best when viewed in low light

10.20.2009

Misc media

Back to the old sponsorship model at Fox

Get used to change media organizations, cause it's going to keep coming!

Entertainment messaging has always been about propaganda, but it's usually protesting censorship, not enforcing it.

User-ruled content and platforms is the future of Twitter, and everything else. [Note to media orgs mentioned above.]

If Yahoo and AOL think they're going to be content creators, they're missing the whole idea. You're entering the wrong business model.

Best fatalistic journalism related headline ever! "The news is broken," says the news.

Happy accident

Universal mind control

War on

A narrated photo essay from one journalist's embedded journey with Marines in Afghanistan.

Beautiful. Frightening. Just scratching the surface.

10.19.2009

If we're lucky, we can discard the paper part of a magazine completely

Personally, I think magazines that are excited about digital readers are missing the point, but it is interesting to note that they are actually planning for a future without paper.

There's always a trade-off, though. And I have some questions...

Is the magazine reading demographic likely to have the first generation, full-color, networked readers?
What generation WILL they have?
How many years out should magazines be planning their content now?
Should they be filming beauty videos and street interviews about the "latest fashions" for fall 2012?
How will the formula evolve? Will the entire magazine become a 100-word fluff piece?
Will magazines like Harper's or The Atlantic or Foreign Affairs even exist in a digital format? Will they survive.. what with their 3000 word, in-depth articles?
How will magazines with an existing web presence integrate with a digital version? Will a single output bring more eyeballs that a cross-media strategy?
...

Perhaps even more relevant to the digital magazine question is: Is it still a magazine?

html riddles

Here are the instructions given on the opening page:

So. Glad you could make it. Let's go over some rules, shall we?

1. This isn't a puzzle, per se. It's actually a series of puzzles. Some will be obvious right away, some will be not so obvious... Most of the levels' challenge really relies on what kind of thinker you are. Do not get discouraged; these are supposed to be challenging.

2. No spoilers. If you've beaten a level, and you're talking to someone who hasn't, don't go and tell them how to beat it. It's no fun for the people who haven't beaten it yet to be told the answer. In that same vein, it's against the rules to go looking for spoilers. It's much more satisfying to get the answers yourself.

3. Most of the time, the answer will replace the part of the URL just before the .html. You are going to want to put .html after every answer, or else you may not get the page you're looking for.

4. Sometimes you will need outside knowledge to beat a level... I try to keep things untechnical, but in a game like this, some situations are unavoidable. It is recommended that in another tab/window, you keep open your favorite search engine, so you can go find the knowledge you need.

5. No spoilers. Seriously.

6. Try having fun at this. All the levels are fair. If you find the answer, it will be quite obvious that you got the answer. Guessing wildly really doesn't help at all.

7. If you're ready to start, then go ahead. Don't get frustrated... Sometimes the answers are just waiting in the dark.

Magical financing, or, Goldman Sachs fucks us all in the taxes

10.13.2009

San Precario

"
Somos precarios y precarias, atipicos, temporales, moviles, flexibles
Somos la gente que esta en la cuerda floja, en equilibrio inestable
Somos al gente deslocalizada y reconvertida
"

[here]

Spore!



50 years in space

Despite your colonialist attitude, NatGeo, I love you.

50 years of exploration

Too much media news

Convergence finally occurs to publishers... Tribue365 is a decade late to the party, but at least she showed.

GE out, Comcast in, and charging for Hulu. [Pooh.]

A virtual stand destroys the point of magazines, but since it's Target, it'll probably still sell a shitload.

Talking dirty in rural areas will get you (cut) off... If the FCC can't handle broadband regulation, imagine what it would take to revamp the common carrier rules for telecoms. AT&T, you are so screwed. Gimme a call on my Android if you want to complain...

Who could have imagined that Joseph Schumpeter would have experienced such a resurgence? As the media faces an identity crisis, "creative destruction" at least looks promising. It's creativity right?

Elinor, economics goddess

To think I cam *this close* to taking her class! ...but didn't :(

On a planet with limited resources, access, and rules of ownership, determining the economically feasibly allocation - based on our collective good or not - of common pool resources (e.g. fresh water, air) is the most relevant consideration for economists today.

Here's to being the first! Here's to being a woman! Here's to rocking the world!

According to a few folks who did take her class, she also has a sense of humor!
[We CAN have it all!]

10.09.2009

Phoebe colliding

My namesake moon has been smashing into shit and getting all up in astronomers' faces.

[No accident there.]

10.06.2009

Fantasy Island come true

Not one for old adages, but evidently Mark Burnett is: if it ain't broke... make it a reality tv fantasy job competition show!

The (in)famous Fantasy Island is being revived (again), and this time it has a point.

[I don't understand.]

[What's there to understand?]

[Why does this show need to exist?]

[You're asking a question that has no answer.]

In case you missed it, old episodes of FI are on Hulu now. Maybe it will remind us why this is an IP that so desperately needs to be [destroyed] resurrected.

Glossy = extremely excited!

I applaud the experimentation if not the idea.

The San Francisco Chronicle is going to use glossy paper now, so the ads look good.

[How about writing content people want to read?]

Next stop, color!

[Oh, wait.]

Yay! Facebook is awesomely tragic.

Facebook is measuring my happiness (yours too) by tracking the use of words like "yay", "awesome" and other high school expressions of pleasure.

Contradictions only from now on.

Measure this, Gross National Happiness Index (makes me want to puke)!

Too bad the Bhutanese government's already got grossnationalhappiness.com!

[isn't this oxymoronic?]

10.05.2009

like Colbert says



damn good programming

10.01.2009

Or else?

Really Obama, of all the leaders to be setting ultimatums...

Tsk, tsk. I thought you had more perspective, and more respect.

In the past...