Andre Leon Talley on board as host for Cycle 14 of America's Next Top Model →
I forgot about this somehow and now that I recall I am happy. Tyra just bought my love. New season starts March 10th.
Ugh, now I have to watch this terrible show again. I love Talley. He used to do the commentary during fashion week for some local FashionTV bullshit or something, and when one of the idiot dowagers he was with thought it would be terribly clever to spout the cliche “It’s almost as if black is the new black!” he shot her down with a withering glance and impeccable timing with his usual imperious tone: “NO. Red is the new black.” She didn’t say much after that.
I also saw him at one of the few tent shows I was able to finagle my way into while I worked at In Style. Not sure where he finds furs large enough to cover his mountainous girth, but he always makes a grand entrance. Love him.
Yes, But What Kind of Life is That? We Think the Living Would Envy the Dead
Willett/Underwood, “How Public Policy Can Prevent Heart Disease”Until last year, the residents of Albert Lea, Minn., were no healthier than any other Americans. Then the city became the first American town to sign on to the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project—the brainchild of writer Dan Buettner, whose 2008 book, The Blue Zones, detailed the health habits of the world’s longest-lived people. His goal was to bring the same benefits to middle America—not by forcing people to diet and exercise, but by changing their everyday environments in ways that encourage a healthier lifestyle.
What followed was a sort of townwide makeover. The city laid new sidewalks linking residential areas with schools and shopping centers. It built a recreational path around a lake and dug new plots for community gardens. Restaurants made healthy changes to their menus. Schools banned eating in hallways (reducing the opportunities for kids to munch on snack food) and stopped selling candy for fundraisers. (They sold wreaths instead.) More than 2,600 of the city’s 18,000 residents volunteered, too, selecting from more than a dozen heart-healthy measures—for example, ridding their kitchens of supersize dinner plates (which encourage larger portions) and forming “walking schoolbuses” to escort kids to school on foot.
The results were stunning. In six months, participants lost an average of 2.6 pounds and boosted their estimated life expectancy by 3.1 years. Even more impressive, health-care claims for city and school employees fell for the first time in a decade—by 32 percent over 10 months. And benefits didn’t accrue solely to volunteers. Thanks to the influence of social networks, says Buettner, “even the curmudgeons who didn’t want to be involved ended up modifying their behaviors.”
Isn’t it time we all followed Albert Lea’s example? Diet and exercise programs routinely fail not for lack of willpower, but because the society in which we live favors unhealthy behaviors. In 2006, cardiovascular disease cost $403 billion in medical bills and lost productivity. By 2025 an aging population is expected to drive up the total by as much as 54 percent.
This feels like the “broken windows” theory of crime reduction to me. I’ve always been a big fan of community-based solutions to seemingly larger societal problems.
Much more, please.
It is arrogant to imagine that 100 senators are wise enough to reform comprehensively a health care system that constitutes 17 percent of the world’s largest economy and affects 300 million Americans of disparate backgrounds and circumstances.
—
Senator Lamar Alexander.
If Senator Alexander believes that healthcare reform is beyond his comprehension, then he should resign immediately. Why else do we elect politicians, if not to handle the hard decisions?
(via alcaniglia)
(via think4yourself)
I agree. What did he think he was going to be doing when he was elected?
(via section9)
This sounds like “it’s broke, but we can’t fix it” to me. Which, in fairness, might be true. But you have to try, you big turd.
If only the insurance industry were paying all of us to not want reform! But then, that would just be doing their job, wouldn’t it?
This week’s Tumblr Tuesday adds another twist!
The Dashboard now occasionally features blogs recommended by the people you follow.
It’s a bit karmic that darksilenceinsuburbia just posted this, as I had already planned to recommend this tumblr today. I am constantly surprised, amazed and disturbed by the images posted on this tumblr. I chose Art as the category, although that doesn’t seem to quite capture the thematic story told by the flow of posts there. I considered picking Cute just to be funny, but that warning they make you click is very threatening. Don’t suspend my account just for cracking wise, tumblr!
Gawker Media packed with bloggers.... I counted 23!
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Jason Calacanis visiting Gawker today.
Inside the belly of the beast.
walzer on disappointment
“After outrage, disappointment is probably the easiest emotion of the left. I am always disappointed before the fact, so as not to be too disappointed afterwards. Right now, though, I am resisting disappointment. Granted, Obama’s first year has not seen a radical transformation of American society—not even the transformation that Roosevelt wrought in his first one hundred days. But there is a reason for that. Roosevelt came into office after three years of severe depression and frighteningly high unemployment. The country was ready for radical experiments. Obama came into office after only a few months of recession, and the country wasn’t ready for much more than he has done.
“He brought with him a group of economic advisors and policy-makers who were committed to the restoration of the status quo ante—not to any radical reconstruction of the economic order. Had they been social democrats, rather than conventional liberals, they might have recognized the urgency of job creation and invested more heavily in it. But any more significant economic reconstruction was not a felt need in the country; there had been no political preparation for it; there was no movement mobilizing support for it and nothing like agreement on its necessity in Congress, not even among Democrats. The mere fact that we, on the left, wanted reconstruction is no reason to be disappointed that it didn’t happen. We are not entitled to get what we want, and we shouldn’t expect to get what we want until we convince a majority of our fellow citizens that they should want it too. And that we plainly haven’t done.”
—Michael Walzer on Obama’s first year
Word.
Google's commercial.
Google’s spot, “Parisian Love,” was genius, pure and simple, telling a love story via search terms.
The commercial was a sharp contrast to ads by rival Bing (that did not air during the Super Bowl), which focus on the din and noise of “search overload” and illustrates the point with a bunch of people talking over one another. The point Bing’s ad tries to make - that Google search too often brings up results that have nothing to do with what the user is actually looking for - culminates in an unbearable cacophony of voices by the end of the spot.
But Google does nothing to hide from that fact: rather, their commercial - which timed out at just over 50 seconds - seems to pride itself on the mess of search results it generates, allowing the unseen user - perhaps two users? - to narrow down those results by themselves, resulting in a happy ending.
The relative silence of the spot - accompanied by a Mark Mothersbaugh-like tune and a few sound effects - mirrors Google’s simplified user interface. In short, the ad told a great story by showing us exactly what it is that Google does, without all the bells (‘cept for the wedding ones) and whistles.
In their first TV ad ever, Google gave us exactly what we were looking for.
I couldn’t agree more with this analysis. Bing’s tone-deaf campaign, while cute, doesn’t resonate with the reality of the internet-savvy generation. It also never manages to show you how it is different from Google, beyond the meaningless “decision engine” catchphrase.
lol.
Heh. This is some sort of Amazon joke right?
Career Opportunities
Men, May 1971
A potential tumblr ad campaign.
Bo: She’s not handling this 40 thing too well, is she? I mean, golly, I wish I could tell her it’s no big deal. I had a ball on my 40th birthday. I felt really strong, really sorted-out about it. I realized what a lucky, wonderful person I was. And whether in your 30s or your 40s, you’re still the same gorgeous person. Enjoy life! Mother: When will you be 50? [Bo starts hyperventilating.] Marshall: She hasn’t started 50 therapy yet.
— AbFab
I have a new follower from Malaysia! For someone like me who grew up without a laptop in a school that obviously shared one gene pool, and actually owned a TRS-80 that required 8 floppy disks just to start it, that’s nothing short of amazing. Welcome, Syafiq.
I also suddenly seem to be popular with the under-21 crowd? There’s nothing wrong with that, it just seems odd to me, since I remember when you were born. I was never popular with them when I was their age. I was busy writing computer programs that made letters dance across a b&w screen, reading things like the dictionary (the dead-tree version), and taking acid - which might explain why those things seemed so fascinating to me.
Fuck, I am so old. Get ready, people, I turn 38 at the end of the month, and have not started 38 therapy yet. (If you are old and watched Absolutely Fabulous, you will get that.)
(via bestrooftalkever)
I needed this. I’m still assuming that mine is 666 until somebody proves to me otherwise.
