Insanely complex guitar cover of A-ha’s “Take On Me”.
Don’t be afraid to take on this extremely challenging cover of “Take On Me.” Read more: http://www.wimp.com/insanely-complex-guitar-cover-of-a-has-take-on-me/
5 Lessons Marketers Can Learn From Obama’s Victory
Despite nearly 8% unemployment, a tepid economy and millions of dollars in negative advertising, President Obama managed to pull off a sizable Electoral College win on Tuesday. While Obama’s 2008 campaign is now seen as a real-world demonstration of the power of social media, his operation four years later was much more complex. The ’08 campaign is the stuff of textbooks, but the lessons of ’12 are brand new. Marketers of all types studied Obama’s ’08 campaign and they would do well to take a look at his subsequent mobilization effort. Here are some of the obvious lesson of Obama’s triumph this time around: 1. It’s the Big Data, Stupid Big Data may have its flaws, but this election shows that it’s indispensable. New York Times columnist Nate Silver showed how crunching numbers can render most pundits’ gut instincts irrelevant. The Obama campaign proved the same for the marketer’s gut. As Time chronicled, the O campaign relied on a team of dozens of number crunchers who made predictive calls on exactly the right type of pitch to right the right type of voter. After consolidating its database into one megafile, the team relentlessly tested pitches based on the targeting and learned from its testing. As the article states: A large portion of the cash raised online came through an intricate, metric-driven e-mail campaign in which dozens of fundraising appeals went out each day. Here again, data collection and analysis were paramount. Many of the e-mails sent to supporters were just tests, with different subject lines, senders and messages. Inside the campaign, there were office pools on which combination would raise the most money, and often the pools got it wrong. 2. Facebook Advertising Works There are lots of reasons to doubt Facebook’s assertion that ad units like Sponsored Stories are effective. For instance, the recommendation you see may be from a Facebook “friend” you actually barely know. You may find it creepy to see advertising intrude upon friendships as well. But in Obama’s ’12 campaign, Facebook worked. As Time detailed, the O campaign used Facebook to “replicate the door-knocking efforts of field organizers” on a mass scale. During the final weeks of the campaign, Obama’s supporters received pictures of their friends in swing states. They were then urged to click a button asking the swing state voters to register to vote, vote early or get to the polls. The campaign found that the tactic worked 20% of the time “in large part because the message came from someone they knew.” 3. All the Money in the World Can’t Overcome Bad Advertising Super PACs supporting Mitt Romney poured millions into swing states to convince voters that voting for Obama and other Democrats would be against their self interest. However, as Slate points out, many of these ads were crude and insulted the intelligence of targeted voters. For instance, a Super PAC attack ad against Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown “portrayed Brown as a demented cartoon, sitting at a desk with an […]
SpaceX will try to land a rocket on a floating platform after Tuesday’s launch
SpaceX’s "autonomous spaceport drone ship" measures 300 by 170 feet (91 by 52 meters) with its "wings" extended.Image: SpaceX SpaceX will attempt one of the boldest maneuvers in the history of rocketry early Tuesday morning (Jan. 6) during a supply mission to the International Space Station for NASA, and you can watch the attempt live online. The California-based private spaceflight company will try to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean, shortly after the booster launches SpaceX’s robotic Dragon cargo capsule from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 6:20 a.m. ET Tuesday. NASA officials have said there is a 60% chance of good launch weather for the planned launch. You can watch the SpaceX launch live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV, beginning at 5 a.m. EST (1000 GMT). “The odds of success are not great — perhaps 50% at best,” SpaceX representatives wrote of the platform landing in a mission update last month. “However, this test represents the first in a series of similar tests that will ultimately deliver a fully reusable Falcon 9 first stage.” SpaceX will offer its own launch webcast on the company’s website beginning at 6 a.m. ET). Developing a fully and rapidly reusable rocket is a key priority for SpaceX and its billionaire founder, Elon Musk, who has said that such technology could cut the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100. SpaceX has made strides toward this ambitious goal already. For example, the company successfully brought a Falcon 9 first stage down for a soft ocean splashdown twice last year — once in April and again in July. But Tuesday’s test will be much more challenging. The drone ship measures just 300 feet long by 170 feet wide (91 by 52 meters) with its “wings” extended, and the 14-story-tall Falcon 9’s leg span is about 70 feet (21 m), SpaceX representatives said. “During previous attempts, we could only expect a landing accuracy of within 10 km [6 miles],” they wrote in the update. “For this attempt, we’re targeting a landing accuracy of within 10 meters [33 feet].” Furthermore, although the drone ship will be equipped with position-stabilizing thrusters, it will not be anchored. Three separate engine burns will help get the rocket stage on course and slow its speed from 2,900 mph (4,600 km/h) down to 4.5 mph (7.2 km/h) at the time of touchdown. The landing legs will deploy during the final burn, company representatives said. SpaceX has also outfitted the Falcon 9 stage with four independently steerable “hypersonic grid fins,” which will be deployed upon atmospheric re-entry to aid in precision targeting. As bold as Tuesday’s test is, SpaceX has even more ambitious goals in mind for 2015. “Over the next year, SpaceX has at least a dozen launches planned, with a number of additional testing opportunities,” company representatives wrote. “Given what we know today, we believe it is quite likely that with one of those flights, we […]
Kickstarter’s “RokBlok” Bluetooth-enabled vinyl player doesn’t quite work as planned.
It’s a cool idea, but you’d be better off asking your next-door neighbor to sing it for you. Read more: http://www.wimp.com/kickstarters-rokblok-bluetooth-enabled-vinyl-player-doesnt-quite-work-as-planned/
Using dominos to chart the last two billion years of life on Earth really puts things into perspective.
The Earth existed for a long, long time before humans came around. Read more: http://www.wimp.com/using-dominos-to-chart-the-last-two-billion-years-of-life-on-earth-really-puts-things-into-perspective/
World Series Pitcher Survives Line Drive to the Head
Detroit Tigers pitcher Doug Fister was hit square in the head with a line drive off the bat of San Francisco Giant Gregor Blanco in the second inning of Thursday night’s World Series matchup. He did not appear to be seriously injured, however, and continued pitching. The GIF here, which comes to us via the sports blog The Big Lead, shows the scary play. We don’t yet know how fast the ball was traveling, but similar drives have been clocked in the region of 130 miles per hour. Have you ever seen a ball player continue with a major game after an accident like this? Let us know in the comments. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/10/25/world-series-pitcher-hit-line-drive/
8-Bit ‘True Detective’ Solves Yellow King Case in 90 Seconds
Warning: This video is packed with spoilers. Matthew McConaughey’s pop culture renaissance wouldn’t be complete without a pixelated homage to his hit TV show, True Detective. The HBO series, which also starred Woody Harrelson, followed the detectives through a 17-year-long serial murder investigation that kept viewers on their toes and their Twitter pages. The first season concluded last weekend. If you haven’t had the time (or lack a friend with an HBO Go account) to figure out the identity of the Yellow King, this video condenses all eight episodes in just about 90 seconds. That’s almost less time than it takes to say “alright, alright, alright.” BONUS: An Emoji Guide to the 2014 Best Picture Oscar Nominees 2014 Oscar’s Best Picture Nominees in Emoji Gravity American Hustle Her Dallas Buyers Club The Wolf of Wall Street Captain Phillips Nebraska Philomena 12 Years a Slave Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/03/13/true-detective-8-bit/
The 10 Best Cell Phone Commercials Ever Made
10 Best Cell Phone Commercials Ever Made Who’s Agitatin’ My Dots? (Nextel, 2006) From the grey-washed, slightly dystopian warehouse world of the meddlesome dot-agitators, to the casual intimidation of the cake-eater, this commercial features a wide variety of WTF, mixed with some concisely presented information on how former US wireless carrier Nextel could help your business with its GPS tracking solutions. This mix of humor with product education, a staple of advertising for decades, was something of a Nextel specialty during the short period of optimism following its merger with Sprint. And the cake-eating guy was on Night Court, so that’s awesome. Crime Deterrent (Sprint, 2006) Speaking of Sprint. This commercial debuted as a halftime spot during the 2006 Super Bowl, and its sudden violence would have seemed brutal if it weren’t so hilarious. The commercial does little to educate consumers about the benefits of Sprint products — not because they aren’t mentioned, but because everything that happens in the latter half of the spot instantly obliterates any memory of the first portion. Even so, this is a spot that stayed in people’s minds for years after its original air date. You (HTC, 2010) This commercial was part of a series of ads, HTC’s first real effort to establish itself in the minds of American consumers following years of manufacturing products for other brands. The “You” campaign employed a catchy remix of Nina Simone’ “Sinnerman” along with a congenial voiceover describing the various ways we’re all different, and how each of us needs a smartphone that suits our own unique needs. In the able hands of advertising firm Deutsch LA Inc., a concept that might have come off mawkish or saccharine instead became poignant, almost touching. It holds up even today, after two years of smartphone inundation, reminding us just how personal these devices can be despite their near-ubiquity. In all seriousness, this is probably my favorite technology ad of all time. Antennalope (Nextel, 2003) To shake off that sentimentality, let’s trek back to Nextel for the requisite early-21st-century absurdity. The company was rolling out its nationwide push-to-talk service at the time, and this was perhaps the most absurd of three similar ads “explaining” how Nextel, America’s only national iDEN provider, had achieved such a herculean task. Watching You, All The Time (T-Mobile USA, 2007) T-Mobile USA has for years been the struggling last-place contender in the American wireless market, but that unenviable position has resulted in some of the most aggressive marketing in the landscape. Often, that means T-Mobile ends up trying too hard. Some of its commercials come off either painfully un-funny or dull and expository. Here, though, the mix of blank-faced creepiness from the father, abject terror in the teenager and the memorable message that “being in someone’s [top] 5 [calling circle]” is quite a significant thing combine to make an ad that’s memorable for the right reasons. Butt Dialing (T-Mobile USA/RIM, 2009) This is one of those ads that’s recently enjoyed a slight internet renaissance due to […]
Lucasfilm Releases Trailer for Next Big ‘Star Wars’ Fan-Made Film
Cool your jets, Star Wars fans: the Episode VII trailer isn’t out just yet. But Lucasfilm has shared with Mashable the trailer for something just as insanely brilliant: a fan-made, shot-for-shot remake of the canon’s ultimate classic, the Empire Strikes Back, coming to StarWars.com this Friday. If this sounds familiar, you may be thinking of its predecessor, the Emmy award-winning project known as Star Wars Uncut. The brainchild of engineer and designer Casey Pugh, Star Wars Uncut took the original Star Wars, and chopped it up into 15-second segments. The idea was that fans would sign up online to remake each 15-second bit, and Pugh would stitch together the result. “I was trying to see how fast I could make a movie,” Pugh told Mashable. “What I didn’t expect was all the creativity and engagement of Star Wars fans. Parents worked with their kids to make these elaborate 15-second videos. They spent weeks on them. The amount of blood and sweat that went into this was astounding.” The project went viral — so much so that Pugh ended up with three fan submissions for each of the 470 segments. That meant you could watch the whole thing online multiple times, and never see it the same way twice. Pugh called the result “organized mayhem.” Industry watchers called it pure comedy gold. Star Wars Uncut won a special Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Media upon its release in 2010. Check out the Director’s Cut version, here, featuring everything from cardboard and Lego versions of famous Star Wars scenes to a Yellow Submarine homage: Pugh also got a call from George Lucas’s company, which loved the idea. Lucasfilm flew Pugh out to its San Francisco headquarters, and urged him to collaborate with them on a sequel, Empire Strikes Back Uncut. A year and a half in the making, Empire promises to be an even bigger and better version of the Uncut project, based on the work of more than 1,000 contributors and twice the amount of submissions. “Everyone’s got HD cameras now,” Pugh pointed out. “People have higher expectations. They went even more crazy, put even more time into it.” His editor did, too, finding ways to squeeze parts of every fan-submitted 15-second clip into the movie. Check out a few examples of this raw material, below, from the Dagobah scenes between Luke Skywalker and Yoda: If you’re guffawing at the no-budget results of such familiar scenes, know that you’re not alone. “I always say that if we ever show this in theaters, it should be in 20-minute intervals,” Pugh said. “You’re laughing hysterically; your brain needs a rest.” And this is just the beginning; Lucasfilm is making a concerted effort to encourage more fan-made films. The company has revived its Star Wars Fan Film Awards, last seen in 2010, just in time for the new movies. “With the emergence of user-generated content over the last couple of years, we decided to give the awards a break,” a Lucasfilm spokesperson explained. […]
Uganda Can Be A Rough Place For Children, But These Kids Always Stay Positive!
It’s hard for kids to grow up in Uganda today. There is a lot of peril in this African country, and children become innocent victims more often than not. But these kids have found a way to push past the negativity and stay positive! They’ve decided that they will not live their lives in fear. Check out what they’ve been up to in the video below. It’s good to see that these kids are having fun. And kudos to Justin Bieber! His music clearly touches lives across the globe. Read more: http://www.viralnova.com/uganda/