Saw the trailer for the Social Network a while back. Although loosely based on the real events of how Facebook was conceived, this should make an interesting movie. The music for the trailer is a great choice, a cover of Radiohead’s "Creep." Watch the trailer after the jump.

50 of the world’s most inspiring and iconic figures over the age of 65 share their words of wisdom. Wisdom is a multimedia exhibition that features extraordinary large-format portraits and documentary footage of interviews created by award-winning photographer and filmmaker Andrew Zuckerman.

If you have an iPad check out the app Flipboard. Flipboard takes the things your Facebook and Twitter friends are sharing and collects it all in one place allowing you to comment on them.

An amusing series of photographs by Hunter Freeman. Not much to say but enjoy the pics. More after the jump.  

This colabo is fresh, I like brand collaborations that are not the norm. Vans has been doing some nice collaborations with heritage brands such as Brooks. And now Filson, the rucksack and the SK8-Hi complement each other perfectly.  

Vans Vault Fall 2010 Footwear Presentation @ Soto Berlin from moodmacher on Vimeo.

George Steinbrenner died at 80 today. Rest In Piece. Got to respect a man who lived for winning.

During the Tour de France, it has become a tradition for many fans to create elaborate messages and images along the course. Nike and some robot engineers to create Chalkbot. Chalkbot automates by allowing people around the world to submit inspirational messages eight hours ahead of the riders. Of course the messages has to be approved first. After approval, a photo and GPS coordinates is sent to the person. Great idea!

I just "witnessed" it, LeBron made his decision to play for the Miami Heats. D. Wade, Bosh, and LeBron on the same court is a crazy team. Pat Riley just got the top 3 free agents this summer for a discount price. Challenge now is for Pat Riley to get other players to surround them. I feel bad for Cleveland though, this decision also effects the Cleveland area economically since there will be less seats being filled in Quiken Loans Arena. Miami downtown area will be a boom economically. I’ll definitely go see this trio when I visit Miami and when they visit NYC. Hopefully this team can coexist, this all looks real good on paper for now (remember the Laker team with Shaq, The Glove, Mailman, and Kobe?). I got to salute LeBron though, he picked winning over the money.

updated 7/10/2010

A short film featuring Jerry Ying on the appropriate use of the word “ninja” among Asian American’s. Video after the jump.

Ever wonder how a billion dollars looked like? Here are images of a billion dollars of $100 bills stacked up in 12 standard pallets. Gives you an idea of how the stimulus package would look like.

Amazing video of a base jumper. Just watch the video after the jump.

click image to enlarge

As we celebrate the 4th of July, lets not forget why were celebrating it the first place. Read this article about Specialist Marrocco. He lost his arms and legs in Iraq when his truck came across a bomb. His story is both inspirational and grim reminder of the true nature of war.

BRENDAN Marrocco and his brother, Michael, were constructing a summer bucket list, to get them out and about, trying new things. A Washington Nationals game versus their beloved Yankees — sure, since they were stuck here rather than home on Staten Island. Perhaps a ride on the Metro, with its reliable elevators. Pizza: definitely.

How about going to an amusement park? Michael suggested optimistically.

“Would that really be safe?” asked Brendan, a smirk crossing his lips.

The beach? “I don’t do beach anymore,” Brendan replied. Then what about the National Zoo, the one with the pandas? “They got pandas?” Brendan said, razzing his brother again. “Why didn’t you mention that?”

Clutching a pen firmly in his oversize rubber hand, Brendan Marrocco completed the lineup. A trip to Annapolis, Md. A ride on a boat. And, his personal favorite, firing guns. He drew a miniature picture of a handgun next to that one.

Each would be a major accomplishment for Brendan Marrocco, who a year before had come so close to death that doctors still marvel over how he dodged it. At 22, he was a spry, charming infantryman in the United States Army with a slicing wit and a stubborn streak. Then, on Easter Sunday 2009, a roadside bomb exploded under his vehicle, and he became the first veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to lose all four limbs in combat and survive.

In the nearly 15 months since, Specialist Marrocco has pushed past pain and exhaustion to learn to use his four prosthetics, though he can walk for only 15 minutes at a time. He has met sports stars like Jorge Posada and Tiger Woods — and become something of a star himself here at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where his moxie and humor are an inspiration to hundreds of other wounded service members. He has also met, fallen in love with and proposed marriage to a young woman who sees what is there rather than what is missing, though Specialist Marrocco has lately been questioning the relationship.

Now he is preparing for a rare and risky double arm transplant at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center that could profoundly improve his independence. One of the first things he will ask of his new arms is to drive a stick shift (the one time he got behind the wheel, in an empty parking lot, his rubber hand became unscrewed and was left dangling).

There have now been 988 service members who have lost limbs in combat since the first of the wars began in 2001, but Specialist Marrocco’s many wounds raised so many questions. Would he crumble mentally? Was his brain intact? How would he ever cope with daily needs like eating, bathing, even simply getting out of bed and putting on clothes?

“I would close my eyes and see a head and a torso,” his mother, Michelle Marrocco, 50, said of the early days. “How much worse could it be?”

But Specialist Marrocco, who was promoted from private in November, “has exceeded the expectations of everyone but himself,” said Maj. Benjamin Kyle Potter, 35, the orthopedic surgeon who has treated him since he arrived at Walter Reed last year, in April.

He can already write legibly (if left-handed), use a computer (but not play video games), work on a model car (with some help) and text furiously (a generational requirement).

He has not done it alone. His brother, Michael, 26, gave up a good-paying job at Citigroup to move into Walter Reed and, as he put it, “hang” with Brendan, shedding his tentative nature along the way. Their long-estranged parents, an engineer and a nurse, learned to communicate again as they kept vigil by Brendan’s bedside in the early months. And his indefatigable physical and occupational therapists take him out for Chinese food or watch ballgames with him on television long after their shifts end.

A contrarian by nature, Specialist Marrocco has become a bit of a homebody, preferring the haven of Walter Reed — where he is a role model — to the awkwardness of the larger world. And despite 14 operations, he refuses to let a dentist’s needle near his mouth to replace the eight teeth he lost in the blast.

One sweltering day this spring, a Marine sat in a wheelchair outside while Specialist Marrocco practiced walking nearby. The Marine had arrived at Walter Reed in May and was waiting for a shuttle bus. He lost both his arms and legs in Afghanistan, and is the wars’ second quadruple amputee.

The Marine watched Specialist Marrocco amble up an incline, determined to tame his prosthetics. “I’m hoping to be just like you soon, man,” he shouted.

NOT quite six months into his combat tour, Private First Class Marrocco sat behind the wheel of an armored vehicle as it made its way back to Forward Operating Base Summerall in Baiji, a town in northern Iraq. His was the last truck in a four-vehicle convoy on a routine mission escorting a group of soldiers from one base to another. A machine gunner, Private Marrocco had become a driver a few days before.

“It was one of my first driving missions,” he remembered. “I wasn’t driving the truck I was supposed to drive.”

He had arrived in Iraq on Halloween 2008, eager to fight. But by then, there was little fight left in Iraq. Violence had diminished; American forces were dropping in number. His days were spent mostly on patrol, conducting occasional raids and lifting weights at the base’s makeshift gym.

Growing up in the Huguenot section of Staten Island, Brendan had been smart and outgoing, but preferred racing cars to taking tests. His parents enrolled him at Staten Island Academy, hoping the prep-school atmosphere would knock sense into him. It did not.

“He is a very headstrong individual,” explained his mother. “He has taken it to an art form at this point.”

College did not stick, either, so he enlisted in the Army. When he got to Fort Benning, Ga., in January 2008 for basic training, he felt grounded for the first time in his life. Here was a career he could love.

“You kept the danger in the back of your mind,” he said. “You didn’t want it to happen, but you had to train for it.”

It is difficult, though, to train for hidden bombs, which is what makes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so insidious. All he can recall of that Easter Sunday drive back to his base is the flash of light against the black of the early morning. “I hit a pressure wire,” he said. “It was across the road.”

The bomb, a particularly lethal one known as an explosively formed penetrator, shredded his armored vehicle. His best Army buddy, Specialist Michael J. Anaya, was killed. Another soldier was wounded; the fourth man in the truck walked away unharmed. Roadside bombs do that — choose the soldier on the right but not the left, the one from Florida but not Georgia.

Maj. Jayson Aydelotte, 38, the trauma surgeon on duty at nearby Camp Speicher, got the call before dawn. Incoming wounded. He shook the sleep from his eyes and got into his scrubs.

Private Marrocco was rushed in. Within eight minutes, his clothes were off and he was connected to a giant bag of intravenous fluid. Both arms and a leg had been sheared off. The other leg, the left, “was hanging literally by a thread,” Major Aydelotte recalled.

Doctors quickly began pumping blood into Private Marrocco’s body, but it sprayed straight onto the ceiling and walls. Aghast, Major Aydelotte looked more closely. One of the two carotid arteries, which carry blood from the heart to the brain, was severed, an injury so lethal it can kill within minutes. “When fragments fly, they make tons of holes in you,” the doctor explained. “He had a hole in his neck. But we didn’t suspect it to be a carotid injury because it wasn’t bleeding.”

It was not bleeding because there was so little blood left in his body — 80 percent of it had spilled out in the field. “Any one of his injuries was life-threatening,” Major Aydelotte said. “It’s incredible.”

The medical team cleaned out each amputation wound, took a vein from his groin to reconstruct the carotid, and sewed him up top to bottom. The same day, he was transferred 85 miles to a larger base in Balad, and then on to Germany. He had survived the initial trauma and surgery. But other serious threats loomed: Infection. Pneumonia. Brain injury.

One day a couple of months ago, Major Aydelotte happened to run into Specialist Marrocco at Walter Reed. “I didn’t tell him who I was,” said Major Aydelotte, who had quietly kept tabs on his patient’s progress. “I didn’t want any kind of accolades from him. His life was saved, but I didn’t do it. He was meant to be saved.”

BRENDAN’S father let the phone ring again and again. Nobody important ever called his home number. Plus, it was Easter Sunday. The ringing was so maddeningly persistent, though, he finally picked up.

“Mr. Alex Marrocco?” the official-sounding voice said. Mr. Marrocco hung up, assuming it was a telemarketer. Then the ringing started again. A houseguest answered. “It’s a major such-and-such from Hawaii,” she reported.

Mr. Marrocco blanched, his mind reeling back to what he had learned at basic training graduation back at Fort Benning: If you get a knock at the door, the soldier is dead. If you get a phone call, the soldier is wounded.

The official-sounding voice, hoping to cushion the blow, asked when he had last spoken to Brendan. The day before. They had talked about a motorcycle that the father was eyeing. The son, a motor head, was urging him to buy it; one day, they could ride side by side.

Not wishing to delay the inevitable, Mr. Marrocco demanded, “Tell me what happened and where it happened.” The voice paused, then said, “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but Brendan was involved in an explosion and he lost both his legs and both his arms.”

Mr. Marrocco’s knees buckled. He fell on the kitchen floor.

His ex-wife was in her car that morning after church and checked the voice mail on her cellphone. There was an urgent message from the Army: “Brendan has been involved in an accident.”

The hours that followed were a blur. To stay focused, Mrs. Marrocco tucked her despair under her nurse’s cap and digested the facts from the doctors at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Her son’s legs were both amputated above the knee. His right arm was amputated above the elbow. The left arm retained its elbow; thank God for small favors, she thought.

His cheekbone had collapsed, and the retina in his left eye was badly damaged. The beefed-up body armor and helmet had fulfilled their missions. Private Marrocco’s torso — his internal organs — and his head were mostly intact. Then she heard about the carotid.

“How did he live?” Mrs. Marrocco asked.

“We don’t know how he lived,” the doctor said.

The parents, who separated seven years ago, flew together to Germany, where their son was in a medically induced coma. He was swollen and burnt and stitched, with a patch over one eye. His hair was the texture of a Brillo pad. His lips were puffed out of proportion.

“Had I not been told it was my son, I would not have recognized him,” Mr. Marrocco said. Mrs. Marrocco struggled to see beyond the wounds, the respirator and the missing arms and legs. Her son, who was small to begin with, had all but disappeared. “I could not accept it,” she said last month. “And I haven’t accepted it.”

By Wednesday night, about 90 hours after the blast, Private Marrocco was in Washington in Walter Reed’s intensive care unit. He drifted in and out of consciousness. In time, he began to realize something was wrong with his arms, though he could not see them well at first, in part because one eye was swollen shut.

“He looked up at me and lifted his arms up,” his father recalled. “He kind of looked at them and realized they were bandaged and they were different sizes. He couldn’t talk. He had a tube down his throat. But he mouthed the words, ‘I have no hands.’ I nodded to him. And that was it. He put his arms down. ‘O.K.’ ”

Mr. Marrocco did not have the heart to tell his son about his legs. “During that first week, Brendan kept pleading, ‘Dad, Dad, take my boots off. My feet are burning. My feet are burning.’ I would say, ‘Brendan, your boots are off.’ ”

SITTING by her son’s bedside the next week, shortly after he emerged from an operation, Mrs. Marrocco noticed that his left residual leg looked particularly bloody. The nurse on duty said a doctor would come by soon to take a look. Mrs. Marrocco demanded one immediately. Then her son’s blood pressure began to drop precipitously.

“That was one of the worst experiences of my life without a doubt,” she said. “I went back to my room and called one of my best friends, whose son is a youth minister, to get the children to pray. God hears children’s prayers better. I said, ‘Get the prayer chain going. I’m losing him. I’m losing him.’

“If I hadn’t been there,” she added, “I feel I would have lost him.”

In those early weeks, the worst of the pain often seized Private Marrocco in the middle of the night. On good nights, he slept 20 minutes and then wrestled with pain for three or four hours. He tossed and turned. He bobbed up and down. And his father sat watching, unable to do anything to alleviate the agony. It was, Mr. Marrocco said, “the hardest thing for me to bear.”

The family wondered about Brendan’s brain. Bomb blasts are notorious for shaking up the head so severely they leave tracks of destruction, despite the Kevlar helmets. Soldiers who return home with even moderate brain injuries can have trouble holding jobs or remembering to pick up a child at day care.

“You can’t rehab a brain-dead individual,” Mrs. Marrocco said. “How would you show him to do a situp if he doesn’t understand that?”

After Private Marrocco’s brain passed a battery of tests, his family then fretted about his mental health. Could he avoid the powerful punch of depression and post-traumatic stress, a one-two so harrowing it can cripple a soldier as easily as a bullet? Not long after Private Marrocco regained consciousness, Sgt. Justin Minisall, who had been wounded in the bombing, ducked in for a visit. Private Marrocco asked how Specialist Anaya, the gunner in the truck that day, was doing.

“The sergeant looked at me with wide eyes, and I looked at him,” the private’s father said. “The sergeant told him, ‘He didn’t survive.’ Brendan just laid there and, kind of like everything else, took it in and didn’t really say much.”

A week or two later, Brendan told his father, “I am really sorry that Mike died, but I am glad to be alive.” Mr. Marrocco, knowing how close the two were, saw that as a good omen for his mental health. Survivor guilt can sometimes cut too deeply. “That moment made me think, ‘He will be O.K.’ ”

As the weeks passed, the Marroccos were forced to look further down the road. The parents each considered quitting work, but each had a mortgage to pay. And the son, while grateful for his divorced parents’ dedication, was afraid they might suffocate him. He was a grown man. He had fought in a war.

Then his brother did something nobody expected: he volunteered to leave his friends, his social life and his job in information technology at Citigroup, and move to Washington.

The brothers were close, but they were opposites: Brendan the brash, outgoing, rule-defying joker; Michael, reserved and shy, the kind of guy who prefers melting into the background. Mrs. Marrocco worried that Michael, not a caregiver by nature, was not up to the painstaking job.

“It needed to be done, and I was best prepared to do it,” Michael explained in retrospect. “Instead of making a company a million dollars, I can see where my efforts are going.”

Since May 2009, the brothers have lived on the Walter Reed campus in connecting dormitory-style rooms, with a kitchen and maid service. The Army does not charge Michael rent and it gives him $64 a day for living expenses. The military also underwrites all of Brendan’s expenses, including the hand transplants, and pays him a $2,400 monthly salary.

“This tragedy has made Michael a better person,” Mrs. Marrocco said. “He is more talkative, more interactive than he’s ever been, more forthcoming, and he makes plans for himself and for the future, which is different from where Michael was.”

THE two brothers spend most waking hours together; Michael takes time for himself while Brendan has his daily nap. They watch television in the evenings, or at least argue about watching television. Michael wants “South Park.” Brendan wants “Law & Order” or “NCIS.” The older brother wakes the younger each morning, gives him his pills and a glass of water, and “that’s about it,” Michael said. Brendan has come a long way from when he struggled to put on his own T-shirt and brush his teeth. The two leave at 9 a.m. for physical therapy, a short wheelchair ride away.

Michael also keeps track of his brother’s many mechanical parts. “So many things to remember,” Specialist Marrocco joked. “Arms. Legs. We’ll get out the door and down the block and I’ll say, ‘Mike, you got my arm?’ ”

His left arm is a rubber myoelectric model, complete with a hand, that responds to muscle impulses; he wears it most of the time. The right is a primitive body-pressure hook that he puts on mainly for therapy sessions. He has the high-tech C-Leg X2, which has a knee joint sensor and is not yet available to the general public.

He mastered standing in his prostheses within two months, and walking a few steps shortly after that. But walking long stretches is infinitely more difficult, a bit like balancing on stilts, only without the benefit of knees or real arms for balance. He spends a lot of time doing situps and side body lifts to build up core strength, then transfers to the parallel bars to walk with support if he needs it. Unlike other soldiers, he does not listen to an iPod while exercising, so he can fully concentrate on the instructions of his therapist, Luis Garcia, a former medic in the Army Reserve.

Of all the leg amputees Mr. Garcia has worked with over five years at Walter Reed, Specialist Marrocco has been the quickest to adjust to his legs. “He has incredible balance, incredible drive,” Mr. Garcia said.

Before and after lunch in the cafeteria he has occupational therapy: writing, picking up small items like popcorn, positioning a pin on a beret, baking a cake, opening a can. In his wheelchair, a BlackBerry balanced on his thigh, Specialist Marrocco pecks furiously at the keys with his rubber hand or with his “fluffy finger,” an upside-down pencil contraption created just for this task.

Unlike using the prosthetic legs, using mechanical arms does not hurt physically. But the tasks are mentally taxing, and Specialist Marrocco occasionally nods off at the table.

“I want Brendan to be able to eat cereal,” his brother told Maj. Sarah Mitsch, the occupational therapist, one spring afternoon.

“We’ll have to get a swivel spoon,” Major Mitsch replied.

Around Walter Reed, Specialist Marrocco is a celebrity. Tour groups stop by to wish him well. Invitations pour in for sporting events. At the Military Advanced Training Center, where the wounded learn anew how to walk, run, box and climb, he inspires with his toughness and wit.

“It’s funny the complaining that goes on when Brendan’s not there,” Mr. Garcia said. “And then when he’s there, everybody shuts up. It puts things in perspective for them. It puts things in perspective for me, too.

“I never catch him feeling sorry for himself. I’ve never heard him say, ‘I wish this had never happened.’ ”

There are times, though, when Specialist Marrocco’s optimism and confidence are no match for his discomfort and fatigue. He rarely sleeps more than four hours a night and still suffers phantom pain in his right arm. He can be cranky and not keen on visitors; one of his pet peeves is people who talk too much. He jokingly calls his comrades with below-the-knee amputations “the paper cuts.”

But he does not blame the military or curse the war. If he had his way, he said, he would be back in Iraq, behind a machine gun. “I have no idea why I’m so happy,” he said.

It did not take long after the bombing for his wry, dark humor to break through. “Look at all the legroom I got!” he announced after boarding a first-class flight to Hawaii in November 2009, to reunite with his unit as it returned from Iraq. And, he explained, being able to feel your arms and legs when they are not actually there — which happens after traumatized nerves go awry — has its advantages. “I can move my hand around and give someone the finger,” he said. “I can do these things, and no one can see.”

Once, when he asked for a glass of water, a startled woman responded, “but you don’t have any arms or legs!” His tart retort: “I have a mouth!”

But Specialist Marrocco does admit to “down days,” and acknowledged, “This does suck.”

“You know, Mama,” Mrs. Marrocco recalled him saying quietly one day, “it would have been really nice if they left me even one hand.”

KATE BARTO, a beautiful, grounded 23-year-old from Johnstown, Pa., who was an intern with a nonprofit group at Walter Reed last summer, could not help but notice Specialist Marrocco in his wheelchair. But it was his charming wisecracks that really got her attention.

“He had a great spirit about him,” said Ms. Barto, who now works for Hope for the Warriors, another organization that supports wounded service members. “And we became friends.”

The two talked on the phone constantly. “I would fall asleep on the phone with him,” she said. Her only hesitation in getting more involved was that she had just come out of a three-year relationship. The rest, she said, she could handle.

Her family and friends worried. They feared empathy was overriding common sense. But Ms. Barto has a gift: She can see clearly and comfortably past Specialist Marrocco’s disfigurement and disabilities.

“One of my mom’s concerns was that I was feeling sorry for him,” Ms. Barto said. “ ‘Do you really love him? Do you pity him?’ There is no reason to pity him. He had a horrible thing happen to him. But he is no less of a person.

“Our lives will be as difficult as we make them,” she added. “As long as he believes I am going to be around and I love him, we’re going to be O.K.”

On Thanksgiving, Ms. Barto and Specialist Marrocco were playing the question game in his room. She would ask a question and he would answer, then vice versa. “He suddenly asked, ‘Will you marry me?’ ” Ms. Barto recalled. “I said, ‘Is this for real?’ Yes, he replied, ‘Will you marry me?’ ” She said yes.

A couple of weeks later, he slipped the ring, with three diamonds, into his wheelchair pocket for her to find. “It completely blew me away,” she said.

But theirs is not a fairy tale. In April, Ms. Barto said, Specialist Marrocco grew increasingly stressed as the calendar ticked toward his “alive day” — the anniversary of the explosion that nearly killed him — and he broke off their relationship. They reconciled, but then last week decided to take another break.

“We still talk,” Ms. Barto said on Friday, her voice cracking with emotion. “We’re backing off, giving the relationship a rest, giving him the space I think he needs.” She still has the ring.

Despite his remarkable progress, Specialist Marrocco is still struggling to find his place in the wider world. His family tries to coax him out of his Walter Reed fortress for more trips to shopping malls, restaurants and sporting events. But he finds such outings draining and awkward. People stare, or look away. They ramble, not knowing what to say. “I just tell them I got blown up,” he shrugged. “I don’t like it, but I can’t do anything about it. I just pretend they are not looking.”

His mother was more direct: “He hates it. He absolutely hates it.”

He is, however, eagerly anticipating leaving Walter Reed to get a new pair of arms.

THE donor has to be a man. The blood and tissue types have to match, of course. But so do the skin tone and size. The call could come at any time, and the Marrocco brothers will jump into Michael’s black Monte Carlo and high-tail it 237 miles to the University of Pittsburgh to prepare for surgery. They have 10 hours to get there to give the doctors enough time to do their work.

Dr. W. P. Andrew Lee, the hospital’s chief of plastic surgery, will lead four teams of more than 20 surgeons to give Specialist Marrocco, as he put it, the chance to live “a normal life” (a fifth team will handle the donor). His legs would still be missing. But new, human arms would mean he could put on the prosthetics himself. And: hug tightly, drive, twist open pill containers, catch himself when he falls, fix an engine, play Modern Warfare 2 and greatly increase his chances of getting a job.

“It’s going to give me so much more independence to do more stuff on my own,” Specialist Marrocco noted.

Nine people in the United States and about 34 others around the world have received hand or arm transplants since the first successful one in France in 1998. Dr. Lee has performed three in the past 14 months; in May 2009, his team did the first double hand transplant in the United States, and in February, the nation’s first double transplant that extended above the elbow, like Specialist Marrocco’s.

The transplant is mind-boggling in its complexity. The doctors must attach nerves, blood vessels, muscles, tendons and elbow joints, all within about 11 hours. A new antirejection protocol that Dr. Lee formulated should reduce the risk of infection, organ damage and diabetes.

Specialist Marrocco’s nerves would begin regenerating one inch a month — it could be a year or two before he gains feeling in the fingertips. It will never be like before the blast, Dr. Lee said, but the new arms can be almost as good in terms of touch and motor skills.

Unlike a heart or liver transplant, “a hand transplant does not save lives,” Dr. Lee noted. “It improves the quality of life.” He added, “We have to be very careful to balance benefits versus the risk.”

Specialist Marrocco wonders whether he will be able to get tattoo artists to make house calls to decorate the new specimens; he wants something to memorialize Specialist Anaya.

“You’ve got to give them a reason to come,” said Mr. Garcia, the physical therapist.

How about, “I have no arms and no legs and I’m in a wheelchair,” Specialist Marrocco answered.

He expects to spend six months rehabilitating in Pittsburgh (his brother will move there with him). The time there may set back his leg progress, so he will likely return to Walter Reed for further therapy.

Back home in Staten Island, several charities — the Stephen Siller Children’s Foundation, Building Homes for Heroes and a fund dedicated to Specialist Marrocco — have been raising money to build him a wheelchair-accessible house. In August, the actor Gary Sinise, who played a combative double amputee Vietnam veteran in “Forrest Gump,” is scheduled, with his Lt. Dan Band, to support the effort.

Ms. Barto is still hoping to move to New York with him, after a wedding at the National World War II Memorial on the Mall here in Washington. She said they had talked about having children, and that Specialist Marrocco wanted a girl, if only so he could answer the door when a date arrived and say the words, “You should see what happened to the other guy.”

via: NYT

Every NBA team is campaigning to get Lebron to sign for their respective team. So far the most creative has to go to the city of Chicago.

Right as the clock struck 12:01 am ET on Thursday morning, officially starting this summer’s free agency bonanza, LeBron James(notes) received three things — several phone calls from interested teams, a knock on his door and a mysterious package. Since the package was mysterious, no one knew what it contained. But now that we’re a few days past the start of the offseason signing period, someone has to take credit for the move.

As it turns out, the package James received was from Chicago. And as it turns out, it was the final piece in a week long marketing initiative by the Chicago-based Leo Burnett Worldwide ad agency. From theChicago Tribune’s Steve Johnson:

"LeBron, the fans of Chicago have a question for you," reads the two-page ad that ran in Thursday’s Akron Beacon Journal, James’ hometown paper. "Can you cast a shadow this big?"

The image is of an outline that looks a lot like Michael Jordan’s, in the iconic, ball-in-one-hand pose, spread out over the Chicago cityscape. Dreamed up by sports-loving ad guys at the city’s Leo Burnett agency and paid for by Burnett, it was the culmination of a four-day campaign featuring a fresh challenge each day. [...]

So Monday, they sent to his house the classic red, white and black Air Jordans and asked if he could fill those shoes. Tuesday it was a case featuring seven empty ring boxes, representing one more championship than Jordan won here, and the question, "Can you fill these boxes?"

Wednesday was a mock-up of a Chicago Tribune 10 years hence – still going strong, by the way – and the headline "Sweet Throne, Chicago: With Title No. 7, It’s Officially King James’ Court."

Bold. I mean, wowsers, you guys. Flaunting Chicago and Michael Jordan’s legacy in James’ hometown is about as direct as you can be when addressing what many see as James’ biggest hurdle when considering signing with the Bulls. No use beating around the bush, I guess. Readily acknowledging that LeBron would have a lot of work to do to catch Jordan is playing to James’ competitive side, and doing that would be just the kind of thing that would set Jordan off. I think that’s irony, but I’m not a big Alanis Morissette fan.

It feels like this move might tell us a little bit about what LeBron is really after and whether or not he’s willing to intentionally position himself against the greatest player of all-time. At the very least, it’s a pretty cool campaign — Don Draper would be proud — and LeBron got a pair of awesome shoes. I think that makes him the big winner in all of this.

 via: Yahoo!

Here is an interesting way to learn CPR. Nothing much to say but to check out the video after the jump.

Also check out Super Sexy Abdominal Thrust

It’s no doubt the Apple iPhone4 is a great phone. People continue to line up to get their hand on the phone even after all the lawsuits and complaints about the signal issue. Here is an example of one of the phones’ many capabilities. Users can edit movies on the phone. Check out the short story all done in the iPhone4 after the jump

Directed by Michael Koerbel
Produced by Eric Edmonds and Rebekah Koerbel
Written by Anna Elizabeth James and Michael Koerbel
Photographed by Michael Koerbel
Edited by Anna Elizabeth James
Production Design by Leigh Koerbel
Original Score Composed and Conducted by Corey Wallace
Starring Greta Charness and Timothy Guest
Special thanks to
Allied Model Trains, Culver City, CA
Birns & Sawyer, Burbank, CA
Michael Rogers
Greta’s Parents
NOTE: All the pictures along the right side of the page were also taken with iPhone 4.

These are fresh. Koyuk is a Spanish footwear brand known for their hemp ‘Double Wing’ deck shoes. They’ve collaborated with Hobo for these light weight espadrilles. The leather trim is a classic Hobo touch. Love the simplicity of the shoe combined with the texture from the hemp body and straw sole. I’ve had my on these for a while now and the Red and Navy joints are on the way. $220 each, ouch. Got to help out the economy somehow.   

Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock the past two years you’ve probably heard of Facebook and Twitter. As the members grew on these social media outlets businesses quickly adopted them as marketing tools to get more intimate with their costumer base. Gatorade is one of those brand’s that take social media seriously as evident from their Social Media Command Center. Read more after the jump.

In the realm of marketing, Gatorade is probably best known for splashy commercials featuring some of the world’s most famous athletes. However, a new effort behind the scenes of the PepsiCo-owned sports drink maker is putting social media quite literally at the center of the way Gatorade approaches marketing.

The company recently created the Gatorade Mission Control Center inside of its Chicago headquarters, a room that sits in the middle of the marketing department and could best be thought of as a war room for monitoring the brand in real-time across social media.

Mission Control

The room features six big monitors with five seats for Gatorade’s marketing team to track a number of data visualizations and dashboards –- also available on to employees on their desktops — that the company has custom built with partners including Radian6 and IBM. Below are a few of the visualizations that we got to check out in an interview last week:

This monitor is a visualization of tweets that are relevant to Gatorade; the company is tracking terms relating to its brand, including competitors, as well as its athletes and sports nutrition-related topics.

This monitor measures blog conversations across a variety of topics and shows how hot those conversations are across the blogosphere. The company also runs detailed sentiment analysis around key topics and product and campaign launches.

This video from Gatorade shows all of the different types of data being monitored from Mission Control.

Mission Control in Action

Gatorade’s Sr. Marketing Director, Consumer & Shopper Engagement Carla Hassan offered a few examples, starting with the company’s monitoring of its “Gatorade has evolved” campaign. The commercials featured asong by rap artist David Banner, which, Mission Control quickly saw was being heavily discussed in social media. Within 24 hours, they had worked with Banner to put out a full-length version of the song and distribute it to Gatorade followers and fans on Twitter and Facebook, respectively.

On a day-to-day basis, Gatorade’s tools are also being used for more conventional marketing tactics –- like optimizing landing pages and making sure followers are being sent to the top performing pages. As an example, the company says it’s been able to increase engagement with its product education (mostly video) by 250% and reduce its exit rate from 25% to 9%.

The Future

The goal of the project, says Hassan, is to “take the largest sports brand in the world and turn it into largest participatory brand in the world.” To that end, the company’s not only monitoring its brand on social media, but giving its fans increased access to its athletes and scientists.

During the Super Bowl, for example, Gatorade let fans interact with a number of its NFL stars through Ustream as they tested out the new Gatorade G Series Pro. More recently, Hassan told me the company has been doing more regular small-scale live events, such as having a sports nutritionist answer questions from fans through Ustream and Facebook.

If that strategy is successful, expect to see the Mission Control approach applied to other businesses within PepsiCo says Bonin Bough, director of global social media at the company. “We believe what we’re building here is an example of a sandbox of tools and processes we can use across the organization,” he said.

via: mashable

Had dinner at Boyd Thai tonight. I’ve been going to this place for over five years now and the food is still great. I don’t work in SoHo anymore so I don’t visit as much. One dish that I order almost every time that I go there is the NY Steak. The menu has had some changes but the NY Steak is the one dish that has remained untouched. Check it out when you get a chance. Address and info after the jump.
check out the Thai Iced Coffee too.

Address:
210 Thompson Street
(between 3rd St & Bleecker St)
New York, NY 10012
http://boydthainyc.com/

The Los Angeles Lakers has just won their second consecutive championship. The game didn’t get good until the last 3 minutes. However the best part of the game was the post game interview with Ron Artest. Instant classic. Check it out after the jump.

How others perceive us in our work and in life matters. When John Wooden, the famous UCLA basketball coaching legend died last week, we lost a master at instructing people on how to live life successfully. Coach Wooden was voted in 2009 as the greatest coach of all time by Sporting News.  His career highlights include National Championships in 1932 as a player at Purdue, and 10 National Championships as a coach at UCLA from 1964 – 1975. His overall winning record of 80%+ will likely never be matched. Read more after the jump.

Coach Wooden based his life on a philosophy that kept everything in perspective and he was concerned with how others perceived him and his players. As a result he became known for the deep relationships he built with his players like Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Bill Walton as well as for his teachings and books on living. Everyone should read and apply Coach Wooden’s “Pyramid of Success” as his building blocks to success can help anyone working to find the right career or improve their current position.

Here are some of Coach Wooden’s sayings that may help you in your career and life:

• Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
• If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.
• You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.
• Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
• Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.
• Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.
• It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.
• Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but what you should have accomplished with your ability.
• If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?
• Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

It is never a bad idea to learn from those who have lived a successful life. Learn from Coach Wooden, no matter who you are or if you like basketball — just know his teachings can help anyone succeed in work and in life.

via: glassdoor

His Airness is back again. Not the actual hardwood but the virtual floor of NBA2K11. This is a sure way to drive more sales to the already popular video game series. Read more after the jump.
 

CHICAGO, IL – “His airness” is still making his presence known in the basketball world!

Michael Jordan has been retired from the NBA for seven seasons and does most of  his basketball magic as majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. Regardless, he is still a basketball icon and he will forever be known as the greatest to ever play the game of basketball. 2K Sports has turned to “Air Jordan” to grace the cover of their upcoming installment in their basketball franchise.

Publisher 2K sports has confirmed Chicago Bulls legend Michael JOrdan will appear on the cover of NBA 2K11 when it releases on October 5.

“It’s an honor to be featured on the cover of NBA 2K11,” Jordan said in a statement. “I have no doubt that NBA 2K11 will be a big hit with gamers and basketball fans alike. I’m looking forward to getting back out onto the court, virtually. Let’s hope they get my dunk from the foul line right.”

Jordan is like a solar eclipse when it comes to video games. His appearances are rare and when they do happen it’s a sight to be seen. NBA licensing deals did not include rights to use the Bulls icon’s likeness, so many NBA simulations during his playing career often featured a generic player in his place. Among some of the games Jordan appeared in: NES title Jordan vs. Bird: One on One and SNES game Michael Jordan: Chaos in the WIndy City.

“We’ve made a lot of progress over the past 10 years, but we know we have the best NBA video game ever made here,” Jason Argent said, vice president of marketing for 2K Sports. “So we thought to ourselves how can we embody that and there was only one person on that list who we wanted to have and that was Michael Jordan. Actually getting this done is the most ridiculous win of all-time.”

Although retired, Jordan remains a prominent marketing figure. Jordan, through Nike’s Jordan brand, still sells the majority of premium basketball shoes in the United States. He also has endorsement deals with Hanes, Gatorade, Upper Deck and Five Star Frangrances. Aside from being the majority owner of the Bobcats, he has a motorsports team, is a partner in a restaurant business and owns Nissan dealerships in North Carolina. It’s safe to say that “His Airness” is still as prominent today as he was at the prime of his career.

via: wwn

If you have an iPad check out the Wired app. Wired is launching their June issue on the iPad for $5. So far the only app that shows the iPad’s true potential. check it out here

The U.K. arm of the environmental group Greenpeace started a logo redesign contest for BP in the wake of the company’s massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The results? Predictably passive aggressive.The contest stems from a Greenpeace takeover of the logo hanging from the facade of BP’s London headquarters last week. Check out video after the jump.

via TIME

Picked up these Selima Optique aviator glasses from Barneys. Giving the wayfarer a break this summer.

Saw this piece on Anderson Cooper 360 a while back. It takes a look at the Pharell’s outlook on the US educational system, which personally I think needs some restructuring to stay current and connected with today’s students and keep up with new information/knowledge that is exponentially growing through the web and social media outlets. Read more and watch the video after the jump.

This isn’t about a new album, and it isn’t about a new apparel line, and it isn’t even aboutPharrell’s green initiatives– this is about education. Adding a new dimension to his image and endeavors, Pharrell sat down with CNN Education Contributor Steve Perry about the state of education in the United States today. Why Pharrell? According to Perry, Pharrell is an inspiration for this generation, and in order for the tired education system to reach this generation, it can use some insights from the person who connects with young people all over the world.

This portion of the program is aired as a part of Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN, and in the short interview, Pharrell shared his personal experience in school and put in his two pence about how important education is and how it should be engaging. Pharrell feels that schools and the education system should be a space where learning is not only engaging, but also challenging. And he believes, the problem with the education system today is that students have too much idle time, and no motivation to learn. He then shared an anecdote about his band instructor who required Pharrell to score at least a C average on his classes to be able to stay in the band.

Check out the video which is quite enlightening in that it shows a different side of Pharrell, one that isn’t joking about pink polo shirts on “Get Him To The Greek” or rapping out solos on videos and getting the crowd riled up. Also, don’t forget to check out Pharrell’s part in improving education and influencing lives of young people via a site, Kidult, which Pharrell has commented to be kind of like CNN for young people, and showcases what they care about.

New single from Kanye called Power. Not as good as his other joints but will definitely grow on people as it gains airplay and its catchy hook sticks to people’s heads.

The recent volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland turned a big portion of Western Europe into a no fly zone for a few days causing some major travel disruption. Check out this video from Sean Stiegemeier where he captures the beauty of the volcanic eruption. Watch video after the jump.

Hilarious parody of Beemer, Benz, or Bentley called Tall, Grande, or Venti. Check out the video after the jump.

While the Celtics shocked everyone and beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, the biggest story wasn’t the Celtics great win but instead LeBron James impending free agency this summer. As the game ended that night, the image of the Cavaliers seemingly quitting the last two minutes cemented an image of LeBron into my head. LeBron just doesn’t have the killer instinct like MJ. ESPN writer Bill Simmons basically sums up what I feel about the whole thing. Read the article after the jump.

My son wakes up between 5:30 and 5:50 every morning. We call him the CEO. He rolls out of bed, stomps toward his door, opens it, walks out, slams the door as hard as he can, then stomps into our bedroom saying, "Come on, let’s go downstairs" in his little boy voice. If I want to wake up early, I don’t even set an alarm clock anymore. I just rely on him.

So when I wanted to get up early to write about Thursday night’s Game 6 in Boston, I just assumed he would wake me up in time. Nope. He woke up at 6:45. An hour late. I hopped out of bed for a hasty wake-up shower, but not before asking him, "What happened? Where were you?"

His answer: "I don’t know, Daddy. I didn’t wake up."

Same goes for the Cleveland Cavaliers. They never woke up.

You could pick this series apart for years, but the NBA playoffs boil down to one thing: urgency. For professional basketball, there are three types and three types only. The first occurs when a team collectively says, "We would walk through fire to win this game." (Think 2008 Celtics, 2009 Lakers or 2010 Suns.) The second happens when a former champion that has battled internally to keep its edge says to itself, "You know what? We’re not done yet. We’re not ready to give this up." (Call it a retro-urgency. Think 2010 Celtics or 2010 Lakers.) The third is faux urgency — when a team’s players don’t trust each other or their coach and don’t have the right leadership in place, but they’re desperately pressing to make a bad situation work anyway. That’s the worst kind of urgency. They all fully understand the magnitude of the moment, only they can’t quite do enough about it. Maybe it looks as if they’re trying, but their body language betrays them.

(Important note: If you don’t want to leave out the 2010 Atlanta Hawks, "complete apathy" is the fourth type of urgency. By the way, I have no idea whether Orlando has real urgency or faux urgency. I’m leaning toward the latter. Stay tuned.)

You cannot call what happened in the Cavs-Celtics series an upset. Boston played better in five of the six games. The C’s had four of the five best players. They were better defensively. Their best player (Rajon Rondo) played better than Cleveland’s best player (LeBron James). They had playoff-proven guys who kept coming through. They had better crowds. They showed more heart. This was not an upset … but still, it felt like one. And only because we were duped by Cleveland’s faux urgency (for most of the season, it felt genuine) and Boston’s retro-urgency (for most of the season, it was dormant). The playoffs hinge on toughness, chemistry, defense, leadership and urgency. Cleveland lost all those battles. Every one of them.

I once heard a great story about Game 6 of the 2006 Finals, when Miami was trying to clinch the title in Dallas, from someone who has seen the unedited footage of Miami’s huddles in the second-half timeouts. Pat Riley basically stopped coaching. Threw out his X’s and O’s. Quit giving advice. Stopped drawing up plays.

So what did he do? He screamed at his guys like a boxing trainer. You’re tougher than them! YOU’RE TOUGHER THAN THEM! Don’t let up! They are ready to quit! They are ready to fold! Keep attacking them! Keep getting to the rim! Keep knocking their asses down! No layups! No dunks! Stay together! YOU ARE TOUGHER THAN THEM! YOU ARE TOUGHER THAN THEM! That’s what he did for the entire second half. Eventually, his players believed him.

Remember that story when you’re picking apart James this summer. From the moment he entered the NBA, he’s been asked to do everything himself. He’s never had a good coach. He’s never had a great teammate, or even a very good one. These past two years, he’s been asked to vacillate between Magic Mode and MJ Mode depending on the situation. Because his front office screwed up so many times, his supporting cast ended up being a peculiar blend of hand-me-downs, discount guys and bargain pickups from teams that wanted to cut salary. It ended up being too much. One-man teams don’t win titles.

As summer free agency approaches, LeBron’s camp will shift public blame to his coach (Mike Brown, who could be sued by Cavs fans for coaching malpractice after this series) and his GM (Danny Ferry, who dropped the ball at the 2009 trade deadline and never found LeBron a Pippen-type supporting guy). His people will make the following sentiment clear to Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert: For LeBron to even consider staying, you need to splurge on a better coach and a better GM. And even then, LeBron might leave. Part of me doesn’t blame him.

Part of me.

Because the other part feels as if we learned something substantial about LeBron James this spring. I always thought his ceiling looked like this: Jordan’s DNA crossed with Magic’s DNA crossed with Bo Jackson. Nope. Take the Jordan DNA out. Have to. Jordan was a ruthless mother******. Jordan was a killer. Jordan didn’t care if his teammates despised him. Jordan never, ever, not in a million years, would have allowed his team to quit in the final two minutes of Thursday night’s game the way LeBron did. His teammates feared him, loathed him, revered him and played accordingly. Bird had that same quality. In the second half of his career, so did Magic. Winning meant so much to those guys that their teammates almost didn’t have a choice; they had to follow suit. Or else.

LeBron James is 25 years old. He has played seven seasons — 548 regular-season games and 71 playoff games. There’s a feeling that he can still get better and, with better teammates, maybe he could. But fundamentally, to paraphrase Bill Parcells, he is what he is at this point — a gregarious, larger-than-life, supremely gifted basketball player who’s better at making us say "WOW!" than anything else. If he owned that cutthroat Jordan chromosome, or Magic’s leadership chromosome, it would have surfaced by now. In Wednesday’s column before Game 6, I mentioned how there comes a point in every great player’s career when you have to pour the cement, let it harden and see what you have. We poured the cement for LeBron in this series. It hardened last night. We know what we have.

And last night, LeBron’s DNA finally made sense to me. Throw Jordan out. Throw Magic out, too, except for the "controls sections of a game with passing/rebounding" part. Keep Bo. Now, add this guy … Julius Erving.

I will explain.

Doc was one of the 20 best NBA players of all time. (In my book, I ranked him 16th.) Like LeBron, he did things on a basketball court that nobody had ever seen before. Like LeBron, he made the court shrink with a full head of steam. Like LeBron, his peers revered his talents. Like LeBron, he was articulate and thoughtful. Like LeBron, you watched him from afar and thought, "He seems like a good guy." Like LeBron, he was a small forward who rebounded bigger than his size (at least the first few years). Like LeBron, his durability was almost unparalleled. (Doc played in 1,277 of a possible 1,395 games, including seven seasons of 95-plus games). Like LeBron, women and children loved him. Like LeBron, he was extremely savvy about his image (and how to cultivate it). Like LeBron, he was an incredible, once-in-a-generation athlete. Like LeBron, his faulty outside shooting plagued him, so teams laid off him, packed the middle and prayed he would miss 20-footers. And, like LeBron, he was a nice guy.

(Hold that last thought for a second.)

Doc at age 26 (ABA, 1975-76 season, his fifth): 29.3 PPG, 11.0 RPG, 5.0 APG, 50.7% FG.

LeBron at age 25 (this year, his seventh season): 29.7 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 8.6 APG, 50.3% FG.

Doc in the ’76 playoffs (13 games): 34.7 PPG, 12.6 RPG, 4.9 APG, 53.3% FG.

LeBron in the ’10 playoffs (11 games): 29.1 PPG, 9.3 RPG, 7.6 APG, 50.2% FG.

The big difference: Doc captured two ABA titles (in ’74 and ’76). LeBron hasn’t won anything. Of course, the ABA played right into Doc’s wheelhouse: The league didn’t have enough big guys, nobody played defense, a school-yard-type game carried the day, and the league was diluted enough that someone as gifted as Doc could run roughshod. When the ABA and NBA merged in the summer of 1976, Doc switched teams (to Philly) and the big question became, "When will Dr. J win an NBA title?"

Now here’s where the parallels get interesting. Doc spent the next six seasons falling short as everyone picked him apart. Stuff like, "He’s not the same guy that he was in the ABA," "He’s too nice, he doesn’t have a killer instinct" and "His teammates are letting him down." The ’77 Sixers (a selfish team of freelancers) memorably self-combusted in the Finals against Bill Walton’s methodical Blazers. When the ’78 Bullets shocked Philly in six, not only did Washington’s Bobby Dandridge outplay Doc in the series but everyone started calling David Thompson (rather than Doc) the NBA’s best ABA import. The ’79 Spurs knocked Philly out again, with San Antonio’s Larry Kenon playing Doc to a draw. (That March, Sports Illustrated ran a feature called "Hey, What’s Up With the Doc?" and wondered whether his best years were behind him.) Once Philly quietly started building a team of unselfish guys around him (Caldwell Jones, Bobby Jones, Mo Cheeks) and found him a second scorer (Andrew Toney), Doc’s fortunes changed: Finals appearances in 1980 and 1982, as well as a (dubious, but still) MVP award in 1981. But only when Philly acquired Moses Malone, a true alpha dog and the league’s best player at the time, did Doc finally get an NBA ring (in 1983).

Let’s go back to those first three Philly seasons: Doc was stuck playing with guys such as George McGinnis (the ultimate ball stopper, owner of the all-time turnover record), World B. Free (gunner), Darryl Dawkins (great athlete, low basketball IQ), Jellybean Bryant (Kobe’s dad — I don’t need to say any more) and Doug Collins (another guy who needed shots). He deferred to them way too much. For the ’76 Nets, Doc averaged 22.7 shots per game. From ’77 through ’79: 16.7, 16.4, 18.7. Do you realize what a joke that was? Unfortunately, he was too nice of a guy. Doc allowed everyone else to determine his destiny. When he tried totake over … it never felt right. He was always one of those flow-of-the-game stars. Always. The same quality that made him a wonderful teammate also made him a liability if things were falling apart.

(Sound familiar?)

Doc’s Philly teams kept self-combusting at the worst possible times. The ’77 Sixers took a 2-0 lead in the Finals, then blew four straight. They lost do-or-die playoff games by two points (1978) and three points (1979). In 1980, everyone remembers Magic (only a rookie) playing five positions, notching a 42-15-7 and improbably winning Los Angeles the title; nobody ever wonders why Philly, playing at home against a team missing the 1980 MVP (Kareem), laid such an unforgivable egg. In 1981, the Sixers blew a 3-1 series lead to Boston in the Eastern Conference finals, losing the last three games by five points total. (And by the way, they led in the final minute of all three games.) By the time Philly blew the 1982 Finals, the consensus on Doc was this: phenomenal player, loved by all, an ambassador for the game, one of the best ever … doesn’t quite have it.

Then Moses showed up, Philly finally won a title, and people everywhere forgot they had felt that way.

Back to LeBron: I think we know what we have. He’s Doc 2.0 with a little Magic and a healthy dose of Bo sprinkled in. That means the following …

1. LeBron can win an NBA title (or titles) as the best player on a really good team with another leader in place (whether it’s a great coach or another player).

2. If LeBron switches teams to a similar situation to the one he had in Cleveland these past two years (basically, LeBron and the LeBronettes), that won’t translate to titles. (FYI: He finished seven wins short last spring and 10 wins short this spring. Not even close.) Staying in Cleveland, hiring John Calipari and sign-and-trading Jamison and Hickson to Toronto for Chris Bosh … that won’t solve the problem here. Neither will jumping to the Knicks/Clippers/Mavericks.

3. If he cares about winning titles (multiple) and reaching his full potential as a player, he has only one move: the Chicago Bulls. That’s always been the play. If you’ve been listening to my podcast or reading this column, you know that I’ve been touting this possibility since the winter, and here’s why: Deep down, I think LeBron (and, just as important, the people around him) realizes that he needs one more kick-ass player to make his life easier. That means Miami or Chicago. And really, I can’t imagine him signing with Miami because Dwyane Wade is almost too good. LeBron wants help, but he doesn’t want to be perceived as riding someone else’s coattails, either. Wade might be the best player alive for all we know — he certainly was in 2006, and he’s been banged-up and trapped on bad teams ever since.

No, Chicago makes more sense. Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah proved they were warriors these past two springs. They could be LeBron’s Pippen/Grant or McHale/DJ. Easily. Rose could take the creative load off LeBron on nights when he doesn’t have it. Rose could come through a few times in the clutch. Rose could hide some of LeBron’s faults. It’s the single smartest basketball move for LeBron James. It’s the Michael Corleone move.

Of course, it doesn’t have the same upside as New York: Biggest market, great fans, most meaning. If LeBron saved professional basketball in New York and brought Knicks fans their first title since 1973? That’s the best available accomplishment in team sports right now. Name me a better one. You can’t. Biggest star, biggest city. But it wouldn’t be a smartbasketball move. He could bring only one good free agent with him, and from what we’ve seen, would LeBron + (Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, Joe Johnson or Amar’e Stoudemire) combined with what the Knicks already have (not much) translate to anything more than what just happened in Cleveland? Please. That’s the Sonny Corleone move.

The other realistic option: Just stay in Cleveland. Finish what you started. That’s the second-best available accomplishment in team sports right now: Be like Tim Duncan. Be the guy who didn’t flee for greener pastures. Be the guy who stayed when almost everyone else would have left. Be the hometown kid who saved Cleveland sports, brought home the first title since 1964 and single-handedly removed the fatalistic malaise that hangs over the city. Be the guy who proved loyalty matters more than anything else. That’s the Connie Corleone move. Remember when she finally forgave Michael for killing Carlo and became the matriarch of the family? Exactly. Family trumped logic.

(And yes, if you’re scoring at home, the Clippers would be the Fredo Corleone move.)

It’s one of the greatest sports decisions I can remember: LeBron can choose winning (Chicago), loyalty (Cleveland) or a chance at immortality (New York). We have one answer — Doc 2.0 with some Magic and Bo sprinkled in — and now, we’re waiting on the other. Within the next six weeks, we will find out precisely what matters to LeBron James. Just know that, wherever he lands, he’s going to need a little more help than we thought.

Final point: Between Games 5 and 6 of the Cavs-Celtics series, an Austin, Texas, reader named Chris Rider sent me the following e-mail:

"I figured LeBron out, dude. I think you define a player by defining what is most important to them in one word.

"MJ — Winning. Hands down, all he wanted to do was win. And that’s over-used for a lot of athletes, but not him.

"Kobe — Greatness. Yes he’s going to win some, but only because he wants to be considered great and that will be a by-product at times. But you’d also see him shoot his team out of a game; jack 3s when he should press the issue and get to the paint. He didn’t mind losing a few games if people came away saying ‘Kobe is great; look what happens when he doesn’t shoot.’"

"LeBron — Amaze. I think he just really wants to amaze people. Which is why he spends 10 minutes before the game throwing underhand, left-hand half-court shots. Why he celebrates amazing dunks and blocks, but isn’t working just as hard to win. I know the Cavs aren’t great without him, but he’s got PLENTY on that team to win rings with."

Is that totally fair? Probably not. But just for fun, let’s extend Chris’ game …

Russell, Magic, Bird, Duncan, Walton, West and Havlicek: Winning.

Wilt: Numbers.

Oscar and Barry: Perfection.

Shaq: Fame.

Kareem and Elgin: Pride.

Moses: Rebounds.

Malone and Garnett: Work.

Barkley: Fun.

Cousy, Stockton, Isiah, Pippen and Nash: Team.

For Doc and LeBron, you probably need more than one word. By the rules of the game, we can use only one. So we’re forced to pick this one: Amaze. You are who you are.

via ESPN

Read this article from the NYT which I found surprising. Despite the massive recalls and lawsuits that Toyota has faced this year they still managed to post a $2.2 billion profit from aggressive customer incentives and massive cost cutting. Read the article after the jump.

Despite being mired in recalls and inquiries into its safety record, Toyota roared back to a profit in the fiscal year that just ended and forecast on Tuesday a further increase in earnings.

Toyota had a particularly strong performance in the three months through March — the period when the Japanese automaker recalled millions of cars and was under the intense scrutiny of consumers and governments around the world.

Profit for the three months was 112 billion yen ($1.2 billion), in contrast to a 766 billion yen loss the year before, as the automaker slashed costs and introduced aggressive sales incentives that lured customers back to its showrooms.

Quarterly revenue jumped to 5.28 trillion yen, from 3.54 trillion yen the previous year, when car sales slumped in the middle of the global financial crisis. Revenues showed an especially strong rebound in the Chinese market and in the United States, while sales in Europe and Japan continued to slump.

In March, global sales rose 26 percent from the previous year, partly because of generous incentives offered in the United States, while global production surged 80 percent.

“After taking over amid a storm, I wanted to do anything to avoid a third straight year in the red,” Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota, said after the earnings announcement.

“These results follow tough and anguishing decisions” on the part of Toyota’s management, he said, referring to the automaker’s dismissal of workers both in Japan and overseas amid companywide cost cuts.

Toyota estimated that its profit would rise to 310 billion yen ($3.34 billion) in the year that will end in March 2011. It expects to sell 7.29 million units, or 53,000 more than it sold this year, the automaker said. Toyota also announced a cash dividend for the full fiscal year of 45 yen a share.

For the business year that just ended, net income rebounded to 209.4 billion yen ($2.25 billion), from a loss of 437 billion yen the previous year.

“We’re still in a storm — there’s been no change on that front,” Mr. Toyoda said. “But from the storm, we’ve begun to see glimpses of sunny but faraway skies,” he said. “I feel that we’re starting to approach safer waters.”

Still, the automaker faces tough challenges ahead. It has come under renewed scrutiny in the United States, where the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened yet another inquiry Monday into the company’s handling of potentially dangerous problems.

The agency said it was investigating whether Toyota had waited too long to inform the agency of steering-relay rod defects in Hilux trucks after a 2004 recall in Japan for the same flaw. Automakers have five business days to report safety flaws to regulators under American law.

Toyota sells the Tacoma truck, similar to the Hilux model, in the United States. At that time, Toyota told regulators that the defect was in vehicles sold only in Japan and the company had not received similar information in the United States, the agency said. In 2005, Toyota told the agency that the defect was indeed in models sold in the United States and conducted a recall.

The Transportation Department is also looking through 500,000 pages of documents to determine whether to levy additional fines against the Japanese carmaker, a process that could take months.

Toyota has recalled more than nine million vehicles worldwide for faulty accelerator pedals and other problems that have tarnished the company’s reputation for making safe and reliable cars.

Toyota also faces multiple shareholder lawsuits, as well as consumer lawsuits claiming injuries or deaths caused by sudden acceleration incidents in Toyota vehicles.

In April, Toyota agreed to pay a $16.4 million fine imposed by the Transportation Department, the largest allowed by American law, which charged that the company had hidden information about one of the pedal-related recalls.

Toyota has not admitted fault. But it faces the possibility of at least two more such fines, although it could be several months before action is taken, the transportation secretary,Ray LaHood, said on Monday in Japan after a visit to Toyota’s headquarters in Toyota City.

Last month, Moody’s Investors Service cut Toyota’s credit rating, warning that the effects of recent recalls and a still-sluggish economy would weigh on the automaker’s bottom line for some time.

But Takahiko Ijichi, senior managing director at Toyota, suggested those fears were overblown. “The effects of the recall have been smaller than we’d expected,” Mr. Ijichi said. The company has said it spent 100 billion yen on recall-related measures, and lost 70 billion yen to 80 billion yen in sales during the year that ended March 31.

Mr. LaHood said Monday that he sensed a change of attitude at Toyota since February, when Mr. Toyoda solemnly faced questions before a Congressional panel and spoke with Toyota dealers, choking back tears.

The automaker, which faced “very, very serious credibility problems” after the crisis, has changed gears, while Mr. Toyoda has “listened and paid attention,” Mr. LaHood said.

via NYT

I like this shoe. I’m sure everyone has had a pair of Clarks in their life. Haven’t had a pair in ages but this pair got my attention. Will be great for the summer and a nice segue from the whole boat shoe craze that I see everyone wearing. 

Check out this video Heart and Soul of New York City by K1X a film be Kevin Couliau. Met Kevin a while back when I was still doing the MIKE23 line. If you play ball you’ll appreciate this.

Red Cafe & Pete Rock
"THE HEART & SOUL OF NEW YORK CITY"
A K1X film by Kevin Couliau
Yes, it’s about that time. Rain, sleet and snow have made way for the sun, long evenings and fresh sneakers. Early may, when Europe’s hardwood champions have been crowned and the NBA playoffs shift into full gear, marks the inofficial start of the real basketball season: the streetball season! That’s when reputations are made, nicknames are born and every ballplayer naturally gravitates towards that "thump", "thump" sound of his or her home court. Playground basketball is where it all started. Playground basketball is where talent is honed and friendships are made. It’s where neighborhoods gather and where skills and sweat are a currency. That’s especially true for the mecca of basketball, New York City. Nowhere else do streetball tournaments, players and games attract a quasi-religious following. Dollars, pride and bragging rights are on the line. Believe the hype!
The idea for a visual love letter to NY basketball was born when Red Cafe’s unreleased track "Heart & Soul" established itself as an instant office-favorite at K1X headquarters in Munich (Germany) last spring. Niels Jager (K1X Go-To Guy): "The tune was on replay 24/7. And one day it hit us: let’s build a statue for NYC streetball!" Red Cafe’s ode to the city that never sleeps is a Pete Rock production that boasts all the makings of a hip hop classic. K1X, who has been active in the outfitting of several high profile NYC streetball tournaments for several years, was all the more surprised to find out that this beast of a tune was not yet a prime focus of Red Cafe’s record label. Shake Down quickly agreed to let K1X shoot a poetic clip for the song, whose lyrics are a glowing personification of K1X’s appreciation for street basketball: The Heart & Soul of New York City.
French streetball documentarist Kevin Couliau (Asphalt Chronicles), who spent the summer of 2009 in the five boroughs hunting down supreme blacktop action, was a natural choice to capture the raw essence of NYC and its rich streetball culture. As was the Canon 5D Mark II as Couliau’s weapon of choice. Art director / director / producer Thibaut de Longeville (director of the acclaimed "Just For Kicks" sneaker culture documentary) and motion graphic designer Vincent Dumond of 360 Creative in Paris added their visual expertise to the project and took care of elegant motion graphics and bona fide post production.
The outcome of this work will celebrate its world premiere on May 1st 2010 on k1x.com. The clip features action from K1X affiliated tournaments in Harlem ("Together We Chill" and "Kingdome Classic") and the Lower East Side ("Lower Manhattan Classic") as well as a variety of other city courts and an impressive array of cameos by iconic players, opinion leading heads and a bunch of regular dudes. Bobbito Garcia, who got an early preview of the clip last winter had this to say: "It’s so beautiful, man. It’s snowing tonight but it made me look forward to the coming summer months again."
World Premiere: Witness "The Heart & Soul of New York City" on May 1st 2010 on k1x.com!
Credits:
Concept by Papa Neal & Fu for K1X. Track by Red Cafe & Pete Rock, Cinematography, Direction & Edit by Kevin Couliau (Asphalt Chronicles), Art Direction by Thibaut de Longeville, Motion Graphic Design by Vincent Dumond and Post Production by 360 Creative (Paris) feat. Red Cafe, "Miles High", "The Franchise", "Anti-Freeze", "Special FX", "Best Kept Secret", "Headache", "Black Diamond", "The Pirate", John Starks, Bobbito “Kool Bob Love” Garcia, KRS-1, Stay High 149…

What a way to end the night. Everyone was out tonight in the streets having fun. The nicest day we’ve had in the city in a while. Had a crazy fun night chillin bar hopping and celebrating my home girls birthday. I get home and hear this news. Just gets me mad that people would do something like this. Glad the NYPD found it before it caused serious harm. 

The police discovered a car bomb in a smoking Nissan Pathfinder in the heart of Times Square, prompting the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers from the area on a warm and busy Saturday evening.

There was no explosion.

“It appears to be a car bomb left in a Pathfinder between Seventh and Eighth” Avenues on 45th Street, said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.

The device, he said, contained “explosive elements” that included “propane tanks, some kind of powder, gasoline and a timing device.”

“This is very much an active investigation,” he said.

Mr. Browne, speaking shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday, said that no one was in custody. “We haven’t identified any kind of a motive,” he said. “It appears to be a car bomb, but we haven’t attached a motive to it."

Mr. Browne said the police were checking security cameras after reports that someone had fled from the car.

A federal official said that domestic security officials had been informed that the event did not appear to be a terrorist threat. The official referred all requests for additional information to New York City police.

The explosive materials were discovered about 6:30 by a mounted police officer who saw a box with smoke pouring from it in the back of the Pathfinder, Mr. Browne said. The officer called for backup, and the Fire Department and bomb squad.

The Pathfinder’s back window was broken out, Mr. Browne said, and the police sent in a “robotic device” to “observe it.”

Mr. Browne said gunpowder had been found in the vehicle, but not a high-grade explosive. The timing device was a clock attached to wires. The gasoline was in two five-gallon cans and there appeared to be three propane tanks, like those used for barbecue grills.

Kevin B. Barry, a former supervisor in the New York Police Department bomb squad, said he was told it was an improvised explosive device. But somehow, he said, the ignition source “failed to function the main charge.”

Mr. Barry said that if it had functioned, “it would be more of an incendiary event” than an explosion.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, who attended the White House Correspondents dinner in Washington on Saturday night, received updates throughout the night. They cut short their evening plans and flew back to New York City, arriving shortly after midnight.

“It appears that a tragedy was averted tonight, that a car bomb failed to detonate in Times Square on a busy Saturday,” Mr. Kelly said through a spokesman.

The White House said President Obama had been briefed on the episode and had pledged federal assistance in the investigation.

In the initial hours of the investigation, much remained unclear. The license plates on the Nissan were registered to another vehicle, the police said. Someone connected to either the car or the license plates had been tracked down early on Sunday and was being interviewed by agents from the F.B.I., according to one law enforcement official. A preliminary search had not turned up any criminal history for that individual, the official added.

Times Square on a Saturday night is one of the busiest and most populated locations in the city, and has long been seen as a likely target for some kind of attack. The police began evacuating Times Square, starting with businesses along Seventh Avenue, including a Foot Locker store and a McDonald’s.

They eventually shut down traffic from 44th to 49th Streets between Sixth and Eighth Avenues. Just before 2 a.m. on Sunday, the streets remained closed. A maze of metal barricades kept pedestrians south of 43rd Street. In the center of Times Square, dozens of police and fire vehicles were parked on Broadway and Seventh Avenue, but in Times Square between 42nd and 43rd Streets, tourists milled or sat at tables, much as they do on any other Saturday night. On Eighth Avenue at around 11:30 p.m., people carrying theater playbills were directed west on 44th Street out to Eighth Avenue.

On 8th Avenue police officers used large pieces of orange netting to corral pedestrians and separate them from traffic.

Many people stayed to watch after being shut out of Broadway shows or prevented from getting back to their hotels, trading rumors about what was happening. It appeared that some theaters might have been evacuated. The giant Toys “R” Us store, between 44th and 45th Streets, was empty.

Some theaters were evacuated, but many were not, according to a spokeswoman for the Broadway League, the trade group of theater owners and producers. The spokeswoman, Elisa Shevitz, said she may have not all the details about how theaters were affected until Sunday.

Most Broadway shows went on in spite of the bomb, with curtains going up 15 to 30 minutes late, for people who could actually get to the theaters. Shows that started late included “Red” and “God of Carnage” — which are both playing at houses on the block of 45th Street where the bomb was found — and “In the Heights.”

Onlookers crowded against the barricades, taking pictures with cellphones, although only a swarm of fire trucks and police cars was visible.

Pota Manolakos, an accountant from Montreal, was not able to return to her room at the Edison Hotel with her husband and 6-year-old son for several hours.

She said she asked a police officer what was going on, and the officer told her: “Lady, take you kid and get out of here. There’s a threat, take your kid and get out of here.”

“We have nothing with us except for what we have on,” Ms. Manolakos said.

Gabrielle Zecha and Taj Heniser, visiting from Seattle, had tickets to see “Next to Normal” at the Booth Theater on 45th Street but could not get into the 8 p.m. show because the area was blocked off. But they made the best of the spectacle. “It’s a whole different kind of show,” Ms. Heniser said, adding, “It’s almost the equivalent of a $150 show.”

A group of people on a high school senior trip from Jacksonville, Fla., said they were stuck for about an hour and a half in the Bubba Gump restaurant at 44th Street and Seventh Avenue.

“A lot of people were getting tense who were there longer than we were,” said Billy Wilkerson, 39, a police sergeant in Jacksonville and a chaperone for the trip. “It’s so good to get out, but it was exhilarating.”

He said he was impressed by his New York counterparts. “I just sat back and learned a lot,” he said.

Fabyane Pereira, 35, a tourist from Brazil, said the episode would not deter her from another visit. “I feel sorry for America,” she said. “I’m at your guys’ side.”

A New York City firefighter who told Reuters he arrived early on the scene said that the vehicle was smoking and that he saw “a flash” from the back of it. “We put two and two together” and the evacuation was ordered, he said.

In December, the police closed Times Square for nearly two hours as they investigated a suspiciously parked van, delaying the rehearsal of the New Year’s ball drop. However, the van turned out to contain nothing but clothing.

via NYT

I like this song. Second single from Drakes upcoming album "Thank Me Later". Find Your Love produced by Kanye. Listen to the song below and check out the video after the jump.

Funniest YouTube video I’ve seen a while. Crazy Kobe fan. Definitely fake but still very funny. Check the video after the jump.

Headed down to South Beach for a few days. Came down to visit one of our stores. If your down here and need sneakers and clothes head down to Training Camp on 16th Street between Collins and Washington. Random scenery pics after the jump.

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Mimosa is an interactive artwork displaying behavior that mimics responsive plant systems.The piece was inspired by the Mimosa family of plants, which change kinetically to suit their environmental conditions. The studio has used the slim form of individual OLEDs to create delicate light petals, forming flowers, which open and close in response to visitors. Very Cool. Check the video and more images after the jump.

Jason Bruges Studio was commissioned by Philips to develop an interactive light installation using theirLumiblade OLEDs, for the 2010 Milan furniture fair.

Babel Tales by Peter Funch. Might be old news for some since this was from 08, but new to me. Definitely some photo manipulation done here but makes you wonder how it was done. Definitely very cool. More images after the jump.

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via: Peter Funch

Here’s is probably the biggest product leak of the year. Apple’s 4th generation iPhone. This is big news since Apple has one of the tightest security with their future products. I wonder what financial analysts will think of this leak since it has disrupted Apple’s news cycle on new product launches. Surprisingly, aside from tech blogs the leak hasn’t hasn’t made it out to more mainstream news media. Nothing new design wise though. Another Deiter Rams inspired design. Front facing camera is a nice feature but Japans has had that for ages. Just like the iPad, the software and OS will make this a great device. More Images After the jump.

I’m sure everyone knows the whole Tiger Woods scandal by now. This week Tiger made his comeback to the sport of golf at the Masters. People will either have a negative or positive reaction to this emotional commercial. The ad uses Tigers dad to scold him asking him if he had learned anything from his mistake combined with Tigers face looking like he is about to cry. The commercial indirectly addressees the scandal and in a way telling the world lets move one, lesson learned, now buy Nike branded products. Using Tigers dad’s voice was a great strategy, corporate daddy Nike wouldn’t be able to scold him so why not use the real father which almost everyone can relate to. Watch the video after the jump.

Loving this film. A branded short film for The Generic Man by Industry Films and Citizen Jones. Watch the video and more info after the jump.

Written and directed by Jonathan Bensimon and produced by Jonas Bell Pasht, Tokyo/Glow follows the nighttime journey of an illuminated man from a crosswalk sign as he embarks on an adventure through the streets of Tokyo. Shot on location throughout Tokyo using thousands of individual digital stills, the short film features original music by indie rock band Kidstreet, who recently signed with Nettwerk Records and will be releasing their debut album worldwide in 2010.
To achieve the striking effect of the illuminated man, an original light suit was constructed using hundreds of feet of high-voltage LED rope lights and a translucent nylon outer shell. Michael Lambermont, executive producer at Alter Ego in Toronto, oversaw the effects-heavy post-production process, which included weeks of extensive rotoscoping and compositing in the facility’s two Flame suites, plus a final colour grade, once the effects were complete. Geoff Ashenhurst, editor at Stealing Time, was charged with bringing the thousands of digital stills to life with director Bensimon.

President Obama signs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a historic piece of legislation that will expand health insurance coverage to millions of Americans and put an end to the worst insurance industry practices. Watch video of the signing after the jump.

Picked up these boots today. Went for a different look than the other desert boot silhouettes currently out in the market.  Canadian based Oliberté is the first footwear company to make premium footwear exclusively in Africa. Highlighting the collection is Oliberte’s version of the classic desert boot, the Adibo. The uppers are constructed from premium Ethiopian leather. The lining is a soft goat leather, while the outsole is made from recycled crepe rubber. Now available here. More images of the boots after the jump.

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Here is an unlikely collaboration, Thome Brown for Supreme. The best of both worlds of street wear and men’s fashion. The shirts look classic and simple. Also liking the cut of the shirt on the model. I’ve been looking for a black shirt to wear for the spring and summer so I’ll be hitting up Supreme to check them out. More images after the jump.

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Thom Browne for Supreme collection will be available both in store and online in U.S. on Thursday, March 25th and Japan this Saturday, March 27th.

Supreme – New York
274 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10012
TEL #: 212-966-7799

Supreme – Los Angeles
439 North Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
TEL #: 323-655-6205

A day in the life in New York City. In miniature. Watch the video after the jump. Watch it in full screen for the best effect.

The Absolut company unveils NY-Z, a short film featuring none other than the don of hip hop culture, Jay-Z. "NY-Z paints a rare portrait of the hip-hop icon, with unprecedented access to JAY-Z the days and moments leading up to, and after, his legendary benefit concert. Danny Clinch gives viewers an intimate glimpse into Jay-Z’s childhood, his motivation as an artist, his passion for music, and his muse, New York." Check out the full documentary after the jump.

COME ON PAINT ME WHITE AGAIN. An amusing conversation between government workers of Newcastle City and graffiti artist mobstr. View the rest of the images after the jump to see how the rest of the conversation went.

The Telephone featuring Beyonce was directed by Jonas Åkerlund also include a guest appearance by Tyrese Gibson and the “Pussy Wagon” truck, which was loaned out by Kill Bill director Quentin Tarantino. Aside from being being an original video one thing that a viewer might not notice is the perfectly placed product advertisement throughout the vide. Each endorsed product was perfectly separated to give enough time to identity each product. Watch the video and list of product placement after the jump.

Watch the video carefully and look out for products spaced no more than 2 minutes [or less] between each other. This allows the consumer to identify only with the product shown, and gives time to process that product before introducing the next one.
1:34 – Heartbeats earphones
2:06 – Virgin Mobile
2:17 – Diet Coke
4:15 – Virgin Mobile
4:24 – HP Envy ‘Beats Limited Editon’ laptop from Monster
4:28 – Plenty Of Fish dating site
4:44 – Chevrolet
5:37 – Polaroid
6:24 – Wonderbread
6:36 – Miracle Whip
8:31 – Polaroid

Loving these tees from Staple’s 2010 Spring Collection. The theme is "EconMajor." A great spin and interesting look at the current economical conditions. I can actually see myself wearing all these tees. My personal favorites are people/profits, C.R.E.A.M. and the Workman. Available at ReedSpace. Check out more images after the jump. via: Stapledesign

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Wings and Horns have teamed up with Quoddy to create both a boat shoe and chukka boot in a couple of interesting colors. The textile used on the chukka will definitely set it apart from the all the other boat shoe looking chukka’s out there. Ok so where can I buy this?  More images after the jump.

This is an amazing picture. At first glance I thought it was lava flowing out of a mountain, something out of a sci-fi movie. But its not, it nature at its best. Every year during the month of February, the Horsetail Falls turn golden around sunset. This photo was made by Rob Kroenert on February 18th 2010 in the Yosemite National Park.

Designers doing some crazy things, but this one may just take the prize. For Chanel’s Fall/Winter 2010 show Karl Lagerfeld imported a massive 265-ton glacier from northern Sweden, where over the course of six days 35 sculptors (flown in from around the world) whittled the icy block down to a 28-foot tall frozen landscape. For this brief one-time show, the Grand Palais itself was also kept at subzero temperature for an extra Arctic effect. While we ‘re not quite sure how keen Karl is to the whole global warming situation, his musing to reporters on the issue certainly says a lot: “Have you felt any warming this winter? Maybe that’s all nonsense, who knows.”  More images after the jump.

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Got to check out Beautiful Fül 2010 Fall/Winter Collection. Love the 60′s/70′s biker gang look. Although a lot of the pieces are monotonic the different fabrics and textures used on the items gives them a fresh modern look. Probably going to pick up the black jacket. Check out more images and a video after the jump.

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Check out this video for the Gorillaz new single Stylo. The song features Mos Def and Bobby Womack. Although the video doesn’t feature Mos Def and Womack, it does feature a very familiar gun toting Bruce Willis. Also check out their latest album, Plastic Beach. Watch the video after the jump.

I’ve been waiting for this movie to come out since I first heard of the concept and viewed the first trailer last year. Disney just released another teaser trailer before its opening day on December later this year. Check out the trailer after the jump.

Here is Drake’s newest single from his upcoming album. What you think?

I’m an impulsive buyer, I like the color black, I’ve been looking for a nice digital watch that’s more grown than played out G-Shock and I can wear and beat up on a daily basis. Came across this Burberry Sport Digital Watch and just loved the detail on it. Masculine and yet classy looking. Had to have it. Click on the image to enlarge and click here to buy the watch.

Thirteen years ago the late great Notorious BIG was gunned down. After all that time it’s amazing how his music stays relevant and continuous to inspire new generations of musicians. Click after the jump to view a video and listen to his most inspirational song.

Sky is the Limit. Always a motivational song.

Here is a skit from The Jimmy Kimmel Show over the week called Handsome Men’s Club. One of the funniest skits I’ve seen in a while. Just watch the video after the jump.
 

We all have fears of some form, whether it be fear of flying, commitment,  snakes, or height. These fears sometimes prevent us from achieving our goals we put out for our selves. I think part of the reason is the the biggest fear of all which is failure. It’s either we have failed in the past or fear of failing in the future that hold us back sometimes. Make future plans but focus on the present without fear of the past and future. Focus on the present along and the tasks at hand and achieving your future goals will be much easier and enjoyable. Check out the quote below from Louis E. Boone.

“Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: Could have, might have, and should have.” 
- Louis E. Boone

I know I’m a bit late on this but I just got the magazine. For the third issue of LOVE magazine, editor-in-chief Katie Grand picked the eight women "generally acknowledged as the most beautiful in the world" and had them photographed all posing in the same position. Grand told Vogue.com, "We did this to show how much they differed physically from one another, which is why we also printed their measurements…the point is that ‘perfection’ is not fixed, timeless or transcendent." Check out the rest of the covers and images after the jump. WARNING: images are NSFW.

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The much anticipated Invisible Man mixtape is finally here and available for free download. Here’s a snippet from Feroz’s blog "Invisible Man is my first mixtape. It’s a collection of songs that I made while in the pursuit of my dreams. Only God knows what tomorrow holds, so for today I am grateful to have the opportunity to share this with you. I hope this project tells you a piece of my story and speaks for a piece of yours." First mixtape in a while that I listened to from start to finish. Even the album artwork is nice.

Victims of Life
Listen to some more of the tracks after the jump.

Look Twice

The Age of Kings

Saw

Fly-Hi

Download here

Got to check out Squareup. A new device for smartphones such as the iPhone or the Motorola Droid. Squareup allows you to take credit card payment through your phone. With this I wont have to worry about client’s checks bouncing, I’ll just run their credit cards to secure a payment. Anyone can become a merchant now. Check out a video explanation and more images after the jump.

Esquire did this piece on the stereotypical America man look. Its an interesting and amusing read. Which one are you? I personally own a piece of each look.

The Professional:  


The Roller:

The Powerhouse:
 

The Wasp:
 
The Workman:

The Italiano:
 

The Woodsman:

The Sportsman:

The Trad:

The Rake:
 

The Minimalist:

The Rocker:

via Esquire

Swedish car maker Koenigsegg is unleashing their newest model to the world. The Agera, but its basically an update of the CCX though. Inside the carbon fiber and aluminum honeycomb chassis lies the same 4.7-liter V8 as the CCX, but output has increased to 910 horsepower and 811 pound-feet of torque, allowing the 2,832-pound Agera to hit 62 mph in 3.1 seconds and top out at over 242 mph.

Koenigsegg only plans to produce 16-20 Ageras each year and orders will begin next week with deliveries starting later in 2010.

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via WCF

So what do you know about breasts? Check out this infographic that point out 15 interesting facts about the breasts.

A powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake devastated Chile early Saturday and triggered a tsunami that is threatening every nation around the Pacific Ocean. To aid in people reuniting each other, Google today launched a person finder to quickly connect those looking for missing people in Chile and those who have information. Link is below.

http://chilepersonfinder.appspot.com/

The simple interface lets you choose between two options — “I’m looking for someone” and “I have information about someone,” then either query the database or enter new information. At the time of writing, the Person Finder app has 3,100 records.

The Person Finder is the same app used following the Haiti earthquake. We hope to see other tech companies stepping up to provide tools to assist people in Chile.

Below are some early images captures through people camera phones and posted on social media outlets.

Everyone knows what GQ magazine is by now. For the march issue they created a list of top new brands for 2010 to look out for. Check them out after the jump. 

via GQ

Just came across this video of the Neurosonics. Just sick use of holograms. Watch the video after the jump.

Is wall paint the next thing to be obsolete? Probably not but I think this concept of a customizable wall is fresh. The wall was designed by Amirko. Each square on the wall has three sides which can rotate to reveal a different color. It’s just a concept now but I’m sure it will end up in someone’s condo or showroom. I wouldn’t mind having one in the living room. More images after the jump.

New York City. This is how we do it. Only those who grew up in New York will understand the meaning of this:

…NEW YORK FUCKIN CITY….

THERE IS NO NORTH AND SOUTH. IT’S ‘UPTOWN’ OR ‘DOWNTOWN’. AND EAST OR WEST IS ‘CROSS-TOWN’.YOU RIDE IN A SUBWAY CAR WITH NO AIR CONDITIONING JUST BECAUSE THERE ARE SEATS AVAILABLE.YOU TAKE THE TRAIN HOME AND YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHERE ON THE PLATFORM THE DOORS WILL OPEN THAT WILL LEAVE YOU RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE EXIT STAIRWAY.YOU KNOW WHAT A ‘REGULAR’ COFFEE IS.IT’S NOT MANHATTAN … IT’S "THE CITY "YOU CROSS THE STREET ANYWHERE BUT ON THE CORNERS AND YOU YELL AT CARS FOR NOT RESPECTING YOUR RIGHT TO DO IT.YOU MOVE 3,000 MILES AWAY, SPEND 10 YEARS LEARNING THE LOCAL LANGUAGE AND PEOPLE STILL KNOW YOU’RE FROM BROOKLYN, LONG ISLAND OR THE BRONX THE MINUTE YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH.YOU RETURN AFTER 10 YEARS AND THE FIRST FOODS YOU WANT ARE A ‘ REAL ‘ PIZZA , A ‘ REAL ‘ BAGEL, and ‘ REAL ‘ CHINESE FOOD.YOU ARE NOT UNDER THE MISTAKEN IMPRESSION THAT ANY HUMAN BEING WOULD BE ABLE TO ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND A PUBLIC ADDRESS ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE SUBWAY.YOU’RE NOT THE LEAST BIT INTERESTED IN GOING TO TIMES SQUARE ON NEW YEAR’S EVE.YOUR INTERNAL CLOCK IS PERMANENTLY SET TO KNOW WHEN ALTERNATE SIDE OF THE STREET PARKING REGULATIONS IS IN EFFECT.YOU KNOW WHAT A BODEGA IS!!!!!!! SOMEONE BUMPS INTO YOU AND YOU CHECK FOR YOUR WALLET.YOU DON’T EVEN NOTICE THE LADY WALKING DOWN THE STREET HAVING A PERFECTLY NORMAL CONVERSATION WITH HERSELF.YOU CRINGE AT HEARING PEOPLE PRONOUNCE HOUSTON STREET LIKE THE CITY IN TEXAS.THE PRESIDENTIAL VISIT IS A MAJOR TRAFFIC JAM, NOT AN HONOR.YOU CAN NAP ON THE SUBWAY AND NEVER MISS YOUR STOP.THAT’S NEW YORK , BABY ! YA GOTTA LOVE IT.IF YOU’RE A TRUE NEW YORKER.

"JUICE L.E.S."*PR*

Do you know the reason why there is small cut in the Apple logo? Or did you ever wonder what the Microsoft logo looked 20 years back? Or perhaps you may have wondered the actual meaning behind BMWs logo? This article showcases 40 famous company logos and describes how each has evolved from its origins to the modern styles of design that we see today.

Some of the logos are relatively straight forward and obvious with there designs, while others are a little bit more obscure and don’t seem to have any recognizable connection with the companies product and there resulting origins may seem unbelievable and astonishing.

Volkswagen

 
The first Volkswagen logo was designed by Franz Xavier Reimspiess, a Porsche employee during an office logo design competition. The core of the logo hasn’t changed much, but understandably after the WWII, they dropped the design around the circle which seems to be inspired from the Nazi flag. The fresh colors that were added to the logo in 2000, which depicts a positive change in the company and the ability to adapt to the new millennium.
Volkswagen Home »

Shell

 
Back in 1900, when Shell was launched the logo was a realistic and simple shell which lies flat on the ground. The evolution of the logo began after 1915, when rendering enabled the company to reproduce its identity easily. This is visible in the 1930 logo for the company. It added the red and yellow colors to the symbol, which are the colors from the Spanish flag where many Californians originated from, which might have helped the company to create an emotional bond with the people.
With the advent of internet and fax machines over the later years it became necessary for the company to simplify their logo. The 1971 logo designed by Raymond Loewy is very simple as compared to the earlier logos making it more memorable and recognizable.
Shell Home »

Master Card

 
In 1966, seventeen bankers formed a federation for the reciprocal acceptance of their credit cards – called Interbank. The ‘i’ was used to identify the participating members of the Interbank Card Association.
In 1969, the name was changed to Master Charge. The new logo had the two familiar intersecting circles with the ‘i’ being retained at the bottom to show continuity and also to make it easy for people to recognize their earlier familiar logo.
Finally, in 1979, the name MasterCard was adopted and the ‘i’ was finally dropped from the logo. In 1990, bold colors were introduced which also made it easier to recognize the 23 horizontal bars between the two circles. As a result the logo looks more contemporary and simple, with an italic, sans-serif typeface.
In 1996, with further tweaking, Master Cards visibility, recognition, and overall brand image has greatly improved, with new features including larger lettering highlighted with a drop shadow, fewer interlocking bars within the red and yellow circles, and a new dark blue background for use on decals and signage.
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Alfa Romeo

 
Alfa Romeo’s distinctive logo was created in 1910 by a draftsman named Romano Cattaneo. One day, while waiting for a tram at the Piazza Castello station in Milan, he was inspired by the red cross in the Milan Flag and the Coat of Arms of the noble House of Visconti, which featured a biscione (grass snake) with a man in its jaws, symbolizing “Visconti’s enemies that the snake [was] always ready to destroy.” (Source) Two Savoia dynasty knots separated the words ALFA and MILANO.
The Romeo part arrived in 1916 when Neapolitan businessman Nicola Romeo bought the company and converted its factories to produce munitions and machineries for World War I. After the war, the company went back to producing cars and took on its owner’s last name to become Alfa Romeo.
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General Electric G.E.

 
The basic logo font face is still quite similar to what it was in 1892. Over time, a circle engulfing the company name has been added to the logo, which might be due to the increasing global presence and vision of the company. The current logo, which was designed by Wolff Olins, adds blue color to the logo instead of the black which had been used in all the previous logos. Accompanied with the logo change was also a change in the tagline of the company from “We bring good things to life” to “Imagination at work”.
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Saab

 
The griffen logo, featuring the head of a mythological beast that had a body of a lion and head and wings of an eagle, came from Vadis-Scania, a truck manufacturer that merged with the SAAB (airplane) company. The griffen was used as a coat of arms from the province Scania.
In 2000, Saab Automobile company was bought out by General Motors, and thus no longer had any connection with SAAB outside of its history and logo similarities.
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Nike
Nike probably got the best deal amongst all companies when Caroline Davidson designed its logo for just $35 in 1971. The main part of the logo hasn’t really changed with time. They waited 7 years before finally improving the logo by no longer having the text and the swoosh overlapping each other.
As the brand gained recognition, the company name was dropped from the logo, which made it more simplistic and memorable. The company has different variations of this logo for its various departments like Skate, Soccer etc.
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Mazda

 
In the 1936 logo, the M shaped curve was inspired by the emblem of Hiroshima city. The 1991 and 1992 logos symbolized a wing, the Sun and a circle of light. Mazda’s current logo, nicknamed the “owl” logo, was designed by Rei Yoshimara in 1997. The stylized “M” was meant to look like stretched wings, but many people saw a stylized tulip instead.
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Yamaha

The three tuning forks of the Yamaha logo mark represent the cooperative relationship that links the three pillars of there business — technology, production, and sales. They also evoke the robust vitality that has forged a reputation for sound and music the world over, a territory indicated by the enclosing circle. The mark also symbolizes the three essential musical elements: melody, harmony, and rhythm.
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BBC

BBCs first attempt at branding came in 1953 when Abram Games was commissioned to design the BBC’s on-screen identity. He was famous at the time for designing the logo for The Festival of Britain of 1951.
His Television Symbol was a brass model whose centre circles could rotate. For BBC Scotland the spot in the middle was replaced by a lion. There were also other regional variations as well as a matching clock.
This new “bat wings” logo replaced the BBC coat of arms on screen, and would be seen before almost every programme.
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Mercedes Benz

 
In 1902, the logo for Mercedes was nothing more than the simple company name. However, it was changed to a 3 pointed star in 1909. The origin of this star came from a postcard by Diamler, where he had drawn a 3 pointed star which represented ‘making vehicles in land water and sky’.
After 1926, a new symbol for Mercedes-Benz came into picture, where the original logo of both the companies was merged into one. It combined the 3 pointed star of Mercedes and the laurel wreath of Benz.
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Kodak

Interestingly, Kodak was the first company to integrate its name and looks into one symbol in 1907. After 1935, Kodak predominantly used yellow and red colors and the complete name of the company. First time the Kodak name was completely written in the logo in 1935, which began the use of yellow and red colors as well.
In 1960, they tried to show a flip page as a logo, but was changed to a box and graphic “K” element in 1971. Retaining the 1971 concept, there was a slight variation in the font in 1987 giving the logo a more contemporary look and feel.
Again, like most companies, Kodak decided to simplify their logo in 1996, and removed the boxes. The red color gives a more brighter and structured feel of the company. In 2006, again a slight variation was made in the logo with a rounded ‘a’ and ‘d’.
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Nokia

 
‘Nokia’ in Finnish means means a dark, furry animal we now call the Pine Marten weasel. However, this has little to do with the current business and brand image. The origin of the company name, can rather be attributed to the setting up of the wood pulp mill (set up by Knut Fredrik Idestam), on the banks of Nokianvirta river in the town of Nokia.
The Nokia Corporation was formed as a merger of Finnish Rubber Works (which also used a Nokia brand), the Nokia Wood Mill, and the Finnish Cable Works in 1967. The company has sold a variety of products in the past including television, shoes, car tires and others. The evolution and the meaning of the logo is unclear due to the changing business over the years.
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SONY

The first version of the SONY logo, which was enclosed in a square box, was registered as a trademark in 1955. Thereafter, the logo went through a succession of changes. In the 1960s, when Sony began to seriously develop its brand image overseas, the logo was displayed in neon in New York and Hong Kong, where it competed with famous and well-established foreign companies. In 1959, the catchphrase “Sony — a worldwide brand born in Japan” was introduced to capitalize on the logo. This was followed by the slogan, “Research Makes the Difference.”
To develop an even more effective logo, a committee was formed within Norio Ohga’s Design Division. By 1962, corporate identity (CI) rules and a design policy for the use of the Sony logo were established. After making numerous attempts to modify the logo, the company decided on the current version, which was introduced in 1973.
In order to mark the 35th anniversary of the company in 1981, there was a proposal within Sony to introduce a new logo. Although ideas were submitted from all over the world, Ibuka decided that none of the designs was better than the original one which had been in use since 1973. Consequently, the 1973 logo was kept, and it is still in use today.
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REUTERS

The rounded piece – or roundel – was developed in 1996 as an icon to increase Reuters visibility on computer and TV monitors, and as a way to brand the company’s on-screen services using far less space.
As originally conceived, the roundel was intended to resemble an abstract globe, representing not only the worldwide nature of Reuters business, but also the continuous collection, processing and distribution of information, 24 hours a day (with the dots representing information, and the two hemispheres of the globe representing day and night). Moreover, the left side of the roundel was meant to refer to the openness and transparency of the company; a visual way of portraying Reuters integrity.
But in 1999 the dots in the name were joined to create greater recognition, particularly on screen where the dot logo often disintegrated in its former form. The typeface was designed especially for Reuters and called, appropriately, Julius.
Today, the dots live on in the roundel, and the logo is more visible – and more relevant – than ever before.
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Starbucks Coffee

 
The logo has been significantly streamlined over the years. In the first version, which was based on a 17th-century Norse woodcut, the Starbucks siren was topless and had a fully visible double fish tail. The image also had a rough visual texture and has been likened to a melusine.
In the second version, which was used from 1987–92, her breasts were covered by her flowing hair, but her navel was still visible, and the fish tail was cropped slightly. In the current version, from 1992, her navel and breasts are not visible at all, and only vestiges remain of the fish tails. The original “woodcut” logo has been moved to the Starbuck’s Headquarters in Seattle.
At the beginning of September 2006 and then again in early 2008, Starbucks temporarily reintroduced its original brown logo on paper hot-drink cups. Starbucks has stated that this was introduced to show the company’s heritage from the Pacific Northwest and to celebrate 35 years of business. The vintage logo sparked some controversy due in part to the siren’s bare breasts, but the temporary switch garnered little attention from the media. Starbucks had drawn similar criticism when they reintroduced the vintage logo in 2006.
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Peugeot

Peugeot’s entry into the automobile business was by way of bicycles. At the time, the company was one of the largest bicycle manufacturers in France. In 1889, Armand Peugeot created the company’s first steam-powered car. A year later, he abandoned steam in favor of gas-powered internal combustion engines.
The Peugeot “lion” logo was designed by jeweler and engraver Justin Blazer in 1847. It was based on the flag of the Région Franche-Comté. The logo was stamped on Peugeot kitchen gadgets to denote the quality of their steel. It took Armand 14 years to convince his family that cars could be a moneymaker. Only then did they allow him to use the Peugeot lion logo.
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CBS

CBS unveiled its Eye Device logo on October 17, 1951. Before that, from the 1940s through 1951, CBS Television used an oval spotlight on the block letters C-B-S. The Eye device was conceived by William Golden based on a Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign as well as a Shaker drawing. (While commonly attributed to Golden, there is speculation that at least some design work on the symbol may have been done by another CBS staff designer, Georg Olden, one of the first African-Americans to achieve some notoriety in the postwar graphic design field.) The Eye device made its broadcasting debut on October 20, 1951.
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Adobe

In 1982, forty-something programmers John Warnock and Charles Geschke quit their work at Xerox to start a software company. They named it Adobe, after a creek that ran behind Warnock’s home. Their first focus was to create PostScript, a programming language used in desktop publishing.
When Adobe was young, Warnock and Geschke did everything they could to save money. They asked family and friends to help out: Geschke’s 80-year-old father stained lumber for shelving, and Warnock’s wife Marva designed Adobe’s first logo.
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PEPSI

Today, one of the biggest soft drinks company, was first started by Caleb Bradham in 1890’s. Initially named as Brad’s drink the name was quickly changed to Pepsi-Cola, which is visible in the first 1898 logo. Finally in 1903, the name was trademarked and hasn’t been changed till date.
In the early years, Brad made custom logos for the brand as it became more famous. In 1933, the company was bought by Loft, Inc. The company changed the bottle size from 6 to 12 oz. and came up with the ‘Refreshing and Healthful’ logo.
However, the major breakthrough in the Pepsi logo design came in 1940’s. Walter Mack,