Ads with No Obvious Market

Why is this ad on television? Who are they talking to and what kind of reaction are they hoping for? Why does CSX need us to know who they are? Color me confused.

From kitchen chat

Rules for Milk

1. It must be very cold.
2. It should be drunk with an accompaniment.
3. Cookies are preferable.
4. Dunkable cookies are best.
5. More than one glass every few days is excessive.

Related article: Some Like It Raw


From after-work walk chat

Strong Movie Title "Sequence"

Saw Hanna yesterday. Good movie. Lots of action. Thumping soundtrack. Even with all of that, the opening title sequence has stuck most. A dramatic & gory scene opened the movie and was finally punctuated with the title of the movie, filling the screen, blood red. Powerful.

Related websites:

• The Movie Title Stills Collection
• The Art of the Title Sequence

From after-movie chat

Wooden Japanese Xylophone

From idle chit-chat

Getting Caught in the Rain

I walk to and from work everyday, rain or shine. I also love getting caught in the rain without an umbrella. As long as I am on my home.

From afterwork chit-chat

Star Gazing

I love living in New York City. But I do miss the stars. While in Palm Springs this week I can not stop staring at the night sky.

There's Orion's Belt. And the big dipper. And Polaris. The rest I have no clue but honestly it doesn't matter as long as they are shining brightly.

Related reading: "The Dark Side: Making war against light pollution" by David Owen (Seriously. Read this article. It is awesome.)

From nightly conversation

Meaning in Common Things

Storytelling. An old art form. And no matter how good or bad the story, it will connect you more deeply to the subject, person, a place or a thing, then without it. A good narrative can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Today people are very interested in the stories behind the goods they purchase. Brands obsess over showing the background of their product to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

How was it made? Who made it? Where has it been before? All questions these product stories try to answer.

Rob Walker (speaking in the video above) and his experiment Joshua Glenn "Significant Objects" explores the shifting value of an object imbued with a backstory. 'Worthless' items become treasures. Throw away items become collectibles.

But what does this mean in the market? And what does it mean to us as consumers? Are we suckers? Or are we conscientious purchasers?

From a chit-chat session

Wayne Rooney's Awesome Goal

From dinner
 

Tranimal

Photo by Austin Young in LA Weekly

More on Tranimals in Wikipedia.

From staff dinner

The End of Bananas as We Know Them

Bananas are dying. At least the variety we commonly eat in the States. They have Panamas Disease, and due to being raised as a gigantic monoculture, there is no cure.

Soon -- in five, 10 or 30 years -- the yellow creamy fruit as we know it will not exist. The story of how the banana rose and fell can be seen a strange parable about the corporations that increasingly dominate the world -- and where they are leading us.

Read the whole article by Johann Hari from the Seattle PI.

From office chat, Sunday brunch and dinner

Gates Foundation & Education Policy

I have a lot of respect for the work of the Gates Foundation. But I also have many qualms and questions. What does it means for education policy to have one organization control such a large percentage of available grant making funds? Does it alter the choices of education policy NGOs in order for them to be eligible to receive the funds? If yes, is that a problem.  Are some areas of research and work underfunded and ignored if they don't fit into the Gates mandate? Or, because of the great expense of changing education, can big changes and experiments only happen with big pockets?

Related conversation:

• What happened to Michelle Rhee?
• A few opinions: Washington Post "The Answer Sheet",  National Journal blog & Rhee in her own words in Newsweek
• What's the deal exactly between Mark Zuckerberg and Cory Booker in Newark?
• One answer from Fast Company

From Sunday brunch