Does this poster for Mr. Woodcock seem at all familiar?

Remember BASEketball?

• What is gazumping?
  A UK term found in housing discussions; when a seller accepts an offer from one interested party, only to accept a higher offer later on from someone else.

In honor of the start of the school year, Core77 has put together the definitive set of tips, tricks, and lifehacks for design students: Hack2School. Divided into 5 groups–Classroom, Dorm Room, Represent, Crash Course, and Cheat Sheet–everything you need to survive a design education has been hunted down, written up, and offered to you on a blue foam platter. So to all the returning students, we say “welcome back.” And to all the new ones? Well, maybe you better read this first.

Super Bonus: Guest essays from: Ralph Caplan, Alissa Walker, Alice Twemlow, Steve Portigal, Jessica Helfand, Scott Klinker, Steven Heller, Sam Montague, and Jill Fehrenbacher.

My contribution is Practice noticing stuff and telling stories.

• Cheap UK Car insurance and home insurance quotes comparison from Confused.com.
  Looks like a placeholder site, but they are actually advertising on TV for this service. Strangely amateurish logo. But mostly, the brand is rather negative. Their names represents your problem that they aim to fix. In other words, do you call your restaurant “Famished” or “Satiated”
• A Designer’s Vacation Photos
  Gagan Diesh shows some great examples of noticing stuff and making sure to tell stories about it. I may try the Paris bicycle thing next weekend.
• Dumped – Reality TV meets enviro-chic
  They’ll be living in rubbish, building rubbish, even sleeping in rubbish. Contestants don’t know that they’ll be brought to live cooperatively in a giant dump near Croydon, UK. Perhaps in the future all reality show concepts will be derived from disparate plot elements from the Simpsons.

I strolled through an interesting area south of the Thames, near the Borough Market. All the pubs had basically spilled into the streets, and people were hanging out any place they could, quite comfortable sitting amongst pylons, palettes, and rubbish, socializing in small groups with a pint of beer. It was almost shocking to see beer consumption going on “in public” as if this was somehow immoral, but that was just my outsider’s eyes.

The vibe was so positive and enthusiastic. And as I came upon the sign (see the last image) that marks the end of the area, I realized that it was a sanctioned behavior in a specific region.

• London Sep 07 – a photoset on Flickr
  I’ll be adding pictures from the next two weeks here. A few up, many more taken and not yet uploaded, many many more too be taken, no doubt!
• What’s a Fuzzy Brush
  A unique ‘all in one’ toothbrush and breath freshener, designed by dentists. All you have to do is place the soft mini toothbrush in your mouth and chew, just like a piece of gum …Whilst chewing, the natural action of the brush cleans your teeth as you manoeuvre it around your mouth. At the same time a fresh minty flavour is released from the brush to freshen your breath, which lasts for up to 20 minutes… quick, easy and very effective!

• Come On Us
  Not what you’d expect (not sure what it is exactly, but not what you’d expect). SFW.
• Brasco(tm) The Liberty Bear Coloring/Story Book (PDF link)
  Great for introducing children to guns, freedom, and responsibility. Now you can print out your own copies. From Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, America’s Most Aggressive Defender of Firearms Ownership.
• Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership – Boing Boing
  Looks like I’m late to the party on the bear. 2004! Ah well, it’s new to us.

• Thailand Ministry of Culture issues booklet to promote traditional nicknames
  Moving to Yaay (big), Ouan (fat) and Dam (black) and away from Bank, Bonus, Oil, Ball, Tomcruise, Elizabeth, Army, Kiwi, Charlie, God, Gateaux, Shrimp, Chubby or Crab. 2007 is the Year of Promoting Correct Thai Usage.

Recent political scandals have much to teach us.

…Officers wrote that they knew from their training and work experience that the foot-tapping was a signal used by people looking for sex.
…
After a man in the adjacent stall left, Craig entered it and put his luggage against the front of the stall door, “which Sgt. Karsnia’s experience has indicated is used to attempt to conceal sexual conduct by blocking the view from the front of the stall,” said the complaint.

The complaint said Craig then tapped his right foot several times and moved it closer to Karsnia’s stall and then moved it to where it touched Karsnia’s foot. Karsnia recognized that “as a signal often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct,” the complaint said.

Assuming this is true (and recalling humorous-in-retrospect documents that we’ve all seen about law enforcement deconstructing hippies, punks, heavy metal, gangs, etc., it very way may not be), it’s cool to consider a signal that can only be interpreted by those that know what it means. To everyone else, it may not even penetrate your awareness. Until the communication is decoded, it’s almost perfect, especially for messages that may be risky.

I’m fascinated to consider that (maybe, just maybe) someone may have at some point tapped at me, and I wouldn’t have necessarily noticed and certainly not interpreted it as it’s presumably intended.

This story

(link may expire) about an evolution in Japanese shampoo marketing points to a loosening of traditional advertising personas (and an associated shift in beliefs about who their customer really is).

Kaori Sasaki, who heads a communication consulting company, said Japanese businesses long viewed female consumers in three oversimplified categories – the housewife, office worker and schoolgirl.

But that formula is rapidly growing obsolete as more women pursue ambitious careers and more mothers join the work force, she said.

“Marketing is changing to reflect a changing lifestyle,” Sasaki said. She noted a recent TV commercial for detergent that depicts a man doing the wash – something once virtually unthinkable in male-dominated Japan.