BigShinyThing

“I don’t know why they call them TV shows. I never watch them on TV.”

Flickr is the news — particularly its long, spikey tail. Here, Flickr user johndoe40 records the recent attack on the US embassy in Belgrade. Also note the Belgrade protestors staging a televised ‘fuck you’ by mooning at the mainstream media’s cameras. How long before we dispense with embedded news reporters altogether? Or are we just replacing the mass media’s agenda with that of the individual citizen journalist?

Source (typically): a blog (namely, Jezebel). We filter our news through our interests now; not the other way around.

UPDATE: more citizen journalism from Belgrade — two female looters are currently featured on YouTube.

On February 8th, the US state of Nebraska declared that execution by electric chair amounted to an unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. The US state was the only one still using electrocution as its sole method of execution and the move came after a condemned man, Raymond Mata, appealed against his sentence. In its nine-decade history, this particular chair had been used 15 times.

Little by little, America is beginning to balk at capital punishment: the method rather the madness of it. The most popular method — lethal injection — is currently being investigated by the Supreme Court and Nebraska may struggle to find a replacement way of meting out ‘justice’.

Source: The Economist.

And a reminder of our sister (brother?) site featuring club and performance photography. Featured artist: the fabulous Dickie Beau.
[Image © Darrell Berry, 2008]

The history of invention is littered with brands that had it all, and lost it all. Sadly, Polaroid has just become one of the victims. The iconic instant photography brand announced this week that it is shutting down film production, bringing to an end the era of polaroid photos.

So what went wrong? In short, Polaroid backed the wrong innovation pony. In the late 1970s, sensing that some kind of seismic shift was coming, it invested heavily in Polavision – an instant movie camera system. Not only was the product a complete turkey, Polaroid missed the real market shifts to come: first the videocassette, then digital. In 2001, Polaroid filed for Chapter 11 and in 2005 was bought by a private investment firm. The brand isn’t completely defunct — it will now focus on producing flat-panel TVs and digital photography gear — but its time as an innovator apparently is. Expect a buying and selling frenzy of dead stock on eBay — we’ll be there.

Following an online call-to-arms, London yesterday saw a flashmob of mask-wearing, beatbox- and poster-wielding protestors converge on the Church of Scientology’s centre on Tottenham Court Rord for some good old-fashioned British fun-poking and rabble-rousing. Bless.

From Deathboy’s blog:

One guy in a full-on V outfit made an announcement in a very dull and proper fashion that none of us could hear properly. We were busy heckling him (anonymous has no problem with criticising anonymous), when he reaches the end of his speech and presses play on a boombox. Rick Astley: Never Gonna Give You Up

The crowd went fucking wild.

500 people rick-rolling the UK Scientology head office. It was at this point I saw the corners of the cops’ mouths twitch into smiles as they realised it was ok: we were from the internets.

Indeed.

[Image presumably taken anonymously -- let us know if it's yours!]

To advertise its Spring/Summer 08 collection, the fashion house has produced a short film. In it, a blank-eyed nymph both models and interacts with the product: a couple of scuttling crabs become shoes and a fish transmogrifies into a handbag. Further blurring the lines between advertising and product, the illustrator behind the short – James Jean – has also worked on Prada prints and bags for this season, as well producing the backdrop for catwalk shows and in-store decoration.

And whilst we have absolutely NO IDEA what the film means, it sure beats the usual grumpy-looking models staring out from the pages of Vogue.

Finally, someone has figured out how to do marcomms on Facebook. This nice little ad (for a radio show reuniting a couple of personalities who had worked together before on TV) imitates perfectly the feed updates which makes Facebook so compelling. Baby steps …