Like so many times before, I sat down by the computer with the regular agenda: Check my e-mail, my facebook profile and the balance on my Visa. Somehow, (and I strongly suspect tonights episode of the Daily Show had something to do with it) I ended up for the first time on Twitter. Freakin' Twitter. You can't stop hearing about it, it's everywhere! You find politicians, celebrities and news feeds on there, Jon Stewart and David Letterman are obsessively joking about it. It's the new facebook, and people who more or less know what they're talking about, say it's growing even faster and has even higher potential.
So, several months after the twitter wave hits America, I am trying to figure out what the hell all the fuzz is about. A site where anyone can "tweet" their message to the world (if it's less than 140 characters long, that is), and the followers of this.. bird..? ..can comment on the.. ehm.. tweet.
This results in
1: Interesting, accurate news or information, short and to the point, often with a link if you would like to read more. (pages like CNN, NY Times etc..) OR
2: Page up and page down with nothing but bull***t.
Some of the bull***t is actually funny, Hobo Jones is kind of funny, and whoever is doing the twittering for Darth Vader is, if nothing else, really in-character. But all in all, with the way the page is right now, I don't think I'll be twittering that much. First of all: Who the hell should I follow? Whose lifes and opinions are so important to me that I would hang on to their every 140 character long update? The page has no categorising system, so you can only find tweets you're interested in by searching names or e-mail addresses. There is no way of knowing if the tweet you're reading is fake or real, and there is no filter on what's mundane and trivial (ex: I found expired milk in my fridge today), and what's breaking news (Earthquake in San Fransisco!!). And even though Hobo Jones is funny, you get tired of reading stuff like:
"Holy moly! I jus' saw m'self in a puddle reflection... I'm a handsome man. I jus' need t' git m' boils drained!" and "Lost my spittin' can agin."
Twitter has a lot of potential, and I'll never say never, but for now, this birdie no tweet.
Showing posts with label behaviourism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label behaviourism. Show all posts
Saturday, 4 April 2009
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Barbie's birthday
[bahr-bee], noun, trademark: a brand of doll representing a slim, shapely young woman, esp. one with blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin.
50 years ago on this very day, Barbie made her first appearance at the American Toy Fair in New York City. Her 50 year-long story is interesting, but long, so if you can be bothered, read it here. She was an immediate success, and has become one of the most significant icons of our time. She's had more than 100 careers, ranging from model to surgeon, ballerina to teacher, firefighter to astronaut to presidential candidate. You can buy your Barbie as a geisha, african american, latin american, you could even buy a handicapped Barbie, wheelcheer inclusive. I bet that was a limited edition. Ha-ha, I'm sorry.
She has been loved and hated through the years. Loved for the hours of joy she has brought to generations of little girls (and boys), hated because of her somewhat proportionally incorrect body and how her looks affect todays expectations to how young women should look. If Barbie was human sized, she would stand 5 foot 6 inches tall (1,68 m) and weigh 110 pounds (49,9 kg). She would have a 39 inch bust (99 cm), an 18 inch waist (45 cm), and 33 inch hips (84 cm). In 1995 some Finnish scientists claimed that lifesize Barbie would be too skinny to menstruate, and in 1997 her waist was slightly broadened. That did not stop the religious police in Saudi Arabia from banning the popular doll in 2003, claiming that she promoted "decadent and perverted western moral".
A product of the devil or not, today she is not only a doll, she is a brand and a billion dollar business. You will find Barbie products in 150 countries, and Mattel claims that every second 3 Barbie dolls are sold somewhere in the world. But what's interesting though, is that when the University of Bath did a research on children's relationship to different branded products, they discovered that young girls tend to be very violent with their Barbies, a disturbingly high number of the children found joy in tearing her head and arms and legs off, or putting her in the microwave. They saw this tendency with no other brand in the test. This proves what I have suspected for many years; our underlying hatred for gorgeous, skinny, successful women is pure instinct.
I owned a few myself. I never tore her head off, or microwaved her for that matter, but I do remember crying hysterically when a bully at my school decapitated one of them. Happy 50th, Barbie!
Today's thought provoker: In 2007, the song "Barbie Girl" by Aqua was voted as one of the world's 20 most annoying songs by Rolling Stone magazine, the song has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide and the music video has 26,5 million views on YouTube.
50 years ago on this very day, Barbie made her first appearance at the American Toy Fair in New York City. Her 50 year-long story is interesting, but long, so if you can be bothered, read it here. She was an immediate success, and has become one of the most significant icons of our time. She's had more than 100 careers, ranging from model to surgeon, ballerina to teacher, firefighter to astronaut to presidential candidate. You can buy your Barbie as a geisha, african american, latin american, you could even buy a handicapped Barbie, wheelcheer inclusive. I bet that was a limited edition. Ha-ha, I'm sorry.
She has been loved and hated through the years. Loved for the hours of joy she has brought to generations of little girls (and boys), hated because of her somewhat proportionally incorrect body and how her looks affect todays expectations to how young women should look. If Barbie was human sized, she would stand 5 foot 6 inches tall (1,68 m) and weigh 110 pounds (49,9 kg). She would have a 39 inch bust (99 cm), an 18 inch waist (45 cm), and 33 inch hips (84 cm). In 1995 some Finnish scientists claimed that lifesize Barbie would be too skinny to menstruate, and in 1997 her waist was slightly broadened. That did not stop the religious police in Saudi Arabia from banning the popular doll in 2003, claiming that she promoted "decadent and perverted western moral".
A product of the devil or not, today she is not only a doll, she is a brand and a billion dollar business. You will find Barbie products in 150 countries, and Mattel claims that every second 3 Barbie dolls are sold somewhere in the world. But what's interesting though, is that when the University of Bath did a research on children's relationship to different branded products, they discovered that young girls tend to be very violent with their Barbies, a disturbingly high number of the children found joy in tearing her head and arms and legs off, or putting her in the microwave. They saw this tendency with no other brand in the test. This proves what I have suspected for many years; our underlying hatred for gorgeous, skinny, successful women is pure instinct.
I owned a few myself. I never tore her head off, or microwaved her for that matter, but I do remember crying hysterically when a bully at my school decapitated one of them. Happy 50th, Barbie!
Today's thought provoker: In 2007, the song "Barbie Girl" by Aqua was voted as one of the world's 20 most annoying songs by Rolling Stone magazine, the song has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide and the music video has 26,5 million views on YouTube.
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Lost online part 1
American Dreamz is on TV and I'm not watching it. Not because it's a bad film (well, it is actually), or because there's nothing interesting on TV (Lord of War, a really good film, is on the other channel), or because I've seen it before. No, the reason why I'm not watching Hugh Grant do one of his less memorable roles is because I've done it again; I got lost on the Internet. Ever experienced that? When you're just reading an article, linking to another one that mentions something interesting, so you google that, ending up on some blog without any idea of how you got there, but you just... can't... stop... reading...? Yeah, I do that, a lot. Today I ended up in a quite familiar place though, I've been there before. It has given me hours and hours of childlike joy. Overheardinnewyork.com. Random conversations overheard in one of the worlds most versatile cities, written down and gathered on the web for our pleasure and to satisfy my slightly eccentric interest in human behaviour and interaction. Three random favourites of today, I am sure there will be more:
Tween #1: You wanna abort this conversation?
Tween #2: What? Why?
Tween #1: Because we're arguing whether 'haha' or 'l-o-l' is funnier than 'l-m-a-o.'
Hobo: Hey, can you spare 20 cents?
Girl: Sorry
Hobo: Okay, 30 cents...40 cents...50 cents, but that's my final offer.
Thug kid: When are you having that damn baby?
Pregnant: I was due last week and I want a C-section but the doctor said we shouldn't do it yet.
Thug kid: I'ma call that doctor tomorrow and tell him to take that nigga out.
Tween #1: You wanna abort this conversation?
Tween #2: What? Why?
Tween #1: Because we're arguing whether 'haha' or 'l-o-l' is funnier than 'l-m-a-o.'
Hobo: Hey, can you spare 20 cents?
Girl: Sorry
Hobo: Okay, 30 cents...40 cents...50 cents, but that's my final offer.
Thug kid: When are you having that damn baby?
Pregnant: I was due last week and I want a C-section but the doctor said we shouldn't do it yet.
Thug kid: I'ma call that doctor tomorrow and tell him to take that nigga out.
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