A collection of digital wonders and some other stuff
Can you name 50 US states in 10 Minutes? Here’s a hint, if you get stuck think about the property names in Monopoly. I got 32 out of 50 on my first try.
I hope no one minds, but I converted the 50 States in 10 minutes game into a Canadian version: 13 Provinces and Territories in 2 minutes.
Update: See my list of other versions of the game.
Ira Glass bequeaths the tricks of the trade in four YouTube videos that are extremely interesting, whether or not your are in the publishing/podcasting/video making business.
… It is your job to be kind of ruthless and to understand that either you don’t have a sequence of actions — you don’t have the story part that works or you don’t have a moment of reflection that works and you’re going to need both, and in a good story you’re gonna flip back and forth between the two like to be a little bit of action and someone will say something about it and then a little more action and someone will say something and it and that’s really like a lot of the trick of the whole thing you know is to have the perseverance that if you’ve got an interesting anecdote that you also uh… can end up with an interesting moment of reflection that will support it and then the two together interwoven into three minutes or six minutes or however long your story is will make something that’s larger than the sum of its parts.
(Via Kottke)
Jason Scott has written a great article on Wikipedia’s latest controversy.
A popular editor of Wikipedia was hired by the Wikia company and in doing so revealed that he wasn’t a guy with some college degrees but in fact was a 24-year old kid from Kentucky. This made a lot of people unhappy, and in the ensuing discussions, Jimbo Wales and strongly alleganced Wikipedians have tried to downplay it, mostly because that position’s always worked before. It’s not working as well this time.
As an aside, I should mention that Jason’s site, ascii.textfiles.com has become a favorite of mine lately and I enjoy pretty much everything about it.
Update: Jimbo Wales has asked Essjay to step down. Jason Scott has a great follow-up.
Link rot. Here is the post from the Wayback Machine.
Please enjoy the beautiful Oscar winning animated short, The Danish Poet. It’s done in a very traditional Canadian animation style and has a storyline that will melt even the coldest of hearts.
The Danish Poet, Torill Kove, provided by the National Film Board of Canada
When I was enrolled in University, one of the classes I wanted to take was Philosophy of Game Theory. Unfortunately, disillusioned by my lack of interest after taking the introductory class (a prerequisite) I decided that Philosophy wasn’t for me after all.
Game Theory (Wikipedia) however, is still a very fascinating topic. Couple that with an interest in biology, sociology, and economics and the short documentary, “Nice Guys Finish First“, by Richard Dawkins becomes a tremendously interesting look at how selfish and altruistic behavior can be the greatest benefit or harm to the individual—and consequently also to the group.
Hit Play or Watch at Google Video.
Ze Frank finally met with Ray, the composer and singer of the internet meme, “Kick Somebody’s Ass”. This has got to be one of Ze’s most memorable shows to date.
Here are several interesting animal “fights”. I’m not going to tell you ahead of time who is going to win, but be warned, it won’t always be what you might expect.
Who would win: Octopus or Shark?
Who would win: Rabbit or Snake?
Who would win: Centipede or Bat?
For those of you that missed the Oscars, you can catch some of the great moments on YouTube (at least for the time-being). Here is one that I liked, Will Ferrel, Jack Black, and John C. Reilly singing about the pros and cons of being a comedian in an industry focused on drama.
Hit play or Watch at YouTube.
Well, the embedded video is gone, but you can still find clips for the time being at Oscar.com. Apparently, even those clips will be removed soon—talk about a backward marketing strategy.
I guess they don’t realize, the Oscars want to be free.
Check out The Missing Link flash creation by interactive media artist Masayuki Kido. This is really cool. I don’t really have the words to summarize other than to say, it’s a series of silhouettes that appear and with the click of the mouse you can interact with them to see a near narrative unfold itself dynamically. I found it extremely compelling.
You might also want to check out Pictaps, another flash based diversion, on the same site, that allows you to draw a character, and then watch him dance to a silly song.
A couple of years ago my Seminar for New Media professor showed our class a video about the symbiotic relationship between the media and today’s youth, cool Hunting, and how the network between the five media giants operates. The following embedded video is the same show.
The Merchants of Cool: They spend their days sifting through reams of market research data. They conduct endless surveys and focus groups. They comb the streets, the schools, and the malls, hot on the trail of the “next big thing” that will snare the attention of their prey—a market segment worth an estimated $150 billion a year.
Malcolm Gladwell makes a short interviewee appearance in The Merchants of Cool and reiterates some of his thoughts from his best selling book, “The Tipping Point”.
Hit play or Watch Fullscreen at Google Video.
Find the video on PBS.org.
(via)