Compare and discuss.

PS How do you think Kony 2012 fits into this scheme?

P. 1

Pt. 2

Erik Assadourian from the World Watch Institute introduces the 2010 edition of the State of the World (you can download some chapters for free here, or purchase PDF of the whole book for less than $10). The presentation style may not zing like TED, but I think it’s worth cribbing some notes, especially the intro which makes a clear argument for the importance of transforming culture. The book has several chapters on media, including a very good one by Jonah Sachs and Susan Finkelpearl (of Free Range Studios–makers of Story of Stuff) about social marketing:

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(click on the book cover to download the article)

These days you can’t trust anything on the net, so the story of a new sex Robot that also spews 9/11 conspiracy theory sounds too much like a viral prank. So let this be my disclaimer. Meanwhile, watch the video and judge for yourself. The conspiracy sex talk comes in after the second minute. No doubt this will put a bump in my Web hits.

As for the cultural analysis, well let’s see.. porn, conspiracy, sex with robots. Pretty straight forward if you ask me.

Firm unveils X-rated robot (Update):

Inspiration for the sex robot sprang from the September 11, 2001 attacks, when planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon and an empty field in Pennsylvania.

“I had a friend who passed away in 9/11,” Hines said. “I promised myself I would create a program to store his personality, and that became the foundation for Roxxxy True Companion.”

Hines sees his creation as not only a recreational innovation but as an outlet for the shy, people with sexual dysfunction, and those who want to experiment without risk.

Apologies for being part of Burger King’s viral campaign. I have been victimized once again by my own outrage. Anyhow, just to restate the obvious, who has more girth here?

Click here for more info about the offending ad.

Computers were invented in African. Really.

This article was sitting in my backlog, so I thought I’d shoot it out there. I had read some interesting critiques of the Vanity Fair Africa issue that confirmed my suspicion that the goodwill gesture of celebrities to highlight problems in Africa was furthering the racist construct that Africans cannot speak for themselves (Boing Boing had some great links). Additionally, there is a problem of thinking about “Africa” as one monolithic concept when in truth it is a highly diverse continent that is rich with so many different cultures and perspectives.

What Bono doesn’t say about Africa – Los Angeles Times (this may require registration to view):

JUST WHEN IT SEEMED that Western images of Africa could not get any weirder, the July 2007 special Africa issue of Vanity Fair was published, complete with a feature article on “Madonna’s Malawi.” At the same time, the memoirs of an African child soldier are on sale at your local Starbucks, and celebrity activist Bob Geldof is touring Africa yet again, followed by TV cameras, to document that “War, Famine, Plague & Death are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and these days they’re riding hard through the back roads of Africa.”

It’s a dark and scary picture of a helpless, backward continent that’s being offered up to TV watchers and coffee drinkers. But in fact, the real Africa is quite a bit different. And the problem with all this Western stereotyping is that it manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of some current victories, fueling support for patronizing Western policies designed to rescue the allegedly helpless African people while often discouraging those policies that might actually help.