A miracle breakthrough in bite counting technology. Behold the Nitto Kagaku Corporation’s Kami Kami Sensor, an electronic facial harness that counts the number of biting motions and beeps when satisfied, thus ensuring food is chewed with utmost efficiency. 

The Kami Kami Sensor retails for a trifling $188.95 and can be purchased here by all sadistic parents.

In a recent post on the neglected fallout of affirmative action, I wrote:

The justifications for PC racial discrimination have never been entirely convincing or morally palatable. Treating people not as individuals but as generic representatives of some designated victim group is condescending and unfair, and seems likely to perpetuate racial hang-ups and give license to opportunist role-play.

Stephen Hicks outlines some common arguments on the subject and notes their essential distinctions:

The argument for racial affirmative action usually begins by observing that blacks as a group suffered severe oppression at the hands of whites as a group. Since that was unjust, obviously, and since it is a principle of justice that whenever one party harms another, the harmed party is owed compensation by the harming party, we can make the argument that whites as a group owe compensation to blacks as a group. Those opposed to affirmative action will respond by arguing that the proposed “compensation” is unjust to the current generation. Affirmative action would make an individual of the current generation, a white who never owned slaves, compensate a black who never was a slave.

And so what we have here, on both sides of the arguments, are two pairs of competing principles. One pair is highlighted by the following question: Should we treat individuals as members of a group or should we treat them as individuals? Do we talk about blacks as a group versus whites as a group? Or do we look at the individuals who are involved? Advocates of affirmative action argue that individual blacks and whites should be treated as members of the racial groups to which they belong, while opponents of affirmative action argue that we should treat individuals, whether black or white, as individuals regardless of the colour of their skin. In short, we have the conflict between collectivism and individualism. […]

This seems a good point to ask which of the above sounds less bigoted and insulting. Less racist, if you will.

Advocates of affirmative action rely upon a principle of social determinism that says, “This generation’s status is a result of what occurred in the previous generation; its members are constructed by that previous generation’s circumstances.” The other side of the argument emphasizes individual volition: individuals have the power to choose which social influences they will accept. The second pair of competing principles follows: Do individuals most need to be made equal in assets and opportunities, or do they most need liberty to make of their lives what they will?

Some peddlers of grievance, among them Shakti Butler, Joseph Harker and Peggy McIntosh, have redefined racism as “prejudice + power” and argue that racism is something only members of the “dominant group” can indulge in. The “dominant group” is, of course, understood to be Caucasian, though one might wonder how this addresses overtly racist assaults committed by people with dark skin or the realities of power in other parts of the world – Zimbabwe, for instance. The formulation of “prejudice + power” is, it seems to me, disingenuous and absurd, and wilfully so. Consider, for instance, the following personal experience:

Variety magazine recently announced the next project by former Marvel supremo Stan Lee: a cable TV drama about the travails of a gay superhero. As yet untitled, the hour-long programme is based on the novel Hero by Perry Moore, in which a novice crime fighter must contend with parental expectations, serial killers and his own sexual identity. Bearing in mind Lee’s previous efforts include the hypnotically awful reality show Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, expectations are no doubt high.

Homosexuality as a comic book plot device is hardly new, of course. Michael Chabon’s novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, published in 2000, incorporated gay themes and symbolism, and, in September 2002, DC’s Green Lantern series swapped the familiar space opera for unrequited lust and a case of earthbound queer bashing. Given the superhero’s universe has always been populated by dashing young men with improbable physiques and vacuum-tight costumes, one might consider such storylines a little overdue. What seems surprising isn’t the exploration of homosexuality as a prominent narrative, but the fact that such stories took so long to surface in a mainstream comic. Although comic book creators have on the whole remained silent on the subject, the fetishistic symbolism of the costumed hero has long been registered elsewhere.

In 1954, New York psychiatrist Dr Fredric Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent, an apocalyptic assertion that comic books were morally corrosive to impressionable young minds and the primary cause of juvenile delinquency. Hysterical in tone and often bizarre, the book claimed comic publishers were using the medium to teach children how to steal, enabling them to buy more comics. Wertham famously suggested that Batman and Robin were obviously having a homosexual relationship and were therefore in need of “readjustment therapy”. Wertham also developed elaborate theories regarding Wonder Woman and her equally obvious leanings toward bondage and lesbianism. At the time, few people thought to comment on the good doctor’s apparent conviction that comic book heroes were somehow not only real, but also having paranormal sex lives beyond the printed page.

Interactive mirror. // Flea circus contraptions. // If Photoshop were real. // Bacon apple pie. (h/t, Maggie’s Farm) // The healing power of bacon. (h/t, Franklin) // Bioluminescent shrimp spit. // Must wash hands. // Sleeveface. (h/t, Peter Risdon) // Your very own levitation wand. // Sarugaku, Tokyo’s micro shopping mall. // Amusement parks of North Korea: “The Wheel of Death is notorious for ejecting riders.” (h/t, Coudal) // Michael Portillo on Ayn Rand. // Theodore Dalrymple on social pathology. 2, 3, 4, 5. // Google Earth: Ancient Rome. // Early Star Wars storyboards. // Zoom into distant galaxies. // Tales to Astonish. Monsters, heroes, strange goings-on. // Second Watchmen trailer*. // Handsome spiders. // Alan King: Survived by his Wife. (1987) (h/t, Cookslaw) // And, via The Thin Man, it’s Mr Elvis Aaron Presley. 

*Update:

Busy today much of this week, but here’s a third helping of ditties from the ephemera archives. 

Joe Thompson: Sticky Fingers. (2000)

The Ink Spots: Your Feet’s Too Big. (1935)

Marlene Dietrich: You Go to My Head. (1938) 

The Skatalites: James Bond Theme. (1967)

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins: I Put a Spell on You. (1956)

Johnny Cash: Personal Jesus. (2003)

Herbie Hancock: Triangle. (1963)

Louis Armstrong: High Society. (1956) 

Ethel Waters: Stormy Weather. (1933)

Shawn Lee and his Ping Pong Orchestra: Cha Love. (2005) 

The bar is now open.