TAG: history
How Accurate is "Mad Men?" Let's Ask An Ad Veteran (My Father)
"In this first installment, he reflects on elitism in the advertising industry, drinking culture, how concepts and ideas really came to fruition, and the nature of agency-client interaction -- all themes right smack in the center center of AMC's Mad Men."
Tags: advertising television interviews history
"The losing war on junk e-mail."
Joybubbles, 58, Peter Pan of Phone Hackers, Dies
"Joybubbles was a blind genius with perfect pitch who played a pivotal role in the 1970s subculture of "phone phreaks.""
Tags: phone phreaking history death
DEC - Glimpse of the Future, 1994
"A view of the future of the Web, circ... A view of the future of the Web, circa 1994 from DEC."
A President Besieged and Isolated, Yet at Ease
"Bush, Grasping for Answers and Fixated on Iraq, Remains Resolute"
Tags: politics psychology history iraq war
Did pirates really say "arrrr"?
"Probably not. Both that phrase and the accent that goes with it are strictly Hollywood. They originated with Robert Newton, the actor who played Long John Silver in the movies and on TV through much of the 1950s." I'm crushed.
Tags: history funny language movies
"Good scans of the Voynich Manuscript are hard to find. These are from the Yale Library (download instructions), though unfortunately in a proprietary graphics format, which I converted to jpeg." Not sure what to do with this . . . but seems worth having
Tags: photography history research codebreaking
Who really said it?
Tags: quotes music architecture history
"The problem of weightless writing was not solved by either Soviet central planning or good old American sub-contracting, but by a private investor and a good idea"
The Greatest Innovations of All Time
"Our focus should be on platforms: broad capabilities that have the potential to cut across industries, markets, and applications. Platforms often have some proprietary capability at the core, but not always."
Tags: history innovation lists
NFL Films and the reinvention of football
"Ed and Steve say they thought about football as something theatrical, perhaps even operatic, well, come to that, actually mythical. They accomplish this effect with stirring music, slow motion athleticism, and a grand, booming narrative."
Tags: football sports culture marketing history
Hollywood to immortalise pop frauds
Universal is making a Milli Vanilli movie. Thank goodness.
Tags: movies music history funny strange
Finally, the history of General Tso's Chicken.
Tags: food history nytimes china
Is Federer the greatest sportsman ever?
"The way Federer is going, it is entirely conceivable that he will one day be seen as the greatest sportsman in history."
The story of the downfall of Friendster.
Tags: friendster venturecapital business internet socialnetworking history nytimes
Steven Johnson on THE GHOST MAP
"Author Steven Johnson discusses the most intense outbreak of cholera in Victorian London - and what it means to us today, from the way we understand cities, science, disease, and the modern world."
Tags: video youtube health london history books
Agency Business Opportunity: Brand Archaeology
"If agencies were smart, they would be scrambling to set up Brand Archeology departments staffed with researchers and lawyers whose sole job is to find lapsed trademarks."
Tags: branding business history advertising marketing
Looking back on 25 years of MTV, "More and more, it feels as if there is no longer such a thing as mass culture. MTV, for good or bad, still reassures me that there is."
Tags: culture history youth music
On the design of American State flags...
A look at a few of the best and worst designed state flags.
Tags: flags design history politics
Understanding the 1% Rule: Motivations
The history of one-percenters from motorcycle riders to bloggers.
Tags: history marketing media2.0 cgm
Pirates caused a global crisis in the 18th century. Why is it stage and screen can't get enough of them today? Brian Logan explodes a few myths
Further proof there's a place for anything on the internet.
Tags: funny cats photography germany history
"Over time as consumer created media engulfs the other kind, it's possible that completely new norms develop around the notions of talent and artistic ability."
Tags: design history myspace cgm video
Your Pocket Guide to PoMo's History
"Before all the hooha about postmodernism, there was something called modernism. What was all that about?"
Tags: postmodernism philosophy history
Faith = Illness. Why I've had it with religious tolerance.
Doug Rushkoff takes religious believers to task.
Tags: religion culture history
"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
The Worst President in History?
One of America's leading historians assesses George W. Bush
Tags: bestarticlesof2006 history politics
"But what if … what if we had a graphic vocabulary that actually meant something? What if it were a hard fact that, say, an open swoosh = transition, and a closed swoosh (halo) = transition completed."
Tags: design branding history language
Thank You For Smoking opening main titles
Very nicely designed opening title sequence for the movie Thank You For Smoking.
Tags: movies design typography history cigarettes
Explaining the differences between Times Roman and Times New Roman, in case you were interested.
Tags: typography font history design
The Inside Track on Firefox Development
The story of Mozilla is long and rich in detail. There are many perspectives. This is mine.
'Born Slippy was a greyhound we bet on'
"Every song has a story behind it. Every songwriter has their own way of working. We asked 12 artists, from a legendary lyricist to a freelance hit-making team, how they created one of their classic tracks "
Could we chart the branches and connections of 100 years of music using the London Underground map? Dorian Lynskey explains how a box of coloured crayons and lot of swearing helped.
Tags: music visualization maps london history
Not Your Grandparent's Clenched Fist
A look at the history of the fist as a symbol.
A mirror of now defunct Suck.com.
Aaron Swartz gives a quick rundown of how AJAX came to be. Very interesting stuff.
Blog from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. "Eye Level will be dedicated to American art and the ways in which the nation’s art reflects its history and culture."
Tags: art blogs museums culture history
How a room at CERN turned into the message "404: File Not Found"
Comments from 2001 about the iPod release
Boy, those are a bunch of upset Apple fans. I expect they're eating their words at this point.
Tags: apple funny history ipod posted
Tracking Down An Address In 1939 Vienna
An AskMetafilter member asks if anyone can help track down the address of his grandfather in Vienna. In turn he gets not only the adress, but also documents including he never knew about.
Tags: history cool community posted
The DH Interview With Phillip Bouchard, Creator of Oregon Trail
Finally, an interview with the man behind the game I remember most from my childhood.
Tags: games history youth education posted
Telling the Truth About Chief Justice Rehnquist
Alan Dershowitz: "My mother always told me that when a person dies, one should not say anything bad about him. My mother was wrong."
Tags: history law politics race posted
How we got the unusual symbol used for the menu command key
Tags: apple mac interface design history posted
"Welcome to guidebook, a website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces, as well as various materials related to them."
Tags: design internet history usability posted
"These are the celebrity victims of the new-economy bust."
Tags: business history internet lists startups money posted
Why children love Roald Dahl’s storiesâ€â€and many adults don’t.
Tags: books history writing youth posted
The inspiration for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Tags: books food history movies posted
"Much of the "canned laughter" used on the soundtracks of sitcoms is said to have come from tapes that were originally recorded during broadcasts of "The Red Skelton Show""
Tags: strange culture history television posted
Ten years later, the story of Suck.com, the first great website (A very very very long history of Suck.com)
Tags: history blogs business internet journalism writing posted bestarticlesof2005
Put up stickers in support of Darwin and evolution
Tags: art evolution history politics religion science posted
The Evolution of the Starbucks Logo
A look at the evolution of the Starbucks logo over the last 40 years or so
Tags: history logos design starbucks posted
WOCKA WOCKA WOCKA: Pac-Man turns 25
Technology Review: "From the early 1980s "Pac-Mania" to today's endless sequels and rip-offs, the original master of maze management remains a bright yellow circle on the cultural radar."
Tags: videogames history posted
TINY MUSIC MAKERS: Pt 1: The 'Intel Inside' chimes
Ever wonder where things like the Intel, Microsoft and THX sound come from? Well, check out this series of articles.
Tags: music advertising history posted
How Deep Throat Fooled the FBI
Nation: "His cunning worked. He fooled Pat Gray. Nixon never came after him. And this clever bureaucrat continued to do exactly what Nixon feared: telling Woodward and Bernstein secrets that would help destroy a presidency."
Tags: politics watergate history posted
The Dark Underbelly of Holy Shit
"An honest HOLY SHIT is one which completely penetrates the PR, the BUZZ, the marketing. It's the moment when you clearly see the value of a technology and how it will permanently alter your world."
Tags: funny history technology innovation posted
Creationism: God's gift to the ignorant
As the Religious Right tries to ban the teaching of evolution in Kansas, Richard Dawkins speaks up for scientific logic
Tags: history evolution politics religion science posted
How technology has transformed the sound of music.
Tags: culture music history dj technology remix posted
How Mark Felt Became 'Deep Throat'
As a Friendship -- and the Watergate Story -- Developed, Source's Motives Remained a Mystery to Woodward
Tags: politics history bestarticlesof2005 posted watergate
'The Crazy Frog sound? That's my fault.'
The sight of a strange blue-grey frog with a helmet and goggles, revving up an imaginary motorbike while making an infuriating "ding ding dididing" noise, is familiar to much of the country. In fact to most of them it's too familiar... far, far too famili
Tags: mobile history fun viral posted
Bob Dylan was never the same after it; neither was his audience. And it made a young Frank Zappa want to quit the music business. Greil Marcus on how Like a Rolling Stone rocked the world
The Significance of "Social Software"
Danah Boyd: "Social software represents a new generation of social technology development - a generation that is dependent on moving beyond the laboratory and into mass culture."
Tags: writing socialsoftware history posted
Rare mixes, mastermixes, remixes, bootlegs and pirate radio from the mid-80s converted to MP3.
Tags: hiphop history mp3 music posted
The article that changed the world
Overinflated claims in book titles reveal a lack of self-confidence among publishers
Tags: books language funny history writing posted
A tour of the oldest bars in New York City
The Man Who Saved the World Finally Recognized
"Stanislav Petrov was a Soviet army officer monitoring the satellite system for signs of a U.S. attack, the year was 1983, and his instructions, if he detected missiles targeting the Soviet Union, were to push the button and launch a counter-offensive."
Tags: history war russia nuclear posted
A History of Communications 35,000 BC - 1998 AD
Timeline of communication from 35,000 BC to 1998
Tags: communication history visualization posted
Getting the net off the ground
Early attention to security issues might have given us a better internet today - or the project might never have taken off at all, says Robert Kahn.