Theresa Christy of Otis Elevator: Making Elevators Go | Creating – WSJ.com

A really interesting article on elevators/lifts. I would have assumed the personal space issue would have been reversed, ie that more would be required in Asia.

Another problem: How many people fit in an elevator? In Asia, more people will board a car than in Europe or New York, Ms. Christy says; Westerners prefer more personal space. When she programs an elevator system she uses different weights for the average person by region. The average American is 22 pounds heavier than the average Chinese.

via Theresa Christy of Otis Elevator: Making Elevators Go | Creating – WSJ.com.

David Beckham’s Latest H&M Ads: Less Skin, More Porn ‘Stache | Adweek

When you bring back David Beckham in all his Adonis-like glory—that would be his tighty-whities—I must give credit where it’s due. You previously launched his underwear line with similar black-and-white ads of his chiseled-from-granite physique. Why mess with perfection? You even bought him a Super Bowl spot. Victory dance! This time around, for his expanded collection of bodywear and comfy clothes, he’s slightly more covered up. He’s sporting a porn ‘stache and, in my opinion, some unnecessary fabric. But there’s still a money shot. So thanks, H&M, for this early holiday gift.

via David Beckham’s Latest H&M Ads: Less Skin, More Porn ‘Stache | Adweek.

Mapumental – amazing commute friendly property search

This site has two goals. It’s an advert for Mapumental, a project of mySociety – a high tech social enterprise that can build cool things like this for you. And it’s a real, functional tool designed to answer a common question – “Where should I live to have a tolerable commute?”

 

So 35 mins from my house to work is pretty spot on…  WC1E 6JA :: Mapumental.

BBC News – Are you wearing a handmade poppy?

Since it was founded 90 years ago, the Poppy Factory has produced millions of buttonhole poppies to mark Remembrance Day each November. This year the 35-strong workforce at Richmond upon Thames in west London have made, by hand, 500,000 of the classic stylised flowers – a small but significant proportion of the 45 million produced in total.

Another 11.5 million have been created by homeworkers, and the rest on an automated production line at Aylesford in Kent. As Remembrance Sunday approaches, take a tour of the Poppy Factory – and see how the instantly recognisable buttonholes are put together on a simple wooden block.

via BBC News – Are you wearing a handmade poppy?.

Hungover? There’s a ‘cure’ for that as detox patch goes on sale – Health News – Health & Families – The Independent

As usual it’s the comments that make most articles on news sites in my opinion and this is no exception as DJL2 highlights the irresponsible ‘journalism’ at work simply running a press release as news.

“…after nine or 10 Martinis…works great”

DLJ2 – “that’s 20 units? nearly 3 bottles of wine?
fully enough to pose probable alcohol poisoning and risk of death then. with a proposed solution of a berocca under a sticky plaster?!

It’s really irresponsible journalism to just run with a quote like that in this article and not point out the health risks. Is this even an article or just a paid-for advertisement?”

As the Indie runs the following story/press release…

Christmas revellers have been offered a helping hand with an American hangover “cure” that claims to be second only to having an “intravenous stuck in your arm”.

The Bytox Hangover Prevention Patch, invented by the US plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr Leonard Grossman, has gone on sale in the UK following its launch in New York late last year.

via Hungover? There’s a ‘cure’ for that as detox patch goes on sale – Health News – Health & Families – The Independent.

Top 10 Twitter languages in London

Zoom.it – Image IIY6 – lovely visualisation of the density of languages on twitter via @evilmanic

Data: Ed Manley (@edthink)

Map: James Cheshire (@spatialanalysis)

Summer 2012 English is 3.3 Million and the rest is in descending order

Spanish

French

Turkish

Arabic

Portuguese

German

Italian

Malay

Russian

 

I’m amazed that Polish doesn’t feature – it must be position 11 if you ask me.

 

People do the silliest things…

Recently a lot of people have been talking about passwords and how they are too simple. What the researchers failed to mention is that it doesn’t matter how secure your password is it will not help.

There was a bit of a buzz on Twitter yesterday about an application called Twifficiency. It allegedly calculates “your twitter efficiency based upon your twitter activity. This includes how many people you follow, how many people follow you, how often you tweet and how many tweets you read.”

I saw the messages in my stream and thought they looked a bit spammy. Then I realised they were just automatically generated when someone took ‘the test’. Most memes and especially ones that stroke the ego. I must confess having worked in digital media for longer than I care to state I rarely go in for these online quizzes or automatic tests and popularity contests anymore. Still a few of my friends did. @greedoe @andyhewittlock @ianjamesdavies I’m looking at you…

Anyway back to the point about passwords. So you can plan a great secure password but people still authorise any old application on social networks without reading the small print. Although it states on the front page of the app that it will auto publish the result after allowing the app to link to your Twitter account most users didn’t read the caveat or didn’t know what it meant and selected ‘OK’. Now Twitter is ablaze with automatically generated scores. It’s almost like the ‘news’ that there is no official facebook dislike button. Is this really news worthy of the BBC and other media outlets?