Category Archives: Culture

In Paris, as the International Summit for climate change was underway, a group of protestors under the name, Brandalism turned commercial spaces throughout the city with posters to highlight climate change. This campaign drew more than a large number of eyeballs and made people look twice at the regular commercial spaces.

Brandalism, a UK based group, used regular commercial places as a part of subvertising campaign and made impactful messages on climate change. Some of the corporations that were targeted as part of this campaign were Volkswagen and Mobil. It is to be noted that Volswagen was recently part of a debate on ignoring emission standards.

Members of Brandalism claimed that advertising played a major role in impacting the way we consume things adding to climate change. They made use of this campaign to reclaim public commercial places and use it in a positive way so as to create awareness about climate change.

Have you ever wondered why you always go for the extra ketchup to spice up your food? Have you been at a daze when your partner says there is an added level of spiciness in the dinner you cooked up? Now, new studies reveal that our genes play an important role in the way we taste food and our genes may be the reason to blame for our sweet tooth.
Douglas Constantiner, co-founder of Societe Brewing Co. in San Diego argues that women are genetically predisposed to be better tasters than men. Supertasters, who are high in demand in the food industry, are genetically born with better genes that help them to taste the nuances in each and every flavor. Further studies by Paul Breslin, a professor at Rutgers University prove that women of certain age are more perceptive to certain odors than others. Experiments carried on women of various age revealed that women in the reproductive age could discern odors to the order of magnitudes five times higher than other women.

Further experiments reveal that our genes play a lofty role in determining our taste preferences and studies are being conducted to support this theory.

“Blaxican” – A word coined by combining the terms Black and Mexican is a term that is to be added to America’s vocabulary. It is used to denote descendants whose parents are black and Mexican. This term has been made popular by Melissa Adams of Lynwood, California. She explains that she uses this term to make others know of her mixed heritage, of which she is immensely proud of. Together with a group of other Blaxicans, they have created a project on social media sites to create awareness and make this term popular.

Blaxicans fall on either sides of the color spectrum. They either are black or white with several falling in between. The term Blaxican is not a new term and can be traced back to the 1980s. Blaxicans of LA is an Instagram account where Blaxicans of all ages share their experiences of having to grow up with a mixed racial heritage and how they were perceived in the society. This has helped several young Americans to embrace their heritage and to be immensely proud of it.