Hahaha

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I'm not much of a one for baby culture, but this damn clip is hilarious:


Laughing rugrat


This brings up some interesting questions for me. Is laughter a learned response? One might think so, but this chiclet seems to have mastered it rather thoroughly for one so very young. So if it isn't learned, is it then the intellectual connection that we make between the idea of "funny" and the act of laughing that's learned? How exactly is this little guy reacting to the sound that makes him laugh? He has no language as of yet, and his thinking processes are still rudimentary, so what is going on when he laughs? The repetitive, reactive nature of his response makes me wonder if there's any kind of intellectual component to it at all. Perhaps it's completely a reflex.

In any case, it's really freaking funny. Laughter is, as many have proven, definitely contagious. Watch it and you'll see.

Blinking, prodding, whispering, yelling

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Over HERE, at PBS.org, you can view a fascinating Frontline documentary called The Persuaders, about the advertising industry and the immense changes it has wrought in our culture. It talks about how advertisers are no longer content to just sell you stuff; they are now aiming at recreating the world, enveloping all of us in a "second skin" that lines the reality we live in. But a problem is thereby created: the more ads suffuse our lives, the less attention we are wont to pay to them.

This is first-rate stuff, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the nearly insane vagaries of 21st century media-driven culture.


As for me, it reinforces a central development of my last ten years: I am SO FUCKING GLAD I no longer have TV.