January 2010
58 posts
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“In Web 2.0 jargon the words “friend” and “community” are severely abused. Unless...”
– AdPulp.com (via somethingchanged)
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“I think I’ve just figured out why it annoys me when people trivialise the...”
– Me (after, well, a few glasses of wine)
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“[President] Obama may be personally very appealing, but he has positioned...”
– Bob Herbert, “Obama’s Credibility Gap”, New York Times
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“Interesting take on the modern day advertising organizational structure from...”
– Creativity Agency of the Year 2009: Mother New York - Agency of the Year 2009 - Creativity Online (via seij, connerhuber, dennisdemori)
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“By whose authority do the Standing Rules of the Senate govern the Senate? By the...”
– A risky parliamentary procedure might get health reform through the Senate. - By Timothy Noah - Slate Magazine (via indefensible)
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“The engineers and I handle customer support. When I tell people that, they look...”
– I really agree with this. It’s potentially an even bigger problem for digital agencies than it is for pure-play product companies - in an agency the developers are often so many layers of account service and client management away from the end customer that they can very easily lose touch with...
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“Not treating Americans as adults has costs. For instance, it became the official...”
– From an excellent Wall Street Journal article titled ‘Undressing the Terror Threat’
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“Someone sends me the links every time there’s a new one. I think I’ve seen about...”
– Oliver Hirschbiegel, director of Downfall, on the use of his film for the infamous Hilter meme. (via Vulture, tanya77, ericmortensen)
Know Your Meme: Downfall / Hitler Meme
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How to choose a Vice Presidential Candidate:... →
In public, Palin looked like the game changer McCain had wanted, but in private, the authors say she was struggling to learn too much too fast.
“Her foreign policy tutors are literally taking her through, ‘This is World War I, this is World War II, this is the Korean War. This is the how the Cold War worked.’ Steve Schmidt had gone to them and said, ‘She knows nothing,’” Heilemann told Cooper. “A...
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In Retrospect - Executives on How the AOL-Time...
fluffynotes:
MR. LEVIN I used to think at the time it was a clash of cultures and a misreading of the dot-com bubble, but I now upon reflection believe that the transaction was undone by the Internet itself.
I think it’s something that no one could have foreseen, and to this day, whether Apple is going to dominate entertainment or whether Amazon is going to dominate publishing, all the old...
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“On days when workers have the sense they’re making headway in their jobs, or...”
– Progress, not recognition or incentives, is what really motivates workers. “Breakthrough Ideas for 2010,” Harvard Business Review (via somethingchanged) (via fluffynotes)
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“If you consider what an economy consists of — organizations, laws, markets,...”
– From this fascinating Booz & co interview with economist W. Brian Arthur.
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WatchHow’s this for the most amazing agency reel you’ve ever seen? Particularly impressive when you consider that many agencies can’t even get rid of the typos in their pitch decks.
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“I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and...”
– Rupert Murdoch’s son in law Matthew Freud, quoted in yesterday’s New York Times.
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“Allthe boys were like, WHO ARE YOU and i was like, fuck you! is msn your home...”
– The greatest piece of internet prose I have ever read. Meaghan: fuck anyone who doesn’t understand that working at Tumblr is the coolest thing on the planet (or who has MSN as their homepage, etc etc)
From Meaghan’s epic story of her night out.
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“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”
– Albert Camus (via thechocolatebrigade)
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“On a manicured lawn within the grounds of the Arkansas state capital in Little...”
– From an article titled “No crib for a bed” in the Dec. 5th - 11th 2009 issue of The Economist. So good to see that everyone is solving the big problems. This article followed several pages of extremely bleak reporting on U.S. economic prospects.
EDIT: I should note that if I lived in...
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“The New South Wales economy is in drastic need of reform. Its manufacturing base...”
– John Birmingham, “Failed State”, The Monthly (December 2009)
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“As agency people, digital or otherwise, we can be a little cavalier about our...”
– “6 digital agency survival tips for 2010”, Liz Ross, EVP & Chief Growth Officer, Digitas US (via @el_gordon)
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“When a single TV spot or print ad used to be able to simultaneously drive...”
– R/GA founder & CEO Bob Greenberg, writing in Adweek
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“So when Brian Williams is asking me about what’s a personal thing that you’ve...”
– Barack Obama (via dancroak) (via evangotlib)
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“Let us in future be a bit more skeptical about the need to recreate the protest...”
– From Evgeny Morozov’s article “Dictators.com” in the Perspective section of today’s AFR. I don’t really agree with his conclusions but it is an extremely good read and an excellent reminder that we must not idealise social media as the answer to all of the world’s...
Margaret Thatcher dines with her cabinet
somethingchanged:
Waiter: Steak or fish?
Margaret Thatcher: Steak, of course.
Waiter: And for the vegetables?
Margaret Thatcher: They’ll have steak as well.
From this Economist article about feminism.
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Ok, who wants to ask me something?... →
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Watchobsessivecompulsive:
the future of planning, where the role of planners will be less to only PLAN and more to activate and DO
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“It’s important not to overstate the benefits of ideas. Quite frankly, I know...”
– Jemima Kiss talks to Google co-founder Sergey Brin | Technology | The Guardian (via interestingsnippets) (via roomthily) (via infoneernet)
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“Our ancestors viewed the Earth as rich and bountiful, which it is. Many people...”
– The Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, spiritual leader of the Buddhist faith (via shitas) (via smarterplanet)
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Watchvicemag:
THE VICE GUIDE TO ICELANDIC ELF SEX
Iceland is a country where the majority of people believe so firmly in elves extreme measures are taken to avoid upsetting them. Sometimes that means changing a road’s path to avoid elven territory, for Hallgerdur Hallgrímsdóttir, it means boning them. Hallgerdur claims many Icelanders have been doing elves in secret for centuries. There’s even a...
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“There’s a sense of social Darwinism at play here and while it might sound overly...”
– Evolution of social media, by Brian Solis (via lanipauli)
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“By now, everyone should realise that the only people out there who aren’t...”
– The most sensible thing I’ve read in this debate so far. From Clem’s excellent article in today’s Age.