Centripetal Notion

miscellaneous badassery

Twitter development visualized

From April 2006 to January 2010. Like some kind of badass energy juggling. Via TechCrunch.

2010 Universal Everything reel

Speaks for itself really. Watch on Vimeo.

Owl in flight

E87A6629-6C6A-4559-A511-D264EFB9768A.jpg

(via collision detection < TYWKIWDBI)

Vintage local news commercials

I’d call them Anchorman-esque, but these were here first.

More from YouTube user and vintage video archivist archivistmilwaukeetvmadman.

Jim Lehrer’s guidelines to journalism

Said on Dec 4 upon him leaving PBS NewsHour:

People often ask me if there are guidelines in our practice of what I like to call MacNeil/Lehrer journalism. Well, yes, there are. And here they are

  • Do nothing I cannot defend.
  • Cover, write and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.

  • Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
  • Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am.
  • Assume the same about all people on whom I report.
  • Assume personal lives are a private matter, until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.
  • Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories, and clearly label everything.
  • Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes, except on rare and monumental occasions.
  • No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously.
  • And, finally, I am not in the entertainment business.

Read more at PBS Ombudsman.

Stock and flow

Really crystal clear metaphor and insight on real-time vs. more thoughtful media, and how each depend on each other.

“There are two kinds of quantities in the world. Stock is a static value: money in the bank, or trees in the forest. Flow is a rate of change: fifteen dollars an hour, or three-thousand tooth­picks a day. Easy. Too easy.

But I actually think stock and flow is the master metaphor for media today. Here’s what I mean:

Flow is the feed. It’s the posts and the tweets. It’s the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that remind people that you exist.
Stock is the durable stuff. It’s the con tent you produce that’s as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today. It’s what people discover via search. It’s what spreads slowly but surely, building fans over time.

I feel like flow is ascen dant these days, for obvi ous reasons—but we neglect stock at our own peril. I mean that both in terms of the health of an audience and, like, the health of a soul.

(…) I feel like we all got really good at flow, really fast. But flow is ephemeral. Stock sticks around. Stock is capital. Stock is protein.

And the real magic trick in 2010 is to put them both together. To keep the ball bounc ing with your flow—to main tain that open chan nel of communication—while you work on some kick-ass stock in the back ground. Sacrifice neither. It’s the hybrid strategy.”

Read more at Snarkmarket, one of my new favs.

Weekend life online

I can relate, especially this weekend.

Via Chris.

My productivity mantras for 2010, at least so far

Hofstadter’s Law

It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.

Parkinson’s Law

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

Pretty sure this could turn into some kind of recursive loop if you’re not careful.

Vanishing Point

Pretty much the coolest thing ever today.

Every once and a while, you see something that so exactly represents the current state of artistic expression in its given genre, it almost renders itself obsolete. That’s kinda how I feel about this.

A bubbly, glitchy state of the motion/infographics union by Japanese group Bonsajo.

Vanishing Point on Vimeo

Kevin Rose & Tim Ferriss are fun to watch

Somehow I got sucked into watching this. Kevin Rose of Digg & Tim Ferriss of The Four Hour Work Week have started recording videos together, talking about everything from startups to nutrition, travel, technology, culture, etc.

They’ve started calling the series “Random” which is just about the same as not having a name at all. But who needs a name when the conversation is as good as this. Two insanely smart, motivated guys sharing their insights about nothing and everything in particular.

I’ve embedded all, or at least most, of the videos below. From what I can tell there’s not currently any streamlined way of following or subscribing to the series, so I swiped these embeds from Kevin’s blog.

Watch the most recent episode at least, to see if it’s a good fit for your brain. I hope they keep at it.

Episode 8


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Justin Ruckman