Quickies

Skepchick Quickies 9.4

On September 4, 1957, Ford introduced the Edsel, one of the most infamous car flops ever. Apparently, it was even promoted by its own TV show, The Edsel Show. Ha!

Mary

Mary Brock works as an Immunology scientist by day and takes care of a pink-loving princess child by night. She likes cloudy days, crafting, cooking, and Fall weather in New England.

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16 Comments

  1. Mary

    I personally think Lava Lamps are cool. It would be even cooler, if they could figure out a way to get the liquid to change colors as it moves around. That would be psychedelic.

    I was a bit disappointed, through that that video doesn’t seem to have any sound.

    1. No, but we have the technology to make the colors shift to a brighter hue and also to make them bleed into other senses.

  2. There’s only one of me, I can only move the needle on SAHD’s so far all on my own. Come on guys, join me! (Caveat, it helps to marry a bad ass wife who is infinitely smarter than you. Seriously, if my family needed me to bring in the supporting income it would make Breaking Bad look like Sid the Science Kid)

  3. I don’t use any adblocking software. In fact I kind of wince at the level of entitled indignation displayed by many who object to online ads. It’s part and parcel of our collective delusion that nothing on the internet is “real”, so we don’t have to pay attention to it’s costs, be they the social costs of online misogyny or the actual cost of paying people who write interesting and entertaining things for us so they can keep a roof over their heads.

    1. I use Adblocking software, because I don’t like my browsing habits being tracked and aggregated by companies I have no control over, who could then sell it to third parties or government entities. This isn’t advertising. It’s cyberstalking.

    2. I don’t object to online ads in principle, but there’s a big difference between a static image or test ad (fine by me) and an autoplaying video with sound. It was the latter type of ads that convinced me to get AdBlock Plus and turn it on by default – With how many tabs I often have open, it was becoming a pain to search through them to figure out which one was causing the screeching tires sound just so I could get it to stop. And let’s not get into pop-ups that spawn more pop-ups when closed, and other such ploys. Now I default to leaving it on, and turning it off for sites I regularly go to. If their ads are tolerable, I leave it off. If not, it goes back on. I hear that AdBlock Plus is trying to get sites to agree to only use non-obtrusive ads, in which case their ads will be whitelisted by default for ABP users. They haven’t had much luck getting advertisers to sign on, but as more and more people begin to block ads, this deal might become more acceptable.

      1. I remember one time I closed all the tabs and it was still playing. I had to restart the computer.

  4. I don’t like online ads. Not just because they are annoying or intrusive, but because they are frickin’ stupid.
    I don’t used ad blocking software because I care about the sites I visit (although I do have the extension installed but disabled, just in case a site gets too egregious) but today on Skepchick we have the standard Toyota, Geico, Hulu Plus ads which is fine but we also have Amazonian super-fruit woo woo and “Stand with Billy Graham and declare, I have hope for America because of Jebus Christ”.
    Talk about tone deaf, and I understand it’s out of the website owner’s control but something tells me they don’t get too many hits on that crap from this site.

    1. Actually, if you see advertisements that you think are inappropriate for Skepchick, you can use the contact form to let Rebecca know. I believe she does have some control over what gets displayed.

      I also find them to be hilarious mis-aimed sometimes. I will sometimes get ads for Gardein products (vegan food that I buy) and when I click through to an article I will get a Burger King or Pizza Hut ad. Color me confused!

      1. Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of ads for Consumer Cellular. I kinda assumed it was the cosmos reminding me I’m a mere two months away from being eligible to join the AARP.

      2. Are they just trying to waste the advertisers money, or are they trying to fight veganism?

        Some ad executive is watching you through a crystal ball and waiting for you to eat a burger. “Yesssssssss it’s just a matter of time, Will. Soon you will be one of us. Mwahahahahahaha haaaaaaaaaa.”

  5. Republicans say stupid things all the time it’s true, and as a liberal and a Democrat I just wish their constituents would see these things as stupid instead of “truthy”.
    But we have to give credit when it is due so I would like to say bravo to John McCain, when Fox’s Brian Kilmeade said he had a problem with Syrian rebels shouting “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar” after their missiles hit their targets. McCain replied with “Would you have a problem with an American person saying “Thank God, Thank God?”
    Okay, he got the meaning a bit wrong, and later thought a game of poker was more important than the hearings on Syria, but hey, you have to give them the crumbs because that’s about all they seem to have any more.

  6. I am always shocked when the internet manages to forget something. In this case, I can’t find a transcript of the conversation between two henchmen from No One Lives Forever about the Edsel. As I recall, one of them bought the Edsel and was quite happy with it. He did a really good job defending the Edsel as a car.

    1. The Edsel was a perfectly fine car, it was just over priced for what it was. It had been touted by Ford as being the best thing since sliced bread when it was basically a tarted up Mercury for a significant markup. Plus, let’s face it, it has love-it-or-hate-it styling.

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