The Atlantic’s In Focus has posted 45 pictures from the attack on Pearl Harbor which directly thrust the US into World War II 71 years ago, today.
Lots of people are talking about this post from The Verge where Tom Warren suggests Microsoft drop the Windows brand and name because the stigma attached to it is too great. And I agree, the stigma against Windows is rather large. But I don’t think dropping the name will solve any problem with Microsoft. You can call their OS anything – Windows, Surface OS, Developers, Developers, Developers OS, or anything else and it still will suffer from the same issues.
Remember the Zune? No? You’re better off. The Kin? Was that even a thing?
Those devices didn’t have Windows in the brand. And like the opposite of Midas, everything Microsoft touches turns to lead. Many have speculated why – bureaucracy, legacy staff, cash cow products making them lazy, poor vision, poor execution, you name it. There isn’t a single cause (other than Balmer) that one can point to for Microsoft’s poor perception with consumers. Fixing it doesn’t go away with a name. In fact, you can argue that if a name can change people’s perception, they should change the name ‘Microsoft’ to something else. Because it’s not just Windows that’s the problem.
The Surface isn’t getting good reviews. Internet Explorer doesn’t get much good press (if at all which is still a bad thing). As I mentioned earlier, the Zune and the Kin were also failures. The only consumer product that has done well is the X-Box and, maybe, their mice (do they still make keyboards and mice?).
Whatever problems Windows has, Microsoft has. The lack of excitement, cutting edge design, or build quality is emblematic of the company itself – it’s very being – and not what people call the things they produce.
Peanut butter, the everyman staple, which contains neither butter nor nuts (peanuts are legumes), originated as a health food of the upper classes. First created for sanitariums like John Harvey Kellogg’s Western Health Reform Institute, it satisfied the need for a protein-rich food that did not have to be chewed. Wealthy guests at those institutions popularized it among the well-heeled. But there were economic pressures to expand peanut-butter consumption more democratically. Once the boll weevil devastated cotton cultivation at the turn of the century, Southern farmers were encouraged by George Washington Carver and others to adopt the peanut as a replacement crop. A burgeoning market for peanut butter substantially increased demand for their harvests. While both Kellogg and Carver have been touted as “the father of peanut butter,” Krampner makes a case for George Bayle, a St. Louis businessman who, in 1894, became the first to produce and sell it as a snack food. Peanut butter was featured in the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis and soon thereafter Beech-Nut and Heinz introduced it nationally. By 1907, thirty-four million pounds of peanut butter were produced, up from two million in 1899.
I love peanut butter. Love, love, love, love it! Plain, with jelly, on bread, out of the jar, smothering a stick of celery, or (if necessary) on the tip of my finger, I can’t have enough of it. So, of course, I was interested in this quick article on the book, Creamy and Crunchy by The New Yorker. I feel bad for those who can’t have it.
Still, the history of food – especially in the late 19th to 20th centuries – has fascinated me for years. Understanding how food technology has affected our farms, homes, population, wars, and work is key to knowing what happens next as a species. And peanut butter is no exception. In fact, peanut butter like hybrids are considered key to the future of growing nations with extensive malnutrition.
Great documentary about a passionate Porsche fan, Magnus Walker, who fell in love with the 911 when his father took him to an auto show when he was 10 years old. 20 years later, he restores and customizes them and owns one 911 for every year between 1964 to 1972.
As one car lover to another, I have a lot of respect for him. For an uneducated man, he has a very distinct genus about him. I’m actually in awe of his excitement and brilliance for his work. And from someone whose looks most certainly deceive.
via Devour
I love the commentary on these Instagram pics of people shopping at Apple’s retail stores.
I think the picture of Jesus is my favorite.