| Vitruvian Mind |
| The Man will burn! |
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Posted on April 18th, 2008 by Christian.
Categories: Travel & Leisure, Humor & Pop Culture.
All hail the technoviking. He is a god among men and is venerated as such by his people. Watch as he punishes the weak of body, mind and spirit. Watch as he receives offerings of water from his people. Watch as he begins his holy, frenzy induced dance moves. All hail the technoviking… and whatever you do, don’t F$%* with this guy.
Posted on March 16th, 2008 by Christian.
Categories: Media & Entertainment, Business & Finance.
The startup my friend works for just went live. Its a great way to watch TV online and get access to all of Fox and NBC’s content. They’ve been signing up partnerships with other content providers as well. Hulu.com- check it out.
Here’s an article from Fortune on the company.
A new way to watch TV
Watch out YouTube. Two old-media dinosaurs, Fox and NBC Universal, have created one cool venue for their hottest shows.
By David Kirkpatrick and Adam Lashinsky(Fortune Magazine) — When Fox and NBC Universal announced last March that they would join forces to put their TV shows online, the pundits of Silicon Valley howled with derision. Old media doesn’t get the Internet, they said. Michael Arrington, the influential editor of TechCrunch, rattled off the reasons the project would never succeed and suggested that Fox and NBC quickly name their joint venture before it got stuck with the moniker insiders at Google had reportedly given it: Clown Co.
So there was huge relief at Hulu, as the company is now called, when it previewed an early version in late October and the first reviews started coming in. The very people who had thrown brickbats were now tossing raves. “In one word: brilliant,” wrote blogger Om Malik. Even Arrington declared himself “very impressed.”
Hulu CEO Jason Kilar calls that the company’s “defining moment.” Says Peter Chernin, president of News Corp. (NWS, Fortune 500), which owns Fox: “They said big media was too stupid to do anything appropriate on the web, and that NBC and Fox were incapable of partnering. Both charges have been wrong from day one.”
Whether or not that’s true, the world will soon judge for itself. After one year and an estimated $15 million worth of development costs, Hulu, a video website supported by advertising, is set to debut in early March. A project that is the TV and film industries’ best effort so far to carve a place for themselves in the rapidly changing world of digital media is about to have its first major screen test.
Posted on February 28th, 2008 by Christian.
Categories: Travel & Leisure, Philanthropy & Environment, Humor & Pop Culture.
I admit it. I like paying $4 for a shot of espresso with foamed milk. I also think I know what’s best for poor people and how they can improve their lives. Yes, I love rocking out to gansta rap even though my BMW has never driven through the ghetto (I even get nervous about parking on the street in Venice Beach). In summary, I’m white.
I’ve recently come across a blog about well, people like me. It’s called Stuff White People Like, http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/, and it is devoted to… you guessed it.
Here are a couple of the more humorous excerpts:
Bottles of Water
Water seems like a fairly simple concept. You turn on the tap, put glass underneath, and drink. Sadly, it is not this simple for white people.
On the whole, they are unable to put a glass under a tap and just drink. In fact, this is such a strange concept that the city of New York had to launch a rather large PR campaign to show white people that it was possible to actually drink the water that comes out of the tap!
Up until this point, white people were consuming most of their water in the form of expensive bottles like Fiji, Aquafina and Dasanai. To this day, many white people continue to get their water in this fashion, and it is important to be aware about how your choice of water can say a lot about who you are.
Logically, you would assume that drinking the most expensive premium bottled water (Fiji and Voss) would be enough to show the world that you are too good for tap water. And a few years ago, you would have been right. But lately, advanced white people have been getting very upset about all of the waste that comes with drinking 15-20 bottles per week.
The leading edge of white people have started to use sturdier, refillable bottles. But do not assume this is from the tap. Most white people need to run their water through some sort of filter (Brita or PUR) before they put it into their bottle. This allows them to feel good about using a refillable bottle, but it also makes it more complicated, which they also like.
Previously, the gold standard was the Nalgene bottle, however recent studies have shown the plastic can leak toxins into the water. Currently, white people on the cutting edge are really into metal bottles of water with a twist cap. It is recommended that you buy one of these as soon as possible.
Having one will give you precious leverage over any white person who is drinking from a plastic bottle. “Oh bottled water? really? I mean it’s cool, but I kind of thought you cared about the earth.” If you see someone drinking a Fiji water, you do have the opportunity to go in for the kill. “Do you know that your bottle of water has a bigger carbon footprint than me? I think they were originally going to call it ‘aboriginal blood’ but that bottle was as close as they could get. You know, legally.”
Again, this should only be used in extreme situations.
Following your confrontation, the white person is likely to have a metal bottle just like yours. If this happens, there will be an implicit pact whereby they will do favors for you provided you do not tell everyone they got their bottle after you.
NOTE: whoever makes the metal bottles did not pay for the link. They just had the best pictures.
Threatening to Move to Canada
Often times, white people get frustrated with the state of their country. They do not like the President, or Congress, or the health care system, or the illegal status of Marijuana. Whenever they are presented with a situation that seems unreasonable to them, their first instinct is to threaten to move to Canada.
For example, if you are watching TV with white people and there is a piece on the news about that they do not agree with, they are likely to declare “ok, that’s it, I’m moving to Canada.”
Though they will never actually move to Canada, the act of declaring that they are willing to undertake the journey is very symbolic in white culture. It shows that their dedication to their lifestyle and beliefs are so strong, that they would consider packing up their entire lives and moving to a country that is only slightly similar to the one they live in now.
Within white culture, it is agreed upon that if Canada had better weather it would be a perfect place.
Being aware that this information can be used quite easily to gain the trust of white people. Whenever they say, “I’m moving to Canada,” you must immediately respond with “I have relatives in Canada.”
They will then expect you to tell them about how Canada has a perfect healthcare system, legalized everything, and no crime. Though not true, it will reassure them that they are making the right choice by saying they want to move there.
But be warned, they will reference you in future conversations and possibly call on you to settle disputes about Canadian tax rates. So use this advice only if you plan to do some basic research.
Note: Canadian white people threaten to move to Europe.
Note: Europeans are unable to threaten to move anywhere.
Posted on January 18th, 2008 by Christian.
Categories: Media & Entertainment, Business & Finance, Science & Technology.
Similar to the music industry (as highlighted in a recent post from Raj), the television business is going through a period of rapid, uncertain change. The landscape is being redrawn and it is unclear who the winners and loser will be. Network and cable fight to remain relevant as viewership declines; in the online world, business models are competing:advertising-based, fee per download, dues for subscription, etc.) User-generated content, once thought to be next giant wave, fails to dominate vs. traditional professionally created content (YouTube’s appeal to me dropped precipitously after the copyright police arrived). Finally, technology is driving convergence, and some day in the not-too-distant future, the internet and television will be one-in-the-same.
So who will win out? I’m putting my money (figuratively, only, as I pay off my grad school loans) on Hulu, a JV between NBC and Fox. Still in Beta form, the companies are making their huge content libraries available and planning to use an advertising fee model. They have the brand, they have the industry clout, they have a critical mass of content, they have a big team of ivy-league MBAs figuring out the future, i.e., they are already big players on the off-line side of convergence. (I have to disclose that a good friend of mine is working at the startup JV, but I am not too biased.)
Sign up for a beta ID before its too late.
Posted on January 11th, 2008 by Christian.
Categories: Travel & Leisure, Philosophy & Spirituality, Philanthropy & Environment, Business & Finance, Science & Technology, Sports & Health, Humor & Pop Culture.
Just yesterday night, I noticed my girlfriend had stolen one of my sweatshirts. She clutched it all night, smelling it and repeatedly saying “it smells like you!” I just thought she was crazy but scientific evidence suggests there may be some method to her madness.
Some research done a decade ago suggests that scent plays a role in sexual attraction and its influence on the selection process seems to create evolutionary advantages. An internet-dating site is now capitalizing on this finding and taking scent samples from prospective daters to help establish compatibility. The biological compatibility driven by scent attraction apparently confers several benefits such as less infidelity and even better orgasms!
So next time your buddy creeps some stranger out at a bar by smelling her hair, just smile and pin it on good ‘ole evolution.
Text of article follows below:
How to find a mate
The scent of a woman (and a man)
Jan 10th 2008
From The Economist print edition
A new kind of dating agency relies on matching people by their body odour
ONE of life’s little mysteries is why particular people fancy each other—or, rather, why they do not when on paper they ought to. One answer is that human consciousness, and thus human thought, is dominated by vision. Beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder, regardless of the other senses. However, as the multi-billion-dollar perfume industry attests, beauty is in the nose of the beholder, too.
ScientificMatch.com, a Boston-based internet-dating site launched in December, was created to turn this insight into money. Its founder, an engineer (and self-confessed serial dater) called Eric Holzle is drawing on an observation made over a decade ago by Claus Wedekind, a researcher at the University of Bern, in Switzerland.
In his original study Dr Wedekind recruited female volunteers to sniff men’s three-day-old -shirts and rate them for attractiveness. He then analysed the men’s and women’s t’s, looking in particular at the genes that build a part of the immune system known as the major histocompatability complex MHC. Dr Wedekind knew, from studies on mice, that besides fending off infection, the has a role in sexual attractiveness. It changes odours in ways the mice can detect (with mice, the odours are in the urine), and that detection is translated into preferences for particular mates. What is true for mice is often true for men, so he had a punt on the idea that the might affect the smell of human sweat, as well.
It did. Women preferred shirts from men whose was most different from their own. What was more, women with similar MHCs favoured the use of similar commercial perfumes. This suggests that the role of such perfumes may be to flag up the underlying body scent rather than mask it, as a more traditional view of the aesthetics of body odour might suggest.
That makes evolutionary sense. The children of couples with a wide range of MHC genes, and thus of immune responses, will be better protected from disease. As the previous article suggests, that could be particularly important in a collaborative, group-living species such as humanity. Moreover, comparing MHCs could be a proxy for comparing kinship, and thus help to prevent inbreeding.
The promise of an based match is not only that your partner’s old laundry will smell better but all sorts of other benefits too. The biological compatibility created by complementary immune systems apparently promises better orgasms, a lower likelihood of cuckoldry, more happiness and so on. Nor are heterosexuals the only ones who can benefit. Gay men and women respond as strongly to derived smells as straight people do—though, as might be expected, their response is to the smell of people of the same sex, rather than the opposite one.
Indeed, the only people for whom MHC matching might not be expected to work are women on the Pill. Chemical contraception, which mimics pregnancy, messes up the system because of an intriguing twist. When women are pregnant, they prefer the smell of MHCs that are similar to their own. This means they are happier in the company of their relatives, which may, as the previous article also suggests, bring evolutionary benefits of its own.
ScientificMatch.com does not rely entirely on the MHC. Besides sending off a swab taken from the inside of their cheek and a cheque for $1,995, hopeful singles have to answer the usual questionnaire about income, background and details such as whether they would prefer a skiing holiday to one spent sketching. They are not, however, asked whether they wear their shirts for three days on the trot.
Posted on March 1st, 2007 by Christian.
Categories: Media & Entertainment, Humor & Pop Culture.
So who’s in the mood for a little bit of 80’s nostagia? Video Game Theater is producing short movies depicting the post elecontronic-fame lives of such video game heroes, such as Pac-Man, Mario, Donkey Kong, Lara Croft and Frogger.
The movie on the site depicts an aging Pac-Man, addicted to the same pills he used to eat in the video game, and pursued by those annoying ghosts. Go check it out at http://www.videogametheater.com/
It is pretty hysterical. At the very least, fast forward to the end and check out previews for the next videos in the series, with Mario and Donkey Kong vying for the love of the same woman and Frogger as a terrorist who has his bundle of WMD’s, where? On the other side of the highway and river of course!
Enjoy!
Posted on February 28th, 2007 by Christian.
Categories: Business & Finance, Humor & Pop Culture.
As a newly minted MBA starting his career as a management consultant and considering a subsequent career in private equity at some point in the future, I have learned to have a tough skin. I read a book with the subtitle, “How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch to Tell You What Time it is”, to know the opponent’s criticisms in order to develop a strategy for defending myself.
Despite my tolerance for criticism, I found this post: http://www.leveragedsellout.com/2006/02/the-shitshow/ a bit disconcerting (but hysterical, nevertheless). It is basically a rant criticizing a former consultant who has made the transition to working in leveraged buy-outs. Luckily, I had a career in finance before my post-MBA move to being a corporate advisor, so hopefully some of these criticisms are not applicable to me (and I am certainly as aggressive as some bankers)
Although the writer’s insults are well-targeted and witty (yes, we do make a lot of pretty charts, i.e. finger-painting) and he seems to simultaneously practice tongue-in-cheek self-deprecation of his own chosen background, I can tell you from my various ex-investment banker friends, that yes, they are masters of mouseless excel, and yes, they are as condescending and egomanical as depicted, displaying Mammon-like degrees of greed and superficiality…. BREATH… then again, many of my best friends fit that bill, so I guess I can let it slip.
Another reflection on my current career, from the other end of the business intelligencia, I’ve had a very difficult time explaining what I do for a living to other people, especially in entertainment focused L.A.
Here are a couple of the more interesting attempts:
Me: “I am a management consultant”
Her: “You consult for actor’s managers? Cool!”
Me: “Have you seen the movie, Office Space?”
Him (actor): “Yes”
Me: “Well, basically, I am one of the Bobs.”
Him: “Wow, you had a part in that movie? That was a great hit. What are you doing now?”
That being said, I think consulting is a great job. I’m learning a ton and working with some of the smartest people I’ve ever met. But that’s not too funny so I’ll quit my verbose rants here.
Posted on February 23rd, 2007 by Christian.
Categories: Humor & Pop Culture.
That’s right, we’ve all seen ‘em: the ‘roided out muscle man, the guy who thinks he’s too cool by half, those annoying metro twins, the faux rocker.
Hell, some of my friends are them. In fact, which one of us has probably not been considered a douche bag by another longing suitor. But someone has put together a great website to encapsulate the phenomena. Basically, people send in pictures of, that’s right, hot chicks with douchebags, and the site’s collaborators continue with a clever thrashing of said douchebag(s). Here is a sneak peak and a link to the site:
Uhm…
(gulp)
This is an honorable and respectable gentleman who deserves nothing but respect and admiration. He is not a douchebag.
Please don’t kill me, oh gracious and giant sir.
I have lots to live for. Like… my Night Train Express. My hohos and Chocodile 24 packs bought with my Ralph’s Club Card. My ratty basement apartment. My dirty, carpet stains. My plastic dishes and aqua blue rug from Urban Outfitters that’s shedding all over my apartment.
Ah, who the hell cares. Go ahead and kill me.
Posted on February 23rd, 2007 by Christian.
Categories: Media & Entertainment, Travel & Leisure, Arts & Literature.
For those who like all things Latin (the food, the music and most importantly, the women) I definitely recommend exploring the Mexican band, Maná. Despite my gringo status, these guys have been one of my favorite groups for years, ever since I heard their tunes playing at the hotel bar in Cancun, one lazy hung-over Spring Break morning many years ago. I’ve been a fan ever since, and the fact that I can actually hablar un poco Espanol these days has made these guys’ music even better. Their music is very hard to categorize, but think of it as a burrito filled with a little bit of the Police and the Stones (who the band covered in their origins back in the 80s) mixed with some Santana and topped off with just a little bit of a reggae beat on occasion.
So I consider myself very lucky to have seen them in concert for the first time last Sunday up in Universal City. As I walked in, the place was packed and full of energy. I’m guessing the majority of people there were Mexican, with the remainder being of various other Latin descent and I definitely felt a bit out of place. But luckily, there were beautiful Latinas everywhere and fortunately, I brought my very own Chula who was visiting from out of town. Gibson is a pretty intimate venue and despite the fact that we were somewhat in the middle, we felt like we were very close to the band. As the lights dimmed, a video played showing silhouettes climbing over a barbed-wire encased wall, with spotlights circling and a helicopter in the background. As each consecutive figure succeeded in climbing over, the audience cheered. Finally, the wall was blown up and everyone went crazy. I’m not quite sure if this video was a reference to the current album/tour, “Amar es Combatir” (To love is to fight) or to Mexicans crossing the border (it was probably both) but the guests certainly loved it. Anyway, they kicked off to the album’s title song and followed with an amazing two hour performance with rock, slower songs and even a crushing 10 minute drum solo from the band’s drummer, Alex Gonzalez. The lead singer, Fher Olvera, has one of the most amazing voices out there and captivated the audience the entire time. This concert was easily one of the best I’ve ever been to.
Again, I highly recommend checking out the concert as the tour progresses or exploring the band a bit (links below). Also, if you are with a hot chica and Maná starts playing at your local cantina, and are able to sing along, chances are things are going to go your way… it’s definitely worked for me before!
Maná’s website:
Official: http://www.mana.com.mx/
MySpace:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=41717807
Link to concert dates:
http://www.tickco.com/buy/concerts/mana.asp
Posted on February 1st, 2007 by Christian.
Categories: Media & Entertainment, Humor & Pop Culture.
So apparently, one of my favorite shows disastrously botched a marketing publicity stunt. To promote its Aqua Teen Hunger Force show, Turner Broadcasting, owner of the Cartoon Network, placed blinking electronic devices featuring Inignot, a mooninite from the moon (of course) flipping the bird “as hard as he can” in a number U.S. cities. Over 10 devices were placed in Boston, which sparked the scare that the devices were terrorist weapons and the middle finger was perceived as antagonizing police and bomb specialists. Apparently, Turner never cleared placing the devices with local authorities. Ironically, anyone who hasn’t seen the show will probably have no idea who the character is. Law suits and arrests are in the works. Someone is definitely losing their job over this.
To those of you who have never see ATHF, I highly recommend it. It is about a meatball, a milkshake and a floating bag of fries who used to be detectives, but are now just lazy and hang around in their pad while they are harassed by aliens (such as the mooninites), mystical creatures like leprechauns and mummies, and their fat, hairy, crude neighbor, Carl. It takes a couple of episodes to get used to, but it is hysterical. It airs at midnight on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming. I highly recommend it.
And if you are confronted by a mooninite there are a few things you need to know. First, deny all flattery that you are the “moon master” as it is just a pyramid scam to get your money. Do not smoke any of their “moonijauna” as it is just burning tires and they are trying to make you pass out to steal your stuff. And finally, do not go with them to cash any radioactive checks.
Of course, the fact that I am blatantly endorsing the show here may be evidence that no publicity is bad publicity and maybe this stunt gone wrong will bring the show to a wider audience. One can only hope.
Link to article: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,249110,00.html
