Category: 5things

Five things on Friday #31

Things of note for the week ending August 3rd, 2012

1. The London Underdogs
“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well” 
– Pierre de Coubertin. Father of the Modern Olympic Games, speaking at the London 1908 Closing Ceremony.

And it is with that gorgeous quote that the spirit of The London Underdogs is built upon. Yeah, that’s right – let’s hear it for the Olympic Underdogs!

Here we are, at the mid-point of the two week extravaganza, and if you’re still yet to go (but have tickets to spend next week), get your posters from The London Underdogs.

Seriously, they’re awesome –

The London Underdogs

The London Underdogs

As the website says:

“We Brits love a good Underdog. The wild cards. The fighters. Those have-a-go heroes who haven’t a hope. We’ve never heard of them, we don’t know what they look like, and their fans are few and far between. But we cheer them all the same.
–
So join us, and together, we can show the world that it’s definitely about the taking part.”

Well done my friends, very well done indeed.

—–

2. Cellophane Art: WIN

I absolutely love this artwork and have no idea why something like this has never been done before. ‘Cellograff‘, as its referred to by its creators, is French in origin, but universal in its appeal. I love it. I think you might too.

3. Blackpool’s Dune Grass
What is it? Have you seen it? Never heard of it? Watch this…

Blackpool’s latest addition to their pleasure beach takes the shape of these rather quite enchanting blades of ‘dune grass’. Conceived and created by the geniuses at Freestate, these kinetic sculptures have been in the works for several years and it’s actually quite lovely to see them at last, living and breathing in the real world – where they belong.

Super regular readers may recognise them from an earlier video… say, back in 2009?

I’m saying nothing.

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4. Age-verified Following on Twitter
Earlier this week (or maybe the week before, I don’t remember), I was followed by the beer brand, Tsing Tao – Huzzah!

I quite like Tsing Tao and drink it fairly regularly, so a follow back was in order… but then, when I did, I got an auto direct message response.

Sidenote: auto direct messages suck. They’re spammy, impersonal and generally a one way ticket to an auto unfollow.

But this one was different, this one wasn’t asking me to subscribe to someone’s blog or to check out something else this new follower had done, no – this one asked me to confirm my age.

– I have not seen that before.

While this could be seen as merely a hoop-jumping exercise that alcohol brands go through to meet certain regulatory requirements (there’s no credit card details or anything that actually verifies a thing; I could be 17 and lie about my age), it does please me to know that these rules are actually being adhered to.

I’m not sure how long Twitter has made this feature available to brands, but I really like that it’s out there and I really like that Tsing Tao is doing things properly.

A cricket clap for for all of you.

—

5. (Fake) Injuries up your social status
This is old but apparently, back in 2009, it was fashionable in Beirut to sport your very own nose-job bandage. This trend was born out of the rise of the nose job in Lebanon and, given their expense, pretending to have had one implies that you have $1,000 to throw around on plastic surgery. Incredible.

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Bonuses this week: as it’s that time of year, then it’s worth re-watching Monty Python’s Silly Olympics; More Olympics-based chatter from Herdmeister but this time focusing on what the event actually reveals about us, as human beings; and this map of the internet is awesome too.

 

—

Whatley out.

Five things on Friday #30

Things of note for the week ending July 27th, 2012

1. The Olympics!

London 2012 kicks off TODAY and it’s going to be AMAZING.

And, while I don’t actually have any tickets to see any events (yet), I am in London and determined to have an awesome time.

Reading any of the press around and about this fair city [and its inhabitants] over the past few weeks will reveal that there are (still) so many naysayers and I am extremely proud to say: I am not one of them.

The next four weeks will see some fantastic human sporting achievements and I am SO up for this. The talent on show will be incredible and, what’s more – whether you’re walking the street, cabbing across town or simply traversing the Underground - everywhere you can just feel London filling up and it’s brilliant.

I am so in love with London right now…

Yes there’s a lot of people around and yes it’s going to be difficult, but the buzz and the excitement and the sheer joy of it all far, far outweighs all of that.

So here’s to the Olympic Games 2012: best of luck to all competitors, from all countries.

And best of luck to London, you’re looking great right now and you’ve got so much to shout about.

Buckle up and, of course: Bring. It. On.

——-

2. Lego Relativity

Background (plus more photos) and of course, the original work. Nicely done.

——–

3. Decent Cinema Advertising (at last)
Thanks to advances in digital technology advertisers can now schedule against films by the day, as opposed to by the week. What this means is more relevant content, being served up to the right amount of eyeballs.

Why this might not be that exciting for some, there are some brands that are rubbing their hands with glee over the amount of freedom and creative opportunities that’ll come with this ‘upgrade’. I for one, as a paying cinema-goer, welcome the change and look forward to better cinema advertising.

Because right now, most of it sucks.

– source, Marketing Week

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4. Google Ripples
I upgraded my Google Nexus S to the latest version of Android – aka ‘Jellybean – recently and that, combined with the newly refreshed G+ app for iPad, has made me start getting into Google+ properly.

It’s still fairly quiet (in my circles of friends at least) but it’s growing. My G+ profile is where you can find me (and is also linked at the top right of this page) and, from now on, all future blog posts will have a ‘G+1’ button at the end – so if you like it, you can ‘plus one’ it. Damn they need some new nomenclature…

Anyway, all of that aside one of the coolest things about Google+ is the way that you can track the way content travels around using Google ‘Ripples’. This past week, to test it out, I put up an old photo from my trip to Wyoming and encouraged folk to share it to see what ripples we could create.

The output so far looks a little bit like this –

Data visualisation rocks. If you’re interested in helping with this experiment then please publicly re-share the Google+ post and, once that’s done, you’ll show up in the Ripples too!

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5. The view from the International Space Station
…is breath-taking. Hit ‘HD’, then play full-screen. This will blow you away.

via

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Have a great weekend folks,

Whatley out.

Five things on Friday #29

Things of note for the week ending July 20th, 2012

Breakfast @ F&G

1. Foxcroft & Ginger
…is one of my favourite places in London, the girl reviewed it recently (with input from me) and in doing so, reminded me that I need to create my own Soho post (in fact, I think I might have one drafted somewhere already). In the meantime, check out this Foursquare list that might be of use to you if you ever find yourself that way.

But yeah, be you at Boxpark or Berwick St, @foxanginger is for you.

2. The Nexus 7
I don’t have one (I’m an iPad 2 owner), however everything I’m reading says that it’s actually really bloody good. Not bad for £150 either. Even though it doesn’t have room for a SIM card (deal breaker for me), getting this kind of write-up for a long-famed Apple fan is a BIG deal.

For me, the key is the size. Again, I was skeptical at first, but for many situations, I’ve come to love the 7-inch frame. The iPad is brilliant when you’re sitting on a couch or camped out in a coffee shop. In my view, the 9.7-inch iPad is slowly but surely becoming a laptop replacement. I expect this to continue. But a 7-inch tablet is different. The iPad is clunky to read in bed, for example. The Nexus 7 is perfect for that.

Go read.

3. Item 47
I’ve written before about expanding the universe and while this isn’t exactly trans-media, this (unique?) kind of approach to film-making gets me very excited about Marvel indeed.

Item 47 is a ten minute short that takes place right after Avengers; it’s not exactly a spoiler to say that the aftermath of the end battle leaves New York in a bit of a mess and, well, some stuff gets left behind. Namely, item 47 (seen above). There’s a one minute short over on Screenrant, but the full feature will come with the Avengers home release later this year.

Outside of this general awesomeness, I really like what Marvel are doing here. They’ve already mentioned their intention to release similar shorts, or ‘one shots’, that connect their different films (Item 47 isn’t their first), and this cross-pollination is just cool. More please. Like Pixar, in fact.

Thanks.

4. Blog Topics
This could be a whole blog post in itself (and we’ll come back to why – and it still may yet) however, for those that are looking for things to write about, then you might want to sign up for Chris Brogan’s blog topic kick-starter project.

I’m lucky enough to have met Chris a couple of times now and he’s always been engaging and generous with his expertise. The titles of each of these email ‘modules’ has got me interested enough, take a look –

  • BTMC00 – Welcome letter
  • BTMCB0 – Bonuses – and the Tech / Reading List
  • BTMC01 – Your Promise to Readers
  • BTMC02 – Building Strong Habits
  • BTMC03 – The Magazine Building Crash Course
  • BTMCB1 – Interview with XXXX (it’s a secret!)
  • BTMC04 – Procrastination and Discipline
  • BTMC05 – Breaking Down What Works
  • BTMC06 – Topic Hunting
  • BTMC07 – How to Conduct an Interview
  • BTMCB2 – Interview with XXXX (it’s a secret!)
  • BTMC08 – The Conversational Tone
  • BTMC09 – Make Your Own Editorial Calendar
  • BTMC10 – Sprinting, Marathons, and the Awkwards
  • BTMC11 – Video, Audio, Photos, and more
  • BTMC12 – Money and the Blog
  • BTMC13 – A Blogger’s Media Plan
  • BTMCB3 – Interview with XXXX (it’s a secret!)
  • BTMC14 – Fastblogging
  • BTMC15 – Secrets I Have Learned
  • BTMC16 – Blogging Versus Book Writing
  • BTMCB4 – XXXX (it’s a secret, but really really fun!)

As I said, even if you’re just starting out and don’t have the £/$/€ to invest, those titles are a good thought starter for anyone. Nice work Chris!

5. Batman
This section was going to be about a whole host of Bat-related stuff that I’ve been up to this past week, but with the recent sad events in Colorado, it seems somewhat crass to be all excited about Batman right now.

I’ll save it all up for another day and instead, hand over to the The Dark Knight Rises director to take a moment to remember the innocent lives that were lost in this horrible, horrible way.

——————

“Speaking on behalf of the cast and crew of The Dark Knight Rises, I would like to express our profound sorrow at the senseless tragedy that has befallen the entire Aurora community.

I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting but that they were there last night to watch a movie. I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime.

The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me.

Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families.”

– Christopher Nolan, July 2012

 

 

Five things on Friday #28

Things of note for the week ending July 13th, 2012

1. Dior’s Autumn / Winter Show

Using one million flowers, the set for Christian Dior’s 2012 Couture show is simply breathtaking. Can you imagine the smell?

Wow.

2. Hair Prank of epic proportions
I caught this early last week and laughed my face off*. It starts slow, but the reactions are GOLD.
Enjoy.

Via

*I’m not sure what I find more funny: the reactions of his friends and family, or just the fact that the guy dreamed the idea up in the first place. Brilliant.

3. San Diego Comic-Con
The biggest, geekiest event is taking place right now and superhero/sci-fi/fantasy media news is flowing like no tomorrow. There’s been announcements about Ant-Man, discussions about Iron Man 3, sneak peeks of Man of Steel and a whole bunch of other interesting things to boot.

I read Screenrant to keep me up to date.
You should too.

In the meantime, enjoy this trailer for Wizard of Oz prequel: ‘Oz: the Great and the Powerful‘

I’m a big James Franco fan, and this – the story of how the Wizard of Oz came to be – just looks ace.

(In case you’re wondering, I’m yet to attend – but I’m sure as hell hoping to one day. Comic Con, that is. Not OZ; that’d be weird).

4. New Brothers Blue
Photographer, Norman Seeff, has released a whole set of previously unseen Blue Brothers photos that are just a delight to see (and read about).

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5. The best customer care story you’ll read this week.
I’ve shard this on Twitter already, but it’s so good, I just had to blog it.

I’m not going to write it up. Just click through and read about how the Ritz-Carlton really do go the extra mile…

It’s brilliant.

 

Bonuses: Ron Perlman has gone on record to say that he’d never make another Hellboy film because he hates the daily arduous make up process. Still, that didn’t stop him suiting up one last time for the Make a Wish Foundation (I welled up a little bit); Photojojo has the best email response team ever; and this week’s episode of The Voicemail includes a hilarious Finnish-to-English Google Translate error that caused mobile-rumours a plenty (listen from 17mins exactly). Amazing.

 

Whatley out.

 

Five things on Friday #27

Things of note for the week ending July 6th, 2012

1. Stunning Ocean Waves
These are gorgeous and I could honestly sit and stare at them for hours. Dreams are made of this. Click through, gaze, hear the waves crash around you and… breathe.

2. The 3 White Lies Behind Instagram’s Lightning Speed
Instagram is a great service (I’ve blogged about it before) but this post, from Fast Company Design is a bloody fantastic read, a must-read in fact for anyone looking at mobile code and/or best-in-class some good examples of smart UX programming.

There’s some great insights here (three, to be precise) and, for someone who has spent some time in mobile app start-ups, it’s excellent to see/read about some of the lateral thinking behind one of my favourite social networks.

3. Conversations with my 12yr old self
Best bit of UGC I’ve seen on the internet this week. Bar none.

Yes, it’s gone an annoying ad on the front. But hey, that’s what happens when stuff goes big. Just watch it, and be amazed.

 4. Vodafone + BT Openzone access
If you have an iPad with Vodafone, apparently you get free access to a wealth BT Openzone WiFi hotspots all over the country.

The funny things, not many seem to be able to get it to work. Including me. This is a guest post over for Mobile Industry Review, go check it out.

5. Batman on a Pizza Hut
Exactly what it says on the tin. And I love it.

Exactly what it says on the tin

Via

Bonuses this week; Five things on Friday is on a Thursday in Qatar, thanks to my friend Tarek; additionally, this digital hipster has inspired others too; and – when things move to the next stage – this poster is going on every single wall I can find.

 

Until next time…

 

 

Five things on Friday #26

Things of note for the week ending June 29th, 2012

1. Amazing Superman Art is Amazing
Part painting, part sculpture; this pixelated masterpiece is just marvellous. It’s almost as if Kal-El has been made up of those tall buildings that he famously leaps in a single bound. I like.

A lot.

2. Visit England

This is awesome.

Not England going out of the Euro 2012s, of course not. But Visit England leaping on it so quickly meant that they basically WON THE INTERNET.

At the time of blogging, the tweet in question had received over 9600 retweets and was still being held up as a champion of excellence for brands working in, and across, the world of super-reactive social media.

Well done Visit England, I salute you.

3. A 3D mapping project of the London Underground
I found this the other day and immediately forwarded it to my friend (and avid London Underground blogger), Annie Mole. She blogged it, naturally, but I couldn’t help myself either.

tube21

There’s only a limited amount of stations you can view at the moment (as they’re being built from public drawings, plans and memory only), but it’s still worth seeing if only because you get to see why the Victoria to Bakerloo change at Oxford Circus (above) is just so darn quick.

Go play.

4. The Star Wars that I used to know
This is especially timely as me and the girl are currently revisiting the series and, given the other half’s limited knowledge of said saga, we’re viewing them in MACHETE-ORDER.

Machete order makes perfect sense. In the mean time, and/or if you need any further justification, watch this epic Star Wars music video… which is just so good.

….so so so so so good.

5. Six terrible movie decisions (that gave us great movie moments)
There’s a few here that I knew already, but The Empire Strikes Back stuff is fairly cool (telling you exactly why Han was – SPOILER – frozen in carbonite at the end of the film, for example). That, combined with finding out why ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is such a Christmas classic makes this list worth a look.

Also, while reading that, I was reminded of the bat-sh*t crazy Nick Cave Gladiator 2 script that I read once.

Man, I wish that got made.

—

Bonuses: I haven’t bought a ticket to see The Amazing Spider-Man*; a London F1 Grand Prix would be EPIC, clearly; and if you missed Google’s amazing Project Glass / Live Sky-diving trick last week, then you can both watch it, and find out how they did it, over on Techcrunch.

—

*I don’t know why that’s a bonus thing of note this week, it just is. I was super-excited about it, but that seems to have worn off. Perhaps it’s the over-egging of the pre-release pudding. Maybe I’ve seen too much of the all-new, all-shiny amazing one himself…  Maybe I’m just not as taken with it as I thought I’d be…  *shrug*… watch this space.

— Whatley out.

 

Five things on Friday #25

Things of note for the week ending June 22nd, 2012

Date night presents ftw

1. Awesome girlfriend is awesome
I have a new Moleskine. It has Lego on it. It’s amazing. That is all.

2. Hakkasan
OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. I ate at Hakkasan for the first time EVER this week and… OH. MY. GOD. the food is AMAZING. Melt in your mouth, gifted from heaven, purest of all Asian greatness – I literally can’t stop thinking about it.

Eat at Hakkasan. At once.

I could go into massive details about certain dishes, and what was so good about each one, or why one thing might be better than the other – but I won’t, as I am fairly sure everything on the menu is awesome. We didn’t have one bad dish (and we ate a lot). It’s not cheap. But dudes, spoil yourselves.

Best meal I’ve had all year. Fact.

(and how’s this for amazing service? The girl bought me a present – see item 1 – and, because I unwrapped it like an excited child over dinner – the staff thought it was my birthday AND THEN MADE ME A BIRTHDAY DESSERT. Just, fantastic).

3. Legoland Windsor

whoooooosh

We went to Legoland last weekend (more girlfriend-based awesomeness) and had such a good time! From wet-rides to rollercoasters, to taking arty shots of awesome Lego displays (see above) and back again. Legoland is a proper giggle. Alright we had a small person with us, who we got to spoil with bricks and who kept us all smiling the whole day there, but still. It was a LOT of fun.

Oh, and there’s a Lego submarine too. Amazing.

4. Friends
The past seven days really have been so good. I’ve caught up with a lot of people whom I’ve missed a fair bit recently and this week, be it over email, drinks or dinner, my friends have made me roar with laughter, smile with joy and generally warm all the way through with stupid happiness.

Thanks guys, you know who you are – and you rock.

5. The Girl Who Would Be King
One of my newest blog finds, 1979 semi-finalist – aka, comic book geek, Kelly Thomson – is giving away the first part of her book ‘The Girl Who Would Be King‘.

Chapters one and two are available already and I’m fairly sure three and four won’t be far behind now reading parts three and four. It’s good. So read it.

–

Outdoorsy bonuses this week: work commitments meant I had to sell my Isle of Wight Festival ticket (booo!), but the washout looks mental, so there’s one upside. No Isle of Wight means I’m free to go to Royal Ascot this weekend. I’ve not been before, so it should be ace! Festival-wise, I’ve still got Nova to look forward which, weather depending, is looking like it’s going to be great too.

Different theme to this week’s five things.
There’ll be more cool stuff next week.

 

Whatley out.

 

 

Five things on Friday #24

Things of note for the week ending June 15th, 2012

1. Stunning Stained Glass
I’ve had the page up of these stained glass watertower images for nearly two weeks now; returning to them almost daily just gently bliss out and take them in.

It is a beautiful piece of art.

2. #361Live
I blogged about this awesome event a little while back. Well, part one is now up and live so you should go and listen, yeah? Go on then.

3. The Indecent Proposal
The second event of note from last week was ‘The Indecent Proposal: should bloggers blog for love, or money?‘. It was certainly an interesting evening, with great panelists from different blogs and agencies, debating the above. The (perceived) authenticity of blogging and, in turn, bloggers, allows for a difference of interpretation and opinion when it comes to the reporting of certain things (ie: the truth). So when money changes hands, well – that’s a grey area.

However, one thing came to light that was just mental.

Yes, that’s right.

Apparently, there are brands out there that are paying £10,000 for blog posts. THIS IS INSANE. We, as the audience, of course, GASPED, and then probed and questioned further. More came forward: another blogger was reported as being paid £8,000 per month for their ‘advocacy’.

There. Are. No. Words.

Now look, while there is no law against paying for blog posts (see this quote from the Office of Fair Trading):

“Online promotional activity, just like any other promotional activity, must clearly identify when promotions and editorial comment have been paid for, so that consumers are not misled.”

Which means, any paid-for blog posts must be clearly marked. Right? Right.

TEN THOUSAND POUNDS IS A JOKE.

4. What if Pixar did DC?

They probably never will. Given that Pixar are wholly owned by Disney, who in turn also own MARVEL. So yeah, that’s out. BUT – if they did – then it might look a little bit like these awesome images by Daniel Araya – via iO9

5. 22 Storytelling Tips from Pixar
This one is pretty much what it says on the tin. So y’know, go read them.

—

Whatley out.

Five things on Friday #23

Things of note for the week ending June 8th, 2012

1. Game of Thrones

This image has been kicking around the ‘net for a little while now and it is all kinds of awesome. Game of Thrones season 2 is at an end now. It was epic. Peter Dinklage has been killing it. Good work sir.

And if you’ve not got ’round to watching this show yet, what are you doing? GO!

2. Fan boy theories
I came across this thread on Reddit (via Super Punch) the other week and it is, as one follower called it, a monstrous time vacuum.

Covering off such topics as ‘Why Rugrats is completely imagined’, ‘Who Sean Connery really is in ‘The Rock”, ‘Why it’s actually quite plausible – up to a point – that R2D2 was Luke Skywalker’s father’ and finally, my personal favourite, ‘Why The Bride doesn’t actually kill Bill in ‘Kill Bill”.

Seriously mental stuff. Click through, and be prepared to lose HOURS of your life.

You have been warned.

3. Xbox SmartGlass

I did have a massive write up in my head about just how awesome Microsoft’s new ‘SmartGlass’ is shaping up to be (and I might just save that for another day, perhaps as a follow up to my other 2screen post).

But today, instead, I’m going to link to this TechCrunch article that explains it all, and then, while you’re reading that, I’d also like to post this excerpt from a post I wrote about ‘the importance of ecosystems‘ back in September 2011.

But the key part here for me is Xbox. The one thing everyone seems to be overlooking: The Xbox. There are 53.6million of these machines worldwide – already sat under televisions. Of those, 66% are connected [or at least registered] online via Xbox Live. Include in that another 10million Kinects [the fastest selling peripheral of all time] and you have one hell of a home entertainment system / internet ecosystem.

If anyone wants to hire me as a technology trend-spotter, please feel free to get in touch…
#justsayin

4. Sydney Opera House Projection Mapping
Project mapping, you either love it or you hate it – The electric car from Toyota, is awesome. I saw some live once, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, that was cool too. Then, Madonna absolutely nailed it at Superbowl 2012 and now, in my opinion at least, it’s all a bit passé.

Keeping that in mind, I thought that this effort – via the Vivid Sydney light festival at Sydney Opera House – was simply beautiful.

Talk about a building MADE for this kind of work. Just.. Wow.

5. Mad Dreams

Yeah. I should really lay off the cheese.
…for what it’s worth mind, Conan and I had a blast.

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Bonuses – the best response to ‘What does it feel like to be the CEO of a start up‘ will make some of my friends cry; a month old article written by Avengers star, Tom Hiddleston, on why Superheroes are important; and just a quick link to a new mobile-technology focused podcast that I’ve started with a friend, entitled ‘The Voicemail‘ – more on this, soon.

Five things on Friday #22

Things of note for the week ending June 1st, 2012

Summer is here

1. Good times
Writing this blog throughout the week as I do (picking up links throughout the week and saving them to WordPress on the fly), means there is often a close kind of overlap with some of the awesomeness out there. As I type this particular segment, it’s 9:30 on Sunday May 27th and the sunshine is GLORIOUS.

Yesterday was the first picnic of the year and, as well as hanging out with friends and generally having a laugh, there was Frisbee (see above), Lasagne and then later, EUROVISION. Which, thanks to Twitter, was actually quite bearable.
Note to self: add this to your ongoing 2screen case study collection

As the girl quite perfectly put it: super fun time

2. Love this from Steven Sanders

First, I found this from one of my new favourite tumblrs, and second, I have a soft spot for awesome-pencils-on-white-backgrounds because they totally work with my blog theme (thanks again Vero).

Oh, and I just really love the picture too.

3. Awesome Brothers
I have an awesome brother. Fact. Having this guy as a brother would be awesome too. For his sibling’s birthday not only did he go out and find a pair of Iron Man bracelets (if you haven’t seen Avengers Assemble yet, you won’t know how awesome these are) but he also drew this pic of him using them. AMAZING.

I guess that’s what happens when your brother works at Pixar.

4. Empty Underground
I like to take photos of the London Underground when there’s noone else around. I’ve blogged about it before, others have too. There’s a hashtag and a Flickr group but it’s just a hobby more than anything else, and it’s fun. Anyway, this one is from last week. It’s one of mine and it’s probably top five favourite all time Empty Underground shots.

You get a coffee on me if you can guess where and how I took it.

5. Amazing comic book people are amazing
I admit it. I cried.

http://WFXT.images.worldnow.com/interface/js/WNVideo.js?rnd=190702;hostDomain=www.myfoxboston.com;playerWidth=525;playerHeight=296;isShowIcon=true;clipId=7317802;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=News;advertisingZone=;enableAds=false;landingPage=;islandingPageoverride=false;playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDscript;controlsType=overlay;galleryType=wnstory;galleryId=18597572

If you can’t bear to sit through the 30second ad at the start (sorry – can’t do anything about that),why not go read the story instead. Either way, it’s a lovely piece of good news to sign off with.

Bonuses are all long-form pieces again this week; How to Spot the Future, via Scroggles, is very similar to Where Good Ideas Come From in its nature, but still worth a read all the same; Beating the anxiety of online reading; and A Guide to Influence(rs) Chapter One has made me want to write my own guide on how to engage with communities.