I love a snappy slogan

Most small companies aren’t very clever when it comes to writing their advertising copy.  That’s why it’s always a pleasure when I come across one that actually puts some quality thought into their ads and marketing flyers.

Consider this company, for example.  Their website copy needs improvement; however, their marketing materials were clearly thought through very well.  Look at the downloadable copy of their line of colony counters, for example.  I thought that the slogan they came up with was clever and had a lot of impact, but without being overly cutesy.

More on profanity

The following statement from another acquaintance is also worth repeating:

“My husband swears a lot and it’s really getting old. Shit, damn, ass and an emphatic fuck (she dreamed!) don’t bother me at all. But he CONSTANTLY uses fucker, cocksucker and motherfucker. If you say cocksucker or motherfucker when you drop a piece of bread or burn your finger, you’re tapped out. There really isn’t much worse that you can say. What if you get hit by a car, or your house burns down, or someone shoots your dog? You’ve already used up the worst words. Believe me, I can swear like a trucker IF PROVOKED, but overusing curses just makes one sound unintelligent, like you can’t think of a smart thing to say. It’s like getting into a physical fight (unless you are in danger, someone is attacking you or a loved one, etc.) Gee, I really have nothing intelligent to say, I think I’ll just punch this guy or say fucking cocksucker because my pills fell on the floor. When you swear a lot, you rob the words of their impact and you just sound like an impatient, short-fused ass. When you hear it every day, it gets old really fast. “

Profanity

An acquaintance of mine made the following comment recently. I think it’s worth repeating.

” Swear words are a net minus for society and we’d be better off without them. They are definitely lazy. One could, I suppose, have an academic debate of whether they’re theoretically useful for “escape valve” or “code switching” purposes. In reality, it’s gone way past that point. There are now a lot of people who spout profanity in every single sentence they use, for no reason whatever except that they can’t be bothered to speak English correctly.”

Another post on Asian men

I though the following two posts from the aforementioned discussion thread were also interesting. The second was a rejoinder to the first.

I don’t think it is true at all. Asian American men may have certain qualities (nerdy, short, etc) in greater numbers than other races, but this does not mean that being Asian American in itself puts them on a “lower rung.”

If that were the case, then we should see a proportionate number of Asian leading men, sex symbols and heartthrobs in movies and on TV… but we don’t. When was the last time you saw a young woman put up a poster of a hot Asian actor in her room?

Now, whenever this subject comes up, people often toss around the following counter-examples:

• Bruce Lee. Sorry folks, but he’s been dead for over thirty years now. What’s more, he was more of an action hero than a sex symbol. It was usually the teenaged boys who put his poster up in their rooms, not the girls.
• Jackie Chan. A funny and talented gent, but again, not generally considered to be a sex symbol.
• Jet Li and Chow Yun Fat. Once again, chop-socky martial artists. Some women find them attractive, but they’re not usually regarded as heartthrobs. When was the last time you saw them on the cover of Tiger Beat or somesuch magazine?

Asian men and attractiveness — again

Came across another discussion thread in which the subject of Asian men and their lack of attractiveness came up. I thought I’d post a brief excerpt from that thread:

There have been countless papers and books written on these subjects. For issues of Asian American men being considered “inferior” compared to men of other races, you might want to read the play David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly and the criticism surrounding it (it’s a story about a white man who falls in love with an Asian man pretending to be a woman; based on something that actually happened). Frank Chin has quite a few things to say on the subject, and although many of his views are now outdated it’s interesting to read his opinions on how he considers Asian American culture to be traditionally masculine and how he thinks it’s been emasculated by American stereotypes of Asia as submissive and silent. Much of what he had to say was in response to Maxine Hong Kingston (author of The Woman Warrior), whom Frank Chin despised for supposedly distorting authentic Chinese culture and perpetuating the stereotype of the Asian male as either violent and overbearing or inept and powerless. Actually, you might want to do a search on articles about Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club – there are plenty of articles criticizing how it panders to the Western expectations of Asian cutlture. And of course, Said’s Orientalism is good background reading on Asian stereotypes in general. You might also want to read Yellow by Frank Wu, and War Without Mercy by John Dower (the latter talks about Japanese stereotypes during WWII). I also recommend Re/collecting Early Asian America, which gives a good overview of early Asian Americans in Canada, the US, and South America and how the stereotypes we are familiar with now developed over the course of history. The Chinatown Trunk Mystery is also an interesting read, particularly in light of the VTech shootings – it talks about an unsolved murder of a white woman supposedly committed by a Chinese man back in the 19th century, I think, and how American society reacted to it at the time.

Dating and race: Some people just don’t get it

I was having a telephone conversation with someone regarding the struggles that Asian men face in the dating scene. I pointed out that Asian men are in relatively low demand, much moreso than most (if not all) other races.

This person objected immediately, saying “That’s not true! I know plenty of interracial couples. Why, at my own church, there’s this guy who married a Japanese woman….” She then proceeded to rattle off several examples of mixed-race marriages that she’s known.

After a while, I interrupted, saying, “Wait a minute. I think you’ve demonstrated my point. Every single one of the examples you’ve given involves a white man and an Asian woman. As I said though, it’s the Asian men who have difficulty in finding a mate.”

“Well, I’m sure that there are plenty of Asian men who have no trouble either,” she said.

Some people just don’t get it.

Clue Crew Sarah Whitcomb

Sarah Whitcomb is not a big name celebrity, but she’s on TV almost everyday.

Sarah is part of Jeopardy’s Clue Crew, and she’s a real cutie. She’s not one of these uber-skinny Hollywood types, but that’s a good thing. She’s cute, she’s articulate, and she has a sparkling smile.

Did I mention that she’s cute?

Comparison of the ELISPOT and cytokine flow cytometry assays for the enumeration of antigen-specific T cells.

Here’s an interesting journal abstract that I came across.

Comparison of the ELISPOT and cytokine flow cytometry assays for the enumeration of antigen-specific T cells.
Karlsson AC et al.

The enumeration of antigen-specific T cell responses has been greatly facilitated in recent years by the development of methods based on the detection of cytokines. In particular, the enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) and cytokine flow cytometry (CFC) assays have become popular. Since both assays are likely to continue to be in widespread use, it is important to evaluate whether their results are comparable. In the current study, we compared the results obtained in the ELISPOT and CFC assays using peptide pools corresponding to CMV and HIV-1 proteins in chronically HIV-1-infected individuals. Analysis of T cell responses to peptide pools indicated that the CMV pp65 and HIV-1 Gag CFC and ELISPOT-derived results were statistically correlated. However, the results obtained with each assay differed in important ways: the magnitude of the response was consistently higher in the CFC assay while the CFC assay was less likely than the ELISPOT assay to detect low-level responses. Furthermore, there was a lack of numeric agreement between ELISPOT and CFC results. For studies that require the detection of low-level responses, or definition of responses as positive or negative, the ELISPOT assay may be preferable. In contrast, the CFC has a greater dynamic range and allows for phenotypic discrimination of responding cells, making it the assay of choice for most other applications.

When women are deceived

I have a female churchgoing friend. She’s very pretty, and she keeps dating these guys who, after dating her for a while, all of a sudden start saying things like “Oh, I want to try going to church with you.” She gets all excited about this, thinking “Oh, they’re coming around.”

No, gal. Always remember that men will say all sorts of things to win a woman’s attention. Chances are that these guys are only saying these things so that they can keep you around. Men do that sort of thing all the time. They’re great at lying in order to keep a woman.

Remember that the next time a guy claims to have taken a sudden interest in what you do. Don’t be quick to believe him, gal. Wait and see what happens in the long run.

Gym etiquette

A while back, there was this bozo who kept trying to chat me up while I was reading some comic books while I was on an elliptical trainer in the gym. I like to read comic books because they are easy enough to read despite all the up-and-down motion that invariably results when using those machines. I also read books while working out, but that tends to create a lot of eyestrain.

So this one bozo, apparently a newbie, decided to start a conversation. He says the most inane things like, “So, you’re reading comic books, eh? What ya reading?” and “That Wonder Woman, she’s all about sex, isn’t she?”

“Shut up, you bozo. Can’t you see that I”m trying to read?” is what went through my head. I didn’t care if they were just comic books; I was busy! I tried to answer his questions, but slowly and without ever lifting my eyes from what I was reading. Apparently though, he didn’t get the hint.

“So who’s your favorite superhero?” he asked. Gritting my teeth, I answered, “Speedy. Or Arsenal, as he’s now known.” “Who’s that?” he replied. I paused for a long time, hoping that he would take notice. Then I slowly said, “He was the former sidekick of Green Arrow.”

Shortly after that, I moved to another machine. I didn’t get a good look at this fellow’s face, so I don’t know if he ever returned to the gym. Frankly, I didn’t want to make eye contact. I didn’t want to give any indication of wanting to converse with him.

The bozo should read this intro to gym etiquette. Not that it should be necessary, of course. A bit of common sense would work as well.