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how good is the detail in Mad Men?

Well, here’s the cast out of costume:

And here they are in costume. Crazy.
(via Daring Fireball)

why the less wired candidate may be the better prez

Lee Gomes writes in this week’s WSJ Portals column on why we really shouldn’t give a damn whether or not the next President is insanely wired:

It’s a fair question to ask: Can someone who never touches a computer truly be in touch with what is happening in the world? The computer industry has worked very hard over the past few decades to cause us to suspect as much. But what about the opposite question: Does anyone who spends all day in front of a PC, forging a river of data posing as information, have any time to think?
. . .
The president wouldn’t need to worry about his email inbox; a staff would be standing by ready to handle it. Memos, position papers, summaries of newspaper reports and all the rest, would be delivered via printouts, since words on printed paper appear to have more of an impact than words on a flickering screen.

The president could use his computer time any way he wished: a favorite blog, YouTube videos, a mind-clearing game of Spider Solitaire. So many of his constituents would be doing the same thing at the same time, it would be a good way to keep up with the common folk.

The severe time rationing is necessary because a computer, far from making you more productive, instead loads you down with things to do, and it’s important for the machine to know who is boss. Most people don’t have the luxury of off-loading their email-reading chores to a group of competent assistants. It’s an office perk that presidents are still important enough to deserve.

The President of the United States is not a mid-level corporate executive. He is the leader of nearly two million non-postal employees in an unwieldy federal bureaucracy shaped by over five hundred yammering ankle-biters. Do you really want him to be shuttling between email on his Blackberry and skater-dog videos on YouTube?

ranting waiter (not a swede) unmasked

The (formerly) anonymous waiter of the wildly entertaining Waiter Rant blog has finally come out from the shadows, just in time for the book based on his blog. The Post has an interview with now-ex-waiter Steve Dublanica about lessons for diners and a bit about the book.

I imagined him looking more like Guy Fieri with less douchey hair, but instead he looks like a normal fellow I’d totally have a beer with. Without punching him in the face.

links for 2008-07-30

• Tupperware Unsealed
  The story of a failed New England tree surgeon and a Detroit divorcee and the consumer goods phenomenon they created.
  (tags: history trivia interesting food business)
• The Atlantic: Little Skyscraper on the Prairie
  Prarie style isn’t really my style, but this is a Frank Lloyd Wright work I’d like to visit: a hotel in a former pipeline company headquarters 50 miles north of Tulsa.
  (tags: design architecture)
• Design Observer: Traffic-why we drive the way we do
  Excerpt from the book by Tom Vanderbilt on how civil engineers have to account for human failings.
  (tags: design)

objectified: the new film from gary hustwit

Gary Hustwit, the documentary filmmaker who brought us the most excellent Helvetica, has a sorta-sequel: Objectified!

Objectified is a documentary about industrial design; it’s about the manufactured objects we surround ourselves with, and the people who make them. On an average day, each of us uses hundreds of objects. (Don’t believe it? Start counting: alarm clock, light switch, faucet, shampoo bottle, toothbrush, razor…) Who makes all these things, and why do they look and feel the way they do? All of these objects are “designed,” but how can good design make them, and our lives, better?

One reason that I’m delving into the world of objects in this film is that I, admittedly, am obsessed by them. Why do I salivate over a shiny new piece of technology, or obsess over a 50-year-old plywood chair? What does all the stuff I accumulate say about me, and do I really need any of it in the first place?

The film is set for release in early 2009. As a side note, I was going to post this when I received the email announcement through the Helvetica email list. But then I was scooped by a half dozen different design and tech blogs I subscribe to within THREE HOURS. Moral of the story: I need to cut down on my RSS feeds and post faster.

tony on ted

Anthony Bourdain, in a new post about driving recklessly and hanging out with Alice Cooper and The Nuge:

It was inevitable, if you think about it, that I should make television, eat BBQ and play with large caliber automatic weapons with Ted Nugent. It was, I think, only a matter of time. In fact, midway through shooting a scene at “The Nuge’s” ranch, I got a text from Mario Batali — inviting me out for drinks or some kind of mayhem. I texted back that I regretted being unable to join him as I was currently unloading a belt-fed M-60 machine gun at Ted Nugent’s place. His totally unsurprised response was ” Of course you are.”

I didn’t seek Ted out, by the way. I was summoned. He called a while back, said we should make television together – -and then told me exactly how. When the Nuge says jump? You ask only “How High?” and “How much ammo will I need?” In TedWorld, by the way, it all makes perfect sense.

He’s a rocker; he rocks out. With The Nuge, no less.

links for 2008-07-28

• Gainsville gets a Walmart; locals don’t shriek in horror.
  (tags: business)
• eBay: 1890′s -201 Levi’s- Great Condition
  Like ‘em pre-stressed? How about 120 years old?
  (tags: fashion)

It's 1975 And This Man Is About To Show You The Future

From “Square America”, it’s a collection of slides from a 1975 IBM presentation. Online! Database! BOLDER! It’s kitschy goodness in a delicious Futura-Franklin Gothic-Akzidenz Grotesque sauce.

links for 2008-07-27

• Ancestry of Paris Hilton
  Note to GMU students and other Virginia patriots: George Mason is one of the Hilton twins’ sisters’ ancestors. How does that make you feel?
  (tags: trivia)

islamic terror makes the case for its own slaughter

By now, most have probably heard at least something about the terrorist attacks on civilian targets in Ahmedabad and Bangalore. Indian bloggers pretty much have the tragedy covered, but I’ve a few thoughts on the matter:

First, where are those Islamic groups trying to convince us that theirs is a religion of peace? While CAIR is extracting sand from its birth canal over laptop searches, people are busy killing unarmed civilians—at hospitals, no less—in their name. If you want to convince me that you’re not simply the Imam of the Holy Shrine of Douchestan, mayyyybe you’d like to speak up and convince your followers to stop being homicidal maniacs.

Second, one will note that India is not occupying any Muslim lands (quite the opposite, in fact), let alone holy ones. India was not terribly supportive of the establishment of Israel until after three wars with her neighbor (and Islamic homeland). India did not supply arms to the Mujahedeen. India’s crime is not being a willing addition to the global Islamic caliphate, and this is reason enough to be attacked.

So children, why do we go fight terrorists overseas? So they don’t have time to kill our civilians at home. Because this is what happens when we treat terror as a civilian police case:

n.b.—the gentleman at about :45 is Opposition Leader Lal Krishna Advani.