Every Friday, Ben brings you SD&IF’s weekend space filler With Us / Against Us. Prepare to be torn down, then gloriously uplifted!
I can’t resist an event that only comes around once every four years, so prepare to endure a boatload of superfluous Leap Day references! Happy 14th, Bart Stupak!
Against Us
Since we’re blessed with an extra day here, the Gobernmint has decided to cram more sports-related silliness into a February already bursting with it. After 28 days of excruciatingly unnecessary reports on Arlen Spector’s plans to tackle the Patriots, Congressional testimony about Roger Clemens’ ass and how a Super Bowl party can violate copyright law, the FBI is getting in on the action and investigating whether The Rocket lied to Congress. Norm Coleman! Boston is stealing Minnesota’s sports mojo! I demand you look into this immediately! Your incentive: this bag of delicious Old Dutch kettle chips that I totally just opened and, like, didn’t even really touch yet, dude.
Ah, the memeification of America. The “I’m Fucking [blank]!” videos (soooooo February 28th) seem to have reached a reasonable apex, eliciting responses from everybody and their uncle. (“I’m Fucking…Aunt Carol!” My uncle is unflinchingly literal.) Anywho, now that “I.F.__!” is officially over, the New York Times can stumble in and cover it like they’re not two weeks late. Being the New York Times, they can’t actually name or describe the videos, resulting in a series of hilariously vague write-arounds. The sheer effort of calling out how people involved in the videos also led an overuse of honorifics, the like of which I haven’t seen since Diamonds Are Forever. Unofficially, I count 25 ‘Mr’s and ‘Ms’s. That’s pretty egregious, even for the Times.
With Us
Design Observer points us to “Where the Truth Lies: A Symposium on Propaganda Today.” Unfortunately, it already came and went. Two weeks ago. Unless Bissextile (hee hee) Day grants some sort of freaky-strange time travel powers (it doesn’t), your only option is to watch this synopsis.
Not all aging print mags are still struggling with the internet. Popular Mechanics fields a pretty slick site (it is a technology publication so I wouldn’t say this is a great leap) that I would describe as ‘Wired covering the more physical sciences.’ They seem to have made the essential appeal of the magazine (giving grown men an excuse to read about science fiction, cars and carpentry—all at the same time) more relevant online, which is no mean trick. Recommended reading: the Digital Hollywood section investigates shoddy Tinseltown science and digs into cool special effects, while managing to drop teasers that might actually get you to pick up the print version.
