Black Friday

So Black Friday is a dangerous time.  Apparently people are getting trampled, shot, pepper sprayed, beaten, and even tasered.  Why?  Because they can save a few dollars!  Frankly, I would rather pay money than subject myself to that kind of behavior and those kinds of people.  That's why I do all my Black Friday shopping online, where everything is safe and happy.

But seriously, this behaviour is out of control.  What is it that people need so badly that they are willing to hurt others to get it?  Xboxes? Ipads?  Plus, all those things are readily available all the time!  But the good news is that spending and consuming is up.  Hooray for the economy.  Its not the people in Walmarts and Targets that are the winners in this scenario, that is for sure. 




I am sure there are videos of the mayhem that are interesting for those of us who decided that we were better off not consuming junk...  If you see videos worth sharing, don't hesitate to post a comment or message me.
David


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Blog subjects, please help

So why is my most read about blog post is about a natural disaster in Japan? 

What can I do to capture the interest of the masses?  What should I write about?  What do you want, readers?

Please, tell me! 

Music? No?
Random junk? 
People dying?

Help me out here!



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Amazing music videos by OK Go

Check out these music videos by the band OK Go.  Frankly, the music doesn't do much for me but the videos are excellent!

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How we are making ourselves more narrowminded

These days the majority of people read news online.  They do most things online.  The good thing about this is that there is a wealth of information like never before.  We have access to the most obscure and random information.  Apparently, people watch YouTube more than they watch TV now.  Everything is in bite sized amounts so that it is easier to read and handle.  People use Twitter to post little blurbs that are limited to 140 characters.  In a sense, these are all good things.  People listen to music online on sites such as Deezer or use sites such as Hulu to watch shows.  People stream.  The verb "to google" now exists...  And of course I have done or do all of those things myself as well...

Here is the thing though.  Because of all that, newspapers and television and radio are suffering.  Here is my problem with that:  when looking online people end up only clicking on things that interest them.  The Japan earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster getting you down?  Don't worry, you can watch videos of Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber on YouTube instead.  People are therefore closing themselves off to many things because they only look at things that they choose.  They don't listen to entire news broadcasts or read an entire newspaper.  Books?  Ha!  I figure most of you are already bored with this and clicked away to something else by now, if you even clicked here at all. 

Most people don't adventure out into the world of the unknown online.  Never heard of it, never going to click on it.  When you look at a newspaper, you can't help but see other pictures and headlines, even if the subjects don't interest you.  Online however, you are limited to where and how you browse.  If you are interested in one subject, you may look that up and only that, never looking beyond to people with other opinions, ideas or other subjects...  That's bad. 

Happy browsing!



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Japan's natural disaster

First a few videos:

  

This shows us the true power of nature.  We are weak and helpless when we see this.  Anyway, check out these before and after pictures of the tsunami and earthquake:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/13/world/asia/satellite-photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html

Also, apparently the length of days has been minutely shortened and the tilt of the earth on its axis has been slightly altered.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/14seismic.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage

The only thing I can think of is that it happened in a country where they are organized and disciplined and so at least they will be able to deal with this disaster in a more efficient manner than a lot of other cultures would be able to.  Look at this picture of a water distribution place:

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2058378_2254685,00.html




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Inception, the movie

I finally watched the movie Inception the other day.  I'm glad I did.  I understand why a lot of people wanted to see it several times.  In my opinion, the manipulation of a plot with several levels of action and reality with different concepts of time all happening at once was excellently done.  Just the idea in itself is incredible.  Hats off to Christopher Nolan for the conception of this story.  I was also a fan of his movie Memento, from 2000.


SPOILER ALERT!
If you haven't seen the movie then don't continue reading. 


So far I have seen several different interpretations of the end.  According to Nolan, you never see whether or not the top falls or keeps spinning at the end.  What he says is the most important is that diCaprio's character doesn't even wait to see, he looks at his children instead.  My interpretation is that actually the whole movie is a dream, from beginning to end.  There is no reality being shown at all.  This hypothesis is not really supported by anything except the fact that the whole idea is so dream-ish and far_fetched already.  In order to believe that they were in a form of reality, then you have to accept the whole idea of entering people's dream, being chased around the globe by corporations, the architects, the sedation and so on.  Of course, I don't think that all sci-fi movies are like that, just this one!  Anyway, I am open to other ideas. 

I think in order to have a clearer idea of the movie and have a deeper understanding, I would really need to take the time to watch it again and also perhaps even watch the commentary from the director and the cast and crew.

Overall, thumbs up.  It makes you think and doesn't put all the ideas on a platter for you, which is rare for an American action film.



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Life without Justin Bieber

I have survived this far without knowing who Justin Bieber is.  Maybe I am really missing out.  Maybe all the nights that I layed awake thinking that there was a higher power out there or that there was a feeling of emptyness in my life was just the hole left by the future presence of Justin Bieber.  I stumbled upon the fact that his haircut is making the news today.  Wow, he must really be interesting if his haircuts warrant an article about them. 

Or maybe I should live in ignorance and assume that popular culture and the media are once again throwing some untalented kid into the limelight prematurely and not waste my time.  Or he could be the next Michael Jackson.  Thanks to Google, I am about to find out.



Here is what I read so far on wikipedia, my curiosity is increasing:
"The Observer newspaper in the UK published a report indicating that Justin Bieber is more influential in the social networking sphere than Barack Obama or The Dalai Lama."

Random thought, is puberty going to be a problem for him with his voice dropping?

AFTER:
As far as him having talent, it's hard to tell with all the auto tune and production, but he just seems to look like hundreds of kids I see walking around town with that moppy hair. 

I think if I were to go back to my life before Justin Bieber, I would be just fine.  It definitely wasn't his lack of appearance into my reality that was keeping me up at night!  To be really fair, I watched about 2 minutes of youtube videos (Baby w Ludacris and part of another one) before deciding I had enough. 

Oh well, guess I will have to keep searching!  Or give him another chance.  What I would really like to see is something where he is playing an instrument and singing live, so I can really formulate a fair opinion of his abilities...

 

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I must be living in the past, since I have a blog

Apparently blogging is being pushed aside by social networking and sites like Twitter.  It seems that sites like Tumblr are doing ok because people really are too lazy to write anymore.  They just want to send out their three word monosyllabic messages to their friends.  Oh well, I guess I am maybe a bit late to start my blog, but I am not giving up yet! 

Here is the nytimes article about it:  Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter

Any people out there still old-school enough to blog?




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Eating bugs and insects

So the thing people keep saying is that instead of eating meat, we should eat insects...  Here are a couple of interesting articles on that:

'Bug Mac' and Lovely 'Grub': Food of the future

Insects on the menu, scientists warn of animal scarcity, experiment with bug diet

Eating Bugs

So, I understand all the pros,but the real question is: 

Would you be willing to surpass the unsavory aspect of it and be able to eat bugs for the environment and your health?



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Google's basic features that you didn't know about

All this reading on SEO and google has made me realize that most people don't really know much about google's features other than searches.  Here are a few examples you may find fun:

• weather
• sunrise and sunset times
• unit conversions
• currency conversion
• definitions and synonyms
• calculator

Here is a site which shows all those and more:

http://www.google.com/help/features.html


Also, a lot of people don't know how to get their searches to get more specific results.  Here is a link to a bit more google search tips:

http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=136861




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More on search engine optimization

Here is another article about SEO (search engine optimization) from the NY Times.  I think I find this interesting because I think that  the majority of people take for granted a tool such as google.  Everyone uses it without really thinking of how it works or why certain things appear when we do a search.  People assume that it is a natural order and that things that appear near the top are the most perninent, interesting or useful.  Not so.  Enjoy:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/business/13search.html?src=me&ref=homepage

Apparently I am not the only one who finds this interesting since it is one of the most emailed articles they have.




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Search engine optimization and the news

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/business/media/11search.html?src=me&ref=homepage

This is scary.  Does it mean every time we surf the web we should be afraid that "reputatble" news sources are just making up articles using popular web searches to better their results in google in order for us to land on their page so that they can make more money on advertising?





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Rockin' uke

http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,776351420001_2046375,00.html








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Pretty boys fighting

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/friday-night-fights/?scp=1&sq=fight%20club&st=cse

Straight from a Chuck Pahlaniuk book...  Models and VIPS in a fight club in New York.





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Superbowl ads

Superbowl doritos ad

Eminem Chrystler







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