You Just Haven’t Tried Hard Enough

The case against extending unemployment benefits essentially boils down to two arguments. First, the economy has improved, so the unemployed should no longer need extra time to find a new job. Second, extended benefits could lead job seekers either to not search as hard or to become choosier about the kind of job they will accept, ultimately delaying their return to the workforce.2

But the evidence doesn’t support either of those arguments. The economy has indeed improved, but not for the long-term unemployed, whose odds of finding a job are barely higher today than when the recession ended nearly five years ago. And the end of extended benefits hasn’t spurred the unemployed back to work; if anything, it has pushed them out of the labor force altogether.
Cutting Off Emergency Unemployment Benefits Hasn’t Pushed People Back to Work, FiveThirtyEight

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Career

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Jumpman

From Sports Illustrated:

A photographer is suing Nike in federal court, alleging that the sneaker company used his work to make its famous “Jumpman” logo of Michael Jordan’s silhouette.

Image taken from Brand New
It looks like the logo was derived from those photos to me.
Flashback: When I started this blog almost nine years ago, my third post compared the Air Jordan “Jumpman” logo with the Shaq “Dunkman” logo.

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Identity

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Weekly Exhaust Ep. 28 – I Don’t Know If I’ve Lost Any Jobs to the 3-Column Grid

This week Michael and Bryan are joined by special guest RJ Dugan. They discuss the graphic design profession, the value of great copywriters, lazy templated design pattern trends, using the Bootstrap framework, Flash banner ads, low-fi rock n roll, punk rock, f!#king disco, how unaffordable cities are, the Philly-to-NYC commute, digital dashboards in cars and pixellated Affleck c#$k.
Listen Now (and subscribe on iTunes)

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Podcast

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Battery Physics

The Verge reporting on Apple Watch battery life:

According the latest in a string of scoops from 9to5Mac, battery life has been a pressing concern for Apple throughout the development of the Apple Watch. And for the first time, “sources familiar with the Watch’s development” have provided some early figures on what consumers can expect when the device ships sometime this year. In short, Apple Watch will exhibit similar longevity to what we’ve seen from many Android Wear devices on the market today.
Shocker.
So Apple wasn’t able to alter battery physics and make a smart watch that lasts for 3 months?
They’re doomed.

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Technology

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So You Can Scribble Shit on the Screen

Today Microsoft announced (among other things like Windows 10) Surface Hub.
It’s a bigass TV that accepts multi-touch input.
Why is Microsoft and every other company who makes computers with stylii OBSESSED WITH CIRCLING SHIT ON THE SCREEN?!
From what I can tell over the years this is they only compelling reason to use a stylus. I just don’t get why scribbling notes and circling things is so damn compelling.

Update: More scribbling from their product videos:

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Human Experience

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Project Ara: Cool In Theory

Google’s Project Ara phone looks really cool and fun, but I doubt this phone will gain much traction in the mass consumer market. It’s way too complicated. The theory of a modular phone sounds awesome, but I think it would complicate most non-engineeers’ lives.

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Product

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Glassholes

The Onion slam dunks Google Glass:

Following the company’s announcement that it would discontinue public sales of the wearable technology, Google officials confirmed Monday that all unsold units of Google Glass would be donated to underprivileged assholes in Africa. “We are committed to positively impacting the lives of poverty-stricken smug pricks by distributing the surplus inventory of Google Glass to self-important fucks throughout sub-Saharan Africa,” a statement released by the company read in part, adding that the program will provide the optical head-mounted technology, as well as professional training sessions, to destitute communities of conceited dicks from Sierra Leone, to Somalia, to Botswana.
In actual news, Tony Fadell (created the Nest thermostat, was on the team that created the original iPod) will be in charge of Glass now. It will be interesting to see if he’s able to make lemonade out of that lemon.

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Product

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