- A world map of average life expectancy by country. How does your nation rank?
- Harry Houdini’s incredible book about home science experiments — free online!
- Mapping Nobel Prizes and Notable Laureates
- Christopher Nolan originally approached Heath Ledger to play Bruce Wayne
- Here’s Stan Lee’s latest sad superhero-based project
- These creatures live in a lake that’s been sealed beneath ice for 2,800 years
- Why we all secretly want the apocalypse to happen
- Watch Dan Harmon’s surprisingly inspirational keynote speech on the death of television
- Name that pair of Superhero underwear
- Science Fiction Under Totalitarian Regimes, Part 2: Tsarist and Soviet Russia
- No, the North Korean government did not claim it found evidence of unicorns
- The Hostess Fruit Pie ad Sandman and the Endless never made
- Serbian village council issues warning that a vampire may be on the loose
- The original Batmobile is going on sale January 19th
- DeLorean taxi takes you to your appointment across town and half an hour ago
- Find out when your house will be overtaken by rising seas
A examination of politics with the help of superheroes, as well as other cool things
Showing posts with label Healthcare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Healthcare. Show all posts
Sunday, December 9, 2012
io9 Roundup of Superhero, Political and Futurist Articles, Part 7
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Italian Politians are Wannabe Superheroes, Batman makes Kids Eat Healthier and Other Blips
An Italian political party that's holding primary elections to determine a new leader on November 25th has released a photo depicting the five candidates as the Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer, photoshopping a poster from the 2007 film "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer". The photo quickly lead to Italian Media reporting the site had been hacked before being revealed to have been created by the party. The image is still up on the party's website as of this writing.
A recent study by The Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University has found that children will make healthier food choices when asked which choice Batman would make, and that the effect works on everyone when their favorite idol was used. You can read more about the study in this article from the Huffington Post, and the study itself here.
Seattle's most famous real-life superhero Phoenix Jones has created an officially organized superhero team for the city, including monthly dues and a health plan. You can read a more about it in an interview with Phoenix Jones in this article from NPR.
Film Equals has an interesting run down of their favorite women from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which can be read here.
And finally we have some more videos from MelodySheep, whose videos I just like.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Superheroes Visit Children's Hospitals
A children's hospital in Pittsburgh recently had a surprising morning when Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America and Superman appeared and washed the hospital's windows. You can check out the video below for the whole story, or this article for more info and a gallery of the event.
And in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a children's hospital got their windows cleaned by Superman, the Hulk, Flash, Spider-Man and Captain America, which you can read more about in this article or in the video here.
And in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a children's hospital got their windows cleaned by Superman, the Hulk, Flash, Spider-Man and Captain America, which you can read more about in this article or in the video here.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Presidential and Political, Memes and the Internet
Given the rise of the internet and social media's use in the past two Presidential Elections, especially by Obama, it's no surprise how many political memes have sprung up about the elections and the influence the internet has had on politics. Today I'll detail some of the more notable memes and incidents directly related to the elections. For more on these and other memes, check out KnowYourMeme.com.
2008 Political Memes
The first notable meme goes back to 2007 during the early part of the Democratic Primary when the satirical website Barely Political released the video Crush on Obama not long after he announced his bid for the presidency. The video gained Obama significant coverage and brought him to the forefront of the Primaries. The actress in the video, Amber Lee Ettinger, became known as Obama Girl and created more Obama Girl related stuff, including a website, ObamaGirl.com, and several other videos that garnered nearly as many views as the first video, in addition to numerous parodies by others. Obama Girl's popularity is often credited with giving Obama a significant boost in visibility during the primaries and may have been a major factor in him winning the Democratic Nomination.
After the 2008 Vice-Presidential Debate, several memes sprouted, the most notable being 4-Panel Comics featuring screen captures of Joe Biden and Sarah Palin from the debate, which started with a comic mocking Palin's debate abilities and Tina Fey's portrayal on Saturday Night Live (top left corner below) and gained considerable popularity after The Ginblog posted the article 15 Reasons Sarah Palin Will Never Win Any Argument featuring 15 of the more popular comics that had been created at the time. Many more comics were created, with most of them mocking Palin.
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Numerous other political memes were created, most of which are sampled in the below video.
The Obama Presidency
Following Obama's victory, the right-wing tried to mobilize their base in protests against Obama using some of the still lingering misconceptions about him and the economic downturn created by the Bush Administration in the form of the Tea Party protests, and quickly made its presence known, both online and in real life. The party's over zealous nature, colorful characters and frequent misunderstanding of the facts lead to quick parodying on the internet, the most famous of which is Teabonics, drawing attention to the numerous misspellings and grammar mistakes on Tea Party signs and slogans like the one seen below.When the Wall Street market crashed and significant corruption within it exposed, the Occupy movement quickly formed with the help Twitter and grew with as it spread on social media, eventually seeing protests the world over as it protested against the wealthy, dubbed the 1%, appropriating and mishandling money from everyone else, aka the 99%.
On May 1st, 2011, political staffers in Washington began excitedly tweeting that Osama bin Laden was dead, and the story was quickly picked up by numerous news agencies. Less than an hour later President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed in a US military operation and the story soon spread around the world, with the various articles on the story reaching a combined peak of 4.1 million views per second the world over. During the events news of Osama's death set a new record for the “highest sustained rate of Tweets ever”. As the Whitehouse began distributing various images and information to the media several memes were created, most notable one of Obama and various officials watching the operation live in the White House's The Situation Room, which quickly became a favorite of photoshoppers as the original became the typical run photo for stories on Osama's death. 
During all this, President Obama was trying to implement his Healthcare reform plan, aka Obamacare, which saw its own presence on the internet,
both or and against. This all came to a head when several state
lawsuits against Obamacare where merged and brought before the Supreme
Court. A Republican attempt to gather digital signatures and print them
out in real time for a video feed was quickly hijacked by trolls who
began submitting false and irreverent names in the thousands before the
plug was pulled on the project and coverage of the incident
significantly hampered Republican efforts to continue. When the Supreme
Court announced that Obamacare would remain largely intact, many
celebrated with newly created meme images.The Protect IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) are a set of bills, for the U.S. Senate and House respectively, designed to provide the government and copyright holders with powers to block access to “rogue websites dedicated to infringing or counterfeit goods,” especially those registered outside the United States. Since they're introduction on May 11th, 2011, the proposed bills have been met by opposition from various digital rights activists and bloggers for their encroachment in online activities protected under the first amendment of free speech, broad and generalizing laws that would make the internet less secure and more vulnerable to attack if implemented and a clear lack of knowledge about how the internet works by the bills' creators and most vocal supporters. Public aware of the bills rose dramatically when congressional hearings for both bills began on November 16th. Originally the bills had significant support with the House and Senate from both parties, but as the public became more aware of the issues, thanks to protests against companies that supported the bill like website host GoDaddy.com, which lost over 70,000 domain site, and blackout campaigns that included sites like Google, Wikipedia and Reddit, and the revelation that congress men that supported the bills had little understanding of how both the internet and the bills functioned and had merely been acting on the instructions of the entertainment industry, public opinion of the bills became very negative and the majority of congressmen began opposing the bills, which have since been delayed indefinitely. The wide spread attention of the bills has significantly increased public and political awareness of the importance of internet freedom and other attempts to create internet censorship in the United States, which have a rise in scrutiny and failure.
The 2012 Republican Primaries
During the 2012 Republican Primaries several incidents and gaffes by candidates saw wide spread across the internet and became major memes, in part thanks to several new tools available on the internet, including every candidate having a twitter feed and Google launching a new Politics page that made it easier for people to get up to the minute news and track the candidates' popularity down to individual counties. As the Primaries started getting under way new data gather options and social media availability allowed people a better analyze candidate's public relations, cumulation when Tumblr released infographics showing common tags on Tumblr posts about each candidate as well as the number of posts mentioning the candidates since the start of the primaries, especially noting the rise in Rick Parry mentions after posts critical of and/or parodying his "Strong" ad, like the one below, went viral and caused his popularity to plummet. Michele Bachmann also saw considerable notoriety after an unpublished mockup of her on the cover of Newsweek leaked onto the internet that many say depicted her as being deranged, and many photoshoped images were created using the photo. A piece on the Daily Show featured the image and the various parodies drew considerable attention after pointing out that Bachmann should not be discriminated for her looks, but for her positions and proceeded to highlight numerous extremist views she held, which lost her considerable support.
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The 2012 Presidential Election
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During the election the Obama campaign released "The Life of Julia" website, designed to highlight the government assistance women would receive through out their life under the Obama administration through a series of slides. The site saw numerous parodies, made easy in part due to the site's simple and stylized graphics, ranging from real women's experiences through life, Conservative versions, extremely pessimistic versions, and depictions of other women in other times and places.
When the Romney campaign launched an iPhone app that allowed people to put various Republican slogans on their photos, it drew considerable media attention when it was revealed one of the slogans was misspelled, reading "A Better Amercia", which was quickly capitalized on by the internet with numerous parody photos.
During a campaign speech in Virginia, Obama began talking about the role of government in the lives of the people, he talked about how people didn't build things like roads and bridges, but needed those roads in order to function properly. However, do to poor wording the Republican party began broadcasting an ad featuring a small part of the speech, which implied that Obama was saying that small business owners didn't built their business themselves. Conservatives quickly capitalized on the key phrase "You didn't build that", creating numerous images and single issue blogs, but when the media began analyzing the full speech and the public became aware of the actual meaning of the phrase the meme quickly died off as backlashes against the conservatives grew.
In late September a video of Romney at a fundraiser in May showed him speaking about his belief that 47% of Americans “who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims,
who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them” that will never vote for him, and so he won't worry about them or try to court their vote. The video received enormous attention from both the media and the internet, where it was revealed that the 47% figure was taken from the number of people who don't pay federal income tax, and that these people didn't pay it because either they were underage, they or their spouse was an active duty soldier and thus exempt, or they didn't earn enough to be charged federal income tax, which meant they were living in poverty. Romney drew heavy criticism for the statement, and in his official response said that the comments were “not elegantly stated” but did not deny his belief in his statements nor apologized for them, which drew even further critisim.
During the First Presidential Debate, Romney made the comment that he would stop subsidies to PBS, despite his proclaimed love for Big Bird. Moments after saying that Twitter ignited with #FiredBigBird and #BigBirdRomney hash tags, and by the end of the debate #SaveBigBird had trended to number 4 and Reddit saw numerous images about the topic featuring numerous anti-Romney and pro-PBS slogans. The Obama campaign was able to take advantage of the bad publicity, highlighting Romney's desire to stop subsidies to PBS but deregulate Wall Street back to the same levels of the Bush Administration, while others pointed out that PBS' subsidies were a fraction of the subsidies that oil and gas companies get, despite their record profits larger than their subsidies, and that removing those subsidies first would have a much greater impact that PBS'.
Not long after, Time Magazine did a piece on Paul Ryan's workout routine, which had been the subject of much interest when it was reveal Ryan was a "Fitness Freak". In the piece were several staged shots of Ryan in his workout clothes using various weights, which were released online soon after. The photos' staged look and Ryan's overly involved look quickly drew attention, first with the creation of a Twitter feed by Ryan's Biceps and later with images featuring Mansplaining text about various topics like the economy and health care parody Ryan's nonspecific explanations and defensive answers during the campaign, which primarily come from the website Mansplaining Ryan, which continues to update.
At the Third Presidential Debate, Romney criticized Obama's plan to reduce the size of the US Navy, asserting that there are currently less ships now that at the beginning of World War I. Obama rebutted that military might wasn't just measured by the number of ships but also the technological advances and capabilities those ships had, saying "Well Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets. We have these
things called aircraft carriers and planes land on them. We have ships
that go underwater, nuclear submarines. It’s not a game of Battleship
where we’re counting ships, it’s ‘What are our priorities?’” The line Horses and Bayonets quickly exploded on the internet, out pacing Romney's Binder line from the previous debate, topped Google's trend list of searches during the debate and became the most twitted line from the debate.Since the entering the final stretch of the election many have been wondering if the internet would have any further impact on the race, including what impact any new GIFs will have.
Friday, November 2, 2012
The Superheroes' Postions
And now,
we have a roundup of who the superheroes were in favor of for each issue, where
they gave a point for Obama, Romney or Undecided, and who each is voting for.
Superhero
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"All men by nature seek knowledge. It's how that
knowledge is used that's important, and it looks like Obama is the only one
who desires to actually use it to improve America."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"Romney's unabashed desire to not be responsible for
helping despite wanting to be president is worrying. His plans to pass as
much responsibility as possible onto other parties make me wonder what he
thinks being president is all about."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"Romney's current platform sounds a lot like
Obama's, but that wasn't Romney's first platform, and I wonder if Romney really
means it."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"When asked about how to improve education in
America, Obama talks about how he's invested in programs to create more
educated and better skilled teachers, while Romney attacks teachers unions,
says parents need more choice in schools, and that the good should be
rewarded, but nothing about improving what's broken, which makes it clear
what's really broken with the system."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"You can't be afraid to spend money on things
that'll help make the world a better place. Obama thinks that means people,
while Romney thinks it means rich people. I think Obama has the right
idea."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"Romney keeps saying he wants to make things easier
for businesses or delegating things to the states, like he doesn't want to
understand how or why these things works."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"Nobody should suffer because we failed to help when
we should have. Obama is seeking to help as many as he can, while Romney
clearly doesn't care for women, the non-rich and non-whites"
|
|||||||||||
 |
U
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
U
|
U
|
O
|
O
|
U
|
O
|
"Speaking from experience, if more people were
willing to help one another when they're in need, we'd have a lot less
villains out there. That's why I like Obama, since that's what his plan is."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"Romney's attempt to criticize Obama for the
diversity of his federal technology investments is odd. Didn't he learn not
to put all his eggs in one basket through all his business experience?".
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"I've learned the hard way you can't go giving some
people special treatment. You have to treat everyone equally, or things will
go badly for everyone. Given Romney's desire to treat some people special,
and Obama's efforts to treat people fair, the decision isn't hard."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
R
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"Mr. Romney, seems to keep saying we shouldn't help certain
people. We're suppose to help people! Don't you believe in things like Help
thy Neighbor Romney?"
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
" Romney doesn't seem to believe very much in his
Mormon faith, since so many of policies contradict our most basic beliefs."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"Mitt Romney's desire to return pre-existing
conditions barriers to healthcare and deny life saving treatments to anyone
is downright criminal."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
U
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
U
|
O
|
O
|
"Sometimes you have to be the one to support others
if you want thinks to get better. Obama's efforts to support every American
equally are the right action."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"Romney doesn't want to talk about these issues?
Then I don't want to talk about him."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"I'll support anything that helps save lives and
reduce the burden on the average citizen, which is exactly what Obama's plan
is going to do."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"Romney's belief that whatever he does is innovative,
and the fact that he changes stance within the same paragraph in his answers,
convinces me that Romney is saying whatever he thinks sounds good."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"If we want to go further than those before us, we
have to know more than them, and the only way that'll happen is if we keep
investing in spreading our knowledge around."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"Romney seems to want to set things back to the way
they were under Bush. I don't see any good coming from that."
|
|||||||||||
 |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
"Every day I hear all the languages of the world.
And no matter language they speak, I help where I can, because even if
they're from different lands doesn't mean they have different rights. Romney's
desire to give priority to some over others isn't by any means fair."
|
|||||||||||
Total
|
|||||||||||
Obama/Biden
|
20
|
||||||||||
Undecided
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
Romney/Ryan
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Conclusion
And with that, Obama takes all of the superhero vote. That's not to surprising, given the way things were playing out and their liberal creations and clear liberal bias. But that doesn't change the valid points that were brought up about both candidate's campaigns. I hope anyone reading this will take all the information brought up into account when deciding who to vote for this Tuesday.
~James
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