interesting things
The military maintained a conspicuous silence about the former president’s health on Wednesday, a day after reports that his health had deteriorated added new volatility to the political and constitutional crisis.
via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/world/middleeast/official-silence-surrounds-mubaraks-condition-in-egypt-hospital.html
About 17 percent of those who subscribe to premium cable networks like HBO and Showtime would consider using Netflix instead.
So said a report released Tuesday by Dallas-based research firm Parks Associates. Certainly, it’s a potentially consequential data point if premium cable channels that are experiencing stagnent subscriber growth suddenly face the prospect of having about a fifth of their subscriber bases up for grabs.
But there’s more.
The report also indicated that 16 percent of broadband subscribers would consider using online subscription video-on-demand services like Netflix and Hulu Plus rather than pay for VOD movies on their cable and satellite service.
“Consumers can pay for a month of Netflix for about the same amount as for two pay-TV VOD movies,†Parks Associates director of research Brett Sappington said in a statement. “Parks Associates research shows consumers know the quality of the [over-the-top] service is not comparable to pay-TV quality, but the cost-benefit comparison is enough to affect their purchase decisions.â€
Updated: Parks and Associates’ online survey targeted 2,500 broadband households.
Rodney King would have lived and died a complete unknown, were it not for the most famous home video ever made. Shot on a dark Los Angeles street the morning of March 2, 1991, it instantly turned King into a worldwide symbol of police abuse and racial conflict.
Every design element of an Apple Store is arranged to subtly encourage visitors to become customers. The computer screens, for example, are angled at 70° to compel users to adjust them. Touching the screen lets users experience Apple products tactility and increases the desire to purchase one:
The point, explains Carmine Gallo, who is writing a book on the inside workings of the Apple Store, is to get people to touch the devices. “The main reason notebook computers screens are slightly angled is to encourage customers to adjust the screen to their ideal viewing angle,†he says — “in other words, to touch the computer.â€
A tactile experience with an Apple product begets loyalty to Apple products, the thinking goes — which means that the store exists to imprint a brand impression on visitors even more than it exists to extract money from them. “The ownership experience is more important than a sale,†Gallo notes. Which means that the store — and every single detail creating the experience of it — are optimized for customers’ personal indulgence. Apple wants you to touch stuff, to play with it, to make it your own.
Link -via Kottke | Photo: Oswaldo Rubio
Scores of of songs in the Bhojpuri language, commonly used in north India, celebrate the mobile phone both as a fashion statement and a handy tool for romance.
via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/20/colloquial-music-spawns-a-culture-of-romance/
William C. Rhoden looks at the high number of no-hitters and near no-hitters this season and believes the reason rests more in the batter’s box than on the pitcher’s mound.
via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/more-to-rash-of-no-hitters-than-pitching/
Charlie Kaufman isn’t exactly an impersonal writer. His attempts to adapt The Orchid Thief turned into Adaptation., a movie about a painfully self-aware screenwriter named “Charlie Kaufman†falling apart while attempting to adapt The Orchid Thief. It’s a struggle to imagine Kaufman, either fictionalized or IRL, thriving in the anonymous and often abrasive environment of a sitcom writer’s room. So it’s surprising that, before breaking into screenwriting, Kaufman worked in television for almost a decade, staffing on sketch shows like The Dana Carvey Show and The Edge and sitcoms like Get A Life and Ned & Stacey.
There’s evidence to support the idea that Kaufman might not have thrived in collaborative settings. In this oral history of The Dana Carvey Show, the writers describe him in the same way surprised neighbors describe convicted serial killers, mentioning that he was “really quiet,†“extremely shy and awkward,†and “kept to himself.†Considering how poorly suited Kaufman seems for the job of sitcom writing, I wanted to take a look at his episodes of Get A Life and Ned & Stacey and see if there was any evidence of the man who would go on to write, among other things, the definitive film about a freelance puppeteer possessing a major film actor.
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via The Awl http://splitsider.com/2012/06/a-look-back-at-charlie-kaufmans-sitcom-work/
People who are depressed tend to check their mail compulsively, watch a lot of videos and switch between multiple internet applications more frequently than their peers.
via Vanity Fair | VF.com http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2012/06/Mitt-ann-romney-betty-ford-horses-addiction