Spencer can you hear me

In a sense, frequent morphing of a cultural artifact hollows it out so it becomes an empty vessel that can be filled with any idea. Take the United States constitution, not the document itself, but its cultural meaning as a holy icon that guides our society and sets our laws. In any given year, dozens of conservative, progressive and centrist writers invoke the constitution, each meaning something completely different.

Years of reinterpretation and misinterpretation by the news media, politicians, writers, filmmakers, composers and public relations professionals have slowly hollowed out the concept of the constitution, so that it can come to represent anything—and everything. Potato Head nibbling potato chips and the prematurely retired Dell Dude.

Sponsored content on the Internet and on TV has now blurred the distinction between programming and commercials. The commercialization and commoditization of most entertainment, information gathering and communications makes it more possible than ever for television commercial slogans and characters to remain memes long enough to make the leap to lasting, even permanent cultural relevancy.

Can you hear me now? Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Is Trump trying to dump the election? Or is he just one crazy, if lucky, narcissist? New articles by this author. New citations to this author. New articles related to this author's research. Email address for updates. My profile My library Metrics Alerts. Sign in. Get my own profile Cited by All Since Citations 23 23 h-index 4 4 iindex 0 0.

Public access. View all. John Trueswell Professor of Psychology Verified email at psych. Hongzhi Xu University of Pennsylvania Verified email at cis. University of Pennsylvania. I recently found out that there is actually a Tardis of sorts in Georgetown in the form of a […].

It is rare to witness the moment when an inventor sees his dreams realised; the culmination of years of testing, adapting and perfecting inventions suddenly paying off. I had the pleasure of witnessing one of those extraordinary moments while attending the 33rd National Veterans Wheelchair Games last month in Tampa, Florida. When I visited Tampa […].

We crowded round them at the house of the lucky kid in our neighbourhood and all dreamed that we might own one someday. The great British comedian, Eddie Izzard, once quipped, that British efforts in space would be equivalent to putting a man in a track suit up a ladder.

Last week, that track suit became more expensive and that ladder, a tad […].