy vey! said the artist, Barry Blitt, and we moved on.

Buy Blown Covers: New Yorker Covers You Were Never Meant To See on Amazon

One clerk confided in me that they have had women spend thousands of dollars while wine-shop-wine-ing. And then sheepishly return the entire bundle the next day.

So I am passing along the following with a motherly note. Drinking and shopping can be hazardous to your credit card.

Flavour for Women and Men (located at 1522 Demonbreun Street), known for its high-end designer lines and notable shoppers such as Taylor Swift, Troy Gentry (of Montgomery Gentry), Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Reba McEntire, Kellie Pickler and more, continues its unique, unmatched client service with WINE DOWN WEDNESDAYS.Stop in from 4:30 – 6:30 PM this Wednesday, April 18 and enjoy a glass of wine (or two) while you shop the unique stock.  Flavour carries many designer lines including Hudson, AG Jeans, Theory, John Varvatos, LAMB, Hale Bob, Joes Jeans, 7 for all Mankind and more. Flavour only purchases 3-4 pieces of each style and when they’re gone, they’re gone. For more information on Flavour, please visit www.flavourclothing.com or call 615-254-2064.

Enlarge photo.

Gila Community College students prepare for Thursday’s “Wearable Art” exhibit from 2-4 pm at the college, one of a host of upcoming cultural events that have bloomed with the spring boom, like so many orange poppies. The Open Studio Tour run on May 4, 5, and 6.

It is not always clear exactly what a teacher develops in a student, as inspiration is rarely a simple matter of cause and effect. In the past, an artist taught his students specific techniques or how-to information, sometimes so they could assist him on his commissioned works (the apprenticeships of the Renaissance era, for instance) or simply to ensure that they would paint or sculpt in the accepted manner. Even if that is not the teachers intention nowadays, it is often the case that art students will work in that artists style for at least a small period of time — art school class exhibits are frequently tributes to their instructors. The reasons for this are not difficult to understand, as the students are in the presence of a working artist, who may refer to heady concepts and whose views about design, composition, color, texture, form and subject matter are more strongly formed than those of his or her students. However, the trend in art classes, programs and schools over the past several decades has been to de-emphasize the technical — the how-to stuff — and elevate the conceptual. In effect, the job of todays artists who teach is to inspire students, making them aware of the aesthetic issues to be tackled but encouraging them to tackle these issues in their own way.

Larry Rivers, one of Hans Hoffmans many students, stated that the elder artist made art glamorous by including in the same sentence with the names Michelangelo, Rubens, Courbet and Matisse the name Rivers… It wasnt that you were a Michelangelo or a Matisse but that you faced somewhat similar problems. What he really did by talking this way was to inspire you to work. Riverss paintings and those of Hofmann certainly look quite different and are based on different ideas. He certainly got me to think a lot, Rivers said. He said a lot of things I had never thought of before, such as Not only do you draw the figure on the page, but you create the space in which the figure exists. Now, I think thats a very romantic concept. How do you create space? You create the figure and the space around it creates itself, but it sounded very good to me at the time.

One would be hard pressed to identify a stylistic relationship between the American regionalist art of Thomas Hart Benton and the mature work of his student Jackson Pollock, or between the work of Balcomb Greene, founder of the American Abstract Artists group, and his students at Carnegie Tech, Philip Pearlstein and Andy Warhol. Both teachers went beyond the call of duty to encourage their students. Benton demonstrably displayed confidence in the abilities of Pollock, acting supportively as both mentor and parent figure to his turbulent, rebellious student; the two were also united by their desire to show that real men could be artists.

Greene encouraged his top students to move to New York City, where the most advanced art was being created and exhibited, and he even helped them find an apartment to share.

The influence of Ashcan realist Robert Henri on his student Edward Hopper is not impossible to grasp. In 1935, Hopper himself said, You must not forget that I was for a time a student of Henris who encouraged all his students to try to depict the familiar life about them. However, the influence of Henri on Vaclav Vytlacil, one of the members of the American Abstract Artists group, is not easy to identify; and Vytlacils influence on his student Robert Rauschenberg may be even less evident. Still, the importance of the teacher as conveyer of art wisdom becomes clear if one looks at the line connecting the three artists as representing the most progressive thought in American art during their respective primes for the first six decades of the twentieth century.

Those who currently attempt to teach a specific style often find themselves in battle with iconoclastic students. Josef Albers was, for me, more a source of aggravation than of inspiration, painter Audrey Flack, who studied with Albers at Yale University in the early 1950s, said. He was a very rigid man with very rigid ideas. He wanted me, he wanted everyone, to paint squares and, if you didnt, he gave you trouble. I was then an abstract expressionist trying to be a realist. We couldnt even get models to work from. Albers had us all doing squares, in effect, to make clones of himself. However, the experience of studying with Albers wasnt all negative for Flack. Being in the presence of such an artist was compelling in itself since he recognized talent, and you knew that he knew. To be identified as having talent by Albers was an inspiration in itself, even though the pursuit of that talent often set up a battle zone in the studio.

One of the immeasurable qualities of an inspiring teacher is a good eye, especially when students are shown how to see (and, therefore, how to create) in a new way. Harry Callahan, who founded and headed the photography department at the Rhode Island School of Design, was legendary for his ability to invigorate the work of his students. Emmet Gowin, a Callahan student during the mid-1960s, credits his teacher with helping to shape his own ideas about art and the world around him. Gowin noted that the transmission of knowledge was actually very indirect. You were learning in the presence of someone elses thinking, seeing how Callahan identified the task and what his attitude to the task was. He had the kinds of standards for photography that were new to me.

Gowin came to Callahans first class with a painting and graphic design background, but found his confidence shaken within the first hour. Callahan asked his students to show their photographs to each other. He left the room for a period of time and then returned, walking around the class and looking at various students work. When he saw Gowins photographs, he remarked, Youre really going to have to learn how to print before walking on. I thought these photographs were the best I could do, Gowin recalled, but his comment indicated to me that I had to go a lot further than I had in understanding my subject. It was hard to know what he actually meant–was he referring to technical or perceptual problems? — and I think it was wise of him to leave it wide open. His comments were like tarot cards; you wonder if the message was meant for you or for someone else, but you search for applications and generally find them. At other times, he would indicate what the problem was and then say he didnt know how to solve it, leaving me to think about it. I spent a lot of time rethinking and reworking those pictures I had brought in that first day and, a few weeks later, I brought them in to show them, and he told me that they were better.

The Oklahoma City-based company posted a net loss of $71 million in the first quarter, or 11 cents per share. Excluding one-time objects like a big hedging loss, adjusted EPS still missed estimates by a wide margin, coming in at 18 cents (vs. a 29 cent estimate). Adjusted EBTIDA was $838 million while operating cash flow hit $910 million.

Revenue surged 50% to $2.5 billion, as Chesapeake ramped up average daily production 18% to 3.658 billion cubic feet equivalent per day, despite voluntary net natural gas curtailments. Natural gas has fallen to multi-year lows, putting pressure on producers like Chesapeake to diversify, which the company has done.

Chesapeake has been pushing to increase its liquids production. In Q1, the company managed to grow liquids production 69% to 113,600 barrels of oil and natural gas liquids per day, or 19% of total production; liquids now make up 61% of the unhedged natural gas portfolio, the company announced.

“We are focused on executing our transformation to a more balanced asset base between liquids and natural gas and believe our business has strong momentum despite a challenging environment with natural gas prices at 10-year lows,” explained the embattled CEO. “This quarter continued to see strong liquids production growth as we accelerate our ongoing shift to liquids, continuing success in keeping finding costs low, and the addition of a substantial amount of new proved reserves.”

McClendon was force to tender his resignation as Chesapeake’s chairman after a media scandal concerning the founder well participation program. Under the terms of the program, McClendon was allowed to take up to a 2.5% stake in every well the company owned. McClendon then went and took loans against these positions. The billionaire will remain in his post as CEO.

Chesapeake completed $2.6 billion of asset monetizations thus far in 2012, and said it’s on track to complete $11.5 to $14 billion this year. The company is is set on taking total debt down to $9.5 billion by the end of the year. By the end of Q1, Chesapeake held $12.64 billion in debt, 40% of its capital, on its balance sheet.

Natural gas producers have been suffering from record low prices, as the discovery of massive fields of shale gas have flooded the market. Chesapeake has been capitalizing on its Eagle Ford shale positions in South Texas. The company realized average prices of natural gas of only $2.35, down from $5.31 a year ago. Other producers have suffered as well: Exxon Mobil, one of the world’s largest producers of natural gas, took a hit on its upstream business this earnings season, while BP also had problems on the production side. On the flip side, oilfield service companies like Halliburton and Schlumberger have benefitted from the boom in shale gas.

Shares in Chesapeake have fallen off a cliff as of late, when reports highlighting McClendon’s involvement with the well leasing program surfaced. After a nice rebound during Tuesday’s session (which saw the stock jump 6.3%), Chesapeake resumed its decline after hours; by 5:54 PM in New York, the stock was down 6.2% to $18.39.

Police said officers made at least three arrests after hundreds of people marched through downtown Tuesday afternoon. A 23-year-old man was arrested for vandalism and a 19-year-old man with a knife was also arrested.

Protestors dressed in black clothing smashed windows of retail stores and banks, and spray-painted parked cars, reported Q13 FOX News. NikeTown, American Apparel, HSBC, and Wells Fargo were among the businesses protesters vandalized.

McGinn said protesters were using items that looked like flagpoles as weapons. He said his order would enable police to take those items away from people before they are used to cause damage. McGinn said his action would help protect public safety as protests continued into Tuesday evening.

As many as 2,000 people are expected to participate in the May Day March for Immigrant and Workers Rights, which will start at Judkins Park at 5 pm, and police said there will be a rally in front of the Federal Building at Second Avenue.

Activists across the US joined in worldwide May Day protests Tuesday, with anti-Wall Street demonstrators leading the way in some cities as they tried to recapture the enthusiasm that propelled their movement last fall.

While some protesters clashed with police, the melees were far less violent than ones that erupted last fall when the movement was at its peak. Marches and strikes led to a handful of arrests but no major disruptions.

Many of the rallies, which drew activists pushing a variety of causes, also did not have the same drawing power that gatherings had last year for the Occupy movement or a half-dozen years ago for May Day rallies for immigration reform.

Across the world on Tuesday, protests drew tens of thousands of demonstrators into the streets from the Philippines to Spain. They demanded everything from wage increases to an end to cuts in education, health care and other austerity measures.

The US protests were the most visible organizing effort by anti-Wall Street groups since the movements encampments were dismantled last fall.

For more information about May Day demonstrations in Seattle see Q13 FOX News.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Stein, a racial Jew according to Nazi ideology, managed to survive the Holocaust, while the vast majority of her co-religionists were deported and slaughtered. The exhibit says remarkably, the two women [Stein and her companion Alice Toklas] survived the war with their possessions intact. It adds that Bernard Fay, a close friend… and influential Vichy collaborator is thought to have protected them. That is an incomplete and distorted account of what actually happened. Stein and Toklas survived the Holocaust for one simple reason: Gertrude Stein was herself a major collaborator with the Vichy regime and a supporter of its pro-Nazi leadership.

According to a new book entitled Unlikely Collaboration: Gertrude Stein, Bernard Fay and the Vichy Dilemma, by Barbara Will, Stein publicly proclaimed her admiration for Hitler during the 1930s, proposing him for a Nobel Peace Prize. In the worst days of the Vichy regime, she volunteered to write an introduction to the speeches of General Phillipe Petain, the Nazi puppet leader who deported thousands of Jews, but who she regarded as a great French hero. She wanted his speeches translated into English, with her introduction, so that Americans would see the virtues of the Vichy regime. In that respect she was like other modernist writers, such as Ezra Pound and TS Eliot who proudly proclaimed their pro-Fascist ideology, but Steins support for Fascism was more bizarre because she was Jewish.

Steins closest friend, and a man who greatly influenced her turn toward fascism was Bernard Fay, who the Vichy government put in charge of hunting down Masons, Jews and other perceived enemies of the State. Fay was more than a mere collaborator as suggested by the Met exhibit. He was a full blown Nazi operative, responsible for the deaths of many people. After the war, when the horrendous results were known to all, Gertrude wrote in support of Fay when he was placed on trial for his Nazi war crimes.

Perhaps an artist should be judged without regard to his or her political affiliations or actions, but the Met exhibit purports to present the story of the Stein collection and of Gertrudes life in France. It ends with a misleading description of her activities during the war years. It would perhaps be different if this were only an exhibition of the Steins art collection rather than a biographical account of her familys life in France. By withholding from the viewers an important part of the truth, the Met is engaging in a falsification of history.

Why would the Met do that? Presenting a complete picture — large warts and all — and allowing viewers to judge for themselves as to what to make of her collaborations, would be far more interesting and educational.

When museums put on exhibitions, they often tend to glorify those whose work they are exhibiting. Sometimes they fail to convey an accurate historical picture. What the Met is doing is different. By offering a false explanation of how Stein and Toklas remarkably survived the Holocaust, while living in a town from which dozens of Jewish children were deported to death camps, the Met has distorted the history of the Holocaust and failed to point a finger of blame at collaborators, such as Stein, who made it possible.

The Met is a great museum. I love to go there. But when I visited the Stein exhibit, I was disappointed. There is still time for the Met to make it right. It should have a statement describing, fully and accurately, Steins collaboration. And it should offer for sale at the exhibition shop Barbara Wills book, exposing Gertrudes pernicious collaboration, alongside the books currently on sale, all which glorify the Steins.

Before publishing this article, I wrote to the museum inquiring about the omission and proposing some changes. They justified the omission by arguing that the exhibit was primarily about the Steins art and not about Gertrudes politics, but they agreed to sell Barbara Wills book. They have not yet responded to my request to include in the exhibit itself some information about Gertrude Steins ignoble role in the Nazi occupation of France. Unless they do, those who see the exhibit will continue to be misinformed about the ugly truth of a woman with beautiful art.