Brian Gongol
Meet Mister Rogers' asteroid
There really is an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter that is named for Fred Rogers of the children's television show
Dead or alive? Look carefully at the eyes.
A report in "Psychological Science" finds that we humans use the eyes to determine whether the thing we're looking at is alive or not. Apparently a continuum can be drawn between doll eyes and human eyes, and a certain point is reached where we decide a thing "looks" alive (even if we know it's not) when it's roughly two-thirds of the way to looking like it has human eyes. The eyes probably explain why we think things like baby monkeys are adorable.
MySpace goes for broke
The social-networking service is trying to push its mobile service, along with a whole bunch of other aggressive marketing moves, to try to stay alive as it continues to get passed up in favor of Facebook. But for those keeping score at home, Facebook will undoubtedly have the same problem by about 2015, by which point Facebook will be so institutionalized that young people will see no reason to join it. The whole point of "youth culture" is to rebel against the mainstream, and Facebook is already crossing well over into the mainstream.
How Italians are richer than Americans
The average Italian family has almost half a million dollars' in net worth. Part of this comes from having 80% homeownership. Part of it comes from having almost half the relative amount of debt as American families.
When I grow up, I want to work in advertising
(Video - with children using some coarse language) A spoof of an old Monster.com commercial, spun to poke fun at those who work in the advertising business
"The Girl Effect"
(Video) How the world's rather large number of young girls could present a great risk for inducing perpetual poverty -- or a tremendous opportunity to help the developing world get on a trajectory toward a better future.
Reductio ad absurdam
Designers strip away everything they can from the labels for consumer goods.
