whatleydude.com

Things of note for the week ending Friday November 13th, 2015.

It’s me! There I am! Writing Five Things!

Holy bananas, it’s Five things on Friday issue #150.

That’s 150 times I’ve pulled together five of the most interesting things I’ve seen/found online (and off )over the past few years. Every week (not always on a Friday), but every week nonetheless.

Not bad!

Hurrah for arbitrary numbers and celebrations therein.

Enough silliness, shall we dive in?

BUMPER 150th EDITION SPECIAL!

1. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO CONTEST
No edition of Five things on Friday (which, by the way, go through a minor change/facelift in the New Year – I’ve literally just decided so, y’know, expect more on that… next year) would be complete without a link to a fairly awesome/substantial photo album now would it?

Which is handy, because National Geographic is currently underway (entries must be in by Monday, in case you’re considering entering) and the submissions thus far are, of course, outstanding.

Have a squizz at these few…

And then please do go and check out the rest, they are stunning – all of them.

2. A HUG MACHINE – WHAT?
Thanks to Sizemore for this late entry in at Thing Number Two this week. Some bright spark in Finland has made this wooden hug machine:

According to my very poor Finnish:

“The viewer must trust the construction and lean on it, then he/she is able to reach the handles. The viewer can turn these handles as if he/she would be hugging someone. The mechanism will in turn hug the viewer in the same way with the mechanical arms which have three turning points. Instructional video is included. In the video people try the work for the first time.”

Suitably bonkers.

More.

3. NO, YOU’RE A FALL STREAK HOLE
I had no idea these things existed.

This, ladies and gents, is a fall streak hole.

Check it:

Right?!

This one appeared over Australia just last week.

Wanna know how?

Of course you do.

4. MOBILES ARE PCS
The super smart Ben Evans is back again, this time talking about how mobiles and ecosystems have effectively ‘killed’ the era of the PC.

This chart is somewhat meaningless without the context (you can read Ben’s post here) and one could argue (as my podcasting colleague Stefan Constantinescu did on last week’s episode) that Ben is just trundling out the same old ‘mobile is eating the universe’ stuff as per, however, whatever your opinion aside, it is utterly compelling and expertly written.

This is my recommended read of the week.

5. THE IMPORTANCE OF [PRACTICING] HEARTBREAK
This is a beautiful read.

Carsie Blanton, author of the weblog ‘thoughts on love, sex, music and ferocity’ (love that), put together some words on the importance of practicing heartbreak.

And I adore it.

The whole thing is endlessly quotable but…

This:

When we love somebody, even casually or briefly, we give them the power to hurt us. Falling in love with someone means looking them in the eye, handing over your guileless, muffiny heart, and saying, “do your worst”. We do this because some part of us, despite our best attempts at logic, trusts them. I’d argue that we don’t trust our beloved notto hurt us; we trust them to hurt us in a way that we need to be hurt. Our hearts may strike us as foolish, illogical, and idiotic (heck, I dedicated a whole album to the subject), but they are geniuses at one thing: they know exactly what will make us grow, and they have no qualms about yanking us towards it.

And this?

When we practice heartbreak, we get better at it. We gain confidence in our own ability to hurt and heal, which gives us the courage to stride into the world, with all its disappointment and cruelty and unsavory characters, and embrace it joyfully. We broaden our emotional horizons – venturing a little further into the dark, cobwebby corners of our souls, feeling things we’ve never felt before, expanding our understanding of ourselves and other people. When our hearts break, they break us open.

All utterly mesmerising.

I doubt there are many of you out there who have gone without some form of heartbreak in your lives. I myself have been through the gut-wrenching heart-smashing, soul-crumpling numbness of heartbreak more times than I care to mention.

It is everything.

It is endless.

But you grow.

And above all, at the end, you realise it was worth it.

Shalom.

_______________

Bonuses this week are many:

• The best ‘overheard on a plane’ story this week.
• Do you [secretly] like porn on Instagram? Yeah, we can see (I mean, there’s no problem with that just, y’know, be aware that people can you see you doing it).
• #SquadGoals? No thanks.  
• Phone dead on your commute? Try this.
• Interesting (but not really legal – yet).

AND FINALLY…

I know I bang on about Shaken Cocktails from time to time (transparency: I am a minor investor) but I thought it’d be worth pointing out to you lovely lot that, if you missed out the first time, there is another investment round open right now.

Not heard of Shaken Cocktails?

Go read!

(also: £5 off your first box thanks to yours truly)

Anyway, now you’re all read up: with an abundance of success stories already behind them (and many more ahead) this investment round is definitely something to check out.

AND [actually] FINALLY.

Thank you all so much for reading.

150 editions is pretty darn awesome.

Which means, by association, you are too.

I love you, all of you.

James, x

Things of note for the week ending November 6th, 2015.

Hey there everybody and HAPPY FRIDAY to you. It’s been a lovely old week, hasn’t it? The weather turned, the fires burned, and the Internet (and Canada) learned some more.

But that’s not why you’re here. You’re here for FIVE THINGS ON FRIDAY.

So… here they are then.

1. PREACHER, WHAT?!

PREACHER is an incredible series. Those of you who have read it will know exactly what I’m talking about. Those of you who haven’t, well, either borrow it from someone or go out and buy book one immediately – you won’t regret it.

The reason this is a thing this week however is not just a simple book recommendation, oh no. AMC – the American cable channel behind amazing TV such as The Walking Dead – has commissioned a series based upon PREACHER and the first trailer for the show dropped this week.

(click image to view trailer, yo)

And it looks ACE.

Bring it.

2. WAIT, THEY KILLED GRANTLAND?!
The ‘they’ in this context is ESPN and Grantland, if you’re unaware, is/was a phenomenal sports and culture website that featured some of my favourite articles of recent history – many of which ended up in an edition of Five Things or three.

From Fincher, to Hartman, to the America’s Cup – Grantland was an EXCELLENT publication. To read about its demise, I suggest you head over to Deadspin for the 411.

However, if you’d rather not make yourself sad about the loss of such amazing writing, why not head over to The Grantland Archive where all of the goodness linked above (and more) is there ready and waiting for your consumption.

I can’t believe it’s over.

Gutted.

3. MICROSERF
For reasons I shan’t go into, this passage speaks to me…

The image itself I nabbed from the Instagram channel of one Rishi Dastidar – aka, Betarish. A talented and kind individual who, where asked when said quote was taken, not only updated the post with the title but then also sought out, purchased, and subsequently sent me a copy to read myself.

Sir, you are a gent.

Friends, the book is known as ‘Microserfs‘, it is beside me as I type – and I recommend it to all of you.

Go get.

4. SOME FILM STUFF
Every time I thought I had the fourth thing cracked this week something else came along and nudged it over. So here, in thing four of this week’s five things, I present to you several things that all come under the fairly rough banner of ‘film stuff’.

First up is a trailer for Charlie Kaufman’s latest ‘Anomalisa‘ – aka ‘The most human film of the year that doesn’t star a single human’.

(click image to view trailer, yo)

Next up, we have this rather snazzy compilation from those wonderful folk at Screenrant regarding MOVIES THAT STOLE FOOTAGE FROM OTHER FILMS.

For example:

Amazing, right? I mean, it’s just so blatant.

Full video available here [4mins].

And finally, while not strictly a film thing it is an interesting film. This next video is of two daredevils (read: crazies with balls of steel) flying jet wings next to and around an Emirates A380 airliner.

That’s right, the smallest human flight and the largest – next to each other.

I mean, it’s not like that plane has got jet intakes or anything, right?

Oh.

Wait.

Fine.

Whatever.

This one is definitely this week’s must watch.

And now, after all that, we come to…

5. BIGGER ISSUES
CALM, in partnership with LYNX, launched its ‘BIGGER ISSUES’ campaign this week and you can get help raise awareness to this cause quite easily by simply going to the BIGGER ISSUES website and signing up to the impending Thunderclap…

But wait, what is CALM and what are BIGGER ISSUES?

Take a look:

As the website says, people are talking about the wrong things. There are BIGGER ISSUES at play here.

You can help.

Bonuses this week are things that you should know by now but if not here it is anyway just in case:

• Stars are now Hearts on Twitter. Don’t like it? There’s a plug in for that.
• Facebook had its earnings call (big numbers here).
• I’d love to go to MARS one day but I’ve heard it’s rubbish as there’s just no atmosphere. Turns out there used to be. Who knew?!

Whatley out.

Ps. FTOF #150 next week. EXCITING.

Things of note for the week ending Friday October 30th, 2015.

Halloween tomorrow, innit.

1. 35 BEST REUTERS PHOTOS SO FAR THIS YEAR
Reuters is amazing. Full stop. Business Insider thinks so too. That’s why they’ve pulled together a list of the 35 best photos from Reuters so far this year.

Here’s one to get you in –

The rest are simply breathtaking.

Powerful.

Arresting.

Moving.

Go.

2. UNDER PRESSURE
A few things here. First off, UNDER PRESSURE is an amazing song. AMAZING. Go and listen to it right now in fact.

Second off, I had no idea of how this whole thing came together.

In the summer of 1981, the British band Queen was recording tracks for their tenth studio album, Hot Space, at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland. As it happened, David Bowie had scheduled time at the same studio to record the title song for the movie Cat People. Before long, Bowie stopped by the Queen sessions and joined in. The original idea was that he would add backup vocals on the song “Cool Cat.” “David came in one night and we were playing other people’s songs for fun, just jamming,” says Queen drummer Roger Taylor in Mark Blake’s book Is This the Real Life?: The Untold Story of Freddie Mercury and Queen. “In the end, David said, ‘This is stupid, why don’t we just write one?’”

Amazing.

More (including a stripped down isolated vocal track from both Bowie and Mercury) here.

(there’s a lot to see/read and it’s probably the best thing on the list this week)

3. SOME RANDOM DARK KNIGHT STUFF
This is potentially quite old but I only found it recently and just really, really liked it. If you’ve ever read any interviews with Tom Hardy about his experiences on TDKR then you’ll know how true this whole thing sounds…

4. NEED A FRIDAY MIXTAPE?

Friday Mixtape has the [often very awesome] solution.

5. HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Yes, this is all my own work (studied a year in stage make up in my teens). It’s relatively simple to do BUT if you’re yet to sort your costume, get yourself to Charles H. Fox in London’s Covent Garden. If you’re need of a make up job, they’ll sort you right out.

WOOP WOOP

________

Bonuses this week are as follows:

• Leaves.
• 3D Touch on Android (kinda).
• The best EMA write up you’ll read.

—

Oh, and sorry it’s late, I genuinely had publishing issues.

Enjoy the weekend, wherever you are in the world.

Whatley out x

Things of note for the week ending Friday October 23rd, 2015.

Fancy listening to some new Kanye while you read through? Of course you do. The man aside, his music… oh his music.

1. VW SHAM
File this one under #BrandVandalism.

In the wake of the Volkswagen emissions scandal, a few savvy VW owners have clubbed together and launched VW Sham.

To quote:

If you’re like us, you’re feeling angry and a bit ashamed of driving a VW TDI diesel. You thought you bought a “clean diesel” only to find out it was a SHAM. Now there’s an easy way to express your frustration. Display one of our quality 3″ x 9″ car magnets and let everyone know you’re more pissed off than they are!

To make up for your pollution-spewing TDI, we’re donating 10% of our net sales to the International Council for Clean Transportation, the not-for-profit that exposed the VW SHAM.

And these are quite wonderful.

Know someone with a VW? Maybe get them one of these 😉

2. PENULTIMATE HALLOWEEN THINGS
As promised, here is another Halloween-based thing before the big blowout next Friday.

In short: just don’t.

Shall we just move on real quick? OK!

3. RISING FROM A WATERY GRAVE
Because of a recent drought, the water level in the Nezahualcóyotl reservoir in Chiapas state recently dropped by a staggering 25m.

When the locals went to visit, this is what they saw.

Incredible.

The church, known as the Temple of Santiago or the Temple of Quechula, has been under nearly 100ft of water since 1966. Believed to have been built by Spanish colonists, the church measures 183ft long and 42ft wide, with a bell tower that rises 48ft above the ground – and is easily my favourite thing this week.

Go and read more over at The Guardian.

4. CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
I love this kinda stuff. Terence did it first (let’s not forget) and there have been many homages since. Converse did it remarkably well cough and Land Rover did it terribly.

This next one isn’t branded (yay!) but still manages a fresh take.

Go see.

5. TWO LOVERS
This is utterly beautiful.

“A tragic love story interpreted and represented in real life. Georgian sculptor Tamara Kvesitadze has created in real life the two characters who, despite their love, cannot be together. The sculptures are made out of metallic discs and are moving daily, embracing each other and parting in different ways.

Tamara Kvesitadze’s ‘Man and Woman’ installation depicts Ali, a Muslim boy and Nino, a Christian Georgian princess. It’s a symbolic representation of the Soviet Russia invasion which forces the two lovers to separate and leave for opposed directions. This tale is inspired by a novel by Azerbaijani author, Kurban Said.

The sculptures are 8 meters (26 foot) tall and are moving every day at 7pm for 10 minutes in the seaside city of Batumi in Georgia. If we look at the video above, we notice that as the sculptures move the metallic discs fit together and the bodies merge. The purpose behind this installation is to illustrate how elements, within a world where everything and anything is moving, can be synchronized and create attraction.”

And the video is mesmerising.

So beautiful.

_________________

Thank you to all of you shared this post last week. Much love indeed (and for the congrats too) as a thank you, the bonuses have returned!

And they are as follows:

• Modern Love
• Generation Bake Off
• Paranoid or Crazy?

Happy?

AND IT’S A FRIDAY! YES!

QUICK! GET TO THE PUB!

Whatley out.

PS. Know a friend who might want to subscribe? Send them this link.

Things of note for the week ending Friday October 16th, 2015.

Want some light electro noo choonz to listen to?

Of course you do.

It’s Sunday night as I write to you. Truth be told I had the things lined up earlier this week but I couldn’t find the oomph to pad them out with enough of stuff to warrant publishing/sending. Then, when I did have the get up and go to crack it out, I didn’t actually like said things.

So I re-wrote them.

Like, just now.

SO LET’S GO!

1. BEING A MAN – BAM
The BAM conference is back next month and tickets have just gone on sale. Last year, said event got superb write-ups across the board and this 2015’s efforts are expected to hit the same high standard (if not better).

Tickets for a three day pass are literally a mere THIRTY-FIVE POUNDS. Social Media Week was ten times that and then some. For reals.

I urge you, dear reader, get yourself to London for the last weekend of November and go to BAM to learn about the challenges and pressures of what it means, and takes, to be a man in the 21st century.

Men are important. Men’s health is important.

This. Is. Important.

You should go.

2. CRIMSON PEAK

It looks good. And y’know, it’s out now and stuff.

Brucie bonus? Click on that poster and your internetty browser thing will bring the trailer for said film up and into your eyes.

AND GUYS. IT’S BY GUILLERMO DEL TORO.

You should see it.

3. PLAAAYED
What happens when an ex-video-games-website-designer sees his love killed by its parent [company]? Well, he cries a bit, then he grows, he learns, he completes his hero’s journey, and he creates something new.

And that my friends, is PLAAAYED.

Like video games? You’ll probably like Plaaayed.

We all have busy lives, and more and more the things we want to entertain us feel like another job – keeping up to date with everything in the games world is impossible when we have careers to further, kids to look after, and lawns to mow (or, TV to watch, homework to do, and people to party with). Plaaayed is here to take that job from you – let us pick out the important stuff that’s happened while you’ve been busy and feed it back to you.

Try it.

4. MORE HALLOWEEN STUFF
As your protagonist’s favourite holiday of the year creeps ever closer, the continual posting of related linkography (yes, that is a word) increases with it.

First up, here is a list of I KID YOU NOT, actual ‘Halloween’ costumes that have been banned from schools.

No spoilers but number one on this list is Jesus Christ. I mean, if you’re going full Zombie Jesus then I can see why some people would get offended. But legit Jesus? What’s he ever done? Why’s he so offensive?

Oh wait, Superheroes are banned too. Yeah. This is rubbish.

OK, but I promised you another Halloween link! Earlier this week, someone had the bare-faced audacity to retweet this next item into my feed.

It’s a Buzzfeed item. And, if you’re a regular reader you might already know that sometimes and only sometimes I like to Buzzfeed articles. You’ll also know that when I do I tend to apologise for doing so.  I apologise because there are some awful, awful posts on Buzzfeed and this, dear reader, is one of them.

Ready?

Are you sitting down?

Presenting…

21 INSANELY CREATIVE HALLOWEEN COSTUMES FOR YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS.

FEATURING SUCH ZINGERS AS:

THE SEXUAL BASES

 (not kidding, this is a real thing)

or…

NETFLIX AND CHILL

(ZOMG! Like, sooooooo creative)

They’re literally wearing two different coloured t-shirts.

Kill me now.

‘Insanely creative’ my bum. Boring, sterile, and guaranteed to get you kicked out of any party for sheer lack of effort alone – more like.

This is the worst thing I’ve read this week.

Next week: Halloween INSPIRATION.

Promise.

5. BRAIN CRUNCHINGLY GOOD CONTENT
This is pretty chunky. I wrote about Oliver Sacks’ recently, back in FTOF #138. His last article for the New York Times, Sabbath, moved me in a way that I find hard to describe (if you haven’t read it, then please do so – at once).

His passing, shortly after… He knew it was coming.

His words, his efforts, his life is/was incredible.

Much of that work is hidden behind University firewalls and research servers etc but, on December 1st, that will change.

Mark it in your diary and then go download some humdingers.

_________________

There are NO bonuses this week. Instead, as we approach FTOF #150, I’d love it if you could share this post/email/newsletter with a friend or colleague or five (thousand) and give the gift of sharing.

Click this button and bonuses shall return next week.

Promise.

Whatley out.

——————

Ps. Thanks to all of you that seemingly voted for me in The Drum’s Digerati Top 100. I didn’t even know it was a thing and SHAZAM! out of nowhere, I’m in at number 22 and the 21 above are unbelievable!

Thanks team.

x

Things of note for the week ending Friday October 9th, 2015.

Well paint me blue and call me Shirley, FTOF is late again. Ah well. Honestly, this week has been – how the kids might call it – ‘Cray Cray’ (or simply ‘Crayfish’ – you know who you are).

Therefore, as I hit the M4 at 13:36 on a Saturday afternoon, with a 4hr drive ahead (another story for another time) I have plenty of time to get this wrapped, shipped and out to you over the next 100 or so miles…

Hurrah and hurrah again.

‘Thanks James!’

‘You’re all good, brah.’

Shall we?

1. WHO OWNS ANTARCTICA?
The idea of ‘ownership’ when it comes to one of Earth’s last great natural wonders makes my skin crawl slightly but still, this is actually quite interesting.

For example:

While no one country “owns” Antarctica, a total of 52 nations do have joint international control over the region. The world’s struggle for a piece of the frozen pie began with the increase in Antarctic expeditions at the start of the 20th century. In 1908, England made the first attempt by laying claim to a significant portion of the mainland and several surrounding islands. In response, several other nations scrambled to secure territories while there was still land left to claim. Those nations included Chile, Argentina, Australia, France, Norway, New Zealand and even Nazi Germany. 

Fortunately, it got better in the 50s.

A lot better.

2. PIMP MY CARDBOARD RIDE
I love this so hard.

Amsterdam-based artic, Max Siedentopf, just launched his latest project, ‘Slapdash Supercars‘ – and it is brilliant.

The one thing that Max doesn’t mention on his website is whether or not the owners of the above vehicles were willing participants in his upgrade project.

One hopes that the whole thing was done in over one night, with different people coming down to their cars in the morning to discover the amazing upgrades they’d been gifted with.

Can you imagine their faces? 🙂

Via.

3. AR COLOURING BOOKS
Apparently, Disney’s Zurich-based research arm has come up with a new way of turning colouring books pages into AR art (ARt, anyone?) that jumps off the page as you’re actually colouring it in.

Errr… mazing!

LOOK! MIND BOGGLES. CAN YOU IMAGINE THIS WIZARDRY WHEN YOU WERE A CHILD? INCREDIBLE!

PSFK has more.

4. THE MERMAID ECONOMY
This wins the prize for the most out there article of the week. I saw a few of these lovely ladies at SXSW (see below) and, according their manager (sorry), merfolk are big business indeed.

For reals.

As Fast Company explains:

…There’s been an explosion of professional mermaids, buoyed, you might say, by massive popular demand. Today, there are close to 1,000 full-time mermaids and mermen in the United States, according to the estimates of various experts I spoke with in the mer-community. These merfolk spend their days modeling in shimmering tails, performing for audiences in underwater tanks, and delighting children by making surprise appearances at their pool parties.

The whole article takes an in-depth look at the mermaid economy (yes, it’s an actual thing) and tells you exactly how, where, and why this trend is only set to grow and grow.

Compelling reading.

5. 3D PRINTING WEAPONS
I printed a gun. YES, an actual gun.

Look at how awesome it is:

!!!!!?!??!!!!!!?? RIGHT?!!!

OK, so maybe it’s not an actual gun but it is a gun from my favourite video game of the moment, Destiny.

If you’re wondering how to make your own version then WONDER NO MORE because fortunately for you, I wrote up the whole process earlier this week.

Check it.

____________

Bonuses this week are as follows.

• I read this when it first published at the end of August and, bizarrely after seeing one of Mo Farah’s stupid TV ads for Quorn, I remember I hadn’t shared it. It is the best thing ever.
  
• Halloween is coming. If, like me, you take it seriously. These old fashioned costumes are fairly good inspiration.
• After a long drawn out argument with Vodafone over the past month or so, they said sorry by furnishing me with a brand new Xperia Z5 (Spectre Edition). Want to know if it’s any good? Ask me on Twitter or listen to Episode #144 of The Voicemail (available 8pm, Oct 11th). 

Thanks for bearing with me this week and, all being well, I’ll see you on FRIDAY next.

Big love,

JW.

Things of note for the week ending Friday 2nd October, 2015.

Hello, welcome to October (I know we’re a day in but seriously – it’s my second/third favourite month of the year and it’s already gorgeous and lovely and generally just quite awesome) – I hope you have a good one.

1. DEFENDING EDWARD.
No, not this one.

This one.

Thing is, no one told HLN News.

In this epic piece of trolling, ‘Snowden supporter’ Jon Hendren is asked to give his opinions on Edward Snowden joining Twitter. But Jon had other ideas…

Brilliant.

Well done, Jon.

*Salutes*

..

2. SEE MACBETH

He’s a mardy bugger, isn’t he?

Admittedly I haven’t seen it yet but, on the strength of the absolutely stonking reviews it’s been getting, Macbeth has jumped straight to the top of my MUST SEE list which I’ll aim to tick off by the close of the weekend.

So yeah, you should too.

3. THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP
Brain Pickings is one of the best websites I subscribe to and I have NO IDEA how the author keeps it going with such endlessly interesting content. The piece I’m highlighting for you today is is relatively short (for BP at least) and looks into the science of why we sleep and what happens inside our brains when get our snooze on.

Worth a look.

Ps. Want more/better sleep? The screen you’re reading this on is not helping.
Pps. Cracking insomnia.

4. AMAZON BANS CHROMECAST/APPLE TV
I say ‘bans’, what I mean is ‘has banned the two companies’ respective TV streaming products, aka Chromecast and Apple TV, from being sold anywhere on Amazon’.

Gizmodo reports:

Third party sellers just received an email from Amazon with orders to clear out their Google Chromecast and Apple TV inventories by October 29. The more specific reason for the purge is the fact that Chromecast and Apple TV don’t support Amazon Prime Instant Video. Nevermind the fact that Amazon sells the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, two products that compete directly with Chromecast and Apple TV. Amazon wants everyone to know that it has the customers’ best interests in mind.

Well ain’t that swell.

You kinda get why it made the decision to do this (Gizmodo spell it out clearly enough above); at the end of the day it’s a business decision. However depriving consumers of choice never really worked out for anyone. Thing is, it’s not like Amazon banned the sales of iPhones and Android devices when it launched the Amazon Fire Phone. But then again, the Fire Phone is probably Amazon’s biggest embarrassment to date.

And I’m certain this TV decision isn’t a petty way to get back at the big kids that sell more phones than Amazon does… right?

Of course not.

Right?

…

5. FACEBOOK, BUT FOR WHEN YOU’RE DEAD
This week, in ridiculous Facebook stories (no, not video profile photos – which I’m not even linking to because I’m sure you’ve all done it already, I mean, this guy’s nailed it), the big blue behemoth will soon let you create your own legacy content.

Yes, that’s a thing now. LEGACY. CONTENT.

Snark aside for a second this is actually a good thing. We are mere flesh and bone and alas, our tiny containers of liquid and emotion only really have an 80 year (ish) shelf life. Some of us may never know when our time will come. Others will be given notice. Either way, the end result is as saddening as it is inevitable.

We will not live forever.

I will die some day.

You will too.

If that deafening dose of reality doesn’t wake you from your screen-staring slumber, then I don’t know what will. Hug your loved ones tonight and embrace every day.

And when you’ve done that, update the new legacy content section of your Facebook profile so your friends and loved ones can all remember your personally edited history of your best bits. It’ll be like your own version of the ‘here’s who died this year’ section at the BAFTAs.

Thanks Facebook.

Speaking of which, this should be relevant to anyone who has considered unfriending a few family members this week…

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE.

______________________

Bonuses this week are all surprises in their own unique way.

• Surprise one.
• Surprise two.
• Surprise three.

…

Thanks,

Whatley out.

Ps. This made me smile, much.

Things of note for the week ending Friday 25th September, 2015.

I’ve not been well this week. Not at all. Which has meant I’ve not really been online that much… Which means FTOF will be a bit lighter this week. I’m sure you won’t mind. Y’know, it’s not like EVERY OTHER PERSON WANTS TO SEND YOU EMAILS / NEWSLETTERS / BLOG POSTS ON FRIDAY BECAUSE HEY IT’S FRIDAY, ISN’T THIS AWESOME etc… is it?

I’m also sleepy (ill = not sleeping much either, bah). Good news is, I’m on the road to recovery. Better news is, I am scheduled to be taking annual leave today. That means that you get this written to you Friday morning fresh – and not Friday night/Saturday morning rushed.

Huzzah!

Right then, shall we?

—

1. HOW’S THE WEATHER UP THERE, DARLING?

You know the AMAZING and SPECTACULAR Rosetta mission to the comet known as 67P? You must know it… It’s been a helluva journey so far.

First there was the ten years its taken for the thing to get there. TEN. YEARS. That’s 6.4 billion kilometres. Then there’s the whole actually rendezvousing with a comet in actual space part whichi is the equivalent of throwing a small car at a floating piece of rock from about 800 million miles away, with one eye, while you’re looking in the other direction. THEN (and you must remember this) we nearly lost the landing probe (little Philae!) back in November for it to suddenly woke up over the summer (this link is an update on that btw). And now… there’s more!

This week, the Rosetta spacecraft provided scientists with enough evidence to prove the existence of a weather system on Comet 67P.

Ahem.

The team studied a set of data taken in September 2014, concentrating on a one square km region on the comet’s neck. At the time, the comet was about 500 million km from the Sun and the neck was one of the most active areas.

As the comet rotates, taking just over 12 hours to complete a full revolution, the various regions undergo different illumination.

“We saw the tell-tale signature of water ice in the spectra of the study region but only when certain portions were cast in shadow,” says Maria Cristina.

“Conversely, when the Sun was shining on these regions, the ice was gone. This indicates a cyclical behaviour of water ice during each comet rotation.”

The data suggest that water ice on and a few centimetres below the surface ‘sublimates’ when illuminated by sunlight, turning it into gas that then flows away from the comet. Then, as the comet rotates and the same region falls into darkness, the surface rapidly cools again.

Best. Thing. This. Week.

Period.

2. HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT IN 4 EASY STEPS
Hey! Wait! Don’t go anywhere! Before you click off and think ‘Oh my God, Whatley’s been hacked’ – stay there! I’m being serious…

Aaron Bleyaert published this handy guide back in February but for some reason it only really seemed to go viral get itself  internetty famous this week.

I promise you: it is fantastic and easily the best thing you’ll read today/this week/this month/this year about how to go actually lose weight.

GO READ.

3. TWITTER’S NEW BUTTONS
Got a website? Write things? Do you visit websites and sometimes read things? Well, if you’ve said yes to any of those questions you’ve probably seen the ‘Tweet!’ button.

This week, Twitter announced it was changing that button!

(old, left – new, right)

‘BUT THIS ISN’T NEWS, JAMES!’ – I hear you cry in unison.

Actually, it kinda is.

Hidden away in Twitter’s community announcement about this ‘minor’ change was this tiny bit of detail. Emphasis mine.

“Tweet buttons make authoring a Tweet from the context of a current webpage quick and easy. We are simplifying the Tweet button by removing the share counter displayed alongside the button. This new display removes the count and counturl display parameters, and will render in the same pixel dimensions as a Tweet button configured without a share count today.

The Tweet button has displayed share count over the last five years by querying a JSON endpoint hosted on various domains. These private JSON endpoints have been used by third-party developers over the years to retrieve a simple share count of any URL. These endpoints [read: ways to gather share counts from articles] will be shut down next month when the Tweet button removes its share count feature.“

People are not happy.

Thing is, Twitter changing a useful tool/piece of code that other users/developers had come to rely on should really not longer come as any kind of surprise.

The real question is: why doesn’t Twitter want you to know how many people are sharing articles through its platform?

One to noodle on.

4. DEATH TO POWERPOINT
‘Bored students is the least of it’ writes Andrew Smith ‘the bullet point-ization of information is making us stupid and irresponsible’ – the man has a point.

On the classroom, he adds:

‘Where the space around and between points on a blackboard is alive with possibility, the equivalent space on a PP screen is dead. Bullet points enforce a rigidly hierarchical authority, which has not necessarily been earned. One either accepts them in toto, or not at all. And by the time any faulty logic is identified, the screen has been replaced by a new one as the speaker breezes on, safe in the knowledge that yet another waits in the wings.’

And that really struck a chord with me.

In school, there was never any PowerPoint. There may’ve been the occasional use of an overhead-projector (‘James, could you run and fetch the OHP?’ – memories!) but never PowerPoint. We even had one teacher (economics) who told us that our exercise books were for homework and that we were never to open them in class. Instead lecturing us on the structure of a free market and how supply and demand really works…

When I reached college none of my lecturers used PowerPoint. NONE. All of them spoke to us and lectured us on the topic(s) we’d arrived to hear about.

Later in life, when I had to give public presentations/speeches for an on behalf of the company/ies that I worked for, I constantly argued against the need for PowerPoint. I hated it. I convinced myself I had a fear of it (which I then got over) but wherever possible, have since tried to not use any kind of bullet system and instead rely on pretty pictures of animals as talking points. I’m not kidding – this actually works.

Point being: go and read Smith’s article.

I’d love to know what you think.

5. FIVE KEY TAKE OUTS FROM SMWLDN
Item four: moans about bullets. Item five: here’s a list of bullets. Ha! But they’re not bullets, they’re a collection of paragraphs of things wot i wrote during Social Media Week London 2015. All collected up and published, by request, on the Guardian.

The above link there is a main overview of the main trends spotted as gleaned from the talks available to attend. It is also an edited down version of a longer article examining how ‘Social Media Week: the week long event of social media fun’ is transforming/has transformed into ‘Social Media Week: The Conference’. It’s less of a five day celebration of all things social and more a three-day business summit focused on brands, agencies, and platforms.

The content has improved enormously because of it but, since the article went live yesterday, I’m left wondering if the event will ultimately lose some of its magic in the process.

______

Bonuses this week are as follows:

• Going out this weekend? This could be you on Sunday. BE CAREFUL. 
• That Drive In bonus from last week? HERE’S THE LINK.
• One of the better writers of JUDGE DREDD published his best/favourite email comments. They made me chuckle. They might make you chuckle too.

______

Big love to all of you… and if you liked this edition, tell your friends.

Have a stellar Friday/weekend folks,

Whatley out.

Things of note for the week ending Friday September 18th, 2015.

Morning. It’s 6:36am on Saturday Sept 19th and I’m writing this to you from my bed. It has been a HELL of a week but as Churchill said ‘If you’re going through hell, keep going.’ – we kept going this week and we made it through.

If you’ve had a tough week/fortnight/month (delete where appropriate), I salute you. Take solace in the thought that you are not alone and that you are, at least I hope you are, enjoying the respite of the weekend.

In last week’s edition, web readers may of caught an amendment. Item one in FTOF 141 was supposed to be a provocative look at the truth behind online video (and now is so if you missed it, go read it). Newsletter readers however would’ve seen item one read something like ‘Paperdashery, do this on Thursday’ – congrats/apologies to those of you that caught that.

In short, I had made a note to myself to do a thing as item – and then work got crazy so I couldn’t do the thing. Then I forgot about the note to myself about the thing and then the next thing I know I’d hit send and well, the rest is history. Three people unsubscribed.

Costly costly mistakes…

Here’s what item one should’ve looked like 😉

1. PAPERDASHERY
It’s quite nice being a blogger / newsletter writer with a blog/newsletter that people read. People send you stuff. Pancakes to eat, muffins to try, phones to review (although that takes place on the podcast these days). And this past week something new turned up at the office…

(I work at Ogilvy London, wanna send me something? Send it there – it’ll get to me).

Check this out:

That’s right, it’s an ORIGAMI BATMAN.

Oh heeeeeeey…

Anyway, this arrived on my desk from the lovely Gude from Paperdashery, a new service for all things super pretty. And the reason Gude was getting in touch is because…

I have to tell you to go check it out – and to keep it front of mind when you’re next on the hunt for something a bit different for that someone special BECAUSE GUDE SENT ME A PAPER BATMAN.

Amazing.

Go check it out please.

2. HAN SOLO POP TARTS, ANYONE?

Brilliant.

3. PRIME JOURNALISTIC DUTY
Probably my best/favourite read of the week. Glenn Greenwald over on The Intercept discussing the BBC’s continual scrutiny of ‘one’s own side’.

Excerpt:

That event for me demonstrated a critical point: It’s so fun — and so easy — to highlight and protest the bad acts done by the countries declared to be the Bad Ones by your own government. It’s not quite as fun or easy to highlight and protest the bad acts done by your own government itself or its closest allies. Yet as O’Brien pointed out, journalism is far more valuable, and the public interest served far more, by doing the latter rather than the former.

Go read the whole thing.

4. SCREW YOU, SCALPERS
Oh you want to buy the latest shoes/games/gig tickets only to then sell them on again on ebay? Well, some people have had enough.

Want to purchase a pair of uber limited edition OVO x Air Jordan 10s? That’s FINE. They just have to be on your feet when you leave the store.

I’m not so much of a shoe nut that this would bother me but I know that some of you are. What do you think? Good thing or bad thing?

I’m landing in the former…

5. WOOING MR GAIMAN
Joe Quesada is one of the world’s most famous comic book people. Editor, writer, and artist, Quesada has had his hand in many of the biggest and best comic books of recent history.

Now enjoying his retirement, Quesada’s blog is an absolutely joy.

This week he wrote about ‘that time we tried to get Neil Gaiman to come write for Marvel’ – and not only is it awesome. But he also drops some never before seen Wolverine art with it.

What a guy.

He writes:

“Here’s a never before seen sequence that was never meant for publication.

Sometime around 2001-2002 we were in secret conversations with Neil to do a project or two for us at Marvel. Neil is a dear friend and around that time we were tossing around the idea of a possible X-Men story that he would write and I would draw. 

In my zeal to try to land one the best comic writers of all time, I wrote and drew this three page vignette, had it inked (Danny Miki), colored and lettered and sent it off to Neil to let him know how badly we wanted him at the House Of Ideas. What can I say, I was excited. Unfortunately the lettered version and the original script have been lost, and I barely remember what I wrote, but I believe the basic gist of the story was… 

Wolverine addresses Neil directly. He points out how blank the panels are and how empty his world is and that Neil needs to stop dawdling and get to work because those panels aren’t going to fill themselves. Wolvie continues harassing Neil, goes to light his cigar, realizes it’s a nasty habit and that there’s no smoking in Marvel Comics and stomps it out. He then holds up a Marvel Comic, makes references to the Editor in Chief being a big loser, unwraps his hands, pops the claws and then says something snarky as he leaves the scene.

Regrettably the timing didn’t work out for either of us on the X-Men project but Neil later came up with 1602, which was outstanding and he ended up with a much better artist in the process, Andy Kubert.”

I’ve got 1602 and it’s ACE – so this just makes me beam from ear to ear.

Oh, and the art work is mint.

What a guy.

_________________

Bonuses this week are as follows:

• Physical to Digital: the future of paper (short but good links elsewhere).
• These Drive-In Movie paintings took my breath away.
• A few weeks ago, I wrote about the amazing work Ogilvy had done with Converse for Chuck II. The person who appointed us to do that work is a woman called Rebecca Williams. This week, Beckie and I spoke together at Social Media Week London at a talk we called ‘A Series of Provocative Statements (and all the dragons that await therein)’ – and the video is available to watch right now [sidenote – full write up (including slide uploads plus presenter notes) coming soon/later this weekend].

Testimonials – got any? send ’em my way.

Finally, one last thing…

Guys.

Guys.

(and girls)

But guys.

All of you…

IT’S. THE. WEEKEND.

Until next time.

Love ya,

Whatley out.