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Shall we?
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1. VOYAGER 1 IS ALIVE
This is CRAZY awesome.
Voyager 1, the farthest man-made object from Earth (current location: interstellar space), just fired up its thrusters for the first time in THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS.
The results of the request took 19hrs and 35mins to transmit back to Earth (quite the long distance call) but the damn thing still works. Incredible.
Please, go and read more -Â via the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, at NASA.
This is actually rocket science.
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2. HOW TO SURVIVE THE MEDIA APOCALYPSE
HINT: it ain’t ‘pivot to video’.
Try pivoting to readers instead. That’s what this piece from The Atlanticproposes as its solution to the ongoing demolition of the media landscape. You know when Buzzfeed have to make lay-offs, things aren’t looking great all around.
“2017 has been a uniquely miserable year in the media business, in which venerable publications and fledging sites, divided by audience age and editorial style, have been united in misery. At Vanity Fair, the editorial budget faces a 30 percent cut. At The New York Times, advertising revenue is down $20millionannually after nine months. Oath, the offspring of Yahoo and AOL’s union, is shedding more than 500 positions as it strains to fit inside of its Verizon conglomerate. Meanwhile, almost every digital publisher seems to be struggling, selling, or soliciting, whether it’s the media company IAC exploring offers to offload The Daily Beast, Fusion Media Group offering a minority stake in The Onion and former Gawker Media sites, or Mashable selling for a fifth of its former valuation. So many media companies in 2017 have reoriented their budgets around the production of videos that the so-called “pivot to video†has becamean industry joke. Today, the pivot seems less like a business strategy and more like end-of-life estate planning.”
It’ll make you sound smart at dinner later. Â
This week’s edition of ‘The future is effing weird, you guys’.
I’ve read this article twice and can’t find one section suitable to lift and shift into this for your consumption.
My advice: just read the damn thing.
As someone who regularly emails his children to inboxes that they won’t know exist for many years to come, this has really made me think about the impact those messages might have should my light go out before they read them.
Also, you may need tissues.Â
Because I’m a geek for this stuff, I’m often (well, not often these days – people have heard it all) found to be exclaiming to people that IRON MAN was never EVER ‘the coolest superhero ever’. Think about it. Think back. Before the movie, your average person in the street would struggle to name him. ‘What? Is he a robot? Why is red and yellow? Looks rubbish’ – they would’ve said to you. 2008’s IRON MAN movie was SUCH a huge risk. To think that the culmination of all of that is just around the corner – some 22 films would’ve gone into a huge story-telling arc, based upon the success of that one gamble.
This doesn’t happen often. And one person pretty much made the whole thing happen. Vanity Fair went to talk to him: Kevin Feige.
PS. In case you’ve been under a rock this week: the INFINITY WAR trailer dropped. Worth watching for the 58th time, I’d say.
PPS. This is the best photo ever of the leading women of the MCU.
5. UNUSED FLAKE AD IS MENTAL
I downloaded this earlier this week because I thought there was no way in this world that it would stay up but – as I type this to you now – it is miraculously still live.
Six or seven years ago, Cadbury’s (or should I say, Cadbury’s ad agency) commissioned the AMAZING Jonathan Glazer (you’d know his work: Under the Skin, Sexy Beast – the Guiness ad with the surfer) to make an ad for FLAKE.
The OUTSTANDING output was this 2mins of mental brilliance.
FOR SOME REASON, Cadbury’s said no. Can’t think why…Â
Can you imagine that turning up as an ad in the middle of Corrie?
Brilliant.
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PRE-BONUS ESSENTIAL READING:Â
Only the essentials.
The full list of all sexual misconduct accusations made against Donald Trump.Â
It’s the only one here for a reason. Read it.Â
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THE BONUS SECTION OF BONUS-SHAPED BONUSES:Â
Big up your bonus self.
- BMW have done on Snapchat in 2017 what Ford did in 2009.
- Facebook and Messenger – some decent research (by FB).
- Facebook and your contacts -how it figures out everyone you’ve ever met (even if you’ve got everything switched off).
- Facebook advertising principles – Horse. Barn door. Etc.Â
- Lenny Kravitz’ scarf gets bigger every year.
- Made me smile (although this ‘take’ has been done to death since).
- Wing-suiting into a moving plane. Red Bull, obvs.
- Creative director doesn’t understand the difference between channel and content. See also: old man yells at sky. Comments: Gold.
- A GREAT thread by the ALWAYS INSIGHTFUL Rob Blackie – this time re: the new Ofcom report on Children’s use of media. YouTube, for example, is the most recognised brand among 12-15yr olds. Yeah huh. There’s more…
- Seth Abramson on Mike Flynn.
- Could watch this all day (I think I did).
- Hey Nerds, HDMI 2.1 is on its way. I had no idea.
- Robin Williams vs Sepp Blatter (wonderful).
- Blood discharging into the British Columbia ocean is disgusting – and infecting the nearby salmon population.
- The story behind the unjust shutdown of Gothamist.
- The origin of the post-credits scene.
- Someone tried to discredit The Washington Post with a fake story. The Washington Post smelled a rat – and published the whole thing. If you missed this, it’s worth a look.
- The new Snapchat in 60 seconds (Facebook likes to copy Snap’s ‘innovations’ – I bet it’s super happy about this one).
- Dark is a new Netflix show that looks pretty…Â Dark.
Until next time…
Whatley out.