David Lynch’s film Mulholland Drive contains one of my favourite movie scenes. The movie’s director and its producers are meeting their financial backers, and David Lynch creates a fantastic visual metaphor for the power struggle between art and money. I am going to follow Lynch’s advice here. Don’t describe it, if you can show it.

It takes a lot of money to make movies. Quite necessarily this creates a certain nervousness in the industry. But what really makes movie studios the kings of fickle is this: selling movies is like selling incredibly expensive vegetables. Your average flic goes to mush faster than a banana in August. Read more »

The success story of digital agencies has been nothing but stunning over the last ten years. But the role they play is not for long. Just when we got used to the digital shop as a necessary part of the team, it’s time to say goodbye.

To understand why the rise and fall of “digital” is a necessity, it helps to understand why “digital” was invented at all. It was – of course – a marketing tool Read more »

Crowdsourcing ist hip. Zuerst mal weil’s geht. Ohne Web 2.0 bräuchte man über die smoothe Verteilung von Miniaufträgen in die Wolke der Bereitstehenden gar nicht zu reden. Zum zweiten ist Crowdsourcing aber auch philosophisch spannend – denn wie wir aus “Wisdom of the Crowds” gelernt haben, gibt es eine ganze Menge Fälle, in der 100 Leute von der Straße zusammen weit besser Bescheid wissen als ein ausgewiesener Experte.

Und so kommen wir zur Werbung.

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Take away the political showboating and petty tax schemes and Capitalism boils down to two ideas -- embraced in battle. Hayek vs. Keynes; Govt. bashing vs. Govt. spending.

Looking at their philosophies duking it out in this rap video -- I’ll be rolling with Keynes. Limo!

Nice example of data visualization. I like it especially, because it  plays with the social norms and ideas that travel through a community. “Did anyone see you?” If this were a little less tongue-in-cheek, a chart for US would definitely need to mention the 5-second-rule, which dominates the American rule system on eating from the ground. Hollywood even made an entire animated movie based on the deadly danger of eating anything that’s been on the floor for over 5 seconds: It’s called “Osmosis Jones” and it features an egg-munching Bill Murray and the voices of Chris Rock (white blod cell) and Lawrence Fishburne (virus). Germany, by the way, does not know the 5-second-rule. If I remember my childhood correctly, I mastered a complex matrix of floor condition and food type – all without the help or knowledge of my parents of course. Strawberry jam on carpet? Never. Buttered (but folded) pretzel on hardwood flooring? Absolutely! It would be interesting to see what the real chart looked like for other countries. Or for people who’s parents had better vision.

Via Flowingdata.com. Complete Post at: http://flowingdata.com/2010/01/22/dropped-food-should-you-eat-it/