It wasn’t so long ago that pipe-smoking men in dark suits could sell their products to women with a patronizing pat on the head and a wink. Those days went the way of the cocktail lunch, but sexism still rages in the advertising world. It’s just that now, everybody gets in on it. And just as ads in the 1950s assumed that all women were housewives desperate for new ways to starch their husbands’ shirts, advertisers today demonstrate an extremely low opinion of their male customers.
That’s why there are so many ad campaigns that …
#5. Assume Men Are Stupid (And Proud of It)
Photos.com
Most of us aren’t old enough to remember back when women were seen as nothing more than baby-making servants with childlike brains, but if vintage advertisements are to be believed, we’re lucky humanity didn’t just devolve into a species of red-lipped cretins.
Via Blogs.babble.com
Finally, a Plan B for men too drunk on lunch martinis to open their own ketchup.
Thanks to braless hippies and better packaging technology, we’re past the point where one sex is perceived as brighter than the other, right? Not if you watch truck commercials. Take this Ford F-150 ad, for example. Denis Leary’s voice-over comes right out and says that the truck was engineered by the people “we all cheated off of in science class.” As if science nerds would never actually be the ones interested in the F-150. They’re too busy driving, what? Mathmobiles?
But you see, trucks are manly, and doing science and math are unmanly. You’re not unmanly, are you? “What is that you’re reading, a book? Oh, sorry, we thought you had a penis.”
“Arrowdie-whatics? That’s a big word! Bet I can still carry it in my pickup, though!”
###
Reading Is Fundamental “Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) is the nation’s largest nonprofit children’s literacy organization. Through RIF programs, we prepare and motivate children to read by delivering free books and literacy resources to children who need them most.”
Approximately 1/3 of cat owners think their pets are able to read their minds. – Provided by RandomHistory.com
###
Former Pennsylvania State University football coach Jerry Sandusky is drawing on funds from an organization he set up for at-risk children to pay his defense fees.
In 2011 Sandusky was charged with over 40 counts of sexual abusing young boys over a 15-year period. A graphic grand jury report released in November detailed the allegations against Sandusky — which include the rape of young boys in Penn State’s football locker room.
###
Google Art Project – Read HERE.
###
There is a single ideological current running through a seemingly disparate collection of noxious modern political and scientific movements, ranging from militarism, imperialism, racism, xenophobia, and radical environmentalism, to socialism, Nazism, and totalitarian communism. This is the ideology of antihumanism: the belief that the human race is a horde of vermin whose unconstrained aspirations and appetites endanger the natural order, and that tyrannical measures are necessary to constrain humanity. The founding prophet of modern antihumanism is Thomas Malthus (1766-1834), who offered a pseudoscientific basis for the idea that human reproduction always outruns available resources. Following this pessimistic and inaccurate assessment of the capacity of human ingenuity to develop new resources, Malthus advocated oppressive policies that led to the starvation of millions in India and Ireland.
While Malthus’s argument that human population growth invariably leads to famine and poverty is plainly at odds with the historical evidence, which shows global living standards rising with population growth, it nonetheless persisted and even gained strength among intellectuals and political leaders in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Its most pernicious manifestation in recent decades has been the doctrine of population control, famously advocated by ecologist Paul Ehrlich, whose bestselling 1968 antihumanist tract The Population Bomb has served as the bible of neo-Malthusianism. In this book, Ehrlich warned of overpopulation and advocated that the American government adopt stringent population control measures, both domestically and for the Third World countries that received American foreign aid. (Ehrlich, it should be noted, is the mentor of and frequent collaborator with John Holdren, President Obama’s science advisor.)
MORE.
###
###
North Korea rocket breaks up in flight
Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN) — Defying warnings from the international community, North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Friday, but it broke apart before escaping the earth’s atmosphere and fell into the sea, officials said.
“It flew about a minute, and it flew into the ocean,” said Noriyuki Shikata, a spokesman for Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. He added that Japanese authorities “have not identified any negative impacts, so far,” though he said the international ramifications could be significant. “This is something that we think is a regrettable development,” he said.
Joseph Cirincione, president of the global security foundation The Ploughshares Fund, told CNN that the launch’s apparent failure “shows the weakness of the North Korea missile program” and suggests that the threat from North Korea has been “exaggerated.”
“It’s a humiliation,” he told CNN. “I wouldn’t want to be a North Korean rocket scientist today.”
MORE [Video]
###
Immune Activity Shifts with Social Status
In monkeys, and possibly even humans, social stress can cause changes to the immune system that leave the individual vulnerable to illness. Researchers found that social rank affected the expression of nearly 1,000 white blood cell genes in female rhesus macaques. This allowed them to predict a monkey’s social rank with 80 percent accuracy simply by examining her immune cells. Encouragingly, as rank shifts, gene activity does too, meaning that improvements to one’s social environment could lead to improved immune activity. More …
###
###
A phallic carving out of antler bone dating from the Stone Age, discovered recently in Sweden.
CREDIT: Peter Zetterlund, Swedish National Heritage Board
Sex toys have come a long way since the Stone Age – but then again, perhaps not as much as we might think.
Last week, an excavation in Sweden turned up an object that bears the unmistakable look of a penis carved out of antler bone. Though scientists can’t be sure exactly what this tool was used for, it’s hard not to leap to conclusions. [See "Sex Myths and Taboos"]
“Your mind and my mind wanders away to make this interpretation about what it looks like – for you and me, it signals this erected-penis-like shape,” said archaeologist Göran Gruber of the National Heritage Board in Sweden, who worked on the excavation. “But if that’s the way the Stone Age people thought about it, I can’t say.”
The resemblance is uncanny.
via.
###
It is about the microscopic bugs that live all over your body – on your skin, in your mouth, in your nose, and in particular your digestive tract. These bugs are so numerous that they outnumber your own cells by a factor of 10. You are vastly more microbe than human.
Before you get so disgusted you stop reading, consider this: many of these bugs are as essential to your life as your own cells. These microbes have been around since before humans existed, and our bodies have evolved to adapt to their presence just as they have adapted to ours.
They are also – to quote one expert – the “last frontier” of medical research, a crucial aspect of our health that scientists rarely considered until recently. It is also one of the most daunting challenges facing biologists today.
MORE.
###
Sidney Poitier Becomes the First African American to Win Best Actor Oscar (This day in 1964)
The first African American to achieve leading man status in Hollywood, Poitier began acting with the American Negro Theatre in New York City and made his film debut soon after. He won acclaim on Broadway for his role in 1959′s A Raisin in the Sun and, in 1964, became the first African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his role in Lilies of the Field. Many of his films address issues of race, yet some have criticized his choice of film roles for what reason? More…
###
Terror strikes yet again in Sanford, Florida…..
###
When environmental disasters divide communities, “family dynamics totally mirror what happens in the community,” says UB’s Orom.
Douglas Levere, University at Buffalo
Environmental disasters impact individuals and communities; they also affect how family members communicate with each other, sometimes in surprising ways, according to a paper published by a faculty member at the University at Buffalo in the Journal of Family Issues. The study is the first systematic analysis of how families communicate when faced with serious health issues brought on by “slow moving technological disasters,” like environmental disasters. The purpose was to identify how people in families communicate when they are facing these issues in order to better characterize the social costs of such disasters.
The findings were, in some ways, counterintuitive, says Heather Orom, PhD, assistant professor of community health and health behavior in the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions and lead author on the paper.
“The casual observer might assume that when people become seriously ill and there are fatalities, that families would come together and support one another,” Orom says. “But our research shows that often times, the opposite happens.
more.
###
###
April 9, 2012: In a decades old search for greater accuracy, many American troops are now buying a hundred dollar accessory that automatically adjusts for the tendency of rifles to move to the side after each shot. The new accessory is a muzzle break. These devices tend to be about 10 cm (4 inches) long and weigh 110-140 gm (4-6 ounces). They screw onto the front of the barrel and keep the barrel more stable after each shot reducing recoil, as well as flash. Such muzzle brake devices have become increasingly popular in the last decade, as new technology and improved designs have appeared. The latest feature is to have threads in the small round holes in the muzzle break, where the gas from the bullet propellant can disperse. The new EFFIN muzzle breaks allow you to screw plugs into some of these holes to compensate for the tendency of your rifle to jerk a bit to one side. This keeps you steadier for the next shot which, in combat is often needed immediately. The EFFIN muzzle break comes in different sizes, for 5.56mm and 7.62mm rifles (including the AK-47 series and various sniper weapons).
American troops have, for over two decades now, been trained to use single-shot accuracy in combat. Although they all carry assault rifles that can fire on full automatic (like a machine-gun) they have found that well aimed, single shots, are more effective in combat. As a result of this trend, American troops are customizing their weapons, particularly the M-116/M-14 assault rifles.
MORE.
###
Dust Devils of Mars
Go HERE.
###
The remains of what is beleived to be the earliest stringed instrument in western Europe have been uncovered in Scotland.
A small burnt and broken piece of carved wood was found during an excavation in a cave on Skye.
Archaeologists think it is part of the bridge of a lyre, a stringed instrument used in Greek classical era. It is believed to be 2,300 years old.
Fiona Hyslop with a replica of the bridge from a lyre instrument found on the island of Skye
Music archaeologist Dr Graeme Lawson told the BBC the discovery pushed the history of complex music back more than a thousand years.
The remains, which were unveiled in Edinburgh, were found in High Pasture Cave, where Bronze and Iron Age finds have been made previously.
MORE.
###
The best-preserved remains of a house from the Kingdom of Israel, dating back some 3,000 years ago, have been uncovered in Tel Shikmona, on the southern edge of Israel’s city of Haifa.
ANCIENT HOUSE: A well preserved four-room house from the period of the Kingdom of Israel has been uncovered at Tel Shikmona, Israel. (Photo: Shay Bar/University of Haifa)
The remains of a house uncovered in the city of Haifa are the best-preserved yet from the Kingdom of Israel, dating back nearly three millennia.
The site of the discovery was excavated about 40 years ago, but neglect had left the structure hidden until now. Layers of earth and garbage had piled up atop it, and off-road vehicles had plowed over the area, damaging the artifacts.
When archaeologists recently re-exposed the area during a dig, they found the four-room home to be remarkably good shape — the best-preserved house from the period of the Kingdom of Israel found so far, the researchers said July 6. The dig is in an area called Tel Shikmona.
“We had seen the structure in the old photographs and were sorry that such a rarely preserved finding had disappeared due to neglect. We were not even sure that we would be able to find it again. It was practically a miracle that we managed to locate and uncover it and that it is still so well-preserved,” said the leaders of the excavation team, Shay Bar and Michael Eisenberg of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa.
The dig also unearthed remains of a Persian city from about 2,400 years ago and a Byzantine town from approximately 1,500 years ago.
via.
###
13 Looks From The Fall Runway That May Need A Bra [NSFW]
Looks From The Fall Runway That May Need A Bra
Or were the nipples part of the look? Yes, these are high fashion – and some of the looks are rather striking. Still, a bit nippy for Fall looks, no?
###
###
Dubbed the ‘fish from hell’, the Snakehead is a mean looking creature that can survive on land and is devastating to other fish.
Native to Asia and Africa, it has now been found in seven states across the country forcing one of them, Maryland, to take action by putting a bounty on its head.
Fishermen are being offered a $200 gift card and other prizes as a reward for killing the ‘fishzilla’.
Fishzilla: The Snakehead is a mean looking creature that can survive on land and is devastating to other fish
‘We do not want Snakeheads in our waters. This initiative is a way to remind anglers that it is important to catch and remove this invasive species of fish,’ Maryland Department of Natural Resources Inland Fisheries Director Don Cosden told Fox News.
The fish can survive up to four days on land, can migrate up to a quarter mile between bodies of water by wriggling on their fins and can grow to more than 2 feet long.
MORE.
###
###
Predating Stonehenge by 6,000 years, Turkey’s stunning Gobekli Tepe upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization
At first glance, the fox on the surface of the limestone pillar appears to be a trick of the bright sunlight. But as I move closer to the large, T-shaped megalith, I find it is carved with an improbable menagerie. A bull and a crane join the fox in an animal parade etched across the surface of the pillar, one of dozens erected by early Neolithic people at Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey. The press here is fond of calling the site “the Turkish Stonehenge,” but the comparison hardly does justice to this 25-acre arrangement of at least seven stone circles. The first structures at Göbekli Tepe were built as early as 10,000 B.C., predating their famous British counterpart by about 7,000 years.
The oldest man-made place of worship yet discovered, Göbekli Tepe is “one of the most important monuments in the world,” says Hassan Karabulut, associate curator of the nearby Urfa Museum. He and archaeologist Zerrin Ekdogan of the Turkish Ministry of Culture guide me around the site. Their enthusiasm for the ancient temple is palpable.
MORE.
###
