Bratz Suckz

Here I am watching the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy on Cartoon Network with Duncan, and what do I see but an advert for Bratz. They now have a special karaoke Sushi lounge toy that you can buy. Gee. Whatever next. A Bratz burger joint for the not-so-hip American kids? A Bratz fish and chip shop for the haute couture challenged English market?

I went to their official web site to try to find out more about it, and I got totally lost. Nice graphics, but I'd just like to get to a web page that describes the sushi bar and I've no idea how to navigate to it. Maybe I need to be a female second grader to know what you do. Maybe I need to know Japenese. I dunno. They are now my this weeks winners of the suckiest web site.

Luckily there are enough other places where I can get the information I wanted.

[Technorati Tag: Websites]

( Oct 21 2004, 07:11:05 PM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [6]

Omni - where are they now? (May 1985)

Earlier in the week, I mentioned that there were several things of interest in the May 1985 edition of the Omni magazine I'd been reading, and I wanted to investigate what ever became of them.

• Vocabulary and Guilt: This was in the Continuum column and described a method devised by Professor Ronald Carpenter, a linguist at the University of Florida, for determining whether a person is lying when giving testimony, by counting the number of different words they used. The theory is that when you talk normally without stress, you tend to repeat words fairly often. Carpenter analysed Richard Nixon's Checkers speech, and found that the former president "jumped way up the scale" as he lied about his wife's birthdate and maiden name.

  Interesting. So what's happening in this field now? Anybody using this technique nowadays? I've no idea. I couldn't find anything on this. Professor Carpenter seems to have a Lawyering Skills Program available which is very popular though. Perhaps I should just email him and ask.

• Ear Bubbles: Another Continuum column offering:

  It's a clear plastic bubble -- the size of the end of a man's thumb -- with a pencil thin hole in it. Stick it in a partially deaf ear and it may work better than a $500 electronic aid.

  The bubble was designed by Richard L. Goode , professor of surgery at Stanford University, and was just beginning to be sold by the name of Innovaid 600 by a company called Innovative Hearing Corporation in San Jose, California for $90.

  What about now? Googling around for the commercial product, the company name and "ear bubble" came up with nothing related to this. It looks like hearing aid technology has advanced in other directions since then.

• Drugs for Speed Learning: In a previous Delphic Poll questionaire, readers were asked to predict when certain things might happen. Their answers were then compared with those from experts in that field. Lots of fascinating speculations. What interested me was the one on speed learning. One reader in five agreed with the experts. This would happen before 2000 - but even they were too cautious. Drugs that can boost learning and memory already exist. For example, there is a potent memory aid, a hormone called vasopressin, now available by prescription (don't forget, this is an article from 1985).

  So what's happened since then? I found this article from 1993. The FDA hadn't approved it at that time as a memory and learning enhancement. Then I found this article which seems to sum up the state of play currently. I think I'll stick to caffiene for now.

[Technorati Tag: random]

( Oct 21 2004, 07:29:20 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [1]