Emptyage

As seen on Chatroulettemap. This was the least surprising thing...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:03:23 -0800

As seen on Chatroulettemap. This was the least surprising thing I’ve ever seen.

"A lone wolverine discovered in California almost 90 years after the species supposedly went extinct..."

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:55:09 -0800

“A lone wolverine discovered in California almost 90 years after the species supposedly went extinct here is apparently searching for a mate that he might never find.”

- Lone, lovelorn wolverine baffles scientists

"The political consensus may be that President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy has been weak...."

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:46:09 -0800

“The political consensus may be that President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy has been weak. The judgment of money in all its forms has been overwhelmingly positive, and that may be the more lasting appraisal. One year after U.S stocks hit their post-financial-crisis low on March 9, 2009, the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has risen more than 68 percent, and it’s up more than 41 percent since Obama took office. Credit spreads have narrowed. Commodity prices have surged. Housing prices have stabilized. “We’ve had a phenomenal run in asset classes across the board,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist for Miller Tabak & Co. in New York. “If he was a Republican, we would hear a never-ending drumbeat of news stories about markets voting in favor of the president.””

- Obama Defies Pessimists as Rising Economy Converges With Stocks - Bloomberg.com

"In this week’s Storyboard podcast, associate editor Joe Brown and contributing editor Mat Honan..."

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:09:01 -0800

“In this week’s Storyboard podcast, associate editor Joe Brown and contributing editor Mat Honan discuss unloading clips of bullets into body armor, getting lost (and found) in subzero weather in Tahoe National Forest, and siccing a zoo’s most destructive animals on bear-resistant gear.”

- Storyboard: Extreme Test War Stories | Magazine

"The iPhone is in exactly the same position today as the Mac was in 1990. It’s enjoyed massive..."

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:26:29 -0800

“The iPhone is in exactly the same position today as the Mac was in 1990. It’s enjoyed massive success in its 2.75 years of existence, with more than 30M units sold worldwide. Despite that success, the iPhone is at a crossroads today, with more open competitors closing the gap. The problem with the iPhone is that it isn’t open—developers and users are extremely limited by the rules that Apple sets on its platform. Unlike the PC, which anyone can expand upon, developers can’t even publish applications for the iPhone without Apple’s permission, and those applications must follow very rigid rules. The iPhone is a walled garden, where Apple keeps the prettiest flowers—the apps that ship with the phone and that people use most—locked up for itself. This severely gimps the iPhone, especially when compared to a fully open platform, like Android.”

- How Apple Can Fix the iPhone -

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-3-7)

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:28:22 -0800

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-3-7):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

fuckyeahmashups: Ratatat - Run (ft Ghostface Killah &...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:53:34 -0800

fuckyeahmashups:

Ratatat - Run (ft Ghostface Killah & Jadakiss)

Today’s edition of “This is not a mashup but we love it anyway, so fuck you.”

Ugh. This made my morning. Adding to my running playlist right fucking now.

"The flat white4 is not a magic bullet that can help recover declining coffee sales. The brands are..."

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:07:23 -0800

“The flat white4 is not a magic bullet that can help recover declining coffee sales. The brands are increasingly aware of a new breed of independents and are looking to react. By picking on the flat white they will have made the classic mistake of confusion correlation with causation. Lots of the best shops in the UK offer a flat white (correlation) but they are not successful because they serve flat whites (causation). This is an apparently easy to mistake to make, going by the last broadsheet article about the flat white. Independents know that it is a myriad of things that make them better than the chains, and should be relieved that despite the scrutiny the chains are likely to miss the key factors that give them an advantage.”

- Branded chains and the flat white

This applies to so much more than just coffee. It’s especially true of the technology industry, where larger companies tend to (often unsuccessfully) ape innovations without really getting at why those innovations were successful to begin with.

One of my all-time favorite exchanges on Twitter (starring @fmanjoo & @theatavist)

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:16:42 -0800

One of my all-time favorite exchanges on Twitter (starring @fmanjoo & @theatavist):

The back story. What you should know: 1. Farhad is a technology columnist with Slate. 2. Evan and I are both contributing editors with Wired. 3. I have met neither of them in person, but assume both…

My blog just turned...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:33:29 -0800

My blog just turned 3!

———————————————

Huh? Wha? Tumblr sent me a birthday card for my blog last night, that let me post the above image. It was sweet. Really sweet guys. But, not really accurate at all, Tumblr. I think I started in June, 2006, based on my my archives.

Whatever.

Happy birthday to me. Buy me a shot, or you’re all assholes.

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-28)

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:17:26 -0800

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-28):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

photo by Aubrie Pick I’m running for mayor. It’s going to be a...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:32:00 -0800

photo by Aubrie Pick

I’m running for mayor. It’s going to be a long, hard campaign, one that’s likely to take a toll on my bank account, not to mention my liver, thanks to all the boozing involved. And to be completely honest, I’m pretty sure I’ll have to cheat to win. (via Foursquare in SF: The Quest for Mayorship | 7x7

My story in this month’s 7x7 is live on the Web. And yes, I did borrow that Olde English mayor’s garb from my close personal friend Prince.

Breakfast in Correatown

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:38:41 -0800

Breakfast in Correatown

This was one of my all-time favorite projects at Wired

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:56:18 -0800

This was one of my all-time favorite projects at Wired

"Recently, a University of Arizona microbiologist named Charles Gerba, author of hundreds of..."

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:08:28 -0800

“Recently, a University of Arizona microbiologist named Charles Gerba, author of hundreds of scientific papers about household microbes, gave a terrifying lecture at the offices of the Food and Drug Administration. Gerba—who, incidentally, has a child with the middle name Escherichia—that’s what the “E” in E. coli stands for—explained that a kitchen sponge and sink are home to thousands of times more bacteria than a toilet seat. Plus, 10 percent of household dishrags contain salmonella. After playing with other children, toddlers have more fecal bacteria on their hands than does a person exiting a public toilet stall. Those toilets, by the way, aerosolize so many droplets with each flush that Gerba compares their dispersion to “the Fourth of July.” And every public swimming pool he’s ever tested has contained disease-causing viruses.”

- Can hand sanitizers like Purell really stop people from getting the flu? - By Darshak Sanghavi - Slate Magazine

That’s it. I’m moving to Death Valley.

via flavorwire.com

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:49:50 -0800

via flavorwire.com

Minas Tirith in matchsticks

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:21:30 -0800

Minas Tirith in matchsticks

"On March 9th, Starbucks is dramatically changing the way they serve traditional brewed coffee in..."

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:55:52 -0800

“On March 9th, Starbucks is dramatically changing the way they serve traditional brewed coffee in every company owned and licensed concept store in North America. During the afternoons, Starbucks baristas will shut down their automatic drip coffee makers and utilize new manual pour-over bars, effectively brewing coffee on demand. It’s a move that will drastically decrease coffee waste and ideally improve the quality of the cup.”

- Pour Over and Over and Over: Coming to 11,000 Starbucks Near You

Whither Clover?

I had a great time at the Ahwahnee

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:29:36 -0800

I had a great time at the Ahwahnee

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-21)

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:02:41 -0800

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-21):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz