drat fink
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pop tarts
"Needless to say, the flavor of the Fanta ads is more about borderless fun than the gritty details of the global commerce machine. But in a funny way it was the ads themselves that reminded me, indirectly, of Fanta's origins: The commercials are basically a clever repackaging of almost every youth-marketing trope in recent memory—their leavings, if you will—with plenty of pop culture scraps besides. In the jargon of a pitch meeting, it's a post-ethnic, multinational, transracial, global village, lip-syncing girl band meets prefab boy band, retro-swinger, Austin Powers/Ocean's 11 semi-camp, quasi-kitsch, virtual nostalgia, club remix, neo-urban, alterna-brand, anti-Cola … vibe. Oh, and any of these ingredients may contain some irony—but it's the all-natural kind."
safety first
"The U.S.'s nonlethal-weapons programs are drawing their own fire, mostly from human-rights activists who contend that the technologies being developed will be deployed to suppress dissent and that they defy international weapons treaties. Through public websites, interviews with defense researchers and data obtained in a series of Freedom of Information Act requests filed by watchdog groups, TIME has managed to peer into the Pentagon's multimillion-dollar program and piece together this glimpse of the gentler, though not necessarily kinder, arsenal of tomorrow."
da do run run
"Remember when Blair, Tootie, Natalie and Jo got into a paint fight? Or how about when Danny Partridge had his tonsils taken out and the family had to replace him for a few gigs? You may not remember all the episodes of your favorite TV shows, but The Rerun Show does - and will reenact them using a talented ensemble cast! Following in the success of The Real Life Brady Bunch stage show, The Rerun Show will steal unforgettable moments from nostalgic shows such as The Facts of Life, The Partridge Family, Differ’nt Strokes, One Day at A Time and more! On "The Rerun Show," classic TV moments come alive again - with a live action twist -- as a talented ensemble cast reenacts episodes from America’s favorite TV shows such as "The Partridge Family," "The Facts of Life" or "Diff’rent Strokes." Much like the popular stage show "The Real Life Brady Bunch," this comedic, half-hour alternative series re-visits the vintage scenes with a new and outrageous slant."
managed economy
"This "talent mind-set" is the new orthodoxy of American management. It is the intellectual justification for why such a high premium is placed on degrees from first-tier business schools, and why the compensation packages for top executives have become so lavish. In the modern corporation, the system is considered only as strong as its stars, and, in the past few years, this message has been preached by consultants and management gurus all over the world. None, however, have spread the word quite so ardently as McKinsey, and, of all its clients, one firm took the talent mind-set closest to heart. It was a company where McKinsey conducted twenty separate projects, where McKinsey's billings topped ten million dollars a year, where a McKinsey director regularly attended board meetings, and where the C.E.O. himself was a former McKinsey partner. The company, of course, was Enron."
ear rink
gandalf (clip)
fischerspooner
the polyphonic spree
pepito
gene genie
francis fukayama and robert wright debate the future of cloning at Slate.
fresh breath
starlight mints
the sunshine fix
of montreal
freedom rings
open democracy: thinking for our time
just corking
"Proust not only made introspection and its attendant solitude the cornerstone of a new aesthetic; he built an epic around them. After he sought out the very rich and was coddled by them, or after he found love—which rarely happened—Proust, like the narrator of À la recherche du temps perdu, returned to his solitude, to his private world, as to a coming home. At the end of the novel, when Marcel finally has his artistic vocation revealed to him in three successive flashes, he discovers that the very solitude he had sought out and lived with all of his life, and which followed him like a shadow, was perhaps the most authentic and enduring thing about him."
stated department
"Colin Powell, the beleaguered Secretary of State, has delivered an angry riposte to the Pentagon hardliners responsible for his recent string of policy defeats - insisting to allies that he "won't let those bastards drive me out."