American Madness

PDN Post reports that last month, David Boyle from the NY Post asked his freelance photographers to stop by his office and prove they were still worthy of having their pictures sold to the Post.

Apparently to prove their worthiness photographers were made to register their cameras, to prove they had professional equipment of their own (not quite sure why, what does it actually matter who owns the camera they are using?).

Next they were driven to the Post printing plant and were given 3 fake assignments:

* Photograph someone through the window of a car
* Photograph someone leaving a building (as if on a perp walk)
* Photograph a piece of artwork (as if capturing a family photo or other document out in the field)

So, just to get this straight, to be a freelance photographer for the Post you need to go through a rigorous test and then submit your photos which they can reject. If this is the case, why not just hire them as staff.

I feel that rather then putting them through these tests, I don’t know, maybe a submitted portfolio would have worked out instead… just a suggestion.

This one has actually been sitting in my “To Write” box for a while and really I just haven’t gotten around to it because there have been so many other things that have popped up to write about (I actually have about 15 other things sitting in the “To Write” box as well, I am just trying to get them out so you can read them in bite size portions rather then have to spend a day trying to read through all the new posts).

Anyway, this month Popular Mechanics published a head-to-head review of two jet packs currently available on the consumer market for purchase. Well, technically speaking they aren’t actually Jet Packs, but rather Rocket Belts (they don’t run on Jet Fuel and they don’t have jet turbines attached).

Both Tecnologia Aeroespacial Mexicana and Jetpack International have released rocket belts for sale. Of course while this sounds kind of awesome there are some downsides to these rocket belts. For one, when they are filled with fuel they weigh about 150lbs. Once you have those 150lbs strapped to your back you only have a 30 second flight. Oh yeah, and as Troy Widgery, founder of Jetpack International says “If something goes wrong, you can get killed.” Right, plus the price tags are $155,000 and $250,000.

Though if that hasn’t yet dissuaded you from owning your own jet pack… errr… rocket belt, then my recommendation goes to the one available from Jetpack International who promises the longest flight possible (33 seconds) and is made in America (the rocket belt produced by Tecnologia Aeroespacial Mexicana is, you guessed it, made in Mexico). While Tecnologia Aeroespacial Mexicana only promises speeds over 60mph Jetpack International makes it up to 70mph. Plus that $100,000 less will allow you to fuel up a couple more times.

If this isn’t quite your cup of tea and you want a real jet pack, well, Jetpack International ahs one in the works that the hope to release next year with a $200,000 price tag

Have you ever gotten yourself into a situation you wish you had an out from? A bad date maybe? A business meeting you just couldn’t take anymore?* Or, Maybe you just feel like all of your friends are always getting so many phone calls and you never get any? Well, now you can change all of that with the Popularity Dialer!

Basically, you sign up to have the Popularity Dialer call your phone at a specified time., There are 7 different calls you can have come through- The Guy “Friend,” The Girl “Friend,” who both beg you to join them and try to make future plans with you and ask what you are currently up to. The “Boss” calling to with a problem- though the problem is a ink leak from the copy machine, so, unless you are a copy technician or a janitor, not necessarily something you are going to want to play on speaker phone. The Cousin In Need who sounds bit like Dubya and is in a fix and needs some cash and finally the affirmation call which just tells you how cool you are and how much “flavor” your style has. You can’t listen to the 2 new ones on line yet, but there is the English Lover (male) and the Band Practice call.

Though the service is totally free for now, be cautioned you can only have your number called 5 times, so make sure you make those 5 times count.

*Okay, so I wrote this up prior to reading the website for details about the Popularity Dialer, so I was a bit surprised when I read the line “Have you ever been in a situation where you wished your cell phone would ring? Maybe you wanted to look extra important or popular on that hot date. Or maybe you just needed an excuse to escape from an unpleasant meeting.” I guess there just aren’t that many other uses for it

I don’t even know exactly how to tag this one- Is it “Green?” Maybe “Nostalgia?” Do we have an “Irony” tag?

I present to you Lehman’s Catalog, for all your non-electric device needs. Lehman’s was “Founded by Jay Lehman in 1955 to serve the local Amish and others without electricity, Lehman’s ships old-fashioned, high-quality merchandise all over the world.” Pretty much sums it up. He hoped to “preserve the past for future generations.” And, in doing so created a business that grew to a much larger business then it was.

They, of course, have an “Eco-Friendly” category selling push lawn mowers, hand cranked devices and even Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs. But, mainly the focus is on niche nostalgia items. I could see a lot fo these things making fun gifts, but I don’t know that I’d have the patience to use too many of them… But maybe you do. Lehman’s has a toll-free number, a print, mail-order catalog, and yes, even a website (who knows, maybe they have a hand-cranked computer). Check it out, maybe you will find something you just need to have, just like your Amish mom used to make.

You must be tired of hunting down coffee shops with free WiFi every time you want to use the internet. Gotta be tired of having to check all the connections that you can see from your apartment, looking for the one that is open without a password.

Well then this is the program you have been waiting for. iStumbler is a program you can download to your computer that will use your wireless card to search the waves and let you know which networks are around you that you can connect to and which of those networks is not password protected.

Of course, you need to also not care that you are piggybacking on soemone else’s network and, essentially, stealing from them (though stealing bandwidth is a pretty abstract concept of theft).

So, if you don’t have high-speed at home (and you use a Mac) then you might want to check out iStumbler for yourself.

According to Pocket-lint Motorola just inked a deal with Microvision to produce a prototype of a cell phone with a laser projection unit built in. Folks are saying that while this is an innovative concept it is going to add a significant bulk to cell phones as well as such an added drain to the battery life that it won’t be worth while.

I am taking an alternative view on this one. First off they say the prototype is probably at least a year away. I foresee a smartphone, like the Motorola Q, bulked up a bit with this projector, replacing laptop PowerPoint presentations. Just sync up your presentation to your phone, attend you meeting and boom, instant projection, lightweight and mobile, no need to carry a bulky projector or laptop. Once this becomes integrated into business phones it will expand out to phones like the iPhone. No more watching movies on a tiny 3″ screen, just load the movie up and you have you own portable movie player. (more…)

So, like many other sites, I learned today about Walk Score.

Walk Score is a sight that allows you to plug in your address (or any address for that matter) and figure out how walkable and interesting the area is. The idea behind Walk Score is to encourage folks to go walking, especially when there are other means of transportation available. Walk Score sites the benefits of walking as: (more…)

I’ve always enjoyed the Financial Times’ Lunch with the FT series, and I do revere Stravinsky’s notion that “the good borrow while the great steal.”

Fortunately, I’ll have a good deal of source material for this theft-in-progress. As a journalist, when I’m not cowering under my desk at an approaching editor, I’m usually out of the office at a conference, drinks night, or formal arterie-clogging sit-down meal.

As a result, I retain a profound knowledge of acceptable, even superb, places to excercise one’s corporate expense account. But for my first column, I must select not a restaurant, but a recent Bar-B-Q thrown by a good friend of mine, Anthony Ritossa. The food was as sumptuous as any I can recall in my tours of Manhattan gastronomie, and our brilliant hosts made Le Bernardin’s best service seem brusque by comparison.

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Does anyone else remember the commercial from the 80’s for Heshey’s chocolate milk? Basically the gist of it was that Chocolate Milk Came from a chocolate cow. Well, now when folks ask where low-fat milk comes from, apparently a valid answer actually will be “from a low-at cow.”

Fonterra, the # 1 dairy exporter, and ViaLactia, “a leader in global biotechnology-based products, services and technologies for the dairy industry,” have issued a press release about Marge, a cow they have with a genetic mutation that produces milk with only 1% fat (regular, good old fashioned cows produce milk with 3.5% fat). Not only does the milk have less fat in it, but according to the head research scientist, Dr. Russell Snell ““Her milk is also reduced in saturated fatty acids and higher in omega 3 fatty acids, while butter made from her milk is spreadable straight from the fridge.”

And being that all of these changes are “naturally occurring” there is no worries about hormones or any of that stuff effecting the milk or the drinker.

While it is going to be a while before Marge’s milk (or her offspring’s milk… some of them also have this trait) hit the market, Dr. Snell says: “This kind of research is a great example of the benefits of belonging to an integrated co-operative with farmers and scientists working together.” That would probably be because Fonterra ows ViaLactia… He did say they are working on figuring out how to best use the information they have attained “for the benefit of all Fonterra shareholders.”

Still, naturally occurring Low-Fat Milk… Kind of cool.

I am a fan of the Discovery Channel and the History Channel, they usually work nicely when there isn’t much on television, always nice to tune in and see what Mike Rowe is up to or to see some one struggling to survive on an crab fishing boat, driving to and from a diamond mind in the Arctic, or lost in the wilderness.

In fact, the lost in the wilderness concept is so popular it has spawned two shows, both on Discovery Survivorman and Man vs. Wild. Survivorman has Les Stroud, an American a Canadian, with his own with a camera or two, stomping around in the wilderness, setting up his shots and then going back, breaking down the camera and moving on to his next shot. The idea is to survive the wilderness and make it back to civilization some how. Man vs. Wild features Bear Grylls a British ex-SAS “adventurer,” stomping through the wild, with a camera crew in tow, also stranded in the wild and trying to make his way back to civilization.

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