Aside from writing, I have little to no artistic talent. I can't draw to save my soul and I never really enjoyed art class for that particular reason. However, had I encountered an elephant in my art class, I might have paid more attention.

I found an article in USA Today and subsequently started some Googling on the whole "elephant artist" topic. Not only are they painting a lot, they're painting well.

Turns out, elephants have been showing off their artistic talents for years. Check out this YouTube video of an elephant who does a self-portrait. The video is about 8 minutes long, but totally worth it. Listen to the crowd reaction as they realize what the elephant is painting. The video has captured some 5 million+ views.

The paintings are sold to fund zoos and other conservation efforts. Depending on the animal's popularity or how clear the image is, the paintings can be sold from $25 up to thousands and thousands of dollars. You can also buy paintings by sea lions or chimpanzees. One noted chimp artist, Congo, had his paintings sell 3 years ago for more than $25,000. Maybe I should have paid attention in art class.

By Jen Romanowski

This afternoon I ran across a post on Twitter that talked about this year's Webby Awards. Being the internet geek that I am, I decided to cruise on over to the Webby Awards website to take a look at this year's Webby Awards winners.

Talk about some amazing websites. There were a number of websites that I knew of and have admired myself.  But there were also websites that I’ve never heard of.  Because we are in the financial industry, I decided to check out some sites that sounded like they might give me some great ideas.

My exploration took me to kiva.org, which won the Webby People's Voice Award for Charitable Organizations.  According to Kiva's about page, their mission is "to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty."  In other words, this website allows people to loan money to small businesses in developing countries so that the people borrowing can work hard to make something for themselves.

Many of the loan amounts are under a thousand dollars.  And you can lend in $25 increments, so it's your choice if you want to lend a little or a lot.  For each loan there is a percentage tally that shows how much money has been raised for that particular loan.  There is also a journal that will show updates about the loans and the entrepreneurs that are repaying it.

Recently I have heard more and more about social lending, but this social lending network has a socially responsible heart behind it which makes it "The DIFF."

What happens when you merge high culture, urban revitalization, gourmet food, free flowing drinks, lots of really good looking people, and Detroit?

BravoBravo! happens.

And man, did it happen. Oh my gosh, that was a darn good party.

Last Friday, the Detroit Opera House hosted it's annual BravoBravo! Fundraiser and it was a raving success. A success to the tune of over $205,000 cash money raised. Put that money in the bank, baby.

First of all, it was a sell-out. 2,300 people, partying their butts off, and literally hanging from the balcony. Second, I didn't know so many good looking people lived around here.  Third, it proved in my mind that the only reason why Detroit doesn't have the stuff other big cool cities have is that we don't try enough. Because when we do try, we do it right.

Amy (the Former DIFF Ninja) Prior found some great videos on msnbc.com and thought they'd be a great fit for stuff we put on the DIFF. 

They are!

First, check out Germany's new version of fast food. A restaurant in Nuremberg features food that is delivered to your table via gravity powered slides. Yes, that's a bottle of beer being delivered to a happy patron at the end of the slide. I wonder how they know if someone has had too much?

Second, learn about 18-year old Army Specialist Monica Brown whose acts of heroism (against orders) in Afghanistan earned her the Silver Star Medal. Brown is only the second female since WWII to earn the Silver Star.

Great stories and great examples of the DIFF.

Thanks Amy!

By Paul J. Pickett

As a fan of the Detroit Pistons, I hate the Boston Celtics.

But as a fan of the NBA, I love the team in green and white. They’ve won more world championships than any other team in NBA history (16)…including three during the era I became a fan of the game of basketball and the Pistons/Celtics formed a bitter rivalry– the 1980s.

But that’s the thing – the Celtics haven’t won a title (or even been competitive for one) since the 80s. But this year they’re back and their rivalry with the Pistons may just be renewed.

This past weekend I was lucky enough to attend two very special fundraising events. They both made me realize that caring people are not a silent minority and that change can happen if we want it to.

The first event, the Keith Hamm Foundation's annual fundraiser, was a truly amazing night (I went this past Saturday night).  Here's a little background.

Last year I wrote about Quicken Loans VP Mark Miller being named the Michigan Lymphoma and Leukemia Society's Man of the Year for organizing the Keith Hamm Foundation, dedicated to the discovery of a cure for blood-borne cancers. Mark and his close friends created the Keith Hamm Foundation as a lasting memorial to Keith, who died of cancer last year.

This year's fundraiser was a great success and generated over $20,000 for cancer research.

By Cora Bledsoe

Reading the Washington Post article today about Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination really made me think. I thought back to February when I visited Memphis and had the opportunity to tour the National Civil Rights Museum. It’s located on the site of the Lorraine hotel where Dr. King was assassinated. I went there knowing that it would be interesting, but I had no idea I would learn so much on the tour that I’d never known about Dr. King, his life and the circumstances surrounding his death. 

It didn’t take a trip to Memphis, however, for me to know that although we’ve come a long way since King’s death, we still have so far to go. Many areas of our country are still very segregated and racial, gender and other inequities still exist. No one ever said that the issues would be fixed overnight, but the “one day” in King’s "I Have A Dream Speech," is taking a long time to get here.

Yesterday was opening day down at the old ball park in Detroit and although I didn't make it down there (Kelly did and got Tiger funky – that's her 3rd from the right) it got me thinking.

Thinking about what baseball means to me and why I love it so much.

And why we REALLY love it in Detroit.  Why we love our Tigers. Even during the dark years of the Tigers being one of the worst teams in history (1988-2006), we loved them.

Most folks I know around here grew up playing baseball for sure, but our love for the game goes beyond a simple nostalgic feeling toward a game you played as a kid. No, for Detroiters, baseball is bigger than that.

by Tim Pulice

Spring has arrived, not only because the calendar says so, but also because my 4-year-old daughter Zoë says she’s ready once again to “help Mommy plant flowers.” Her enthusiasm reminds me that it’s the perfect time of year to support a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving lives and communities through gardening.

Based in Washtenaw County, Michigan, Growing Hope  works diligently in the area - collaborating with neighborhoods and community groups, schools and families, and primarily serves under-resourced and disadvantaged populations.

The "former" Diff Ninja sent me an interesting article today on abcnews.com about an injured Iraq War veteran whose recovery has been greatly helped by a service dog donated to him by the nonprofit Puppies Behind Bars (an organization that trains non-violent prison inmates how to raise service dogs, which in turn are donated to disabled folks in need of a service dog).

Sgt. Bill Campbell was severely injured by shrapnel and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and found himself unable to leave his home. Sgt. Campbell also has a debilitating fear of someone sneaking up on him from behind, which made his "everyday life virtually unbearable."

Then Pax, a 17-month old Golden Labrador, who was brought up by Puppies Behind Bars and actually trained to help those suffering from PTSD, came into Campbell's life and things began to change for the better.

The Detroit Adventure Pass couldn't be more aptly named - through October 2008, it will allow you free admission to several fantastic Metro Detroit Museums from your participating public libraries.

Included on the list of museums are: the renovated Detroit Institute of Arts, Ford Rouge Factory Tour & Henry Ford Estate, Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit and Motown Historical Museum. The list of museums is actually quite extensive.

Visit the Detroit Adventure Pass site, which is sponsored by Library of Michigan Foundation, Macy's, and the Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan, to find the participating libraries and museums.

It works like this: you check out passes from the libraries with your library card. The pass is good for 7 days, after which you must return it for some other lucky patron. Some museums allow 4 free admissions, some allow 2. But hey, it's still free! Seems like a good idea for when school gets out this summer! 

Move over knife and fork, the knork is here.

The Washington Post reports today in "A Knork In the Road" about a really new and funky utensil that is destined to change the way we eat.

The knork.

Will it change us forever?

Maybe. Or maybe not.

Is a knork the DIFF? I'll let you decide.

We have a saying at Quicken Loans. "You see it when you believe it."

It's actually one of our ISMS, or principles that drive our corporate culture.

Anyway, I know it's true because I saw first-hand something that I would have considered impossible before I actually saw it.

I saw skiers who had one leg, no legs and even blind. Yes, that's right. Blind skiers, going full speed down the slopes. 

I'm not lying.

Last month when our friend and coworker Jarrett "Spiderman" Knyal died after a long battle with cancer, we put our heads and our pocketbooks together to help his surviving wife and two young children.

We are proud to announce that Quicken Loans employees raised over $13,000 for Jarrett's family which Quicken Loans generously matched. This will give Jarrett's family well over $26,000 that they didn't expect. 

Also, we've dedicated our Marketing Team parking spot (at the Quicken Loans headquarters) to Jarrett.  Going forward, we are purchasing the spot for $25 a week and sending the money to Jarrett's family to do with as they please. It's not a whole lot, but it might come in handy.

We hope our gifts of love help. Trust us, they are a just a small tribute to our friend Jarrett.  We'll miss him forever.

Today we got an e-mail to the DIFF asking what an ISM is. A reader from Ohio sent this in:

Hello.

I have heard about Quicken Loans ISMs but I am perplexed - why are they called ISMs?

I read the list and they are all great principles.  But, what is the connection to ISM?

Just curious.

Thanks,

Curious in Ohio (okay, that's not how she signed it, I just always wanted to do that!)

So, even though "ISM" is a funny word, it's actually a word and it's in the dictionary:

I moved from Michigan to South Carolina last year. While my family is dealing with the usual adjustment issues, I’m also confronted with lots of stereotypes – Yankees, Southerners, dialects, and who eats what. It’s been an experience with a lot of surprises. I’m really enjoying watching all these nasty assumptions fall apart. Really, it’s for the best that they do.

According to Infoplease.com:

It took 15 years to create the federal Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday. Congressman John Conyers, Democrat from Michigan, first introduced legislation for a commemorative holiday four days after King was assassinated in 1968.

Michigan. Yeah. That makes me proud.

What makes me not-so-proud:

2005: South Carolina becomes the last state to make MLK Day a paid holiday for all state employees. Until now, employees could choose between celebrating it or one of three Confederate-related holidays.

By Charlie Kondek, Director of New Media Relations - MS&L Digital

I practice kendo, the art and sport of Japanese fencing. Currently, I'm a sandan, a "third degree." In about three weeks I'll be testing for my yondan, the fourth degree. What's the difference between a kendo sandan and a yondan? I'll have three minutes to demonstrate it at the annual Michigan Open get-together.

Lemme tell you a little about kendo, since it's probably very unfamiliar to many of you. You've seen Western-style fencing, right

Two combatants in white, with quilted jackets and steel mesh masks, trying to skewer each other with thin metal foils? Kendo is like that, except the combatants are dressed in baggy pants called hakama and armor called bogu that includes a helmet/face cage (the men), padded gauntlets (kote) and a lacquered breastplate (doh). Instead of trying to stab each other with metal swords, we are usually trying to slash each other with long pieces of bamboo called shinai.

By Cora Bledsoe

Well, not really…but it is still a good site. I was told about FoundMagazine.com a few years ago and although I don’t visit often, every time I do, I’m there for a while. The site is full of items that have been lost and found. Usually there are photographs, notes, drawings, etc. It’s kinda like the Lay’s Potato Chips slogan, “I betcha can’t eat just one”.

Only one item is shown at a time, and for some reason, I’m always drawn to look at another… and another… and another. I could probably spend hours on this site alone. It’s so interesting to try and understand what people were thinking when they wrote the notes or where they were when the pictures were taken.

Maybe one day I’ll find something interesting enough to submit to FoundMagazine.com. Until then, I’ll just continue to spend endless hours viewing other’s contributions.

I didn't want to write this post. I've known for a few weeks I would have to, but I couldn't even start it.

My coworker and my friend – in fact he was one of the coolest guys I've ever known – died Wednesday afternoon after a long battle with cancer.  He was 44. That's way too young.

Jarrett "Spiderman" Knyal (or Jarrett "Cockroach" Knyal – depending on what day you talked to him) was one of the most inspirational people I've had the pleasure of working with.  He understood me when I said "I can't eat at P.F. Chang's, since no Chinese people eat there."  My other coworkers usually stare at me with blank faces when I say stuff like that, but Jarrett understood.

Well, anyway, to do a tribute for such a great person, to try to put in words what he meant to me and the impact he had on me, where do I start?

I guess when I first met him.

It's the goodbye blog posts that always make me the saddest. 

This one goes out to Melissa Morrison, who has decided to change her focus in life and become...a mom!

Man, I'll miss Melissa.

It's not just because she was a great person with a ton of knowledge about web marketing.

It's not just because she was a member of the DIFF team and helped out tremendously with planning and launching the blog.

It's because she was such a darn good project manager. I mean it. She really had the project management stuff down. Down pat.

Check out this cool story from the Washington Post about Susan Reynolds, a breast cancer survivor! She started a blog, Boobs On Ice (no jokes until you check it out), which turned into a whole community of people able to share their stories about their battle with cancer. She also has a huge following through Twitter, a social networking site. Definite DIFF material.

It was 10 years ago today that the word "Web log" was coined by a guy named Jorn Barger who maintained a website with his opinion and comments on a variety of subjects.

Two years later, online journal author Peter Merholz took the word "weblog" and split it into "We blog."

Not long after, blog became the favored word for a weblog, and it remains so today.

You can read the whole story on NPR.  They even provide a pretty interesting timeline of how the internet, the world wide web and blogs evolved.

Enjoy!

The other day the Kauf was driving down the freeway and noticed a sign on the back of a Staples truck claiming that Staples trucks never go over 60 mph in an effort to reduce fuel usage. 

Huh?  Did he read that right?

Yup, he did.

It's part of the Staples Soul campaign. We like it!

By Paul J. Pickett

I was reminded of why culture matters the other night as I watched a very brief interview with Hall of Fame Detroit Pistons player-turned-President of Basketball Operations, Joe Dumars. He said

“You have to fight complacency anywhere you see it within your organization. You have to fight it anywhere you see it. So everyday I come in here, it’s about maintaining success and keeping your foot on the gas. And….we have to make sure we maintain our culture.”

I really like this quote, but I gotta tell you, being a Pistons fan has been strangely frustrating for the last five years. I say strangely frustrating because despite making it to the NBA’s version of the Final Four for the last five seasons in a row, they’ve only won the NBA championship once, back in 2004. And it’s not just that they only won the championship once, it’s that they were so close to getting back to that point time-and-time again.

By Mark Messing

In 2001 Scott Johnson was in a hospital being taught how to walk.

In 2003 he finished his first triathlon.

He was born with Cystic Fibrosis, a disease caused by a defective gene that forces the body to produce thick mucus, something that can lead to life threatening lung infections. The average life expectancy for someone with CF is around 37 years old.

When Scott was 29, after suffering a severe lung infection, the doctors told him that he probably had a week left to live, that is, unless donated organs became available for a double lung transplant. Sitting in a hospital and facing death, Scott immediately made a list of all of the things he would do with his life if he were to receive the donation. Finishing a triathlon was the first thing he wanted to do.

Old news by now in the architecture community, but Cleveland has hired the firm that built Greenville’s "Liberty Bridge" to create a community-building element for Cleveland’s downtown-on-a-comeback. Liberty Bridge is not only the largest pedestrian suspension bridge – with a curved walkway – in the U.S., but it’s what ties downtown to the Reedy River and Falls Park into a unique mid-sized urban experience.

Okay, Greenville is a small town. There are about 50,000 people who live within the city limits, and the surrounding area claims half a million residents. So, what’s this small town doing setting a precedent for the likes of a large city like Cleveland? It works. It’s original. And the idea was thought not to work at all, and end up as a waste of $4.5 million.

Of course, the idea that’s least likely to work is the most likely to win.

Long before there were X Games, extreme sports and reality TV, there was Evel Knievel.

Evel Knievel was the man.  Straight up and no lies. 

He was a daredevil like no other in modern history and he paid a big price for his feats. He once claimed he broke every bone in his body and I don't doubt it. 

Part athlete, part showman, part huckster, Evel did stuff that made the world gasp back in the 70s.  Kids wanted to be him.  Adults thought he was nuts.

I used to put bike ramps out in the street and see how far I could jump.

I still have scars.

Not only does Quicken Loans have a mini-celebrity with her own Free Press article, we’ve got an incredible, inspirational woman who spends her precious free time running a literature group called Color Online.

LaTonya, a Vendor Analyst here at Quicken Loans, started the group in 2005 which is committed to the “promotion, empowerment and political awakening of young women.” She heads an online community for book discussion and a message board for the young women to share their own writing.

Color Online has a library at Alternatives For Girls, a non-profit organization in Southwest Detroit which has been serving homeless and high risk girls and young women since 1987. They’ll even mail books to girls who don’t have the means to make it to the library. LaTonya collects returnables here at our offices to make sure the library stays stocked. She’s also started a Wish List on Amazon so that supporters can know the types of books the library needs. They also welcome gift cards and tickets to local events.

By Mark Messing

When I was in the 6th grade, I remember going to a library session where everyone in the class was taught how to effectively use search engines. They had a list of about 20 at the time.  And while the preference was still Google, it was far less of a landslide. In fact, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, and a site called Mamma Search all shared equal usage from various children in the session. I remember the librarian telling us why she had put together the session that everyone in the school would eventually take.

"This is going to be the future of research," she proclaimed.

When I was in 9th grade a fellow student came to class with the first iPod I had ever seen. He explained how he had spent $400 on it, and how it was going to be the future of music. "I can’t believe you haven’t heard of these yet," he told me, "Some day they are going to be smaller, and hold more songs.  If you ever get the chance, you should buy their stock."

Last night, I read an article about Kent Hodgson. He is a 22 year-old inventor.

By Clayton Closson

The king has left the building.

Brian Doelle, Quicken Loans most highest defender of all things search, has decided to move on to new adventures. Trust me when I say this – HE WILL BE MISSED!

Brian pretty much built today’s Quicken Loans search programs (both organic and paid) from the ground up and man did he do it well. When he joined Quicken Loans, you couldn’t find us in search engine results anywhere. Our site did terribly in organic search and our paid program was a fraction of what it is today. That ain’t how it is today. We do search well at Quicken Loans and Brian is to thank for that.

He’s one of the best marketers I’ve ever met. Part artist, part number cruncher, part writer, part strategist, Brian does it all. He taught me EVERYTHING I know about search engine optimization. I mean everything.

I've know Greg Bowens for more than 25 years. We went to Cass Tech together in downtown Detroit and I worked with Greg for a short time when he was the press secretary for former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer. Oh, how I long for the days of such high caliber leadership in Detroit. Archer was one of the good ones.  Trust me on that.

Anyway, no sense in crying over past mayors. Let's deal with today.

That is exactly what Greg does in his blog "get positive with me" (the pic of the windmills is from his blog – keep reading and you'll understand what it's all about).

I was lucky last week to get a chance to hear Richard Tait, CEO of Cranium, give a keynote luncheon address at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's 3rd Annual Summit in Las Vegas.

Tait is a great speaker and has really put together (with the help of others) a great company.  It's all about the culture (check out Cranium's blog).  I can appreciate that working for Quicken Loans.  In fact, watching his presentation I realized there are some very close similarities between Cranium and Quicken Loans.

Both companies owe their huge business successes to the same thing - strong corporate cultures that breed innovation.

People who run marathons and other long endurance races are very high on the wow-factor list for me. My father ran one marathon in 1992 and my brother ran a few marathons too, promising his legacy is not through: he insists he will run again.

I admire them for their perseverance and strength. I don’t remember my father's plight very well, but I remember my brother’s races. It took a lot out of him and was pretty amazing to witness.

My father has been a dedicated runner for as long as I can remember. He's kept running journals over the years and even pushed through a few injuries he