[ caught In between ] b.s.: 03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006

Thursday, March 30, 2006
1. datetime
  1. {03302006}
  2. {07:35:12 PM}
  content
  1. Propaganda Posters
    
    (The Free Information Society)
  2. One of my great interests is propaganda and its role in modern society, though you might not be able to tell it from this blog. Perhaps the fact that I'm in the advertising business gave me away. I'm fascinated by the tendency of the so-called mass audience -- which at any time may include you and me -- to be manipulated through imagery, rhetoric, spectacle, and illusion. It's my belief that we live in times where essentially everything we experience is propagandized to some extent. The only effective tool against propaganda is propaganda. So it's an endless arms race, a perpetual battle for hearts and minds. The science has become an art. Some of the posters in this collection go back more than sixty years, and yet, many seem appropriate today. Go figure.
    
    b/w: The Spunker
  metadata
  1. 07:35:12 PM
  categories
  1. keywords:
  2. propaganda
  3. social science
  4. tags:
  5. war+posters
  6. agitprop
  type
  
  {atompost}
Sunday, March 26, 2006
1. datetime
  1. {03262006}
  2. {10:57:28 PM}
  content
  1. Unskilled and Unaware of It
    
    (Damn Interesting)
  2. This tendency of the average person to believe he or she is better-than-average is known as the "above-average effect," and it flies in the face of logic...
    
    Boy, do I know what these guys are talking about.
  metadata
  1. 10:57:28 PM
  categories
  1. keywords:
  2. psychology
  3. culture
  4. tags:
  5. irony
  type
  
  {atompost}
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
1. datetime
  1. {03232006}
  2. {02:23:25 AM}
  content
  1. Quote: Google Finance doesn't care about black people
    
    (Valleywag blog)
  2. Black like me: Symantec's CEO, John W. Thompson, is black...but on Google's cool new finance pages (and it really is cool, with all the mashed-up AJAX, Flash, and creamy nougats of data) if you mouse over his name, under the Management heading ... the mugshot of a white guy pops up...and a non-descript, powder-blue-shirt-and-khakis average white guy at that! Now that's some phunny sh*t: accidental racial insensitivity. The problem probably exists because the page isn't actually edited by a human, but constructed by a bunch of Google's search algorithms. We can't expect computer code to be tolerant, can we? Hate the coder and not the code. (As and aside, how long will it take GOOG to fix it? The original blog post is dated 3/22/2006.)
    
    b/w: Scripting News
  metadata
  1. 02:23:25 AM
  categories
  1. keywords:
  2. humor
  3. racism
  4. tags:
  5. google
  6. tech-gossip
  type
  
  {atompost}
1. datetime
  1. {03222006}
  2. {01:33:21 PM}
  content
  1. Chef Sort of Returns on South Park
    
    (Newsvine/AP)
  2. The Comedy Central cartoon begins its 10th season with an episode titled "The Return of Chef!"
    
    You know they couldn't get rid of a brutha that easily. How hard would it be to find another voice artist to do the voice, anyway?
  metadata
  1. 01:33:21 PM
  categories
  1. keywords:
  2. humor
  3. entertainment
  4. tags:
  5. south+park
  6. isaac+hayes
  7. scientology
  type
  
  {atompost}
Saturday, March 18, 2006
1. datetime
  1. {03182006}
  2. {04:21:52 PM}
  content
  1. You've Got Goodmail
    
    (New York Times)
  2. Ester Dyson sez: "Of course, the critics say, this is the first step. Pretty soon all mail will cost money, and then the free, open world of the Internet will be closed to poor people, nonprofits and other good guys, while multinational conglomerates fill their ever-growing pockets."
    
    Goodmail sounds like a great idea. At some point, if you want E-mail to work, it can no longer be free...and it really isn't, anyway: someone is paying for all those servers and all that bandwidth. At least 90% of all the E-mail I receive these days is spam. I'm willing to pay to get just the 10% I actually want. The cost can be be micropayments -- pennies, or less -- per message so that poor people won't be left out. Any cost structure would make spammers, who send out tens of millions of messages to seriously reconsider. And if E-mail messages cost something -- like voice and text messages do -- you'd pay more attention to how you spend. The problem with "free" stuff is that it attracts freeloaders, and freeloaders suck. A tragedy of the commons.
  metadata
  1. 04:21:52 PM
  categories
  1. keywords:
  2. telecommunications
  3. internet
  4. tags:
  5. e-mail
  type
  
  {atompost}
1. datetime
  1. {03182006}
  2. {02:46:12 PM}
  content
  1. Pros Vs. Joes
    
    (SpikeTV.com)
  2. I love the idea behind this reality show. But as someone who lived in a frat house with about a dozen future pro athletes, including three Super Bowl champions, and two Olympians, the physical gap between average Joes (even if they're relatively coordinated) and pro-class athletes isn't even close. It's not that pro athletes are more competitive, it's that they're more physically gifted. That's why they're pros and the rest of us are joes. I'm sure it will be proven on this program.
  metadata
  1. 02:46:12 PM
  categories
  1. keywords:
  2. sports
  3. entertainment
  4. tags:
  5. reality+tv
  6. spike+tv
  7. humor
  type
  
  {atompost}
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
1. datetime
  1. {03152006}
  2. {08:13:30 AM}
  content
  1. Subservient Donald
  2. If you ask "The Donald" a question, then you will get an answer. (See the parent site as well, Product Invasion, for well-deserved cracks on the entire Reality TV mediascape.) And you thought television existed for entertainment? Guess again.
  metadata
  1. 08:13:30 AM
  categories
  1. keywords:
  2. humor
  3. entertainment
  4. tags:
  5. trump
  6. reality+tv
  type
  
  {atompost}
Monday, March 06, 2006
1. datetime
  1. {03072006}
  2. {05:23:59 AM}
  content
  1. Pakistan blocks blogs on cartoons
    
    (BBC)
  2. One of the blocked sites is hosted on Blogspot, which led to the blocking of all web journals hosted on the site. The Pakistan bloggers found their blogs blocked, even though their blogs are not connected with the cartoons. They say they have still been able to edit and update their blogs, but not able to read them.
    
    But blogs covering Pakistani Prophet, the local version of American Idol, are strongly encouraged.
  metadata
  1. 05:23:59 AM
  categories
  1. keywords:
  2. censorship
  3. regional
  type
  
  {atompost}