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Brilliant Parody Ads

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A smart. subversive campaign for PBS TV went up this week in the New York City subway system.

The latest entry in the "_______ Wars" genre.

The latest entry in the "_______ Wars" genre.

Channel 13 is the local PBS station here in New York City.

Media outlets — newspapers, magazines, TV stations, websites — are notoriously inept at advertising themselves.
(The MSNBC — "Lean Forward" campaign is one recent example. Here's another one: this strange ransom note ad via America's Magazine Publishers.)

This is one of the best media ad campaigns I've ever seen. Perfection.

If you know the responsible ad agency, please comment.
UPDATE: It's London's CHI and Partners, who recently opened a Manhattan office.

"CLEAN UP ON EVERY AISLE"

"CLEAN UP ON EVERY AISLE"


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Via: infinitespacepodcast.tumblr.com


What Everyone Gets Wrong About Sex And Economics

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Dating is a barter economy — and neither men nor women have an advantage.

Via: jbryantwrites.com

It seems that no matter where I am in my life someone is standing at the ready to declare, "You're a seller on a buyer's market! Lower your price!"

As if hearing it from my mother ("You're too picky"), my friends ("The good men are all gone") and the world at large ("You have waited too long") isn't bad enough, I recently had a prospective suitor use this ever-so-charming line:

"Before you say no, just hear me out. I've done the math and I've calculated that for every available man your age there are forty women. 40! Now, if you don't mind me saying, you are not all that attractive. So, if you have any hope of finding a man you are going to have to compromise. Why not let me buy you a drink?"

Recently, it has become popular to apply basic understanding of supply and demand to the markets for sex and love. The logic usually flows along these lines (at least when it comes to heterosexual dating): Women are sellers, and men are buyers, on the market for sex and love because sex is more important to men than it is to women and, as a result, women have to be compensated to have sexual relationships with men.

In this view of the market, when you increase the number of available women relative to the number of available men, the price women can sell their "services" for falls until a new equilibrium — one in which women are sold at bargain basement — is reached.

And for some reason, when these stories are told, it's always the women who are forced to compete on an overcrowded market.

The simplicity of this story may be compelling to some, but it's a poor description how the actual market for sex and love operates; the real economic story is so much more elegant and enlightening than this simple understanding of market behavior.

Via: jbryantwrites.com

The market for love is better described as a barter economy — an economy in which there is no money to simplify transactions. When money can be used in transactions, I can trade with anyone who is selling what I want to buy simply by giving them cash, but when money can't be used I can only trade with someone who is both selling what I want to buy and is buying what I have to sell.

Trading in this market requires what's called a "double coincidence of wants" — if I have services that I want to acquire the only way I can do that is to find another person who both has services that I want available to trade and wants the services I am offering. and when what you really want is a lover who satisfies your every heart's desire, waiting for a coincidence can be a long and frustrating process.

This distinction between markets that depend on money and those that depend on barter might seem insignificant, but it goes a long way to explaining why it can take a long time for people to find a partner they like. It's not because women are setting their price too high; it is simply because these barter economies are horribly inefficient.

Let me give you an example of a specific market that proves my point.

There is a perception, shared by the gentleman I mentioned above, that if a woman is over forty and is single then she is part of a market in which women are greatly disadvantaged because men her age are (inexplicably) in relatively short supply and because women are (inexplicably) over-charging for the services they are supplying.

The reality is that it is difficult for both men and women on this market because these singles are trying to satisfy their double coincidence of wants on a market that has very few players (there simply aren't as many people over forty who are single and looking as there are in other age groups). Finding a person who wants to buy what you are selling and is selling what you want to buy when there are few market participants not only difficult — it is sometimes impossible.

Failure to find the love of your life might make it seem like there is a shortage on the other side of the market, but that is most likely an illusion created by the complexities of a market in which money isn't being used to stimulate trade.

I haven't settled down for a life of compromise with the suitor I mentioned at the beginning of this piece. Not because passive aggressive pick-up lines don't turn me on (they don't, but that is another issue), but rather because he is on the market for a submissive woman who recognizes his authority in the home, and that is not a quality I am selling. Nor am I interested in purchasing the services of a bossy husband — not at any price.


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38 Perfect Books To Read Aloud With Kids

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Or to revisit yourself whenever you need an extra dose of wonder.

The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Little Prince , by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This story, about meeting a small boy from a faraway planet, is magical. Its themes, like becoming a grown-up and finding extraordinary things in the ordinary world, are magical. All the little drawings peppered throughout are magical. It's one of those books that's just as worthwhile for adults to read as children, and I'm jealous of anyone who gets to discover it for the first time.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

It looks like a collage and reads like the lyrics to the world's most infectious rap song (totally appropriate for kids, of course). Just be warned that any small human you read this with will start reciting it ad nauseum.

Source: amazon.com

Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak

Where the Wild Things Are , by Maurice Sendak

This beautifully illustrated classic is a simple reminder that sometimes going on an adventure is the best way to appreciate what you have back home.

Source: en.wikipedia.org


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Kitty Rescued From A Ditch Given Love And Sweaters

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Freida had matted fur and weighed less than two pounds when she was found, but her rescuer is making sure that she stays warm and safe as she grows up and recovers.

Meet Freida!

Meet Freida!

Source: facebook.com

Although she was abandoned in a ditch, she was destined to be found by a man strolling by, and then rescued and loved by the Forgotten Felines organization.

Although she was abandoned in a ditch, she was destined to be found by a man strolling by, and then rescued and loved by the Forgotten Felines organization.

Source: facebook.com

She is tiny, and weighed less than two pounds when she was found.

She is tiny, and weighed less than two pounds when she was found.

Source: facebook.com

After she was rescued, Freida was taken to the vet and diagnosed with a skin rash, and a non-working liver (an explanation for why she is so tiny). She is currently being treated.

After she was rescued, Freida was taken to the vet and diagnosed with a skin rash, and a non-working liver (an explanation for why she is so tiny). She is currently being treated.


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Say What You Will About Owl City's Music, But His Twitter's Kinda Funny

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Maybe “Fireflies” wasn’t your jam, but never say Adam Young isn’t good at tweeting self-deprecating things that teens find relatable, because he is.

For best results, press play before viewing:

Source: youtube.com


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Dogs Present 19 Tips For The Perfect Summer BBQ

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Memorial Day signifies the beginning of summer and you know what that means?? BBQ’s! To help you out this weekend, these dogs present the ultimate guide on throwing the best BBQ of all time. Dogspeed, America!

First, you must decide if you want a theme. Luau?

First, you must decide if you want a theme. Luau?

Source: gilroydispatch.com

Ballon themed?

Ballon themed?

"Wear Your Meat" costume party?

"Wear Your Meat" costume party?

Via: flickr.com

Truth is: You don't need a theme at all if you're grilling.

Truth is: You don't need a theme at all if you're grilling.

Source: hotdoggerblog.com


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17 Powerful Images From Memorial Day

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Americans gathered Monday to honor fallen military service members.

Carlos Varon pays respect to war fallen soldiers while he places flags at graves at Cypress Hills National Cemetery in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Via: EDUARDO MUNOZ / AP

Boy Scout Kevin Wong salutes at a gravesite of a U.S. military veteran at the Los Angeles National Cemetery.

Via: JONATHAN ALCORN / Reuters

Nancy Waring, of Cumming, Ga., touches the headstone of her son, U.S. Army and Coast Guard veteran Lt. Brian Scott Waring, at the Georgia National Cemetery in Canton, Ga. She also visited the grave of her husband, U.S. Army Vietnam veteran 1st Lt. Gerald Paul Waring, who died less than a year after the death of her son.

Via: David Goldman / AP

Cub Scouts and Scout leaders place American flags on the graves of veterans buried at Moore Cemetery in Moore, Okla., the site of last week's devastating tornado.

Via: Tom Pennington / Getty Images


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Sarah Silverman's "Perfect Night" Is The Anthem For Girls Who Like To Stay In


27 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Work Out Today

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Do you really want everyone to see your back sweat? No, I didn’t think so.

Because you might see that annoying couple who always works out together.

Because you might see that annoying couple who always works out together.

And it will make you vomit in your mouth a little.

Source: forbes.com

Or that jerk who's just trying wayyyy too hard.

Or that jerk who's just trying wayyyy too hard.

Source: imgur.com

Gyms are filled with ugly people.

Gyms are filled with ugly people.

Source: imgur.com

Gyms are also filled with total weirdos.

Gyms are also filled with total weirdos.

Source: imgur.com


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Yahoo's Marissa Mayer, Hulu And The Art Of CEO Deal Doublespeak

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Yahoo has entered the bidding for online video site Hulu. But Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer seemed to suggest the company was done with big deals for this year after the Tumblr purchase. Or did she?

Via: ubergizmo.com

Just five days after announcing a $1.1 billion deal to buy Tumblr, reports emerged Friday afternoon that Yahoo had submitted a bid to buy online video site Hulu.

Hulu's owners — News Corp, Disney, and Comcast — have been debating for months if not years about the widely popular website's future. Scenarios have included taking Hulu public (which didn't happen), having one of the owners buy out the others (which appears unlikely), or selling. The latter option appears to be the most likely outcome provided the owners can get the price they want, estimated to be between $1 billion and $2 billion, and the potential buyers can get long-term digital rights deals from the owners for their content. After all, Hulu isn't worth much without access to programming from News Corp's Fox, Disney's ABC, and Comcast's NBC to stream. CBS has a deal with Hulu, but not for current first-run shows on its network; rather its deal is for older library content that is available on the service's paid subscription tier.

Other companies reportedly bidding for Hulu include: Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, former News Corp president Peter Chernin, private equity firm Guggenheim Partners, where former Yahoo interim CEO Ross Levinsohn now resides, and talent agency William Morris Endeavor in partnership with SilverLake Partners.

The fact that Yahoo has joined the fray may come as a surprise to some observers given the comments CEO Marissa Mayer made last week in the wake of the Tumblr deal. In interviews with both CNBC and Bloomberg, Mayer appeared to suggest that she was finished with big acquisitions for the year.

In an interview with CNBC's Carl Quintanilla, Mayer said of future dealmaking: "I'm not sure there's another one on the immediate horizon. I don't ever like to say never, but I think it takes a moment to breathe." (see tweet from CNBC producer below.)

Mayer also used the "never say never" line with Bloomberg, while also calling the Tumblr deal "an exceptional acquisition." (see tweet from Bloomberg tech reporter below.)

So, what's going on here? Is Mayer talking out of both sides of her mouth by saying that she sees no immediate deals for Yahoo on the horizon and then turning around and bidding for Hulu?

Well, not really. While it may seem that way on the surface, what Mayer is really doing is engaging in the fine art of CEO deal doublespeak.

Mayer's comments are designed to reassure investors that Yahoo will be methodical and thoughtful about how it spends its money. In effect, she is saying the company doesn't plan to do deals just to do deals. They will be thoughtful about what companies they buy, making sure they fit with Yahoo's overall mission and strategic plan. Such reassurance gives investors confidence to stick with the stock, which is up about 70 percent since Mayer came aboard last year.

At the same time, her comments leave the door open to being opportunistic. No CEO wants to be handcuffed by their words, so the "never say never" line is frequently deployed to give them a convenient out in situations like this. That way, if Yahoo does end up buying Hulu it doesn't look like she misled investors about the company's plans. Indeed, as Peter Kafka, the AllThingsD reporter who broke the Tumblr deal story with colleague Kara Swisher, noted in a tweet, Yahoo said it only planned to do small deals before spending $1.1 billion on Tumblr.

It is unclear how much and how serious is Yahoo's bid for Hulu. Reports suggest a floor price of $500 million and likely going up from there as Hulu's owners grant more rights access.

Regardless, if Yahoo doesn't buy Hulu Mayer can point to her comments and accurately tell investors the company isn't going to spend frivolously. And if Yahoo does end up buying Hulu, Mayer can tell investors and the media that when it comes to deals, "never say never."

Yahoo! Chief Executive Marissa Mayer.

Via: Stephen Lam / Reuters


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24 Unexpectedly Awesome Lego Creations

Russia Has The Worst Kid Slides In The World

This Is An Ad For A Funeral Home

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The most beautiful, uplifting ad for a funeral home you will ever see.

This is a trade show ad for the Nishinihon Tenrei funeral home in Tokyo. The life-size human skeleton is made of pressed flowers. From the ad agency press note:

"The March 11th earthquake and tsunami had a traumatic effect on Japan. Issues of life and death, hope and despair, beauty and tragedy became an all too real part of people's everyday lives. Funerals became a commonplace ordeal as the nation dealt with unprecedented loss. Like most cultures, Japanese funerals are somber events accented with black and white, with any deviation considered inappropriate. For this reason, Japanese funeral home Nishinihon Tenrei approached Tokyo-based ad agency I&S BBDO to create an ad for a trade show that would buck the trend of muted colors so prevalent in the industry.

Meanwhile in soulful America, we get horrible puns on billboards.

The Incredible Amount Of Stuff That Happens On The Internet In 60 Seconds

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How many emails, tweets, likes, searches, video views, photo uploads, and porn streams happen in a minute?

These 3D Bags Will Put Your Backpack To Shame

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And make you question your approach to carrying things.

Handmade by the team behind Etsy shop Krukrustudio, these bags come in a mind-blowing assortment of varieties, like...

A Steinway Piano

A Steinway Piano

Source: etsy.com

Far surpasses your boring old laptop bag.

Source: etsy.com

A Jar of Apricot Jam

A Jar of Apricot Jam

Source: etsy.com


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Life-Changing Tip Of The Day: The Leftover Sushi Hack

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There’s usually a dilemma when you come to the end of a sushi meal: do you take home those two lone rolls that are left, or just leave ‘em? With this brilliant hack, you’ll have a little snack for later.

You don't want to waste this.

You don't want to waste this.

Sushi is a beautiful, perfect food.

Sushi is a beautiful, perfect food.

So save your leftover rolls individually in take-out soy sauce containers.

So save your leftover rolls individually in take-out soy sauce containers.

That way you don't have to feel stupid asking for a giant styrofoam take-out box for such a small amount of food. From Liana's Instagram.

An Ode To Guy Fieri's Goatee

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What beauty, these wondrous whiskers. What grace.

Oh, to grace the face of such beauty.

Oh, to grace the face of such beauty.

Via: Getty Images

To square the lips of a mouth such as this.

To square the lips of a mouth such as this.

Via: Getty Images

To blow so wildly, so wildly you must blow.

To blow so wildly, so wildly you must blow.

Via: Getty Images

Oh, goatee, the sights you have seen...

Oh, goatee, the sights you have seen...

Via: Getty Images


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A Party, A Sexual Assault, And A Suicide: Was 15-Year-Old Audrie Pott Cyberbullied To Death?

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Her family blames her classmates for her death, but now some of them are questioning that narrative. What really happened the week before Audrie died?

Last Labor Day weekend, 15-year-old Audrie Pott went to a small party thrown by one of her classmates at Saratoga High School, a small suburban public school sandwiched between Apple headquarters and Big Basin's redwood forest in Northern California. Audrie and her friends drank Gatorade and alcohol that evening, but after a while, Audrie began to feel like she'd had too much, and she went upstairs to sleep in an empty bedroom.

What happened next has become the subject of countless international headlines and left behind grieving family and friends, and yet it took seven months, thirteen confiscated cell phones, and three arrest warrants for Audrie's parents to finally conclude why their bubbly, witty teenage daughter who loved art and soccer committed suicide a week after the party by hanging herself in her parents' bathroom: She was sexually assaulted by her friends, then aggressively cyberbullied by her classmates while an indifferent school administration refused to intervene.

It's become vogue to decry and denounce cyberbullying — the public persecution of someone via social media. This popular cause not only seems a collective catharsis for those concerned by the expanding digital intrusion into individual privacy, but the issue also couples the hot topics of sexuality and the internet.

The tragic story of Audrie Pott has become the latest to gain traction in this narrative of web bullying pushing young people over the edge. Audrie's family, after retracing their deceased daughter's digital footprints, is convinced she was driven to self-destruction by the mass online circulation of sexually explicit photos of her. "With no assault, with no cyberbullying, Audrie is in art class right now," Larry Pott, Audrie's father, told reporters shortly after the family decided to go public with Audrie's story.

But now their narrative is being called into question by many of her classmates and by dozens of interviews conducted as part of an ongoing investigation by Audrie's school newspaper. These student reporters claim that the photos in question hardly went viral and may have been seen by only a few people. They further contend that an overemphasis on cyberbullying is overshadowing a much more fundamental aspect of this case: sexual assault.

Nearly a year after it happened, Audrie's death raises more questions than it answers. Are her grief-stricken parents ginning up a catchphrase cause of digital danger where it doesn't exist? Or are Audrie's former classmates engaging in a teenage version of omertà, a refusal to rat one another out for leering at and forwarding a set of pics that literally drove Audrie to hang herself?

"We have no idea how many photos were taken that night or the exact number of people who may have seen them," says Samuel Liu, a Saratoga High junior and student reporter, who, along with his colleagues, has conducted over 50 interviews with classmates on behalf of The Saratoga Falcon, the student-run newspaper.

What doesn't seem up for dispute is that something bad happened to Audrie at that party. According to the Pott's family attorney, Robert Allard, after Audrie went to lie down, three boys followed her. Allard says the young men committed "unimaginable" acts on Audrie while she was unconscious. When she awoke the next morning, she found her shorts had been taken off and one of the boys had scribbled his name in black marker followed by "was here" on her body.

One or more of her attackers took pictures of the assault and distributed the photos via text and email. At school that Monday — the first week of her sophomore year — Audrie saw clumps of students huddled over their cell phones in the hallways, laughing and gawking at her. The photos spread through the school "like wildfire," Allard told reporters at a recent press conference. "The whole school knew."

A week later, Sheila Pott knocked on her bathroom door to make sure Audrie was all right. Earlier that afternoon, Audrie had called Sheila pleading to be picked up early from school.

"I can't do this anymore," Audrie had said.


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What It's Like To Call The Cable Company

Nile Rodgers Wrote Every Funky Song You've Ever Loved

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You might know him as the leader of Chic, or the guy playing guitar on Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” but he’s responsible for a lot more of your favorite tunes.

Nile Rodgers isn't a household name, but he's the man behind some of the best – and most important – dance music of all time. It's almost impossible to be alive today and not know his music.

Nile Rodgers isn't a household name, but he's the man behind some of the best – and most important – dance music of all time. It's almost impossible to be alive today and not know his music.

Via: nilerodgers.com

Rodgers is best known as the guitarist, co-founder, and primary songwriter of Chic, one of the most popular and influential bands of the disco era.

Rodgers is best known as the guitarist, co-founder, and primary songwriter of Chic, one of the most popular and influential bands of the disco era.

Source: upload.wikimedia.org

Rodgers' guitar style is unmistakable, but widely imitated. If you close your eyes and imagine what a disco guitar part sounds like, you automatically just imagine something like his riffs.

Source: youtube.com

Chic's first smash hit was "Everybody Dance" in 1977...

Chic's first smash hit was "Everybody Dance" in 1977...


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