Quickies
Quickies: Cancer center advertising, Ghostbusters physics, and the world’s chicest cult
- Cancer centers tripled ad spending in the last decade; are they pushing hope or hype? – “Over the last decade, direct-to-consumer marketing by cancer centers has soared, with much of that spending concentrated in the hands of about two dozen operators. However, some doctors are concerned that these ads aren’t selling patients on the reality, but on the experiences of a few rare cases.” From Mary.
- Meet the two female MIT physicists who helped Ghostbusters stay as close to reality as possible – “Apparently even the papers strewn about their desks were held to a ridiculous amount of detail. There were grant applications, physics papers, and all sorts of goodies everywhere that I didn’t even realize were floating about until I read about them today.”
- Inside the world’s chicest cult – “Everyone has a threshold for New Age spirituality. At Spirit Weavers, a highly Instagrammable, sold-out women’s retreat, I hit mine.” From Mary. (NSFW warning due to naked breastfeeding photo)
- You say rotifer, I say a tiny creature with a buzzsaw for a face – “ALL IS NOT so quiet in the microscopic world. Sometimes it sounds like bvvvrrr, or at least it should.”