That's One Big Internet Right There

My Top Ten Favorite Fetishes
Arachibutyrophilia - Excessive interest in peanut butter.
"I discovered this when the couple that livedbeneath me got into a bit of trouble. They'd invited another couple to join them, and the other female had a severe — and undiagnosed — allergy to peanut butter. Moments after they'd smeared her with the chunky goo, her breathing stepped up toward hyperventilation, and even when scrubbed down with wet towels, her skin took on the bloated, bubbled texture of a salted cane toad. (And I feel professionally obliged to report that while concerned, her partner nonetheless showed unmistakable signs of arousal.) Within fifteen minutes, she resembled a giant tongue, and would never be able to tolerate even the whiff of peanut butter again."

If I had a dollar... (via)

Top Ten Ironic Ads from History
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU5N2SrEaZI&w=425&h=344]

The Uniform Project
As an exercise in sustainable fashion, one foxy lady wears one dress every day for an entire year. Of course, as rules sometimes do, it unleashed creativity rather than stamping it out. (via)

Radical Idea Creation from BrainStore
"Imagine a CEO, CFO and a junior sales manager of our coffee company cutting magazines together with a 40 year old mom, some students, an office guy, a travel manager and an Italian cook with some loud MTV music on background. After three minutes they will run trough the yard competing who writes ideas faster. After seven minutes they will draw pictures using gouache. After this stage, about 1000 “raw ideas” are expected to be produced."

Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY&w=425&h=344]

Developing Your Own Planning Style

Developing your own planning stylehttp://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=ipawithoutvideo-090703033154-phpapp01&stripped_title=developing-your-own-planning-style

View more documents from adliterate.

The Future of the Media Agency
"Making predictions for what's going to happen in media next week is hard, let alone undergo the ambitious challenge of trying to second guess the next five years. However, we believe our vision, which is based on rigorous research, conversations with key influencers and the collation of pertinent data and statistics, is not far-fetched. In fact, most of the predictions we make are grounded in today's reality; we are building the foundations now for a future-proof media agency in five years. So, take a trip into the future with us, use your imagination and tell us what you think."

From Wikipedia: The Hermeneutic Cycle
Heidegger (1927) developed the concept of the Hermeneutic Circle to envision a whole in terms of a reality that was situated in the detailed experience of everyday existence by an individual (the parts). So understanding was developed on the basis of "fore-structures" of understanding, that allow external phenomena to be interpreted or in a preliminary way. Gadamer (1975) developed this concept, leading to what is recognized as a break with previous hermeneutic traditions. But while Heidegger saw the hermeneutic process as cycles of self-reference that situated our understanding in a priori prejudices, Gadamer reconceptualized the hermeneutic circle as an iterative process through which a new understanding of a whole reality is developed by means of exploring the detail of existence. Gadamer viewed understanding as linguistically-mediated, through conversations with others in which reality is explored and an agreement is reached that represents a new understanding.^[2] The centrality of conversation to the hermeneutic circle is developed by Donald Schön (1983), who characterizes design as a hermeneutic circle that is developed by means of "a conversation with the situation."

Brooks on Psychology

David Brooks had a pretty cool article discussing the drawbacks of evolutionary psychology in Friday's NY Times. In it he says:

"But individuals aren’t formed before they enter society. Individualsare created by social interaction. Our identities are formed by the particular rhythms of maternal attunement, by the shared webs of ideas, symbols and actions that vibrate through us second by second. Shopping isn’t merely a way to broadcast permanent, inborn traits. For some people, it’s also an activity of trying things on in the never-ending process of creating and discovering who they are.'

My initial reaction to that paragraph was praise for the fantastic insight. Although, within a few minutes, the beauty of the language had worn off a bit and I was left with the sort of - well, no shit - feeling.

All these arguments tend to group themselves into neat little categories. Nature vs. nurture, good vs. bad, rational vs. emotional, when most of our world is far too complex and illogical to paint with such broad strokes. I mean really, it's in our nature to believe we are more of a product of nurture. It's our emotions that cause us to ascribe rationality to subconscious thought processes. It can be the bad in us that causes us to judge others for things we deem bad. We're all shades of gray swimming through overwhelming inputs seeking efficiency of story, often at the sacrifice of objective reality.

No real point here, but just got me thinking that a little balance, a little moderation of thought and humility could probably do us all some good.

Now time for you to say, "Well, no shit."

All the Stuff That's Fit to Type

Chances that You Will Believe This: High

Books and Music that Make You Dumb
"With his two Web sites (which have crashed from too much traffic),Booksthatmakeyoudumb.virgil.gr and Musicthatmakesyoudumb.virgil.gr, Griffith used aggregated Facebook data about the favorite bands and books among students of various colleges and plotted them against the average SAT scores at those schools, creating a tongue-in-cheek statistical look at taste and intelligence."

Visualizing the US Power Grid
Cool stuff from NPR. Our power grid is ffffucked.

Google Commissions "Ads" for Chrome (which I miss since switching to Mac)

More on Anomaly and Lauren Luke
Probably worth another post to describe my man crush on Anomaly. Lauren Luke's new line is about to hit the stores. I'll be watching closely.

Smashing Pumpkins Offer Subscription to Recording Process
This makes 1998 Paul go crazy, and 2009 Paul appreciate a good idea that will translate into another mediocre album.

"Corgan said in a statement, "The goal is to create a working model that is not profit motivated but rather information and access motivated. In exchange for a fixed resource base fans will be let inside in an unprecedented way to the creative process of preparing to make the next (SMASHING PUMPKINS) album while also inspiring an interactive dialogue that will help shape the work."

The Psychology of the Sale
"Over time, the presence of sales can really diminish a brand. I used to buy all my clothes at the Gap - I'm stuck with the fashion sense of an 8 year old boy - but, starting a few years ago, I noticed that everything at the Gap appeared to be on sale. This is problematic for two reasons: 1) It triggers deflationary expectations - why buy the t-shirt now when you can buy the same t-shirt for less in two weeks, after yet another "final" sale? and 2) It erodes the quality of the brand, at least as perceived by consumers. I implicitly assume that Gap has to put t-shirts on sale because they're of lower quality, when the actual reason might have to do with the overproduction of some factory in Turkey, or an inventory accounting rule, or some other banal corporate mistake."

Chief Culture Officer...I fear for Detroit.

Ahh...consolidation over quality or cool. A great read as usual from Grant McCracken on the lack of innovation within the walls of GM. And they're certainly doing no more to solve the problem today than they were yesterday.

"There was one competitive opportunity remaining, the place were theAmericans could beat the challengers.  The real chance for Detroit was design, to make cars that vibrate with the cultural moment as deeply and profoundly as they had in the 1950s (McCracken 2005).  Harley Earl was that man.  It is impossible to reckon the skill with which he spoke to (and for) the culture of the post-war period.  It is impossible to calculate how much money he made for General Motors. 

What Detroit needed was a man or a woman in every C-Suite who understood what was happening in culture.  It needed someone who understood what was happening in the minds of boomers (and why they were so deeply wedded to German luxury cars), in youth culture (when the muscle car culture was back with new and strange differences, and why cars like the funny, boxy little Scion was flourishing), in the life, the heart and the mind of the soccer mom (for many of whom the mini-van felt like the end of everything and especially their youth and their joy).  Detroit needed a senior executive who understood the consumer, and the American feeling for mobility in every sense of the word."

Read the whole thing here.

Around the Web Again.

Engagement Rings by Job Title
Apparently the idea of two-months salary for an engagement ring was an idea invented by Debeers in 1947. Artist Lee Gainer created a series of 20 prints from Lifeguard to A-list Actor.

Retail Experts are Better Placed for the Future
"Despite the 'down and dirty' reputation of retail (come on, admit it, you think retail's easy. It's all reactionary, no thinking, just do what you're ordered week in, week out), I think a background in it makes a planner, or anyone else in agency land for that matter, better placed for the future than most."

Spending Time Online is Essential for Young People
"Mizuko Ito, lead author of the study, says: "we found that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age."

Never Nude Land
Finally a place for me.

Republican Budget Alternative is Laughable
Seriously - they put their budget on a 70-year forecast based on completely made up information. Why am I not surprised.

Digital Media Isn't Mass Media for Cheap

Digital Media isn't Mass Media for Cheaphttp://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=bcsocialmediamassmediav1-0-090308225902-phpapp01&stripped_title=digital-media-isnt-mass-media-for-cheap

View more presentations from Bud Caddell.

Typographic Posters

Creative Whack Pack Gets iPhoned
The always awesome Roger von Oech brought his famous creativity exercises to the mobile phone...

The Personal Savings Rate from 1957-2007
Frightening...

Internet Equations

Cool Pop Song + Nice Childhood Memories + Clever Remixology = Propagatory Success

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtRQsCgYmtc&w=425&h=344]

(Phoenix - Brat Pack Mashup - via MBV)

Couple things

First - the COnsume More font from SMeltery. Probably useful for one of our advertis-y presentations, yes?

Download for free here.

I'd also like to point out that since my Monday morning posting of the dulcet reggae tones of Mr. Marley and his three birds, stocks rallied. That's right, Bob Marley caused Citibank to be more stable than we had once perceived and AT&T to go on a hiring spree. No shit.

So, we flat-lined a bit today. How about another rally tomorrow?

 A Second Song for Our Sockshttp://mediaplayer.yahoo.com/js

I encourage each of you to send the investors a little love, too. They're not all bad. Just a little down on their luck, that's all. Let's cheer 'em on up.

All around the internets volume 17.

A Passionate Rant about Social Media
"I blame the executives who ask their teams to do whatever they read wascool in this Sunday's NYTimes Magazine, or heard was cool this morning on MSNBC, or was told was cool at the last TED conference without bothering to ask if it's the right thing for the long-term success of their company."

Ken had a rough night

Air Bed and Breakfast
"AirBed & Breakfast is an online marketplace for peer-to-peer traveling. "We enable people to earn money by renting out extra space, and offer travelers a viable alternative to hotels."

50 Twitter Tools for Designers & Developers

Deconstructing Analysis Techniques

"In many respects, analysis is crucial to realizing the value of our research since good analysis can salvage something from bad research, but the converse is not so true. This is where the literature tends to fall a little silent, jumping over the analysis techniques straight to a discussion of how best to document and communicate the findings from analysis. This article seeks to begin to redress that imbalance by breaking down the analysis black box into its major sub-techniques."

Ethnography is not an in-home interview

"At it's best, ethnography supplies the biggest picture. The trick is how to do those interviews in home but still generalize to the larger cutural, competitive and strategic factors that make it make sense. From a parochial point of view, I like to think of this as putting the anthropology back in the ethnography. But if I too am obliged to take the larger view, it's also a matter of putting the IDEO, the Lafley, and the McKinsey back in ethnography."

I Dream of Denver

"These are places (except for Orlando) where spectacular natural scenery is visible from medium-density residential neighborhoods, where the boundary between suburb and city is hard to detect. These are places with loose social structures and relative social equality, without the Ivy League status system of the Northeast or the star structure of L.A. These places are car-dependent and spread out, but they also have strong cultural identities and pedestrian meeting places. They offer at least the promise of friendlier neighborhoods, slower lifestyles and service-sector employment. They are neither traditional urban centers nor atomized suburban sprawl. They are not, except for Seattle, especially ideological, blue or red."

Good vs. Evil: Good wins

With a hat tip to Tom, the case is now settled. Good wins.

The most good country? Uganda.

And the most evil? Mexico.

Thanks for settling the debate, Google.

Interestingness from all over.

Banners - The Media-Creative Schism
"You have a million dollars of a client’s money to spend online. Whichis more profitable? Give it to a boutique studio that has a team of 15 expensive people on the project, with high overhead costs and a lot of freelancer bills, or to give it to Yahoo, and take 25% profit off the top, and assign one media guy to oversee it? The profit pressure is immense to just give it to Yahoo."

Making Online Retail Social
WujWuj launched a retail portal allowing friends to by items together at lower cost than a single item. Not sure if it can scale, but interesting product nonetheless.

Facebook Gets Older
Can Facebook avoid the MySpace death spiral through the masses? For that matter, can MySpace regain its cool? Or is this the opportunity for the next big social player to arise? Friendster, then MySpace, then Facebook, then what?

The neurological basis for Intuition
"According to a new study, our gut feelings can enhance the retrieval of explicitly encoded memories - those memories which we encode actively - and therefore lead to improved accuracy in simple decisions. The study, which is published online in Nature Neuroscience, also provides evidence that the retrieval of explicit and implicit memories involves distinct neural substrates and mechanisms."

Internet Speed: Measured in Remixes
"Just remember that these pieces of content spread because real live human beings thought that they were remarkable enough to tell someone else about. And all of these remixes happened because real live human beings were inspired to create them."

The Ecology of Finance
"Even free-marketeers like Greenspan now recognize that unregulated capitalism has serious, perhaps fatal, weaknesses, and is in need of a tune-up. The world could try to develop a new model from first principles, but Princeton's Simon Levin, the Scripps Institute's George Sugihara, and Oxford's Bob May have published work pointing out that there are many natural systems that mimic, in nontrivial ways, the functioning of financial markets. "I've come to understand," says Levin, "that they're the same kinds of systems." Both feature competition for limited resources; individuals trying to maximize their own return; and competition and exploitation as well as the need for cooperation."

Overcoming our empathy deficit
"I want to warm to a theme that we too suffer from a deficit of empathy in the way we relate to those we seek to influence. We may try to understand their lives but we never really try to see the world through their eyes. That’s partly because we are constantly trying to lump people together so that their incredibly disparate lives become more manageable for us. And when we aren’t doing that we are dividing them into horrifying segments and then, even worse, writing ghastly pen portraits about our imaginary lives."