Media Mashup for the week ending February 28

Every week, I consume massive amounts of media online. Most never make it into this blog, often because I can't figure out how to build an entire blog post around them. Seems such a waste. So I've decided to start a new feature: my media mashup for the week previous.

So without further ado, here's what I learned online last week:

Strangers no more: A new app that IDs faces

When I wrote this post a few days ago about our dwindling 15 minutes of anonymity on the internet, I almost included a bit on how the coupling of facial recognition technology and smartphone cameras will enable us one day to obliterate the anonymity and mystique of any stranger we encounter on the street. One day.

But that day is already almost here.

Does self-esteem reside in the left brain?

Science is confirming what I've long suspected: the left half of my brain has a bigger ego than the right.

When the left hemisphere is in charge, subjects are more likely to associate themselves with positive attributes, such as "capable," according to a study published in Cortex. When the right hemisphere is in charge, subjects gravitate more toward negative attributes, such as "boring."

In other words, the left hemisphere has confidence that it's awesome, and the right hemisphere mostly has self-esteem issues.

That explains so much. I've had two careers, one very right-brain and the other very left. At the left-brain job, I knocked shit out, no problem. At the right-brain job, it was round-the-clock angst. If I could transfer the big ego to my right brain and give all the humility to my left, I'd probably get a lot farther in life. Sigh.

If you have any comments to submit, please do. Just remember: All mean comments should go to the left; All nice comments should go to the right.

15 Minutes of Anonymity

They say the Defense Department invented the Internet, but I have an alternate theory: I think Al Gore made a wish on The Monkey's Paw, and one day we'll find out the ironic price to be paid for that granted wish.

Love in the time of 140 characters or less

Will flittering be the new speed dating?

Imagine walking into a dimly lit, swank lounge packed with 300+ singles, everyone wearing a numbered tag and holding a mobile device. A giant Big Brother screen looms, displaying a live-feed stream of the flirty tweets (aka "flitters") pinging about amongst the crowd. You spot an enticing stranger, and with thumbs poised on mobile device you begin to compose in your head the perfect in-140-characters-or-less come-on to #157....

Got Beer?

Move over milk, there's a new bone density booster in town

Drinking beer may increase bone mineral density and help prevent osteoporosis, according to a new study.

The key ingredient contained in beer: silicon (who knew?), which increases bone mineral density.

Pale ales contain the most silicon; light lagers, wheat beers and non-alcoholic beers the least.

Sounds about right -- if beer drinking gives you Homer Simpson's belly, your bones are gonna need the extra strength to lug that shit around.

I sense a new beer-lobby ad campaign a-brewing. Paris Hilton sporting a beer 'stache? Seems only a matter of time.... [Reuters]

A Tale of Two Chimps: Part 1

What a traumatic news-cycle this week has been for our nearest living relations within the animal kingdom. I keep thinking of all those baby chimps out there, in their wittle diapers and parked in front of some TV somewhere, maybe an ice cream cone in hand... and maybe at this very moment one of them is watching that endlessly looped clip of the gunned-down Crazed Chimp of Connecticut... the lifeless chimp body being dragged away by his police executioners... Heartrending, just heartrending.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

It's no longer just a fantasy from a movie--now it's science. Selective memory erasure is possible... in mice, anyway--which makes me laugh, because right now I'm picturing a mousy mouse dressed like Joel Barish and an orange-dyed mouse dressed like Clementine.

Humans may very well be next. Last year, scientists published findings suggesting that certain drugs may be able to refashion memories when administered shortly after traumatic events. Now they are looking for ways to reshape and/or erase painful memories even years afterwards.

That would be a great scientific breakthrough for, say, people suffering from PTSD. But for traumatic breakups? Ooh... I don't know. I don't think that's a good idea, actually.

I read Charlie Kaufman's original script--not the shooting script--which started with a flash-forward to the future, when an 80-year-old Clementine shows up at the clinic yet again asking to have all memories of one Joel Barish erased... again. I don't know that the movie actually needed that scene. But it illustrates Kaufman's viewpoint on the wisdom of erasing memories of people we once loved. And the tragedy of it is, if Clementine and Joel had just kept their memories of each other, good bad ugly and everything in between... maybe they could have learned from it, and even figured out one day how to make their relationship work in the long-term. Maybe not. But impulsive memory-erasure just kept those two locked in an eternal cycle of the wisdom-less mind. (Sigh)

Here's the article behind this post http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-11-07/the-end-of-bad-memories/

How To Win Enormous Cash & Prizes

$25 million: Richard Branson's prize for the solution to Climate Change
$30 million: The X Prize for landing a lunar rover on the moon by 2012
$75 million: The Michaelson Prize for inventing "The Pill" for dogs and cats

$75 million! Doesn't that make you wish you had become a Scientist? And all you'd have to do is just, like, use your mind... and get all "Mavericky" about it.

But that pill... well it has to be single-dose. And completely non-surgical. There's the rub.

Regardless, it seems all the really big money these days is in R&D: Research and Development. And it takes some tycoon philanthropist to really make change happen. Hmm...

Hey... what's Warren Buffet doing with his money these days, do you think?

Why a Coffee Shop May Be the Place to Win Dates & Make Friends

The Daily Beast calls the syndrome "Hot Coffee Goggles." When a person holds a warm drink in his/her hands, that person is more likely to rate others as "generous" and "caring."

Read this link, then give it a try...
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sciencenow;2008/1023/2

OMG, I'm About to DEFEND Sarah Palin(!)

I am no fan of Ms. Palin. Clearly. But I, for one, am not going to stand for this media onslaught focused almost entirely on Ms. Palin, whom I see as little more than a patsy in many respects.

Whether the RNC spent too much "styling" Ms. Palin is so beside the point. The question is, is there any precedent for this kind of spending, on candidates either male or female, by either the Republicans or the Democrats? Did the DNC spend money styling Hilary? Or Geraldine Ferraro? And when We-the-People make contributions directly to the candidate of our choice, are our contributions going towards this kind of frivolous spending? If so, do We-the-People want to perpetuate this kind of politics-as-usual gamesmanship and the worship of Style to the complete exclusion of Substance?

Which is why I just fired off a rather snippy and snarky email to CNN Headline News... and I generally like their coverage of the news.

And try to watch NBC's Brian Williams' long-awaited interview (tonight?) with Palin, and McCain. Take special note of how Daddy McCain had to sit beside her, in order for Ms. Palin to face (or be allowed) to meet the press. The Republicans are treating Ms. Palin like a patsy... and I, as a woman, am more than a little peeved. Maybe if the Republicans had just let Ms. Palin sink-or-swim on her own (like Joe Biden does, for good and bad), instead of focusing on how to dress up their "Caribou Barbie" and what words to put on her teleprompter... well, maybe she would have eventually figured out how to avoid all the embarrassing gaffes she has been making. Maybe not. But still...

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Postscript: Thank you, Keith Olberman of MSNBC, for answering some of my questions. Neither party is innocent here--Clinton was once getting $200 haircuts, apparently, on the taxpayers' dime. The irony is, McCain himself, back when he actually acted a bit like the straight-talking "maverick" he still claims to be, raised this very issue of the frivolous spending of public funds by politicians on highly personal expenses, including one's wardrobe. Once. Oh McCain... maybe I should start calling you King McLear instead...