July 2010

  • Global Media Awards Accepting Entries

    By sarajean on 7/21/10 6:18am
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    Do you host a regular media show that involves population issues? Maybe you volunteer with a reproductive justice organization and you’ve written editorials or commentaries about specific issues. Perhaps you have your own YouTube channel where you create mini documentaries about population and the environment. Or maybe you’ve got your own campus broadcast radio or television show where you’ve dedicated a discussion to global population issues. If any of these describes you, you might want to apply for the Global Media Awards.

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  • WTF, National Parks Conservation Association?

    By sarajean on 7/13/10 11:10pm
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    I just received an email asking me to “Like” Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water on Facebook. Are you flipping kidding me? Fan bottled water? No, thanks.

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  • Smugopedia As An Answer to Inter-Pricks

    By msarko on 7/12/10 3:39pm
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    puh-rikpuh-rikI'm mostly in favor of the integration of innovation into our everyday lives. I'm one of those people who gets a warm, tingly feeling from the use of video screens to advertise things on city streets and the fact that regular people get to walk around with personal GPS maps that would have made high-ranking military officials wet themselves just 15 years ago. Though the technological advancement of everyday life comes at a price. Because the way we communicate with each other changes over time, each generation has to essentially re-learn even the most basic social skills in a new and increasingly disconnected context. Furthermore, as gadgets ostensibly make our lives easier, they also make our baseline comfort more dependent on the complex products of society rather than what grows naturally in the world. But really, neither of these things are particularly annoying, even if they can have serious implications for our future as a species.



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  • Youtube Nation: Vuvu-hell-a

    By msarko on 7/9/10 4:04pm
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    I'm sorry, Discovery Channel's hopelessly lame attempt to have an Internet presence, that didn't even begin to explain the cultural monstrosity that is the vuvuzela. For those of you who are blissfully unaware of the vuvuzela and its awful contribution to society, it is a long, now typically plastic horn that is capable of making only one note and that note is a sour one. South African soccer... er, football... um... hold on a second. On the one hand, I recognize that a lot of my readers are American like me, so calling the sport "football", however accurate, is still a bit confusing. I also recognize that the Internet is an international place, so it may be appropriate to call the sport "football" in deference to the rest of the world. But since I absolutely hate this silly argument and I've never seen the lasting appeal of that sport, I've decided to henceforth refer to it as Kickie-Snore. Right, now where were we? The vuvuzela has found its way into the global vocabulary by way of South African Kickie-Snore fans who brought them along for the World Cup. Originally the instrument was crafted out of the horn of a wild beast called a kudu and was a method for calling far-away tribesman back to the village. So, it's pretty much a South African shofar only not as good.



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