LINK Twitter Is What You Make It - NYTimes.com »
"Oh, and one more tip: when you’re trying to get real work done, it’s also O.K. to close Twitter. It may be powerful, useful, addictive and fascinating — but in the end, it’s still an Internet time drain."

LINK iPhone time tracking and timesheet application : Harvest »
A new 3rd party iPhone app to go with your Harvest account, the Harvest Time Tracker.

LINK Color Scheme Designer »
Useful

I’ve been on a documentary kick lately. Here are two films I highly anticipate in ‘09.

We Live in Public

This film received the Grand Jury Price in U.S. Documentary in 2009 Sundance Festival. It chronicles the artistic experiments of Josh Harris who found success in the late 90s as an Internet pioneer. The experiments don’t go so well, but it documents the raw human desire for some to be famous using technology as an enabler.

Encounters at the End of the World

A Werner Herzog film on the people who live and work in Antarctica. The end of the world.
Update: Apparently, this movie is already out. I’ve queued it up on the ol’ Netflix. »

LINK AnnualCreditReport.com »
"the ONLY authorized online source for you to get a free credit report under federal law. You can get a free report from each of the three national credit reporting companies every 12 months. Some other sites claim to offer "free" credit reports, but may charge you for another product if you accept a "free" report."

Back in December, some friends and I stopped off at an open-air market in Thailand to scout out the local eats. I shot some footage with the very convenient Mino HD and edited them together into this vingnette. »

LINK Israel and Gaza - The Big Picture »
Today, I stumbled across the Boston Globe’s Big Picture series on the Israel/Palenstine conflict. It reminded me of something.

In the 2004 documentary Control Room, a media spokesperson for the U.S. military reacted profoundly to graphic images of American soldiers killed in action during the Iraq war. He has seen countless footages of injured or dead Iraqis, but it was the first time he was seeing footage of American soldiers in distress. Aired by the Al Jazeera network, the footages of American POWs and KIAs naturally stirred outrage within the Americans. However, for the military spokesperson, it was the first time he could fully relate to how the Arab people felt when they saw the many images of their own people killed by American artillery.

When you see images of your own people (whether that means people from your country, your state, your city, etc.) attacked, injured, or dead, there is no controlling the emotions that come with the experience. Unsurprisingly, the media then has powerful effects on how people react to events; what is shown and what isn’t shown ultimately determines the public opinion.

LINK Jennifer 8. Lee hunts for General Tso »
A NY TImes writer's humorous take on the origins of Chinese-American food. (video)

The NY Times ran a story on a group known as Dating a Banker Anonymous. The story is good, but their blog entries are even better:

Thanks to the recession, I now have a completely devoted BF, which is exactly what I wanted. So I should be happy, right? Wrong. I’m bored and can’t stop thinking about my perpetually unattainable Euro ex-boyfriend who is recession proof courtesy of an offshore trust account. To be honest, I’m only with my BF because I just don’t have the heart to change my facebook status from “in a relationship” to “I ain’t saying I’m a gold digger, but I ain’t messin’ with no broke banker.”

dabagirls.com »

LINK The Places We Live (Magnum) »
An amazing photo (interactive) essay on slums of the world.

LINK Films by the National Film Board of Canada »
What a great resource—where's America's equivalent of the NFB!

LINK The Old Odd Fellows Hall »
This intriguing NY Times article chronicles the history of the building where Iridesco HQ is currently located in Manhattan.

Sidenote: this article was published just days after 9/11 in 2001, during which time this building and its surrounding neighborhood was still off-limits to the general public.

Here’s a great shot of our office building:

Photo by Shawn.

Quickly becoming a favorite here at the Watercooler (a few of us have a thing for bicycles if you haven’t noticed), Rivendell Bicycle’s frank and transparent write-up of the company’s history puts a smile on our faces:

I was 40, and started Rivendell with $89,000, a mix of retirement money, savings, loans, and money raised by selling stock to friends.

We’ve been profitable two of the past twelve years, but cash flow is neutral. Sales are about $2.2 million dollars per year. We’re just breaking even, there are no top-heavy salaries, and we fret a lot during slow weeks (and months). I do, at least.

If you’d like to know more, just ask. It’s not a secret business we have here. -Grant

(hat tip to Ken for pointing it out) »

This post was originally published in the Iridesco Watercooler.

This Is Where We Live – an amazing stop-motion film produced by Press Books (the literary division of HarperCollins).  Great to see the publishing world doing something a little different to reach their audience.  If you enjoyed that, these behind-the-scenes time-lapse videos are worth a look!

(via wejetset)

This post was originally published in the Iridesco Watercooler.

As seen in Tokyo, these underground parking gates for bicycles are effective and simple.  Swipe a simple card and in a few seconds, the gate opens and is ready to receive your bike.  The bike then travels underground for storage and the gate is ready to help the next person.  When you’re ready to retrieve your bike later, just swipe your card and it’s brought up automatically in seconds. (see also: video)

Not having a safe place to store their bike is one of the most cited reasons by commuters for not pedaling their way into work.  I’m hopeful one day we’ll see these around town, despite all that’s already going on below the pavement. (thx to Karen for the tip) »

This post was originally published in the Iridesco Watercooler.

LINK Zoomdoggle: More fun than work! »
A blog about fun for people who like fun. By Jake who works just a few blocks up from us.