Author: Dan Dickinson

Categories
Puzzled Over

The Jumpty Dance

What do you get when you cross the freeform acrobatics of parkour, the rebellion of skateboarding, and the suspension of self-respect of most DDR freestyle routines?

You get jumping, or “jumpstyle”. And friends, it is not a crime.

I was inflicted with this plight by Chelsea Peretti. Not the plight of doing it, but the plight of not being able to look away from these magnificent videos.

One or two videos of this and you will have the same question I did. What is that catchy mix of gabba and hard house? It should be no surprise that it is yet another subdivision of electronic music, dubbed “jumpstyle” (ah ha!) or simply “jump”.

In a hotly contested Wikipedia entry, the dance associated with Jumpstyle is called Skiën:

Skiën means kicking one’s feet forward and backward on the bass-line, while the torso goes the opposite way (right foot forward, torso back), once in a while lifting one foot significantly higher than usual to indicate a break in the beat.

Skien is not to be confused with skanking, because skanking is done to ska and reggae, and this is done to electronic music. Don’t worry. It’s a common mistake.

This is not just a few kids screwing around. Oh no. This is a bone-fide craze.

* There are community sites.
* There are CDs. Jumping Is Not A Crime Vol. 1 hit the top 10 in both Belgium and the Netherlands. (Suspiciously, while jumping is not a crime, downloading it is a crime.)
* There are record labels.
* There are jump battles. Battles, people.
* There are parties, both in clubs and in homes.

This craze needs to come to NYC. Why? Because here, social dancing IS a crime.

Might as well jump, kids.

Categories
Found

My Pokemans. Let Me Show You Them.

My Pokemans. Let me show you them.

Many gamers – the sorts of who proudly label themselves as gamers – snicker when the subject of Pokémon comes up.

Those poor souls are missing out. For Pokémon is the same kind of hard-nosed, level grinding RPG that so many people remember fondly in their more formative years. While the trappings may be cartoon, and the mechanics simplified, it is a good time that can be had by all.

The US release of the first true DS Pokémon games, entitled *Diamond* and *Pearl* (Prince must be pleased), hits US stores tomorrow. Buttons has connections, and thus we are currently cranking away on our respective games. I have Pearl, Katie has Diamond.

Everyone with a DS should buy one of the two games.

My WFC friends code is **0430 4738 4617**. (You won’t get your Wifi code until you reach the fourth town, where the first Gym is.) If you’re someone I know, or would otherwise recognize the name of, *please* leave your code in the comments, over IM, or via email.

Let’s catch them all.

Categories
Found

The Rate Of Google

I subscribe to the [Official Google Blog](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/); it’s normally an interesting look into life at Google. But there’s been an odd pattern over the last week.

Notably:

Friday, 2:36 PM – “[The next step in Google advertising](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/next-step-in-google-advertising.html)”

> To that end, we are truly excited to announce our acquisition of DoubleClick. DoubleClick provides a suite of products that enables agencies, advertisers, and publishers to work efficiently, that will enable Google to extend our ad network and develop deeper relationships with our partners.

Monday, 5:33 AM – “[An agreement with Clear Channel Radio](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/agreement-with-clear-channel-radio.html)”

> Today’s announcement of a strategic multi-year agreement with Clear Channel Radio, the largest radio station group owner in the U.S, is an important milestone for us.

Tuesday, 12:01 PM – “[We’re expecting](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/were-expecting.html)”

> First of all, we want to welcome the team from Tonic Systems to Google. Tonic, which we’ve just acquired, is based in San Francisco and Melbourne, Australia.

Thursday, 8:10 PM – “[Collaborating with Marratech](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/collaborating-with-marratech.html)”

> As a company, we thrive on casual interactions and spontaneous collaboration. So we’re excited about acquiring Marratech’s video conferencing software, which will enable from-the-desktop participation for Googlers in videoconference meetings wherever there’s an Internet connection.

Three acquisitions and one multi-year agreement in one week.

If this rate continues – which I’m praying it won’t – Google will purchased 156 companies a year. (Are there even 156 companies worth buying a year?)

This is as they’re [destroying earnings predictions](http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/04/19/ap3633420.html), have nearly 12 billion dollars in the bank, and have a market cap of 146.86 billion as I write this.

I realize this number has no bearing on anything, but if you divide the amount of cash Google holds by the number of employees the company has (listed in the Forbes article as 12,238), you’re left with a ratio of $972,381 per employee.

Mind-boggling.