Going Galt, the Aftermath

Via a commenter over at Obsidian Wings, we get this very helpful sequel to Atlas Shrugged:

(Bob the Angry Flower archives here)

Misadventures in Advertising

This has been bugging me for weeks. There is an ad for a suicide prevention hotline up on bus stops all over the city. It is a headstone engraved with the following text:

FRANCOIS
1957-1.866.555.1212

The implication, obviously, is that poor Francois lived from 1957 until he called the suicide hotline. No one at Suicide Action Montreal saw that? Might I suggest that SAM adopt the following slogan:

Want to kill yourself? Call us. We can help.

Something Borrowed and Something Annoying

I don't like Andrew Sullivan much, as a writer, as a thinker, as a political commentator. Never have. Whatever. But I still like visiting his blog because he links to some really cool stuff sometimes. To wit. YouTube videos remixed into songs for Kutiman's new album, Thru You. Totally fun.

But then Sullivan writes this about the project: "The wisdom of crowds just got musical and online."

Uh, no.

Unless Kutiman is actually just the nom de tune (heehee, get it?) of the anonymous masses who appear in the videos, and who spontaneously generate these songs from the seemingly ramdom confluences of their separate projects, then, no, this has nothing to do with the wisdom of crowds. It's the wisdom of one guy. Who has a lot of talent, and even more patience. The bottom falling out of the stock market--that's the wisdom of crowds! Rousseau's ideal legislature--that's the wisdom of crowds! Sampling? Not so much.

Things I didn't know (part of an infinte series)

There's a refrigerator maker called Thermador. The spelling's a bit off, of course, but I don't know how they resist making their slogan:

The revolution may not be televised, but the reaction will be refrigerated.