buzz

merlin: YouTube - The Wire Season 1 Opening &...

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:32:30 -0400

YouTube - The Wire Season 1 Opening & Intro

“Got to. This America, man.”

"In retrospect, all revolutions seem inevitable. Beforehand, all revolutions seem impossible."

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:06:38 -0400

“In retrospect, all revolutions seem inevitable. Beforehand, all revolutions seem impossible.”

- Michael McFaul, National Security Council by way of Signal vs Noise

Pssst, wanna buy a Prada bag for $20?

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:19:44 -0400

smartasshat:

A Movado watch for $25, a Gucci handbag for $20.

…

Federal officials, working with the Derry police, spent two years investigating the sale of counterfeit products at a local flea market.

…

Buying a product that looks like the real thing but isn’t may seem like a victimless crime, but it isn’t. Among the victims are the people who lost a job or didn’t get one because of the counterfeit trade

…

Wow. Unbelievably flawed logic. No one who pays $20 for a Gucci bag would pay $700 for it if the fake weren’t around. Yeah, I get that they shouldn’t be allowed to put fake labels on shit, but a two year investigation to raid a flea market? Please.

Haha… that logic is pretty self-serving. To their point though (but certainly not in agreement), those that are willing to drop $700 on a handbag are going to be less likely if the $20 version is being flaunted by the “undesirables”.

As I mourn the loss of someone I didn’t know, hadn’t heard of and could have conceivably...

Mon, 11 May 2009 20:48:00 -0400

As I mourn the loss of someone I didn’t know, hadn’t heard of and could have conceivably never have learned of, I am amazed at the unexpected consequence of the digital-social lives we now lead. I remember talking with an alumnus of my grad school after a number of attempts to link up. We laughed about how much I “knew” about him and his family just as a result of having met him once and following his flickr stream. I congratulated him on his latest child and wished his wife (also an alumnus) and family the best. It felt just a little creepy to have that intimate knowledge of someone I didn’t “know”.

Today I learned of the death of @jamield. After seeing it mentioned for the 3rd or 4th time on twitter, I did a little research. After reading a poem dedicated to her and a couple of other thoughts, I began to get some notion of who she was. It turns out that @jamield was just another person. I mean, she wasn’t “famous” as we might consider a celebrity. She had micro-celebrity of a sort. Internet-famous, even. Based upon the response to her passing away, I can only say that she touched a lot of people’s lives. She was apparently warm, friendly and quick with a joke. A good person.

I read her last twitter updates. Checked out her tumblelog. I am struck by how innocuous her last messages were. It drives home the sudden and unexpected nature of her death. The sudden nature of death in general. I guess I’m struck by the outpouring of sympathy and feelings of loss from others who had never met or heard of @jamield either.

I didn’t know Jamie Leigh Dyer Dordek, but if she was anything close to the things that have been said of her, I too am sad for the loss.

lindstifa: I am in lurv. sniffyjenkins: Why did I not know...

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:22:47 -0400

lindstifa:

I am in lurv.
sniffyjenkins:

Why did I not know about this blog before, people?

Tiny Art Director. She’s four years old. He’s Dad (Bill Zelman). She tells him what to draw. He draws it. She critiques it & then shit happens. It’s utterly charming & very funny. Example:

“The Brief: I’m going to tell you what to draw. Draw a dragon sneaking up on a girl. She’s picking flowers.
The Critique: Daddy it’s not supposed to be like that! He has dog legs! I’m so mad at you! I’m going to erase those legs! Daddy why did you do those legs??? [collapses in tears]
Job Status: Rejected”

Tiny Art Director

This is utterly adorable.

"vctips: When you email me a slide deck that ends in “version12.ppt”, somehow I..."

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:27:31 -0400

“vctips: When you email me a slide deck that ends in “version12.ppt”, somehow I don’t think I’m the first person you’re pitching… (@joshk)”

- Is being the first person I’ve pitched important to you? Are you looking to plant a flag or do a deal? If you want me to lie to you and tell you that you’re my first, I can do that, I just didn’t realize that would sweeten the pot, so to speak.

Incidentally, if you get “version1.ppt”, I’d think it’s a safe bet that little time or thought has been put into it. I don’t think I’ve ever sent anything to anyone important that didn’t get to v5 at least.

A friend had work commissioned by the MoMA. I missed it but...

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:11:00 -0500

A friend had work commissioned by the MoMA. I missed it but here’s a video on the installation.

Titled, “I Want You To Want Me,” it’s a data visualization made up of data from dating profiles.

Hot. Ness.

"For most of its history basketball has measured not so much what is important as what is easy to..."

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:52:00 -0500

“For most of its history basketball has measured not so much what is important as what is easy to measure — points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocked shots — and these measurements have warped perceptions of the game.”

- I read the excellent article about Shane Battier titled The No-Stats All-Star and I couldn’t help but consider how the same misguided obsession with easy-to-measure statistics has influenced the design of social networking applications and rendered many of them ineffective.

Is Facebook or Tumblr really more useful when you have more friends?

(via muchonieve via zachklein)

This is the standard incentive system issue. The behavior you want to motivate is rarely easily measured. In team sports they focus on all of these individual stats even though what really matters is how the team performs. The problem is it’s very difficult to quantify the benefit a player provides to a team.

For example, in business, sales would seem to be about as close to an easily quantifiable activity. However, if all of your incentives only focus on the quantifiable ($), then you can motivate other dysfunctional behaviors in the margins. That’s why my understanding is that you need to push other more subtle levers focused on team dynamics to motivate the appropriate behavior.

funsizebytes: Best job ever of not cracking a smile to let on...

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:21:34 -0500

funsizebytes:

Best job ever of not cracking a smile to let on that “Yeah, I know what I just said”

Wow. The man must be a sociopath to let that one out with out a giggle.

Because what I really need is another image of myself and in...

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:28:29 -0400

Because what I really need is another image of myself and in cartoon form, no less.

http://www.faceyourmanga.com/

Now I can re-buy iTunes songs as ringtones. Does anyone believe...

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:03:00 -0400

Now I can re-buy iTunes songs as ringtones. Does anyone believe that the first thing I want to do after dropping a sum of money I wouldn’t classify as insignificant on this phone is to BUY ringtones? I guess I brought it on myself. If lining up to give someone $300 doesn’t classify you as an easy mark, what does?

Whatchu’ get for shopping in the hood.

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:52:54 -0400

Whatchu’ get for shopping in the hood.

Get Off T-Shirt Am I really the only one who shudders when they...

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:36:00 -0400

Get Off T-Shirt

Am I really the only one who shudders when they imagine wearing a t-shirt like this? Don’t you read the news? I’m not even trying to make negative commentary on the police, but on a dark night in a perfectly respectable part of Brooklyn or Harlem… well, let’s just say, I don’t want any misunderstandings.

French/European ads are the best.

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:46:45 -0400

French/European ads are the best.

Welcome back to NYC!

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:09:00 -0400

12:03:19 PM saadiq: oh, the lady on the train this morning was absolutely bat-shit crazy
12:03:31 PM saadiq: apparently she'd gotten into it with some mta person
12:03:33 PM jevaun: hehehe, welcome back.
12:03:33 PM saadiq: fled onto the train
12:03:43 PM jevaun: word?
12:03:44 PM saadiq: and spent the next 4 stops talking about how her pimps were iller than their pimps
12:03:51 PM jevaun: oh dear...
12:03:57 PM saadiq: and how that BITCH was trying to act like smooth the hustler... FBI... BITCH...
12:04:09 PM jevaun: wow
12:04:12 PM saadiq: intermingled with (thankfully) failed attempts to remove her shirt
12:04:19 PM jevaun: that's special crazy....
12:04:37 PM saadiq: that level of crazy is almost as interesting as our ability to thoroughly ignore it
12:04:41 PM jevaun: not your ordinary run of the mill crazy.
12:04:44 PM saadiq: looking around the train not a soul was stirring
12:04:48 PM jevaun: hehehe
12:04:51 PM jevaun: true new york.
12:04:54 PM saadiq: I really wanted to pause and ask crazy who she was talking with so loudly
12:05:11 PM jevaun: no you didn't.
12:05:12 PM saadiq: but I'm not new. Don't go and engage crazy.
12:05:33 PM jevaun: crazy woulda followed you all the way up into those fancy new offices.
12:05:37 PM saadiq: lol
12:05:41 PM jevaun: and THAT is not a good look
12:05:47 PM saadiq: she got off at 59th
12:05:48 PM jevaun: not on week 2 anyway....
12:05:53 PM saadiq: you could hear her all the way down the platform
12:06:04 PM jevaun: you always can. Crazy is never shy.
12:06:13 PM saadiq: I really want to condense that into a twitter post but I don't think 140 chars is ready for it
12:07:30 PM saadiq: ahh.... perfect for tumblr

xkcd: Commitment

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:51:33 -0400

xkcd: Commitment

Help the Honey Bees

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:11:49 -0400

Help the Honey Bees: Haagen Dazs site to build awareness around “Colony Collapse Disorder” and how it effects us. Heavy flash site but important issue.

Homemade porn… handle with care.

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:40:37 -0400

Homemade porn… handle with care.

"The details are not the details. They make the design."

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:57:26 -0400

““The details are not the details. They make the design.””

- Charles Eames

http://bigeyedeer.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/this-cartoon-wrote-a-s...

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:45:01 -0400

http://bigeyedeer.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/this-cartoon-wrote-a-sweary-word-on-your-toilet-wall/