Current Configuration

  • H1N1 News/Death Ratio

    Hans Rosling, of Gapminder.org, gives some perspective to the recent H1N1 outbreak:

    Put simply: over 13 days, 31 people died from H1N1. During those same 13 days, over 60,000 people died of TB. I’ll let you guess which disease got over 38x more coverage in the news.*

    It’s all about context. Without it, anything can be portrayed as a crisis. Without it, we can let what truly matters slip through our fingers.

    *As represented by Google news search returns.

    ,

  • Star Trek

    Star Trek boomerang logo, fading in on black, with a lens flare forming.

    The movie is fantastic in every way. It’s a great movie in its own right and starts the Enterprise crew fresh. For this Trek fan, it was exactly what I needed from the franchise. A paraphrased conversation with my sister-in-law summed it up best:

    Rebecca: “The whole time I was thinking ‘I’m watching Star Trek! This is so great!’”

    Me: “The best part is that the whole time movie is pointing back at you, saying ‘I know!’”

    Welcome back, Star Trek. We missed you.

    (Oh, and how awesome is it that they brought back the classic logotype?)

  • Star Trek, Whee!

    Kate Beaton‘s illustration perfectly captures my excitement for the upcoming Star Trek flick, which I gather is as awesome as it sounds.

    Now go check it out on her site, which you should already have bookmarked.

    Engage.

    ,

  • Arnell on Tropicana

    This is what over-thinking a design and misunderstanding a brand’s equity looks like. It’s a 3 minute video of Peter Arnell defending the the Tropicana redesign that was pulled, in part, due to a 20% drop in sales. That’s the power of a brand. And that power flows both ways.

    Interestingly enough, the best part of the design, the cap, is being retained. Though, I wonder if that’s for financial and industrial reasons more than anything else.

    (via Daring Fireball)

  • XXX

    I’m 30 today.

    ::scratches notch into wall::

    Anybody know if I’m an adult yet?

  • Blackbird Rising

    Just remember, when she comes barreling through your town…

    (more…)

  • Syfy: Try Better

    So, the Sci-Fi Channel is becoming Syfy. We could endlessly debate the merits of the name, the logo, and their new mission to stray from their core content (science fiction). But there are others, fervent individuals, who are doing this good work already.

    What I would like to point out is what you see if you visit www.syfy.com:

    (click to enlarge)

    Why in the name of the sweet baby Jesus would you want your audience to read this branding nonsense and business strategy? Just take me to the site! So that I may partake of your content! This is akin to selling soda by describing to the consumers how, if they buy it, your shareholders will profit from the consumers’ complicity in reinforcing their brand strategy of stratifying them into targeted market segments.

    WHO CARES?

    Not their audience, for sure. This sort of business pornography nonsense is not only boring, it also breaks the illusion of the brand. It’s as though they’re reveling in their decision to shed the pretense of caring about their core audience and wanting to celebrate that fact with them. We’ll see how this works out for them.

    ,

  • All Things in Moderation

    I’ve removed the moderation requirements for commenting, as I prefer to give commenters instant gratification. Plus, my comment spam is near zero and Current Config tends not to elicit much fiery debate.

    And now for my posts about Israel and abortion…

  • Is this awesome?

    I’m sorry, the correct answer is: “The real question is ‘Just how awesome is this?’”

    To which you must answer your answer with: “So awesome.”

    (via 43folders)

  • Blackbird: 1 Year +

    One year. It’s really not that much, even in one person’s life. There are whole years in my own life from which I probably couldn’t recall one clear moment. And yet, when I look at Blackbird, I am stunned at what one year has brought.

    Can it have been so little time? Can that little span of time have been so vast? Has this past year* been a good one? Is she happy? Who is she? Is this her that I’m beginning to see? Am I seeing Blackbird, or am I seeing myself through her?

    Am I happy? Would the me of a year ago see this as happiness? Or am I a different person for whom the old definitions no longer apply? Has she changed me or have I changed myself for her?

    After one year, I couldn’t say for sure. But this isn’t about me, so let’s look at Blackbird.

    (more…)