Journalism Fail

Journalism died with the coming of social media. This piece of crap is spitting on it's grave.

It's All About Presentation

Check out Fancy Fast Food. It's a blog that, well, rearranges fast food so it looks really fancy and expensive. My kind of blog. I'm the opposite of a foodie and I'd eat at McDonald's and White Castle everyday if it wasn't for the shame I would feel when I bring it into the office. Imposing class structure food is ridiculous and this blog proves it.

Profit from Hate and Ignorance

A Manhattan synagogue found out that an anti-gay and anti-Semitic church from Kansas was coming to town to protest their existence, but managed to turn it into a nice fund raiser to support their own community.

What happened was that they asked supporters to pledge a dollar or more for every minute the protesters were at it. After 50 minutes they hauled in $10,000.

This is innovation isn't it? The most expected way to deal with those types of protesters is to have counter protesters and get into this huge shouting match that frankly makes both parties look pretty bad. But at the same time you don't want to let them go at it without a response - you still want to win. I think their tactic of turning it into a fundraiser essentially reframed the battle and made their enemies' actions a benefit.

Some related Sun Tzu wisdom right here:

Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy's
troops without any fighting; he captures their cities
without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom
without lengthy operations in the field.

I like it. More on the protest here.

via @molluskbrigade

Silhouette Masterpeice Theater

Does it get any classier than this? Artist Wilhem Staehle takes classic paintings and stories and gives it one of those modern, ironic, hipster-ish spins. It's a lot of fun.

More here.


via Divine Caroline

Fixing Marriage

National Geographic has an article about an ethnic group in China that is a matrilineal society (woman dominated). The women in the village own all the property and are heads of households. But the most unusual aspect of their culture is the idea of a “walking marriage.”

What happens is that when a woman is interested in a man, she will invite him to spend the night with her and leave early in the morning. That basically establishes the relationship or marriage. When a child is born, the father can visit, but he doesn’t play a role in raising it. Instead, the father is responsible for raising the child that their sisters, aunts, cousins have (they all live in the same house). The women are allowed to switch partners, but more often than not, they usually just have one. A better way to describe this is like “serial monogamy.”

They say the benefits of doing this is stability within the family – meaning no divorces that will muddy up things like dividing property and creating a bad environment for the kids.

Interestingly enough, just this week, the Atlantic published an article questioning the purpose of marriage in our society. The writer argues that it’s an outdated institution that hasn’t kept up the cultural trends that have women working more and men taking on a larger role in the home – but it’s not always a rosy situation as she describes the tension:

That said, it’s clear that females are dissatisfied—more and more, divorce seems to be initiated by women. If marriage is the Old World and what lies beyond is the New World, it’s the apparently stable men (comfortable alone in their postfeminist den with their Cook’s Illustrated and their porn) who are Old Worlders, and the Girls’ Night Out, questionnaire-completing women who are the questing New Worlders.

To work, to parent, to housekeep, to be the ones who schedule “date night,” only to be reprimanded in the home by male kitchen bitches, and then, in the bedroom, to be ignored—it’s a bum deal. And then our women’s magazines exhort us to rekindle the romance. You rarely see men’s magazines exhorting men to rekindle the romance.

I’ll admit that the writer may have a slight chip on her shoulder, but the frustrations she draws seem honest and real (I say “seem” because I’ve never been married myself). In one of her proposals for alternatives to marriage concerning child rearing she suggests that:

As far as the children are concerned, how about the tribal approach (a natural, according to both primate and human evolution)? Let children between the ages of 1 and 5 be raised in a household of mothers and their female kin. Let the men/husbands/boyfriends come in once or twice a week to build shelves, prepare that bouillabaisse, or provide sex.

And strangely enough, that sounds awfully similar to a “walking marriage.” But what’s interesting is that in both cases the call is to move men out of the household and to use them as needed. It is sad to see the marginalization of men as the solution for stability. Obviously, gender relations within marriage is an issue that affects every culture. There is an interesting tension in how we just don’t get along and we’re better apart. And interestingly enough, this insight is relevant even after the coming of the “Modern Man,” who is supposed to be more progressive and female friendly.

Homeless Sims

A student of game design in the UK (Robin Burkinshaw) created a couple of homeless characters in Sims 3 to see what would happen to them. Alice is the innocent daughter who is extremely clumsy, yet good willed. Her father, Kev, is a huge jerk. The result is actually quite interesting.

Kev provides a lot of the comedic fodder in the experiment while Alice’s struggles tug harder at the heartstrings. She spends a lot of time being stressed out and sleeping on the park bench and occasionally on people’s couches (uninvited most of the time). The best story was when she got a part time job but then donated her first paycheck to charity despite the obvious fact that she needed it. It inspired Burkinshaw with this thought:

What does it mean when a character you’ve created makes you re-examine your own life through their astonishing selflessness?

Check out the blog here. I think it’s an interesting experiment and shows how powerful video games have become. I would argue older videos came with the objective to win and finish the levels. New video games were more immersive, but still come with an objective. But these open ended games are interesting because you don’t know what the story is going to be.

When is the Best Time to Pee?

This handy little website will let you know which part of a movie is slow so you can dart out to the bathroom without missing anything. Check it out here.

via Popgadget, photo from there too.

Lessons in Sunk Costs

I’ve been meaning to post about this, but it got lost in the shuffle of everything else. A friend of mine quit his job a couple of weeks ago to move on to another position. The guy changes jobs about once a year and I’ve always admired his willingness to just get up and move on to something else. It’s not like he doesn’t care. He is just able to move on the idea of sunk costs better than anyone else I know. Below is an excerpt from his blog:

Lastly, a real quick story to wrap things up. A couple of weeks ago, I had breakfast with Annie Duke (professional poker player) who told me a great life lesson and story around sunk costs. In the most basic terms, the concept is used in making good decisions (which is the secret to the success of professional poker players). Wikipedia defines sunk costs as “costs that cannot be recovered once they have been incurred.”

So, for example, if you’re waiting in line at the grocery store, and the line next to you moves faster, most people won’t hop over to the faster line because of the time they “invested” in their current line. This makes absolutely no sense as anything invested in your past shouldn’t influence your future. Another example revolves around relationships. Most people stay together because they’ve “been together for the past five years.” Again, people shouldn’t make decisions based on past investments. And if you’re wondering how this applies back to poker. Once you make a bet and put your chips in the middle, that money is no longer yours (so you shouldn’t make bad decisions on getting it back).

Instead, you should look toward the future and look at all the different paths, opportunities, and possibilities presented to you right now. The sky is the limit. Everything in your past gets you to this point but it’s up to you to make the best possible decision on which path you want to go down.

It’s a truly inspiring thought that helps you keep your eyes down the road without devaluing the experiences that have gotten you to where you are now.

The Bright Future of Paper

Paul Sloman put together a book about paper that traces it's history, current innovations and creative uses in art. The point of the book is to show that as we digitize everything, paper will gain a higher status as a medium. We won't be using paper for everyday things as much so when we do use it - it might have more special connotations. Paper will gain a little more respect, says Sloman. Check out the interview here.

Interactive Music Video

A Spanish group called Labuat created an interactive music video for their song "Soy Tu Aire" ("I’m Your Air"). This was beautifully done - visuals, song and execution. I don't understand Spanish, but I feel like the interaction piece of the experience worked well with the mood of the song. Play with the video here.

via VSL

Stop Motion with Post It Notes

I think the effort and tenacity to create something like this is to be admired.

via @clevahgrrl

The Recession as the Catalyst for Happiness

Lately I’ve been seeing articles here and there about how the recession has actually freed up a lot of people to reprioritize their lives. The end benefit of this being that they will, in general, become much happier people. Happiness is an interesting and often studied concept. The Atlantic had an interesting article this month titled “What Makes Us Happy” and it follows a study that tracks a handful of men throughout their lives. The conclusion about happiness is it’s about how you react to the situations in your life that determines your happiness level. And depends much on your personality as to how you react to those situations. It was a very compelling article and an interesting way to look at how you could attain happiness.

However, I think there is a ton of inertia that the average person has to overcome to react appropriately. I think that’s why we are so obsessed with the concept and work so hard to find quick and easy ways to attain happiness. You can’t beat something that’s ingrained in you.

Back in college I worked in the community a lot and was obsessed with creating change. Like this happiness example, there was just a lot of inertia that had to be overcome. In a conversation about this, my friend shrugged his shoulders and said, “something big and catastrophic needs to happen or else nothing will change,” just like a huge disruptive force.

That’s what this recession means to our collective pursuit of happiness.

It’s a giant force that not only knocks us off our routine; it challenges the things that we believe in. That might be the most interesting insight into happiness is that sometimes we may not be capable of setting ourselves up to get it. Not that it just happens to us. But we do need a significant push.

The Strangest Little Cooking Show

Brooklyn, NY artist Thu Tran has been writing and producing the “Food Party” on Youtube for a while now. “Food Party” is a show about cooking that features handmade puppets. It’s like Sesame Street plus a toned down version of “Science of Sleep” mixed together. Even the food she prepares is off beat – bologna, cheese and cucumber sushi for example. They just signed a deal with IFC so you can catch this on your big screen as well. Follow her blog here.

For the Daft Punk Fans

There are definitely more than a handful of Draft Punk fans over here, but I think everyone else might get a kick out of it too. It's a sound board that allows you to play different clips from their songs. You can turn on a beat to go under the music you're making with the board. Click here to go nuts.

Most Uncomfortable Video to Watch

New BabySafe Ball Makes Shaking Your Infant Guilt And Injury Free

The idea in general is very unsettling, but about every 10 seconds it gets worse and worse to the point where you can't believe they are doing that. Dark humor at it's best.

Like the Wii But More

Microsoft showed off a demo of what they are calling "Project Natal," which is a new way of playing video games by using your whole body as the controller. One of the guys working on it is Jonathan Lee - a name that might sound familiar if you are a fan of TED. He showed off the Wii remote hacks . Now he works for Microsoft as a researcher in the Applied Sciences group. Check his blog post where he reveals a little bit more about how "Project Natal" works.