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Ethan Sherwood Strauss

Monday, Feb 7, 2011 11:20 PM UTC

Best of the CIA: Charlie, the robot fish

CIA's YouTube channel features such wonders as details on dog training and a sneak peak at a lil' swimmin' spy

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The Central Intelligence Agency is releasing unintentional comedy via YouTube. Though taking the media-savvy lead of the Obama White House, a YouTube channel seems like an odd choice for the secretive set, but every organization likes to show off, I suppose. Here are some highlights:

Hanging out with a smiling android fish with elevator music in the background — the novelty value could be high on this one. All hail James Pond. 

 Hey, do you want to know how to become a ”CIA canine”? These talking dogs are happy to clue you in!

Joining the CIA means having a swanky, seemingly endless family.

 If you can’t love the poorly-animated ”insecthotper,” you’re joy-deficient.

Monday, Feb 7, 2011 10:27 PM UTC

Foundation cancels on Sarah Palin

A non-profit nixes Palin's appearance, citing "safety concerns"

By Former Republican Vice Presidential candidate and Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin greets guests after speaking at the Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara, Friday Feb. 4, 2011. Palin was the headline speaker for the Ronald Reagan Centennial celebration opening reception hosted by the Young Americans Foundation. (AP Photo/ Spencer Weiner)(Credit: AP)

The Denver Post reports that The Sharon K. Pacheco Foundation rescinded an invitation for Sarah Palin to make a guest speech in May. Pacheco is an apolitical non-profit, designed to help military families and at-risk youth. So, in a political vacuum, Sarah may have seemed like a good choice because she’s a famous face with a serving son.

But, the organization may have gotten more than it bargained for. Fame has come with a price for the polarizing Palin. She’s equal parts loved and hated, and Pacheco perhaps decided that benefiting from the former was not worth incurring the latter. The foundation noted that: ”no direct threats have been made against anyone, but the recent increase in negative rhetoric against the former Alaska governor raises concern for her safety and the safety of others.”

Regardless of their motives, this frees Palin up for what should be a massively entertaining May 2nd NBC/Politico Republican presidential candidates debate.

 

Sunday, Feb 6, 2011 10:07 PM UTC

Obama vs. O’Reilly

The president chats with the Fox News pundit. And nothing terrible happens

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Bill O’Reilly sat down with President Barack Obama just before the White House Super Bowl bonanza. On the whole, the conservative pundit and liberal hero seemed to — wait for it — get along really well. Topics ranged from Egypt to tax cuts to political persuasions. Frankly, nothing earth shattering happened so we’ve keep this round up brief and posted the interview in full at the bottom.

On Egypt:

O’Reilly: “Mubarak, is he gonna’ leave soon?”

Obama: “Egypt is not gonna’ go back to what it was. The Egyptian people want freedom”

O’Reilly (when announcing his suspicions regarding the Egyptian revolt): “Mubarak knows a lot of bad things about the United States. I’m sure you’re aware of that… Those are tough boys, that Muslim Brotherhood.”

On tax cuts:

O’Reilly: “Are you a man that wants to redestribute wealth?”
Obama: “Absolutely not.”

 On political persuasions:

O’Reilly: “Are you moving to the center?”
Obama: “I haven’t moved anywhere”

 

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Sunday, Feb 6, 2011 9:07 AM UTC

The Super Bowl’s most memorable ads

The biggest commercials from the biggest game

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We’ve culled the most eye-catching commercials from this year’s Super Bowl — including some spots that went viral long before they hit the TV screen. Check them out below. 

Volkswagen: The viral superstar of the pre-Super Bowl hype. A small child tries to use the force on a car that fights back.

GroupOn awkwardly makes light of Tibetan plight, via Timmy Hutton.

Motorola punches Apple in the face.

Cars.com with some sassy, talking autos.

Eminem gets behind a sober (Chrysler) defense of Detroit.

Chevy with transformers meets Cloverfield.

It’s become tradition: A homoerotic ad for junk food.

Not a favorite, just odd to see Pepsi attempt to find humor in emasculation, abuse.

When beer commercials eschew misogyny in favor of funny dogs, that’s a net win.

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Thursday, Feb 3, 2011 3:03 AM UTC

The Daily whoa?

Rupert Murdoch's iPad newspaper draws a big, speculative buzz

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As Rupert Murdoch unleashes his digital, iPad-specific newspaper, he does so to a receptive peanut gallery. With the product selling for 99 cents per week, $39.99 a year, it has potential to economically alter our little industry’s fate. And we, the media, love to navel-gaze our own future. Promise the moon and we’ll all grab telescopes in a gunslinger’s blur. The scribe’s zeal to look forward is informed by an uncertain, desperate present.

(Will The Daily make me obsolete? Will The Daily pay my mortgage?)

(Who am I kidding, will The Daily pay my rent — for the hole I’m renting from toothless glue addicts?)

The reviews — as the cliché goes — have been mixed:

  • Huffington Post’s Larry Magid is hardly a fan, citing a “yesterday’s news” problem that plagues dead tree screeds.
  • Jack Shafer: ”I’d say that The Daily is more about establishing a new business model, with an efficient pay wall, than embracing a new medium.”
  • From the New Yorker: ”Right now, it feels like a hybrid of the New York Post, the iTunes store, and elements of other iPad periodicals: slide show, video, infographics.”
  • Gizmodo believes The Daily to be good out of the gate, but not revolutionary.

Murdoch’s marketing includes a functional advertisement that leads newbies through The Daily confines. A narrator’s singsong cadence evokes memories of grade school typing programs — for me, it specifically brings back the cartoon iguana who cheered my ability to capitalize via ”shift” keys. That which is displayed, amid the kindergarten-cadence, prompts recollections of, well, the Internet. 

The instructional commercial is simplistic to the point of confusing. Who is this for? How is this the future?

And perhaps the most telling aspect of the ribbon-cutting: A next-gen iPad sighting generated considerable buzz at The Daily unveiling. The means of conveyance is what gets people giddy, these days.

My take? I don’t yet own an iPad (remember the toothless addicts?). But, I wonder: Will The Daily become relevant enough for me to get one? Early indications say no, but Fox News wasn’t built in a day.

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Tuesday, Feb 1, 2011 10:12 PM UTC

Chromium primer: How your drinking water may cause cancer thanks to coal

Hexavalent chromium, the chemical compound implicated in the famous Erin Brockovich story, returns to scare you

By Pure chromium

As House Republicans move to restrict the EPA, hexavalent chromium — of Erin Brockovich infamy — is trickling back onto the scene. The drinking-water pollutant has been found in three Pennsylvania coal sites, according to a report by environmental watchdog EarthJustice. The organization lauds EPA goals, but argues that the agency is underreaching on this particular issue:

“While government regulators express concern for small quantities of the cancer-causing substance in our water, they are ignoring one of the largest sources of the hazardous chemical — coal combustion waste (or coal ash) from the nation’s coal burning power plants.”

The report was released on the eve of Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson’s slated Wednesday Senate testimony regarding the dangers of hexavalent chromium. According to the EPA itself:

“Human studies have clearly established that inhaled chromium is a human carcinogen, resulting in an increased risk of lung cancer.”

With that risk so starkly stated, the Environmental Protection Agency has pressure to move on this potentially deadly problem.

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