Content tagged culture

Blog Entries

Search terms are replacing URLs as the suggested way to find out more about a product in Japanese advertising. (Requires that the site get indexed before … gulfstream/2418

Six Masai warriors, in London to run the London Marathon for charity, give a difficult-to-believe interview with the Guardian: “I miss meat and blood … gulfstream/2424

Clay Shirky’s tantalising suggestion that perhaps TV is a temporary spare-time-filling measure, and that sometime soon we’re going to come up with … gulfstream/2431

Weirdly long, eloquent, and informative Craiglist post about friends and the Australian concept of “mateship” that I somewhat endorse. gulfstream/2312

Have I posted this before? Small story on Sao Paolo’s near-complete eradication of outdoor advertising. gulfstream/2320

TV show invites five Pacific tribesman to the UK. What they find strange: homelessness, artificial insemination of pigs, the time spent cleaning and washing … gulfstream/2326

Steven Pinker: Linguistic, historial and sociological aspects of swearing. Many good points in here, e.g. “To hear nigger is to try on, however briefly, … gulfstream/2339

Nice series by Tim Wu on some categories of laws that are not actively enforced (including copyright laws, immigration laws), and why. gulfstream/2342

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Includes sections on The Bible (the handwriting on the wall), proverbs (he who laughs last, laughs best), idioms … gulfstream/2349

How the Japanese refuel and plane, and how the Chinese refuel a plane. “At the moment, I am feeling positive toward both approaches. The emphasis on … gulfstream/2356

Very NYC: young Guyanese and Trinidadian who kit their bicycles out with thousand-dollar stereos. The slide show is also nice. gulfstream/2357

Random stupid comment, from a corpus of comments collected by the StupidFilter project, who are attempting (good luck!) to write some software that will … gulfstream/2360

The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. I’m a bit trouble that I find it very much impossible to read these the way the signwriters intended, … gulfstream/2363

Improv Everywhere’s “Frozen Grand Central.” (report) gulfstream/2389

Differences in consumption per person are much less dramatic than differences in income (in the US): “If we look at consumption per person, the difference … gulfstream/2395

Story on a well-placed semi-colon on some MTA signage is currently the most frequently emailed story at the Times! gulfstream/2397

Stuff white people like: recycling, expensive sandwiches, knowing what’s best for poor people. gulfstream/2398

“The Charms of Wikipedia,” by Nicholson Baker. The first section neatly captures the charms of Wikipedia, and the last is a nice account of Baker’s … gulfstream/2407

“Rather startled, I watched this scene from close quarters behind the window until 19.10 hours during which time (75 minutes) I made some photographs … gulfstream/1704

“Today, more than 40 percent of the black girls born in California in a given year receive a name that not one of the roughly 100,000 baby white … gulfstream/1721

On Tony Wheeler, the founder of Lonely Planet. gulfstream/1722

The All-New Sesame Street. gulfstream/1787

“How vanilla became shorthand for bland.” I hate hate hate it when I get a milkshake with no flavour when I ask for a vanilla milkshake.  … gulfstream/1813

List of current international border disputes—given that just about every country has one or more, it’s a puzzle that anything gets done. gulfstream/1827

“Nobody dumbs down the finance pages. Imagine the fuss if I tried to stick the word ‘biophoton’ on a science page without explaining what … gulfstream/1833

What the “@” sign is called in different countries. gulfstream/1839

The best places to live, according some calculation. (Only three countries in the top ten: Canada, Australia and Switzerland.) The problem with … gulfstream/1845

Malcolm Gladwell on the college admissions process. gulfstream/1846

Apparently, “literally” has been used for emphasis for ages. gulfstream/1871

Surreal ad for German hardware store. More: 1, 2, 3. gulfstream/1902

Typography humour. I would laugh at anyone who actually wore this, but it is cute. gulfstream/1903

Piece on Oscar-winning actresses who subsequently go on to make dreck. gulfstream/1908

The traditional year-on-year German NYE TV show is a 1963 B&W recording of an obscure British skit involving a nonagenarian birthday celebrant, … gulfstream/1918

Lone Star Statements: One star Amazon reviews of notable books. gulfstream/1919

The restaurants in Ikea’s German stores are apparently very popular: there’s only 37 stores, but they have the 11th highest revenue.“Flocks … gulfstream/1921

Check out the Ron Jeremy version! (In the kinder, gentler, pre-Internet times, people took photos of passers-by being startled by a backfiring … gulfstream/1932

Julian Dibbell makes $11,000 selling items on Ultima Online, asks the IRS if this is taxable income, or what. They don’t know, and suggest that … gulfstream/1937

Some young Japanese are shutting themselves into their rooms, and effectively never coming out. gulfstream/1941

Good piece on how reality TV shows choose contestants, how the shows are run, and how contestants and failed contestants are affected by the experience. … gulfstream/1946

Mostly thoughtful and sincere criticism of Sarah Silverman’s comedy: “Silverman’s inconsistencies also extend to the convenient shield of … gulfstream/1951

Great profile of a very successful and very good children’s entertainer called the Great Zucchini … who also, as it turns out, has a gambling … gulfstream/1959

Amongst journalists, Tab is an improbably popular drink. gulfstream/1961

What’s the deal with these pictures and characterisations of scientists, supposed produced by 7th graders before and after visiting Fermilab? They’re … gulfstream/1981

It’s seemingly very difficult to get hold of police complaint forms in South Florida. (Great transcripts.) gulfstream/1995

How to write about Africa: “Broad brushstrokes throughout are good. Avoid having the African characters laugh, or struggle to educate their kids, or … gulfstream/2000

“It is a sign of the times that there has been no storm of protest over the increasingly manipulative and moralistic character of anti-smoking propaganda.” … gulfstream/2004

Audio of Malcolm Gladwell’s Feb 21st talk on a possible prodigies/late bloomers dichotomy. (This reminds me: in A Mathematician’s Apology, G.H. Hardy … gulfstream/2007

“Africa and teamwork inspire me.” Street fashion from Helsinki. (I do genuinely like this, but there is also some quality amusement to be had. Another: … gulfstream/2012

Dick Cheney’s “Downtime Suite” requirements. All televisions are to be tuned to Fox News! Can’t the Secret Service leave the lights on after … gulfstream/2033

Measuring poverty: in the US, the poverty line for the last 40 years has been set at three times a (very minimal) food budget. This approach has many … gulfstream/2045

On Muzak, the company who make mix tapes for retailers. Former Muzak executive Alvin Collis: “I walked into a store and understood: this is just like … gulfstream/2052

Why is there such a big market for skin lightening creams in Asia? (“4 out of 10 women in Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan … gulfstream/2073

What’s known about yawning. (Seems like not so very much.) gulfstream/2079

“How Brazilian soccer players get their names.” The one-word names are mostly nicknames; defenders are much more likely to be known by their full … gulfstream/2088

Stealing a bike in NYC: guy steals a bike (his own) four times, and only once (apparently) does he get accosted by a member of the public—by a guy who … gulfstream/2113

Are cities the new countries? “The most important place to London is New York and to New York is London and Tokyo … London belongs to a country composed … gulfstream/2114

Things I didn’t know: there is still Shaker community, though there are only four of them left. Their website explains why they share all their goods: … gulfstream/2129

Account of growing up in Scotland with two blind parents. gulfstream/2135

Remarkably honest and straightforward (feelingless?) autobiographical account of Robert Hughes’s first marriage. “We met at a drinks party in Notting … gulfstream/2142

Journalists from The New Yorker, thoughtful individuals that they are, attempt to arrange a meeting with the famously reclusive mathematician Grigory Perelman: … gulfstream/2150

25,000 Jews live in Iran, and they seem largely happy there. (Or at least the ones who will speak to journalists.) Could there be something to Mahmoud … gulfstream/2158

The Suspicious Looking Device: “The only function of the Suspicious Looking device is to appear as suspicious as possible, whether carried in hand or … gulfstream/2166

One day I’ll write this up properly, but in the meantime here’s another datapoint in the manipulative and misleading charity category: Heifer International’s … gulfstream/2205

What Japanese tourists to NYC want. (“Masafumi Tomoshige, from Saga, was disappointed that he hadn’t seen a car chase.”) Eccentricities aside, … gulfstream/2217

Sort of meadering piece on nutrition, the food we eat, and the food we should eat. (Long; though there’s nine point-form tips at the end.) “Avoid … gulfstream/2221

“Get a First Life.” gulfstream/2223

Former Gizmodo editor Joel Johnson returns temporarily to dole out insults to manufacturers, consumers, and current Gizmodo editors. gulfstream/2231

The New Yorker has redesigned! Some notes: overall, much cleaner, nicer and more modern (though it does feel a lot like New York Magazine) cartoons … gulfstream/2255

Glowing account of Apple’s retail stores. “The interiors, too, have been distilled to a minimum of elements. ‘We’ve gotten it down so there’s … gulfstream/2256

Managua, in Nicaragua, a city of 2 million people, has functioned without formal street addresses since an earthquake over 30 years ago. (Old story, but … gulfstream/2276

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