I must admit there is a lot going on there. Maybe FIFA should back off of the requirements and let the artists be artists.

Cool, but I don’t think I could use them.

Only Merlin Mann could find this.

He quit over the whole CBS interfering in CNet editorial decisions with the CES awards. At least there is one honest person at CNet — too bad he’s gone.

Have you ever forgotten a password? We all have. That’s why AgileBits built 1Password to keep your website logins, identity, credit cards, and other sensitive information safe but useful on-the-go.

From the new, full-featured Web Mode browser with AutoFill to Favorites and iCloud sync, 1Password 4 for iOS is a top-to-bottom rebuild that puts more security and convenience than ever before in the palm of your hand. Start using strong passwords with 1Password, available now for iPhone and iPad in the App Store.

I use 1Password on my Mac and iOS devices. It’s a must-have utility.

A catalog of 64 famed guitars culled from over 75 years of rock ‘n’ roll history.

Great chart.

Benedict Evans provides a couple of charts comparing Apple’s guidance and results.

Zildjian Digital Vault features 34 classic crashes, splashes, rides, chinas and hihats hand-selected by Zildjian’s master cymbal tester Paul Francis. Recorded in intricate detail by sampling guru John Emrich, the sounds are captured with crisp direct mics and lush stereo overhead and room mic sets. Each cymbal is recorded at multiple velocities while being struck by sticks, brushes and mallets.

Great stuff.

Emily Willingham, SciLogs:

After the 20th cancer-related headline promising a “cure just around the corner,” readers just don’t believe the stories any more. For them, the words “breakthrough” and “cure” have lost meaning. And for good reason.

What’s the harm, you might ask, in a headline that perhaps overstates the case or a lede that does the same, with the balance debuting somewhere around the 10th paragraph? The harm can be a two-way street. Lose reader trust, and you will, I’m assuming, lose your readers.

Willingham’s comments don’t just apply to science blogging and reporting, of course. We see the same thing in the tech blogosphere every day.

Chris Mooney, Mother Jones:

In other words, it appeared that pushing people’s emotional buttons, through derogatory comments, made them double down on their preexisting beliefs.

Mooney cites a recent study from George Mason University that looked at how comment trolls affected participants’ perception of perceived risks with nanotech. The result was interesting.

Jason Fried:

The only answers that matter are dollars spent. People answer when they pay for something. That’s the only answer that really matters.

So true.

I wish more people would adhere to these simple rules.

[Via Coudal]

Nick Bilton:

What struck me about our brief conversation wasn’t that Mr. Cook was talking about two teensy buttons — this is Apple, after all — but that he never once mentioned the technology in the iPad Mini. Instead, he talked about one thing: design.

In all of the meetings I’ve had with Apple executives over the years, design is always one of the first things they talk about. There is an overwhelming sense of pride from everyone at Apple about the products they make.

Very well done.

I enjoyed reading this.

Luckily the store wasn’t packed full of people at the time.

If you can’t beat them…

The New Yorker:

In the January 7th issue of the magazine, Adam Green profiles the pickpocket Apollo Robbins. In this video, Apollo demonstrates some of his tricks and techniques, using Green as his victim.

Amazing to see Robbins work. You can see more of his pickpocketing on Youtube.

io9:

Since June 2010, Jonason Pauley and Jesse Perrotta have been filming a shot-for-shot live-action remake of Pixar’s Toy Story, using human actors as the human characters and real toys for Woody and the gang (and the original Toy Story audio track). The toys move with a combination of stop-motion photography and good old-fashioned puppet strings and wires.

Do yo have far too much time on your hands? Then you might want to do what these guys did!

Think the Honey Badger is badass? It’s got competition in the southern grasshopper mouse.

Great photos.

Fortune:

Two years ago, Brown attempted to teach Watson the Urban Dictionary. The popular website contains definitions for terms ranging from Internet abbreviations like OMG, short for “Oh, my God,” to slang such as “hot mess.”

But Watson couldn’t distinguish between polite language and profanity — which the Urban Dictionary is full of. Watson picked up some bad habits from reading Wikipedia as well. In tests it even used the word “bullshit” in an answer to a researcher’s query.

Can you imagine how freaked out that guy was when Watson responded with that?

Many thanks to Bold Poker for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week.

Bold Poker replaces your deck of cards with iPhones and has been praised by The Loop, Daring Fireball, and Mashable.

Try out Bold Poker at your next poker game. They’ll buy you a Heineken (i.e. give you a full refund) if the app doesn’t change your Texas hold’em home game for the better.

In every product category from 3-D printers to biosensors, exuberant organic forms have been replaced with hard-edged alternatives.

While Apple doesn’t exhibit at CES, they appear to be responsible for this trend. Since the original iMac, they’ve slowly transitioned their products from approachable plastic to cool metal and glass, with each generation becoming less curvy and colorful.

Apple doesn’t need to be at CES to still exert a strong influence there.

Petitions.whitehouse.gov is an official way that anyone with a grievance can try to lobby public support for their cause directly with the White House, and if they garner enough signatures, the administration will find the right person to consider the question and answer it.

Most of the time it’s used for serious stuff – to improve medical device safety, or restore federal recognition of a native American tribe, for example.

Sometimes it’s used for funny stuff, like the time more than 34,000 people petitioned the White House to build a Death Star.

That number of signatures put that petition over the threshold that elicits serious consideration by the administration, so the White House recruited Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget, to draft a response. The response, entitled This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For, is nothing short of awesome. I’m not going to ruin it here – just check it out.

Hayley Tsukayama for the Washington Post:

So on Friday, the ESA, game developers, academics and retailers met with Vice President Biden to have a deeper conversation. And — perhaps sensing their apprehension — Biden told the attendees that he came in “with no judgment” about how their products fit into the conversation about gun violence and said he was“anxious” to see what input they could provide.

I’m surprised the gaming industry agreed to this.

Om Malik talks about why he likes some products over others.