Circumstantial Art

There is something amazing about people in these times. Despite layoffs everywhere and a crummy economy, it seems like most people have remained fairly optimistic. Cards of Change is a website that asks people to upload a business card from their last job with an update of what they're doing now. This might turn out to be another Postsecret type of community art project. All the cards featured on the website have some sense of optimism or sense of relief - letting the viewer into the untold story of why they may have not been happy at their jobs to begin with.

Asian Moms

Check out this website, My Mom is a FOB, started by two smart alack college kids in the UC system. FOB, by the way, stands for "Fresh off the boat" which is a derogatory name for an Asian immigrant. But in this case it's used in a lovingly way.

What's interesting about this little collection of moments is that it's so distinctly American. You realize that it takes two people to create this one crazy Asian mom character portrayed on the website - the immigrant mother and the Americanized children.

Go through a couple of these posts and you'll find a mother knows what she is trying to do/say but it's comes out contextually wrong. And then you'll see a kid who knows what their mother is trying to do/say, but they won't give their mothers the benefit of the doubt.

1000 Years Magazine

Opium Magazine created an issue that will take 1000 years for it to reveal the story, which is 9 words long - that's one word per century. They are using two layers of black ink. The top layer will disintegrate with exposure to UV light and reveal words in the bottom layer.

The concept plays around with the idea of anti-instant gratification. But the more interesting story, I think, is how they are using this to make print relevant. Magazines are disposable. And this device forces you to keep it for a while, but also creates the kind of spectacle to gain the attention that this medium so desperately needs to be meaningful to people. Interestingly, they didn't try to establish relevance through content but rather interaction with that content. Have all the stories that can be told, been told?

Interacting With Women Makes Men Stupid

Researchers in The Netherlands ran two studies that measured men and women’s cognitive abilities after interacting with each other. In both studies, men performed worse than women – especially if they were attracted to the person woman they were talking to.

The researchers have a couple theories:

1. Men are spending too much brain-power trying to look cool and not enough is left to say or do smart things.
2. Men may be taking on traditional sex roles and try harder to live up to those expectations of being manly and cool and attractive.
3. It might just take more brain-power to control yourself around people of the opposite sex. Researchers think we just have more experience being around the same sex that when we meet people of the opposite sex, it throws us for a loop.

I guess this falls into the category of science verifying the obvious. I mean, how many times have we tried to introduce ourselves to an attractive woman only end up posting about the disaster on Fuck My Life?

But this has interesting implications for learning and builds a case for having same sex schools. Check out the rest of the article here.

Break Dancing Robot

As if the possibility of them becoming our future overlords wasn't enough. You just got served.

via @mike_damico

Youtube Celebs Vlog for Charity

Here's an interesting twist. Youtube celebrities KevJumba and Happy Slip have started new channels to host some of their more casual, b-roll, outtake videos. These guys also happen to be official Youtube partners and make a cut of the money made off the ads running on their videos. So what they are doing is donating the money made on their second channels to charity. They're asking people to subscribe to the new channels and encouraging them to view the videos.

Smart idea. Brilliant. It demonstrates how these guys really understand the magnitude of their popularity, but also the economics of Youtube. Check out KevJumba's channel here where he'll donate his earnings to a different charity each month. And check out Happy Slip's channel here where she'll donate her earnings to Operation Smile (cleft lip surgeries for kids).

Toy Fail

You mean I have to fake shoot myself in the face to get a piece of candy?! Ok, I'll do it.

via @davetreston

UPDATE: credited the wrong person I stole this from.