Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Steven Chu
I was pleasantly surprised a few days ago to learn that Obama went for a scientific, rather than a political appointment, for secretary of energy.
If you don't about know him, Steve Chu is a Nobel Prize winning physicist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Chu
When I was at Berkeley, he was a professor at Stanford; soon after I left, he moved to Berkeley and became head of Lawrence Berkeley Lab. Everything I know about him says he'll do a terrific job as Sec of Energy. Kudos to Obama!
If you don't about know him, Steve Chu is a Nobel Prize winning physicist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Chu
When I was at Berkeley, he was a professor at Stanford; soon after I left, he moved to Berkeley and became head of Lawrence Berkeley Lab. Everything I know about him says he'll do a terrific job as Sec of Energy. Kudos to Obama!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Gotcha boxes
These "Gotcha boxes" made me smile. They are empty boxes with strange "product inside" descriptions. --JSC
Graphic designer Arik Nordby with some of his GotchaBoxes, which look like they contain real products.
News article about them by Brandon Griggs, CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/16/gotcha.boxes.onion/index.html
At first glance, it looks like an actual product: A "USB Toaster" that plugs into a laptop to toast a single slice of bread.
"Don't be tethered to the kitchen! Take your toast ... to go!" reads the ad copy on the slickly designed box, which sports images of a pop-up toaster and a busy-looking guy in a motel room biting into a piece of toast.
You can just imagine some poor sap struggling to look excited on Christmas morning after unwrapping the oddly useless gadget. Once he or she opens the box, however, an inside flap reveals the joke. "Gotcha!" it taunts. "There is no USB Toaster in this box. Even the concept of such a toaster is silly and unrealistic. In reality, you, the gift recipient, have been duped."
That's the punch line of the GotchaBox, a series of decoy gift boxes sold through the online store of The Onion, the satirical fake-news outfit. Other GotchaBoxes have featured such nonexistent products as a 28-piece "professional" whisk set and a build-your-own-umbrella kit.
Pranksters are encouraged to put their real gifts inside the gag boxes, then keep a straight face -- or better yet, ask sweetly, "How do you like it?" -- as the recipient squirms with discomfort.
The boxes are the brainchild of Arik Nordby, a graphic designer from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, who got the idea in 2004 after a birthday party for a friend's young son. The boy was visibly dismayed when a toy came wrapped in a box for a coffee pot.
"A few days later, it sort of hit me," said Nordby, who has designed boxes for bike accessories, exercise equipment and other real products. "I love doing Photoshop. I love doing package design. I love to play jokes on people. Why not play around with it?"
Nordby immediately set his sights on The Onion -- whose products include a fake atlas, Our Dumb World -- as a potential partner. Through persistent e-mails, he finagled a meeting with Sean Mills, The Onion's president, and brought him a prototype box for a "home dentistry kit."
In 2006, when The Onion launched its online store, Nordby's GotchaBoxes were among the first products sold.
"There's a lot of people who have ideas for goofy T-shirts and things. And they're not always that funny. But he got The Onion's sensibility. He just charmed us," said Glenn Severance, The Onion's marketing manager. "It makes for great business. Who wouldn't want to sell empty boxes for a profit?"
The Onion sells the boxes for $7.99 apiece, or $19.99 for a set of four. Other GotchaBox "products" include:
• The Visor-ganizer, a storage pouch that "holds up to 7 lbs." and attaches to the brim of a hat. The box reads, "Finally, an alternative to the embarrassing Fanny Pack!"
• iFeast, a combined pet-feeding and iPod-docking station. "Produces earsplitting beep when the water dish is empty!"
• The Kleen-Stride personal debris removal system -- small push brooms that attach to the front of the wearer's shoes.
• The Peaceful Progression Smoke Alarm, featuring sounds of the rain forest. "Awake to your next fire calm and refreshed!"
Nordby meets occasionally with The Onion's writers to brainstorm ideas for boxes and promotional text. His are the only Onion-sanctioned products that didn't originate with the humor site's writing staff, Severance said.
The Onion has so far sold more than 50,000 of the boxes. Those involved said the key to a successful GotchaBox is striking the right balance between plausibility and stupidity.
"We don't want the products to look over-the-top ridiculous," said Nordby, 41, who also designs Bogey Pro, a popular line of irreverent golf gear. "We want them to look awkwardly strange."
After witnessing several unsuspecting people open GotchaBoxes, Severance has noted a familiar pattern: baffled silence or feigned enthusiasm, followed, eventually, by laughter and relief.
"They open the box and get their sweater or whatever," he said, "and then they spend more time reading the box than they do playing with the gift."
By now, Nordby's family and friends are on to his GotchaBox tricks, so he can't fool them anymore. But he still chuckles at the memories. A few people were disappointed, he said, when their boxes didn't contain a USB Toaster
Graphic designer Arik Nordby with some of his GotchaBoxes, which look like they contain real products.News article about them by Brandon Griggs, CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/16/gotcha.boxes.onion/index.html
At first glance, it looks like an actual product: A "USB Toaster" that plugs into a laptop to toast a single slice of bread.
"Don't be tethered to the kitchen! Take your toast ... to go!" reads the ad copy on the slickly designed box, which sports images of a pop-up toaster and a busy-looking guy in a motel room biting into a piece of toast.
You can just imagine some poor sap struggling to look excited on Christmas morning after unwrapping the oddly useless gadget. Once he or she opens the box, however, an inside flap reveals the joke. "Gotcha!" it taunts. "There is no USB Toaster in this box. Even the concept of such a toaster is silly and unrealistic. In reality, you, the gift recipient, have been duped."
That's the punch line of the GotchaBox, a series of decoy gift boxes sold through the online store of The Onion, the satirical fake-news outfit. Other GotchaBoxes have featured such nonexistent products as a 28-piece "professional" whisk set and a build-your-own-umbrella kit.
Pranksters are encouraged to put their real gifts inside the gag boxes, then keep a straight face -- or better yet, ask sweetly, "How do you like it?" -- as the recipient squirms with discomfort.
The boxes are the brainchild of Arik Nordby, a graphic designer from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, who got the idea in 2004 after a birthday party for a friend's young son. The boy was visibly dismayed when a toy came wrapped in a box for a coffee pot.
"A few days later, it sort of hit me," said Nordby, who has designed boxes for bike accessories, exercise equipment and other real products. "I love doing Photoshop. I love doing package design. I love to play jokes on people. Why not play around with it?"
Nordby immediately set his sights on The Onion -- whose products include a fake atlas, Our Dumb World -- as a potential partner. Through persistent e-mails, he finagled a meeting with Sean Mills, The Onion's president, and brought him a prototype box for a "home dentistry kit."
In 2006, when The Onion launched its online store, Nordby's GotchaBoxes were among the first products sold.
"There's a lot of people who have ideas for goofy T-shirts and things. And they're not always that funny. But he got The Onion's sensibility. He just charmed us," said Glenn Severance, The Onion's marketing manager. "It makes for great business. Who wouldn't want to sell empty boxes for a profit?"
The Onion sells the boxes for $7.99 apiece, or $19.99 for a set of four. Other GotchaBox "products" include:
• The Visor-ganizer, a storage pouch that "holds up to 7 lbs." and attaches to the brim of a hat. The box reads, "Finally, an alternative to the embarrassing Fanny Pack!"
• iFeast, a combined pet-feeding and iPod-docking station. "Produces earsplitting beep when the water dish is empty!"
• The Kleen-Stride personal debris removal system -- small push brooms that attach to the front of the wearer's shoes.
• The Peaceful Progression Smoke Alarm, featuring sounds of the rain forest. "Awake to your next fire calm and refreshed!"
Nordby meets occasionally with The Onion's writers to brainstorm ideas for boxes and promotional text. His are the only Onion-sanctioned products that didn't originate with the humor site's writing staff, Severance said.
The Onion has so far sold more than 50,000 of the boxes. Those involved said the key to a successful GotchaBox is striking the right balance between plausibility and stupidity.
"We don't want the products to look over-the-top ridiculous," said Nordby, 41, who also designs Bogey Pro, a popular line of irreverent golf gear. "We want them to look awkwardly strange."
After witnessing several unsuspecting people open GotchaBoxes, Severance has noted a familiar pattern: baffled silence or feigned enthusiasm, followed, eventually, by laughter and relief.
"They open the box and get their sweater or whatever," he said, "and then they spend more time reading the box than they do playing with the gift."
By now, Nordby's family and friends are on to his GotchaBox tricks, so he can't fool them anymore. But he still chuckles at the memories. A few people were disappointed, he said, when their boxes didn't contain a USB Toaster
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
A cappella?
Does a kazoo count as "a cappella" music? I'm torn. Anyway, speaking of moosebutter, here's another hilarious video: the founder of moosebutter (I think), rocking out to a Metallica song with a kazoo, doing all four parts himself.
More a cappella
Oops, I forgot to share a couple of a cappella videos.
You've got to check this out: "Star Wars a cappella tribute to John Williams".
It's a Star Wars-related song, set to themes from *other* movies that John Williams did the music too. The song is actually sung by Moosebutter. The guy in the video reverse-engineered the song and recorded himself lipsync-ing it. (He asked Moosebutter's permission first.) He does an *amazing job*, you'd swear that he is singing it himself.
Moosebutter, in reply, recorded themselves doing the same thing--but singing live in the studio.
The guy (Corey) and Moosebutter have been nominated together for a People's Choice Award for the videos. Amazing. Here's Corey again, talking about the award nomination:
You've got to check this out: "Star Wars a cappella tribute to John Williams".
It's a Star Wars-related song, set to themes from *other* movies that John Williams did the music too. The song is actually sung by Moosebutter. The guy in the video reverse-engineered the song and recorded himself lipsync-ing it. (He asked Moosebutter's permission first.) He does an *amazing job*, you'd swear that he is singing it himself.
Moosebutter, in reply, recorded themselves doing the same thing--but singing live in the studio.
The guy (Corey) and Moosebutter have been nominated together for a People's Choice Award for the videos. Amazing. Here's Corey again, talking about the award nomination:
A cappella update
First a non-acappella update: the end of the semester has arrived! I wrote my final exam last week, students are taking it this week, and since it's computer graded I'm able to catch up on other things at work. I was sick most of last week, and Pauline and the girls are sick this week.
Now, for the a cappella update. Lots of things going on:
1. The Utah Baroque Ensemble did a Christmas concert in the Orem Public Library. About half the songs were us singing a cappella or with piano, about half the songs were sing-along carols. We had about 500 people in attendance. It was pretty fun. I haven't yet posted any recordings from it to my choral recordings website, but I might at some point.
2. I continue to write reviews for RARB. You can see my list of published reviews here:
http://www.rarb.org/people/john-colton.html.
Looks like there are 13 reviews listed, and probably another 4 or 5 that I've written that haven't shown up yet. Some of the albums have been terrific, and would make excellent Christmas gifts for people you know:
Outspoken: O2, Sing Responsibly for one of my favorite a cappella albums of all time, a male collegiate album with lots of '80s songs.
Sympathetic Vibrations: Aftershock, a harder rock college a cappella album.
Eclipse: Grateful Praise, a religious album with modern a cappella arrangements of a number of hymns.
Chicago A Cappella: Christmas A Cappella, Songs from around the world, an excellent more classical-style album with a very eclectic collection of Christmas songs. (Review not yet published, but hopefully will be soon.)
One of the albums in particular, whose review does not yet show up was, "less than terrific", shall we say? It was literally painful to listen to. I had to give my first "1 out of 5". So, there is indeed a price to pay for all of these free albums that I get sent to review.
3. One of the guys who posts to the RARB forums was selling used a cappella CDs for a pretty good price... I ended up buying 19 CDs as a Christmas present to myself. I think at least half of the ones I got were by the Swingle Singers. Pauline continues to tolerate my obsession.
4. I took Leslie, Emily, and our friend Brigham Geurts went to the Vocal Point concert a couple of weeks ago. (Pauline was out of town, helping her mom/dad in Boise.) Their new album Nonstop would also make an excellent gift--I would have given a 5 if I were reviewing it. Emily, as usual, got singled out and got to ask/answer questions with one of the singers during the show. The sad part of the concert was when I realized that all the reviewing I've done with RARB has made me a bit jaded, and I was listening for flaws (and finding them) rather than just enjoying the concert.
4. I took Leslie and Emily to the BYU "A cappella jam" last week, a show put on by many (about 8) of the BYU a cappella groups. The most surprising part was the *Leslie* got to go up on stage. She had to act out "a frog slyly doing ironing", for the chance at Rockapella tickets. Sadly, she didn't win.
5. I volunteered/was selected to be a judge for the CARA Awards, annual awards for a cappella songs & albums in a number of categories. I'm actually a "nominator", not a judge (yet)--the nominators listen to all of the submitted albums in certain categories, then flag which tracks/albums are the best. The judges then just listen to the best ones, and make the final decisions. I was asked to evaluate submitted music for these categories:
6. One of the albums I listened to for CARA in the "Best Religious Album" and "Best Humor Album" categories, was Sharing Time, by InsideOut A Cappella. You can listen to clips from the album at the website--click on the "music" tab, then click on the leftmost album. It is amazing! Totally cracked me up--modern a cappella arrangements of LDS primary songs, complete with vocal beatboxing, etc. Listen to "Book of Mormon Stories" to see what I mean. Not all of the songs are done for humorous intent (for example, I nominated "Bolero" for a best classical song CARA award), but a number of them are. The singing on the whole album is top notch; would be an easy "5" if I were reviewing it for RARB. Highly, highly, recommended for any LDS family with a sense of humor and/or a like for a cappella music.
Now, for the a cappella update. Lots of things going on:
1. The Utah Baroque Ensemble did a Christmas concert in the Orem Public Library. About half the songs were us singing a cappella or with piano, about half the songs were sing-along carols. We had about 500 people in attendance. It was pretty fun. I haven't yet posted any recordings from it to my choral recordings website, but I might at some point.
2. I continue to write reviews for RARB. You can see my list of published reviews here:
http://www.rarb.org/people/john-colton.html.
Looks like there are 13 reviews listed, and probably another 4 or 5 that I've written that haven't shown up yet. Some of the albums have been terrific, and would make excellent Christmas gifts for people you know:
Outspoken: O2, Sing Responsibly for one of my favorite a cappella albums of all time, a male collegiate album with lots of '80s songs.
Sympathetic Vibrations: Aftershock, a harder rock college a cappella album.
Eclipse: Grateful Praise, a religious album with modern a cappella arrangements of a number of hymns.
Chicago A Cappella: Christmas A Cappella, Songs from around the world, an excellent more classical-style album with a very eclectic collection of Christmas songs. (Review not yet published, but hopefully will be soon.)
One of the albums in particular, whose review does not yet show up was, "less than terrific", shall we say? It was literally painful to listen to. I had to give my first "1 out of 5". So, there is indeed a price to pay for all of these free albums that I get sent to review.
3. One of the guys who posts to the RARB forums was selling used a cappella CDs for a pretty good price... I ended up buying 19 CDs as a Christmas present to myself. I think at least half of the ones I got were by the Swingle Singers. Pauline continues to tolerate my obsession.
4. I took Leslie, Emily, and our friend Brigham Geurts went to the Vocal Point concert a couple of weeks ago. (Pauline was out of town, helping her mom/dad in Boise.) Their new album Nonstop would also make an excellent gift--I would have given a 5 if I were reviewing it. Emily, as usual, got singled out and got to ask/answer questions with one of the singers during the show. The sad part of the concert was when I realized that all the reviewing I've done with RARB has made me a bit jaded, and I was listening for flaws (and finding them) rather than just enjoying the concert.
4. I took Leslie and Emily to the BYU "A cappella jam" last week, a show put on by many (about 8) of the BYU a cappella groups. The most surprising part was the *Leslie* got to go up on stage. She had to act out "a frog slyly doing ironing", for the chance at Rockapella tickets. Sadly, she didn't win.
5. I volunteered/was selected to be a judge for the CARA Awards, annual awards for a cappella songs & albums in a number of categories. I'm actually a "nominator", not a judge (yet)--the nominators listen to all of the submitted albums in certain categories, then flag which tracks/albums are the best. The judges then just listen to the best ones, and make the final decisions. I was asked to evaluate submitted music for these categories:
Best Classical Song
Best Classical Album
Best Female Collegiate Arrangement
Best Religious Album
Best Humor Song
Best Professional Original Song
Best Religious Song
Best Barbershop Album
Best Female Collegiate Album
Best Holiday Song
Best Female Collegiate Song
Best Female Collegiate Solo
Best Holiday Album
Best Scholastic Original Song
Best Barbershop Song
Best Humor Album
6. One of the albums I listened to for CARA in the "Best Religious Album" and "Best Humor Album" categories, was Sharing Time, by InsideOut A Cappella. You can listen to clips from the album at the website--click on the "music" tab, then click on the leftmost album. It is amazing! Totally cracked me up--modern a cappella arrangements of LDS primary songs, complete with vocal beatboxing, etc. Listen to "Book of Mormon Stories" to see what I mean. Not all of the songs are done for humorous intent (for example, I nominated "Bolero" for a best classical song CARA award), but a number of them are. The singing on the whole album is top notch; would be an easy "5" if I were reviewing it for RARB. Highly, highly, recommended for any LDS family with a sense of humor and/or a like for a cappella music.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Jay Leno with sulfur hexafluoride
I'm sure a lot of you have seen this already, but if you haven't it's pretty cool.
http://gprime.net/video.php/jaylenoinhalesantihelium
(Warning: for whatever reason, it didn't work for me with Firefox.)
http://gprime.net/video.php/jaylenoinhalesantihelium
(Warning: for whatever reason, it didn't work for me with Firefox.)
