Photo by Pete Forde
Month: May 2008
Dutch blogger George Maschke reminds us that although our gas prices may seem high here in North America (it’s about CDN$1.23 / litre in Accordion City) — high enough that Republican presidential candidate John McCain has suggested a gas tax holiday — they’d be considered a king-sized bargain in the Netherlands. He took this photo of the price sign at his neighbourhood gas station in The Hague on Saturday, May 10th; note that they’re in Euro per litre:
Photo by George Maschke.
George did a little math and converted the Dutch prices so that they’d be expressed in U.S. dollars per gallon; I simply did the Euro-to-Canadian dollar conversions to get the prices in terms of Canadian dollars per litre. The results of our calculations appear in the table below:
| Gasoline grade | Dutch price | Dutch price in Canadian dollars per litre | Dutch price in American dollars per gallon |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | €1.559 / litre | CDN$2.43 / litre | US$9.14 / gallon |
| Premium | €1.673 / litre | CDN$2.60 / litre | US$9.81 / gallon |
| Diesel | €1.359 / litre | CDN$2.11 / litre | US$7.96 / gallon |
No wonder there’s such a strong bicycle culture in the Netherlands! (Yes, their urban geography helps too.)
Keep these Dutch prices in mind should the predictions of gas hitting CDN$1.50 per litre this summer come true.
The Director of Communications corrects me, and I apologize: the TTC used their safety poster design (shown below with NYC’s MTA safety poster) with the MTA’s permission.
The question remains: did they have to mimic it so closely? You might as well put up a sign that says: “Toronto: We’re too dumb to come up with our own identity, so we’ll settle for being the dollar store version of New York City.”
[This was also posted to Global Nerdy.]
Local tech evangelist David Crow points to The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need. Unlike What Color is Your Parachute? or Who Moved My Cheese?, Johnny Bunko is in manga form — that’s right, it’s a Japanese-style comic book.
An unusual book needs an unusual promo, and Johnny Bunko is no exception — it’s got a trailer!
In a review at Amazon, Donald Mitchell provides a quick summary of the book:
Most career writers when they want to simplify a message use a fable, with a few illustrations that show the key perspectives. The fable is clearly secondary to the details.
In The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, the story is more interesting than the advice. Having read a lot of Mr. Pink’s writing, I thought I knew what he would probably advise. But I didn’t realize that he would make the story so interesting, and that the manga format would add so much power to the story telling. Nice work!
What’s the advice? Let me rephrase to make it clearer to you:
- Don’t be rigid about planning out each step well in advance . . . it’s not possible to do.
- Build on what you’re good at (Peter Drucker originated that one) and avoid relying on what you aren’t good at.
- Focus on what you can do for others (start with the boss) rather than what’s in it for you (you can read more about this in How to Be a Star at Work).
- Keep at it. Practice makes perfect.
- Take on big challenges and learn from them.
- Make a difference.
I think I’ll pick up this book — it’s pretty cheap, and I’d like to see how Daniel Pink uses the manga format to advantage.
More Advice from Daniel Pink
Here are some video clips featuring Daniel Pink some pretty interesting giving career advice…
Abundance, Asia and Automation
Pink says that the really useful skills are those that are hard to outsource, hard to automate and that serves a need that goes beyond functional. And those skills are the right-brain ones — the ones often derided as “soft skills”.
Help! My Resume Has Too Many Jobs!
Don’t worry if your resume looks like it has too many jobs on it — the world of work today doesn’t give out prizes for lifetime service. These days, it’s about whether you can solve their problems.
Exercise Creativity at Your Job
The old adage applies: “It’s often better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” And from my own experience, I can tell you that he’s right.
Choosing a Major
Follow your interests — don’t choose a major based on what kind of job you think you’ll get after you graduate. The job market is likely to change! Follow your passion instead. You should also work on your “high concept” and “high touch” skills.
It’s not plagiarism; it’s just lameness. Be sure to read the “Updates” sections at the end for details.
Take a look at these suspiciously similar subway safety posters. The one on the left is from the Toronto Transit Commission, the one on the right is by New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority:
Click the photo to see a larger version.
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele and Vidiot.
My question is: who plagiarized whom? Given the New York envy that a lot of city planners, developers and assorted people running Accordion City seem to have, coupled with the unoriginality of the ad campaigns to promote the city, I’d bet that the TTC did it. I’d love to be proven wrong, but this has all the hallmarks of our local brand of half-assery written all over it.
Update 1:
“senior”, a commenter, points out that:
If you read the gray text on the bottom left of the Toronto poster, you’ll see that it says something along the lines of “posters produced in co-operation with the MTA.”
While it’s honest, it’s still lame. We both agree that it’s pretty sad that the TTC couldn’t come up with their own safety poster ideas.
Update 2:
A response from Brad Ross, Director of Corporate Communciations for the TTC, with the downright Chuck-Norris-ballsiest first sentence I’ve seen in a comment on this blog in a good long time:
You are wrong.
The Toronto Transit Commission requested, and received, permission from the MTA to use this creative concept. Transit properties across North America often share “creative” when communicating safety messages to their customers.
If you look closely, you’ll see a line that reads, “Concept and design R Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York.”
Constructive criticism of the TTC is welcome, but alleging plagiarism without first checking the facts is simply unfair.
Regards,
Brad Ross
Director – Corporate Communications
Toronto Transit Commission
Hello, Mr. Ross!
Firstly, please allow me to apologize for calling “Plagiarism!”. I couldn’t read the text at the bottom of the photo and assumed it was graphic design plagiarism, which happens quite often.
I updated my blog to correct that as soon as I find out. That’s the beauty of this medium: its ability to adapt as new information comes in or as dictated by circumstances. It’s an ability I hope the TTC will someday acquire.
I think that there are ways to get the share creative without being so stultifyingly, blandly, boringly, homogenous. The MTA’s poster reflects its unified design identity right down to its typeface. The only thing that’s uniquely “Toronto” about the TTC’s poster is the photo — the rest of the poster, right down to the layout comes off as being a lackluster copy of the original. What’s partly to blame is the lack of a unified graphic identity for the TTC, an organization whose communication skills are so poor that its best website and merchandise are fan-made, not official.
I’m certain that you could’ve gone with the general creative concept for the safety poster and done something a little original.
Categories
Chop Suey Specs
I should let Angry Asian Man know about this one — a pair of joke glasses in the same racist spirit as “Commander Riker” in this poster:
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
Look closely at the package: it says “Made in Hong Kong”. Yowch.
Categories
“London Underground”
I should’ve posted this video during the recent (and blessedly short-lived) transit strike here in Accordion City, but I remembered it just now. It’s London Underground, a musical rant about Jollie Olde London’s subway system, performed by the team of Adam Kay and Suman Biswas, known as Amateur Transplants. Be advised, it’s pretty sweary:
Here are the lyrics:
Some people might like to get a train to work
Or drive in in a Beemer or a Merc,
Some guys like to travel in by bus,
But I can’t be bothered with the fuss today
I’m going to take my bike,
Coz once again the Tube’s on strike.
The greedy bastards want extra pay
for sitting on their arse all day
even though they earn 30K.
So I’m standing here in the pouring rain,
Where the fuck’s my fucking train?London Underground
London Underground
They’re all lazy fucking useless cunts
London Underground
London Underground
They’re all greedy cunts I want to shoot them all with a rifle.All they say is “Please mind the doors”,
and they learned that on the two day course,
This job could be done by a four year old.
They just leave us freezing in the cold.
What you smell is what you get
Burger King and piss and sweat
You roast to death in the boiling heat,
With tourists treading on your feet
and chewing gum on every seat,
so don’t tell me to “Mind the gap”
I want my fucking money back.London Underground
London Underground
They’re all lazy fucking useless cunts
London Underground
London Underground
They’re all greedy cunts I want to shoot them all with a rifle
La la la la
La la la laThe floors are sticky and the seats are damp,
Every platform has a fucking tramp,
But the drivers get the day off when we’re all late for work again,London Underground
London Underground
Wah-wah-wankers! They’re all wankers!
London Underground
London UndergroundTake your Oyster Card, and shove it up your arsehole.
If the TTC go on strike again, I’ll write and record a Toronto version.
Here are Amateur Transplants performing London Underground live. I love how in this version they’ve replaced the line “chewing gum on every seat” with “nailbombs on every seat”:
If the Tune Sounds Familiar…
If London Underground gave you a certain feeling of musical deja vu, that’s because Adam and Suman borrowed the tune from Going Underground by legendary late-70’s/early-80’s Brit band The Jam. This tune as well as another hit by the Jam, A Town Called Malice, are part of the soundtrack of my youth.
Here’s the video for Going Underground: