This week’s recommended reading from your friends at Blogenberg…

• Was this a Vista “glitch”? — Steve Jobs did not die.
• If Facebook were a country, its population - 100 million - would be 12th largest in the world! (and check out this free e-book on who is actually on Facebook these days)
• Because, after all, every war needs good PR: Russia and Georgia ramp up PR operations.
• Steve Rubel identifies some trends to watch in PR and marketing.
• The Wall Street Journal has a good profile on Senator Obama’s media “Enforcer,” Robert Gibbs. (yes, a typical story for this season, but nonetheless always interesting)
• Don’t go checking your email on the plane just yet, but airlines  are slowly beginning to introduce wireless Internet on flight.
• The 360 Degree Digital Influence blog has started pulling together a list of Best Practices for using Twitter.
• Jim Durbin discusses how to use blogs to promote your press releases.
• How to start a movement in 7 easy steps.

My daughter is a freshman in high school. The girls’ soccer program is one of the best in the area. She plays JV. The coach held a parents’ meeting yesterday. “Do not call me about your daughter’s playing time,” he told the parents. “If you talk to me about playing time then your daughter will be benched for the next game.”

That was one of the most intelligent things I’ve ever heard a coach say.

Blogenberg considers himself a success, though he realizes that the reality of business means crash could come tomorrow. Here are two more lessons from the Blogenberg b-school:

Seek out criticism, not praise: The most valuable feedback is criticism. Criticism makes it possible for me to make things better. Praise makes me feel good, but I can’t deposit that in the bank. Go out of your way to get the criticism. In team meetings, I push for criticism of my work. I cut short the praise. Team members who I know are insightful but don’t like to criticize me in front of my employees, I seek them out after the meeting. I have appointed “critics’ task forces” — members of a project team whose job is to think like a competitor would if the competitor had complete access to our work.

Welcome mistakes: Create an environment where finding a mistake is embraced. I’ve been on commercial shoots where a team member found a mistake in front of the client. Good, has always been my reaction. Because here’s a rule of business — as the business owner, I get credit for a good end product no matter how we got there.

In business, spend as little time as possible trying to make your self feel good. Spend more time seeking out information that makes you feel bad. Because those you can fix and that will mean more business and more revenue, which will make you feel good — very good.

This week’s recommended reading from your friends at Blogenberg:

• Over at the 37signals blog, Matt profiles a pizzeria owner who demonstrates why staying small is an entrepreneur’s perogative.
• New York moves to give bloggers similar rights as traditional media journalists have long enjoyed.
• Jerry Mitchell, a reporter for the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, is investigating old unsolved civil rights cases and shares how he gets the criminal to tell him their stories.
• The Aim Clear blog provides 43 tips for taking your story/product/issue viral.
• Has Google finally succeeded in eliminating the “google bomb?
• The secret of creative communications is finding the Big Idea you’re seeking to promote.
• Ever wondered, “What Makes For a Good Blog?“

When it comes to dealing with media, I always give this advice: “Don’t worry about what you can’t control.” Don’t get all wrapped up in worry about what a reporter may or may not end up writing about you because you can’t control it. Instead, worry about what you can control — having a good strategy for the interview; delivering effective messaging; being accurate, concise, and clear; controlling verbal and non-verbal communication; responding in a timely manner; getting a reporter what he or she needs to, hopefully, be accurate.

My lessons apply to me today. Our firm has just been named No. 241 on the Inc. 500 list. The online write-up of our firm is terrific. In the magazine though, the short description says our firm “specializes in parenting and abstinence campaigns.” Only kind of, sort of accurate. Our biggest project is actually a campaign urging parents to talk to their pre-teens and young teens about waiting to have sex. (It’s a rarity — a social marketing campaign proven by independent research to work!) And what we really specialize in is bringing sophisticated public relations to issues such as early childhood education, workforce development, health, family and child wellbeing, and the many other issues that led me to get a master’s degree in social work.

My reaction to not being thrilled with how Inc. magazine characterized my shop? Who cares? It’s nothing I can control. Plus, I’m in the Inc. 500.

The 100% percent marriage: 90% of what my wife tells me to do is correct but only 10% of the time do I let her know.

Lifetime Movie Network announces cost cutting measures: It’s hard to launch a new movie channel. Lifetime Movie Network has decided on a unique course designed to cut operating expenses: Meredith Baxter Birney will play every role in every movie the network broadcasts.

Here, really, for the first time, is the best reason to start your own business: Employees have to listen to you brag about your kids.

As a kid, one of my favorite movies was The Incredible Mr. Limpet, a 1964 film in which Don Knotts becomes a fish (view a funny clip here). I think Michael Phelps is just a cooler, bigger Mr. Limpet.

A collection of recommended reading from your friends at Blogenberg…

• Ever wonder what it would look like if an Average Joe took on Olympic Events? 5-in-5.com shows you.
• FriendFeed helps you save time by tracking all your various Social networks in one place. Is this the next big trend in social marketing?
• Will Twitter search overtake Google search?
• Gary Vaynerchuk explains how focusing on the little stuff - and not obsessing about making it big - is the most important thing in running a business or starting anything.
• Does an e-mail outage send you in the mild panic (or worse)? Over at 43folders, Merlin Mann discusses some ways to continue getting things done when your indispensible (insert device/service) is out of service.
• What happens when someone on Twitter impersonates you, your company, or one of your employees? Exxon’s experience might prove useful.
• Steve Rubel poses an interesting challenge to PR pros - that companies and their PR reps need to recapture the “thrill of the chase” in pitching stories.

In my lifetime, no single law has changed the social landscape more than has Title IX, the federal law requiring that girls and women have equal opportunity to participate in athletics. When I was in high school, relatively few girls played sports. The quarterback dated the head cheerleader. Today, just about a generation later, countless girls play high school sports. The quarterback is more likely to date the captain of the girl’s soccer team.

I have friends who only have sons. They complain that Title IX has resulted in fewer athletic scholarship for boys heading to college because of how the U.S. Department of Education has mandated implementation of the law. That may be true. And I have two sons. But Title IX has made this is a much better world for girls entering high school, like my daughter, than girls in high school a generation ago.

It’s also what’s got me nervous tonight. My daughter was recruited to play soccer for one of the top girls high school soccer programs in the country. She was told she would either be varsity or starting on junior varsity. She wasn’t selected for varsity. And tomorrow she finds out if she made junior varsity or is relegated to the freshman squad. She’s done well in camps and tryouts. But, and here’s why Title IX has made me nervous, 80 girls are trying out. 80! I know sports. I know that, despite the very positive promises by a coach, stuff happens in sports.

So I’m nervously thankful for Title IX tonight.

(Blogenberg Bonus Parenting Advice: Don’t watch your son or daughter’s high school tryouts. I’m amazed at how many parents watch. I understand the desire. But they are in high school now.)

I was on the phone the other day with a guy I do a lot of work with. He was talking about how he dealt with a subcontractor earlier.

“Wow, you’re sounding more and more like me every day,” I commented.

He paused. And then said, “Oh, sorry, I’m just in a really crappy mood today.”

“Right in the middle of the cone of uncertainty.” That’s what a Fox News reporter reported from Texas this past week, waiting for a hurricane to hit.

How do you know if you are in the middle of a cone of uncertainty?