Archive: Posts from February, 2005
February 28th, 2005, 2 Comments »
Cross-posted to (one of) my day-job blog.
I’ve written about ChangeThis
on several
occasions. I’ve described it as a manual to being a better human, and have
found their manifestos to be thoughtful and original statements of philosophy
on a wide variety of subjects. Sadly, James Cherkoff’s What
is Open Source Marketing? is neither.
I expect a manifesto not only to be (to borrow from the dictionary) "a
public written declaration of principles", but also to be full of innovative
thinking. If we look at famous manifestos in history, this is generally the
case. Looking at other examples on the ChangeThis site (most notably The
One Minute Website), I’ve come to expect originality. You’re better off
reading a handful of documents which he liberally borrows from to reach his
conclusions: [more]
Read more…
2 Comments »
February 28th, 2005, 6 Comments »
Enormous art projects are so French. You can’t wrap two islands in pink fabric and not sputter on about it in some Eurotrash accent. Despite all the excitement about all those orange gates in Central Park, I’m uninspired. As such, I was extra-amused to see this cartoon from Bernie, the artist behind Alien Love Predator.
6 Comments »
February 28th, 2005, No Comments »
In my first year of university, I wrote an essay on the Rose Theatre. It’s the lesser-known sister to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, and a stone’s-throw west of that famous theatre. Shakespeare acted at the Rose, and several of his and Marlowe’s plays were performed there. Here’s what the theatre might have looked like (thought there is much debate about how many sides it actually had).
The remains of the Rose (as opposed, I suppose, to the Name) was discovered, to much excitement, in 1989, while excavating for a new office building. They still built the building, but left a large, dark cavity underneath it to preserve the remains. Unfortunately, the remains weren’t open to the public. Soon, they will be (via Mirabilis):
Leading figures from the British stage, including Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench will next month launch a 5 million pound plan to resurrect the historic building, which first staged Shakespeare’s early plays, including Titus Andronicus and Henry VI Part I. Supports plan to reopen it in four years’ time.
So, it won’t so much rise, as, you know, lie there in the mud while people look at it. But it’s still great news for those interested in theatre history and architecture.
I literally gasped when I stepped into the auditorium of the replica Globe Theatre in London. Their attention to detail was astonishing, and (to use a cliche) it was literally like stepping into history. One of my favourite tidbits about the Globe project is that, while it’s a working theatre, if historians uncover new information about the structure’s appearance, they’ll change the building to match.
No Comments »
February 28th, 2005, 2 Comments »
Last month, I was amused to read how Fiona Apple’s album was in limbo, apparently because her label didn’t think it was good enough to release. Today, via Metafilter, I learned that several of her songs from this album have been (surprise, surprise) leaked to the Web. I haven’t listened to them, but you can check them out here.
2 Comments »
February 27th, 2005, 7 Comments »
I watched the Oscars on and off tonight. Here are a few conclusions:
- They should simply eliminate the Best Song category. All of the songs are
always awful. We’ve rarely heard them before because they rarely become hits
(Celine notwithstanding)–they’re just the central fodder on a fodder-filled soundtrack.
- Was that Selma Hayak/Penelope Cruz combination a cruel joke or a game of
who puts more Latin in Latina?
- Beyonce’s agent must have some kind of pull. Was it buy two, get one free
night? Why the heck didn’t Emmy Rossum sing that song from Phantom?
- I’m not down with this present-awards-from-everywhere business. Is this
reality TV’s influence? I assume it was a strategy to reduce the length of
the evening, as presenters were closer to the nominees.
- The Oscars implemented a caste system. Those artists who are unrecognizable
can wait on-stage to receive their awards, looking for all the world like the cast of an off-Broadway Beckett play. Actual celebrities can still enjoy
the run down the aisle.
- In 100 years, film students will speak of Martin Scorsese a lot more often
than they speak of Clint Eastwood. The latter is a decent director, but the
former is a visionary. This guy has made Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Kundun
and Goodfellas and has never received an Academy Award?
- I went a disappointing 8 for 11 on my
predictions. I really thought The Aviator would take Best Director
and Best Picture.
7 Comments »
February 27th, 2005, 19 Comments »
Once again, I was proud of my country this week when we declined participation in the US missile defence shield. It took our Prime Minister–more custodian than visionary–too long to make the decision, but I’m glad he did what he did.
That got me thinking about the American missile shield. It seems like a stupid waste of money and risks plunging the world into another nuclear arms race. That said, I know precious little about the issue. So, I went and did some reading (and watching). I tried to seek out unbiased resources, or at least resources whose bias was immediately apparent:
Worryingly, no one even knows if missile defence is going to work, or how well it’s going to work. The Pentagon won’t provide access to any test data. Obviously, the number of nuclear missiles launched in the history of the world is zero, so we don’t have a lot of context for success and failure. And the estimated total cost of the system? At least US $200 billion. There’s an interesting quote from a senator at the end of one of the PBS segments: “National missile defence in the United States has become a theology, not a technology.”
So, it still seems like a pretty bad idea. However, I’m ready to be convinced otherwise. Does anybody have compelling arguments in favour of a missile shield?
19 Comments »
February 26th, 2005, 3 Comments »
I just noticed that the folks at Flickr have modified their logo on internal pages:
The graphic, called “gossipgossipgossip.gif” refers to the heated discussion in the tech community about their apparent impending purchase by Yahoo or Google or Microsoft or Gilette or Holy Mary’s Orphange in Donegal or whatever. Business rumours don’t get me particularly hot, but good for them for having fun with the nosy parkers.
3 Comments »
February 25th, 2005, 2 Comments »
Nooked is a client of mine. I mention client and client’s projects (if you get my meaning) from time to time when I think they’ll be of interest to my dear readers.
Nooked has launched a directory of corporate RSS feeds. Basically, it’s a Yahoo-esque Yellow Pages (if you’ll pardon the mixed metaphor) of RSS feeds from companies. It attempts to answer the question “where can I get RSS feeds”?
We imagine the typical users of the directory to be people wanting to monitor a particular industry–whether that’s a journalist, analyst or somebody wanting to keep tabs on the competition. At the moment, the directory is pretty light on content. Hopefully people will buy (it’s free, so I’m speaking figuratively) into the idea and add their own corporate feeds.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that they’ve got a search box you can add to your site for feeds, and a Firefox plug-in.
2 Comments »
