analyzation of the "like"

We like things. Our friends like things. And brands want us to like them, so they can count our likes, and report back that their marketing campaigns are successful.

But what does all of this "liking" mean? Finally, there's a company that's here to figure it all out. Likester analyzes what you like, what your friends like, and what the world is liking on Facebook. It's like a top 100 charts of like.

What could you glean from all of this liking? You can get a picture of what a friend network looks like (see my most common friends' likes above, and you get an idea of who I hang around with). But it's bigger than that. Likester predicted the winner of the last American Idol, based on who was liking who.

You are really going to like this. Thanks, Eliza!

light paintings on steroids

Maybe you've seen light paintings before. But these are super gorgeous, and come with a spooky soundtrack.

Just a little something to keep you occupied in your cubicle because it's a Tuesday that kind of feels like a Monday. From @maddiegrant

produce a music video with only the use of your keyboard

Das Pop has a fun video for you to watch. But first, you have to produce it. They had a bunch of their fans shoot the video from countless viewpoints, and then put it all together in an interactive video producing site.

Here's how it works: each key on your keyboard is assigned to a specific camera in the shoot. Type a sentence, and you've just altered the production to your liking.

This is how qwerty gets awesome.

united states of stereotypes

When author Paul Jury graduated college he set out on a trip across all 48 contiguous states in his parents old VW van to find some direction in life. What he ended up with is a book documenting his adventure called States of Confusion. To promote his book he created this funny 2-minute video highlighting the stereotypes of all 50 states. Whether you love or hate a state, you have to admit this is pretty funny and a great way to get some hype for his book.

oh, the gullible people

Tumblr rocks for so many reasons, but especially because so many of them do such a fantastic job of showcasing the world's... um... we'll say naivety. Like this latest one, Literally Unbelievable, devoted to Facebook users that have no idea The Onion is a satirical news site. Yep, really. It's especially hysterical when the poster tries to act all smart when commenting on the article. Oh, the irony. Enjoy!

you should totally wear a costume to work

Someone did a study to see if more people would donate to a costumed character versus a plain clothed person. They set up two Salvation Army donation buckets, one with Santa costumes, and one without. The results? People don't really care.

This particular survey doesn't seem so scientific, and doesn't really take into account Salvation Army's brand power as a motivating factor, location of donation centers, etc - but that shouldn't stop you from wearing a costume today, just for the fun of it. (Just tell your coworkers that you're part of an experiment.)

correlate search results with other stuff

Search geeks, nerds and junkies: you are going to really dig this. Google Correlate lets you look at search data correlated with real world data.

Let's say that you wanted to plot how many people were searching for "sad light therapy" against the latitude of their location. And then you'd like to have it plotted in a fancy graph or graphic, that you could put into a PowerPoint deck, and impress your coworkers. Bam. It's done. Graphic above.

Make your own correlations on your own time, using the magical Google Correlate tool.

eat the road

To bring more life to this VW "eat the road" print campaign, they produced the ad on paper that's edible.

Do you think this also counts as recycling?

mmmm, fruity.

Choosing flavors with these Smirnoff bottles is pretty easy, thanks to the fruitalicious package design.

If the color and package design aren't enough to tempt you, the packaging is also printed on a dimensional substrate, so they actually have the texture of the fruits they represent. Tasty. Thanks, Eliza!

the answer to your instagram photo overload

Tired of all of your friends Instagram photos crowding your Facebook and Twitter newsfeed?

Then you'll absolutely adore Instagram Rebuttals. A super fine collection of instagram-style photographs with ridiculous rebuttals written on them. The internet needed this, and it was born.

instant case studies that prove you are awesome

PR firms and big agencies love making video case studies that make it look like their marketing and promotional campaigns shifted tectonic plates, caused revolutions and cured all disease, ultimately saving humanity.

Now you can do the same thing. Have something you're really proud of? Need a video case study for that client meeting later today? Not a problem - the Caseomatic is here to save your day.

Check out the one we made for Brand Flakes, and then make your own. And then tell everyone how you changed the world.

when you can't go back in time, use photos.

What if you need to tell a story about the history of your product, but you don't have the budget to build a time machine, travel back and time and shoot a proper documentary?

You could license a boatload of Getty historical images, and then bring them to life in a way that's beautiful, dimensional and engaging. That's exactly what Chivas Regal did, to share the background of this NY historical whiskey. Drink up.

coolest board game ever

With the popularity of shows like Mad Men and The Apprentice, it seems America is infatuated with the adversing industry. People watch these shows and think they could come up with fun ideas all day, while us folks in the business just shake our heads thinking, "yeah, if only it were that easy."

But thanks to this awesome board game by Fatima Kabba called The Pitch, you can now challenge friends and family to see if they truly do have some real advertising chops.

The game works pretty much just like an agency. One player is designated as a creative director who briefs the team. Team members get a designated amount of time to brainstorm and sketch up their ideas to present to the creative director. The team member with the best idea gets awarded the points and the game progresses with a few twists and turns along the way that are typical in the agency world.

So sure, this game is pretty much your every day life, but how fun would it be to see what your friends and family come up with? Maybe you can even borrow a few of their ideas for your real clients, we won't tell!

If this sounds awesome to you, you can support Fatima on Kickstarter to get this game into production.

college? meh, who needs it?

It's high school graduation time. Time for endless speeches from "the man" about how your entire life will be shaped by what you do in college. No one ever talks about the geniuses on this list that chose starting their own business over college. No one dare says, you could create your own success, take your own path, without college.

Well, Peter Thiel, cofounder of PayPal thinks that's crap! Questioning the overall idea of higher education, Thiel believes that incredible ideas can develop much faster in a start-up environment rather than in school. So to prove it, he's offering $100,000 fellowships to 24 people under the age of 20 to drop out of school and start their own businesses.

A bold move, but one that's sure to spawn a whole new set of case studies proving that just because tradition says you have to go to college to succeed, doesn't mean it's true. That is, if you have the right idea and the motivation.

just because you're an advertiser, doesn't mean you have to be creepy.

If you work in the ad industry, you're probably familiar with the practice of re-targeting. If you're a consumer, maybe you've even been the unknowing target of a re-targeting campaign.

Many brands will recognize something you're shopping for on their site and then follow you around the internet, delivering ads with the exact product you were shopping for. Overstock.com is a huge user of this technique, and the first time it happens to you as a consumer can feel super creepy. (I once had an Overstock.com sweater haunt me for a week.)

Even super friendly, loveable brand Zappos practices in this media buying method, but like everything Zappos does, they do it differently. They do it with their customer experience in mind. Their re-targeted ads feature a "why am I seeing this?" tag, that links to a full page explanation of their method, titled "Some People Prefer Rainbows, And Others Prefer Unicorns". They even go on to explain how no form of personal information has been shared, and give users the ability to opt-out of such ads with a single click.

Another awesome Zappos lesson in treating your customers with the respect they deserve. Great marketing just seems like common sense sometimes, doesn't it?

how to sell outdoor

Sure, we live in a digital world, supposedly print's dead, outdoor's not targeted, blah blah blah. With people making these arguments every single day, it has to be tough being an outdoor media company like Interbest Outdoor. That is until you whip out this incredibly effective billboard series by Y&R Not Just Film.

A super simple premise: The longer the billboard remained available, the more clothes this gross dude would strip off, always with the line "The sooner you advertise here, the better." He got to his skivvies before someone thankfully bought the space (phew). This is the latest in a series that's been in Amsterdam for a year, but apparently this one got the closest to the full "reveal" before someone bought the spot.

Freakin' genius!

why brands shouldn't be on twitter

...because consumers can be reaaaally annoying. Case in point, this entertaining display of the just plain stupid things consumers have to say to brands on Twitter. While I hope some of these are sarcastic, this Tumblr still makes me scared for our future, as marketers and as mankind.

give voice to people in need with the click of a mouse

Sound Off for Justice is a new campaign that attempts to stop the cut of legal aid in the UK (that's right, apparently people in the UK can get free legal advice if they need it).

Their interactive video lets the user unmute a man who clearly needs a voice, showcasing the importance of how legal advice can help real people. Depressingly good.

mark zuckerberg uses paper

Just because you're the founder of the world's largest social network doesn't mean that you don't occasionally have the use for writing something on paper.

And if you get a personal letter from Mr. Zuckerberg, trust that it's going to be on some pretty awesomely gorgeous letterhead. From @gariphic

how to get your dream job

You probably know by now that most jobs aren't advertised. And that there are a hundred thousand qualified people for every job that's open. So how do you find your dream job?

If you're in marketing, you use the very tactics that you'd recommend to clients every day. That's exactly what Graphic Designer and super marketer Josh Mishell is doing, in his Hey New Belgium You Should Hire Me website.

That's right - an entire website geared toward the one place where Josh really wants to work. And he clearly indicates why he's the most qualified person on earth to be working on their brand. New Belgium: your play.

a better world with bikes

Biking, whether done competitively, athletically or leisurely, has become incredibly popular over the years. Yet so many cities and towns are not properly equipped to support the influx. With a lack of bike lanes, bike paths, and even bike racks, safely biking to your favorite destination (instead of diving) can be quite a challenge.

Cue this happy, magical video ad for People for Bikes, an organization dedicated to making biking safer and more accessible for all. Illustrating how "Bikes Make Life Better," this ad hopes to generate awareness for their campaign to garner a million pledges to present to congress in hopes of creating real change for biking enthusiasts everywhere.

A beautiful ad, and an even more beautiful project.

a fun branded experience - not an oxymoron

Generally speaking, digital campaigns that force some long, drawn out branded experience is an EPIC fail. No one wants to spend 10+ minutes clicking through some lame flash site to figure out the benefits of whatever the heck it is you're selling.

That being said, this campaign for Volkswagen in the UK gets a pass, because it's not only creative and well-designed, but it also incorporates infographics FTW.

The experience, called True Life Costs, has apparently been around for months now, but has recently become viral. The experience takes you on a Sunday drive through a cute little virtual town where you can click on buildings and other props to reveal fun and informative inforgraphics illustrating what the average person spends on various things like entertainment, clothes, utilities and of course, vehicles. Yep, there's the hard sell, because (of course) the claim is you'll spend less on a VW.

Regardless of the obvious sell (and long load times) the campaign is engaging. You can login using Facebook and adjust sliders based on your lifestyle to get more accurate averages, plus you can compare your spending with friends to see just how frugal or extravagant you really are.

qr codes don't have to be ugly

Fiat realized that QR codes are just recognized patterns on your phone. And if your phone can recognize those ugly QR codes, then they can certainly recognize other things, too.

So Fiat created an interactive automotive brochure that's brought to life by pointing your phone at traffic signs. Awesomeness, on the road.

youtube as a musical instrument

Meet the first interactive YouTube Music Machine.

Awesome fun, and if you turn it up real loud, you're sure to annoy your cubicle mates. Enjoy. (Doesn't always work in the embedded version, so you might have to make the effort and click through to the piece on YouTube.)

how much money do donation boxes make?

Did you ever wonder if those giant donation boxes that sit in the back of the parking actually do any good?

The Chicago Tribune does a detailed breakout of seven of non-profits with boxes in their area, with the full scoop on who makes what on discarded clothing. Some get phenomenal returns - and will make you wonder what they might pull if they were given a design makeover.

Maybe you should put one in the back of your parking lot, and start collecting. From @coudal

augmented reality that kills qr?

Let's face it. QR needs to be killed. Mostly because marketers don't understand how to use it, and just slap the codes on willy nilly.

Blippar is up to the task, with augmented reality that works as easy as QR, but offers a world of experience beyond what QR codes can do. Let's make it happen, ok?

360 degree photos: not just for real estate anymore

360 Panorama is a new tool that makes 360 degree photography as easy as your iphone. Now you can show everyone in the world everything around you, and then tweet about it and share it on Facebook.

Because we needed to see what's behind you.

animated gifs: the hot new thing

We posted before on the trend of making animated GIFs beautiful. And on using real world objects to create animated GIFs.

Now a smart marketer has taken the idea and turned it into a fun ad campaign. Polos candies introduces a sweet of banner ads that are almost cute enough to become entertainment.

Sometimes great ideas come to life not because of a new technology, but because someone has recognized something that's been in front of us all along in a new way. This is where art meets marketing, and works..

a one item retail store

Martian Summer author Andrew Kessler created a unique to launch his book at retail in NYC. He created his own store, and then stocked it with only his book.

What's our best seller? Martian Summer. What's new in non-fiction? Martian Summer. What's on the top ten of our staff recommendations? Martian Summmer.

Proof that pop up retail can work for just about anything and anyone.

brands using instagram

Instagram is the new hot thing for iPhone users, and with every new hot social tool comes the need to get brands involved. But how can a brand successfully leverage a personal photo sharing tool?

The Next Web has compiled a sweet list of ten brands who are doing it right. While it's not always smart to jump on a bandwagon, sometimes the tool just fits the brand so well that it all makes sense.

Instagram just gets more awesome with every day.

what if your dad thought twitter was for search?

File this under hilarious. And a little mean.

Imagine an 81 year old dad, who's trying his best to learn the internet. His son tells him that Twitter is for search, and sets him up with his own Twitter account. Hilarity ensues. Found on Holy Kaw!

giant elephant attacks london

In case you weren't in London to see the arrival of France’s Royal de Luxe theater, 800 Recycling has a great collection of shots that feature the giant lumbering beast that was produced entirely from recycled materials.

The giant puppet boy also makes an appearance, but it's not clear if he's recycled. Or just an enormous puppet that feeds on humans. Wow.

the ipad app for your cat

Friskies has produced iPad games. For your cat. Absolutely genius.

the life of your other self

Ever imagine what your life would be like if you had chosen different paths along the way? Well, thanks to this awesome art installation, the Quantum Parallelograph by Patrick Stevenson-Keating, you can actually see what it would be like. Um, huh?

Yeah, quantum mechanics is awesome, but it's also ridiculously confusing and complex. So, filtering out all the super-smart geeky stuff, the theory being explored here is the world (and all the particles in it) are constantly splitting into different versions of itself that exist in parallel. So, essentially, there is a parallel universe to us with a whole other version of you living in it. Scary, right?

Well, this nifty creation combines Yahoo search results of your name with a complex database and some other nerdy magic to print out a description of what your alternate self has been up to. Hopefully it's not some super rich and more attractive version of yourself, because that would just be plain sad.

social media's free, right?

The next time a client or colleague says they want to focus their marketing efforts on social media because it's dirt cheap, or *gasp* free, slap this puppy in and email and show them the way. Bonus, this even illustrates the elusive and oh-so-frightening ROI, so it works for the naysayers too!

super video effects in your pocket

Viddy is a fun, new tool that's a lot like Instagram - but for video. Like Instagram, Viddy lets you add super awesome effects to your clips, and then share them with your Viddy friends.

If Instagram is launching a new wave of art photography and a new way of sharing life, then Viddy could do the same for video. Hello, Hollywood - your next indie star may be here.

meet the new pop up store

There's a cool, new shopping mall that's about to open in London this year, and it's entirely portable. It's called Boxpark, and the whole shopping center is being constructed from shipping containers.

This isn't just a "let's recycle an ugly box" venture - they're creating amazingly unique structures from what might otherwise be steel just sitting in a shipping yard.

Even better, brands who are building shops can move their shop anywhere in the world if the location doesn't work to their satisfaction. From @madebymany

all the ginormous agencies outlined beautifully

Here's another beauteous info-graphic - and this one's all about the industry that you lust for: the ad industry. The Ad Agency Bloodline details the history of all of the major players in advertising history.

Lest you think this is only an org chart of the big guys, it's also chocked full of interesting factoids about our business, like:
+ Pizza Hut offered online ordering 4 years before Google existed
+ The first ever tv commercial (for Bulova watches) cost $9 to air

There's plenty more where that came from, and the only thing you'll find missing is a big, fat Humongo logo at the top, indicating the greatest agency in all of the land. ;p

putting kids on the street for good

How do you show how easy it is to help children in need? Leave a baby on the street.

That's (kind of) what Juan and his friends did as their entry into the YouTube/Cannes Young Lions contest. Because only evil humanoids could actually ignore a crying baby in a box, the effort grabs attention, and gets action. Nice.

living in a glass house for health

How do you raise awareness about the importance of becoming more active?

How about getting a dude to commit to becoming more active - and then have him live in the public, so that everyone can help him reach his goal?

That's exactly what agency Mono did for Blue Cross/Blue Shield. They put a guy in a glass apartment in the middle of a mall, as a part of the Human Do.ing project. And then the community helped him become more active in his daily routine, while watching it all live. At the mall. Awesome.

screensavers are back

Remember flying toasters? Screensavers are hip again, and the Barbarian Group has created a wonderous one for your desktop, using Instagram.

If you're not an iPhone user, then you might not realize that Instagram is like the Facebook of photography. Or something like that. And this new screensaver lets you plaster your unused desktop with your images, your friends images, or the images of the entire Instagram population.

This will entertain your cubicle neighbors to no end while you're away from your computer, stuck in a ridiculous meeting. Have fun.

how to levitate sneakers

Gamification is the hot new buzzword that agency people love to throw around to make their Powerpoint decks look all hip. Castro Innovation was doing this stuff months ago. Before the cool kids found out about it.

Check out this installation they did for Nike Air, that actually levitates sneakers and then lets customers move them through a game environment. Awesome, with sneakers on top.

triply awesome

What do you get when you combine stop motion animation, retro video games and gummy bears? Pure awesomeness. And apparently they ate all 10 pounds of gummies afterward. Oh heck yeah.

as hipsters enter the real world

For our hipster readers graduating from college this month, or those of you with hipster kids graduating this month, here's a guide for cities to avoid. How would your city be described by a hipster?

your wallet is going the way of the pocket watch

Here it comes. Ben Kunz predicts that Facebook is gearing up for this. And now Bitcoin is here - allowing you to buy, sell and trade in a new, virtual, worldwide currency.

Whoever becomes the mint maker, you can be sure that in the very near future, those paper bills and credit cards will no longer be crowding up your wallet.

When you think about it...what will your wallet be used for at all?

what to do with your pillow this morning

Yes, there's a world cup of pillow fights. And now your life is complete. (Why don't you bring your pillow to work today in celebration, and whack a couple of your coworkers?)

when the house is on fire, what will you grab?

There are some religious zealots nutjobs who actually believe that the world is going to end on Saturday. This of course brings up a bevy of discussion topics...like if your house were on fire, what are the items you'd grab, before running out?

The Burning House is a blog that shares answers to that question, told in a single, beautiful photograph. (Not the end of the world question - the burning house question.) What are you going to grab?

cry over spilled milk

A Love Story… In Milk from Catsnake on Vimeo.

Who would've thought a love story about milk would be so touching? An adorable little PSA by Catsnake for UK environmental group, Friends of the Earth proves that PSAs can be lighthearted and still very powerful.

facebook in real life

Over the years we've seen a bunch of silly little videos illustrating how absurd social networks would be in real life. Well, here's a new one that'll make you laugh from Hungry Beast. They had me at semi-naked duck face photos.

patterns made from things to show things

Pattern Matters is an amazing project that asks artists to realize infographics from real objects and things in a three dimensional way.

Each graphic represents something new and different and allows designers to show things in a tactile exploration. This is like art school on steroids. From waxy.

one place for all the clips of clips of scenes and things

Maybe you've already got a few favorite supercuts - those collections of edits of one thing, from a bunch of different movies. Like all the movies that say "it's gonna blow", or all of the horror movies where cell service is lost. You've seen hundreds of these go viral over the last few years.

Now there's one place that you can go to see nothing but supercuts, made on the spot and served up randomly and awesomely, just the way you like them.

What's even more impressive is that this tool was produced in 24 hours as a project for the Seven on Seven conference. (This is what creative geniuses do for fun.)

the book of your life on facebook

Social Memories is an app that makes a book of your life, as represented on Facebook.

Check it out virtually, rearrange if you like, and then order a copy to keep. Or if you're feeling badass, order ten copies, and put them on an endcap at Barnes & Noble. Thanks, Eliza!

ads made from other ads

What could you make from other brand's discarded billboards? MINI in Switzerland turned them into an outdoor campaign.

It's like the ultimate recycled advertising remix. For now on, this is where old ads will go to retire.

what a trillion looks like

With all the talks of budgets, cuts, and trillions of dollars, someone needed to create an infographic that would properly illustrate exactly what a trillion looks like.

You never know when you might stumble upon a trillion dollars, and it will be helpful for you to recognize exactly what it is. (Hint: it's bigger than the pile of dough shown above.) From @caff

last arcade standing

Ahhh remember the days of hanging with your friends at the arcade with a pocket full of quarters? The burning in your eyes and ringing in your ears after hours of chomping at dots and ghosts?

But like many awesome things from our childhood, like record stores, roller skating rinks, and prizes inside cereal boxes, arcades are pretty much disappearing. And, sure, arcades have been replaced by crazy cool, gaming systems that know our every move and have killer graphics, but it's still nice to reminisce in the days when things were a little less intense.

Hence this documentary, The Last Night at Chinatown Fair by Kurt Vincent about the closing of NYC's last arcade, The Chinatown Fair.

Like what you see? You can help fund the film on Kickstarter.

some friday inspiration

When students at Stockholm's Bergh's School of Communication were asked to theme this years exhibition around the fear of of failure, they decided to ask some well-know and respected creators about their POV on the subject. What they got back was some beautiful and inspiring advice that we all could learn from, or at least remind ourselves of. See them all here.

the most interesting tour in the world

Well, it's pretty cool anyway.

It seems like every brand in the world is doing a mobile tour these days. And if you've ever planned one, you know it's a challenge to come up with breakthrough, fun, and engaging reasons to make people to want to leave the house or office to go visit a branded truck. Then, if you're lucky enough to get people there, what's going to make them share their experience on Twitter and Facebook? Sure, food certainly is a motivator, but even that's beginning to be overused with all the food trucks out there.

That is, until Dos Equis came along with their awesomely gross "Feast of the Brave" taco truck tour, daring consumers to taste things like grasshopper or veal brain tacos and then share their ballsy experience with friends on Facebook and Twitter. Friends can even watch them down their creepy concoctions via a live feed on the Dos Equis Facebook page. Because, of course, how could you not want to brag that you just downed some cow tongue to your friends?

So, you salivating for some scorpions now? Well, unfortunately they just ended their NYC tour now, but I'm sure they'll plan a rollout if this one's the hit it seems to be.

it's the end of computers as we know it

Via: OnlineComputerScienceDegree.com

Really, what's better than an infographic? Perhaps an infographic about the rise and eventual fall of the computer (as we know it) to the tune of an REM classic?

Ah yes, this little ditty predicts the future of computers, including DNA-based computers, quantum computing and other crazy sci-fi madness that may not be that far off. And apparently, they feel fine about it.

want to buy a British rapper?

Over the years we've seen many musicians futilely fight against file-sharing, and we've seen many musicians surrender to the inevitable. We've even seen some get incredibly creative with new ways to make money, like file-sharing advocate and British rap artist, Dan Bull. When brainstorming ways to get fans involved in his music he decided to put himself on ebay. For one week fans can bid to have Dan write and perform a song just for (or about) them. Hey, whatever works!

a "gif" from god

Rodrigo from BUZZMAN on Vimeo.

Silly and ridiculous animated gifs make everything better, even incredibly awkward adolescent experiences like the ones in these spots for MTV Mobile from Buzzman and Caviar Paris.

If only GIF GOD could come save us when stuck in boring meetings or drowning in our inboxes.

Are you sitting down for this infographic?

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

Hopefully not, because if you are, you're 40% more likely to drop dead.

Let's face it, in our line of business the biggest danger we face all day is the internet being down (gasp), a client request to make the logo bigger (ugh), or accidentally posting drunk pictures on your client's Facebook page instead of your own (oopsy).

But according to this infographic by medicalbillingandcoding.org, we have a lot more to worry about if we sit on our tuckus all day. But hey, it's not all doom and gloom. It's a beautiful day out there today for most of the country, so get outside at lunch and take a walk.

meh, Brooklyn hipsters are poseurs

According to Google search, Minnesota is the heart of the hipster movement. Don't believe it? Buzzfeed has some pretty convincing evidence, though Exhibit D-H is somewhat baffling.

But, on behalf of sighing, apathetic Brooklynites I contest this conclusion. Maaaaybe Minnesotans are searching for hipster related terms because they want to learn how to be like real hipsters from Brooklyn, right?

donuts, burned.

If you love to exercise because you also love to eat yummy tasty treats, then you'll love this new series of ads from Gold's Gym. It's all about the burn.

track your user's eyes

You've seen those fancy eye tracking reports before, showing how people look at things online, and where their eyes go on a page.

Now you can do eye tracking for your own advertising or website, with EyeTrackShop. Send them your stuff, and you get the eye tracking results back in 48 hours.

See how it works in the demo above, where they prove once and for all that people will focus their eyes on a hot butt if you put one in your ad.

students really said this

Send this one to your teacher friends. A Tumblr devoted to collecting things that actual students wrote in actual classes and handed in to actual teachers.

Our future is in their hands. Everything's going to be ok.

angry birds music made cool

Maybe you know Pomplamoose from the ridiculously overplayed Christmas commercial they did for Hyundai. Or maybe you know them because you're the original Brooklyn hipster, and discovered them before anyone else ever knew about them, or thought of them as cool.

However you know them, you will now know them as the band that covered the Angry Birds theme song like no one else can.

renegade street art painting mega machine

There's an energy drink in New Zealand called V. They created a pretty awesome kick ass truck that's outfitted with a kabillion paintball guns - and they use it for good instead of evil.

If you did this in NYC or Boston, you'd certainly be living in Guantanamo right now.

people and their fridges

You can tell a lot about a person by looking in their fridge. That's what photographer Stephanie Rouge proves in her series of portraits of people. And the insides of the refrigerators.

Gorgeous. This will make you want to go grocery shopping. From @thefoxisblack

bet your facebook account for fun and prizes

Would you risk your Facebook account in a game of Russian roulette, for a chance to win some sweepstakes prizes? Russian Standard Vodka is giving you the opportunity. Hand over your credentials, and then cross your fingers.

animated gif building

Here's a store front that was was painted over and over and over again, just so that you could watch it transform in time lapse - and in an animated GIF.

The video clip above will give you an idea on how much work is involved in the project, that can only be viewed in it's entirety online. Because street art is created more for an online audience than a street audience, nowadays. See the animated GIF here. From @khyal

Chuck Taylors Rock

What's better than a good 'ole pair of Converse All Stars? 480 of them that move when you interact with them. This super cool installation can be seen for real in a few Berlin and Paris stores, but these fun videos are the next best thing.

have a tiny attention span?

Not to worry, Obtract, a new app by interactive designer Eric St. Onge, can help. This nifty little desktop app lets you choose which applications and websites are productive and which are distractions, then monitors your usage to help keep you on track.

Been productive for a long time span? You're rewarded with an automatic timed distraction (oh, like Facebook, Tumblr, and lolcats). But play around too much, and the app forces you to get back to work.

Not ready to go back to work yet? Well, the app will let you play longer, but first you have to solve a maze to ensure you're consciously making the decision to stay distracted. The more you want to be distracted, the harder the maze. So the question becomes, how bad do you really want to watch 30 videos of puppies, paper, and bubbles making babies laugh?

using qr, mobile and print together

Now here's a great use for a QR code.

Reporters Without Borders has a terrific campaign that interacts with the reader and their phone. Scan a QR code, and then place your phone on the ad - and the resulting program becomes a part of the ad.

In this execution, the phone plays a video that becomes the voice of leaders featured in the ad, who might not be projecting the same (or any) voice relevant to the cause. Beautiful.

branded music visualization

Land Rover just produced a music visualization plug-in that works with Windows computers (??) for Windows Media Player.

This is an awesome concept that's ripe again, and ready for a world outside of Windows...

history of the remix

The remix is now a part of our brand and marketing culture. Everything we've done seems derivative of something else, or is eventually rep-purposed into something entirely new, and now.

Here's a fun documentary on the history, relevance and future of the remix. Remix it, if you can.

meet the $25 computer

What if you could make a computer for $25? What could you do with it? Who could benefit from it?

It turns out that the Raspberry Pi Foundation has been up to exactly that - and they've developed a workable computer that lives on a USB drive. Just hook it to a keyboard, mouse and monitor, and go.

Wow. Soon, we'll be giving away computers just for liking us on Facebook. From waxy.