At this website click on the appropriate first letter of the model's name to see her latest campaign. Not really my cup of tea, but I like the site's funky design (and the LOLstyle editorializing). [Via]
So I know I'm about ohhhh 20 years late on this, but I just started watching the first season of Friday Night Lights. And.
SO GOOD.
Although, this sleepy football town must have something in their water, because there are more hot girls per capita there than in any other place in the world.
And of course John Mayer dated the hottest of them on the show, Ms. Minka Kelly.
I want to hate, but I can't knock the hustle.
Men Who Look Like Zach Braff (menwholooklikezachbraff.blogspot.com) is making me laugh uncontrollably. They describe the Braff Face as "the floppy hair, the close together eyes, the flirty smirk, the bottom-heavy forehead to jowls ratio, the potato shaped head," and a surprising number of celebrities share such a face! See exhibit A:
and 
Ahhh, it's so funny because it's true.
[Via]
No, it isn't some screenshot from a new M. Night Shymalan "horror" film. But, faceless people have been appearing in various high profile places, such as Wimbeldon and red carpet events in the UK. It's all most likely a guerrilla marketing promotion. Still doesn't make it less creepy.
On June 20, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted the test's publisher, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), a $2.3 million judgment against the operator of the site, Scoretop.com. GMAC has seized the site's domain name and shut down the site, and is analyzing a hard drive containing payment information. GMAC said any students found to have used the Scoretop site will have their test scores canceled, the schools that received them will be notified, and the student will not be permitted to take the test again.
Some b-school kids are probably nervous as all hell.
Read more here.
Chris Rock is having a busy year so far "as the only black guy at the Van Halen concert, the only black guy at the Cure concert, and the only black guy at the White Stripes concert," and he reviews a recent free concert Coldplay gave at Madison Square Garden:
If anything, Coldplay kind of reminds me of a British Hall and Oates. In the eighties what did a pop record song like? It sounded like Darryl Hall.
Brilliant insight.
Read more here.
[Thanks Moye]
Inside the Actor's Studio James Lipton interviews Hellboy: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbaA68jYYek]
[Via - Thanks Moye for sharing on Google Reader]
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Previously. Clay has more pictures and recap from his recent outing to our homeland of Alaska where with a few buddies they went on a lengthy multi-day man hike that took them across nearly every variety (aka all kinds) of wilderness Alaska has to offer, including a close encounter with a bear while they were fishing. As Clay writes of the encounter:
I notice two fishermen crossing the river at a fast point, and behind them, a large brown bear rustling in the woods behind them.
“BEAR” I say loudly and point
The fishermen look up confused
“BEAR” we all say, and point.
“Shit” says the one fisherman, turning an about face at the swiftest part of the river and crossing back to us and the safe side, standing a good distance behind the four of us. The other fisherman wades across the river and proceeds upstream a safe distance from the bear. We look at him in disbelief and inquire to the man standing with us.
He responds “I don’t know, that’s just my friend’ as if embarrassed by his friend’s lack of reaction to the large Grizzly.
Clay took photos of the incident and I'll save them for you to look at on his site: it's well worth it. Believe you me.
Read and see more here.
My favorite borough? Brooklyn.
David Pogue reported that after the snafu and outrage expressed by its users, Netflix announced that they would NOT be phasing out profiles. I'm not going to go into the back story here for those of you who haven't followed this developing story that presents a great case study of the crossroads that any successful company, particularly those in the online world, will eventually encounter when its larger strategic and product development goals butts head with an engaged (and often enraged) customer base who can utilize the organizational power and mouthpiece allowed by the Internet to express their own opinions--and in some cases, as Netflix discovered, impact a real change. In the case of Netflix, a feature upgrade (or downgrade as many apparently felt) that had been roadmapped for god knows how long was shot down in a less than a month due to customer protests.
I've been thinking about this a lot, that is how do companies, particularly those with a certain loyal if not fanatical customer base, effectively manage their fanboys?
While they are essential to any company, nonetheless a company should not be run by mob rule. In the event of a backlash, when does the company fold their cards and give in to the inmates' demands? And similarly, when should a company stay fast and steady and plow on ahead as scheduled?
I think a great counter example to Netflix is what Facebook experienced when they rolled out their News Feed feature back in the fall of 2006, which was an extremely radical and aggressive update to their site at the time, considering the News Feed effectively took over much of the main page's real estate when one first logged in. There was a tremendous uproar in its aftermath.
"Stalkerish!" "Creepy!" many yelled.
Users planned boycotts.
Anti-News Feed groups were created and joined ad nauseam.
People were upset that information on their personal profile page that they assumed were private would now be broadcast via the News Feed to their entire friends and extended network.
The roll out of the feature wasn't perfect, but Facebook listened to the complaints and rapidly updated it to give users more control over what information they added or updated--relationship status, photos, wall comments, et cetera--would appear on the feed.
The most important take-away lesson here for any company is that, while Facebook did respond to users, what they did NOT do was back down and remove the News Feed, which was what many of its users demanded. Facebook expediently addressed user concerns regarding privacy, but they had the confidence to know that this was a product feature that 1) users would grow to love and 2) was crucial to the growth of its website.
This is an example of a company knowing their user base better than the users themselves. Arrogant yes (Also arrogant? That I italicized that statement--if I was a professor giving a course on modern media, I would scribble this excitedly on the chalkboard and underline it and then wipe all that chalk off on my skinny pants), but sometimes the view from above can reveal some interesting patterns that an individual or a user on the ground might never discern.
Today, the News Feed is inarguably a huge success and it's one of the most compelling and innovative aspects of Facebook that is driving much of its "stickiness" that is, the frequency of user's repeat usage of the site. Its been imitated on other social networks. The product worked because its value became quickly self evident to users.
Conversely, Netflix's decision to remove profiles didn't convey any apparent value to the customer and by all accounts they did not clearly communicate what those values were, if any. Netflix didn't adequately or effectively argue why this was important for the customer now or in the future. Consequently customers inferred that this WASN'T in their interest. Just like Facebook, Netflix is involved in an emotional business: People care about what is happening to their profile pages and people care about movies.
I think Netflix could have had a successful roll out of this IF they had only clearly communicated the intent or broader strategic purpose of this move. Giving up that information is scary for many companies, especially as they become larger and larger, but I think in today's escalating climate of diffused news sources and information networks its also easier for tight lipped companies to lose control over their message and unwittingly promote rumors and gossip that is detrimental to that company.
Ultimately I think Netflix made the right decision in backing down in the face of the pitch forked mob, but it should have never gotten to that point.
I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.
- Will Rogers
This is from a few years ago and I post this despite the danger of being smited, but some people voted the following as the best god joke ever.
Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912."
I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.
I'm just the messenger, folks. Although this messenger thought these two were also funny:
- When I was a kid, I used to pray every night for a new bike. Then I realised, the Lord doesn't work that way. So I just stole one and asked Him to forgive me ... and I got it!
- So I'm at the wailing wall, standing there like a moron, with my harpoon."
Harpoon, haha.
Most likely a firm related tab, but wowza this is an absurd restaurant bill.
As Eater points out, note the 72 shots of Patron.
This is amazing.