Behind the scenes of `The Colbert Report'

Behind the scenes of `The Colbert Report'


For those who actually read this blog, I'll pretty much post anything involving Stephen Colbert

Acoustic version of Lost by Coldplay

An acoustic version of Lost by Coldplay off the new Vida la Vida album

from MONEY, CASH, HO'S by David Cho.

Freakonomics - Hoop Data Dreams

Freakonomics - Hoop Data Dreams

Ads of the World: Creative Advertising Archive & Community | Your Daily Dose of Creativity from Around the World

Ads of the World: Creative Advertising Archive & Community | Your Daily Dose of Creativity from Around the World


have no idea how i haven't came across this site before

Cool business card designs | creativebits

Cool business card designs | creativebits

just as the name says

Unusual Bathroom Signs | Offbeat Earth

Unusual Bathroom Signs | Offbeat Earth

This is pretty funny. Thanks Google Recommendations

America's Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor's Degree - Chronicle.com

America's Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor's Degree - Chronicle.com

Perfect Graduation Day Reading

(Really) Stunning Pictures and Photos | Monday Inspiration | Smashing Magazine

(Really) Stunning Pictures and Photos | Monday Inspiration | Smashing Magazine

photoshop anyone?

America’s dirty little oil secret: Plastic Bottles and Bags

America’s dirty little oil secret: Plastic Bottles and Bags

thanks Chad for the article and a possible new site addiction

Old Disney Cartoons are Great

Old Disney Cartoons are Great

picked up from Digg

Antwerp’s Discreet Treasury of Art - New York Times

Antwerp’s Discreet Treasury of Art - New York Times

Always good to see Antwerp get its due!

Response to Comments from April 8 Posting

All of the comments posted are really interesting and I am glad people have taken an interest into this topic. Two points brought up from the comments that I wish to elaborate on include your web getting to know you and how effective is advertising.

It is true that the web will get to know you better. When you log into Facebook or Google that you will be seeing will know that you want to see them. Now this isn’t trying to personify ads, but that the algorithms behind them will understand the best-suited ads for you. And this leads into the second point that advertisements will become more effective since they will appeal to your interests. The ad maybe to buy something but the ad can simply be link to a cool news article. The evolution of advertising due to the web are subtly changing from those wish are trying to persuade and push consumers to those that wish to encourage participation with brands and make consumers happy.

The Already Big Thing on the Internet: Spying on Users

This article is from The New York Times.

This articles discusses the online advertising phenomena known as behavioral targeting. What this means is that your internet service provider (ISP) (Verizon, Comcast, etc.) track everything a computer does online and then creates a profile for your IP address (every computer has a unique IP address). This differs from cookies since cookies were tracked by tech companies were only able to track web sites one visited.

The implications of this data is that ISPs are able to gain a great understanding about what type of consumer is using any individual computer. This information can then be turned into profitable information for advertisers who want to reach a particular target market. For example, if your online history indicates that you are a 35 year old married woman with kids, because you visited iVillage, Gerber.com, and Oprah's web site, when you visit the New York Mets web site to find a gift for your husband, advertisements targeted to middle aged women will show and not baseball related ads.

This is a big deal because today advertisements are based on the web sites content. As in the NY Mets example you can see how baseball ads shown to the 35 year old mom would not be effective. There are two big controversies concerning behavioral targeting.

1. Most people do not know that this is the future and is happening in select markets
2. Lots of people find this to be intrusive and a violation of their privacy

What are your feelings about behavioral targeting?

Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind - New York Times

Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind - New York Times

Rubik's Cube Painting

Rubik's Cube Painting

I don't even want to know how much time this took

Madison Investment Fund

The Madison Investment Fund is a club I have been a part of since freshmen year. The fund is one of the most professional organizations on campus and we take our work very seriously. We are split up into different sectors and I have been part of and am still a part of the Cyclical sector. Stocks I have tracked in the MIF have been Honda, Disney, Home Depot, General Electric, and Wal-Mart.

Cities in Cinema

Cities in Cinema is Cinemuse's (JMU's premiere Film Club) 3rd annual film festival. There are seven movies being shown

1. Dark City
2. Manhattan
3. The Lives of Others
4. Lost in Translation
5. City of God
6. Paris, Je T'aime
7. The New World

This 3rd festival is our most ambitious and we are looking forward to a great turn out. To get more informaiton about the festival, click -->> Cities in Cinema

Lille

This is a picture from when I went to Lille, France in December of 2006. Lille had elephants lining their main thoroughfare as decorations for their Christmas celebrations. Why elephants? I do not know but they looked really cool. They reminded me of the Barnum & Bailey circus elephants.