election.twitter
Twitter is traditionally a place where people tell other people (that care) about what they are doing/thinking/seeing, etc. Basically a fairly flippant local/global “what’s happening now”. So it’s a little weird of Twitter to launch a relatively serious service monitoring the US Election, right?
election.twitter.com works by filtering hundreds of relevant Twitter updates ‘real-time’ to create a source that gathers public opinion about the presidential election. It’s a new(ish) way for you to share your thoughts on a topical item, and an excellent place to check out the zeitgeist of the election. If you’re are a twitter user, you can join the discussion by posting directly from the site, your Tweet not only goes to everyone who follows you, but to the automatically updating election time line (not unlike a chat room type set-up).
Politweets has been providing a similar service for a while already, but it has a limited filtering system. Twitter, on the other hand, uses a constantly changing set of keywords, which makes it more dynamic. Performing real-time algorithmic analysis on millions of unedited public reactions. election.twitter determines a set of ‘Hot Topics’ and displays any tweet that fits into those categories - creating a live ticker of continuously fresh opinion. Twitter’s Summize-based search does a similar job, only not automatically and not to a ‘live’ stream.
People have already started to use services like Monitter to track Twitter conversations, when there is a breaking news story, because again it updates automatically. The obvious value of a service like this is not so much in what’s being said in each tweet, but in the aggregation of opinion and the real-time view of global conversation.
As more and more people use Twitter, the company sits on an ever increasing goldmine of information and opinion. Now that they have the infrastructure in place, Twitter could easily create similar services for any event, or even allow its users to create their own Twitter-based memetrackers. As they so proudly say: ‘Twitter is the pulse of what is happening with the people, organizations, and events you care about—delivered immediately, wherever you are.’ This has finally proved compelling, shared events ranging from earthquakes to film festivals have already been covered, and now Twitter has introduced an engaging way to participate in democracy.
No longer quite so flippant…..
Guess The Film…
SMS conversation I had last night with Lazyboy.
Dude.
Sweet.
Car?
Where?
Dude.
Sweet.
Riley Hawk
Drum Knit
An electronic t-shirt with a playable drum kit on the front.
Get yours here.
Bat Time
“It is reported that 50% of people in London are worried about security and sleep with some form of self-defence to hand, for use against intruders. The ‘Safe Bedside Table‘ has a removable leg that acts as a club and a top that doubles as a shield for self-defence. This is for people who are willing to take on an intruder, providing an extra sense of security whilst in bed.”
Via Hurty.
Blue Jeans
Highly un-original porn for porns sake, or evil genius. You decide, just as long as you’re over 18 of course. Here.
Metamorphosis + Math
Metamorphosis is programmed by Glenn Marshall entirely in Processing, the music is ‘Corsair’ from Geogaddi by Boards of Canada. It’s the follow up to the wonderful Music Is Math below, again animated in Processing with Music by Boards.
More from Mr Marshall here.
Little Monsters
Dead sweet video for Swedish electro-poppers Minilogue’s latest single ‘Animals’. Made at the Varelsen studio, who develop and produce motion graphics, moving pictures, print and web, as well as design concepts and solutions.
Bra.
Radioh3aD
Like before only now you can spin the whole thing around. Technically (speaking) the same, but well more geek based.
Ring Tones
A sweet Japanese lingerie based site where each piece of underwear has a dedicated noise or tone (of course). By combining 3 pieces (like socks/pants/bra) you can create a unique track that you can then transfer to you mobile device as a ringtone.
360..?
I find myself wrestling with the idea of what a 360 agency actually means, or does for that matter. As I understand it, there are two kinds of 360 agencies: there are digital ones and ATL ones. The difference between the two being that the ATL ones tend not to do their production in house, so while having a 360 offering is probably easier to (apparently) achieve, it’s arguably not a true 360 offering. I also wonder if this 360 craze is being driven by a widely held belief that clients want the full service one stop shop so many are so crazy to create. Ironically, since when has this industry listened to it’s clients? An agency has to ask itself why it wants to be 360 and what actually does that mean.
Seemingly so hungry are many to compete in this space, that they often get a bit caught up and lose sight of the golden rule: it’s no longer about channel, it’s about product, audience and idea. A heady mix of internal politics, misguided belief in a monopoly and seeming desperation (to cross the line) can lead even the most stalwart agencies and creatives to suddenly become retarded and nefarious, seduced by the promise of what is surely a fools gold.
It’s a powerful learning, no matter which side of the fence you may be on, everyone is capable of sitting on their high horse and banging on about how the disciples from their side do not exist on the other. Yet, whether it’s a business or creative decision, or whether it’s right or wrong for the brief and client, it seems all will jump at the chance to broaden their horizons and multiply their offering. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against that at all, providing it’s the right thing to do and it’s for the right reasons.
Corporation/politic/grown-up naive as I may be, I have never done anything that I do not consider 100% right for a brand or an audience. And I sure as hell have never based any thinking solely on a desire to succeed in a specific channel, it’s always been about the power of an idea, the choice of channels is secondary.
My fear is that the idea of a 360 offering is predicated on the ability of a single company to create and (in digital), execute everything. I might be wrong, but a company that sets out to do that, to create and execute everything, couldn’t possibly excel in all.
Shake It Like A Poloroid Picture
This is a great piece of online advertising for Wario Land : Shake It on the Wii. It’s simple, to the point and hugely viral.
Nice.
How Long…
… could you survive chained to a Bunk Bed with a Velociraptor?
3D Porn
Bringing a new dimension to erotica - seemingly from 1973.
Instant Audio Evil
Back in the 80’s several fundamentalist Christian gangs began to claim that evil backmasked messages, that could bypass the conscious mind and reach the subconscious, were being peddled by headbanging heavy mentalists on their records.
Some Christian radio programs claimed that songs like Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” contained hidden messages from Beelzebub the Prince of Darkness - or he who walks backwards (these messages were, of course, unknowingly accepted by the listener). This obviously drove every Led Zeppelin fan in the land to play their records backwards like total greasy haired divvies. Of course, it was all rubbish.
Anyway, thanks to the folks at the internet, you can now test the theory without trying to spin your discs in reverse at an impossibly difficult constant speed. You just upload an audio file to a server, wait a few seconds, and then you will hear it played backwards at the right speed - as if read by Lucifer himself.
Lovely.
.ecnirp krad eht evol t’nod I ,yaw eht yB
