A really, really, horrible monument to victims of the Superga air disaster

According to La Repubblica, this monument was installed May 4th in the town of Borgaro Torinese, just outside of Turin, Italy.

It's a memorial to the victims of the Superga air disaster. On May 4, 1949, a plane carrying most of Torino A.C. football team crashed nearby, killing all 31 passengers.

Many Italians are outraged, calling it "ugly, disrespectful and especially gruesome." There is apparently an Avaaz.org petition against it, but I can't find it online.

It was installed by the local government, with support from local fan group Toro Club Borgaro Grenade.

Thanks to @tejucole for the tip.

Vogue's weird tribute to Hurricane Sandy rescue workers

According to Refinery29, this Vogue photoshoot of models Karlie Kloss, Chanel Iman, and Arizona Muse next to Hurricane Sandy first responders "is trying to glam up the crucial, hard-working, and decidedly unglamorous heroes".

Shot by Annie Leibowitz, the series at first looks like some kind of sick joke. But Stylite reports that it's part of a very real commitment by Vogue:

Vogue teamed up with the CFDA to raise $1.7 million for relief efforts through their Fashion for Sandy Relief auction, which offered lots like tea with Grace Coddington and an internship stint with DKNY‘s PR guru Aliza Licht. 

In the February issue, the magazine is honoring New York’s heroic emergency response teams who got the city back on its feet after the storm, and are still working in the harder hit areas to this day, with a powerful and beautifully-photographed editorial. Annie Leibovitz photographed models like Karlie Kloss, Chanel Iman, and Arizona Muse alongside members of the NYPD Special Ops, nurses at Bellevue Hospital‘s neonatal care unit, firefighters from FDNY’s Far Rockaway house, officers from the National Guard‘s 69th Infantry, servicemen from the US Coast Guard, and workers from Con Edison. 

Often, fashion magazines can seem tone deaf when it comes to dealing with current affairs and larger issues, but in this case, we think Leibovitz’s lens conveys the strength of the teams and magnitude of the event with grace.

 Nice pics. But I have to admit, I doubt I'll ever totally "get" fashion...

Union Carbide's 1950s promise of "...a hand in things to come"

How d'ya like them apples?

Retronaut recently featured this amazing gallery of Big Brother-ish ads from Union Carbide. Besides the classic 1950s illustration and long copy, they are fascinating for the postwar arrogance of the whole thing.

This was an era when science was on the march, and anything was possible if we had the right men on the job. From pesticides to energy, petrochemicals to bionic parts, this company promised to shape the world of tomorrow.

The real question is, how many of these were positive developments, and how many contributed to the sad state of the world today?

Chemicals from coal. Check out the green mist.

Yikes!

This environmental destruction is supposed to be inspiring, not terrifying.

My elbow was recently rebuilt with stuff like this.

sand... I mean SAND!

Fabricated building materials. Dig the sexy lede.

The original Green Revolution.

Weatherproof materials and treatments.

Oscar-winning arc lighting.

Plastic landscape fabric.

God complex much?

Maybe se should go back to the word "atomic".
People are much less likely to mispronounce that.

Powering the modern housewife...

...and the jet set.

Of course, the optimism couldn't last forever. In December 1984, Union Carbide ended up having a "hand" in killing 3,787 people in Bhopal, India, when one of their pesticide plants leaked deadly toxins into the air of the nearby slums.

Among their other handiwork are the dioxins in Sydney Harbour, Australia, that have made all fish there unsuitable for human consumption, death by silicosis of 476 West Virginia miners in the 1920s, and buildings with lots and lots of asbestos.

 I wonder if these two later turned on, tuned in, and dropped out?

Mother Nature resists automotive sponsorship — with a vengeance

Mark sent me a sad story of PR gone horribly wrong.

In Germany, Mini Deutschland paid the Institute for Meteorology at the Free University in Berlin the standard €199 "Adopt-a-Vortex" fee to have in incoming cold front named "Cooper". The agency, Sassenbach, had said they wanted a wind- and weather-proof idea" to promote the soft top Mini Roadster. 

I assume this was supposed to be ironic. But the real (and very sad) irony began when Cooper started killing people:

Also note unfortunate Expedia headline.

BBC reports:

"In a statement, the carmaker said it could not influence exactly when names for weather fronts would be used, or what a weather system would do. 

It said it deeply regretted that the weather front had taken on 'catastrophic proportions' and claimed so many lives."

In other news, Mother Nature hates cars.

Campari's 2012 calendar leaves a bitter taste in my mouth

Ads of The World shared this photoshoot from Campari's 2012 "end of the world" calendar on Facebook. It shows Milla Jovovich in "12 surreal dresses representing some of the possible disasters that will end the world".

Oh, a tsunami dress! How tasteful. I'm sure Japan particularly likes this one.

And floods! Floods are always funny. Especially in Thailand.

This one will go over well in New Orleans.

And a volcano? Superstitious Italians really shouldn't go there.

Yeah, it's all a joke. (They have a 6-armed alien Jovovich in there, for god's sake.) But it seems in poor taste, considering how many of these armageddon situations have come true for so many people. Plus, the copy and shots are kind of tacky.

F'd Ad Fridays: Mirror twins

What are the odds of so many of them, all working at the same place?

Via Photoshop Disasters

A Photoshop disaster in the House of Commons

This is a little off blog topic, but my last post regarded sex and politics, and this is too ridiculous not to share.

This is the official profile page for one of Canada's new MPs, Rathika Sitsabaiesan. The honourable member was elected in the riding of Scarborough—Rouge River on May 2, standing for the New Democratic Party.

Do you notice anything strange about her picture?

Let's blow it up a bit:

Contrarian reader Mark Austin thought it looked a little odd, and was able to find the original at OpenParliament (it has since also been replaced):

As a 29-year-old Millennial woman, The Honourable Ms. Sitsabaiesan probably felt the top she wore to her portrait sitting was just fine. It is fine, as a matter of fact, and no different than what any other woman would wear in a modern business situation.

But somebody thought otherwise. Whether she herself had second thoughts, or whether someone behind the scenes at the House of Commons had a moment of extreme prudishness, the completely awful photoshop cleavage-ectomy has now made the pages of Jezebel.

And that's far more embarrassing than seeing the modest bits of your Member of Parliament's breasts.

Nonetheless, I post this to mock prudishness and bad Photoshop—not the rookie MP, who has taken on a thankless job in public service that I would never want. I wish her and her colleagues the best of luck in the new session.

Pakistan floods prompt swift action by the U.S. Secretary of State and Lara Croft

With thousands dead and some 10 Million people left homeless by flooding in Pakistan, the event is being called "one of the worst humanitarian disasters in UN history".

Without time to concept and execute fancy PSAs, fundraisers are turning to celebrity testimonials to get the message across. Here are two that launched today, one from Angelina Jolie for UNHCR and the other from US Secretery of State Hillary Clinton for the US Government's donation texting campaign:





I will be giving to the Pakistan relief fund at Canadian Red Cross.

Please, do what you can. Things are only going to get worse over there.

Carpet F-Bombing the Gulf

Marc from Osocio Weblog shared this link, from gonzo activists Unf--kTheGulf.com. But before you watch it, I have to warn you that this has a lot of strong language in it.

How much? The number of times the dreaded "F word" is said in this video puts Al Swearengen from the series Deadwood, a bleeped-out rap video, and even a teenage boy trying to impress his buddies to shame.

Ready? (Headphones!)

Oil Spill Charity "F-Bomb-A-Thon" from UnF--kTheGulf.com on Vimeo.

The call-to-action is to buy an "Unf--k the Gulf" tee shirt, the profits of which will go to charities that will clean up the Gulf — as well as to fund anti-oil activism. The site offers a choice of where your money goes. The recipients are Louisiana Wildlife Rehabilitators Association, LA Gulf Response, Earthjustice (who are launching a lawsuit against BP) and Greenpeace.



Will it help? It's a pretty good meme. And if it can squeeze five bucks out of a few thousand slacktivists, it can't hurt.

The campaign was developed by Luke Montgomery of Good Ideas for Good Causes, a "charity crusader, media maven and design dork".