One day after the Yes Men made a joke announcement that ExxonMobil plans to turn billions of climate-change victims into a brand-new fuel called Vivoleum, the Yes Men’s upstream internet service provider shut down Vivoleum.com, the Yes Men’s spoof website, and cut off the Yes Men’s email service, in reaction to a complaint whose source they will not identify. The provider, Broadview Networks, also made the Yes Men remove all mention of Exxon from TheYesMen.org before they’d restore the Yes Men’s email service.
The Yes Men assume the complainant was Exxon. “Since parody is protected under US law, Exxon must think that people seeing the site will think Vivoleum’s a real Exxon product, not just a parody,” said Yes Man Mike Bonanno. “Exxon’s policies do already contribute to 150,000 climate-change related deaths each year,” added Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum. “So maybe it really is credible. What a resource!”
Dave, Josh and Jeff debate the best pizza in New York (Dave and Jeff recommend Pizza Suprema at (212) 594-8939), running the New York Web Standards Meetup Group, new projects, and the joy of tastyapps.com. Plus learn about Jeffrey’s love of his new Flappy and the joys of Morris Dancing in this 8th podcast from the Creative Bunker in NYC.
At the Creative Bunker in NYC, we occasionally receive a bit of spam-enhanced snail mail that tickles our funny shins to a higher degree than Josh’s (frequently made-up on the spot) silly tales.
I’m not necessarily a long-term fan of the “Hippy” (though I would have likely been one back in the 60’s primarily because of my profound love of Patchouli and hopping about), but in this latest piece of poorly designed rubbish that came across my desk, the “Hippy” in question is not really a participant in the subgroup of the counterculture that began in the United States during the early 1960’s at all – but likely the owner of this delivery service wearing a Rastafari Crown with fake dreadlocks flashing a half-assed peace sign.
As a result, we will never use this delivery service, not based entirely on the fact that we appreciate good design as opposed to this nonsense, but because we don’t like seeing the “Hippy” getting any more attention for being a dumb-ass than the Gieco Cavemen or Potsie from Happy Days.
Just because you have a beard and a dream, and your Uncle Cleatus claims he can write some “bad-ass” copy doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it… Hippy Delivery Man.
At last night’s NYC Web Standards Meetup, Jay asked if anyone knew why certain Google search results display a “plus button” after the description that expands on click to show an embedded Google Map. He also wanted to know how he could make this behavior happen for a client. Unfortunately, no one in the room could answer. We examined the source code, speculated, triangulated, and triaged, but to no avail. When we left last night, the mystery hung heavy on us all and it was vowed that the solution would be found.
And it has—Google Maps Local Business Center. “Use the Local Business Center to create your free listing. When potential customers search Maps for local information, they’ll find your business: your address, hours of operation, even photos of your storefront or products. It’s easy, free, and you don’t need a website of your own.”
At the Creative Bunker in NYC, we occasionally receive a bit of spam-enhanced snail mail that tickles our funny shins to a higher degree than Josh’s (frequently made-up on the spot) silly tales.
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