Archive for the ‘society’ Category

Most Memorable Quote of ‘07: “Don’t tase me, bro!”

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

If you’re not already familiar with the infamous scene involving one bro, one John Kerry, and a gang of taser-wielding campus police, check out the video — and listen closely for the quote of the year. (Note: if you’re squeamish, skip it.)

I’m not sure how the Quote Patrol decides which quote is “most memorable,” but no doubt it has something to do with being one of the top quote queries on Google and one of the most popular videos on the web. And now it’s official: “Don’t tase me, bro!” has become the most memorable quote of the year according to the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations.

What makes the video and quote so popular? It’s that special somethin’ — the word “bro.”

(more…)

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Stuck for Gift Ideas? Just Plain Lazy? Try Some Gift Generators

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

gift_generator.jpg

Holiday consumerism is once again in full swing. How’s your gift list looking? Even if you’re not the thoughtful type, you might be able to pull off a decent gift with a little help from the gift generators.

All I Want Christmas Gift Finder. My favorite. You select your favorite visuals in order to refine your gift selection. The gifts seem pretty random to me, but I like the odd collection. You can also use this to send your wish list to someone else.

Gifts.com Gift Finder. Another search that prompts you visually. More of quirky, off-beat gift ideas.

Overstock Gift Finder. Eh, not so impressive. The same items kept coming up when I chose different options. But they’re cheap!

Find Gift. Decent. I liked the “Make Your Own Hot Sauce” kit that came up.

Present Picker. This one has more variables than most of the other generators. Changing the variables changes the gift ideas significantly, which suggests to me that the gift database is pretty big.

I see another use for Wonderfile. Imagine searching the ultimate gift library and watching your customized results filter up as you carefully choose your tags….

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Design for Babies, (enough rubber duckies and puppies)

Sunday, September 30th, 2007

Design for Babies, (enough rubber duckies and puppies)
September 30th, 2007 : Jess Louwagie

Its been about a year in the making, but my wife and I finally have something to show for our ‘creative collaboration’ that we decided to pursue together. She has the retail experience, an eye for merchandising and a love for babies, I guess I bring the graphic abilities and Adobe Illustrator know-how. Together we’re trying to dress babies better.

The official web site is still in progress at orangerhinokids.com, but you can get a glimpse of the first official releases at our Etsy: http://orangerhinokids.etsy.com/ and our official site is coming www.orangerhinokids.com

If you’re in Minneapolis, Patina stores will be carrying some designs very soon.

The first line is all animals combined with contemporary and/or vintage-esque patterns. You’ll find some onesies (organic and color variations), t-shirts an hoodies for babies and toddlers.

*UPDATE*
We have just been accepted as vendors at “Craftstravaganza”! Excited to be a part of such a great local outlet for local artsists, designers and musicians. We attended last year (as shoppers) and there was a very impressive mix of work. Come down to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds Fine Arts Building on Saturday April 26, 2008 and say hello.

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The Search for Spock’s Friend

Thursday, September 6th, 2007

Spock is a new search engine with a primary focus on people. It claims to be the leader in personal search - Imagine the “Google” of people search. Users can search Spock via three types of information - name, email or tags. Experts say that nearly 30% of Google searches are people searches. If this is true I’m surprised no one has created a good “personal search” engine until now. Spock utilizes tags which make it extremely simple to organize and find information. Our society might just be ego-centric enough to make this a success - how many of us have Googled ourselves? Oh and by the way, Spock allows users to add tags, name variations and a photo.

Go to Spock and “claim” your profile before someone else does. Spock uses a technology that automatically generates tags for an individual. This differentiates Spock from the other People Search web sites such as LinkedIn and Wink. Think of Spock’s potential uses - get the dirt on a new love interest, impromptu employer background check, or find out “where they are now”. It seems like Spock has the potential to be yet another Internet time sucker.

By the way, Spock is thrilled with Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). They are utilizing S3 for storing their photos. They write, “We’re pretty psyched with Amazon Web Services, and we’re looking forward to leveraging other neat services they roll out in the future.” It’s reassuring to know that other companies are having success with this technology just as we are with Wonderfile.

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Having trouble imagining just how scary those numbers are?

Thursday, May 17th, 2007

A pretty interesting view of of our culture and environmental issues through art. Artist Chris Jordan is working on a series called “Running the Numbers : An American self portrait” - where statistics are converted to images in the form of large format art works. As the description states, I can imagine they are even more impressive when seen in person but these works are pretty astonishing (and startling) at any scale.

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A clean source of electricity to power the entire planet…

Thursday, May 10th, 2007

I just read an article that literally (and metaphorically) blew me away.

Scientists have uncovered a source of clean power that could generate enough energy to provide over 100 times the current global demand. The jet stream. Duh - rather obvious if you think about it - a massive swath of 310 mile per hour winds blowing day and night…

There are currently several start-ups looking to tap into the jet streams power - there is some hope!

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