“Can you read people’s thoughts just by looking at them?”.

“Mustard now comes in dozens of varieties. Why has ketchup stayed the same?”.

“When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions.
Well, Blink is a book about those two seconds.”.
(Malcom Gladwell)

Gladwell dot com: “Malcolm Gladwell, blink, tipping point and New Yorker articles.”.

“Whenever the treasure-hunter girl is in trouble, someone comes to help her.”. Hoy te amo. Music: Tus Ojos by Belanova. From Vinnie Veritas by Alejandro Cordova.

Right: Papalote, Flash animation, frame detail. (Alejandro Cordova)

Requires Flash Player, plays better with broadband.

The Internet Movie Cars Database “can be used to find in which movie a particular car is visible, or to have more info about some cars visible in a particular movie.
You will also find lots of pictures of these cars, taken directly from the movies.”.

“A showcase of different Japanese consumer products from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, mostly, including everything from phones, radios, TV sets, audio sets, cameras to vehicles.”. From Tuk Tuk, by Akira Ota.

Right: Mazda AZ-1 (1992).

The Psych 153 slides (Jonathan Baron, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychology).

It’s a Google’s result for the query “Neglect of Probability” that is, from Wikipedia:
“…the tendency to completely disregard probability when making a decision under uncertainty.”.

A sample:

“There is a distinction between an individual life and a statistical life.

Let a 6-year-old girl with brown hair need thousands of dollars for an operation that will prolong her life until Christmas, and the post office will be swamped with nickels and dimes to save her.

But let it be reported that without a sales tax the hospital facilities of Massachusetts will deteriorate and cause a barely perceptible increase in preventable deaths – not many will drop a tear or reach for their checkbooks.”.

“Getting free of the system is more complex than we’ve been led to believe.
In my case, as I understood what I had to go through to make money, I stopped spending it.”.

“This is the low-budget universe: I ride around the city on an old cheap road bike, in street clothes, often hauling food I’ve just pulled out of a dumpster.”.

“We are descended from risk-takers and adventurers, we fantasize about people in heroic life and death struggles, and here we are, cringing through a life of meaningless toil and the best justification we can come up with is that if we quit our jobs we won’t have health insurance!”.

Ran Prieur, How to Drop Out. Read also: Criticism and response.

Content released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

Technologies from stupid.com:

“With some people, it’s impossible to get off the phone.
Meet the Get off the phone excuse machine:
with just a press of a button, you’ll have a solid excuse that’ll get you off the phone, no questions asked.”.

Two examples:

Static: Press this button and say, “I can’t hear you. You’re breaking up!” Then just hang up the phone.

Car crashing: Just say, “Oh, my god!” and hang up.

“Sometimes it seems like mothers speak a different language.
Well, thanks to modern science and vivid imaginations, you can now instantly understand your Mom.

All you need is this Understand Your Mother Instantly Breath Spray!”.

“Pubblicità Progresso* is a non-profit association established in 1971 with a view to giving voice to people’s moral, civil and educational problems. Since then, Pubblicità Progresso has carried out 30 social campaigns.”.

Respect other’s opinion
(Bates Italia agency, 1973)

- Nobody has ever dared to contradict me. I’m great.
- Hey. You aren’t great. You are alone.
“Respect who doesn’t think like you.”.

If you listen you grow
(FCB Italia agency, 2001)

“The words of the others can enrich us. Listen to them.”.

Let’s improve ourselves
(ODG agency, 1995)

- Listen, have you read many books this year?
- No. No one, actually.
- Then, newspapers?
- Uhm…newspapers…no, I didn’t.
- Perhaps some course? Say English, computer?
- No. You know, lack of time…
- Then, what are you doing?
- Nothing.
- Nothing. But have you realized what you’re doing?
- It’s true. But from tomorrow things will change.
“Cultivate more interests. It’s your interest.”.

Above: “That mad says that two plus two doesn’t make four. What if he wasn’t mad?”, wallpaper detail.
(ODG agency, 1973)

*Meaning: advertising-progress
Requires Flash Player

The National Archives present: Public Information Films. “In 1973 the incomprehensible pronouncements from a ginger cat named Charley warned children against strangers, matches, water safety and other everyday perils.”. (Charley In The Kitchen) “The Central Office of Information produce a wide range of information campaigns designed to inform the public on a huge range of issues which affect their daily lives, such as health, welfare, education and rights.”.

British humour included.
See, for example, The Fatal Floor (1974).

Further material on the Andrew Wisemans’s Television Room* (aka 625.uk.com). A must see.

Above: Charley – Strangers (1973), frame.
Material subject to Crown Copyright, ©The National Archives.

*Requires a Real Player.

A journey into the British TV web sites: how television presents itself. Sub-TV presents the ATV history, “a fondly-remembered and popular UK broadcaster, operating from 1955 until 1981.”. 625.uk.com presents the Dave Jeffery’s Flash files collection of Idents, Break Bumpers, Clocks and Test Cards. You can find also some interesting clock screensavers. Ident* : a big resource on television branding from the Transdiffusion Broadcasting System. TV ARK The Television Museum* : “the place to watch and learn the history of tv channel presentation, title sequences, adverts, public information films, schools tv and more.”.

Right: ATV Zoom (1957-1964), end frame. (625.uk.com)

Requires Flash player. *Requires a Real Player.