Source: 01informatique – numéro 1972 daté du 27 novembre 2008
Image from Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex.

« Isn’t it time we all agreed that no one really enjoys, nor ever has enjoyed the antics or mere presence of a clown? It’s true and research at the University of Sheffield says it’s official – clowns suck.

Since the ’80s, Hollywood has consistently portrayed clowns as nothing but creepy. And despite the indisputable power of tinsel town, there’s probably a list of rent-a-clowns a mile long in your city’s phone book. Yes clowning is still going strong, it’s the audience that’s becoming extinct. So do we hate clowns because we never liked them from the start, or is it because decades of movies have turned us against them?

Characters like The Joker have succeeded in making us believe that a more evil villain cannot exist. The sewer dwelling clown in Stephen King’s IT surely inspired some radical clown haters. Even the inanimate clown doll in The Game with Michael Douglas is just downright freaky. And it never even moves.

But aside from Hollywood version, your everyday circus clowns are just creepy by nature. They symbolize a character that can’t be trusted. Speaking of which, ever heard of a person called John Wayne Gacy. He was one of America’s most notorious mass-murderers of the ’70s. Gacy would dress up like a clown before he killed. No wonder nobody likes a clown.

In fact, clowns frighten so many people that there’s a technical term for the fear called Coulrophobia. This clown phobia is an abnormal or exaggerated fear of clowns. It is mostly children who suffer from the phobia, but is also sometimes found in teenagerss and adults as well. Sufferers sometimes acquire the fear after having a bad interaction with a clown, or after seeing a frightening clown filmn. But it’s not just scary movies that have made us all leery of these menaces in make-up.

If you’ve never been especially fond of seeing men covered with face paint you’re not alone. Much needed research on the clown hating phenomenon has finally been performed. A design study was carried out by the University of Sheffield and the results say that children are in fact frightened by clown-themed decor in hospitals.

So if you’ve beence on the fence about whether or not you should express your dislike for clowns – feel free to let it out. You are not alone. Clown haters unite with the power of research on your side! »

Et ça marche aussi avec les ventriloques…

Source: L’excellent site suédois t-post qui permet de s’abonner à un t-shirt comme on fait avec les magazines. Attention, ils taillent plutôt grand donc prenez une taille en dessous.
Image: photo du t-shirt The tears of a clown dessiné par Klaus Haapaniemi, copyright t-post mars 2008 et retouché avec le formidable poladroid.

Et alors ? Je préfère être alcoolique qu’actionnaire !

RudX, 4 octobre 2008

L’expression “digital native” désigne la génération née après 1993, censée être tombée dès le berceau dans la marmite des nouvelles technologies

In L’Espresso de Télérama.fr du 22 janvier 2008.

À ne pas confondre avec le “over connected” qui peut avoir plus de 15 ans et moins de 500 amis sur maïspace enfin bref, un geek, businessman ou jeune cool qui ne peut imaginer rester plus de 24 heures sans se connecter via un gadget numérique.

Le point commun entre ces 2 individus ? Ils font bander les boites de produits hi-tech comme jamais auparavant. Enfin des mecs (mais pas que) qui veulent tout et toujours plus sans jamais remettre en cause la futilité réelle ou l’utilité supposée de la chose. Pas étonnant que ces deux néologismes soit de plus en plus cités par les PDG et autres CEO de Wall Street ces derniers mois.

Illustration : photo par niallkennedy utilisée sous licence Creative Commons.

Un homme mal entretenu, il fait des grumeaux. C’est un problème de vidange, non ?

Julie, 17 février 2008