friday lost and found: digital distractions edition
12/08/2011
Infographic master David McCandless, he of Information is Beautiful fame, presents “The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions,” an infogrpahic that attempts to dissect which distractions take presedence his wandering mind. The work now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art.
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In the vein of digital distractions, Facebook has released a stand-alone app for it’s Messenger service in the latest bid to crush the living soul out of the scourge known as SMS (or text messages to the uninitiated). The messenger app essentially gives users a shortcut to Facebook’s messenger function and allows them to set up group chats. Carriers better sock away some of that SMS coin they’re making now, because the number of messaging services on the market are going to make that “service” irrelevant pretty quickly.
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Digital distraction of the moment: IEEE Spectrum: Inside Technology is like Wired without all the bullshit. Right now the site features articles on Army robots, medical tattoos and dimwitted nanotech terrorists who don’t know what nanotech is. Be sure to check out th geek Life column to find onto how to make your own Arcade game.
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Good news on the environment front: The Energy Information Administration has found that electricity generated from coal is down 6 percent! Bad news: It’s being replaced by the only slightly less dirty natural gas. Worse news: The EIA predicts electricity from coal will jump 25 percent in the next twenty years.
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Finally today, there’s some really good news for Major League Soccer. The league has signed a three-year deal with NBC Universal to bring its games to the Versus network, which will soon be renamed the NBC Sports Network. Versus will air 38 regular season MLS matches, three playoff matches and two US National Team matches, while the NBC Network mothership will air two regular season matches, two playoff matches and two national team matches. The new contract will essentially replace the matches currently found on Fox Soccer Channel. ESPN will continue to show its “MLS Game of the Week” package of MLS matches. The deal instantly doubles the exposure for MLS on cable, going from 40 million households on FSC to 80 million on the NBC Sports.
Also, the reborn Freddy Adu — Freddy 2.0 let’s call him — is being reunited with his first professional coach Piotr Nowak. Adu will sign for Philadelphia Union today. I’m psyched for Freddy. I’ve always appreciated his play and felt like the expectations put on his shoulder were too great. Seeing Freddy 2.0 emerge in the Gold Cup was one of the few bright spots for the US and I’m rooting for him in Philly — except when he plays DC United.
