approvingly lounging ...

Flaming for Obama

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:04:10 +0100

Excellent piece in Prospect magazine about the huge importance of political blogging in the US election battle. Thanks to Adrian for the tip-off.

/Tom

Hype Machine has an interesting (and funny) way of getting its...

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:16:53 +0100

Hype Machine has an interesting (and funny) way of getting its users to put up a profile picture: if you don’t, then you’re John McCain by default.

I think it will be highly effective.

/Tom

ideas: Examining the candidates | The Economist Some...

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:10:02 +0100

ideas:

Examining the candidates | The Economist

Some (perhaps more salient) information from the Economist…

Enough said, really. Thanks to Frank and Adrian for this...

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:25:48 +0100

Enough said, really.

Thanks to Frank and Adrian for this one…

/Tom

Scientists with too much time one their hands try and deduce...

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:21:32 +0100

Scientists with too much time one their hands try and deduce exactly why and how their tearoom loses teaspoons at such a rate.

Their conclusions?

“The high level of dissatisfaction with teaspoon coverage identified in our follow-up survey shows that teaspoons are an essential part of office life. Simultaneously, the rapid rate of teaspoon loss shows that their availability (and therefore office life) is under constant assault.
Teaspoon displacement and loss leads to the use of forks, knives, and staplers to measure out coffee and sugar, inevitably causing a reduction in employee satisfaction; in addition, large amounts of time may be wasted searching for teaspoons, both factors leading to decreased employee efficiency.
The cost of maintaining a workable teaspoon population, estimated at nearly $A100 (£43; $75; 63) a year for the study setting alone, must also be considered. We recommend that new institutes design their facilities so that programme linked tearooms predominate over communal tearooms and that existing institutes consider renovations to reduce the risk of teaspoon loss.
We also advise that buying teaspoons of higher quality has no economic benefit. Finally, we suggest that the development of effective control measures against the loss of teaspoons should be a priority on national research agendas.”

Well that’s that sorted then …

Strange similarity between the front and back covers of Nature...

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:15:26 +0100

Strange similarity between the front and back covers of Nature here. Via the always amusing b3ta.

/Tom

Glossy new site for Agent Provocateur./Tom

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:52:30 +0100

Glossy new site for Agent Provocateur.
/Tom

Oasis' New Album Gets a Subway Debut - Creativity

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:39:51 +0100

Oasis' New Album Gets a Subway Debut - Creativity

Urban interventionist art from D.Billy

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:38:37 +0100

Urban interventionist art from D.Billy

Uniqlo's robot blogger ...

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:37:45 +0100

Uniqlo's robot blogger ...

Samsung are up to some really interesting digital stuff at the...

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:50:00 +0100

Samsung are up to some really interesting digital stuff at the moment - Tim showed me this new video for their Omnia phone, which cleverly plays upon the massive YouTube phenomenon of unboxing.

The company’s recent work for the Instinct phone surpasses this though - a truly interactive YouTube video story, with amusing and provocative content. Have a go here.

And check out the main Instinct site, which offers cash to people who post the most flagrant product placement videos of the phone on YouTube - a great, witty idea.

/Tom

Interesting chart from Techcrunch on how new (and future)...

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:57:43 +0100

Interesting chart from Techcrunch on how new (and future) technologies go from emergence to adoption (or become obsolete).

/Tom

Interesting presentation on economics, happiness, social media...

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:31:51 +0100

Interesting presentation on economics, happiness, social media and brands.

via the excellent Canadian planning blog, chroma.

/Tom

data visualisation of 'Big Humanities'

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:41:42 +0100

“Some see the reciprocal and perhaps limitless possibilities of emergent technologies and humanities scholarship - how digital technology cuts across disciplines, creates new ways of looking at artifacts, as well as producing new forms itself”

via PSFK

/Tom

Incredible visualisation/news tool at digg labs that uses data...

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:47:00 +0100

Incredible visualisation/news tool at digg labs that uses data from online bookmarking service Digg. Find out what savvy users are buzzing about in real time…

/Tom

Whilst we’re on the topic, this is a nice and simple...

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:32:00 +0100

Whilst we’re on the topic, this is a nice and simple explanation of social networks and why they are so important for brands. Nothing mindblowing here, but a useful explanatory tool.

via Fallon Planning in the US of A.

/Tom

‘Why Traditional Ad Models will not work in social...

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:23:37 +0100

‘Why Traditional Ad Models will not work in social networks (and what will…)’

Useful few slides here …

via Only Dead Fish

/Tom

Frame Not Included is a wonderful photo-blog by three...

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:14:10 +0100

Frame Not Included is a wonderful photo-blog by three Scandinavians, updated daily. Great for a regular dose of visual inspiration and a glimpse of Scando culture.

And chromogenic is another photo site that is frequently updated, and has some beautiful images. Justin Ouellette, creator of the great online mixtape site Muxtape, is the photographer.

/Tom

Beautiful new trailer for the BBC’s Olympics coverage,...

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:00:38 +0100

Beautiful new trailer for the BBC’s Olympics coverage, from Gorillaz animator Jamie Hewlett.

/Tom

the internet: under threat?

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:20:18 +0100

The argument for net neutrality, or against the commercialisation and privitisation of the Internet by powerful telecommunications firms, is compellingly made in this video. Found at Radiohead’s official site, via Save the Internet.

It’s a reminder of how passionate many people out there are about this issue, and for brands especially, a reminder to tread carefully, and provide people something of genuine use or entertainment online, as opposed to a corporate or product site that nobody will bother to visit. To do this well, it really helps if brands get the whole concept of the Internet - it’s about people creating, individually or socially, all linked in a unfathomably large, non-linear network of an ever-increasing number of media. ‘The human network’, as we helped Cisco define it.

For more info on this movement, it seems to make sense that Wikipedia is the site I should direct you to.

/Tom