Yay! It’s Variety Hour day! I get to share the assortment of funny, interesting, amusing or otherwise fascinating articles and posts I’ve found on the web for the past 7 days.
You Don’t Say?
- Tools Never Die. Waddaya Mean, Never? is NPR’s exploration into tools that have gone extinct. Or have they?
- Be Careful What You Pay For briefly delves into new research indicating that the more time you spend analyzing the features of a product, the less satisfied you’ll be. This research has been covered in books by Jonah Lehrer (or was it Malcolm Gladwell? Dan Ariely?) but is always a worthy reminder if you are already familiar with it.
- Variety of Unsustainable Business Models Make Up Extremely Hip Neighborhood. News in photos, courtsey of the Onion.
- Graffiti Artist Brilliantly Lets The World Know He’s Out Of Ideas. The picture says it all.
- The Guy On YouTube Singing With His Daughter is an excellent article which gives some background information on Jorge Narvaez. Warm and fuzzy but real at the same time.
Media Woes
- AOL Buys Huffington Post: Can You Spell B-A-C-K-P-A-Y? is the National Writer’s Union response to this development. Spot on, and complete with a cartoon. I’m a sucker for cartoons.
- Is Border’s Closing A Store Near You? Here’s the full list.
- Get Thee To A Bookery! (Or Borders Went Belly-up. Now What? Great rant by the book lady.
- Freelance Writing Is No Job For Wimps is a lovely list by Michelle Rafter on what a freelance writer may need to chase down on a given day.
- The Content Farm provides “informative articles about every topic, written by people with a passing knowledge.” Parody rocks. ‘Nuff said.
- The Pros And Cons of Freelance Writing is my guest post for Daily Writing Tips.
Ethical Marketing (Really!)
- How To Turn Dating Agony Into Sales Success is Pam Slim’s excellent guest post on Copyblogger, in which she breaks down the 5 natural steps in the business process.
- How To Be A (Profiting) Truth-O’mmercial Rather Than A Slickster is Danielle LaPorte’s take on a similar theme. Brilliant, as always.
You Swine
- What Not To Say About Lara Logan. “As news of Logan’s assault in Egypt broke, the victim-blaming machine kicked in,” Mary Elizabeth Williams points out on Salon.com.
- Revisiting After Pat’s Birthday I recently watched the documentary The Tillman Story, about Pat Tillman’s death by fratricide and the smokescreen of propaganda and lies that followed, due to government corruption and cover-ups. I found this article by his brother poignant as ever.
- Wrestling With Conviction is not about rape or fratricide, so it almost seems silly to include it in this category. It is, however, a great editorial on the decision of Joel Northrup to forfeit a wrestling match rather than face Cassy Herkelman…due to religious reasons. “He was the fifth-ranked wrestler in the state at 112 pounds. He was 35-4. He had a chance to win the whole thing. In Iowa, that means a lifetime of people buying you lunch. It’s corn-state royalty. To give all that up to protect a girl who loathes being protected? What a waste of a dream,” Rick Reilly wrote.
That’s all for this week! Feel free to add your favorite links from this week or share your thoughts on mine in the comments.