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February 29, 2008
THE CULT OF "THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID" CONTINUES.
WHEN COWBOYS DIE.
THE OFFICIAL NETWORK OF...
AND THEN THERE'S OUR GUY.
A SPLASH OF COLD WATER.
SOME PAINFUL PERSPECTIVE.
"Democrats are in trouble. They're so in trouble that the Democratic party -- the liberal voice of reason -- would be unrecognizable to the lefties of yesterday. Why are issues of nuclear disarmament, alternative sources of fuel, a department of peace, immediate Iraqi troop withdrawal, and media diversification constantly forced into the margins of debate?"
Allison Kilkenny: Stop Blaming Ralph - Politics on The Huffington Post
KEEP YOUR SWEATERS OUT 'TIL MARCH THIS YEAR.
"A tribute to children's public television pioneer Fred Rogers will include an effort to get people everywhere to wear a sweater on what would have been his 80th birthday. March 20th is being promoted as "Sweater Day" to honor Rogers, who died of cancer five years ago. A sweater was his trademark garb on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."
Fred Rogers Tribute Includes Sweater Day | Seattle Times Newspaper
YEAH, WE KNOW YOU DO.
OBSOLETE SKILLS WE'RE LEAVING BEHIND.
I THINK I RECOGNIZE THESE GUYS FROM O'HARE.
February 28, 2008
HELPING THE INVISIBLE.
"Internet giant Google announced on Wednesday a plan to partner with all the homeless shelters in San Francisco and offer free phone numbers and voice mail accounts to homeless individuals, giving people the ability to distribute their own phone numbers and retrieve voice mail messages left for them whenever and from wherever they choose."
S.F. homeless get free phone numbers
THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE ONE HELL OF A SCIENCE FAIR.
"After a week of deliberations, Hudsonville's mayor says the city will keep a reference of God in its mission statement."
WZZM13 - Hudsonville keeping "to serve God" in mission statement
RUBBER SIDEWALKS. I'LL SAY IT AGAIN - RUBBER SIDEWALKS.
"The City of Bellevue will begin installing rubber sidewalks in areas where tree roots have destroyed traditional concrete walkways."
Seattlest: Bellevue Investing in Rubber Sidewalks
NO WORD ON HOW MANY GUFFAWS THE SENSORS THEMSELVES PROVOKE.
"Researchers at Kansai University have developed a machine that can scientifically measure the quantity of a person’s laughter, as well as distinguish between the real and the fake. The sensors, which attach to a person’s cheeks, chest and abdomen, take 3,000 measurements per second. Sensor data is relayed to a computer, where it is analyzed by special software that determines the nature of the laugh and assigns a numerical score based on the quantity."
Scientists Measure Laughter - Advertising Lab: future of advertising and advertising technology
ECONOMIC ARMAGEDDON?
"I feel sorry for the next president. Even as he takes his oath of office, the nation will be flying apart like a seized-up engine. Since the fiasco in finance is happening in lock-step with Peak Oil (and very likely because of it at a fundamental level) we can expect one of the distortions to take the form of oil shortages. These shortages will come not just from demand bottlenecks in a stressed-out world oil allocation system, but because exporting nations will start demanding payment in Euros or something besides the depreciating currency that reflects our disintegration, and we'll have a problem coming up with payments that amount to at least fifty percent more than we're used to shelling out."
Clusterfuck Nation by Jim Kunstler : Still Pretending
I'M GIVING UP HOPE. SLOWLY, BUT STILL.
"The Redbirds turned 20 offensive rebounds into a whopping 18-point advantage in second-chance points in pounding out a 68-54 Missouri Valley Conference victory over the Bluejays before 6,563 at Redbird Arena."
BRAND HYPOCRISY ON TRIAL.
"We're more interested in the original framing - a brand is going to spend $10M to tell consumers about Coke's educational outreach programs and the recycling of their canned products. All this work is being done by Leo Burnett. On the other hand, they've got W K making limited edition plastic bottles. Plastic bottles. They take a little less than 1000 years to decompose."
THE RED SCARE IS NOW THE FREE SCARE.
"It is already remarkable how much vocabulary is shared between "socialism" and "social media". One definition of socialism refers to a system under which "community members own all property, resources, and the means of production, and control the distribution of goods" (source), which also captures the spirit of economic relationships in most of the current social media environments. In his most recent book, The Long Tail, Anderson pays a fair amount of attention to those relationships, which are largely non-monetary in nature."
ESPECIALLY IF THEY'RE SOME OF THE PEOPLE I'VE WORKED WITH OVER THE YEARS.
"New research by University of Calgary, Faculty of Kinesiology researcher Dr. Tim Welsh says that regardless of their intentions, having an individual working on a different task - within your field of vision - could be enough to slow down your performance."
YEAH - BUT THEY'D PROBABLY LOSE BIG AT THE CREATIONIST SCIENCE FAIR...I MEAN IF THEY DEVELOPED LEGS AND WALKED OVER TO ENTER IT.
"We have provided the first evidence that fish exhibit rudimentary mathematical abilities,' says experimental psychologist Christian Agrillo of the University of Padova in Italy, who made the discovery while studying a group mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki)."
Smooth Pebbles: Fish can count!
I'D LIKE TO STATE PUBLICALLY THAT MY WIFE WAS RIGHT ON OBAMA'S POTENTIAL AND I WAS WRONG. DEAD WRONG. OH, AND....WOW.
TODAY IN CONSUMER EMPOWERMENT.
"Bed Bath & Beyond is under fire for using multi-ply yarns to amp up the thread count of its linens. The lawsuit was filed by a suspicious consumer who had her sheets examined by a textile forensics lab and found that her 800-thread-count sheets were really only 408s (New Yorker 1.28.08)."
Iconoculture - Consumer Research Service: Trend Observation
OH...MY....GOD?
"The blue-ribbon winning project on dinosaurs and people roaming the earth together, with the color photos and the perfectly cut lettering, probably had parental help. The one explaining how a broken motor disproves Darwin's theory of evolution, with the roughly cut pieces of paper and the penciled in chicken scratches, probably did not."
Creationist dioramas at kids' science fair - Boing Boing
February 26, 2008
I WON'T GIVE AWAY THE ENDING...BUT SUFFICE IT TO SAY, IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK.
THE RESPONSE.
A CADBURY AD FROM '69. NOPE - NOT KIDDING...FROM 1969.
A WEBSITE DEVOTED TO THE LOWERCASE L.
"Ever notice hand-written signs with letters in all-caps, except for the letter L? It looks like an uppercase i ... WHY DO PEOPlE WRITE lIKE THIS?"
TODAY IN CREATIVITY.
"The Star Tribune reports that dozens of bars in the Twin Cities are holding "theater nights" and declaring everyone in the bar to be an actor. By law, performers are allowed to smoke during theatrical performances."
Smoking ban workaround in bars: Hold "theater nights" - Boing Boing
THE ONION MAKES A POINT.
GREATEST DESIGN FOR IPOD SPEAKERS...EVER.
LOVE HURTS.
"It is a sturdy diamond ring whose point faces out, turning it into a potentially lethal weapon."
Diamond Defender - Killer Engagement Ring
UH...BUT..."ABSORBENT AND YELLOW AND POUROUS IS HE!"
February 25, 2008
FOOD FOR THOUGHT. THOUGHT, I SAID.
"Mark Cuban argues that the Internet is now becoming a hinderance to our productivity. Idris Moote makes an even stronger case. He notes that productivity growth has gradually slowed since 2004. Moote cites statistics showing that interruptions from e-mail, cell phones, instant messaging, and blogs take up nearly 30% of each day; on an annualized basis, this represents a loss of 28 billion hours for the entire US workforce."
Micro Persuasion: Could the Interruption Economy Sack Prosperity?
OLAN MILLS - PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE DAMNED.
TIME TO UPLOAD YOUR VIDEO.
I'LL BE DOING A LITTLE DOUBLE-DUTY BLOGGING THIS WEEK FROM THE TED CONFERENCE IN MONTEREY.
February 23, 2008
THE ONION BRINGS ITS SATIRICAL GENIUS TO MALL SHOOTINGS.
"I remember thinking 'This is it, I'm going to die,'" the 34-year-old contractor said from his bed at Buffalo General Hospital, where he is still under observation after sustaining three gunshot wounds, including one that left a bullet lodged in his spine. "Then I looked around at where I was and told myself there was no way in hell I was going to let them find me curled up behind a floor display of Midnight Jasmine Housewarmer jar candles."
ANARCHY TWO DOT OH.
"Trapster is a free community driven mobile phone app where drivers alert others to speed traps. The program runs in the background on your mobile phone (although the true simplicity of the service is achieved if the phone supports GPS or WiFi), and by hitting a simple combination of keys location data is sent to Trapster, logging coordinates onto a Google maplet."
PSFK - trends and ideas to inspire change
ANARCHY ONE DOT OH.
"Texas Republicans have worked overtime to make it harder for key Democratic voting groups to vote and be represented fairly. The redistricting games they’ve played are infamous. And for the Prairie View A&M University precincts, they put the early-polling place more than seven miles from the school. So what did the students in this video do? They shut down the highway as they marched seven miles to cast their votes on the first day of early voting."
The Field � Texas Early Voting Wave as Reaction to Systemic Disenfranchisement
WELL MERRY XMAS. HERE'S YOUR GIFTCARD.
"As a result of Sharper Image's bankruptcy filing earlier this week, the company's decided to stop accepting gift cards until they can get their finances in order."
Sharper Image: Sharper Image Suspends Gift Card Redemption
WELL, THAT'S BECAUSE BILL WAS OUT "WORKIN' THE NIGHT SHIFT," IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.
UM...YEAH...IT'S SIMON COWELL...WE JUST THINK WE'RE GOING TO MOVE IN A NEW DIRECTION, AND WE'RE CANCELLING YOUR TRIP TO HOLLYWOOD.
UM...YEAH...IT'S THE NETWORK...WE JUST THINK WE'RE GOING TO MOVE IN A NEW DIRECTION, AND WE'RE CANCELLING YOUR SHOW.
VENGEANCE? OURS.
ACTIVISM TAKES MANY FORMS.
TODAY IN OPPORTUNISM.
"A small coffee chain (2 stores) in California is offering free coffee during the much ballyhooed "Starbucks retraining event," on Tuesday, February 26th from 5:30 PM until 8:30 PM PST."
Free Stuff: Coffee Shop Offers Free Coffee In Celebration Of Starbucks "Retraining"
WE ALL HAVE OUR OWN DEFINITION OF WHAT "AUTHENTIC" MEANS.
SUCCINCT AD COMMENTARY.
IT TRAVELS.
TO SAY NOTHING OF THE "MOONS OVER MY HAMMY."
"A city board stunned developers, preservationists and Ballard residents Wednesday by voting 6-3 to designate the boarded-up Denny's Restaurant at Northwest Market Street and 15th Avenue Northwest a landmark — based largely on the visual punch the structure's Googie-esque roofline delivers to passing motorists."
Local News | Surprise: Denny's declared landmark | Seattle Times Newspaper
YEAH - IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE PEOPLE ARE MAD AT YOU FOR INSPIRING A 13-YEAR-OLD TO KILL HERSELF.
February 21, 2008
JUST IN CASE YOU'D LIKE TO SEE WHO YOUR NEIGHBORS GIVE MONEY TO.
HOLDING YOUR BREATH WHILST EMAILING.
"Linda Stone (who coined the phrase "continuous partial attention") has noticed that people hold their breath and breathe shallowly when answering email, a phenomenon she'd dubbed "email apnea."
Email apnea: holding your breath while you answer mail - Boing Boing
THE PRICE IS RIGHT MIGHT NEED SOME NEW INSURANCE.
February 20, 2008
MICROSOFT IS KIDDING ITSELF.
EXTORTION TWO DOT OH.
"In 2000, nerd news mecca Slashdot reported that eBay was actively complying with Church of Scientology requests to take down auctions of used e-meters. At the time, eBay’s explanation went as follows: “…someone who claims to be an owner of Intellectual property can send a notice sworn under penalty of perjury that an item is infringing.”
E-meter Incompatible with Ebay | Slog | The Stranger | Seattle's Only Newspaper
NOW THAT'S HOW TO SELL COMPRESSION SOFTWARE.
AT LONG LAST...NETFLIX FOR TOYS.
"Every parent of young children has an unwanted-toy graveyard somewhere in the home. Today’s prized playthings inevitably become tomorrow’s cast-offs, ready to be given away, discarded or boxed up in the garage. The alternative, offered by Texas start-up Babyplays, is to receive four to six toys by mail each month. Parents can keep the toys as long as they like, and send them back to receive a fresh batch. Monthly subscription rates range from USD 36.99 to 64.99."
Springwise: Toy rental service