SalesGenie, what were you thinking?

So I watched the Superbowl yesterday - and actually got into it. That's kind of big, because I don't follow football at all, and can probably count the number of Superbowls I've really sat down and watched on one hand, even if I was missing 3 fingers. But apparently boys like football, and this boy I'm with now really likes football (he love love loves the 49ers, which makes for some sad Sunday afternoons, but at least they won the game I got him tickets to (their last game, against the Bengals)!), so I've watched way more football the past 6 months than I have in all my life previously. At any rate, I think I'm actually starting to appreciate football a little more now, though I still wonder why they always run straight into the pack.

While the football connoisseurs out there chuckle at my naivete, let me turn to the other reason many people watch the Superbowl - the ads. If you watched any of them, I'm sure we'd agree that they were supremely disappointing this year. Budweiser, come on. Maybe instead of making 3 terrible ads you could've made 1 halfway decent ad. Careerbuilder.com - I could've done without the bloody heart bursting out of the woman's chest. Probably more than half of the ads had nothing to do with the product and were simply attempts at memorable skits that mostly succeeded in being dumb or boring. But the ones that really made my eyes widen were the cartoon ads for SalesGenie.com.

Ad #1: Caucasian supervisor dude tells "Ramesh" his numbers aren't looking so hot. Ramesh contemplates his options in a "Kwik-E-mart" accent. Oh look, SalesGenie.com helps him do a better job so he can feed his fobby immigrant wife and 7 kids!

Ad #2: A couple of pandas are having trouble with their bamboo sales or something ridiculous. Guess what! Their names are Ching Ching and Ling Ling! They proceed to chatter using heavy Asian accents. Oh look, SalesGenie.com helps them sell more bamboo so they don't have to go back to the zoo!

The fact that I never see commercials this racist on regular TV makes it all the more astonishing that they were allowed to air during the Superbowl. Did no one screen the ads first? Do they just assume that if a company is willing to spend $50 million for 30 seconds of airtime, they must be good commercials? (Well, we already know the answer to that one.)

Thank goodness the game itself was exciting this year. I mean, the Pats vs. the Giants? Arguably my two home teams (assuming I cared about that growing up) - who would I root for? I spent 4 years in the Boston/Providence area, but grew up in New Jersey, plus it's cooler to root for the underdog, so Giants it was. Who would've thought they'd actually end up winning??

I know a guy who flew to Vegas to bet $25,000 on the spread. Let's ignore the fact that that's my yearly income (woot, grad student stipends...). He must've had the night of his life!

How do you trump "The Atlas of Creation"?

Apparently more than half of Americans don't "believe" in evolution. I put in quotes because I'm one of those who considers evolution a fact, and not something you can believe in or not believe in (though that doesn't stop a lot of people). What many so-called "anti-evolutionists" have latched onto lately is the unfortunate label of "theory" attached to evolution; because it is often called the "theory of evolution", they claim it means evolution is unproven. As I understand it, however, evolution as a mechanism - mutations in DNA leading to changes in phenotype that can in turn influence which organisms survive and pass their DNA on to the next generation - is not a theory, it is a fundamental fact of nature. Maybe the idea that evolution is the sole means by which humans and all modern organisms came to be the way they are today could be considered a theory, though it is difficult for me to think of this as a separate, refutable concept.

So many things lately have me believing that the world (or maybe just America) is going to shit, and they mostly have to do with religion. About a year ago, my PI received the "Atlas of Creation", a truly incredible piece of work - and by "incredible", I mean utterly ridiculous, flabbergasting, and truly frightening. For those unfamiliar with it, the author attempts to invalidate evolution by showing page after page of fossils with their modern day "counterparts" which have not changed over millions of years. Never mind that many of his examples of modern day insects are actually pictures of very realistic fishing lures (hooks still attached).

In the last few months, the situation has only gotten more ridiculous, with Creationism jostling for equal status with evolution as a scientific theory. Look, I have no real problem with there being a God, or with him saying "let there be evolution". But literal translation of the Bible? Why? At any rate, I watched the videos of Mike Huckabee espousing his views on evolution with a kind of morbid fascination, sort of like watching the impending doom of the United States. Then, of course, the Creation Museums, complete with robotic dinosaurs. The latest jaw-dropping "tell me I'm dreaming" development is the arrival of a "professional, peer-reviewed, scientific journal" for Creation "science" called the Answers Research Journal. Words cannot begin to describe my reactions to this mockery of science. Something between disgust, shock, and anger.

Wired has a lively thread on the subject. Really, you just need to see for yourself.

Maybe later I'll post about why Creationism is not science, instead of just expressing my outrage. But right now I'm just a little too worked up to do it justice. The scary thing is, the idiocy is not limited to America.

More reasons to hate MySpace

I'm sure we all have our top 5 reasons to hate MySpace. Here were mine, before I learned that they deleted an atheist/agnostic group for no reason other than that Christian users were offended:

1. It's ridiculously ugly.
2. It's ridiculously annoying.
3. The typical MySpace user is ridiculously annoying, and probably ugly.
4. I kind of dislike social networking sites in general, and MySpace was one of the first.
5. It's so ugly that it deserves to be on here twice.

Now let me add to the top of the list:

1. It is a bastion of intolerance.*

If you have an account on MySpace and you value the freedoms of speech and assembly, I urge you to find an alternative.

* I realize my top 5 list comes across as pretty intolerant. :) Mostly I just think it's an ugly site and if people can stand to use it then they must have pretty low standards. Plus Rupert Murdoch is pretty evil.