PETA Offers $1 Million Reward to First to Make In Vitro Meat

Scientists around the world are researching or seeking the funds to research ways to produce meat in the laboratory—without killing any animals. In vitro meat production would use animal stem cells that would be placed in a medium to grow and reproduce. The result would mimic flesh and could be cooked and eaten. Some promising steps have been made toward this technology, but we’re still several years away from having in vitro meat be available to the general public.

PETA is now stepping in and offering a $1 million reward to the first scientist to produce and bring to market in vitro meat.

Why is PETA supporting this new technology? Read more here.

Of course, humans don’t need to eat meat at all—vegetarians are less likely to get heart disease, diabetes, or various types of cancer or become obese than meat-eaters are—and a terrific array of vegetarian mock meats already exist. But as many people continue to refuse to kick their meat addictions, PETA is willing to help them gain access to flesh that doesn’t cause suffering and death.

Contest Details

PETA is offering a $1 million prize to the contest participant able to make the first in vitro chicken meat and sell it to the public by June 30, 2012. The contestant must do both of the following: (more…)

Gimmick & bear it!
Bollywood Buzz, NKUT Movies
April 20, 2008

It was sensational news – ‘rumours’ that Malaika and Arbaaz, Bollywood’s happily married couple, were headed for divorce. Turns out that there was no truth in the rumour.

It was merely a publicity stunt for a fairness cream they were launching. But was the couple fair in leading on the entire country?

A suitably penitent Malaika tells us, “The episode has affected us badly. We have been written about as publicity and money hungry. But we don’t need both these things and especially not this way. Pond’s told us that it was going to be like a stage musical wherein we’d have a fight, break up and then remarry.

The story was then leaked and Arbaaz and I kept getting calls from the media (Pond’s PR, though, insists it did no such thing). Thinking that we cannot reveal anything till the event happened, we kept telling them, ‘wait and watch’, not realising that it’s going to work against us and not Pond’s. We’ve been called liars, but we are not. We’re just actors who were given a script to act.” But backfire it did. For, whatever the couple may choose to tell us now, they were very much a part of the whole ‘staged’ affair. But Malaika insists that the company is equally to blame for what happened, and so, it would be wrong to single them out. “Pond’s had decided on this publicity gimmick. Not Arbaaz and me.” (more…)

A post-Passover musical greeting from Streit’s, “America’s favorite Matzo!” Music and Lyrics by Michelle Citrin and William Levin.

thanks Erin

Horror film trailer on Internet causes stir in Muskogee
Tulsa World
April 12, 2008

Muskogee (AP) — An Oklahoma-made independent film has been pulled from a Muskogee film festival after its Internet trailer caused concern among local residents and prompted an investigation by police and the FBI.

The horror film “A Beautiful Day,” produced by Outsider Productions of Shawnee, was to debut April 25 at Muskogee’s Bare Bones International Independent Film and Music Festival, but organizers said Friday they pulled the film after the controversy.

“We’re going to pull that movie from the festival basically to let the other filmmakers know that to use that type of marketing is not smart and there has to be some kind of consequences to it,” said festival director Oscar Ray.

A trailer for the film was posted on the video-sharing site YouTube under the headline, “Warning, Muskogee, OK.” The video featured a synthesized voice saying, “People of Muskogee. Open your eyes. April 25th is a day you’ll come to remember.” Along with images of dark forests, it included the message “the end is coming.”

Without context, the video came across as a possible terrorist threat, said Muskogee police spokesman Brad Holt. (more…)

From Alma’s Soulfood blog… Culture jamming goes mainstream:

Mysterious ads for a product called “Obay” have been plastered all over Toronto for the last couple of weeks. Everyone has been guessing what they could be about — a culture jamming ad that critiques the overmedication of youth? Ads for some kind of self-help system? Or just a joke?

Their point was revealed this week (you can read about it here and here). I wasn’t too surprised to find out that they were done by Smith Roberts + Co., the same advertising firm we are working with on the United Church of Canada’s WonderCafe campaign. I knew there was something familiar about this twisted approach to marketing!

Harry’s tour dismissed as ‘failed stunt’ by PR guru
Public won’t be fooled by ‘virtual reality’ deployment, says Clifford
by Sam Marsden
Independent.ie
March 2, 2008

Top publicist Max Clifford yesterday launched a broadside at Prince Harry’s tour of duty in Afghanistan. Clifford said the tour was a “PR stunt” that has not fooled the public.

AP Video:

The Household Cavalry officer’s 10-week deployment to the frontline in Helmand Province was “virtual reality” because army chiefs would have kept him away from real danger, the PR guru claimed.

It will not change British public opinion about Harry as people reflect that there are thousands of ordinary British troops serving in Afghanistan without receiving the same special treatment, Mr Clifford added.

“To me it’s blatantly obvious. It’s a PR stunt, the whole thing has been put together,” he said.

“The climate when he went out, (he) was getting increasing bad publicity from hanging around in clubs and pubs, and coming out drunk.

“It happened immediately after that. I don’t think you’re cynical for saying, ‘hold on a minute’ … I think that most discerning people see it as a pure public relations exercise.” (more…)

Defense: ‘Miss America’ Sting on L.I. was TV Stunt
1010WINS
March 1, 2008

Riverhead, N.Y — A man arrested in an online sex sting that used a former Miss America as bait had no intention of doing anything illegal and was railroaded for the sake of a television show, his lawyer said.

Lawrence Carulli is on trial on a charge stemming from the April 2007 operation, in which Miss America 2007 Lauren Nelson worked with police to pose as a lonely 14-year-old girl. She chatted with men online and on the phone, luring them to a Long Island home where a camera crew from the show America’s Most Wanted was waiting. The operation was featured in an episode that aired April 28, 2007.

Carulli, 49, acknowledges he solicited sex online from someone using the screen name “CindyLI14″ and drove to Bay Shore for a rendezvous from his home in Brown Mills, N.J.

Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney John Cortes said in an opening statement Friday that Carulli believed his correspondent was 14. But Carulli and his lawyer maintain he was convinced she was 24.

Carulli sensed something amiss when he got to the Bay Shore house and left. He was arrested at a highway exit, driven three miles back to the house and “paraded” before the America’s Most Wanted cameras, his lawyer, Robert Macedonio, said Friday.

“This was run by a TV production company for the purposes of the media,” he said. (more…)

‘Cash Tomato’ Stunt Gets Unruly, Cops Called In
1010WINS
March 1, 2008

New York — Oh the humanity.

A Web site’s promotional Leap Day cash giveaway turned into a free-for-all as restless recipients mobbed the organizers and trampled one another to get at the loot.

Shouting “Make it rain!” and “Give me my money!,” a restless crowd converged on the costumed CashTomato.com representatives as the clock ticked toward the event’s scheduled time, 2:29 p.m. Friday.

The publicity stunt was supposed to involve giving away prizes of up to $29, but the throng soon wrested bags of cash-stuffed envelopes and other items from the CashTomato workers stationed outside Manhattan’s Union Square Park, said Jason Buzi, who identified himself as the online video-sharing site’s senior vice president.

Then the giveaway degenerated into a melee.

YOU TUBE: See the Aftermath

(more…)

Candy For Cause
New York Post, Page Six
February 10, 2008

Those wide-eyed teens running around Greenwich Village sucking on lollipops in the shape of female sex organs are NYU students promoting a good cause. The suggestive candies are all part of the university’s “Vagina Week” - seven days of programs “promoting positive femininity and awareness of violence against women.”

Aside from the anatomical sweets, the week, now through Valentine’s Day, will feature racy student performance art and a night of “Sex Toy Bingo.”

Check here for more information.

Painting: Ice Cave, 1950, by Georgia O’Keefe, source Art for Art’s Sake

Weird Recruiting Saga Comes to Close
by Ryan Canner-O’Mealy
February 7, 2008

By now you’ve probably heard the strange-but-true story of Kevin Hart, a football player at Fernley (Fernley, Nev.).

In preparation for yesterday’s National Signing Day, Hart held a press conference at his school last Friday to announce he would be signing with California over Oregon. Local television and print reporters came to his announcement, as did the entire Fernley student body.

That’s when things got weird.

When contacted by media outlets trying to get some inside info on Hart, both the Cal and Oregon coaches said they had never heard of him. He hadn’t been offered a scholarship by either school, and it was clear he wouldn’t be going to Cal. (more…)