Soda vs. Pop vs. Coke

December 3, 2013·Advertising·by MMXLLI·24 views

But of all the important topics on which Americans disagree, nothing sparks more debate than a seemingly simple question: Is a carbonated beverage called soda, pop or coke?

If you sit down a group of people from different parts of the United States, you’re bound to come across a few cultural differences. But of all the important topics on which Americans disagree, nothing sparks more debate than a seemingly simple question: Is a carbonated beverage called soda, pop or coke?

The Atlantic created its own version of the famous 2003 Harvard Dialect Survey, in which former Harvard professor Bert Vaux polled thousands of Americans about how they pronounce certain words.

The Atlantic recreated the project by calling people across the country and asking them a few of Vaux’s questions. Then they layered the answers with North Carolina State University graduate student Joshua Katz’s heat maps .

Hear the various ways Americans pronounce the word “pecan” and the country’s divisive stances on what to call a foot-long sandwich.

[via Mashable]

Do we have a lost generation on our hands? The Plight of Generation Y

December 2, 2013·Millennials·by MMXLLI·28 views

FOR Viktor Frankl, the Holocaust survivor who wrote the best-selling book “Man’s Search for Meaning,” the call to answer life’s ultimate question came early. When he was a high school student, one of his science teachers declared to the class, “Life is nothing more than a combustion process, a process of oxidation.” But Frankl would have none of it. “Sir, if this is so,” he cried, jumping out of his chair, “then what can be the meaning of life?”

The teenage Frankl made this statement nearly a hundred years ago — but he had more in common with today’s young people than we might assume.

Today’s young adults born after 1980, known as Generation Y or the millennial generation, are the most educated generation in American history and, like the baby boomers, one of the largest. Yet since the Great Recession of 2008, they have been having a hard time. They are facing one of the worst job markets in decades. They are in debt. Many of them are unemployed. The income gap between old and young Americans is widening. To give you a sense of their lot, when you search “are millennials” in Google, the search options that come up include: “are millennials selfish,” “are millennials lazy,” and “are millennials narcissistic.”

Do we have a lost generation on our hands? In our classes, among our peers, and through our research, we are seeing that millennials are not so much a lost generation as a generation in flux. Chastened by these tough economic times, today’s young adults have been forced to rethink success so that it’s less about material prosperity and more about something else.

Generation Y or the millennial generation, are the most educated generation in American history and, like the baby boomers, one of the largest. Yet since the Great Recession of 2008, they have been having a hard time. They are facing one of the worst job markets in decades. They are in debt. Many of them are unemployed. 

And what is that something else? Many researchers believe that millennials are focusing more on happiness than prior generations, and that the younger ones in that age cohort are doing so even more than the older ones who did not take the brunt of the recession. Rather than chasing the money, they appear to want a career that makes them happy — a job that combines the perks of Google with the flexibility of a start-up.

But a closer look at the data paints a slightly different picture. Millennials appear to be more interested in living lives defined by meaning than by what some would call happiness. They report being less focused on financial success than they are on making a difference. A 2011 report commissioned by the Career Advisory Board and conducted by Harris Interactive, found that the No. 1 factor that young adults ages 21 to 31 wanted in a successful career was a sense of meaning. Though their managers, according to the study, continue to think that millennials are primarily motivated by money, nearly three-quarters of the young adults surveyed said that “meaningful work was among the three most important factors defining career success.”

MEANING, of course, is a mercurial concept. But it’s one that social scientists have made real progress understanding and measuring in recent years. Social psychologists define meaning as a cognitive and emotional assessment of the degree to which we feel our lives have purpose, value and impact. In our joint research, we are looking closely at what the building blocks of a meaningful life are. Although meaning is subjective — signifying different things to different people — a defining feature is connection to something bigger than the self. People who lead meaningful lives feel connected to others, to work, to a life purpose, and to the world itself. There is no one meaning of life, but rather, many sources of meaning that we all experience day to day, moment to moment, in the form of these connections.

It’s also important to understand what meaning is not. Having a sense of meaning is not the same as feeling happy. In a new longitudinal study done by one of us, Jennifer L. Aaker, with Roy F. Baumeister, Kathleen D. Vohs and Emily N. Garbinsky, 397 Americans were followed over a monthlong period and asked the degree to which they considered their lives to be meaningful and happy, as well as beliefs and values they held, and what type of choices they had made in their lives.

Read the full article at NYtimes.com

America Fashion Powerhouse The GAP Shows Solidarity and Understanding To Sikhs and Muslims

November 27, 2013·Advertising·by MMXLLI·61 views

Gap earns some serious points for its quick, classy response after Arsalan Iftikhar, senior editor at The Islamic Monthly and founder of TheMuslimGuy.com, alerted the retailer that vandals had defaced one of its NYC subway posters featuring Indian Sikh-American actor and fashion designer Waris Ahluwahlia. Hooligans changed the campaign’s “Make love” tagline to “Make bombs,” and added the slogan, “Please stop driving taxis.”

“I wanted the world to see how millions of brown people are viewed in American today,” Iftikhar writes in the Daily Beast. ”So I proceeded to post this photograph to my 40,000+ Twitter and Facebook followers and asked them to share this photograph with their friends to try and create some social media buzz and overall awareness. After hundreds of re-tweets and Facebook shares by people of all colors and backgrounds around the country, there was so much social media buzz in less than one day that Gap contacted me directly after hearing about its vandalized advertisement and wanted to know the exact location.”

gap-solidarity

 

Then the company took its response a step further. “In addition to Gap’s rocket-fast attempt to find out more details about the situation,” writes Iftikhar, “I have to say that the best part about the company’s response to this social media campaign is that it currently has the Sikh model as their current Twitter background photo.”

That show of solidarity and understanding is generating gobs of positive press and good vibes. In a world so often divided, it’s a great way to bridge the gap.

[SOURCE]

Bullied, 12-Year-Old Girl Is Threatened With Expulsion For Refusing To Cut Her Natural Afro Hair

November 27, 2013·Education·by MMXLLI·50 views

A 12-year-old girl is being threatened with expulsion from school for refusing to cut her natural afro hair.

Vanessa VanDyke, who is a student at Orlando’s Faith Christian Academy in Florida, had been suffering taunts over her hairstyle from fellow students.

But her mother, Sabrina Kent, says that when she complained about the issue, school administrators took similar aim and told Vanessa that her hair violated school dress codes for being a ‘distraction.’

She feels that her hair is part of her identity and for that reason, does not plan to change it.

Vanessa says that she was given one week to decide if she wanted to cut her hair, and if not, she would have to leave the school.

She feels that her hair is part of her identity and for that reason, does not plan to change it.

‘It says that I’m unique,’ Vanessa told Click Orlando. ‘First of all, it’s puffy and I like it that way. I know people will tease me about it because it’s not straight. I don’t want to fit in,’ she continued.

“…it’s puffy and I like it that way. I know people will tease me about it because it’s not straight. I don’t want to fit in” – Vanessa VanDyke

Ms Kent says that school administrators targeted Vanessa after she approached them about the excessive teasing Vanessa was receiving from fellow students over her hair.

‘There have been bullies in the school,’ she said. ‘There have been people teasing her about her hair, and it seems to be that they’re blaming her.’

School officials now say that Vanessa is violating the institution’s official dress code, which includes clauses about hair care, reports Click Orlando.

It states that ‘hair must be a natural color and must not be a distraction,’ and cites mohawks, shaved designs, and rat tails as distracting examples.

The school says that Vanessa’s hair qualifies as a distraction, but according to Ms Kent: ‘A distraction to one person is not a distraction to another. You can have a kid come in with pimples on his face. Are you going to call that a distraction?’

Administrators at Faith Christian Academy were not available to respond to MailOnline’s requests for comment.

Vanessa, who has been at the school since the third grade, says that she is ‘depressed about leaving my friends and people I’ve known for a while, but I’d rather have that than the principals and administrators picking on me and saying that I should change my hair.’

[SOURCE]

An Unconventional Hero Uses Comedy to Fight Hollywood Stereotypes

November 26, 2013·Business·by MMXLLI·54 views

We have been so bombarded with Middle Easterners as the bad guys that it’s time we start changing that trend. 

A Middle Eastern hero starring in an American comedy film is no ordinary save-the-day tale.

In the Indiegogo-funded film Jimmy Vestvood, Amerikan Hero, comedian Maz Jobrani plays an Iranian hero named Jimmy, who hails from Westwood, Calif., known as the capital of the Iranian diaspora in the United States. (“Vestvood” pokes fun at the Iranian accent, which typically puts a “v” sound ahead of certain words starting with consonants.) Jimmy is no conventional hero, though; the private investigator with a burly mustache has a flair for solving Hitchcockian murder mysteries while hiding his adventures from his overprotective mother.

 

Jobrani, an Iranian, uses comedy in film and in his standup comedy routines to counter Hollywood’s stereotyping of Middle Easterners as “bad guys.”

The lack of enthusiasm and support for a film featuring a different kind of hero became apparent after rejections from various production companies. So Jobrani launched an Indiegogo campaign and raised just shy of half its $250,000 funding goal in its three-month duration.

“Indiegogo did help us get the word out about the project,” Jobrani told Mashable via email. “In the past, you needed a publicist to get you on the right radio and TV shows. That still exists, but social media has made it all a lot more grassroots.”

Although the campaign didn’t fully reach its funding goal, the film gained more exposure online and later raised funds from private investors at a final budget of $500,000. Other indie films gave garnered funds this way, and two Kickstarter-backed films even received Oscar nominations in 2013: Kings Point for Best Documentary (Short Subject) and Buzkashi Boys for Short Film (Live Action).

 

“I think this is the first comedic hero of Middle Eastern descent in an American film,” Jobrani said. “

 

We have been so bombarded with Middle Easterners as the bad guys that it’s time we start changing that trend. Most of the Middle Eastern people I know are good people. Jimmy Vestvood is just one small step in the right direction of humanizing an entire population.”

 

The film crew used social media to promote the film, posting updates from behind the scenes on Twitter, Instagram andFacebook, where Jobrani has more than 150,000 Likes.

[SOURCE]

What REALLY Happened at the First Thanksgiving?

November 26, 2013·Education·by MMXLLI·51 views

When you hear about the Pilgrims and “the Indians” harmoniously sharing the “first Thanksgiving” meal in 1621, the Indians referred to so generically are the ancestors of the contemporary members of the Wampanoag Nation. As the story commonly goes, the Pilgrims who sailed from England on the Mayflower and landed at what became Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620 had a good harvest the next year. So Plymouth Gov. William Bradford organized a feast to celebrate the harvest and invited a group of “Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit” to the party. The feast lasted three days and, according to chronicler Edward Winslow, Bradford send four men on a “fowling mission” to prepare for the feast and the Wampanoag guests brought five deer to the party. And ever since then, the story goes, Americans have celebrated Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. Not exactly, Ramona Peters, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s Tribal Historic Preservation Officer told Indian Country Today Media Network in a conversation on the day before Thanksgiving 2012—391 years since that mythological “first Thanksgiving.”

We know what we’re taught in mainstream media and in schools is made up. What’s the Wampanoag version of what happened?

Yeah, it was made up. It was Abraham Lincoln who used the theme of Pilgrims and Indians eating happily together. He was trying to calm things down during the Civil War when people were divided. It was like a nice unity story.

So it was a political thing?

Yes, it was public relations. It’s kind of genius, in a way, to get people to sit down and eat dinner together. Families were divided during the Civil War.

So what really happened?

We made a treaty. The leader of our nation at the time—Yellow Feather Oasmeequin [Massasoit] made a treaty with (John) Carver [the first governor of the colony]. They elected an official while they were still on the boat. They had their charter. They were still under the jurisdiction of the king [of England]—at least that’s what they told us. So they couldn’t make a treaty for a boatload of people so they made a treaty between two nations—England and the Wampanoag Nation.

What did the treaty say?

It basically said we’d let them be there and we would protect them against any enemies and they would protect us from any of ours. [The 2011 Native American copy coin commemorates the 1621 treaty between the Wampanoag tribe and the Pilgrims of Plymouth colony.] It was basically an I’ll watch your back, you watch mine’ agreement. Later on, we collaborated on jurisdictions and creating a system so that we could live together.

What’s the Mashpee version of the 1621 meal?

You’ve probably heard the story of how Squanto assisted in their planting of corn? So this was their first successful harvest and they were celebrating that harvest and planning a day of their own thanksgiving. And it’s kind of like what some of the Arab nations do when they celebrate by shooting guns in the air. So this is what was going on over there at Plymouth. They were shooting guns and canons as a celebration, which alerted us because we didn’t know who they were shooting at. So Massasoit gathered up some 90 warriors and showed up at Plymouth prepared to engage, if that was what was happening, if they were taking any of our people. They didn’t know. It was a fact-finding mission.

When they arrived it was explained through a translator that they were celebrating the harvest, so we decided to stay and make sure that was true, because we’d seen in the other landings—[Captain John] Smith, even the Vikings had been here—so we wanted to make sure so we decided to camp nearby for a few days. During those few days, the men went out to hunt and gather food—deer, ducks, geese, and fish. There are 90 men here and at the time I think there are only 23 survivors of that boat, the Mayflower, so you can imagine the fear. You have armed Natives who are camping nearby. They [the colonists] were always vulnerable to the new land, new creatures, even the trees—there were no such trees in England at that time. People forget they had just landed here and this coastline looked very different from what it looks like now. And their culture—new foods, they were afraid to eat a lot of things. So they were very vulnerable and we did protect them, not just support them, we protected them. You can see throughout their journals that they were always nervous and, unfortunately, when they were nervous they were very aggressive.

So the Pilgrims didn’t invite the Wampanoags to sit down and eat turkey and drink some beer?

[laughs] Ah, no. Well, let’s put it this way. People did eat together [but not in what is portrayed as “the first Thanksgiving]. It was our homeland and our territory and we walked all through their villages all the time. The differences in how they behaved, how they ate, how they prepared things was a lot for both cultures to work with each other. But in those days, it was sort of like today when you go out on a boat in the open sea and you see another boat and everyone is waving and very friendly—it’s because they’re vulnerable and need to rely on each other if something happens. In those days, the English really needed to rely on us and, yes, they were polite as best they could be, but they regarded us as savages nonetheless.

So you did eat together sometimes, but not at the legendary Thanksgiving meal.

No. We were there for days. And this is another thing: We give thanks more than once a year in formal ceremony for different season, for the green corn thanksgiving, for the arrival of certain fish species, whales, the first snow, our new year in May—there are so many ceremonies and I think most cultures have similar traditions. It’s not a foreign concept and I think human beings who recognize greater spirit then they would have to say thank you in some formal way.

What are Mashpee Wampanoags taught about Thanksgiving now?

Most of us are taught about the friendly Indians and the friendly Pilgrims and people sitting down and eating together. They really don’t go into any depth about that time period and what was going on in 1620. It was a whole different mindset. There was always focus on food because people had to work hard to go out and forage for food, not the way it is now. I can remember being in Oklahoma amongst a lot of different tribal people when I was in junior college and Thanksgiving was coming around and I couldn’t come home—it was too far and too expensive—and people were talking about, Thanksgiving, and, yeah, the Indians! And I said, yeah, we’re the Wampanoags. They didn’t know! We’re not even taught what kind of Indians, Hopefully, in the future, at least for Americans, we do need to get a lot brighter about other people.

So, basically, today the Wampanoag celebrate Thanksgiving the way Americans celebrate it, or celebrate itasAmericans?

Yes, but there’s another element to this that needs to be noted as well. The Puritans believed in Jehovah and they were listening for Jehovah’s directions on a daily basis and trying to figure out what would please their God. So for Americans, for the most part there’s a Christian element to Thanksgiving so formal prayer and some families will go around the table and ask what are you thankful for this year. In Mashpee families we make offerings of tobacco. For traditionalists, we give thanks to our first mother, our human mother, and to Mother Earth. Then, because there’s no real time to it, you embrace your thanks in passing them into the tobacco without necessarily speaking out loud, but to actually give your mind and spirit together thankful for so many things… Unfortunately, because we’re trapped in this cash economy and this 9-to-5 [schedule], we can’t spend the normal amount of time on ceremonies, which would last four days for a proper Thanksgiving.

Do you regard Thanksgiving as a positive thing?

As a concept, a heartfelt Thanksgiving is very important to me as a person. It’s important that we give thanks. For me, it’s a state of being. You want to live in a state of thanksgiving, meaning that you use the creativity that the Creator gave you. You use your talents. You find out what those are and you cultivate them and that gives thanks in action.

And will your family do something for Thanksgiving?

Yes, we’ll do the rounds, make sure we contact family members, eat with friends and then we’ll all celebrate on Saturday at the social and dance together with the drum.

 

[SOURCE]

How Not To Be Offensive At The AMAs

November 25, 2013·Entertainment·by MMXLLI·72 views

 

Ladies and gentlemen, Katy Perry brings back orientalism, and the crowd goes wild!

Before you shout that liberal scumbags are ruining this country with political correctness when Ms. Perry is just trying to enjoy another culture, take note: This isn’t even a very accurate representation of a geisha performance. Her dress is a haphazard mash-up of a traditional Japanese kimono and a Chinese qipao, and it’s the latter’s influence that accounts for the thigh-high slits and knot button at the neck. Nor, are we aware of any traditional kimono that features such a prominent, conveniently placed chest cutout. So, that “culture” she is paying homage to with her costume for a song that has nothing to do with anything Japanese? It’s just “oriental,” because, as we all know, Asia is one big, exotic place that is not made up of many entirely different groups (word up to our Edward Said readers, here).

Another question we would ask is this: Why? Why was this necessary? What did it add to Perry’s performance? There is zero connection between the subject matter of the song and her costume. The only possible logic here is the deeply flawed argument that geishas love their clients unconditionally. That doesn’t make sense for two reasons: One is that geishas are not necessarily prostitutes, something that has long been misunderstood by Westerners (you can read all about it on Wikipedia, naturally). The other is that even if they were prostitutes, they would be loving their clients on the condition that they are paid to do so.

There will be many arguments made about why this is or is not offensive. We personally find it lazy, unnecessary, and entirely dated. You’re not required to agree; though, we do hope you will seriously consider the issue at hand and the problematic manner in which Perry’s performance uses an ill-formed, WWII-era idea of “the East” as a prop — much like Miley Cyrus employed twerking and black backup dancers for her lambasted VMAs show.

However, if we are going to talk about potentially offensive happenings at the AMAs, we will humbly argue that this is the focal point for that discussion, not Gaga’s kinda-sorta-JFK reference.

[SOURCE]

What You Don’t Know About Hasidic Jews

November 20, 2013·Education·by MMXLLI·77 views

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About The Way Orthodox Jews Look But Were Afraid To Ask

You may not think of religious communities as fashion-centric, but talking about identity and appearance with these Hasidic and Orthodox Jews is fascinating. Like many people, the way they look reflects what’s important to them and how they want to be seen.

Hear a beautiful idea about how looking “the same” helps you be an individual, at 4:00, followed by a pretty shocking story.

I especially loved the fashion show-and-tell at 5:30, a woman sharing the secrets of her hair at 6:20, and some really juicy insights into Jewish perspectives on feminism and sex — see if you’re surprised by what you hear at 13:50 and 14:25.

[source]

Here’s What Happened When One Queer Woman Dressed More Feminine For Her Job

November 19, 2013·Art·by MMXLLI·55 views

All it took was one versatile haircut, and voila. The seeds for “Warpaint,” a nuanced art project addressing the subtleties of gender expression, were planted.

The photography series is the brainchild of artist Coco Layne, who, after buzzing the sides of her head, realized that simple changes in the way she styled her hair could impact her own gender representation. She thought particularly about her experiences applying for jobs last year, and how presenting herself as a “more conservative, feminine candidate” helped her land a position at a women’s retailer.

“I’m a relatively feminine person most days, but I had both sides of my head shaved at the time,” Layne recounted in an email interview with The Huffington Post. “Without makeup, I looked more masculine than I did before, and the hair I had wasn’t long enough to part down the middle. I ended up wearing a black bob wig and a lot of make up to the interview.”

She got the job and eventually revealed her real hair to her managers; they were comfortable with Layne’s platinum blonde hair split down the middle (“shaved sides hidden, of course”). The job was temporary, but the memory of the way she toyed with gender presentation during that time inspired “Warpaint,” a sequential photo series that explores the ways in which small changes in hair styles, makeup and clothing interacted with identity, perception and queer visibility.

“I identify as a femme queer woman. On any given day, I fall somewhere on the third or fourth row [of the "Warpaint" collage],” she explained. “Sometimes I’ll feel like being super femme and I’ll wear a lot of eye make up and lipstick while on other days I won’t do anything besides fill my brows in. I love makeup because it allows me to play with my presentation.”

read the full article on Huffington Post.

TDE CEO Attacks GQ Story on Kendrick Lamar as Having “Racial Overtones”

November 19, 2013·Business·by MMXLLI·59 views

The CEO of TDE—the label home of superstar rapper Kendrick Lamar—Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, has released a statement regarding the apparently indelicate matter of Kendrick Lamar‘s recent GQ Man of the Year issue cover story. Short version: He’s not happy. At all.

While Tiffith noted that he and the Compton rapper are honored by the nod, he claims the Steve Marsh-penned article incorrectly displays who and what their company stands for. He even goes as far as to say that there are “racial overtones” within the story, and went so far as to have pulled Kendrick Lamar from performing at GQ’s November 12 ‘Man of the Year’ party.

The release:

In 2004, I founded Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) with the goal of providing a home for west coast artists and a platform for these artists to express themselves freely and to give their music to the world. From our beginning in 2005 with Jay Rock, to developing Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q, and Ab-Soul, to most recently singing Isaiah Rashad and SZA. We, as TDE, have always prided ourselves in doing everything with heart, honor, and respect.

This week, Kendrick Lamar was named one of GQ’s 2013 Men Of The Year, an honor that should have been celebrated as a milestone in his career and for the company.

Instead, the story, written by Steve Marsh, put myself and my company in a negative light. Marsh’s story was more focused on what most people would see as drama or bs. To say he was “surprised at our discipline” is completely disrespectful. Instead of putting emphasis on the good that TDE has done for west coast music, and for hip hop as a whole, he spoke on what most people would consider whats wrong with Hip Hop music. Furthermore, Kendrick deserved to be accurately documented. The racial overtones, immediately reminded everyone of a time in hip-hop that was destroyed by violence, resulting in the loss of two of our biggest stars. We would expect more from a publication with the stature and reputation that GQ has. As a result of this misrepresentation, I pulled Kendrick from his performance at GQ’s annual Man Of The Year party Tuesday, November 12th.

While we think it’s a tremendous honor to be named as one of the Men Of The Year, these lazy comparisons and offensive suggestions are something we won’t tolerate. Our reputation, work ethic, and product is something that we guard with our lives.

Steve Marsh and editors for GQ did not immediately respond to a request for comment; neither did a publicity contact for the magazine. We’ll update here if they do.

UPDATE: GQ‘s editor-in-chief Jim Nelson has released the following statement in response to Top Dawg’s decision to pull Kendrick Lamar from his performance at the Man Of The Year party:

“Kendrick Lamar is one of the most talented new musicians to arrive on the scene in years. That’s the reason we chose to celebrate him, wrote an incredibly positive article declaring him the next King of Rap, and gave him our highest honor: putting him on the cover of our Men of the Year issue. I’m not sure how you can spin that into a bad thing, and I encourage anyone interested to read the story and see for themselves. We were mystified and sorely disappointed by Top Dawg’s decision to pull him at the last minute from the performance he had promised to give. The real shame is that people were deprived of the joy of seeing Kendrick perform live. I’m still a huge fan.”

[Source]