∞ A Moment From the Boston Marathon, Audio and Stories

Powerful stories with an equally powerful way to tell them.  

One week ago the first of two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Here are the stories of the runners, spectators and others seen in this image.

“

It takes him long time, but eventually Simon is able to explain. A computer is a magical box that provides endless pleasure for free. Simon is used to constant access to this box—a never-ending flow of pleasures. When the box stops working—or even just briefly slows down—he becomes so enraged that he curses our God, the one who gave us life and brought us forth from Egypt. “

It’s Time Warner,” he tells me. “They’re the fucking worst.”

He bangs his fist against his desk.

“How am I supposed to get work done without Internet?”

I glance at his computer machine. I am still learning about modern technologies. But I am pretty sure from looking at it that Simon has not been doing “work.” There are three boxes open on screen. In first, there is sports scores. In second, there is pornographies. In third, there is Simon’s own name, typed into thing called Google.

— Simon Rich’s Sell Out, part one of four. : The New Yorker

∞ What Is It Like To Be Black in America?

Really, really like the Quora/Slate partnership, and this is a particularly compelling one. 

“If Matt Damon & Co. really wanted to make a movie that would scare American audiences off of fracking for good, they should have just made a movie dramatizing fracking’s potential threat to America’s beer. Instead, what we get is a quaint love story wrapped in a conspiracy movie, draped in a toothless political polemic, festooned with mawkish aimlessness.

— Our movie critic Asawin Suebsaeng reviews Matt Damon and Gus Van Sant’s new anti-fracking film Promised Land. (via motherjones)

Haven’t seen the movie yet, but when I was up in Cooperstown, NY two years ago, at the brewers at the Ommegang brewery made the same point.

Shazam, you really undervalue yourself.

Shazam emails could be so much mire useful. So many missed opportunities:

- PLAYLIST: Put these all in a spottily or rdio playlist. You can keep the iTunes function, but give me something that actually lets me listen to the music. I remember some of my older Shazam emails did this, allowing me to open a playlist in iTunes, but

- ALBUM INFORMATION: Half the time I Shazam a song, I’m trying to answer the question, “What movie or TV show was this in?” Good musicians write songs that are part of a greater whole. A film’s music supervisor picks a song for how it fits in with the rest of the score. Tell what what album(s) this song’s on.

- RECOMMENDATIONS: It seems to be the case that music discovery is tough to do right. But I’m happy with something as simple as a “Similar Artists” functionality. That’s one of the main ways I find new music on Spotify.

- BAND INFORMATION: Be a resource about the artist. Again, I love when Spotify has a bio about the artist. Scrape AllMusic or something for a bit of information. Make your emails a resource. You already know I’m curious about this artist and song, so feed that curiosity. It’ll be easier to get money from me if you do.

Also, c’mon. Put some design resources into these things.

See, I tag when watching movies and TV (here: Moonrise Kingdom and Parenthood), and when trying to remember the names of the one-hit wonders from high school.

Answering my own question: Yes, it is.

Well, actually @michelledozois answered it. Andy Newman, writer of the post. 

“

The temperature will hover in the mid-30s – just cold enough for the snow to safely stick, but no colder. The breeze will be sufficient to make cheeks rosy, but will not slash at the skin or penetrate down the necks of parkas.

For the better part of the day, the snow will continue – gently, never blinding. By the time it ceases for good shortly before midnight, two to four inches will have fallen – just enough, perhaps, to permit sledding.

—

This is the Times saying they’re in on the joke, right? Right?

Metro - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

This Year’s It Toy Wasn’t a Toy. It’s the Device.

The Friday before Christmas, a friend was commenting about how there didn’t seem to be an It toy this season. No Tickle-Me Elmo or whatever. 

And then, on Christmas Day, my mom was commenting about how my 7-year-old cousin, who can be a bit of a, let’s say, pistol, was so well-behaved.

Easy: “It’s because she had that new iPod Touch in her hand the whole day.”

Made sense. This year’s toy isn’t a toy. It’s the device. That’s why this graph doesn’t surprise me in the least. In fact, I thought it’d be higher. 

What has been astounding to me is the way kids are catching onto tech. I sound like I’m 70 years old, but for real. A toddler with an iPhone is more than just a great party trick. It’s truly fascinating — and exciting — to see what these kids are capable of with so much at their fingertips. 

The first thing my cousin said when she showed me her new iPod was “It isn’t a phone, but there’s an app for making calls!”

The she asked if I could put my number in her phone. I didn’t even think she was paying attention, but moments later, she was back in the Utilities box opening the Contacts app, getting all the family member’s numbers. She’s been iMessaging and FaceTiming us since. I sent her a text with emoji’s in it, and she immediately wanted to send funny pictures, too (duh). Her only question was “How do you spell it?” (fair) and then she had the app and was copying-and-pasting, no questions asked.

But I think what really floored me about this all was how she translates traditional letter-writing conventions — the ones she’s probably learning in her second grade classroom — into her messaging habits. She sometimes sends one-liners, but when we haven’t talked for a day or so, she writes a text that simulates a real letter: a proper greeting (“Hi Erin,” or “Dear Erin,”), a short body (I went to the zoo today with a friend. It was fun! I miss you!), and then a center-aligned, two-line sign-off. She takes the time to space her closing like you would with a real letter.

Maybe it’s just me, but I just get such a kick out of that.

It’s going to be interesting to watch with conventions survive the end of penmanship. 

datainsightsideas:

(via Christmas Day 2012 saw a record 17.4m Android and iOS device activations, 2.5x more than in 2011 - The Next Web)

(via khuyi)