LINKS FROM May 2006
Does Baseball Need a Minimum Payroll?
"In essence, the Royals do not appear to be maximizing wins given their constraints, but rather, maximizing profits. Fans of the Royals, though, might not appreciate this objective. "
Tags: baseball sports statistics business economics
Tell me about couples and surfing!
"A couple watching TV, curled up on a sofa together, may have felt "together", a couple surfing on two wifi laptops are visiting different sites, having different experiences . . . The internet age feels less communal than the TV age did."
Tags: culture internet relationships psychology
What if men were drawn in the same objectifying way as women in comic books?
It's a guidebook that you write yourself.
1/3 of referrals to washingtonpost.com from blogs
"In a signing of the growing power of blogs to drive traffic online, WashingtonPost.com Executive Editor Jim Brady says that one-third of the referrals washingtonpost.com gets now comes through blogs."
Tags: newspapers blogs trend
"From what I have found, below are the current top 400 higest paying Internet search keywords as of May 23, 2006 that I could find using Google’s AdWords tool."
Tags: search advertising adsense google
"And that is the tragedy of Kevin Garnett. Year after year he is the most productive player in the league. And year after year he plays with many players who are not only not average, but quite a bit below average."
Tags: basketball statistics sports
"So if you want to become an early riser (or just exert more control over your sleep patterns), then try this: Go to bed only when you’re too sleepy to stay up, and get up at a fixed time every morning."
Tags: sleep health tips productivity
"Discreet bar deep in Lower East Side where you have to phone in advance to get in: they'll call you back when a booth becomes available."
From a Small Stream, a Gusher of Movie Facts
"In the retail business, that is the equivalent of excellent shelf frontage, or, in television, of having a single-digit channel number rather than being relegated to Channel 284 on the cable lineup."
Tags: amazon business internet movies
A realization of what life is like from the client's point-of-view.
"The "Brief Safe" is an innovative diversion safe that can secure your cash, documents, and other small valuables from inquisitive eyes and thieving hands, both at home and when you're traveling."
"What does it mean when consumers become producers  of commercials."
Tags: advertising marketing nytimes cocreation firefox
Apple Deja Vue: will they pull it off this time?
"Apple's “closed architectureâ€?â€â€or integrated software/hardware/service appliance approachâ€â€may have been premature when Apple launched the Mac in 1984, but makes perfect sense today."
Tags: apple microsoft competition business
"Hi. The person who sent you this link is a friend who likes you a lot but who wants you to respect their email address, their privacy, and their time."
Top Ten Stock Photography Cliches
"What to watch out for when picking photos for your marketing materials"
Tags: funny design photography stock marketing
"Swarm is a graphical map of hundreds of websites, all connecting to each other. It updates itself every second with where people are going and coming from."
A public service by Panasonic Oxyride batteries.
"Marktd is a library of marketing articles weighted in importance by users. Click below to read the top stories, or use the left menu to browse marketing stories by specialist category. It's work in progress but we invite you to join in."
Tags: marketing socialsoftware community trend
Follow-up to Apple Store proposal (she said yes!)
Geek love is so cute sometimes.
Virtual Economics: The audience as enemy (reprise)
A message to newspapers: "If you're going to hold your paying customers in contempt at least don't stand up in a public forum and crack jokes about it."
Tags: newspapers
The changing media business model
"I believe that in the future media companies will generate the bulk of their value from serving their ability to aggregate and serve audiences better than the competition."
Winners take all in rockonomics
As Madonna fans in the UK know to their cost, tickets for rock and pop concerts keep getting more expensive.
Tags: concerts music economics
"But the more projects I do, the more I realise neat black & white answers don't fit any sort of real world, which means I end up talking more about the context, and feeling like I'm disappointing people and being vague."
Tags: design
Frank Bruni chronicles his cross-country fast food voyage.
Can We Please Kill This Meme Now
"Thanks to the connective nature of hypertext, and the blogosphere's exploratory hunger for finding new stuff, the web is the greatest serendipity engine in the history of culture."
Tags: internet culture networking search
"Consumers are the new medium for marketing 2.0  they are the medium and the message."
Tags: advertising marketing media2.0 socialnetworking
Apple teams up with Nike to help people track their running. You put a little thing in your shoe and connect another to your iPod and it tracks distance, speed and all that good stuff. When you're done running it downloads automatically.
Tags: apple ipod nike design sports health attention
"This work explores the visual link between information and physical things, specifically around the emerging use of the mobile phone to interact with RFID or NFC. "
Tags: design icons communication rfid internet technology
Three great machines and innovation limitation
Scott Berkun writes about the great machines he has owned.
Tags: innovation technology design
"Why do so few American citizens care that our own government is spying on us?"
Tags: politics privacy language
A day in the life of a 24-hour gym.
Tags: fitness health nyc nytimes
An interview with Esther Dyson.
Tags: attention business internet socialsoftware
The mystery of the "short" cappuccino
"Solving the mystery of the elusive "short" cappuccino."
Tags: coffee starbucks business strategy
David Raynes is trying to raise some money to pay for the development of his excellent Movable Type plugin Multiblog. If you use it and like it, help him out.
Tags: plugins movabletype
Why Dunkin' Donuts needs to move faster.
"What should the new owners of Dunkin’ Donuts do with the brand? . . . They need their own coffee twist. They need to be the opposite of Starbucks. Strong No. 2 brands don’t emulate the leader, they become the opposite."
Tags: coffee strategy marketing business
Some of the many ways Starbucks has changed America.
Tags: starbucks business culture economics
Zidane Un Portrait du 21e Siecle
A movie that follows only Zidane through one Real Madrid game.
Tags: soccer movies documentary
An personality test that seems fairly accurate and even offers advice to improve your weaknesses.
Tags: personality psychology
"In a world of attention scarcity, we will not continue to receive attention unless we earn that right. If we do not receive attention, we risk becoming progressively marginalized."
Tags: attention culture trend internet
"A video that explains why discrimination on the Internet is a problem and will continue to be as long as net neutrality rules are not enforced."
Tags: video politics netneutrality internet law
"Rain or shine, Damian Mogavero's Slingshot brings left-brain discipline to a right-brain world."
"New Zealand reinvented its fuzzy national fruit and rebuilt a franchise."
Tags: food newzealand business science
Links to YouTube videos of people get 147 in snooker.
"Value capture in the new media value chain is a function of market power. And market power is a function of attention. And attention is allocated most efficiently by markets, networks and communities."
Tags: business future internet media2.0
"VoodooPad automatically links each page together, to form a miniature world wide web, on your desktop! Anybody familiar with the WikiWikiWeb will feel right at home with VoodooPad."
Tags: software free apple organization
Romanian site that has some interesting interviews with Planners.
Tags: interviews trend marketing
"Liberty requires security without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that's why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide."
Tags: privacy surveillance politics law
"As the barriers to Web publishing continue to diminish, more design-focused publications are springing up online. Here’s a list of what I’ve come across."
"The name's Trev. I'm 27, totally super fucking hip, and am a copywriter at a global ad agency in New York City."
Tags: advertising cartoon funny nyc marketing
An in-depth look at the trend of brand democratization/co-creation.
Tags: business marketing cocreation
Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles' Foe, It's Fuel
"The notion that lactic acid was bad took hold more than a century ago, said George A. Brooks, a professor in the department of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. It stuck because it seemed to make so much sense."
Tags: nytimes health science sports
Skype Introduces Free Calls to Landlines
"Skype, the global Internet communications company, today announced that all US and Canadian-based Skype customers can now make free SkypeOut calls to traditional landline and mobile phones in the US and Canada."
"When the viewing universe for any program shrinks, that impacts ad rates, which impacts revenue. The only way these companies can produce growth, then, is by cutting expenses, and in the creative world, that is suicide."
Tags: television marketing business internet media2.0
Esther Dyson on the Evolution of Marketing, and Attention vs. Intention
"People go on the Web in search of attention; they don't want to give it as much as get it."
Tags: attention interviews marketing advertising future
Leaders are Those Who Recognize It
"Are leaders born, or can you make the decision to become one? Whether your view is from the bottom up, the middle or the top – It's clear that your decisions make the difference."
Tags: leadership management tips
"We must engage strenuously with the future, thinking through the dark side of each opportunity, and working to maximize the good that we create while minimizing the harm."
Tags: internet future business culture
25 Things I Learned on Google Trends
"To give you a sense of its tremendous power for tapping into the world psyche, here are 25 things I learned on Google Trends. Someone should start a blog on this kind of stuff."
Tags: trend google search statistics
"There’s a potential energy circling around all of us, of the things we need to hear that will change our minds, but never get the chance. I wrote a short list of ways to try and get more of that energy."
Tags: management feedback potential
We're All Stellar Designers, Now
"Put it this way: if one of the primary tasks of the design press is to seek out interesting work to feature in its editorial pages, then it’s hard to imagine much advertising aimed at designers ever being featured. It’s just not good enough."
Tags: design advertising magazines
"I would love to hit some point, in a few years, where I throw out perfection as calmly as a child tosses a ball. It's something to strive for."
Tags: inspiration bestarticlesof2006
Linotype provides the downlow on what fonts are used on international football (soccer) jerseys.
Look at historical data of how much people have searched for specific terms over time. Graphs the whole deal out. Pretty sweet.
Tags: google trend search research
A beautiful short multimedia film based on William Blake's "The Tiger"
Tags: poetry art design video animation
The Printer's Devil's Dictionary
Definitions of design terms. My favorite: "Over-analyze, v. 1. To perform even the most cursory critical study of a design artifact. 2. To analyze."
Cookie Monster Searches Deep Within Himself and Asks: Is Me Really Monster?
Cookie monster tries to come to terms with his monsterous tendencies.
Tags: funny muppets bestarticlesof2006
Why Don't Ad Agencies Advertise?
"If agencies hype the importance of branding campaigns for public companies to enhance their image among investors, why is it that Interpublic, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP don't support their brand images on Wall Street?"
Tags: advertising marketing branding business pr
Magician David Blaine Hires Aquarium Man
"What happens when the city’s top aquarium man is hired by David Blaine? Either the fish die or Blaine dies. (Or, no fish.)"
Barbie? Who's Barbie? Young girls are playing electronic house with The Sims, and the game lets them tell their own stories.
Tags: videogames gender culture youth trend nytimes
Trying to answer the question: "When someone is very good at a given thing, what is it that actually makes him good?"
Tags: learning nytimes psychology science
Tons of FREE E-Magazines for download
"Approach every job like an amateur. Be stupid. Ask a lot of questions."
Tags: branding marketing design
Faith = Illness. Why I've had it with religious tolerance.
Doug Rushkoff takes religious believers to task.
Tags: religion culture history
"Successful organizations (and I include churches and political parties on the list) fire the 1% of their constituents that cause 95% of the pain."
"When it comes to jobs, let your blog be your screener. If you run into potential employers similiar to those Kristine had to deal with, then screw ‘em, there are better places out there that’ll have more respect for you."
Tags: blogs jobs trend culture identity
Nintendo's answer to the console wars: Be unique.
Tags: videogames business innovation
"But at the end of the day Google is still a modern answer to a postmodern question: it is a massive, centralized hub enlisted to parse and catalog the universe of human endeavor."
Tags: interviews technology culture
The PingMag Standards Wish-list
Five things that need to be standardized across the world.
Tags: design standards funny lists
What If No One Will Pay For Content?
"In media 1.0, brands paid for the attention that media companies gathered by offering people news and entertainment in exchange for their attention. In media 2.0, people are more likely to give their attention in exchange for OTHER PEOPLE’S ATTENTION."
TiVo is going to offer advertisers the chance to create content on a pay-per-download basis . . . wow.
Tags: tivo ondemand advertising marketing media2.0
"The new browser includes a search box in the upper-right corner that is typically set up to send users to Microsoft's MSN search service. Google contends that this puts Microsoft in a position to unfairly grab Web traffic and advertising dollars . . . "
Tags: search software microsoft google browser ie
A chat with the science-savvy writers behind "The Simpsons" and "Futurama"
Tags: science television cartoon comedy interviews
Style-Force Semplice Pixelfonts
Free pixelfonts. Sweet.
The homepage of Natalie Jeremijenko.
Tags: design culture education
"How Stuff Is Made (HSIM) is a visual encyclopedia that documents the manufacturing processes, labor conditions and environmental impacts involved in the production of contemporary products."
Tags: design consumerism history
Laura Fields and the Page Three Sutra
Looking at the convergence of advertising and news on Page Three of the New York Times.
Tags: design advertising culture nytimes
"A showcase of headline typographic design from across the web."
Tags: design blogs inspiration
A gallery of blog comment designs.
Tags: design blogs inspiration gallery
"I say no, tagging isn’t stuck. Just don’t try and make it the primary thing to do. Instead, make sure personal value preceeds network value. Then you’ll have plenty to aggregate."
Tags: del.icio.us tags socialsoftware
Rethinking Every Rule of Reinvention
Four Strategies to Avoid at All Costs
Tags: marketing advertising branding bestarticlesof2006
An analysis of 8468 reviews on Pitchforkmedia.com
Stastical breakdown of Pitchfork reviews in search of tendencies.
Tags: reviews music statistics
"I will yell it from the rooftops, design is communication! Which means: design is writing, design is organization, design is usability, and on and on. Design encompasses much more than you think."
Tags: design communication
Five Most Important Considerations
An answer to the question, "what are the five most important considerations when planning a web site?"
Ross Mayfield profiles the different levels of participation.
Tags: community longtail collaboration socialsoftware
"Always enter a conversations with a drink you are about to finish. If things don't go well, all you need to do is take one last gulp from your drink and excuse yourself to get another, never to return."
Tags: lifehacks
Hiring the Right Design Manager
"A short list of must-haves that I would recommend looking for when hiring someone to manage a group of designers, specifically in an in-house design group."
Tags: design management
Gladwell discusses some of the issues with eyewitness testimony, especially across races. When people see the face of another race they first group it in the racial category then move on to facial features.
Tags: crime psychology race
AOL Building Out IM as Community Platform
"AOL's version of widgets (little applets that are essentially a user interface on top of an RSS feed) are AIM Page modules. But unlike Yahoo's and Apple's, they aren't meant to live on your desktop. Like Microsoft Gadgets, the're designed to be housed on
Tags: aol socialnetworking widgets
102 Movies You Must See Before...
A list of "the movies you just kind of figure everybody ought to have seen in order to have any sort of informed discussion about movies."
The Worst President in History?
One of America's leading historians assesses George W. Bush
Tags: bestarticlesof2006 history politics
"A journey into a place in cyberspace where thousands of people have imaginary lives. Some even make a good living. Big advertisers are taking notice."
Tags: business videogames community marketing
"You can't keep up. There is no way. And trying to keep up will probably just make you dumber.You can never be current on everything you think you should be."
Tags: informationoverload aggregation attention
"True learning happens when learners stop seeing themselves as mere students who do homework and complete assignments. True learning happens when they don’t see it as learning."
Tags: education blogs learning community writing
"Great leaders are few and far between. This has nothing to do with genetics . . . The good news is that it’s relatively easy to learn to be a leader. You can start with these 8 beginner’s errors that can sabotage your efforts as a leader."
Tags: leadership management lists
"Renegade execs predict that the branding opportunities of the future lie in filtering, repackaging and ultimately paying for quality consumer-generated content."
Tags: media2.0 future marketing advertising