November 29, 2004
Today's Links
Communism: Threat to Liberty - an anti-commie comic book from 1961 - makes for an interesting read. From Authentic History.com - a good source for materials of all kinds!
Books2Eat: The International Edible Book Festival.
The Jerry Seinfeld Dictionary of Terms & Phrases!
One man's technique to restoring battery life in your iPod - the theory being that hard disk fragmentation causes excessive battery use - defragging the iPod's hard drive will improve performance.
Kensington Market made #8 as one of the Best Neighborhoods in North America, according to the Project for Public Spaces. Granville Island, Vancouver BC, made the top spot, and The Plateau, in Montreal, PQ, was number 7.
Canadian History News: Your History of Canada Daily.
Sleazy Sci-Fi Covers from back in the day...
Posted by Hamish at 09:45 AM | Comments (0)
November 25, 2004
Today's Links
In honour of American Thanksgiving - wordspy's definition of the word "turducken".
Maidan - An Internet Hub for Civil Resistance to Authoritarianism in Ukraine. Also, Neeka's backlog is a good read.
A View to a Kill: JFK Reloaded is just plain creepy. Slate.com's review of the new video game that challenges players to assassinate John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership - this would be big in Israel. And parts of New York City.
Archive of Japanese Television Commercials - Awesome.
The Recent B-Ball Brawl reimagined as a photoshop of Picasso's Guernica!
World City Photo Archive. Amazing. 8,200 photos online of cityscapes from around the world.
Posted by Hamish at 09:09 AM | Comments (0)
November 24, 2004
Today's Links
Give the Mona Lisa reconstructive surgery! -- an example of the Viral and Buzz Marketing Association's member output.
The VBMA itself looks to me like viral marketing to benefit the organizers of the assocation. $44 to download their book on how to create viral and buzz marketing in PDF form? $77 for a print copy? You could buy both of the competing books on VM on amazon for less than that. Sheesh.
Pepsi Spice Me - one man drinks only Pepsi Holiday Spice for 45 days - mimicking SuperSize Me - can he survive?
A photoshopper has blended an image of himself with his grandfather - eerily amazing.
Stunning collection of photographs of the G-Cans Project - Tokyo's underground water system. Looks like something out of a sci-fi movie.
Posted by Hamish at 02:41 PM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2004
Today's Links
Planet Simpson - web home of Chris Turner, author of the recently published book of the same name. Awesome. Turn Your Back on Bush - campaign to embarrass (again) President Bush on his inauguration day by having participants turn their backs to his motorcade as it passes by. The Incredibles: From Nietzsche to Rand - Deep analysis of the comic-book credibility of Pixar's latest offering. Pr0n is an addiction worse than cocaine? - from the mind of an addict... Mom's Cancer - a touching, well-written and drawn web comic account of a family dealing with the mother's cancer.Posted by Hamish at 10:50 AM
November 19, 2004
Links O' The Day
The Truth About Copyright Revision - why Canada's version of the DMCA is a bad idea.
The Parents Television Council's Top 10 Best and Worst Network TV Shows for Family Viewing - speaks for itself. Ugh.
The ZoomQuilt - a collaborative effort. Very impressive.
The World Toilet Organization - Wide Ranging Toilet Related Topics Covered By The Experts! - and they're having a convention! Book your seat now.
The Official Rules for Calling "Shotgun" - for dispute resolution, obviously.
Trying to Head off a Flood - "Why advertising in RSS is boring"
The Poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld by Hart Seely (Slate.com)
Posted by Hamish at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2004
Yet More Links
The Matrix written entirely in Haiku (from Kuro5hin)
Blue State Blues as Coastal Parents Battle Invasion of Dollywood Values (from IowaHawk)
I like you! (Feel Better!)
The Truth About Hybrids (from The Truth About Cars - best automotive reporting on the 'Net)
OMGWTFWARKTHXBYE hilarious shockwave (swf) movie...
Girlfriend's Lap Pillow - what will the Japanese think of next... I want one!
Chris Cobb's "There is Nothing Wrong in This Whole Wide World" project - where the artist reorganizes 20,000 books on a bookstore's shelves according to colour - explained at McSweeneys, pictures here.
Posted by Hamish at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2004
Interesting Links (Pt. 2)
How it Works. . .The Computer published in 1971, revised in 1979... Awesome.
Follow up: "Music is Not a Loaf of Bread" - Wired Magazine interviews Wilco, who released their 2001 album, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" for free on the Internet. The album was later released on the Nonesuch label to critical and financial success.
AOL Admits 40% of Subscribers Don't Have Computers - Makes sense. The other 60% act like they've never used one before.
The Birth of the FedEx Logo - an interview with its creator, Lindon Leader of Leader Creative.
Posted by Hamish at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)
November 10, 2004
Interesting Links
10x10 - a unique way to view the day's top news stories (requires Flash)
Fuck the South (Liberal Rant - very "blue" language but classic nonetheless.)
The Carnival of the Capitalists (INCITE)
I am so looking forward to "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" - Wes Anderson's newest...
McSweeneys Internet Tendency: General Broadcasting Standards Concerning Upper-Torso Nudity
Posted by Hamish at 03:49 PM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2004
The Coolest Election Map So Far
This is definitely the coolest 'election map' so far - really highlights the red vs. blue and why red takes up so much more space than the blue...
Posted by Hamish at 03:41 PM
Piracy on the High C's - NBER Study on Music Downloading
Joel Waldfogel of the Wharton School and Rafael Rob, both of UPenn, published a working paper that some in the media (BBC) are using to support the argument that sharing of music is affecting music spending (and therefore sales) - to the tune of 13-27% in the 421 students they measured. But the conclusion their paper arrives at paints not so drastic a picture:
"...downloading displaces sales among a convenience sample of college students...downloading reduced expenditure by 13 to 27 percent. While downloading reduces expenditure (on hit albums, 1999-2003) by $25 per capita in the sample, it raises sample consumers’ welfare associated with these albums by $70 per capita. Some of the benefit to consumers are transfers from sellers, but most of the benefit ($45 per capita) comes from reductions in deadweight loss. Two facts bears emphasis again. First, our sample is not representative, so our results should not be generalized. Second, our evaluation of welfare takes supply as given. It is entirely possible that downloading has important effects on the quantity and types of music recorded and marketed in the first place. This is an important area for further research."
... so this once again supports the idea that music sharing enables consumers to make better choices with regard to music spending - try before you buy. The end result might be that the big record labels will lose sales of their top-40 dross acts - most of which has no artistic value whatsoever. Perhaps this kind of finding will further encourage the labels to produce better music, and refocus their business model accordingly.
If you want to pay NBER for the paper, click here.
If you want to download the paper for free, click here.
Posted by Hamish at 03:07 PM
November 08, 2004
Economist weighs in on file-sharing: it's not what's killing the music industry.
The Economist magazine says that while the major music labels are rightly realizing that the internet is their future, they still don't understand what's killing their sales:
"Much will depend on whether the majors choose to address a problem that is just as important as piracy: these days they rarely develop new artists into long-lasting acts, relying instead on short-term hits promoted in mainstream media. That has turned off many potential buyers of new music."
Links:
Downhill Battle: Music Activism
Added (Nov. 9) Links:
Blog Maverick "When will the music industry do it right?" - very good discussion in the comments section below the article as well.
Posted by Hamish at 02:12 PM
November 07, 2004
Photographers I like: Sacha Waldman
Sacha Waldman is one of those photographers whose work is so meticulous and consistant he is an automatic inspiration. His images have a unique style, and although he often manipulates his images digitally, that process serves only to make a good thing better. His work is seen regularly in Wired magazine and Vanity Fair, among others.
SachaWaldman.com - his own site.
Levine/Leavitt (representation - good collection of his work)
Posted by Hamish at 09:59 PM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2004
McDonald's Bans Fat People from UK Ads: Controversy?
In an article in the UK's Sun tabloid, McDonald's has been accused of preferring skinny people over fatties in their marketing campaigns. It's in a memo they allegedly sent to a casting company.
Well, duh. I mean, they're supposed to be all about 'healthy choices,' now, aren't they? Recently McDonald's central command ordered store-level robots to stop recommending supersize meals to customers--without removing said items from the menu. They're also serving baked submarine sandwiches and offering more salads. Doesn't change the fact that McDonald's is responsible for a lot of the tubbiness evident in North America's kids today.
All this being said, I don't think McDick's has ever featured overweight people in their ads, print or television - so how is this story new? In fact, no one except plus-size clothing stores and fad diet companies use overweight people in their marketing. Fat doesn't sell. But this little controversy-rehash demonstrates how McDonald's as a multinational is so open to criticism these days.
Useful Links:
Super Size Me: A Film of Epic Portions
McSpotlight Anti-McDonald's Group
Chicken McHead+Neck
snopes.com search for "McDonald's"
Now, here's something that really scares me: McDonald's Toys
"Kids will have a ball running their very own neighborhood McDonald's complete with play food when they use the McDonald's Food Cart. This colorful restaurant cart is sure to provide endless hours of make-believe fun with realistic cooking sounds, opening drive-up window and plenty of storage space for food and accessories."
Well, that's just _super_ so not only will your child probably eat at McDonald's, and quite possibly work at one for his first job, he can practice doing so in his play area at home.
Posted by Hamish at 03:41 PM | Comments (1)
The Election...(ugh)
The effects of Tuesday's election in the US will be felt for a long time.
Here's a fellow who's broken down the Election results by county and applied them to a map of the US - using red and blue for their respective party's votes and shades in between to denote how the spread went in each county. The effect is stunning - the political divide in the US doesn't look so bleak - most of the country comes out looking purple. See for yourself.
Dan Gillmor's take on Four More Years.
Michael Moore's reaction to the election: 17 Reasons Not to Slit Your Throat.
Dollar Short's Canada 2.0 map. Makes sense to me.
Posted by Hamish at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)
Testing 1...2...3
First entry. Nothing special. Hmm.
hhhwrr
Posted by Hamish at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)