March 2012

Bullshit / Meeting Ambigram Mug - Boing Boing Shop

Bullshit / Meeting Ambigram Mug | Boing Boing

March 27, 2012

Here’s the deal: I understand the need to pay for news-gathering and other journalistic endeavors.

BUT!

THERE’S NO GOOD REASON TO FORCE PEOPLE TO SIT THROUGH A 30-SECOND ADVERTISEMENT BEFORE WATCHING A TWO- OR THREE-MINUTE EMBEDDED VIDEO. 

AMIRIGHT?

I will watch a 5-10 second video from your sponsor. That’s all. OK? I think that’s pretty fair.

If it’s longer than that, I’m clicking away from your website and your stupid video, and as I’m leaving I’m thinking all sorts of mean-nasty thoughts about your brand.

So there.

(I’m looking at you CBS/NBC.)

March 26, 2012

Context: The Dirt Bags of the Patagonia Catalog | Slate Magazine

March 24, 2012

So, some German lexicographers have welcomed the English phrase “shitstorm” into their national lexicon, calling it the “Anglicism of the Year.”

“Shitstorm fills a gap in the German vocabulary that has become apparent through changes in the culture of public debate,” the jury of language experts said.

Apparently shitstorm gained popularity last year in connection with the financial crisis in Greece—a crisis fueled by reckless German lenders and which is now being fixed by German leaders.

Anyway, what’s surprising to me about this story is that the Germans had a shit-related gap in their vocabulary to begin with.

As Michael Lewis noted late last year in Vanity Fair, the Germans have a bit of a fascination with doody, and they don’t lack for scatological words and phases.

[The] Germans have been on the receiving end of many scholarly attempts to understand their collective behavior. In this vast and growing enterprise, a small book with a funny title towers over many larger, more ponderous ones. Published in 1984 by a distinguished anthropologist named Alan Dundes, Life Is Like a Chicken Coop Ladder set out to describe the German character through the stories that ordinary Germans liked to tell one another. Dundes specialized in folklore, and in German folklore, as he put it, “one finds an inordinate number of texts concerned with anality. Scheisse (shit), Dreck (dirt), Mist (manure), Arsch (ass).… Folksongs, folktales, proverbs, riddles, folk speech—all attest to the Germans’ longstanding special interest in this area of human activity.”

He then proceeded to pile up a shockingly high stack of evidence to support his theory. There’s a popular German folk character called der Dukatenscheisser (“The Money Shitter”), who is commonly depicted crapping coins from his rear end. Europe’s only museum devoted exclusively to toilets was built in Munich. The German word for “shit” performs a vast number of bizarre linguistic duties—for instance, a common German term of endearment was once “my little shit bag.” The first thing Gutenberg sought to publish, after the Bible, was a laxative timetable he called a “Purgation-Calendar.” Then there are the astonishing number of anal German folk sayings: “As the fish lives in water, so does the shit stick to the asshole!,” to select but one of the seemingly endless examples.

Read more: Its the Economy, Dummkopf! | Vanity Fair

March 23, 2012

Hipster Branding | hipsterbranding.tumblr.com via Coudal

March 20, 2012

Behold:

'More awesome than a monkey in a tuxedo made of bacon' - thank you letter goes viral | Metro.co.uk

‘More awesome than a monkey in a tuxedo made of bacon’ – thank you letter goes viral | Metro.co.uk

March 16, 2012

Hilariously Ferocious Underwater Dogs | Colossal

Hilariously Ferocious Underwater Dogs | Colossal

March 16, 2012

Of all the arguments I’ve heard (on both sides of the issue), this one from Paul Graham seems to be the most level-headed and pragmatic:

Should people not be able to charge for content? There’s not a single yes or no answer to that question. People should be able to charge for content when it works to charge for content.

But by “works” I mean something more subtle than “when they can get away with it.” I mean when people can charge for content without warping society in order to do it. …

Ultimately it comes down to common sense. When you’re abusing the legal system by trying to use mass lawsuits against randomly chosen people as a form of exemplary punishment, or lobbying for laws that would break the Internet if they passed, that’s ipso facto evidence you’re using a definition of property that doesn’t work.

Defining Property | Paul Graham

March 14, 2012

I’m reading House of Holes at the moment. It’s hilarious and dirty, but mostly just hilarious. And DIRTY! Yet somehow, despite the kinky subject matter, the book seems almost … innocent? The playfully surreal aspect, combined with the simple, no-frills writing style, reminds me a lot of Murakami.

Here’s a glossary of terms from Simon and Schuster’s internal style sheet for the book. A sample:

a-holes (38)
assbones (44)
assbuns (199)
asscheek (33)
assclenching (200)
asscrack (239)

The principle reference sources for editors of the book?

  • Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed.
  • Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed.
  • Words into Type, 3d ed.
  • www.urbandictionary.com

Also:

cocky (meaning “like a cock” not “arrogant”; 271; see query)
cods (232)
come (n., v.; 41; see query)
come-drops (267; see query)
comeload (77)
come ride (156; see query)
comesack (131; see query)

Elsewhere, Simon and Schuster’s style sheet gives the OK to commaless adjective stacking (“e.g., ‘some huge soft heavy sad hangers'”).

House of Holes Glossary | Simon and Schuster

 

March 13, 2012

…was not his own work, apparently. Sean Tejaratchi wrote something quite similar in 1999 for a zine called Crap Hound:

It’s hard to know how to feel about this. My first thought was, “Hey, Banksy reads Crap Hound!” Then, “What the fuck is going on?” Then, “Am I a real person? Am I actually happening?” And finally, “Am I a beautiful flower angel sent from heaven to inspire Banksy?”

As problems go, it’s a pretty nice one to have. I like Banksy’s art and ideas. I’m flattered he liked my writing and my sentiments, and I’m happy others liked the quote enough to post and forward. I’ve seen forums where people are debating the passage, including rebuttals from ad-agency twats. It’s on wikiquotes and a hundred blogs. My essay never would have had that impact on its own.

The downside is that Banksy’s name is always on it. Seeing my writing credited to someone else makes it a little less magical. Same with knowing that one day (maybe soon, since the issue in question is being reprinted), I’ll get to hear how I ripped off Banksy.

Reading Frenzy ~ Ledger ~ Taking the Piss via Coudal

March 12, 2012