Alltop collects and displays all the top stories on the web, aggregated on subject-category pages, and it’s fast growing into a digital magazine rack that includes all topics. Aggregation without the aggravation, for people who don’t read blogs in an RSS feed reader but want to browse popular topics of interest on easy-to-read pages where [...]
Posts tagged: name origins
What is Alltop, and what’s with the name?
January 6th, 2009 · 1 Comment
→ 1 Comment | Categories: company names
Happy Biroday!
September 29th, 2008 · No Comments
We learned today from the carnival of law blogs hosted this week on Securing Innovation, the business blog of IP.com, that some people are marking the invention of the ballpoint pen on the birthday of its inventor, Laszlo Biro. Apparently, folks in England, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand call a ballpoint pen a biro. Who [...]
→ No Comments | Categories: language · pop culture · product names
Domino’s Pizza Market Research Parody
August 1st, 2008 · 1 Comment
Or is it a parody? Domino’s Scientists Test Limits Of What Humans Will Eat
→ 1 Comment | Categories: Uncategorized
Bad Company’s Swan Song
July 15th, 2008 · No Comments
According to the Hollywood Reporter, ’70s rock group Bad Company plans to reunite with Paul Rodgers (now touring as lead singer with Queen) for a one-off show on Aug. 8 at the Seminole Hard Rock & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., the band’s first performance since a 1999 reunion tour. And though frontman Paul Rodgers said [...]
→ No Comments | Categories: identity · pop culture
WALL*E World
July 7th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Sweeping box office charts, Disney/Pixar’s WALL*E is sparking broods over the film’s sharp messaging. Toying with corporate dominion and hedonistic consumerism, the friendly robotic love story has some debatable coverage on Liberal Fascism and Malthusian Fear Mongering, one going so far as to cite elements of color and style. All interesting and noteworthy, however, we [...]
→ 1 Comment | Categories: pop culture
Out of Africa, sort of
June 6th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Our erstwhile competitors, the strategically named name developers Strategic Name Development, have taken rationalization and hooha to Landorian heights. Either that or they actually believe that invented, compound contractions based tangentially in the Zulu language actually communicate ideas to the rest of the world. Strategic name development?: Via a strategically reasoned press release: MINNEAPOLIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Zikula™, [...]
→ 1 Comment | Categories: WTF · industry insider · language · product names
From very low
March 8th, 2008 · No Comments
The misnamed “From on High” website makes fun of my friend Sue Daniels’, who was a peace activist and advocate for the poor, and who had been murdered shortly before the asshat that “writes” FOH posted this: I have been following the story of the murder of Sue Daniels since it hit the local papers [...]
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Where did Alibaba, the brand name, come from?
October 15th, 2007 · 3 Comments
Earlier this year, the International Herald Tribune put the spotlight on Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba.com: “I’m a normal guy,” he said during a recent interview in Singapore. “I feel ashamed because I feel I’m stealing the contribution of my team. They made it; my job is more, ‘Let’s go do it.’” Started in 1999, [...]
→ 3 Comments | Categories: company names
The ABCs of Naming Diseases and Drugs
October 12th, 2007 · No Comments
Impotence is now ED and painful bladder syndrome is IC/PBS. Naming specialists brainstorm to come up with innocuous acronyms for embarrassing diseases to be associated with name brand drugs. And then, pharmaceutical companies have to come up with memorable names for drugs their customers can associate with those syndromes, and ask their doctors if it’s [...]
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T.S. Eliot and the Nonsensical Naming of Practical Cats
September 30th, 2007 · 2 Comments
Oh, hai. Rob May at Businesspundit is selling his blog, because he doesn’t want to sell out. I never intended to make money blogging. It just sort of happened, once this blog hit a certain level. It was a nice side income, and has helped fund many of my other projects. But as blogging has [...]
→ 2 Comments | Categories: pop culture
Cockfest
September 27th, 2007 · No Comments
Today is Cockfest, USC’s annual homecoming pep rally. Not to be confused with the USC Trojans, it’s the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. And certainly not to be confused with your usual cockfest, or with the porn website CockFest.com, “home of the hot big dicks”. Go cocks!
→ No Comments | Categories: WTF · language · pop culture · taglines
It’s not for girls
July 25th, 2006 · 2 Comments
Why is this “Yorkie” candy bar from Nestle (Great Britain) not for girls? “All because the lady loves… Milk Tray”, that’s why. Leading UK chocolatier Cadbury had been successfully branding chocolate both for women and by using women in its ads to promote chocolate’s sensual side.One of Cadbury’s most popular TV spots featured a suave [...]
→ 2 Comments | Categories: advertising
