Well, folks, here it is: the last FOLLIES OF THE MAD MEN for the foreseeable future, and my last regular post after one year's worth of nearly two per day. I didn't quite achieve two FOLLIES per week over that year, but close.
In any case, read the convoluted logic here about how your choice of TV reflects your sexual prowess.
Time to point our telescopes of weirdness at "the old country", methinks.
Speaking of old, recent research carried out by the University of Michigan has revealed that US seniors are smarter than their UK counterparts. The study, lead in the US by Kenneth Langa, measured the recall abilities of over 8000 elderly Americans and over 5000 elderly Brits, and found that the yanks scored 1.4 more on the memory tests, out of a possible 24. Langa suggests that part of the difference was due to higher average levels of education and income in the US group, and higher levels of depression in the UK sample, but points out that nothing is certain at the moment. "It's like a view from 30,000 feet" said Langa (New Scientist).
And it's not just British brains that are shrinking, the UK's sheep are getting smaller as well. Because of a trend towards milder weather believed to be due to climate change, Sheep on the Outer Hebridean island of Soay are getting smaller at the rate of 100g/year, say researchers from Imperial College, London. Though it might seem that warmer winters and a greater abundance of food might make for bigger sheep, Tim Coulson, the professor leading the study, points out that fewer weaker and smaller lambs will die over winter, bringing down the average size (Telegraph).
Now, in some good news, UK campaigners have won a second victory in a three-year battle... to bring back a chocolate bar. The "Wispa Bar", made by European confectioners Cadbury, was introduced in 1995 along with a caramel laced version called the "Wispa Gold", only for both to be discontinued in 2003. This prompted some die-hard fans of the bubbly chocolate bar to start a petition to have it go into production again, resulting in a "limited edition" run of the original Wispa last year. When the 40 million bars produced sold out in just 18 weeks, Cadbury decided to relaunch the brand. Not satisfied with just one bar, campaigners have kept up the pressure, causing Cadbury to start producing Wispa Golds "for a limited period," as before. However to some commentators, this latest move looks more like slick PR than grassroots victory (Sky News).
[From The Saturday Evening Post for April 29 1950. Two scans, top and bottom.]
This campaign uses what I like to call "the artificial linkage" method. You take something natural and inevitable and try to tie your product to it. In this case, the entire grand eternal season of Spring means nothing more than digging out your paintbrush and ladders and tackling your peeling house.
You gotta love the name of the paint, though: "Barreled Sunlight."
Heinz (of ketchup fame) recently introduced the Beanzawave, a tiny microwave that is powered by a computers USB port and would be the world's smallest microwave (7.4 inches tall x 6.2 inches wide x 5.9 deep). Only a prototype at the moment, the Beanzawave is a major breakthrough for its use of cell phone radio frequencies to cook your food in under a minute. If you don't like to lug a laptop around with you when you leave your house, but still have the need to microwave your food wherever you go there is an option to use a battery. When/If Heinz decides to go ahead and manufacture this microwave it'll cost about $160 and you'll never have to leave your computer every again. Daily Mail
Tired of people stealing your mug at work? The people over at Perpetualkid.com seem to have the solution. They bring you one of the only coffee mugs with a built in anti-theft that renders it useless unless plugged. No more worrying about who molests you mug... unless they have one too.
To kick off, here's the story that inspired the theme of today's post. A Franciscan monk from a monastery near Krakow in Poland has leapt into the bestseller lists with a Catholicism-friendly sex-manual for couples "who love God". Hailed as a Catholic "Kama Sutra", Father Ksawery Knotz's book - demurely titled "Seks" - has been published with the blessing of the Polish Church and goes (apparently) well beyond the "missionary position" of lore, though it keeps with holy tradition by counselling against contraception (The Guardian).
But when it comes to sex education, it is perhaps the Germans rather than the Poles who need to learn the facts of life, or at least, German editors do. In a shock result, a poll by German youth magazine Bravo has revealed that teens have a familiarity with drink and porn that belies their "tender years". The 2009 "Dr. Sommer Study" found that 79% of youths aged 14-17 had seen pornography, and 50% had been drunk at least once, 36% to the point of incapacity. This latter result may also go a way to explaining the 28% of teenagers who admitted to having had unprotected sex (The Local).
Perhaps Germany could take a leaf out of North Carolina's book, where the "Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign" has started a service where teens can text-in for sex advice from their mobile phones, getting the answer back the same way(Fay Observer). I wonder what answer you get if you text "Hlp my cndms splt! Wht doi do?", "Ur 2 L8, mrri hr!" perhaps?
Of course it's easy to pull off a discrete text message, but there are times when it's necessary to get your sex advice in person, with all the embarrassment that entails. Except that is for patients to the UK's Chalmers Hospital, where as part of a major refurbishment a private corridor is being added to and from the sex-clinic, so that visitors need never have to pass through the public areas (BBC News).
And as if to show that the British medical profession has its finger on the pulse of sexual health, members at a recent conference of the Royal College of Nursing voted 93% to 7% to call for the legalisation of "co-operative" brothels. Their hope is that by encouraging prostitutes to band together in licensed "mini-brothels", they would be safer from violence and exploitation and be more easily screened for STDs (The Scotsman).
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Sexuality, Television, 1970's