The Miss Universe beauty pageant recently occurred, and it was brought to my attention via NPR that the National Costume portion of the contest is really something to see (all of the costumes found here, and a youtube 'highlights' clip format). Bryan and i were reviewing these, and he picked Sweden as the winner, mostly because with her sword, she might just resort to force. Neither of us understood Germany or Belgium, and i speculated that Denmark's was in homage to their mermaid statue. Quite a few of the ladies relied on large feather headdresses/props; man, weight training might be a good idea just wearing those things. America's is a little odd.
This article regarding advertising and the claims made by mascara ads popped up on the NYTimes. i recently bought a tube of mascara (my prior tube was used up in drawing a mustache on a female impersonating the lead character of Breaking Bad), and was a little overwhelmed with the choices (even just those present at Target), so it was interesting to read that some companies have been forced to change their claims, as eyelash inserts or photoshop had been used in some circumstances/models. Hmm.
Another NYTimes article recently featured selfies taken by Franz Ferdinand bassist Bob Hardy, of himself, face obscured by a book, in every hotel room he's visited. i find this fascinating, because despite all being hotel rooms, one can get pretty close to guessing the general location (city/country) by the furnishings.
Some friends and i had dinner this evening, and on the way back we saw ads for a campus blood drive. Someone made the comment that the blood just gets sold, and i took exception to that; the blood is not called a donation for nothing. According to the Red Cross FAQs for blood donations, "There is never a fee for the blood itself. The Red Cross charges for expenses incurred in recruiting and educating donors, keeping accurate donor records, collecting blood by trained staff, processing and testing blood in a state of the art laboratory, and storing and distributing blood ". Further investigation turned up a Slate article reporting that blood is sold, indeed, and can vary from region to region based on overhead costs as well as general supply. That article also included the anecdote that " Until the 1970s, a major portion of the nation's blood supply came from paid donors. But a government study found that volunteered blood was much less prone to hepatitis contamination. From then on, blood banks had to label their packages "paid" or "volunteer," which had the effect of eliminating paid-donor blood from the national supply. (Pharmaceutical companies still purchase blood plasma from for-profit firms that hire paid donors. The nonprofits also sell off surplus plasma to the drug companies at market rate.) ", which i had heard before. Interesting. Anyhow, we still do not artificially generate blood (no matter what the Southern Vampire Mysteries would have you think), and i'd rather there be blood available for those who need it than not. Also, i would probably not participate if they paid me.
Because i have been living under a rock, i did not realize John Mayer has a new album out. It's decent (and yeah, i'm a fan).
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