What’s on that microphone?
I’ll let this tweet explain:
Posts
Biden Calls Out to Dead Congresswoman
To quote from a news report:
President Joe Biden mistakenly sought out Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana at a news conference Wednesday, less than two months after putting out a statement mourning her death.
Biden was speaking at a White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health when he thanked bipartisan elected officials who introduced legislation to convene the conference. Walorski was among them.
"Jackie are you here? Where's Jackie?," Biden said, looking to the side and saying in a soft voice, "she was going to be here."
A few excerpts from the responses given by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at the press briefing to journalists who enquired about what had happened:
Q: What happened in the hunger event today? The President appeared to look around the room for an audience member, a member of Congress who passed away last month. He seemed to indicate she might be in the room. What happened there?
A: The President was naming the congressional champions on this issue and was acknowledging her incredible work. He had — he had already planned to welcome the congresswoman’s family to the White House on Friday. There will be a bill signing in her honor this coming Friday.
So, of course, she was on his mind. She was of top of mind for the President. He looks — very much looks forward to discussing her remarkable legacy of public service with them when he sees her family this coming Friday.
Q: He said, “Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie? She must not be here.”
A: No, I totally understand. I just — I just explained she was on top of mind. You know, this wasn’t — what we were able to witness today and what the President was able to lift up in this — at this conference at this event was how her — her focus on wanting to deal with, combat food — food insecurity in America. And this is something that he was lifting up and honoring.
Q: If the late congresswoman was top of mind for the President and her family was expected to be here and that’s what he was thinking about, what — why was he looking for her?
A: Again, I don’t think it’s all that unusual to have someone top of mind, especially as there’s a big event — two big events — today and also Friday — that is going to occur.
Q: I think the confusing part is why, if she and the family is top of mind, does the President think that she’s living and in the room?
A: I don’t find that confusing. I mean, I think many people can speak to sometimes when you have someone top of mind, they are top of mind. Exactly that. And it is also — if you put it into the context, it’s not like it happened without — outside of context, right?
A Mathematician’s Ode to a Gloriously Imperfect Face
To quote from an outstanding spot for customised spectacles brand Cubitts:
I like all the ways you fall outside the standard deviation range of human facial measurements.
I find your unusually narrow bridge extremely attractive.
I adore the fact that you have a smaller head than 90% of the population.
I think if I walked my fingers across your brow, it would take a millisecond longer than expected.
My darling bone structure outlier, your minor physiognomy oddities aren’t minor to me.
No one’s average but some are more unaverage than most.
Shleep Sanctuary
Mattress and sleep brand Emma is offering a chance to win an overnight stay at its “science-backed, world-first sheep counting sleep experience”.
From the website:
Emma’s Shleep Sanctuary hosts two guests overnight in a custom, private sleep dome, with views across the rolling Sussex hills, surrounded by sleep-inducing numbered sheep and a guided experience that brings sleep science and nature together for the ultimate transformative rest.
You can win the chance to spend the night at Emma’s Shleep Sanctuary. You’ll travel to our location in the Sussex Downs in June 2023 and enjoy a meet and greet with the sheep, dinner under the stars, a luxury local breakfast hamper and a guided morning yoga session.
The Bright Side of Quarrelling
From the background explanation for a new outdoor campaign for the board game Monopoly:
The one thing that makes Monopoly truly unique and different, is that it causes fights. It might be the only board game that isn’t always fun and games. Research conducted with its manufacturer Hasbro, even shows that 8 out of 10 people fight during a game of Monopoly. And that’s actually a good thing. Because in the safe space of a family game night, Monopoly can teach you a lot about how you express your emotions and how you deal with disappointments. Therefore, throwing the Monopoly board across the room has the potential to strengthen your relationship with your family.
RIP Louise Fletcher
From her standout Oscars acceptance speech:
I’d like to thank… …Jack Nicholson and a cast of actors whose professionalism, humour, and capacity for getting into their roles, made being in a mental institution, like being in a mental institution.
NSFW- Chips to encourage Sex
From Lithuania: startup chips/ crisps brand Chazz has a new addition to its ‘18+ Adults only’ range of flavours.
Excerpts from the description on the product page:
According to several past years research data around the world, millennials are having 3 times less sex than their parents at the same age.
It is unbelievable that someone is choosing social media instead of live communication, dating and real sex.
CHAZZ team is young, bold, and SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE, so we took this disastrous trend very personally. We decided to draw everyone's attention to it and thus contribute to solving this problem: that is how we came up with the idea…
After tasting it, you will remember your wildest love adventures, your first real love, and maybe even lose your oral virginity...
For girls and women: if this or previous year you were pleased by someone, it is very likely that you have directly contributed to the creation of this taste.
Alternative Shift
A brilliant new spot for meat alternative brand Quorn that is audacious, compelling and genuinely funny.
Feline Fury
From France: a new spot for refurbished electronics platform Back Market. While the effectiveness with which it eventually lands its message is debatable, it’s great fun to watch.
‘An insult to the Irish’
That was what a pubgoer had to say after being served a pint of Guinness in a Coors glass at a bar in Galway, Ireland- which was enough to make news headlines.
To quote from a local report:
Paying a visit to the bar last week, the pubgoer recounted that everything was going smoothly until they were served their pint of black stuff.
To their horror, the pub had served them their Guinness in a Coors glass.
They said: “This is a sin...any good Irish person knows the unspoken civil law to respect the Guinness and its glass.”
It was insult to injury from there, however, as they complained to staff about the issue but say they did not receive the sympathy they felt they deserved.
They continued: “They then tried to charge me for the rectification of the issue and after I refused to pay they gave me a Guinness glass and forced me to pour the Guinness into it, absolutely destroying the pint.”
Genuinely Close
From Germany: a stunning new spot for haircare brand Guhl places the iconic 90s song ‘What is Love’ amidst moments of tender intimacy and vulnerability.
2022 Ig Nobels
A few of the winner citations:
Literature Prize
“for analyzing what makes legal documents unnecessarily difficult to understand.”
“for studying whether and how constipation affects the mating prospects of scorpions.”
Engineering Prize
“for trying to discover the most efficient way for people to use their fingers when turning a knob.”
Peace Prize
“for developing an algorithm to help gossipers decide when to tell the truth and when to lie.”
“for seeking and finding evidence that when new romantic partners meet for the first time and feel attracted to each other, their heart rates synchronize.”
Economics Prize
“for explaining mathematically why success most often goes not to the most talented people but instead to the luckiest.”
RIP Henry Silva
To quote from one tribute:
American movie villain royalty… Such a striking look, so much screen presence.
As the hitman in Sharky’s Machine (1981)
Offended Hiring
A Manchester-based small creative agency has put out recruitment posters that walk a thin line between candour, and risking offending applicants as well as potential clients. To quote the co-founder:
Some people aren’t going to like these job ads.
Which is kind of the point
As it happens, the firm goes by the name of Offended.
World’s Stinkiest Sock
Some context:
To showcase the benefits of Lysol Laundry Sanitizer, Lysol scientists worked tirelessly to create what they believe to be the World’s Stinkiest Sock – using a synthetic formula that represents the worst foot stink, inspired by every day, odor-causing bacteria.
Trapped (Season 3)
The first season of Trapped is one of the finest pieces of long-form crime drama. The second season was a respectable follow-up that was marred by some questionable writing.
Season 3 has two immediately noticeable differences. One, Netflix prefers to call it Entrapped (the Icelandic title remains the same). Two, it is much shorter- just over half the running time of the first two seasons.
It starts off on a somewhat underwhelming note. For the first three of the six episodes it follows a watchable but meandering narrative. It is only at the end of the fourth episode that it picks up pace. But it is the final reveal that is the real standout. It elevates all that has happened before. It also brings protagonist Andri’s personal story to a satisfying conclusion.
You need to have watched Season 1 to fully understand Andri’s character arc. Moreover, there are narrative threads that connect to events that happened in the first season.
‘Interspecies innovation arms race’
Cockatoos and humans are locked in what Australian researchers have described as “an interspecies innovation arms race”.
Sydney residents are resorting to increasingly sophisticated measures to prevent sulphur-crested cockatoos from opening and raiding household wheelie bins, detailed in new research published in the journal Current Biology.
The study, led by Dr Barbara Klump of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany, documented 52 combinations of techniques used by humans to deter the birds from their bin-raiding antics.
The challenge for humans is to secure the bins in a way that still allows them to be opened and emptied by automated garbage trucks.
The most basic cockatoo deterrent was the use of a brick or other heavy item to weigh down a lid. “We have definitely seen cockatoos frequently pushing those off,” said Dr Richard Major, a senior fellow at the Australian Museum and one of the study’s co-authors. “It’s a lot of fun watching a cockatoo pushing a brick off – you almost sense the satisfaction it gets as it does it.”
Undergarment Reminder for Witnessing Execution
The visitation rules of the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) include a clause that states that visitors must wear “a complete set of undergarments”. Prison officials, it seems, are finding it necessary to reiterate this requirement to journalists who are planning to witness a forthcoming execution.
To quote from one news report:
Alabama prison officials are reminding members of the media to “wear a complete set of undergarments” if they plan to witness the execution of Alan Eugene Miller scheduled for later this month.
In a media advisory sent ahead of Miller’s scheduled execution by lethal injection, the Alabama Department of Corrections wrote that reporters would be required to adhere to a dress code outlined in the agency’s administrative regulations. That policy, which applies to visitors of the prison and has no specific guidelines for journalists or executions, includes a requirement that “visitor(s) must wear a complete set of undergarments.”
Several sections of the policy attached to ADOC’s media advisory were highlighted in yellow by the agency, including the regulation on undergarments.
Every Moment is a Bet
An amusing new spot for betting site FanDuel Sportsbook makes the case that betting is an inseparable aspect of our lives.
Cocaine Discounts… in Honour of the Queen
Excerpts from a Vice report:
Drug dealers are marking Queen Elizabeth II’s death by messaging customers with their condolences alongside specially discounted products including cocaine, weed and ketamine.
In a screenshot attached to a viral tweet, one seller sent out a mail shot text 13 minutes after the Queen’s death at the age of 96 was announced on Thursday with a list of drugs and prices, including an ounce of weed for £150 and £30 grams of ketamine. Then they told their customers they were offering “a queen’s dead discount on everything ask me for details”.
It’s not the first time dealers have stepped up selling gack on the back of the Queen. In June one crew told its customers during the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations marking 70 years on the throne: “Next 4 days of party with queeny if you want to get higher than her highness, call me, jubilee deals.”
Consent Classification
From Australia: a campaign to spotlight movie scenes demonstrating lack of sexual consent, and to push for their classification.
A Case for Avoiding Synthetic Fabrics
Every 25 minutes, an Olympic-sized pool of oil is used to make synthetic clothing.
I can’t comment to the truth of this statement but it sure sounds scary. Set against some stunning but equally scary imagery, it’s at the heart of a new spot to promote the use of wool.
Second Chance
From Germany: a splendidly crafted commercial for eBay Motors that blends brand messaging with wonderful storytelling. It’s been helmed by Swedish/Brazilian director Joanna Nordahl.
Link to video (Director’s cut, 5 minutes)
Anything for the taste
From South Africa: a delightful spot for KFC that is based on “real fake news stories”.
Game Scent Match
Sports betting and gaming company DraftKings joins a growing list of brands launching unusual, one-off, limited-edition fragrances. To quote from the announcement tweet:
Do you want to smell like fresh tennis balls? Of course you do.
Place a bet on the NY Tennis Major for your chance to win a bottle of our new fragrance, Love Love.
The oddness of the initiative is perfectly captured by the tongue-in-cheek promotional video.
Beauty Insecurity
From Sweden: a series of spots for beauty and hair care chain Lyko that mine our insecurities for humour, and test the limits of what is acceptable to show or say in commercials.
Ice-cream to make you feel like a millionaire
From Canada: the Government-owned Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation has tied up with a Toronto-based ice-cream shop and some food scientists to create a range ice-cream bars, intended to give a taste of the “millionaire life”. To quote from one report:
The Rare Oil Painting flavour tastes like a modern masterpiece that incorporates olive oil, fresh mid-tannins and a hint of oil paint
The Private Island flavour includes delicious notes of seawater: salty, sandy and fresh with Pacific Ocean Konbu seaweed, rounded out with lingering hints of lychee and orange blossom, giving the taste of owning your own tropical island
The Designer Handbag tastes like rich leather, tannins of smoky notes throughout and finishes with a vibrant floral note which one can find at designer boutiques
What’s more, each purchase comes with a chance to win a lottery jackpot.
Goose Flight
This new spot for Emirates airline meshes a great idea with solid execution and chucklesome little touches.
Larry for Leader
A spoof campaign to add some colour to the contest for the leadership of the UK Conservative Party. For more context, you could look up Larry’s Wikipedia page and Twitter profile.