January 31, 2006
Buy Danish
The request for Americans to buy Danish products is in reaction to a Saudi-backed boycott of them over some political cartoons that appeared in a Danish newspaper.
Other than Danish Havarti (a smooth, creamy cheese that is one of my favorites) and Lego (with three kids, we have so many of this product that I'm thinking of using them to build an addition on to the house) I can't name any Danish imports. So I Googled it. And there at the bottom of the first page was what looked like my best resource - Google Answers: List 100 Danish products? But when I clicked on the link I found "The requested content is no longer available. It has been removed by a Google editor." I checked the cached version and can't figure out what was so offensive about it that led to its removal. Was it an effort to avoid showing a list (although a list of companies/products had not yet been provided) to boycotters? To supporters?
I did find that Denmark is a large exporter of canned ham and pork products. I don't imagine that the boycott will affect those companies but the anti-boycott may.
January 27, 2006
Wal-Mart
The recent announcement that thousands of people applied for a few hundred jobs at a new Wal-Mart has revived the ongoing discussion of whether or not Wal-Mart is evil incarnate.
Let's start with the shopping experience since that's my only "Wal-Mart experience".
On the plus side: I have found things there that I wanted and couldn't find at other local general merchandise stores. My local Wal-Mart also has a sewing and crafts department. While it isn't extensive it has saved me a 30+ minute drive to the nearest fabric store when I've needed materials for costumes and other projects. I don't really price shop for groceries and day-to-day items, I'm not that organized, but if I did, their prices would probably go in the "plus" list.
The negatives of shopping there: My two biggest complaints are long checkout lines and the U-scan software. I go out to get what I need today or tomorrow so it's frustrating for me to see only a few lines and all of them having long lines of (more organized) people who are getting a whole week's or more worth of shopping in. All of those overflowing carts sends me heading for the U-scan lanes but that is just as bad. The software for those things makes anything Microsoft ever put out look bug-free by comparison. Since paying for the merchandise is the last thing you do before leaving, a bad experience here can negate any good experience you had while shopping.
Who would want to work there and why?
On the plus side: Job applicants don't need to have extensive education or experience. While most of us wouldn't consider a job there to be a life career choice, it does give many people the opportunity to enter the workforce. Students getting their first job or a stay-at-home mom who doesn't have a recent employment history can use a job there as a stepping stone to other employment. For many employers, your ability to show up for work when you're scheduled is just as important as any skills you may have.
The negatives: Since I haven't worked there I can't say for sure what is negative about working for Wal-Mart that isn't just as bad anywhere else. There are complaints that they hire too many part-timers instead of full-time employees to avoid providing benefits. This may be true but if you are the sole income provider for yourself or your family and the best job you can get is part-time at Wal-Mart, your problems began long before you were hired there.
I think the biggest problem that Wal-Mart has is that those who are doing most of the complaining aren't the ones for whom shopping or working there is the best option available. Wal-Mart isn't perfect but its success shows that it fills a need. If you don't like it, don't shop or work there but don't assume that those who do are too stupid to make their own decisions without your help.
January 26, 2006
Hairdo and Hairdon't
I hate having my hair cut. My last haircutting experience didn't help this at all.
I wanted to be able to give the stylist an idea of what I wanted so I looked for pictures online. I found one I liked - a "regular person" picture, not some super model or movie star picture. I understand that my hair, it's thickness and growth pattern, means that I may not end up with something exactly like the picture. That's not a problem, I just wanted something similar.
I showed the stylist the picture. She told me what she thought would look best. I told her again what I wanted. She repeated what she thought would be best. About this time I begin thinking that it's less a matter of what would look best but what she was capable of doing. I gave in, afterall, if anything more than trimming a few inches off all the way around is more than she feels she's able to do, who am I to argue?
I need another haircut and I think I'll try some place different this time.
That's Dumb
CNN Money has the 101 Dumbest Moments in Business for 2005. Below are some of my favorites:
16. A bad idea for an ad but I bet it would make a top selling poster - Mary Foerster, spokeswoman for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems says, "We consider the ad offensive, regret its publication, and apologize to those who, like us, are dismayed with its contents." about an ad in the Sept. 24 issue of National Journal that depicts the CV-22 Osprey in an assault on a mosque accompanied by copy that reads, "It descends from the heavens. Ironically it unleashes hell."
20. British regulators block an ad showing women drinking sparkling wine and trying to hook a good-looking man with a fishing pole because it associates drinking with sex. It's remade using a less attractive man. The girls all look prettier at closing time and the men all look better after a few glasses of wine.
20. WPP Group's worldwide creative director, Neil French, says there aren't more female creative directors "because they're crap" and they eventually "wimp out" and "go off and suckle something." He later resigns. It isn't so much his being an idiot that I found interesting but the Wikipedia entry list of his other career choices before he went into marketing: matador, pornographer, debt collector and as well as the agent of the heavy metal band Judas Priest.
34. A Wal-Mart ad asks, "Should we let government tell us what we can read? Of course not ... So why should we allow local government to limit where we shop?" The ad is illustrated with a vintage photo of Nazi supporters throwing books into a bonfire. Wal-Mart later apologizes, saying it had not appreciated the photo's "historical context." In spite of comparing the local government to Nazis, Wal-Mart is sitll vilified by many on the Left. There's just no pleasing some people.
43. Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, "We're grabbing that word and saying, of anybody, we own the word 'share.'" And I guess these are part of his company's code of conduct.
53. I don't think that word means what you think it means. San Francisco radio station KYCY announces it's switching to an all Podcast format. The "podcasts" are to be broadcast over the airwaves but are not made available for downloading.
87. BBC television decides to do a documentary about Bob Marley and sends an email to the Bob Marley Foundation asking for an interview. Their previous documentary was about Queen. Something tells me that Freddie Mercury and Bob Marley were equally uncooperative about granting interviews.
January 25, 2006
Which Sports Car Are You?
I'm a Porsche 911!
You have a classic style, but you're up-to-date with the latest technology. You're ambitious, competitive, and you love to win. Performance, precision, and prestige - you're one of the elite,and you know it.
Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.
January 21, 2006
Chocolate City
What does it say when satire makes more sense than real life?
A port city would have easy access to cocoa bean imports. It already has a sugar industry. Sounds like a good place for a chocolate factory. It makes more sense than anything I've ever heard Ray Nagin say.
Perhaps the real question is, why should I be surprised that Scott Ott makes more sense than the person he's satirizing? His insight and humor are the reasons I like the site. My only Scrappleface-related complaint is that my oldest son, Trevor, "liberated" my copy of The Axis of Weasels shortly after I bought it. Of course, that's not Scott's fault. I blame Bush.
January 19, 2006
Do You Think He Was Mocking Me?
My son was telling me something about a career day at school and asked if he could go dressed the same way I dress for work.
My typical "uniform" is pajama pants and a t-shirt. I know it's a bit strange that I dress better when I'm not working than when I do but I work from home and if I'm going to be sitting at a computer for hours, then I'm going to be comfortable.
I told him it was an excellent idea. He could wear what he slept in and it would be one of the very rare mornings where I wouldn't have to nag him to hurry up and get dressed.
January 18, 2006
January 17, 2006
So Accurate It's Uncanny
Sometimes you hear a song that speaks to you, that could be your own personal theme song....
God's Not Mad but Ray Nagin Might Be
According to New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, God is mad at America for being in Iraq.
From the looks of this list of major hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, and other storms, God has been quite peeved with several countries. If storms are divine retribution then Bangladesh must be the country that He finds most irksome.
It would be nice if our weather was limited to warm sunshine and gentle rains but it doesn't work that way. In some places, at some times the warm sunshine becomes arid unrelenting heat and the gentle rains become violent killing storms. God isn't punishing anyone but if you elect politicians who fail to plan for emergencies or fail to carry out plans then you may just end up punishing yourself.
January 16, 2006
A Last Goodbye
It had been just over a year since the last time I saw Louise Pulliam, my sister-in-law's mother. While I never saw her frequently, every Christmas for several years after I got married and then even less often during the last few years, I knew her well enough to say that she was one of the kindest, most loving people I have ever had the privilege of knowing.
Last night I went to say goodbye for the final time. Judging by the crowd at the funeral home, I think most of Harrodsburg, maybe even most of Mercer County, was there too. People were standing in line for an hour and a half or more to express their condolences to the family.
It was clear that she was well-loved by the community. Their grief and shock at her death was made worse by the fact that it wasn't caused by old age or illness, she was murdered in her home by a former neighbor.
17-year-old Lee Anderson came to her door asking for a glass of water. He then stabbed her to death and rummaged through the house, stealing what he could carry.
Goodbye, Mrs. P., you deserved so much better than this.
January 15, 2006
X=i
I began reading an article in Democrats.com that says a Zogby International poll shows that Americans want Bush impeached if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge's approval.
I distrust reports of poll results. I like to read all of the questions, answer options, and results myself so I checked out the site of the organization that commissioned the poll, AfterDowningStreet.org. This took a minute since I had to correct the URL in my browser's address box because the coding on Democrats.com is bad. I didn't find this poll but I did find one that was strangely similar. It's interesting how the results for both polls (53% to 42% and 52% to 43%) favor impeachment if the President did whatever the poll was asking about.
That doesn't mean the results are inaccurate but it does make me wonder about them. Would any poll asking "If the President did X, should Congress consider holding him accountable through impeachment?" As long as the questions begin with "if" it doesn't matter whether anyone thinks he did that, just whether they think X is an impeachable offense.
Still curious about the questions used, how the sample was selected, and how the poll was conducted (telephone, mail, online, face-to-face?) I went to the Zogby International site. I didn't find anything about the polls on this site either but I did find this:
ImpeachPAC today announced the formation of a Citizens Impeachment Commission to make 2006 the "Year of Impeachment."
Their goals are:
To put impeachment firmly "on the map" of national politics by demonstrating broad and significant support for the impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney for lying about Iraq.
To lobby Members of Congress to introduce Articles of Impeachment immediately.
To campaign for pro-impeachment candidates and elect a pro-impeachment majority to Congress in November.
If one of your goals is to get more press about impeachment then groups commissioning polls with hypothetical questions about it is certainly a way to get some attention.
American Soldiers Save British Hostage
Phil Sands, a freelance journalist, was held by gunmen who ambushed his car in Baghdad. He was threatened with beheading and forced to record a video urging the British people to remove Tony Blair from office. He told The Observer that he had lost all hope and was sure that he would be killed.
Fortunately for Mr. Sands, he was wrong. He was rescued by American special forces. Certainly this is good news but the most interesting thing about this article isn't the news itself, but how it is reported.
First, there's this paragraph:
The rescue was a rare slice of good fortune in Iraq, where yesterday Rizgar Amin, chief judge in the trial of Saddam Hussein, quit in protest at pressure from the Iraqi government on his court, which has already seen two defence lawyers murdered and witnesses threatened.
Other than happening in the same country, just what does this have to do with the story that's being reported? It makes as much sense as it would to report a change in the board members of General Motors in the middle of an article about a traffic accident.
Then there's the statement by Sands that "he was not treated badly by his Sunni captors". If being taken from your car at gun point and having your life threatened isn't bad treatment, what is? Oh, wait, I forgot, bad treatment is having to listen to loud music with the air conditioning turned too high or too low.
Last but not least is the description of the rescue as part of a "routine mission". That's true in the general sense that the military does seek to find and capture terrorists but describing it as "routine" makes it sound as if there was little more than random fate behind the rescue. They may have been surprised to find a hostage but I doubt that the decision to make a middle of the night visit to the farmhouse was just happenstance.
January 14, 2006
My Cat is Insane
If you have a cat you probably think that:
1. I'm a mean, cranky woman to say that about my cuddly-uddly-ums kitty-snookums
or
2. Insane cat is redundant.
Normally cats have a quirky sort of craziness but our oldest cat/alpha cat, Zelda, has begun acting strangely. Zelda is not a people cat. She usually likes to keep her distance from people but a few weeks ago she decided that she and I should be together. Always.
Her very favorite form of togetherness (outside of naptime) is sharing my computer chair. This leaves me sitting on the edge of the chair or, even worse, having her in my lap until my legs go numb. She isn't a large cat but she is a very dense cat and is perfectly designed for cutting off blood circulation.
If I put her on the floor she tries to get back up again. If I don't let her, she goes around the room knocking things over or will find something to paw at. Repetitive annoying noises are her specialty.
She also hunts me down follows me from room to room. If it were one of our more people-friendly cats, this wouldn't be so weird but since it's Zelda, it's eerie.
January 12, 2006
The Cause of Global Warming II
Last August I posted my theory of the cause of global warming. After I wrote it I found an article that says that windmills may actually cause local climate change and if widely used could cause global climate change.
What I had thought was a totally unique theory had been done before. This was a disappointment and it caused me to rethink things. I now have a new theory of the cause of global warming.
I'm still blaming friction for creating the heat but I have now focused the blame on meteors. You may say that meteors are nothing new, why would they suddenly start causing global warming? I have the answer for that. It's electromagnetism! All the powerlines and all the electronic equipment that generate magnetism attracts iron-filled meteors like a magnet attracts paperclips.
I haven't checked but I feel fairly safe in saying that this theory is totally my own. If not, then I have real fears for the future of science.
January 06, 2006
Florida Supreme Court Blocks School Vouchers
In its ruling, the Florida court cited an article in the State Constitution that says, "Adequate provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high quality system of free public schools."The Opportunity Scholarships Program "violates this language," the court said.
"It diverts public dollars into separate private systems parallel to and in competition with the free public schools that are the sole means set out in the Constitution for the state to provide for the education of Florida's children," the ruling said. "This diversion not only reduces money available to the free schools, but also funds private schools that are not 'uniform' when compared with each other or the public system."
The vouchers were for children who had been attending failing schools so it's obvious that the public schools aren't 'uniform' either.
I'm just wondering - if all the people involved in this suit had spent the time that they worked on it volunteering at the failing schools as tutors, teachers aides, mentors, or helping out in whatever way was needed - what would the result have been?
Wouldn't a Bolt of Lightning Been More Effective?
Robertson suggests God smote Sharon: Evangelist links Israeli leader's stroke to 'dividing God's land'
An old man has a stroke and it's punishment from God?
According to The Associated Press, Robertson spokeswoman Angell Watts said of people who criticized the comments: "What they're basically saying is, 'How dare Pat Robertson quote the Bible?'"
No. What I'm saying is, how can Robertson presume to know the mind of God?
January 05, 2006
How to Pronounce .GIF
The how and why.
To everyone who has been pronouncing it wrong, now you know better so knock it off.
I'll Be Watching NUMB3RS Anyway
NBC is introducing a new show tomorrow night, The Book of Daniel. Two affiliate stations have decided not to air the show due to complaints about portrayal of Christianity.
The network stands by the series, according to Vivi Zigler, executive vp current programming at NBC Entertainment, who cautioned not to judge the series on the basis of promotions for the show.
"People are reacting based on not having seen it," she said. "They're seeing the advertising, not seeing what the core of the show is."
Isn't advertising supposed to make a product more appealing? It sounds as though she is saying that the commercials for the show misrepresent it as being more offensive than it really is.
Update: More about the show from the San Francisco Chronicle here. It does a good job of covering all the things that many people have found offensive about it but the article neglects to mention the one thing that will irritate everyone else...are you sitting down...it has to do with the gay son...no, it's not his sexual preference...he's (gasp) a Republican! A TV show character who is a Republican and isn't also (as far as I can tell from the articles about the show) a neo-nazi, psychotic killer, or _____________ (fill in your favorite stereotype).
January 02, 2006
Capitol vs. Virgin
Via BoingBoing: Rules for use of a Coldplay CD from Virgin Records.
These rules didn't come with my Capitol Records release of X and Y.
January 01, 2006
Happy New Year to You Too
Did someone get banned and decide to take revenge?
BlogsNow seems to be having a bit of a problem this morning. The links aren't working and every page has "Use BlogsNow and you will die."
Update: It appears to be working again. It now has the message, "Don't use BlogsNow and you will die as well." That's pretty much the same thought I had when I read the first message.
Worn Out Phrases
Lake Superior State University 2006 List of Banished Words
The first word on the list is "surreal". I don't remember hearing it used any more often this past year than in previous years and I think the users may be confusing "surreal" with "unreal". If things seem surreal, you need to stop self-medicating. Now.
"Community of learners" is another I haven't heard much but I don't spend a lot of time reading college and university mission statements. It's a better description of a yeshiva school than any college that I'm familiar with.
Also on the list is "junk science". “It's not scientists who are using this phrase so much as the people who practice junk politics.” I like this phrase. It describes things like this. I use it more often to describe "junk reporting" of science. You know, those kinds of articles that tell you that doing X makes you twice as likely to come down with Y. It sounds scary until you research further and find that the risk went from .002% to .004%.
You can see a complete list of "banned" words and phrases from 1976 through 2005 here. Some words/phrases made the list several different years (including one of my personal unfavorites, "myself" when the speaker should say "me). It's an interesting reminder of the things we were talking about and the words we were using over the past few decades.