Posts

June 06, 2013

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11:00 AM | Celebrating Oceans and Marine Biodiversity

50 Fish from American Waters (1870-1900). Allen and Ginter. The Seafood Picture Shrimp (the most-consumed seafood in America) and other Crustaceans. Natural History of the Animal Kingdom for the Use of Young People.This Saturday, June 8, is World Oceans Day, the UN-designated day for the global community to celebrate and take action to protect Earth's oceans. 71% of the Earth's surface is covered with water, and every living thing depends on water to survive. Sadly, according to the […]

May 30, 2013

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12:34 AM | Worth the effort…?

There is (fair) argument sometimes made that the huge amount of public money expended on often unnecessary and/or ineffective and/or downright dangerous ‘Big Pharma’ products renders objection to that frittered on, say, (always unnecessary, ineffective and potentially indirectly dangerous) homeopathy to be hardly worth rational effort. Indeed, the NHS’s 65-year support for homeopathy is on the wane: though not an immaterial amount – £4–12 million a year awarded to strapped academics […]

May 28, 2013

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3:45 PM | Google Invades Africa

Google Blimp The "gBlimp" is from an April Fool's joke a few years back. BUT WHAT IF IT WAS REAL. Google Google's plan to bring high-speed internet access to huge swathes of Africa includes blimps, satellites, and a heaping dose of self-interest. Citing "people familiar with the strategy," the Wall Street Journal posted an overview of Google's ambitious plans to bring high-speed wireless internet to Africa. The specifics are all fuzzy, since Google hasn't announced anything, but almost […]

May 15, 2013

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2:39 PM | Billboard Bug Spray Becomes Giant Insect Trap

Invisible, non-drying glue helps illustrate what happens to insects that stick around this summer. Continue reading →

May 13, 2013

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5:00 PM | National Coalition for the Homeless

The National Coalition for the Homeless is a national network of people who are currently experiencing or who have experienced homelessness, activists and advocates, community-based and faith-based service providers, and others committed to a single mission: To prevent and end homelessness while ensuring the immediate needs of those experiencing homelessness are met and their civil rights protected. We envision a world where everyone has a safe, decent, affordable and accessible home. We are […]

May 03, 2013

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7:04 AM | Online reviews and movie critics are fantastic – so why do we ignore them??

The carpet is sticky and the smell of hotdogs mingles with sweet popcorn. The trailers are rolling. Even though person’s knee from the seat behind jabs into my back, I don’t care. The summer blockbuster is about to start and I’ve heard great things about it… But two hours, a bursting bladder and numb bottom … Continue reading »

Chintagunta, P., Gopinath, S. & Venkataraman, S. (2010). The Effects of Online User Reviews on Movie Box Office Performance: Accounting for Sequential Rollout and Aggregation Across Local Markets, Marketing Science, 29 (5) 944-957. DOI: 10.1287/mksc.1100.0572

Duan, W., Gu, B. & Whinston, A. (2008). Do online reviews matter? — An empirical investigation of panel data, Decision Support Systems, 45 (4) 1007-1016. DOI: 10.1016/j.dss.2008.04.001

BOOR, M. (1992). RELATIONSHIPS AMONG RATINGS OF MOTION PICTURES BY VIEWERS AND SIX PROFESSIONAL MOVIE CRITICS, Psychological Reports, 70 (3c) 1011-1021. DOI: 10.2466/pr0.1992.70.3c.1011

Citation

April 26, 2013

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7:48 PM | Is Dove Beauty Campaign Based on Bad Data?

A widely reported survey found that 4 percent of women consider themselves beautiful, but what does that really mean? Continue reading →

April 22, 2013

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4:08 AM | Choice, Control, Freedom and Car Ownership

Cars have long been symbols for personal freedom. With the open road before you you can go anywhere—from behind the wheel you really take control of your destiny. In this regard, cars are empowering. Ownership means that you have the means to be independently mobile, that you own not just a vehicle but choice as [...]

March 28, 2013

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4:46 AM | How Psychology is Used in Advertising

A cute and educational animated short film about advertising and psychology.

March 22, 2013

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8:02 PM | People Think Candy Bars With Green Nutrition Labels Are Healthier

Green Calories Dan NosowitzI see what you're trying to do there, Snickers bar. No matter how smart we think we are, humanity continues to be fooled by simple marketing tricks. Various experiments have found wearing the color red is more likely to get you a date. Another new study suggests that a green hue can convince you that a candy bar isn't really that unhealthy. As part of a study published in Health Communication, Jonathon Schuldt, an assistant communication professor at Cornell […]

March 13, 2013

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3:30 PM | Mouthtopia Explained

Recently, Asher shared a comic book cover that featured a Gurney-inspired feathered Therizinosaurus, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the models that brought Jurassic Park to life. Today's post is of a piece with those, I think. You don't have to look at the highest forms of art and popular culture to see how public perspectives on certain topics are changing. You should also look at those things pitched at the general public. Nothing fits that description better than advertisements for […]

February 21, 2013

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3:41 PM | ‘What Doctors Don’t Tell You’ cites paper that demonstrates there is no such thing as homeopathy

Back in that supermarket a few days ago, I again found myself driven to taking a thumb through the latest edition of QuackRag What Doctor’s Don’t Tell You, whose unscrupulously permissive advertising policy is being systematically exposed by The Nightingale Collaboration. Though I didn’t buy the rancid rubbish, I alighted on a small piece entitled ‘Homeopathy is more than placebo’, from which I noted the reference cited as voucher for that statement. From BMC Cancer, no less. I’ll […]

Rostock, M., Naumann, J., Guethlin, C., Guenther, L., Bartsch, H. & Walach, H. (2011). Classical homeopathy in the treatment of cancer patients - a prospective observational study of two independent cohorts, BMC Cancer, 11 (1) 19. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2407-11-19

Citation

February 13, 2013

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2:37 PM | Improved cleaning power, with just a bit of mom’s spit

I’m sure several comedians have joked that the most effective cleaning product on Earth is a mother’s spit. You may remember this – when a child has a bit of food stuck on their face, particularly in front of other people, Mom licks her thumb and instantly wipes it off. … Continue reading →

February 09, 2013

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6:05 AM | Twix Helps Dicks Get Chicks?

(I wrote this flippant piece back in December 2011 but didn’t post it for some reason. But what else am I going to do with it? It’s just been staring back at me from the Drafts folder for the last fourteen months…so here you are.) PB + chocolate. Worth the calories. I sat down at the computer last night for some laid-back Sunday evening blogging. Before getting started, I took a moment to input recent eats into LoseIt.com. Peanut butter Twix bars weren’t already in […]

February 04, 2013

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9:47 AM | Super Bowl Ads: Sexy Astronauts and Space Babies

It's time for the obligatory Super Bowl ad postmortem: Were there any space related ads? Were they any good? ->

January 16, 2013

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7:51 PM | “May” advertising

Yesterday I was sitting in the chemist waiting for a prescription when I noticed an advertisement for “Inner Health Immune Booster for Kids”, a product which contains probiotic bacteria. The advertisement claimed that “A clinical trial has shown that, when taken daily, the exclusive probiotic strains in Inner Health Immune Booster for Kids MAY: reduce [...]

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3:18 PM | The Atlantic, Scientology, and The Theft of Credibility

The Atlantic has done so many things well in its move online that I was among the many readers and journalists flabbergasted when it teamed with the Church of Scientology to repeat a mistake that had already been made more ...

January 12, 2013

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10:40 AM | really-shit: Where Does Your Rubbish Go? One of the more...

really-shit: Where Does Your Rubbish Go? One of the more impactful advertisements I’ve seen.

January 04, 2013

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5:02 AM | An fMRI study of surrealistic advertising

First, a quick look at (some of) the scientific works which have investigated how fMRI might help in the understanding of the human brain’s responses to Surrealism. [1] Matching reality in the arts: self-referential neural processing of naturalistic compared to surrealistic images. (Perception. 2012;41(5):569-76.) (surrealistic pictures here) [2]The Neural Basis of Object-Context Relationships on [...]

January 01, 2013

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9:36 PM | Ear candling? – don’t be an ass!

If you’ve ever publicly aired an opinion on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, its products, practices and practitioners, and (cough) philosophy, then, not uncoupled from the probability of encountering adherence to fallacious logic and the provoking of irrational wrath, you may well have met with the defensive protestation that you are being offensive. Like that is somehow relevant. But, this entrenching attitude goes, rather than criticise or question, you should perhaps instead […]

December 22, 2012

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4:08 PM | Ever for Never

Just come back from the middle class's likely favourite supermarket, having got up at six in order to get there for a 7 am opening so as to avoid as much as possible the elbowed and elbowing throng storing up their appliance pouches in readiness for a week of sitting around getting drunk and fat (sez me), wherein, after I'd bit the bullet at spending more than I intended, I wandered over, in conversation with my companion about the insidious... Read more

November 26, 2012

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4:16 PM | Macy's Parade Rains Secret Info: DNews Nugget

A Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade goer was shocked to find classified information on the confetti around him,

November 15, 2012

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4:48 PM | UCLA Math Undergraduate Merit Scholarship for 2013

[Once again, some advertising on behalf of my department, following on a similar announcement in the previous three years.] Two years ago, the UCLA mathematics department launched a scholarship opportunity for entering freshman students with exceptional background and promise in mathematics. We have offered one scholarship every year, but this year due to an additional source of funding, [...]

November 06, 2012

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10:32 PM | Let's Replace Annoying Billboards With Sky Forests of Bamboo

Bamboo Billboards Bamboo instead of annoying billboards: Vote yes. Urban Air via KickstarterA new Kickstarter project is raising money to turn city billboards into suspended bamboo gardens. In areas that allow unlimited billboard construction, the side of the road can look like a peeling, rusty forest. Signs that aren't hawking cellphone companies, fast food places or adult stores are adorned with horribly sketched toothy whales shouting YOUR AD HERE. But there is a better billboard future! […]

November 05, 2012

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4:57 PM | Four-Year-Old Sick of Political Ads: Gotta-See Video

Abigael is sick of the political ad season and expresses her sadness. Luckily, her mother captured it on film.

November 01, 2012

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4:30 PM | Fancy a Lick?

Can science expect to get public attention only to the extent that it is promoted by louder and edgier publicity than other things?

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3:29 PM | MIT Improves on Gangnam Style: Gotta-See Video

I hope you're ready for this, because of all the Gangnam Style videos, this one has the largest commitment and might be the most creative.

October 29, 2012

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5:00 PM | The University of Akron Center for the History of Psychology

URL: http://www.uakron.edu/chp/The CHP includes a museum of psychology that highlights artifacts, documents, films, and photographs from the history of the human sciences. It is also home to the Archives of the History of American Psychology, comprised of a vast collection of artifacts, media, and documents, including the personal papers of many important psychologists. For: AnyoneTopics: Foundation Website, General PsychologyFeatures: Advertising, Community and Social Networking, Conferences, […]

October 24, 2012

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4:05 PM | Incredible Halloween Light Show: Gotta-See Video

Extravagant light shows used to be Christmas' thing, but Halloween is stepping up.

October 23, 2012

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4:42 PM | The Life of A McDonald's Fry: Gotta-See Video

Follow a french fry from the field to the fryer in this video from McDonald's Canada.