Category: Humor
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Seafaring Hominids?
Archaeology seems to be undergoing an explosion of new finds in the past decade or so. More and more, new information is completely scrambling old assumptions about human evolution and early modern human and hominid culture.The latest amazing find was written up yesterday in the New York Times:
Early humans, possibly even prehuman ancestors, appear to have been going to sea much longer than anyone had ever suspected.
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The Hubris of Humble Oil
In 1962, Humble Oil and Refining Co., which later merged with Standard Oil to become Exxon, ran the following ad in Life Magazine:
EACH DAY HUMBLE SUPPLIES ENOUGH ENERGY TO MELT 7 MILLION TONS OF GLACIER!
The giant glacier has remained unmelted for centuries. Yet the
petroleum energy Humble supplies—if converted into heat—could
melt it at the rate of 80 tons each second. To meet the nation’s
growing energy needs for energy, Humble has applied science to nature’s
resources to become America’s Leading Energy Company. Working wonders
with oil through research Humble provides energy in many forms—to
help heat our homes, power our transportation, and to furnish industry
with a great variety of versatile chemicals. Stop at a Humble station
for new Enco Extra gasoline, and see why the “Happy Motoring” Sign is
the World’s First Choice! -
Alan de Botton on Success
Here is a breezy talk in which Alain de Botton looks at our ideas of success and failure, the anxiety we feel over our careers, why it’s harder now to feel calm than ever before. Is success always earned? Is failure? What role does snobbery and envy play in our lives? What is the flip side of equality, individualism, and meritocracy? Where do our goals and ambitions really come from? And more (via 3QD).
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Where the Hell in KGP?
As many readers of this blog know, I went to the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT, KGP) in West Bengal. Years later I visited my alma mater again and wrote about it here. Guess what I found today? Those familiar with Matt Harding’s heartwarming dance videos from around the world (Where the Hell is Matt?) will likely relate to what it has inspired the students of IIT KGP to do. (via Pran)
The soundtrack is the same as in Matt’s video — a Bengali poem written by Tagore (Praan, or “Stream of Life”) and turned into song by composer Garry Schyman and Bangladeshi-American Palbasha Siddique.
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The Modern Stop Sign
Imagine the STOP sign didn’t exist and a major corporation tried to create one today. Here is what the creative process might look like:
http://view.break.com/542649 – Watch more free videos -
On Corporate Art
Corporations are like wild beasts. Both are driven by blind, unthinking appetites. The only authentic instinct of a corporation is to sustain itself; its drive and creativity have one objective: shareholder return. All its talk about serving the community, building dreams, and saving lives is propaganda for its employees and customers. That said, corporations can be downright amusing, especially when they collide with the world of art. I’ve identified three kinds of art that corporations display in their offices and which never fail to amuse me:
(1) Abstract art: This is all the brain-dead stuff that cannot possibly offend anyone, such as bright geometric patterns, twisted metal, funky designs, etc. 
( 2) Faux Rebel art: Former anti-establishment art—long defanged, decontextualized, made chic—is now the art of the “edgy” establishment. For example, a large woodcarving of Ché Guevara’s shaggy face in the board room (yes, I saw one in downtown San Francisco); a copy of a Diego Rivera mural in the lobby, etc.Category: Humor -
Of Monks and Ferraris
A couple years ago, a childhood friend who lives in New Delhi, handed me The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma—a self-help book on spirituality and “eastern wisdom”, which, curiously, was all the rage in Indian yuppie circles. At first, I attributed this to pride in the author’s Indian roots and his huge (financial) success in America.Readers of this blog will know that I’m deeply suspicious of this genre, replete as it is with New Age charlatans preying on people’s angst and insecurities. Still, due to my friend’s gushing praise and insistence, I began reading the book. I recall it now as a struggle on every page and often thinking of Dorothy Parker’s words from long ago: this is not a book to be tossed aside lightly; it should be thrown with great force. I finally caved in midway, putting her words into action. It dawned on me that the book’s transnational appeal lay in its very fatuousness (it has been published in 30+ countries, becoming a huge seller in the US, Israel, India, Mexico, and Canada, but apparently not in Europe).
I then read its customer reviews on Amazon (I often scan the lowest ratings first for critiques that might disqualify a book from my reading list). Mine was of course the minority reaction, but it was there alright. One person couldn’t even get past the title—what’s so great about selling one’s Ferrari, he asked? Why did the monk not give it away? But it was the hilariously scathing review below that most delighted me.
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Over 1,000,000 Iraqis Killed by US-Lead Invasion?
Here’s something you’re unlikely to see in the US press:
Further survey work undertaken by ORB, in association with its research partner IIACSS, confirms our earlier estimate that over 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have died as a result of the conflict which started in 2003.
This is the conclusion of Opinion Research Business (ORB), an establishmentarian, British polling firm that conducted a study in Iraq in 2007. You can see their results on their website here, with an update here. But apparently, this information isn’t newsworthy enough even to warrant discussion in the media.
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Sex in the Park
My previous post (From the Outside, Looking In) sparked a discussion between myself and a friend on the assumptions we make about other people. In this context, something my friend said reminded me of an amusing encounter Namit and I had in India, one which illustrated for me my own simplistic notions about Indian Muslims who wear the burkha.We were walking along a grassy, boulder-strewn hillside overlooking the city of Bhopal. There’s a tiny, rusty old amusement park at the top of this hill, with a miniature ferris wheel and a couple of other whirl-y rides, where families come for picnics. Outside this happening zone, the grounds are like a little wilderness park and there are fewer people, mostly a few adolescents trying to sneak off with their friends, newlyweds wanting to be alone, and a few random walkers like us. Suddenly, far from the small crowd of families on holiday, we heard men shouting behind a stand of trees. This being India, where everything is everybody’s business, we wandered over to see what the matter was. We found a man and woman standing with their hands tightly clasped to each others’, the man yelling red-faced at another man who was yelling back with equal vehemence. The woman, who stood quietly with her head bent, was covered in a full burkha—not even her eyes were visible behind her veil, which is quite unusual in India.
As soon as we approached, the single man brought Namit into the argument, making his case against the couple. His accusation was that he’d caught them in flagrante delicto out in the open. Having sex in public is illegal (public lewdness), he claimed.
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Comedy Break
Intelligent comedy is so rarely found. I consider it a gift when I run across something that moves me and makes me laugh and think, or makes me laugh with respect for the speaker. One occasion to do all of these is in Lilly Tomlin‘s one-woman show, “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe” (montage; reviews). I highly recommend it.
Happily, I’ve just discovered another serious comic, Julia Sweeney, whom some may remember as a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s. I came across a clip of Sweeney’s monologue, “Giving Up God,” which she performed during the TED talks in 2006. In this routine, Sweeney talks about the journey she took from being raised as a Catholic, losing her faith, and then finding sense in the idea of understanding the universe without a belief in god. In her blog, she says of this:
One of the astounding results of me losing my faith, (which was a beautiful experience…), was that I suddenly saw how alike we are to our fellow animals. And how different. But different in ways I had not previously considered. I saw my own behavior being influenced by millions of years of evolutionary history, but I also gained a new respect for ethics and the ability of the human race to make informed choices. Much more informed choices than many other animal species. After I lost my faith, I stopped anthropomorphizing in a childlike way and started anthropomorphizing in an informed way.
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On Not Reading
A review in the Economist of How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read.
“There is more than one way not to read, the most radical of which is not to open a book at all.” Thus begins Pierre Bayard’s witty and provocative meditation on the nature, scale and necessity of non-reading. With thousands of books published every year, it is, he points out, the primary way people relate to books. And even those books they do get round to opening remain in a sense outside their knowledge. “Even as I read”, he observes, “I start to forget what I have read.”
The first section explores the four categories of unread books, into at least one of which Mr Bayard places every book he mentions. These are the “books unknown to me”, the “books I have skimmed”, the “books I have heard about” and the “books I have forgotten”. No exceptions are admitted, even for books he himself wrote. Each category is illustrated with an example from literature.
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A Song for America
Here is a seriocomic take on American jingoism. It adapts a beloved ’70s tune from Tamilian Sri Lanka (“surangani surangani …”). The dancer-artist’s name is Malavika Tara Mohanan.
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The Oldest Conflict of All
Here is a debate between Professor Mansfield, author of the recent controversial study, Manliness, and Professor Kipnis, author of a similarly controversial new book, The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability. It covers “masculinity, femininity, the legacy of feminism, and the endless battle between the sexes.” This will likely not win any converts but may still prove entertaining enough (or might raise hackles).
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Kissing Without Consent or A Picture May Not Tell The Whole Story
Last week at the other blog, I reported the story of Glenn McDuffie, the Houston man who was recently identified as the sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square in the celebrated 1945 Life magazine photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt. The picture seen and recognized by millions, is an historical moment captured by a photographer’s lens, marking the end of World War II.
Upon being identified, McDuffie, who had served in the US Navy during WWII, described what the day was like when he went into Times Square with a couple of his buddies and later bussed the nurse in celebration.
On Aug. 14, 1945, he was in Times Square when the word came.
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Size Matters!
For ages now, men have made women feel self-conscious, nay worthless, making them obsess over the size of their, er … various body parts. Whatever the dimensions of a body part, they weren’t right today, and — we men artfully made sure — never would be. Women acquired the fine art and the wisdom of dolling themselves up — even getting nips, tucks, and implants — to be able to please our blessed eyes. We stoked their deepest fears and anxieties. With one sharp, well-timed glance or comment, we turned them into a whimpering heap of self-hatred and turmoil. Ah, how wonderful, how pleasurable, this sublime sense of control. Surely this is what Nietzsche had meant by man’s will to power.But, if history is any guide, golden ages do not last. Women may have just found the Achilles heel of men, one that hangs between their legs. Unless you live in a cave (or without email, increasingly congruent), you receive spam emails about penis enlargement — pills, pumps, patches, etc. Size does matter, they reveal, with stats on women’s preferences and smiling women proclaiming, well, large member benefits. The emails promise all sorts of gains — sex appeal, heightened libido, even saving marriages — all as easy as 1-2-3! “Be a Real Man” and “she will love you more than any other guy.” Related pills promise to boost the man’s fluid volume, to help him “shoot like a porn star” (move over gun slingers of the Old West) and to drown her with, umm … his fluid (of course she likes that feeling). For the New Age man there are organic, pesticide-free herbal alternatives, with a green label to boot. (That’s harmony with nature; Marcus Aurelius would surely have approved.)
Men are definitely buying this stuff, else why would there be so much selling? A lot of women are pleased with this development. Some are quietly rejoicing with this expose of men’s insecurities — a more level playing field at last! Just as women buy fashion magazines that feature unreal women, men consume porn that features unreal men. “This restoring of chi, or balance”, said a woman interviewed by Shunya’s Notes, “gives me a deep sense of catharsis.” Another woman, trying hard to conceal her elation, confided, “I secretly saw my husband browsing a website that sells those pills. Tears welled up in my eyes. I felt this moment of spiritual connection with his insecurity.”
Category: Humor
