Thursday, March 04, 2004
- Debunking The Crosswalk Button Myth
- We are steeped in button culture, surrounded by them from the moment we slap the snooze bar in the morning until we click off the TV and go sleep at night. Sitting behind my computer all day, I do little else than tickle buttons all day long. They’re so common they completely disappear. We take them for granted. We press – stuff happens. I think this is why, despite all evidence to support the contrary, people still believe crosswalk buttons serve a purpose. The New York Times recently set the record straight on NYC crosswalk buttons. “More than 2,500 of the 3,250 walk buttons that still exist function essentially as mechanical placebos, city figures show. Any benefit from them is only imagined.” Interestingly, New York is now accepting design competition submissions to replace light standards throughout the city. Included in the competition is a provision for new ‘Pedestrian Push Buttons’. “The Competitor shall both accommodate the existing button and propose a new design.” Maybe this time the language on the sign will be slightly more accurate.
posted by Adam12:34 AM
Monday, February 23, 2004
- New High-Water Mark: Designer Water For Dogs
- In my opinion, one of the most challenging commodities to market has got to be bottled water. Essentially, every manufacturer is delivering exactly the same product. Packaging and price become virtually the only way to distinguish one product from another. Although the water war isn't exactly the "cola war", the demand for bottled water now is at an all-time high. Manufacturers are pulling out all the stops to stay competitive. K9 Water Company makes bottled water available in four deliciously awful sounding specialty flavors including: Gutter Water, Toilet Water, Puddle Water and Hose Water for your four legged friend. The $1.88 bottle of water uses, "purified water and human grade ingredients in every bottle of our vitamin fortified water" but later goes on to warn in the F.A.Q. , "All varieties of The Original K9 Water™ are specifically formulated and tested for dogs only. We cannot make any claims or guarantee the safety of this product if it is consumed by any other animal."
posted by Adam10:32 PM
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
- "To Speak To The Operator Press Zero Now, Baby"
- Erik Bunger, a Swedish sound artist, musician and composer has poured a ridiculous amount of time and technology into Let Them Sing It For You. With a word database of 1400+ words, Let Them Sing It For You allows you to “let some of the world’s greatest pop stars express your innermost thoughts”. If your innermost thoughts can’t be articulated due to missing digitized vocabulary, you can submit song recommendations containing the missing word(s) into the system. The site claims it's received 70,000 word requests since publication. “Authorities can replace their streamlined phone answering voices with an unruly mix of mythological and sexually inviting voices belonging to the pop world’s greatest icons” . Yes.
posted by Adam12:08 AM
Monday, February 02, 2004
- Trimming The Transfat From The Military Budget
- Ben Cohen, of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, breaks down military spending into digestible morsels in this Flash animation explanation of the gluttonous amount of money the U.S. spends on fighting evil doers. It might seem condescending to talk about federal spending with confectionery, but in this analogy one cookie equals $10 billion dollars. Imagine the milk budget!?
From www.truemajority.org.
posted by Adam10:39 PM
Sunday, February 01, 2004
- Everyone's a Winner.
- Apple Computer and Pepsi Cola will kick-off (pardon the pun) a joint promotion during the Superbowl today whereby Pepsi drinkers have a one in three chance of finding a winning code beneath the bottle cap for a free download off of Apple’s hugely successful iTunes Music Store. According to USA Today, Pepsi expects only 10-20% of the 100 million free giveaways to be redeemed however. Pepsi pays Apple 99 cents for each song, Apple pays the record label 65 cents and most artists on the 5 major labels receive about a dime from each prize claimed. www.downhillbattle.org, an activist site dedicated to promote a better music industry, simultaneously will begin collecting unwanted redeemable caps to promote independent musicians and labels through their Tune Recycler program. Great for independent musicians already in the iTunes store and promising for the future availabilty of independent music at large.
posted by Adam12:10 PM
Friday, January 30, 2004
- Heeyah!
- You've seen the clip; Dean screaming like a lunatic after the Iowa caucus. You thought, "Wow, what would make an bright, promising politician jump and scream like a banshee? Has he gone mad?" You weren't alone. The media, who's job it is to relentlessly entertain, glommed on to the "I Have a Scream" speech and replayed it for our amusement ad nauseum. After a few days Howard Dean's entire campaign seemed to be reduced to, and irrevocably crippled by, this clip. What you probably didn't see was anything other than the mainstream media's "account" of the event. Reality is shaped by perspective. Taken out of a greater context and manipulated by audio mix, what you saw may not have been an accurate account of the event. Watch another perspective to make a more informed decision about Howard's speech.
posted by Adam4:29 PM
Sunday, January 25, 2004
- The Japanese of Purchase of the Supermarket Food is the Pleasure!
- I picked up a bag of Super-Lemon candy in Korea Town over the weekend. I haven't tried them to see if they live up to their billing. Kyle tried a disturbingly murky bottle of Aloe soda and reports that it's actually yummy. No one bought the Vegetable Tuna because it sounds. . . well, not so wonderful. For all kinds of wacky Japanese translations visit Engrish.com. A longtime favorite is Echo Mic. To generate your own botched translations, I recommend translating English to Japanese and then retro-translating using Altavista.
posted by Adam11:06 PM
