Bad judgment or saavy marketing?

So, Microsoft created an ad with an image of three people at a business meeting. The ad shows them sitting at a table, with computers open. One of the computers appears to be a MacBook, and the logo has been [presumably] digitally removed. The ad is published in the US. Then someone in the marketing department decides that if the photo is to be used in Poland, the African American man should be removed, and a white face put on his body. There is a range of opinions about this. I tend to agree with some of the printed opinions that if you wanted a photo with three white people in it, it would have been a lot smarter to start with a different photo. See the original and altered photos here.

How choice of language affects thinking

In French, the word for bridge, pont, is masculine. In German, the word brücke is feminine. In this fascinating Newsweek article, the author describes how German newspaper accounts in 2004 of the newly built Viaduct de Millau mention its elegance and lightness, while French articles describe it as immense and powerful. A Stanford psychologist, Lera Boroditsky, has studied how language can affect thinking. There's an Aboriginal tribe who uses compass directions for spatial cues, and not surprisingly, these people show much better than average skill at dead reckoning. Imagine how your choice of words can affect others opinions. I find, for example, if I describe an assignment as particularly difficult, I am more likely to hear from students about how much trouble they had with it.