Today is Super Bowl Sunday, the Sabbath of marketing here in the US, a day when fans and non-fans of American football subject themselves to what seems like a 12-hour broadcast. Amid star-studded song-and-dance routines and multi-million-dollar ad campaign launches, they will manage to squeeze in the NFL championship game. It's an interesting occasion: loonyboi is not a football fan, and he tells me he will be attending a Super Bowl party that will be completely populated by others likewise indifferent to the game, a fairly common occurrence. And while TV viewers usually complain about commercials, the broadcast of the big game is considered to be a showcase to debut new ad campaigns, and in keeping with the bizarre nature of the whole event, newspaper reviews of those ads are an expected part of the annual event's recap. It was during the 1984 Super Bowl that the famous "Big Brother" Macintosh ad aired, a one time showing, that I won't say actually overshadowed the game, but I do wonder how many folks who remember seeing that famed single commercial actually remember what teams played in the game surrounding it.

Link of the Day: Live Forever: Uploading the Human Brain, on Psychology Today Online. Thanks Ant.
Story of the Day: Ignorant or lazy? You make the call. Related to yesterday's bank robber who wrote his stick-up note on his personal check. Thanks willde.