Fleshmaps, Heatmaps, And Tag Clouds
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on August 23, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Tagging the body electric with hip hop heatmaps and titillating tag clouds
Ever notice how many times in a rap song someone uses the word “booty”, or in a country song how often they use the phrase “in your arms”? Well at Fleshmap.com (maybe NSFW; occasional nudity and body parts) they have a cool tool that renders a visual representation of the number of times certain body parts are mentioned in a piece of text. You can view by musical genre or see a few examples of specific songs here. You can even create your own Fleshmap by pasting in a body of text. Fun, but a little limited. As a person kind of obsessed with how people communicate, I find “word clouds” and “tag clouds” more interesting. TagCrowd.com lets you paste a body of text and create a static version of a word cloud similar to the one here on Dissociated Press. Tools like this are not only amusing, they can be very informative. See this presidential speeches tag cloud tool. It’s a great way to view the themes not only of recent speeches, but going all the way back to 1776. You can even download the tool and set up your own analyses.
The Pepsi Candidate
[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 22, 2008 by admin in Politics
In a blind taste test, which candidate would you choose?
Today Slate had an amusing piece pointing out the similarities between the presumptive Democratic candidate and Pepsi. For the record, someone else pointed this out way back in February. The logo similarity had never occurred to me, even though I had parodied it for the (ahem) donate button (yes people, that thing works, try it some time!) on the upper right of these pages. The design blog Under Consideration/Speak Up digs deeper into the genius of the Pepsi candidate’s marketing materials here. So what would McCain’s beverage brand be? Pepto-Bismol? If you consider the fact that most of his wealth is derived from the wife’s Anheuser-Busch ties, you could pick from the product list. Busch Light? Bare Knuckle Stout? Hurricane Ice? Lost Energy (yes, that’s an actual product name)? Feel free to post your suggestions.
WANTED:A More Accurate Police Sketch
[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 22, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
EVERYONE looks like a criminal in a police sketch…
I am about to help waste an hour of your life. This police sketch tool has been around for a long time, but when I ran across it yesterday, I found myself as obsessed with it as I was a year or two ago when it last crossed my path. After about 45 minutes of selecting, resizing, and rearranging eyes, hair, chins, and noses, I feel like I finally captured the essence of me. The essence of me if I joined the Monkees, grew a moustache, and wore glasses, that is. It’s a disguise, you see. I’m a criminal, okay? Let’s face it, no-one really looks like a police sketch, except maybe Marc Brown of KABC in LA, who had the misfortune of reporting on a rapist who – viewing the police sketch – may have been him. And check out this accurate but useless Thai police sketch of a bank robber. In spite of all this silliness and inaccuracy, apparently police sketch artists still take considerable pride in their work.
My Electric Daydream
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on August 21, 2008 by admin in Clean & Green, Technology
Charging toward the future
This morning, I went for a trail ride on my hydrogen-powered motorcycle. It was eerie the way animals didn’t run away, due to the fact that the bike is just too quiet. After my ride I hopped into my Tesla (0 to 60 in under 4 seconds!) to head over to the local airport. Thanks to Shai Agassi’s ingenious network of charging stations, I had no trouble “refueling”. Once I got to the airport I hopped into my ElectraFlyer so I could survey our new vertical farming project. It was somehow calming to see dirigibles transporting people through the sky instead of jetliners. After my flight I took the kids to one of the local Halliburton memorials, the thousands of former petrol stations nationwide that have been converted to playgrounds and community centers (sorry, no link for that one yet).
Learning To Read Can Be Creepy
[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 21, 2008 by admin in Popular Media
Run Wrake’s animated short film “Rabbit”
I don’t recommend watching this animated film over your morning cup of coffee. Your day probably just won’t feel quite right from then on. Using a familiar style of imagery from a childrens’ learn-to-read book, Run Wrake creates a macabre reality that only Brueghel and Roald Dahl would feel at home in. You can watch the little clip at left, but it’s more effective in the native YouTube scale, or better yet, download the higher-resolution version (QuickTime file) from Run Wrake’s web site. On a side note, that YouTube link appears to be unauthorized, calling the film “Idol”, when in fact it’s called “Rabbit”. Whatever. Creepiness has never been so eerily beautiful.