Joe Fullman

Months ago the president of CNN/U.S., Jonathan Klein, offered a choice to Lou Dobbs, the channel’s most outspoken anchor. Mr. Dobbs could vent his opinions on radio and anchor an objective newscast on television, or he could leave CNN. Lou Dobbs, seen at a demonstration last year, had been asked to drop his conservative talk on TV or take his views to radio. For a time, Mr. Dobbs did tone down his TV rhetoric, but on Wednesday he made a more drastic decision: He chose opinion. - Joe Fullman

Congress recently approved $7.5 billion in aid to Pakistan for social and economic development. The bill incited controversy by requiring that the U.S. secretary of state report to lawmakers on whether Pakistan's civilian government keeps effective control over its military, because many observers accuse some in the Pakistani military of having tolerated or even aided Islamic extremists since the 1980s. - Joe Fullman

Turning from menace to ex-menace, digital technlogies and communications are bing transformed into further space fr codification. Creating new public spaces, limiting private ones, defining access policies by offering services and infrastructures. And, most of all, formalizing acceptable critical practices: from call centers to twitter: “stop speaking to operator 428! From now you can speak directly to our CEO! You have 140 characters for it! Think about it, he even answers….” - Joe Fullman

Fat Russian singer who looks like Newt Gingrich "Sings" Let it Be. I apologize profusely to all Beatles fans everywhere. - Joe Fullman

Interesting bar code design on Duane Reade cookie packaging. - Joe Fullman

The Japanese graphic arts firm d-barcode creates customized barcodes for clients who want to use them to grab customers’ attention. In Fast Company, Cliff Kuang writes: They’ve even begun selling their wares to anyone who wants to license them, starting at $1,500 for the design, and $200 a year for licensing. A custom or exclusive use code will run upwards of $4,000–but given that companies spend millions on designing a single package, why don’t we see more detailed thinking like this? Middle managers spend weeks arguing about kerning–it’d be better if they spent more time rethinking every inch of such highly prized real estate. - Joe Fullman

a guide to who looks down on who... - Joe Fullman

I listen to the Animal Collectives on a weekly basis. I think I ‘like’ them because they are differentiated from ‘traditional music’ and ‘modern indie music.’ When I listen to them, I exist on a higher plane of musical appreciation and consume products for ‘all the right reasons.’ For the past couple of months, the whole world has been awaiting the LEAK of the album Merriweather Post Pavillion. I was one of them. I was not awaiting the chance to purchase physical copy of the album, but instead I was a proud member of the LEAK HUNTING army for this album. Fortunately, a conceptual Santa slid down my chimney to deliver the best xmas gift of all–the leak was officially released by the Internet around Christmas of 2k8. - Joe Fullman

A less-than-satisfying experience with a recruiter for a social marketing/community manager opening at a $1 Billion+ retailer got me thinking this week about social media job descriptions and compensation this week. I also noticed that the blog post with My Social Media Job Description continues to be my most frequently viewed post. - Joe Fullman

Frieda Barkin Hennock served as a Federal Communications Commissioner from 1948 to 1955. Appointed by President Harry S. Truman, she was the first woman to serve as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In this position she was instrumental in securing the reservation of channels for non-commercial television stations, an FCC decision that enabled the development of the system of public broadcasting that exists in the United States today. - Joe Fullman

TODAY is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. During this time of reflection, it is common to emphasize the miraculous nature of the events that began that day: a dream seemed to come true, the Communist regimes collapsed like a house of cards, and the world suddenly changed in ways that had been inconceivable only a few months earlier. Who in Poland could ever have imagined free elections with Lech Walesa as president? - Joe Fullman

- I will visit Facebook at least once a day. - I will complete at least the two displayed suggestions on the homepage every time I visit. - I will “go literal” with the suggestions and “make Facebook better” for my friends. - I will not tell anyone that my actions were based on Facebook’s suggestions. - I will put complete faith in Facebook’s Plan. No matter how questionable its suggestions are, I will remember that Facebook knows a lot more about me and my social circle than I do. - Joe Fullman

You'd have thought a fur coat would have been the ultimate bear necessity. But not for the unfortunate Dolores who has lost all her body hair and has just been left with a few tufts around her head. Vets have been left baffled by the condition of the bespectacled bear, who lives at a zoo in Leipzig. - Joe Fullman

A SEVERED HORSE HEAD™ IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS Revenge is a dish best served stuffed: Another Kropserkel original! A custom severed horse head plush™ that is actually quite comfortable to sleep on, albeit just a tad on the south side of morbid. A great conversation piece for the wannabe wise guy who has everything, and whose wife won't let them own a revolver. For that matter, something for the authentic wise guy that has a job to do, but has a soft side for the well being of animals. A great home theatre accessory as a tough guy's Teddy bear, aimed squarely at those with a diabolically dark sense of humor. Fans of the mob's harsh brand of communication can now unite and rest comfortably, if not uneasily. Send someone a message they will never forget without the risk of facing prison time for it. - Joe Fullman

Peter Mandelson wants a "consumer revolution" in higher education, with students given far more information on the actual value of their course. The silent driver is that fees have to go up: so much of his document (Higher Ambitions – the Future of Universities in a Knowledge Economy) stresses the fact that the fat years are over, you don't need a degree to see what's going on. However, equally obviously, it would be a straight-talking fool (or non-politician) who, with an election looming, spelt out how much they were prepared to raise fees. - Joe Fullman

SYDNEY — What do you get when you take an iconic food product, change its ingredients and release it under a kitschy new name, prompting cries of outrage and a storm of media coverage: A marketing failure or a publicity coup? Skip to next paragraph Kraft Foods/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Kraft originally chose the name iSnack2.0 from almost 50,000 entries in a competition to name its new Vegemite product, but then bowed to public anger and agreed to call the product Cheesybite. The executives at Kraft Foods Australia, the company that makes Vegemite — the salty, gooey yeast paste beloved by millions of Australians — are still awaiting the answer to that question after a recent experiment with the country’s most recognized food product went awry. - Joe Fullman

passiveaggressivenotes' photostream - Joe Fullman

These days with Weezer it's all about the =w=TF, particularly when it comes to collaborations: yesterday we learned Rivers was doing a song with Adam Lambert while watched him pull Blair Waldorf on stage on Halloween at Hammerstein for "If You're Wondering If I Want You To (I Want You To)." As previously reported, the band's Spinner session ushers in a whole new round of fun, first and foremost via the soprano sax of Kenny G. Who knows if Kenny G or even Weezer is in on the joke at this point, but the performance itself, and watching The G walk out with his curls and start laying out the offensively inoffensive sax licks over "I'm Your Daddy," is a guaranteed smile -- particularly when he and Rivers lock eyes and grin on "this ain't improbable," which seems to have become a credo for latter day Weezer. - Joe Fullman

But not every American could get in on the act, even if he or she bought a TV. As of January 1, 1950, only ninety-eight television stations were on the air. Many cities had no television, and even entire states, including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Colorado, had no stations within their borders. In the face of tremendous demand for more TV, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had frozen the television licensing process in late 1948 to revise its plan for allocating stations. No new licenses would be issued until 1952. SO APPLIANCE DEALERS READ WITH interest a report in the November 1949 issue of Sylvania News about L. E. (“Ed”) Parsons, of Astoria, Oregon, and his new system for delivering television to areas outside the range of reliable reception. Five months later the readers of Popular Mechanics learned how Parsons was able to pick up a station 125 miles away on the far side of a 4,000-foot mountain range. - Joe Fullman

Through the use if business intelligence you will be able to answer the following critical questions: * What happened? * How many, how often, where? * Where exactly is the problem? * What actions are needed? * Why is this happening? * What if these trends continue? * What will happen next? - Joe Fullman

Cartoon from Married to the Sea that mocks steampunks- an easy but deserving target - Joe Fullman

Like many proper news organizations, we at Wired.com use the venerable Associated Press Stylebook as an arbiter to determine whether we write “one” or “1″ or whether it’s “Calif.” or “CA.” But the trouble with venerable is that it gets old and boring. So we were delighted to learn of a disruptive newcomer to the writing style game. And the best part is that it’s on Twitter. - Joe Fullman

A re-cut Trailer: Field of Dreams as if directed by Ingmar Bergman. 1st Place winner of 2009's NY AICE Camp Kuleshov (formerly Trailer Park). - Joe Fullman

apple brand pyramid from bbdo university - Joe Fullman

If you enjoy watching TV shows for free on Hulu, then today's news won't make you very happy. News Corp., one of the co-owners of the site, has confirmed the rumor that it intends to start charging fees at some point. New Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch is a big fan of pay-for-content experiments, so I'd imagine he's pushing for this model and eager to see it in action. At this point details are still sketchy, because they probably haven't been finalized yet. I'm not convinced that charging for Hulu is the best idea, but if it's determined to go that route, how should they do it? - Joe Fullman

Florida health officials are drawing up guidelines that recommend barring patients with incurable cancer, end-stage multiple sclerosis and other conditions from being admitted to hospitals if the state is overwhelmed by flu cases. The plan, which would guide Florida hospitals on how to ration scarce medical care during a severe flu outbreak, also calls for doctors to remove patients with poor prognoses from ventilators to treat those who have better chances of surviving. That decision would be made by the hospital. The flu causes severe respiratory illnesses in a small percentage of cases, and patients who need ventilators and are deprived of them could die without the breathing assistance the machines provide. - Joe Fullman

VATICAN CITY In an extraordinary bid to lure traditionalist Anglicans en masse, the Vatican said Tuesday that it would make it easier for Anglicans uncomfortable with their churchs acceptance of female priests and openly gay bishops to join the Roman Catholic Church while retaining many of their traditions. - Joe Fullman

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A 92-year-old woman with cocaine strapped to her body flew all the way from Brazil to Spain before police arrested her, in a wheelchair, at Madrid's airport. A Civil Guard spokeswoman says the 92-year old was apprehended at Madrid's Barajas Airport. They found 4.3 kilos, or nearly 9.5 pounds, of cocaine packets strapped to her legs and torso, and also arrested a 44-year-old female companion, who tried to escape on another plane, a Civil Guard spokeswoman told CNN Tuesday. - Joe Fullman