They are brand spankin’ new! You are on top of the trends! Thank you for finding us and sharing the love.
Andy

I don’t know whether to laugh or weep at this murketing attempt:

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/02/al_qaedas_paramilita.php

“A look at the clothing of the fighters gives a good indication of the identity of the fighters, an expert on al Qaeda told The Long War Journal. The length of the pants of pictured fighters is described as being at “al Qaeda height” — meaning only al Qaeda and allied “Wahhabi/Salafi-jihadis” wear their pant legs this high.

“The extremists who follow al Qaeda’s religious beliefs think that pants must be at least six inches above the ground because there’s a hadith [a saying of the Prophet Mohammed] that says clothes that touch the ground are a sign of pride and vanity,” the expert said. “This, along with the new dyeing of men’s beards red or yellow is a sure sign of al Qaeda-ization.”

The type of masks worn and the tennis shoes are also strong indicators that these fighters “are non-Afghan fighters,” an expert on the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan said. “Those types of masks I have seen, and they are always on the Pakistani side of the border,” the expert said. “The tennis shoes and socks are a big indicator that they are non-Afghan fighters, probably Pakistanis or Arab/Central Asian fighters.” ”

So al-Qaeda clothing trends towards something like a more anonymous version of MS-13….

Rob, just so you and your NYT editor know, it’s killing me that I can’t get instant gratification by commenting on your NYT consumed column entries.

I just wrote on my blog:

http://drhorowitz.biz/index.php/2009/02/14/i-love-twitter/

It’s not just me who “love[s]” Twitter. Twitter just received $35 million in funding, has an iconic meme (think of that South Park episode) discussed by Rob Walker this morning, and has been adopted by conservatives (you know a trend has tipped when…).

I will admit that Twitter has been a nice source of entertainment in my tv-less life while I have been sick over the past few days. I’ve planned/promoted my Intro to Wine Blogging class with @pinotblogger, tried to help @foppoliVBM get some twittinterest (like that Miller ad and every subculture, tweeps like to create their own fresh language), and received some twitterturd (I couldn’t think of a word amalgamation between “twitter” and “SPAM”).

I know you are design-guru, but it might be interesting to hear from a linguist-guru on the twitter language trend…