Five Live Links by Travis Smith

Une douche ?cossaise - interesting French expression

You have to read French to understand it, but it's basically the idea of having a shower that's both hot and cold, heightening the effects of both, and it's used in a dramatic or metaphorical sense, like a horror scene that has some black humor in it to make it seem even more horrible, or a love relationship that has strife in it, or in cooking when you encounter two flavors that oppose but bring out each other.

posted at 12:01 pm
on Nov. 19, 2008

Mediasaurus: Crichton’s 1993 article about the impeding extinction of mass media

Money quote: "The media are an industry, and their product is information. And along with many other American industries, the American media produce a product of very poor quality. Its information is not reliable, it has too much chrome and glitz, its doors rattle, it breaks down almost immediately, and it's sold without warranty. It's flashy but it's basically junk. So people have begun to stop buying it."

posted at 4:02 pm
on Nov. 10, 2008

Overheard

“Oh boy! Another great opportunity for personal growth!”

...who said it?

“I’m not bitter about what happened to me as a child, and my mother was instrumental in keeping me from being so. ... She taught me to be grateful for my life regardless of what that entailed, and that’s directly related to the image of Christ on the cross and the example of sacrifice that he gave us. What she taught me is that the deliverance God offers you from pain is not no pain—it’s that the pain is actually a gift. What’s the option? God doesn’t really give you another choice.”

...who said it?

After over a decade of user testing, it is clear that the way we search the web is similar to the way we would search our home for valuables as it was burning to the ground. Frantically.

...who said it?

“We must shift the focus of companies back to the customer and away from shareholder value ... The shift necessitates a fundamental change in our prevailing theory of the firm… The current theory holds that the singular goal of the corporation should be shareholder value maximization. Instead, companies should place customers at the center of the firm and focus on delighting them, while earning an acceptable return for shareholders.”

...who said it?

“We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.”

...who said it?

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