Friday, August 28, 2009

Blocked Internet Article

Those who know me know how frustrated I get with blocked internet access at work. I've even contemplated getting one of those internet anywhere USB things, but $60 a month or more just isn't worth it. I read this Slate article on Corporate IT Depts with great interest. I've been lucky, or unlucky, enough to have jobs where they do not take up the entire 8 hour day, so unhindered internet access is important to me. The below quote was particularly vindicating to me. 
Indeed, there's no empirical evidence that unfettered access to the Internet turns people into slackers at work. The research shows just the opposite. Brent Corker, a professor of marketing at the University of Melbourne, recently tested how two sets of workers—one group that was blocked from using the Web and another that had free access—perform various tasks. Corker found that those who could use the Web were 9 percent more productive than those who couldn't. Why? Because we aren't robots; people with Web access took short breaks to look online while doing their work, and the distractions kept them sharper than the folks who had no choice but to keep on task.
The article goes on to discuss Results Only Work Environments and how what you get done is more important than how long you spend at work. With all our time saving technology, you would think that the 40 hour work week would be a thing of the past. 

Instead of working less to make the same amount of stuff we have to work more to make more stuff then go out and buy more stuff than we need to justify all the time we waste at work making all kinds of stuff we don't need. 

Monday, August 24, 2009

Costs of Calories

A study in theAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a dollar could buy 1,200 calories of potato chips or 875 calories of soda but just 250 calories of vegetables or 170 calories of fresh fruit. 

From a Time magazine article on food.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

AM Session

Early morning blunt slides by Neal Wood

Friday, August 21, 2009

Collection

I posted this over at MostlySkateboarding but figured some of you guys might have missed it. My parents brought all my old skate videos and magazines up to my new house and I was stoked to finally have them with me. Click on the images to see them really big. While going through my old magazines I found the first and only two issues of Journal, the short lived east coast magazine and a couple of old Alien Workshop zines. Also on the shelf are some old zines from old friend and Berrics contributor Dallas Clayton and others.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Manufactured Landscapes Opening


This is the opening of Manufactured Landscapes and it is awesome. I remember seeing this at Sundance and being blown away. You probably already know about Edward Burtynsky but if not, check him out. Via: Triumph of Bullshit.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Food and Eating

Michael Pollan has an article/movie review in the New York Times Magazine about, among other things, how Americans spend more time watching cooking shows than they do cooking. There are lots of interesting statistics most striking to me was the one in the quote below.
"Already today, 80 percent of the cost of food eaten in the home goes to someone other than a farmer, which is to say to industrial cooking and packaging and marketing."
Food for thought...