NJS[BLOG]

Not only is Audi not bringing us the newest A3 until model year 2013, they are now on the fence about whether to bring the Q3 (a 2012 in Europe) to the US until even later.  This dithering has already swayed me to the Volvo camp for the next lease (test driving this Thursday to be sure) but now they are letting US auto journalists like Autoblog drive the forbidden Q3?!

Audi, you are a cruel temptress.  (And I think you know that.)

[...] a modern economy requires “collective action”—it needs government to invest in infrastructure, education, and technology. The United States and the world have benefited greatly from government-sponsored research that led to the Internet, to advances in public health, and so on. But America has long suffered from an under-investment in infrastructure (look at the condition of our highways and bridges, our railroads and airports), in basic research, and in education at all levels.

In light of Pennsylvania’s genius decision to potentially slash funding for public higher education, the recent Vanity Fair article “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” was most apropos.

Well, isn’t this a lovely little car?  ”What is it?” I hear you asking.  Well, friends, this is Audi’s preview of the next A3.  As a sedan.

This would be about when the sound of a record scratch would be queued.

As many of you know, I really am a fan of the hatchback/small station wagon body style.  Thus is why I own the current A3.  So seeing this wickedly sharp-looking small sedan is causing me some concerns.  I like it just fine, don’t get me wrong, it’s just not really what I thought the next A3 was going to be about.

Judging by the comments on several North American auto sites, though, it definitely is what Audi needs the A3 to be if it wants to sell them like hotcakes here.  The US readers, especially, are falling over themselves to claim that they’ll be the first one to line up, cash in hand, when the car launches.  And that’s great!

But not without my hatch.  You can call this a “notchback” or a “four dour coupé” if you must, Audi, but it’s really a sedan and you know that.  ”It harkens back to the B5 series A4!” you have stated, too.  Which really only means the B8 series (current) A4 has gotten too big for its britches.

I get it.  I just don’t want it for myself.  Give me an A3 Avant, A3 Sportback, etc – just don’t leave us hanging.  It would be a shame to see Ford bringing a truly remarkable European hatchback to the States just as Audi takes theirs away.

On the positive side of things, I’m really digging the new interior:

We need more high-end hot hatches to change our perceptional relationship between size and value, or someday we’ll all be driving performance-chipped diesel pickups…

Over at Jalopnik, Mike Spinelli takes the Audi RS3 on a forbidden North American test drive and comes away with Ten Reasons America Needs the Audi RS3 Sportback.  I could add a dozen other hot hatch models to that list, half of which don’t even stray out of the VW empire!

I have been rather despondent over the transformation of the SciFi Channel into this abomination that is Syfy. It wasn’t so bad at first but then the cancelations began. Namely, the axing of Caprica which I moaned about earlier. Then SGU – a canceled Stargate series at that! Most recently it was the inclusion of increasingly ridiculous shows more akin to TLC (also a disappointment as a network lately). Take WCG Ultimate Gamer, the plethora of Ghost Hunters or WWE wrestling as examples.

My excitement, then, over the promo for Face Off is ludicrously boundless. A show that, while not strictly science fiction, at least features the world of making science fiction as it searches for the next great makeup artist. PLEASE DON’T SCREW THIS ONE UP, SYFY!

From the designer’s mind to the web, Autoblog gives us a run down on this traffic light concept from Thanva Tivawong.  With at least twelve of the bastards between me and my parking lot – just 2.6 miles away – I’m now on constant lookout for ways to maximize green-time and win at the white line.

What was it about the casting of Ghostbusters?  It seems all of the most eccentric people somehow made their way into the 1984 film.  We have Dan Akroyd serving up diamond filtered vodka in crystal skulls and ranting about UFOs and now Bill Murray giving a 1982 speech that sounds like something from the Unabomber:

I guess we know that the right actors were chosen, at the very least.  And that Bill Murray’s apparent befuddlement over the high tech world of Lost in Translation was authentic.

Now this is customer service the way it was meant to be:

Dear Nicholas,

We’re so sorry but due to an inventory error we were unable to fulfill your order for a Diesel Footwear Leather Color Block Low Top Sneakers. Please note we have not charged your credit card for this item.

We apologize for this inconvenience and aim to serve you better next time you shop. We will credit your account with an additional $25.00 to use towards your next purchase on our site.

Please feel free to contact our customer care team at support@gilt.com.

Thank you,
Gilt Groupe

No, thank you, Gilt.  I will absolutely be coming back to use that $25 because no one could ever accuse you of being a hassle to deal with.

Actually, Weather.com reports that it “Feels Like: 108ºF.” I’m not sure what’s worse.

A few days ago, I posted briefly on a New York Times article talking about the remapping of our brains that occurs when we multitask heavily or even just use computers in general. Echoing this article’s view that more media = less focus is a piece by Nicholas Carr from the June issue of Wired (which I was reading on paper, thank you very much) which discusses the distracting nature of hypertext hyperactive content.

A 2007 scholarly review of hypertext experiments concluded that jumping between digital documents impedes understanding. And if links are bad for concentration and comprehension, it shouldn’t be surprising that more recent research suggests that links surrounded by images, videos, and advertisements could be even worse.

The takeaway seems to be that we are causing our brains to remake themselves in order to deal with a wide breadth of stuff – that never goes very deep.  Bad, computers!  Shame on you, technology! Or maybe not.  Because in the exact same issue, Wired, asked two researchers of personal motivation, Clay Shirky and Daniel Pink, to discuss what is being termed (by Shirky) “the cognitive surplus.”  Their argument goes a little something like this: with more options for putting our time to use than ever before, free time pursuits will become more varied, taking forms never seen before.  Though not precisely related to the idea of focus, this statement did get me thinking:

When someone buys a TV, the number of consumers goes up by one, but the number of producers stays the same. When someone buys a computer or mobile phone, the number of consumers and producers both increase by one.

Whoa!  And it’s true – I often find myself cursing the lack of hours in the day to get caught up on my favorite TV shows when I fill my evenings with blogging, online reading or freelance design.  If it weren’t for these infernal computers stuffing my free time with their distractions, I could take part in the much more honorable 200 billion hours of television that I should be watching with my fellow Americans this year!

(As originally posted on my Instructional Technology work blog.)