Zeid Nasser, over at Ad Blog Arabia, draws our attention to a new Ad campaign targeting Iraq. The television commercial is pretty powerful stuff, but I really wonder how effective it will be at influencing those who commit the violence. Via the blog, I was led to another blog: Houtlust – a blog devoted to non-profit advertising and social campaigns. My eye was immediately caught by this entry pointing to confrontational advertising protesting against the act of stoning to death. Also very powerful.
Year: 2006
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Patently Human
Lyle Zapato uncovers another patent from the Twilight Zone: the Tachyon Transceiver. What makes this so unusual (apart from the fact that the device being patented looks like a serious case of woo-woo pseudoscience), is the inclusion of a letter, in the patent itself, from the inventor to his son. Charming, but completely barking at the same time… -
Paranoia Is The New Reality
Yet another example of the current wave of paranoia sweeping through airline travel. Note how, even once the cause has been shown to be totally innocent, "the process" must be followed at all costs.(hat tip to Bruce Schneier) -
And This Year’s Winners Are…
Edward Bulwer-Lytton was a writer whose name has become synonymous with bad prose. He gives his name to the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which seeks to identify the worst examples of writing of the year. This year’s contest winners have just been announced.I particularly like the winner of the Vile Puns section (having a weakness for puns):As Johann looked out across the verdant Iowa River valley, and beyond to the low hills capped by the massive refrigerator manufacturing plant, he reminisced on the history of the great enterprise from its early days, when he and three other young men, all of differing backgrounds, had only their dream of bringing refrigeration to America’s heartland to sustain them, to the present day, where they had become the Midwest’s foremost group of refrigerator magnates.And I quite like this entry, which got a dishonourable mention:Hardly a day passed without poor Matilda looking back on her life and ruing that fateful day she decided that to cut her toenails with her father’s scythe to make up that extra four minutes she had wasted listening to "Muskrat Love" by the Captain & Tennille. -
Open Mouth, Change Feet
Microsoft has announced that you won’t be able to play forthcoming HD-DVD media in your 32bit computer. You’ll need to upgrade to a 64bit computer for that.While Microsoft may claim that they are doing this at the behest of the media companies (which very well may be true), the reaction from the computer-buying public is likely to be one of anger. It certainly doesn’t make me a happy camper. -
AIDS At 25
A pretty good video that shows some of the strands of the fight against AIDS on show at the recent international conference in Toronto -
Dame Edna Gets Keys To Melbourne
A heartwarming story – Dame Edna at last gets honoured by her hometown of Melbourne. And at the same time it’s a slightly worrying indication of the march of time – it came as something of a shock to me to read that Barry Humphries is 72. -
Flurb
Ooh, a new web-based publishing venture for Science Fiction and Fantasy writing! It could be interesting… -
The End Is Nigh
Well, according to Yisrayl Hawkins, World War III begins on the 12th September 2006 and it will be a nuclear war that will kill at least a third of the world’s human population. Oh bugger, our new kitchen won’t be finished in time… By the way, Yisrayl, get someone competent to fix up the broken links on your web site, will you? It feels so, well, amateurish, and doesn’t really instill much confidence in the rest of your message, if you know what I mean… -
Will Everyone Just Calm Down?
Bruce Schneier says it all really. Of course, since he wrote that we’ve had the incident here in The Netherlands where 12 people have been arrested after an aircraft returned to Schiphol. Doubtless that will turn out to be utter nonsense as well.Update: Yep, it was utter nonsense… -
Mothers – Aren’t They Wonderful?
Most men, I feel sure, are slightly in awe of their mothers, and wouldn’t want to embarrass them in any shape or form. That, I’m sure is what went through the mind of Madin Azad Amin when he was stopped by airline security. Unfortunately he failed to engage his brain with his mouth when he replied to their question about what was in his luggage. -
Apophenia and Pareidolia
Hard-wired into the human brain is the propensity to see patterns or forms in random data. A fact that leads to all manner of ridiculousness. Oh, and even more so here. -
Unspeak
I’ve long been fascinated by the use of language to influence. Probably because, growing up, I became aware of the dissonances implicit in phrases such as "homosexual lifestyle" or "sexual preference" (as though I chose to be gay) or the none-too-subtle putdowns in adjectives associated with being gay: "abnormal", "deviant", "sinful", etc. (when I didn’t think I was anything but normal – different, yes, but not abnormal, and certainly not "deviant").
George Orwell, of course, drew attention to the political use of language with Newspeak in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, a dystopia that seems to be becoming more relevant with every passing year.
And today, through a chance reference on Crooked Timber, I discovered Steven Poole’s Unspeak, where Poole comments on the uses of language to influence and deceive. Very interesting and worth a visit. And he’s got a book out as well! By the way, check out his video on the Amazon web site. My, hasn’t he got a hairy chest?
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And Then There Were Eight…
Planets, that is. Today, the general assembly of the International Astronomical Union voted to downgrade Pluto from its status of planet – a position it’s held since its discovery in 1930. We’re sorry to lose you, Pluto, but the viewers have spoken. Don’t slam the door on your way out… -
Two Data Points
The first data point: today is the first Dutch Naturalisation Day for "new" citizens. So low key that I totally didn’t realise that it was going on until I read this story on the Radio Netherlands web site. And of course, the lovely Rita is milking it for all she’s worth. This story in the NRC has a nice picture that sums up most people’s feelings about it all.Which brings me to the second data point, also on the Radio Netherlands web site, the fact that between 20 and 30 women each year visiting Morocco from the Netherlands are abandoned there by their husbands or fathers. And Rita features yet again. She met with some of these women when she visited Morocco in June 2005, and promised to take some action. But of course, Rita Verdonk, with her "hot head and cold heart" (the words of Amsterdam’s Mayor, Job Cohen) has done sod-all for them. Why am I not surprised? -
Musical Culture At Its Finest
And having acknowledged Neatorama for bringing the Peel Trident back to my attention, I don’t know whether to congratulate them or damn them for the link to the Fast Food Song. Warning: click Play at your own risk.No, on second thoughts I think I damn them.Oh, and I notice that the "Ads by Google" part of the web page has an entry for "Alex Prior – 11 year old singer and composer nicknamed Little Pavarotti". Do I dare to click that as well? – Oh gawd, I did – take away the memory, please… -
The Peel Trident
There are many things that come from the Isle of Man about which I can feel proud of, but I regret to say that I think the Peel Trident is not one of them. Oh, hang on, perhaps I can feel proud of the fact that it has just been voted as one of the five worst cars ever made… -
Stripperless Funerals
Apparently, the authorities in the Chinese province of Jiangsu have banned the use of strippers at funerals. Killjoys. I always think that funerals should have an element of celebration, and not be too po-faced. -
Elephant’s Dream
I’ve just downloaded and watched Elephant’s Dream – a short animation showcasing computer animation tools made by the Open Source community. The tools may be fine, but the film sucks. Visually quite inventive, but the storyline is tired, acting terrible, and the continuity girl was obviously on holiday when the film was thrown together. It’s billed as a project "bringing together a diverse team of artists and developers from all over the world". Clearly, the elephant has turned out to be a camel – a horse designed by a committee. -
Svankmajer’s Lunacy
I came across this review of the latest film by Jan Svankmajer: Lunacy. Sounds like a film to watch out for.
Geoff Coupe's Blog 