There are few things I love more than a brilliant parody. This spoof commercial, by commercial director Jesse Rosten, shows exactly why plastering media with unachievable ideals of feminine beauty hurt women. Which sounds like a really heavy point to make. But this is fun. That’s the art of really making a point.
Fotoshop by Adobé from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.
A recurring theme in my thoughts and work lately is psychological resistance to demonstrable facts. (See: Why facts will never be enough to make people believe). Sometimes that’s due to cognitive dissonance, emotional reasoning, or herd reinforcement. But sometimes it’s due to a plain lack of understanding of what science is and how it functions.
So this recent episode from The Onion Radio News reduced me to helpless giggles. Enjoy!
UPDATE: On a related note, science journalist Christie Aschwanden alerted me to this 2008 NYT story: Experts Question Placebo Pill for Children. Thanks! Brilliant! You just can’t make this shit up!
This past Sunday (Easter 2011) was a pretty interesting day for me. I did my first-ever TV news appearance — I was interviewed live on CNN by Fredricka Whitfield about how mobile phone users are more vulnerable to e-mail phishing attempts. Here’s the video (sorry about the annoying preroll ads)…
CNN tech Writer Amy Gahran talks to CNN about… by BeyondPixBroadcast
And here’s the transcript.
Now that you’ve seen the finished product, here’s the backstory….
I’ve been working really hard lately and not sleeping well. I needed a good belly laugh. So a friend sent me this. It totally worked. Watch it all the way to the end…
If you’re ever tempted to rely on speech-to-text software to do your audio transcription, think again. This is a hilarious illustration of how things can go wrong. YouTube – Ultimate Caption FAIL, FAIL.
Tom Vilot just sent me this. Probably not far off the mark, given the sleazy way Facebook is messing with privacy settings.
URGENT FACEBOOK UPDATE: As of today, Facebook staff will be allowed to eat your children and pets. To turn this option off, go to settings, then privacy, then meals. Click the top two boxes to prevent the employees of Facebook from eating your beloved children and pets. (Unless you don’t like your children, in which case… Carry on!). Copy this to your status to warn your friends!!!
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C’mon, journo types, be honest. Which of these resources is REALLY your go-to, most relevant and current style guide?
I just finished reading a killer classic fiction mashup (literally), Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It’s a parody of the Jane Austen novel (which I tried to read in college and found unbearably tedious).
I must admit, though: The addition of a Night of the Living Dead-style zombie plague made all the endless fretting and plotting over how to present oneself as appropriately marriageable in polite society surprisingly entertaining and understandable.
Because the thing is: The strictures of British aristocratic society — particularly how women were held in chattel status, and the ceaseless power plays of verbal indirection — were indeed nightmarish, soul-destroying, and cannibalistic.
Therefore, I don’t think it’s a stretch to consider this book a seminal feminist treatise. (God knows we need more entertaining seminal works of feminism!)
If you read this book (and I recommend it) don’t miss the reader’s discussion guide at the end. It contains 10 questions. Here are a couple of my favorites…
Privacy? What privacy! Such a quaint 20th century notion…
Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village
Thanks much to the West Seattle Blog for bringing this gem to my attention via Twitter in the wee hours of the morning. And kudos to The Onion for such impressive info-graphics! My favorites are the van, barter, and data security fence graphics.
My friend Cheryl Hogue at Chemical & Engineering News just mentioned this video. Brilliant, brilliant! (Hah! Pun intended!)
Science definitely needs more rap. Definitely.
Note: This video is part of the second American Chemical Society Nanotation NanoTube Video Contest. You better believe I’m gonna watch the other entries.
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