Stuff I Overheard on the Internet(s)
District 9, the movie, the marketing, afrofuturism and an awesome panel on transmedia.
"The reason why the film wouldn't have caught many who followed science fiction by surprise is that it has been the focus of a transmedia marketing campaign for well over a year in advance of the film's release. Signs prohibiting nonhuman use of restrooms surfaced at Comic-Con a year ago. By the start of the summer, such signs were appearing on park benches, the sides of buses, and in a variety of other contexts around major cities."
"Afrofuturism offers us a fascinating way of thinking about how the themes of science fiction emerge across a range of different arts, including music, rather than remaining in the space of literary, filmic, and television science fiction which have traditionally been dominated by us white guys. And as the images of science fiction circulated through those channels, they took on new shapes and meanings, becoming a set of metaphors for thinking about issues such as slavery and cultural oppression."
http://www.viddler.com/simple/f94249ea/
The Original Short that preceded the movie (of course, available on YouTube)
Another brand in name only. (or Bino for Rush fans)
Linens and Things sets out to prove that simply keeping the name and a related product set can still work, even in a post-LnT world. (an extension of this post)
Advertising's Problem: It's focused on advertising, not solutions
"What Othmer's example fails to explain is that when the client moves on, no matter how good the agency, at some point they'll probably move on again. History has shown this to be true: key players leave, needs change, relationships sour. Each subsequent agency ends up dealing with the same or similar problems that the last tried to or couldn't solve, all the while making money and thinking they're doing great. All the while wearing out their tools a little more."
The Netflix Prize: Cool Idea, but maybe one doomed to fail
"But I think there's a deeper problem with these newfangled preference algorithms, and it has nothing to do with the details of their programming code. Instead, I think they're making a fundamental psychological mistake: all of these algorithms assume that our preferences are stable and consistent, but that's clearly not the case. In other words, Netflix assumes that if I like Napoleon Dynamite on Saturday night then I'll also enjoy it on Sunday afternoon. It assumes that I'll find Pineapple Express funny when I'm watching it with a bunch of stoned friends and when I'm watching it sober and alone, on a weekday evening. It also assumes that I'll want to watch the same list of movies regardless of when I'll be watching them."
How Does Language Shape the Way We Think?
"The Kuuk Thaayorre did not arrange the cards more often from left to right than from right to left, nor more toward or away from the body. But their arrangements were not random: there was a pattern, just a different one from that of English speakers. Instead of arranging time from left to right, they arranged it from east to west. That is, when they were seated facing south, the cards went left to right. When they faced north, the cards went from right to left. When they faced east, the cards came toward the body and so on. This was true even though we never told any of our subjects which direction they faced. The Kuuk Thaayorre not only knew that already (usually much better than I did), but they also spontaneously used this spatial orientation to construct their representations of time."