davemessina.com » Pop culture

Where’s Sean Astin?

Dave — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 14:10:10 +0000

That’s who I really look like (or used to, much to my eternal shame). Who the heck are these people?

A different way to aggregate the news

Dave — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 16:56:06 +0000

Update: my friend Alex pointed out (thanks, Alex) that, contrary to what I wrote originally, in fact 554 front pages from 54 countries are available from the Newseum. So hey, it’s even better!

Sure you can go to Google or Yahoo and read news from around the world. But did you know you can see the front pages of 386 newspapers from 39 countries? Well, you can, thanks to the Newseum.

By the way, I found this site from a journalist who made a virtual newspaper vending machine with a Mac Mini and an LCD screen. Check it here. (via Make)

photo courtesy of inju

Technorati Tags:
newspaper

Hipster video

Dave — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 16:17:19 +0000

I gave up on videos once they all became “Bentleys, ass, cut”, but a band named Fujiya & Miyagi have a way-cool video you’ve got to check out.

I can’t tell whether the domino segments are entirely CG or bona fide stop-motion — what do you all think?

(Via VeryShortList.)

Technorati Tags:
fujiya+miyagi, video, pop+culture

Sorry my web browser history scared you…

Dave — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:45:52 +0000

For those wanting to share greeting card sentiments without buying a stamp or spending time in a Walgreens, try some ecards. “When you care enough to hit send.”

(via Pop Candy)

Reader’s Digest will…not…die

Dave — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:44:16 +0000

Can you believe they’re on the web? I mean, look at this:

Wisdom as seen on TV

Dave — Sat, 19 May 2007 05:51:00 +0000

I read a fascinating article about AJ Khubani, an infomercial magnate and, more importantly, the man who got 12 million people to buy a cardboard map of the US to stick state quarters in. Shlockmeister though he may be, we can learn from him. You see, Khubani shoots about 20 infomercials every year. Each one get only a week to prove itself, and if it can’t earn twice it advertising costs in that week, he kills the product faster than you can say “Set it and forget it”.

What a great example of the adage that successful entrepreneurs should fail often and fail early. When your product isn’t working, the sooner you accept that your idea is a loser — no matter how much you loved it — the sooner you can move on to something that actually might work.

photo courtesy of numlok™

It’s all in the name

Dave — Fri, 11 May 2007 16:14:05 +0000

The Baby Name Wizard graphs the popularity of names over the last 125 years (via the VeryShortList).

As if I needed more proof I’ve been on the decline.

Why is it that immigrant parents have a knack for picking names that are a century out of favor?

I always assumed that Adolf stopped being used in 1945.

Likewise: