Lies! Today, they spread everywhere instantly thanks to the internet, that wondrous web of computers full of lies. That's how a fake rumor about Steve Jobs having a heart attack can momentarily cost Apple billions of dollars in market cap. But don't blame the internet—blame the inherently wicked hearts of mankind.…
America has ended before—in these eight visions of the country's collapse collected by io9. (But those times we woke up and it was a dream.)
This isn't the first time that a complete unknown has come so close to the presidency-at least not if one includes Hollywood fantasies. The best of them is Being There, a movie made during the last period of national distress in which a mild-mannered and subnormal gardener played by Peter Sellers stumbles into the…
"4 out of 5 men want Oxfords...in these new Van Heusen styles." And the fifth one is a god damn pipe-smoking blond homosexual who wears Brooks Brothers! Oh racist ad from 1952, you remind us how far we've come in our quest for equal rights for blond dudes. Click to enlarge. [Copyranter at Animal]
The inclusion of a woman on a major party's presidential ticket is unprecedented... for the Republicans. The Democrats did it back in 1984, when Walter Mondale selected Geraldine Ferrarro for his suicide mission against Reagan. Ferraro was considered risky due to her inexperience, but her selection and her brash,…
Ha ha what could possibly distract people from how terrible Sarah Palin was on CBS? How about a clip of Sarah Palin looking so... poised in a sexy swimsuit! Someone in Alaska claims this is a legit video of the Alaska governor in her Sarah Heath, Beauty Pageant Contestant days. Grainy old VHS digitized and uploaded to…
This Friday marks the first presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. Debate previews are available pretty much everywhere (this one's fine) but honestly you should probably just watch this clip. It's from the 2004 Illinois Senate race, when Barack Obama was up against Maryland talk show host and…
There's an episode of Mad Men (I told you I must relentlessly mine this show to catch up with every other ad writer) in which Sterling Cooper has to come up with an ad campaign for a stimulating "weight loss" machine that actually owes its popularity with women to the fact that it's an undercover vibrator. Cue the…
"Prior to the reelection of General Grant in 1872, there was a superstition prevalent that no man possessed of a middle name could be elected President a second time. The notion was based upon the fact that every President so endowed, up to that time, had, for one reason or another, failed to be reelected: John Quincy…
We already told you about all the sex Olympians are having during the Games... this year. But we unearthed another variation of this delightful trend piece from the leadup to the 2000 Sydney Games. Published in Women's Sports & Fitness, it detailed the orgies of Olympics past. Not only were they handing out condoms,…
From a 1993 Harper's, reprinting a lengthy missive from legendary author Terry Southern to the Village Voice. Southern, Dr. Strangelove screenwriter and New Journalism inventor, has some very important questions to ask about Joe Biden, then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, now possible Vice President. Click…
Usually you think of cultural standards becoming more relaxed over time. Like, we tolerate media allusions to kinky sex better today than we would 30 years ago. But was there really ever a time when pedophilia was an acceptable advertising technique? Apparently yes, in 1970's cosmetics!:
Click to viewThe mysterious Young Manhattanite writes: For months now I have been looking for a classic clip of Larry King drunk on his radio show that I heard way back in the dawn of the public Internet when my friend downloaded it from a newsgroup. It's NOWHERE online now. My friend finally found the cassette tape…
Wired magazine's special issue on micro-celebrity includes a cover profile of Julia Allison, the college dating columnist who's garnered such internet fame. (Well, actually, the cover of Wired is about as much attention as she's ever drawn, so the article is self-fulfiling.) Anyway, I didn't remember the reported…
Fox bossman Roger Ailes is the best teacher any media attack flack could have. He's been screwing with the media for decades. Ailes is the man who perfected the art of hammering the media with charges of bias in order to deflect negative coverage from oneself. Kerwin Swint's new biography of him, Dark Genius, has…
Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has always resented the fact that peers made more money than him with what he deemed to be inferior films. These days, he's obviously overcome this problem by milking reality shows for millions to prop up his more artsy products; but he couldn't always be so sanguine. Here we have a…
Are you aware that Camels are made from finer, more expensive tobaccos than any other brand? And that they stimulate digestion, taste great, and will make you a better swimmer? Failing to teach your kids to smoke Camels is virtually child abuse! All true, according to the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. We've compiled…
Harry Winkler was an old-time boxing photographer who lived in California and spent most of the 1920s and 30s taking iconic photos of boxers. His collection is notable for capturing the humanity of professional fighters, picturing them less in the ring (though there is some of that) than in their everyday lives—on…
I once wrote a story about Consumer Reports that involved a field trip to the timeless, servicey magazine's headquarters and labs. They're an amazing sight, and certainly the most fun place to visit in Yonkers. They take their work very seriously. Testing washing machines, for example, involves counting individual…
Newspapers, now suffering a technological inferiority complex, weren't always so apologetic. The New York Public Library has a wonderful collection of confident posters, promoting newspapers such as the Sunday Herald and the New York Times, from the turn of the century. The issue of the Times here featured offers a…
