say no to .ppt

July 2011 marked the founding of the Anti-PowerPoint Party in Switzerland, who claim that each year, CHF2.1 billion is lost in Switzerland alone through bored employees having to watch dull uninspiring powerpoint presentations. read the rest of their manifesto here.

tribute to shuttle

2011 marks the final flight for NASA's shuttle program after 30 years. In this (yes, it's long) video, watch shuttles take off in gorgeous slow-motion, with explanatory commentary that's actually interesting.

pylon eyesore?

the UK is running a competition to find new designs for electricity pylons. can boring be beautiful?

nine minute ink

xckd windows

you read the text and go.."what?!!"

then you read the caption underneath.

oh windows, sometimes it's just too easy.

venn diagram of what you knew already

from despair.com

someone had too much time and a fluffy animal addiction

cute. but idiotic.

freedom of information?

if you're a student, you will have undoubtedly come across the situation whereby you find a brilliant article on the internet, love the abstract - think it would be perfect for your research or just interesting to read in general. You click... and it's in an access-restricted journal. Wonderful, if you belong to an institution that subscribes. Not so much if you don't. At around $15 an article (for one-day access, that you may not even be able to print thanks to DRM) it's simply makes better sense to keep looking for a different source.

Danah Boyd, a PhD student has written an article criticising this: Open Access Is The Future, and the comments below the article are also thought-provoking.

Open Access Journals already exist and allow access to article, topics, reviews of things you may normally not consider but by reading let you expand your horizons and broaden your mind. Find them here, at the Directory of Open Access Journals .

so, once upon a time, Orange decided to make things unlimited. and they asked a creative agency to come up with something unlimited for their marketing campaign. this website was the end product . is it unlimited? keep scrolling down....and down....follow the rainbow.... to find out. along the way, draw a little. or talk to the robot. maybe play with the birds. just remember, your time isn't unlimited....get back to work already.

what's in a name?

I was thinking today how there are so many product names, some bad (Pocari Sweat, a Japanese re-hydration drink, anyone?), and some really great - so great in fact that they have entered everyday language as a generic term (hoover for example). And here's a little slideshow explaining how some famous products got their names.