"We hope the internet goes crazy."

That's what Amy Krehbiel, P&G associate brand director for Tide, told Ad Age the brand hoped to accomplish from its unprecedented Super Bowl ad in which Terry Bradshaw feigns a stain.

And now, inside the Procter & Gamble war room, during the Big Game, comes Tide's moment of truth. The millions spent, months of hard work and top-level secrecy are all coming to fruition in this 75 seconds.

Will America fall for the stain?

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Anatomy of an Ad: Moment of Truth for Tide's Stain - AdAge.com

In an empowering Instagram post, Greys Anatomy star Camilla Luddington announced shes expecting a girl, whom she will raise to be a little warrior.

On Feb 3, Luddington posted a photo on Instagram that showed her holding a onesie with the words Tomb Raider in training on it. In her caption, she wrote she was so excited to share the news that she and her partner, Matthew Alan, will be welcoming a baby girl into their family. And Luddington already has big plans for her little one.

I want her to grow up knowing how strong women are, she wrote.

The actress wrote that she will teach her daughter to be kind and to be vocal about what she thinks is right.

[I want her to grow up] to be a little warrior who is not afraid to use her voice and stand up for what she believes is right, she wrote. To navigate through life with courage and kindness, and to be one of the girls who says, You CAN sit with us....

Luddington also posted a funny video of Greys Anatomy co-star Ellen Pompeo directing her in a maternity photo shoot inspired by the pics Beyonc released two days earlier when she announced she was expecting twins.

I mean this is amazing, Pompeo said. You are pregnant at the same time as Beyonc. When is that ever going to happen again, Camilla?

Heres to hoping Luddingtons little warrior will team up with Beyoncs newest members of the BeyHive for some playdates.

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Pregnant 'Grey's Anatomy' Star Has Big, Feminist Dreams For Her ... - Huffington Post

The inauguration of President Donald Trump revealed that the USA has more in common with the Czech Republic than anyone (presumably, Americans least of all) had hoped for.

President Trumps inauguration ceremony was a flop, at least within the parameters of the universe most of us live in. A universe, it turns out, not shared by Trump and his Press Secretary Sean Spicer. America is getting its first glimpse into the wonderful world of alternative facts, coming from the highest level and it honestly seems a bit shocked. But worry not dear, poor America: you are not the first nor the last. We have been there. We can share survival tips.

The Antichrists Lesson

For starters, there are historical precedents. When the then-President of the Czech Republic Vclav Klaus decided to employ known conspiracy theorist Petr Hjek, most famous for denying evolution, claiming that 9/11 was an inside job, and accusing the late Havel of having been a servant of Satan, he left more than a few heads scratching. Hjek, however, possessed a very useful ability: should it ever become necessary to draw the medias attention, he could always give an interview and bleat something about the Antichrist among us. And then shock and awe would follow.

It was not that what he claimed was particularly interesting or original; the trick was doing it from a position of authority.

This man worked directly for the president and because of that, when he spouted his drivel, the media listened because they simply could not afford to ignore him, especially with the appeal of pure, unadulterated bullshit being so high to audiences. Remove the authority, however, and you get just another conspiracy nut job with a blog. Which, coincidentally, is exactly what became of Hjek.

Now, it seems President Trump possesses a pet lunatic of his own in the person of his Director of Social Media, Dan Scavino. Hoaxes, conspiracy theories, smear campaigns, he has shared it all. The biggest challenge he has faced was to defend his lord and master after Trump retweeted an image from a white supremacist message board. Trumps campaign placed heavy emphasis on social media and there was no indication this would stop once he came in power so it will be quite a surprise if we do not hear more of the talented Mr. Scavino in the near future, and quite possibly in a newfound capacity as a sacrificial lamb. The thing about crackpots is that there are always more where they came from.

There is a lesson and a warning in this comparison: people in power always like having an idiot around and being near that power entitles said idiot to inflict his views on the country. So, dear America, you should prepare for a new onslaught of flashy nonsense.

Going Professional

The most obvious analogy, however, is that between the current presidents of the Czech Republic and the United States. Both President Zeman and President Trump are populists who declare strong pro-Russian views, both love the use of fear mongering and xenophobia to garner popularity and both possess a relationship with facts that can be described as tenuous at best. They also both employ PR specialists whose job descriptions include publicly ignoring realty.

In spite of rather overwhelming photographic evidence to the contrary, Sean Spicer claims President Trumps inauguration gathered the biggest crowd ever. It is a public, shameless lie delivered from a position of authority. It is, also, something that the Czech Republic happens to have experience with, especially given the results of last Novembers presidential vote gathering tour (above: the official version; below: police camera at the other end of the square). And it is an extremely efficient means of dealing with the pesky media.

Lenin is said to have coined the term useful idiot and a tame conspiracy theorist works very well in that role. Presidents Trump and Zeman, however, took this a step further.

What we have in Spicer and Ovek is a logical evolution: the professional idiot.

Here is how it works: the president either slips up or unabashedly tells a lie about, say, a historical article that totally exists or the oh-so-huge Chinese investments in the Czech Republic. The Media points it out and in steps Ovek, either insisting on the lie, producing an alternative and even more outrageous statement or attacking the media in extremely petty ways. Standard PR practice where the truth does not enter the process at any point, right? But there is a difference: professional idiocy results in the unprecedented presence of Zeman in the media the Czech Republic is not a presidential system, the man is there literally just to ruin our reputation abroad. Yet his every (mis)step is religiously followed by the media and he uses it to the maximum to voice populist views quite likely to help him in the next election after all, terror is coming!

Jester to Speaker

The professional idiot strategy works simultaneously as an attention grab and misdirection. Consider President Trumps inauguration mess. Almost immediately afterward, Trump followed it up with a lie about the popular election presumably the same invisible crowd present at his inauguration that happened to have voted invisibly by casting invisible ballots into invisible boxes. Americas stealth plane technology has apparently entered the public domain.

Meanwhile, Spicer proves that he is a real pro in the idiot biz by attacking the media and pitching another shovelful of bullshit towards the pile by stating that the inauguration had the largest audience ever, and by the way, why are we still talking about this and can we get to running that pipeline over Sioux sacred grounds again already?

A professional idiot possesses no qualms about ethics or taste and will most certainly not let something as trivial as facts slow him down on his way towards attention. An analogy to the time-honored institution of the court jester comes to mind, although with a rather crucial difference: while in ages past it was the jesters prerogative to talk smack in the presence of the monarch and to the monarch, it seems a supremely stupid suggestion to have the jester speak for the monarch.

To Wage War on Reality

There is another, altogether more sinister turn to this. A professional idiots job (which, at least in some cases, appears to be a hobby as well) is a symptom of society. Post-truth is the buzzword that immediately comes to mind, but there is more. A systematic denial of reality is also a tool of totalitarian propaganda: recall that the crowning achievement of indoctrination is doublethink. This is something professional idiots seem to radiate effortlessly, especially when flocking around politicians with dictatorial tendencies.

It is entirely possible that Spicer cheered along with the invisible crowd at the inauguration, that Zeman and Ovek read the article on the bottom left of the page and that Trump has evidence that the popular vote was tampered with by millions of illegal voters. We all do this to some extent mentally editing experiences and memories to fit our own world-view. It only becomes problematic once the person in question is unaware of the factand in possession of power.

And so we get alternative facts instead of lies, different recollections instead of mistakes and quickly evolving opinions instead of contradictions. It is a sign of the times. Perfectly natural. Nothing wrong about this sign of the times, we got the best times in the world.

Do not worry, America. You will be alternatively fine.

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Professional Idiot: an Anatomy - PoliticalCritique.org

Updated February 07, 2017 10:02:49

What makes a song a hit, and why do some songs stay with us years later?

Musician turned academic Andrew West has written hundreds of songs, and he designed the world's first Masters degree in songwriting. He explains the secrets behind three classic hits.

Pretty Woman shows terrific attention to detail.

First of all, there's the tempo. They would have figured that out in the studio: not too slow, not too fast. And the final version of the song moves at a certain pace that feels exactly right.

The song also uses a dynamic build, the way that the musicians are playing. That memorable riff gets louder and louder until it seems absolutely necessary for Orbison's voice to come in.

It's also important to note the way Orbison uses harmonies on his voice, but only for certain sections of the song.

A lot of critical thought has gone into the way the song is arranged.

Sometimes having the chords match the musical expression, or the expression of the words, can work against the songwriter because it becomes too obvious.

Changing that gives the listener subtext, a backstory, so that you're thinking that maybe the person who sounds downhearted is actually feeling quite optimistic, so the listener becomes more interested in the story.

Highway Patrolman is a consummate example of a song that's written as a story, and one that doesn't work in consecutive time.

Springsteen moves the listener back and forth and by the time you've gotten four or five minutes into the song, you really feel that these people are real. You feel like you've got a sense of their past, their present and their future.

You'd be hard-pressed to equal the way he phrases it, the timing. It's like a great comedian: the spaces he leaves between the lines are the ones where you figure out what's just happened.

Because Springsteen paid so much attention to the way the lyrics are shaped, and the imagery in the lyrics, he put the music as far into the background as he could.

Springsteen actually recorded this entire album with the E Street Band, but those recordings weren't used.

He doesn't want the audience to be listening to the music or the music performances. He wants your attention on his words.

Winehouse's success draws first and foremost on her lyrics being fearlessly autobiographical.

When you put that voice, which is so obviously honest, within the musical influence of the old Stax and Motown records, then it's an irresistible combination.

In songs like Rehab and Back to Black, Winehouse makes use of very familiar song structures or chord sequences.

But Love is a Losing Game uses an A-A-A structure (or three verses), which is very unusual in popular music.

Across an album you need to mix songs that seem familiar, that you enjoy for their predictability, with songs that are completely unpredictable and you enjoy because you can't figure out what's coming next.

Topics: music, arts-and-entertainment, australia

First posted February 07, 2017 09:58:35

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From Bruce Springsteen to Amy Winehouse: The anatomy of a hit song - ABC Online

AHMEDABAD: The city reports six deaths per week on the road. Victims vary from senior citizens crossing a road to youths high on liquor behind wheels. Out of over 3,000 road accidents reported with EMRI 108 ambulances, majority take place in the city periphery on roads such as SG Road and SP Ring Road. Why do these accidents take place, and how to reduce fatalities?

A report by JP Research India, titled 'Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar Road Accident Study' analyzes 211 accidents that took place between February 2004 and February 2015 on the 31-km stretch of SG Road, 27 km of SP Ring Road, 13.5 km of NH8 and 27 km of state highways passing near or through Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.

The study is part of a national scientific database called "Road Accident Sampling System - India" (RASSI). It is submitted to the state transport commissioner by the agency. According to the research, cars and two-wheelers posed highest risk of accidents among road users. Both segments were found involved in 56% (28% each) of total road accidents. Moreover, two-wheelers were most affected - having been involved in 53% of fatal accidents and 47% of serious accidents. The study mentions that only 22% of the total road accidents get reported to police. Moreover, out of 211 accidents, 34% were serious accidents, 8% fatal and 48% minor. In 8% cases, there were no injuries whereas in 2% cases there is unknown outcome.

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Anatomy of Ahmedabad's road accidents - Times of India