Sunspots: The bubble dome edition 37signals 03 Oct 2006

7 comments Latest by Beth

Homer Simpson and featuritis
"Homer finds out he has a half-brother, Herb Powell, who owns a car company. His brother asks him to build a car for the average man. Homer orders the design team to include three horns that play 'La Cucaracha', shag carpeting, bubble domes, extremely large cupholders, and a separate compartment with restraints and muzzles for the children. The resulting vehicle, The Homer, is absurd and way too expensive ($82,000) for the average man to afford. The spectacular failure runs Powell into the ground, forcing him to sell his company, declare bankruptcy, and live on the street." [via KR]
Greg Storey: Is crowdsourcing really the best way to pick SXSW panels?
"I'm a tad disappointed that SXSW panel submission process has been left to crowdsourcing (unless I completely missed something). Leaving it up to the masses to choose a recording artist is a brilliant business scheme and a great victory for capitalism. But in the history of human civilization mobthink doesn't have an impressive track record: the masses re-elected Bush to a second term, nailed Jesus to a cross, and wore bell-bottom pants."
Fast Company: 2006 Masters of Design
"Here's our annual roundup of the creative businesspeople dialing in to the power of design...You'll also meet five talents on the fast track to bigger things, hear sage advice on what design can (and can't) do for your bottom line, and get an eyeful of some amazing examples of the craft."
Six Word Stories
"Ernest Hemingway was once prodded to compose a complete story in six words. His answer, personally felt to be his best prose ever, was 'For sale: baby shoes, never used.'"
David Cross is a BIG Jim Belushi fan
"He's one of those guys that any real man can't help but idolize. He's living the life. He does it - he's pure. Whenever you see a guy in a commercial high-fiving with a beer in his hand, watching the sports game - that's like a fake version of Jim Belushi. He's the real deal. He's the shit. That guy is reinventing music; he's reinventing comedy; he's an angel; he's one of the nicest, most magnanimous people you'll ever meet; extremely pleasant to be around; very giving; very warm; intellectually original and creative and inspiring. I just try to give him a shout out whenever I can." Related: A video of Cross dancing on stage with Belushi's band before getting booted off by Belushi.
A screensaver of bacteria on a hand finally gets hospital's doctors to wash up
"The administration then decided to harness the power of such a disgusting image. One photograph was made into a screen saver that haunted every computer in Cedars-Sinai. Whatever reasons the doctors may have had for not complying in the past, they vanished in the face of such vivid evidence...Some forms of data, of course, are more compelling than others, and in this case an image was worth 1,000 statistical tables. Hand-hygiene compliance shot up to nearly 100 percent and, according to the hospital, it has pretty much remained there ever since."
Seth Godin: Where are the tweakers?
"Where are the talented individuals and small firms that want a closed-end engagement... not to completely redesign a site that's working, not to do any coding, but just to mess with the html and css a bit. To take their learning from many clients and figure out that this works better than that. To change the look and the feel but not the bones... plastic surgery for websites. Not a lot of meetings, not a lot of belief required. Instead, take the new one, take the old one, do a split test and see which one converts better."
37signals linked up at Cute Overload!?
Though Marcel is ultra adorable, alas, it's not a pic of him.
Video: Giant Girl Doll
The biggest puppet you've ever seen.

7 comments so far (Jump to latest)

Jon 03 Oct 06

Last week a client was asking for an export link in the tertiary navigation, in the sidebar, in the footer, and on the top and bottom of the search results. I couldn’t help but think of Homer designing that car.

Johnathan 03 Oct 06

That doll is going to give me nightmares.

Matt Tavares 03 Oct 06

David Cross is a god.

Mark 03 Oct 06

This was a great six word story from the link:
Talent drowning in files still dreams.

Beth 03 Oct 06

Not to undermine Greg Storey’s underlying point, but when he says, “…the masses re-elected Bush to a second term, nailed Jesus to a cross, and wore bell-bottom pants.” — Bush’s election and re-election were arguably the result of election fraud, Jesus’ execution was arguably driven by an imperialistic regime concerned about local rebellion rather than the agitation of the masses, and bell bottoms… Well, one out of three.