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| Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 | | 12:58 pm |
Creating need
Last night I was watching PBS and there was an interview with .. someone :) who had a book called "consumed" talking about capitalism and 'what is going wrong with it'. Now I have never been a big supporter of capitalism as I felt that it often does more harm than good, but this interview made me rethink my views. The main concept that he was getting across is that "american capitalism" is not just capitalism. It is 'push capitalism' by which he means products are created with no need for them and then a need is artificially created in the populace ("You _Must_ have This cool thing" btw they gave a clip of a PBS cartoon where the evil guy was making everyone want 'The Thing' through marketing.. a more known example is 'Log' (here everyone can sing along "It's looog, It's loooog ..."). His point being that capitalism is a wonderful thing, but that when it starts to create the need for its products is when it leaves behind the concept of 'competition to better fill the needs of the people' and becomes something different. He tied this into the "consumed" concept of his book suggesting that it starts to consume us and this cycle of creating and filling artificial needs leads to .. lots of bad social and eventually economic ends. Anyway as I thought about this, I started to wonder. Is marketing the cancer of capitalism? What would it be like if all commercials where simply outlawed on all TV and Radio? After talking with Belen, it still left me wondering the impact. Obviously the TV and radio would have a hard time staying afloat.. but is that a bad thing? After all if the people feel they need excellent TV they could donate to stations and those that filled the need of the people the best would continue programming, and the things they played would have to be what the people wanted. Same with radio. If you really want your station, maybe you should pay for it? It would reprioritize peoples needs. We talked about how to break into the market then without advertising (using the "Cola" example) and thought well if I have a new cola now, I would have to spend X millions in commercials to get it out there and compete with the mass hypnosis marketing of the big players. Those players could outspend me in a heartbeat and would if they felt I had a better product. But if the only real advertising was simply on the shelf, it would be that much harder to crush my attempt. Granted they could undercut their prices taking a loss to crush me, but they would do that already and if my product was really better there is a better chance I would survive that attack, especially since part of my initial investment could be free samples. So, hopefully I will keep this thought in my mind as I travel so I can debate the merits and flaws of this as a concept. (one which would never occur without some revolutionary style of thinking, but that never stopped me from speculating before).. ***this message was sponsored by Friday Night Pizza TM, coming to a living room near you!*** Current Mood: and indifferent | | Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 | | 3:48 pm |
confidentiality
So while washing pots and pans I wondered why in the world we have Attorney client privilege as well as the whole "under the confessional" thing.. though I will say im on the fence about the psychiatrist - client secrecy thing. So from my understanding of the Attorney secrecy is: if you do not feel you can be open with your attorney they cannot do a good job. To which I answer.. well maybe you shouldn't have broken the law, why should our society make it easier for one to get off for something they did. What value does this set up serve? For the confessional : They are talking to God and atoning for their sins. Well I do not see how God granting forgiveness makes any difference between if or if not the priest tells someone 'hey this is the guy who killed X', the argument being, i guess, that the church wants to encourage people to be open? to which i say then tell them they have a choice, you confess and accept the consequences or you can go literally to hell. (obviously they who hold the whole confessional thing also hold with the whole hell delusion). So why do we set up situations where someone who is most definitely guilty has the tools to help them get away as well as ease their feelings of guilt without any actual recompense. The psychiatrist thing leaves me on the fence because I can understand how allowing someone who is troubled a place to open up to will possibly help in preventing a repeat of the crime.. though I would not be surprised to find that this is rarely the case and in fact if this confidentiality was removed it would result in less crime. All of this is assuming the hypothetical of a decent justice system and incarceration system. Current Mood: apathetic | | Monday, September 24th, 2007 | | 2:41 pm |
Random - The Absurdity of News Helicopters
So i ran across a collection of random things among them was the following diatribe on News Helicopters. I found it both amusing and a little sad. "It was awful that two television news helicopters collided above Phoenix in July, killing four people. Perhaps on hearing of the crash you thought, "Why were there two television news helicopters trying to get pictures of a police chase, wouldn't one have been enough?" Turns out there were five television news helicopters above the chase, all jockeying for position for meaningless footage of police cars following a truck. It's a wonder all five didn't collide, or smash into the sixth helicopter above the chase: the police aircraft that was the sole helicopter that actually had a reason to be present. Polls show the public steadily losing respect for journalism, and the absurd obsession with using news helicopters to generate pseudo-drama must be one reason. News helicopters don't just roar above highway chases -- although all the viewer sees is a jumpy image of a vehicle with police cruisers behind. Increasingly when a news event involves some place, agency, company or school, the local station has its helicopter circle overhead as a correspondent does a report from the scene. This is done to fabricate the impression that something more sensational is happening than actually is: The correspondent deliberately arranges the "stand-up" so she has to shout above the whomp-whomp of helicopter rotors, creating an illusion of drama. That is, the purpose of the helicopter is to distort the news, not report same. Twice in the past couple of years, my kids' high school has been involved in controversies, and each time, news helicopters have circled above the school as correspondents did their stand-ups outside. What could a helicopter contribute to a report on an educational dispute? Why, live footage of cooling fans on the school roof, of course! Last week, two stations of the subway line I commute on were closed by this incident; walking past one closed station, I noted three news helicopters circling above. Circling above a subway station -- where, by definition, you cannot see anything from the air! Typically, local news stations spend about $1 million a year to maintain and operate a news helicopter. If that amount were invested instead in serious reporting, maybe the public wouldn't have so little faith in local newscasters." Current Mood: apathetic | | Friday, July 13th, 2007 | | 10:09 am |
Happiness is slavery
Well maybe not slavery, but via Mel ended up reading a bit about Daniel Gilberts book 'stumbling on happiness' pretty interesting stuff. A couple things that turns up makes people consistently happy is Religion and Marriage. On the flip side things that end up having a net negative effect are Money and Children. Keep in mind, as with any blanket statement, a majority of people is not 100% of people so there are definitely those of you out there who get net positives from the above and net negatives from other things. He also keeps a blog ( http://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/gilbert/blog/) so far pretty interesting ideas, the recent one talks about how some advertising erodes or natural impulse to help others. Which reminded me of royalbannanafish's topic on why we are not hospitable, might have a lot to do with strangers 'crying wolf' and hardening our ability to have compassion. Current Mood: apathetically thoughtful | | Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 | | 2:48 pm |
Global Warming and Galaxies
Hey Mike, someone else found the "cause of global warming" :) Thought you might like that: http://viewzone.com:80/milkyway.htmlTalks about how we are part of (start 50's sci-fi music) Another Galaxy oh yeah and about halfway down that this convergence is the _real_ cause of global warming and stuff, and of course nothing would be complete without Mayan astrological brilliance being proven as well :) on a side note, Down with homeschooling. I recently discovered that in Germany it is illegal to homeschool, so much for forcing your kids not to learn about the evils to homosexuality and evolution. Current Mood: amusingly apathetic | | Monday, July 9th, 2007 | | 4:28 pm |
Sad State of Education
So we have all heard about how kids don't know where the Pacific Ocean and such is, but a couple days ago while watching Jeopardy I was shocked. The final question in "U.S. States" "It is now the 4th largest state and is the largest state created from the Louisiana Purchase" I though.. hell now thats an unbelievably easy Final Jeopardy question... a tough one would be "Number of states that contain a part of the Louisiana Purchase" anyway.. Now I am interested in History and like maps, but I would think that any Jeopardy contestant would have a general idea of the Map of the U.S. and should have a vague recollection of the swath of land always identified with the Louisiana Purchase... So we get the contestant #1. "Florida".. Florida??? wtf? lets see.. way EAST of the purchase, umm, Purchase was made from the French and Florida was Spanish also 4th largest state?? I know its big.. compared to other East Coast states but really?? Ok so one guy can't seem to think.. next contestant "Mississippi" ArrrgggH! okay people WEST of the Mississippi.. anyone Lewis and Clark.. Bueller... anyone? and since when did that state even get close to being the 4th largest state?? Well maybe the guy with the most money can tell us... "New Mexico" well at least we are West of the Mississippi, and hey its bigger than those other states, probably the 7-10th biggest state (Nevada off the top of my head and right next to it would be bigger).. but um new *Mexico" maybe any idea where and when this state arose? This is just pathetic.. I would hope most people reading this would think.. Well Alaska is the biggest and California and Texas are huge, so we will put them at 2 and 3.. and lets see.. any other Big states.. Big Open Country states... maybe with "Big" in a state slogan.. "Big Sky Country" sigh.. I expect nothing from our education system but I do expect .. or did expect... some knowledge of basic U.S. geography and history from Jeopardy challengers.. at least one of the 3 if not all three. Current Mood: apathetically rock picking | | Friday, February 9th, 2007 | | 6:27 pm |
Man with Axe needed
 now if only (dre) i knew someone (andre) who knew how to handle (andre de) an axe.. maybe someone like (andre de la) a fireman.. hmmm (andre de la reza).. i sure could use one of those :) | | Monday, February 6th, 2006 | | 1:27 pm |
the cruelity of friends
yeah you know who im talking about.. though many of "you" probably only know belen so this wont get to you, but some of you are reading this and definately at fault. I noticed it coming, the notes/suggestions here and there, wearing away at her until she goes and downloads Firefly "sharing" it with us. Just plain mean, really you do not tell someone how incredibly wonderful a piece of chocolate cake is, serve it to them, let them have a bit or two then take it away and shove it down the disposal saying "yeah sorry thats all there is"!! Next time you encourage one to watch something like that make sure there are *at least* 3 seasons, some sense of completeness, or if its books, that the darn book is finished.. unless its a straight comedy, i can deal with that. sigh, numerous hours wasted wondering who the preacher really is (and then having him killed with *no* answers) - again cruel, I can just see you sitting back going wow, that totally sucked that I didnt even get a full season... I wonder who else I can suck into this deep dark hole. oh yeah, and if you have not watched Firefly (series) and Serenity (movie) and like SciFi at all, I highly suggest you watch it.. if you need .avi/.mov files for the series I will happily provide them. Current Mood: indifferently vengeful | | Sunday, January 29th, 2006 | | 1:59 am |
mmmmmmmm
Andee - thank you for the fishnets... Current Mood: in a state of apathicigism | | Friday, December 9th, 2005 | | 1:55 pm |
burningwax and silverharloe (and other gamers)
Becuase I recalled I wanted to send this random bit of info, and .. well didnt send it in email. burningwax, you wanted to see the 'final' Calvin&Hobbes magic expansion set, and I never sent you a link (anyone else reading this:if you dont know magic this would likely not interest you, if you are aware of it and know and like C&H you might like this as well) http://www.belen.net/apathy/magic/index.htmlsilver, I wanted to show you the "end game" for ATITD and never got to it, so now I am http://www.belen.net/apathy/EndGame.htmlFor those into munchkin (Dre & Leigh might want to copy this down in case we get toghet and want to play test) http://www.belen.net/apathy/munchopoly.txtand because im on random game rules alterations day. For those who know Settlers of Catan, and know of the Card game version know that the card game has magic and wizards, so this is the rules adding that element into the board game (adds to the knights and cities expansion) For this all the action cards become duel purposed having the action ability as well as a spell. The list of which spell go on which cards is located at: http://www.belen.net/apathy/catanmagic.txtthis also has the rules on how to get wizards/citadels and how to play the magic. http://www.belen.net/apathy/SettlersMagic.dochas a printable word doc of all the spells so one can cut and tape/paste onto the action cards, nicely fitting over the existing picture. I have play tested this only once to relatively decent results, magic was a nice addition, and a useful path to pursue on settlements that had only 2 resources and also made settlements on 1 resource spots in play, since it takes only 3 resources to make it an empty citadel and 1 resource to get the wizard (see rules) which can help alot in ways of spells one can play as well as victory points. As always any commentary on any or all of the random rule sets/additions here would be welcome :) Current Mood: creatively apathetic | | Friday, October 28th, 2005 | | 6:58 pm |
Now witness the firepower...
.. of this fully armed and operational battle station!  Now if only the empire can get a better space delivery system, its a heck of a long climb! btw I enjoyed reading everyones little replies :) made me laugh. Current Mood: as apathetic as my master bids | | 12:49 pm |
My Journey...
... towards the Dark Side is almost Complete..  Current Mood: encouragingly apathetic | | Thursday, October 27th, 2005 | | 5:21 pm |
Why change plans
Since the first on had no flaws, there is no reason to change plans, I mean come on, how many times could they make that shot... heck they dont even know where this one is... look at that shuttle.. it looks a little lost..  Current Mood: dispondently apathetic | | 1:58 pm |
| | Wednesday, October 26th, 2005 | | 2:10 pm |
Progress Shmogress
So I hear the bigwigs aren't satisfied with the 'progress' bein made. i meand * really* if it is such a high priority you'd think they could frickin pay me more! They just sit there in their comfy chairs, you know screw that they can just bite m*&- khh ghhh can't hhhhh breath.. ack gasp. ahem, cough erm yeah, seems I need to um put in 'voluntary' overtime...  Current Mood: like you care | | Tuesday, October 25th, 2005 | | 6:53 pm |
From the factory floor
hmm when I joined up they said I would get to see all sorts of sites.. not spend my days on the factory floor...
Current Mood: brimming with apathy | | Tuesday, September 27th, 2005 | | 6:57 pm |
give me money and i will leave
So todays paper here in lovely Austin reported what the 7 hottest days in sept.(known) history were in Austin.. Turn out after living here for a grand total of 2 septembers i have experienced 6 of 7. Missed the one in 1951 due to lack of planning on my grandparents part. Hmm I think I have also been in the Pacific Northwest for the two dryest summers they had had in the last 50+ years.. keeping in mind I was only there for 3 summers ever... On a complete side note a while back I was reading some random comments on a friends journal and someone pointed to a link on the constitutionality of .. hmm pledge i think, anyway it led me to the following: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/home.htmlwhich is a rather informative collection of all the constitutional hot buttons that I am aware of, why they are, where they came from, case studies ect ect. sort of dry, but for anyone who has a history bend, pretty neat. Have a good day all. oh and Mike (of the suz.) i will post the complete set soon :) Current Mood: quantitatively apathetic | | Tuesday, September 13th, 2005 | | 1:38 pm |
Press Secretary Scott Drinking game!
So for some random reason, I ended up reading a press briefing and I was highly amused by the Press Secretary's ability to avoid answering any question, as well (in this particular briefing at least) his use of the same phrases over and over. So Drinking game - each time a reporter asks a question that is side stepped - take one drink. each time the press secretary uses any form of the word "focus" - take one drink. each time a different reporters question is in the style of "I want to follow up X reporters question" - take a drink. *warning* you will be far from sober at the end. Also a fun way, is to give multiple people the transcript and you can read it outloud, if you can still read halfway through. The briefing - http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/09/20050906-5.html (i skipped the long winded intro and went straight to the Question & Avoid part) in my personal opinion it has made me at least want to read the next few (we will see if these drinking rules hold up for future briefings). Addendum - from the following days press briefing. A lesson on how to not answer a direct question. ( a great snippet from sept. 7th briefing ) Current Mood: apathetically amused | | Friday, September 2nd, 2005 | | 5:32 pm |
Shocked?
All over the place "Shocked at the horror". I am sure *anyone* who actually thought about what the situation was like, the human quality of some of the people who would not leave it should be incredibly obvious that total looting would take place within a day, and that violence wouled dramitcally increase from that point on. I am almost suprised that people are even suprised, but then again I recall of course people are suprised, they dont want to believe what they should know is true. Take any major american city, cut off all access, remove all law enforcement and a huge chunk of the "responsible" population and of bloody course this is what you will get. Heck we have riots for winning sports championships! Its just sad that those in charge where to blind/willfully ignorant? to not see this situation coming a mile away, anyone with a brain in use would have had national guard ready to pounce on th city the second the storm whad passed with martial law in effect, then follow it by rescue operations. We love our guns, we love our violence, we preach we are special, we rub affluence in the face of those who have none and of course we are shocked by the world we create when the stop gap is pulled. N.O. of right now is the society we created and lived in, its just the part we beat back into the dark corners of our mind so we can pretend its not there and feel shocked when it is. Current Mood: sockingly apathetic | | Tuesday, August 30th, 2005 | | 6:34 pm |
as if it could get worse
So.. the F.Q. CBD, riverside uptown areas seemed to have survived any real flooding from the hurricane. Then as most know this morning the breach in the levee (17th street levee) which resulted in a dramatic increase in flooding into the above areas. Attempts to plug the hole combined with the pumps working held the flooding off, there was no significant increase in the water levels in the above areas. Video from late this afternoon showed F.Q. and Marigny triangle still above water. Unfortunately it was just released (by the mayor) that the attempts to plug the breach have failed and the pumps in the area will fail soon, which apparently will result in a 8-13 foot increase in the water level (water predicted to get to 3ft above sea level). If I get any video or info on these areas I'll pass it along. just plain yikes upon yikes. graphs of N.O. heights http://www.publichealth.hurricane.lsu.edu/convert%20to%20tables/New%20Orleans%20Study%20Areatf.htm |
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