Five things on Friday #153

Things of note for the week ending Friday December 4th, 2015.

Oh, hi December.

Shall we?

1. DEATH BY HYPERBOLE

I am – would you believe – a fan of the understatement. That said, I am also achingly guilty of a number of things laid out in this wonderfully on point article from the NYT.

It begins –

“The text exchange was unspectacular: a friend explaining a video that had been posted by a classmate to his Snapchat feed. Jordana Narin, my 20-year-old research assistant, was half paying attention, sitting in my living room working on a project, texting between breaks.

“Omg literally dying,” she typed back, not missing a beat. She turned back to her computer.

But Jordana wasn’t literally dying. She wasn’t figuratively dying, either. In fact, she didn’t even crack a smile.

“I don’t even know what she’s talking about,” she told me when I asked. “I want to be like, ‘I don’t care.’”

But instead, she typed what to some may seem like the most dramatic response imaginable. Except that it wasn’t.”

The whole thing is so good, I can’t even.

Read it.

2. BIGGEST NEWS THIS WEEK?

This is up there with NASA saying they found water on Mars. In a week where the Zuck announces a 99% giveaway of his really-actually-quite-well-hard-earned wonga to [mainly] charitable organisations – ‘philanthropic, public advocacy, and other activities for the public good’ – you could almost be forgiven for missing this other huge and potentially world-changing investment…

From this guy (and his pals).

3. WINTER IS COMING HERE

No, this isn’t about Game of Thrones (but hey, six months to go [oh, and if you know where to look – the first trailer just dropped – woop! – but this isn’t about that]!) this is for those of you suffering with a blocked up nose or cold right now (like me, last weekend).

Here’s a one minute video featuring two handy tips on how to clear a blocked up nose INSTANTLY.

The first one is super weird and makes you feel like a nincompoop but it 100% works – legit.

It’s actual magic.

4. BATMAN V SUPERMAN

The first full trailer for this quasi-sequel to Man of Steel dropped a couple of days ago. It pretty much gives away almost the entire plot and also the big bad (which hitherto had only been rumoured).

So if you’re up for and want to know nothing: avoid it.

But if you don’t care and fancy it, it’s here.

5. #DANCEMBER

This is my favourite thing this week.

Lee and Luke are back. What was once known as ‘The Art of Dancing’ has mutated into #Dancember. It’s still two amazing men dancing in the best possible way to some of the greatest music ever made but this time it’s for charity.

It is the best advent calendar I’ve ever seen.

And it will be your favourite too.

Go see.

______

 

Bonuses this week are a variety of articles that have been open in my tabs as the days ticked by; here they are for your enjoyment –

• The Decay of Twitter – one of the better ‘This is why Twitter might not be growing anymore’ articles I’ve read of late. H/T to Mike Butcher for that one – W_W
• The Last Message Received collects last messages received ex-friends, lovely, deceased relatives… and is the saddest / most poignant Tumblr I’ve read in a while.
• Thanks, Advertising – brilliantly written and expertly put; on point
• Heavy but powerful use of Twitter Moments – via Matt Muir
• Fairly big Facebook news.
• The prettiest US National Parks this Winter – 20 of them

And that’s this week’s Five things on Friday.

Y’all have a good weekend.

Whatley out.

 

Last updated by James WHATLEY at December 5, 2015.