CalJunket |
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Campus personalities present and past Rebecca C. Brown and Tommaso Sciortino tackle the issues. This week on a very special CalJunket: Rebecca learns not to chew with her mouth open and Tommaso finds out his best friend is addicted to no-doze. Site feed: caljunket.blogspot.com/atom.xml
AIM Rebecca:
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Monday, June 27, 2005
Survey: Most Americans Depressingly Ignorant of Basic ScienceHey look! Americans don't know very much about cancer. This survey says so. Though I tend to think that surveys like these are about as interesting or useful as pit bull media hysteria, I trust the good people who design them to have selected a fairly accurate slice of American opinion. These people went to college to learn how to make surveys, after all.The cutest part of the survey results: The most prevalent misconception, 'Treating cancer with surgery can cause it to spread throughout the body,' was endorsed as true by 41 percent of the respondents. No one entity is responsible for making our nation's goodly citizens not ignorant. I guess you could claim that public schools should feel obligated to inform students about the truths of cancer, but to an extent they already do that. Kids are already taught in health class that one's health is determined for the most part by one's lifestyle choices. Usually this precept is used to let children know that if they have sex before marriage then they will suffer the unavoidable consequences of gonorrhea and pregnancy. But sometimes the wild concept that actions=results is employed to taut the benefits of a good diet and excercize. See? Text books aren't all bad. I'm of the opinion that the public will adopt whatever veiwpoint is most consistent with their preexisting beliefs and which places the least blame on themselves as individuals for any harm that befalls them. They will then reinterpret/misinterpret/twist scientific research to substantiate their ideas. By biggest complaint about the current American attitude toward cancer is that people think that the disease is mostly brought on by genetics. Genetics are this century's answer to witches/Jews/evil moon spirits/whatever it's trendy to blame stuff on at the moment. The most conservative studies I've read about say that four-fifths of cancer cases are preventable. But, of course, ours is a culture of treatment rather than prevention. Such is the plight of a ridiculously wealthy nation of lazy people. So, though there is no conspiracy by drug companies to stifle research into the causes of cancer, there seems to be little commercially-funded vanture to educate the public about the very simple and easy ways individuals can prevent many types of cancer to begin with. But I'm not a fancy scientist, so I can't expound with any more detail about this topic. Though I may not know what, beyond those lame-ass free-radicals, causes cancer, I do know this: Jesus loves vegans more than regular people. And gambling in temples is carcinogous. (3) comments |
Like Orgasming Twice While Riding Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain ... at the Same Time!
Two of the best things in life - Wikipedia and Homestar Runner - have finally coagulated into a single cyber-entity. I love you, the Internet. I think I can now blissfully pass away with the comforting knowledge that humanity, despite its many shortcomings, is indeed blessed with a few wonderful anomalies of excellence.
In keeping with the theme of almost sexualized adulation for an inanimate collection of data and servers and hosts and code, I should also remind you that in Firefox if you type "wiki [thing]" into the URL field, our handy-dandy little browser will automatically look up said [thing] in Wikipedia for you and send you to that page. Genius! The same goes for "google [thing]." (If you do not have Firefox yet, and you don't have the guts to slice off your own hand in shame for this oversight, please download it now. Then evangelize about Firefox to all of your friends. That is, unless your friends actually like viruses and pop-ups and being lame and giving Bill Gates handjobs in the Red Robin parking lot after dark. But honestly, what kind of friends are those?)
Any other cool tricks you've discovered about Firefox that you'd like to share with me?
(2) comments
Monday, June 20, 2005
Stuff I wrote for the Smart Ass
Check me out in the contributing writers section. The cut a lot from my social security piece, but I write pieces too long anyhow.
(0) comments
Friday, June 17, 2005
New/Old site feed
Just in case you want to see this site through an rss feed, the url is in the sidebar now. caljunket.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Update: I discovered that the rss feed isn't showing up in the corner becuase of some html code that needs to go into the head. Other bloggers (i.e. Cal Patriot Watch, Facts machine, I'm looking at you) should add:
[start carrot]link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="*your name here*" href="atom.xml"[end carrot]
(0) comments
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Aging is a beautiful thing
I'm headed to my very first business trip tomorrow morning. My flight for Denver leaves at 7:00am. I'm looking forward to the excursion (a) for the sake of travel, (b) because all my food for the next four days will be subsidized by federal tax payers, (c) because I enjoy the company of my coworkers, and (d) because I'll be earning overtime pay on Saturday. I think this trip will officially herald my ascention into grown-upness, or at least speed it along. Or at least I can pretend that it will.
When I get back from my trip I'm going to begin looking in earnest for a vehicle to purchase. I'm in the market for a 1995 or later Golf of Jetta 9preferably the former), 5-speed manual transmission, under 160,000 miles, recent brake, tire, or transmission replacements a plus, for between $2000 and $4000. Any leads? And don't tell me that Jettas are chick cars.
The desire to purchase a car has necessitated getting a modest bank loan. I've been pre-approved for a 36-month $3000 loan at about 4.6APR, which will be finalized once I provide a VIN and do some more paperwork. Filing the application was simple enough, but speaking on the phone to a creditor was stressful. It was like being on a date and trying really really hard to paint yourself in a positive light, except instead sex you ultimate goal is money. And whereas I know for a fact that I'm hot, I'm not sure if I'm the most qualified candidate for a loan.
My first big trip with my new car, once I get it, will be to Long Beach for Independence Day. In my family we don't celebrate Fourth of July; we go to Fourth of July. Fourth of July is the thre- dacades-plus-old annual gathering of my mother's paternal side of the family at Uncle Art's large ranch-style home in Tarzana. The focal point of the event, for the children at least, is Unlce Art's swimming pool and, in the last ten years, hot tub. He also has a koy pond and aviary. He also brews his own beer. This appeals less to the children than it does to the several alcoholics and teenagers in our family. Those two groups do not have a large intersection yet. Fourth of July is also a chance for the old folks to catch up with the last 52 weeks of happenings. They hang out in the shade. I'm in the transition between the pool and the shade at this point.
In other news, this guy in Boise, Idaho needs a date to the Loggins and Messina concert. I love you, Craig's List.
(0) comments
Monday, June 13, 2005
Coke Head
Small is the new big, at least when it comes to carbonated beverages. In case you haven't visited a grocery store or backyard barbeque in recent weeks, it seems that the major soft drink companies (including Coca Cola, PepsiCo, and even Hansen's) have begun selling their most popular products in six packs of stubby 8oz cans. Never fear, twelve packs of the familiar and proportionally attractive 12oz cans are still available. But the last time I went to Safeway to get beverages for my post-graduation ceremony get-together I was forced to purchase the midget cans.
Though undoubtedly these diminutive servings are a marketing ploy, and though I usually frown upon food and beverage producers re-packaging the exact same product as if it were a brand new [!!!] item (see below), the 33% reduction in can size pleases me. In theory at least, smaller cans means people will be drinking less of this product, and less product means that people might be consuming fewer completely unnecessary calories. For many Americans struggling with their weight, a 35-calorie difference once or twice a day can accumulative make a substantial difference over a goodly period of time.
David Duman and I have deemed these new cans "chodas," combining the product name (soda) with the name of the humorous penile anomoly it resembles (chode). Please spread the good word.
When perusing the interweb for some information on the choda can, I came across the most absurd reification of fizzy water and food coloring that our generation has seen. I introduce you to Coca-Cola Zero, which is in every way identical to Diet Coke save for its target consumer market. I shit you not. It's Diet Coke with a new coat of paint, and the good people at Coke aren't even attempting to conceal this fact.
Coke has jumped the shark in a big way.
Go ahead and click on the "News" link of the Coca-Cola Zero homepage to learn all about this fantastically new-esque product and how it's exactly like Diet Coke except that the reinvention has a new "personality." You'll also find out that people our age don't like to compromise on flavor. Whew! That's a relief. And all this time I thought diet sodas tasted bad.
Aw, cute. They even have quotes from the Coke Director of Marketing as if it were a real news story. "Coca-Cola Zero's personality will be different from any of our other brands, and our marketing will reflect that with some fresh ideas we haven't tried before."
I can't wait. To quote my favorite columnist, "This could be big ... Crystal Pepsi big!"
Oddly enough, as ridiculous as the concept of Coca-Cola Zero may be, I guess I can't really find anything substantial to complain about. You're not going to find me subscribing to AdBusters or sheltering my children from advertising culture, and on a micro-level you won't catch me boycotting products just because they're useless and redundant. There's nothing inherently wrong with ads, so long as they don't lie, and there's nothing inherently wrong with telling stupid Gen-Y'ers and Tweens that they're drinking a new product when they're actually not.
But as long as we're repackaging tired consumer goods for the sake of selling them to a not as of yet saturated market, I can think of a few more products that deserve a makeover. How about the 401(kool), the X-treme retirement savings plan? Any other ideas?
(7) comments
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Added!
Just add Paul Bruno's new blog. Check it out if you haven't already. His old blog was one of the first ones I ever read regularly and helped me form my horrible horrible addiction to blogs that continues to this day. Yeah!
(2) comments
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Environmentalism is all about profit
I had a conversation with a girl who told me that she wanted to be a liberal but was too selfish. She, like many people, somehow believed that Liberalism is all about selfless giving in the face of logic and economics. In reality, being a good liberal can be just another way of looking out for number one.
Let’s take environmentalism. Conservatives often pose the question as if environmental concerns should be balanced against lost productivity. Wrong. We shouldn’t be looking at the harm done to those who have to comply; we should be looking at the harm done to us (me).
X$ of environmental damage should require X$ of payment. End of story. If you let a moneyed elite slip out on their obligation you’re not only encouraging more attacks on public property, your just hurting the economy more since someone has to pay for the damage. If you let a hog farm spew pig shit into public rivers because “it wouldn’t be economical any other way” then the fisherman pay with their jobs. There’s no two ways about it. Maybe the fisherman don’t have as much political clout as a single centralized hog farm but it still harms the economy.
And that’s what it comes down to. Anti-environmentalism as practiced by conservatives (there’s a fitting play on words) basically comes down to special interest politics of the worst types. The corporation dumping mercury into the air has a unified centralized Republican lobby effort and the people whose kids get leukemia don’t; their employers don’t, their customers don’t. The harm is spread out and the benefits are centralized.
And that’s what good old-fashioned self-interested Liberalism is about. The polluters have to be kept in line because it harms everybody and that means me. The monopolies have to be kept in line because they harm everybody and that means me. The public education system has to work for everybody’s child and that means mine to.
So please spare me the bleeding heart liberal crap. Maybe you see keeping mercury out of tap water as some kind of extravagant luxury but I see it as looking out for me.
(14) comments
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Extreme Economics
So I think it's about time I did a substantive post. Last night I watched Independence Day on network television. Although it had been edited for TV it still entertained delightfully. Indeed, Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith can't help but make a movie great. Don't believe me? Too bad.
The film did get me thinking though. What would the world economy look like after the failed alien take-over attempted depicted in ID4? Most major cities had been eradicated so a good chunk of the economy would be gone right off the bat. A great number of people were killed in the first act (sorry vice-president!) but since a lot of people had evacuated before the cities blew up you’d have a greater decrease in supply than in demand.
That's just dealing with the first couple days. What would be worse is the loss of random production sectors. It does the world no good if the bicycle tire, bicycle seat, and bicycle handle bar factory were spared by alien invasion if bicycle chain production was centered in Houston (destroyed by alien blast and a nuclear bomb). And of course, there's the problem of government. After debonair mayor Gavin Newsom gets blown up along with the San Francisco board of supervisors, who's going to keep the Bart running? The looting would be horrible.
There are the enormous crashed alien space-ships to think about though. Once everything is more or less back to normal, the economic windfall of all that technology would probably make the dot com boom look like the boom that resulted when 12th century Europe farmers upgraded the horse plows from choke harness to a horse collar.
(15) comments
Stuff I wrote for the Smart Ass
Check me out in the contributing writers section. The cut a lot from my social security piece, but I write pieces too long anyhow.(0) comments
New/Old site feed
Just in case you want to see this site through an rss feed, the url is in the sidebar now. caljunket.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Update: I discovered that the rss feed isn't showing up in the corner becuase of some html code that needs to go into the head. Other bloggers (i.e. Cal Patriot Watch, Facts machine, I'm looking at you) should add:
[start carrot]link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="*your name here*" href="atom.xml"[end carrot]
(0) comments
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Aging is a beautiful thing
I'm headed to my very first business trip tomorrow morning. My flight for Denver leaves at 7:00am. I'm looking forward to the excursion (a) for the sake of travel, (b) because all my food for the next four days will be subsidized by federal tax payers, (c) because I enjoy the company of my coworkers, and (d) because I'll be earning overtime pay on Saturday. I think this trip will officially herald my ascention into grown-upness, or at least speed it along. Or at least I can pretend that it will.
When I get back from my trip I'm going to begin looking in earnest for a vehicle to purchase. I'm in the market for a 1995 or later Golf of Jetta 9preferably the former), 5-speed manual transmission, under 160,000 miles, recent brake, tire, or transmission replacements a plus, for between $2000 and $4000. Any leads? And don't tell me that Jettas are chick cars.
The desire to purchase a car has necessitated getting a modest bank loan. I've been pre-approved for a 36-month $3000 loan at about 4.6APR, which will be finalized once I provide a VIN and do some more paperwork. Filing the application was simple enough, but speaking on the phone to a creditor was stressful. It was like being on a date and trying really really hard to paint yourself in a positive light, except instead sex you ultimate goal is money. And whereas I know for a fact that I'm hot, I'm not sure if I'm the most qualified candidate for a loan.
My first big trip with my new car, once I get it, will be to Long Beach for Independence Day. In my family we don't celebrate Fourth of July; we go to Fourth of July. Fourth of July is the thre- dacades-plus-old annual gathering of my mother's paternal side of the family at Uncle Art's large ranch-style home in Tarzana. The focal point of the event, for the children at least, is Unlce Art's swimming pool and, in the last ten years, hot tub. He also has a koy pond and aviary. He also brews his own beer. This appeals less to the children than it does to the several alcoholics and teenagers in our family. Those two groups do not have a large intersection yet. Fourth of July is also a chance for the old folks to catch up with the last 52 weeks of happenings. They hang out in the shade. I'm in the transition between the pool and the shade at this point.
In other news, this guy in Boise, Idaho needs a date to the Loggins and Messina concert. I love you, Craig's List.
(0) comments
Monday, June 13, 2005
Coke Head
Small is the new big, at least when it comes to carbonated beverages. In case you haven't visited a grocery store or backyard barbeque in recent weeks, it seems that the major soft drink companies (including Coca Cola, PepsiCo, and even Hansen's) have begun selling their most popular products in six packs of stubby 8oz cans. Never fear, twelve packs of the familiar and proportionally attractive 12oz cans are still available. But the last time I went to Safeway to get beverages for my post-graduation ceremony get-together I was forced to purchase the midget cans.
Though undoubtedly these diminutive servings are a marketing ploy, and though I usually frown upon food and beverage producers re-packaging the exact same product as if it were a brand new [!!!] item (see below), the 33% reduction in can size pleases me. In theory at least, smaller cans means people will be drinking less of this product, and less product means that people might be consuming fewer completely unnecessary calories. For many Americans struggling with their weight, a 35-calorie difference once or twice a day can accumulative make a substantial difference over a goodly period of time.
David Duman and I have deemed these new cans "chodas," combining the product name (soda) with the name of the humorous penile anomoly it resembles (chode). Please spread the good word.
When perusing the interweb for some information on the choda can, I came across the most absurd reification of fizzy water and food coloring that our generation has seen. I introduce you to Coca-Cola Zero, which is in every way identical to Diet Coke save for its target consumer market. I shit you not. It's Diet Coke with a new coat of paint, and the good people at Coke aren't even attempting to conceal this fact.
Coke has jumped the shark in a big way.
Go ahead and click on the "News" link of the Coca-Cola Zero homepage to learn all about this fantastically new-esque product and how it's exactly like Diet Coke except that the reinvention has a new "personality." You'll also find out that people our age don't like to compromise on flavor. Whew! That's a relief. And all this time I thought diet sodas tasted bad.
Aw, cute. They even have quotes from the Coke Director of Marketing as if it were a real news story. "Coca-Cola Zero's personality will be different from any of our other brands, and our marketing will reflect that with some fresh ideas we haven't tried before."
I can't wait. To quote my favorite columnist, "This could be big ... Crystal Pepsi big!"
Oddly enough, as ridiculous as the concept of Coca-Cola Zero may be, I guess I can't really find anything substantial to complain about. You're not going to find me subscribing to AdBusters or sheltering my children from advertising culture, and on a micro-level you won't catch me boycotting products just because they're useless and redundant. There's nothing inherently wrong with ads, so long as they don't lie, and there's nothing inherently wrong with telling stupid Gen-Y'ers and Tweens that they're drinking a new product when they're actually not.
But as long as we're repackaging tired consumer goods for the sake of selling them to a not as of yet saturated market, I can think of a few more products that deserve a makeover. How about the 401(kool), the X-treme retirement savings plan? Any other ideas?
(7) comments
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Added!
Just add Paul Bruno's new blog. Check it out if you haven't already. His old blog was one of the first ones I ever read regularly and helped me form my horrible horrible addiction to blogs that continues to this day. Yeah!
(2) comments
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Environmentalism is all about profit
I had a conversation with a girl who told me that she wanted to be a liberal but was too selfish. She, like many people, somehow believed that Liberalism is all about selfless giving in the face of logic and economics. In reality, being a good liberal can be just another way of looking out for number one.
Let’s take environmentalism. Conservatives often pose the question as if environmental concerns should be balanced against lost productivity. Wrong. We shouldn’t be looking at the harm done to those who have to comply; we should be looking at the harm done to us (me).
X$ of environmental damage should require X$ of payment. End of story. If you let a moneyed elite slip out on their obligation you’re not only encouraging more attacks on public property, your just hurting the economy more since someone has to pay for the damage. If you let a hog farm spew pig shit into public rivers because “it wouldn’t be economical any other way” then the fisherman pay with their jobs. There’s no two ways about it. Maybe the fisherman don’t have as much political clout as a single centralized hog farm but it still harms the economy.
And that’s what it comes down to. Anti-environmentalism as practiced by conservatives (there’s a fitting play on words) basically comes down to special interest politics of the worst types. The corporation dumping mercury into the air has a unified centralized Republican lobby effort and the people whose kids get leukemia don’t; their employers don’t, their customers don’t. The harm is spread out and the benefits are centralized.
And that’s what good old-fashioned self-interested Liberalism is about. The polluters have to be kept in line because it harms everybody and that means me. The monopolies have to be kept in line because they harm everybody and that means me. The public education system has to work for everybody’s child and that means mine to.
So please spare me the bleeding heart liberal crap. Maybe you see keeping mercury out of tap water as some kind of extravagant luxury but I see it as looking out for me.
(14) comments
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Extreme Economics
So I think it's about time I did a substantive post. Last night I watched Independence Day on network television. Although it had been edited for TV it still entertained delightfully. Indeed, Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith can't help but make a movie great. Don't believe me? Too bad.
The film did get me thinking though. What would the world economy look like after the failed alien take-over attempted depicted in ID4? Most major cities had been eradicated so a good chunk of the economy would be gone right off the bat. A great number of people were killed in the first act (sorry vice-president!) but since a lot of people had evacuated before the cities blew up you’d have a greater decrease in supply than in demand.
That's just dealing with the first couple days. What would be worse is the loss of random production sectors. It does the world no good if the bicycle tire, bicycle seat, and bicycle handle bar factory were spared by alien invasion if bicycle chain production was centered in Houston (destroyed by alien blast and a nuclear bomb). And of course, there's the problem of government. After debonair mayor Gavin Newsom gets blown up along with the San Francisco board of supervisors, who's going to keep the Bart running? The looting would be horrible.
There are the enormous crashed alien space-ships to think about though. Once everything is more or less back to normal, the economic windfall of all that technology would probably make the dot com boom look like the boom that resulted when 12th century Europe farmers upgraded the horse plows from choke harness to a horse collar.
(15) comments
Aging is a beautiful thing
I'm headed to my very first business trip tomorrow morning. My flight for Denver leaves at 7:00am. I'm looking forward to the excursion (a) for the sake of travel, (b) because all my food for the next four days will be subsidized by federal tax payers, (c) because I enjoy the company of my coworkers, and (d) because I'll be earning overtime pay on Saturday. I think this trip will officially herald my ascention into grown-upness, or at least speed it along. Or at least I can pretend that it will.When I get back from my trip I'm going to begin looking in earnest for a vehicle to purchase. I'm in the market for a 1995 or later Golf of Jetta 9preferably the former), 5-speed manual transmission, under 160,000 miles, recent brake, tire, or transmission replacements a plus, for between $2000 and $4000. Any leads? And don't tell me that Jettas are chick cars.
The desire to purchase a car has necessitated getting a modest bank loan. I've been pre-approved for a 36-month $3000 loan at about 4.6APR, which will be finalized once I provide a VIN and do some more paperwork. Filing the application was simple enough, but speaking on the phone to a creditor was stressful. It was like being on a date and trying really really hard to paint yourself in a positive light, except instead sex you ultimate goal is money. And whereas I know for a fact that I'm hot, I'm not sure if I'm the most qualified candidate for a loan.
My first big trip with my new car, once I get it, will be to Long Beach for Independence Day. In my family we don't celebrate Fourth of July; we go to Fourth of July. Fourth of July is the thre- dacades-plus-old annual gathering of my mother's paternal side of the family at Uncle Art's large ranch-style home in Tarzana. The focal point of the event, for the children at least, is Unlce Art's swimming pool and, in the last ten years, hot tub. He also has a koy pond and aviary. He also brews his own beer. This appeals less to the children than it does to the several alcoholics and teenagers in our family. Those two groups do not have a large intersection yet. Fourth of July is also a chance for the old folks to catch up with the last 52 weeks of happenings. They hang out in the shade. I'm in the transition between the pool and the shade at this point.
In other news, this guy in Boise, Idaho needs a date to the Loggins and Messina concert. I love you, Craig's List.
(0) comments
Coke Head
Small is the new big, at least when it comes to carbonated beverages. In case you haven't visited a grocery store or backyard barbeque in recent weeks, it seems that the major soft drink companies (including Coca Cola, PepsiCo, and even Hansen's) have begun selling their most popular products in six packs of stubby 8oz cans. Never fear, twelve packs of the familiar and proportionally attractive 12oz cans are still available. But the last time I went to Safeway to get beverages for my post-graduation ceremony get-together I was forced to purchase the midget cans.
Though undoubtedly these diminutive servings are a marketing ploy, and though I usually frown upon food and beverage producers re-packaging the exact same product as if it were a brand new [!!!] item (see below), the 33% reduction in can size pleases me. In theory at least, smaller cans means people will be drinking less of this product, and less product means that people might be consuming fewer completely unnecessary calories. For many Americans struggling with their weight, a 35-calorie difference once or twice a day can accumulative make a substantial difference over a goodly period of time.
David Duman and I have deemed these new cans "chodas," combining the product name (soda) with the name of the humorous penile anomoly it resembles (chode). Please spread the good word.
When perusing the interweb for some information on the choda can, I came across the most absurd reification of fizzy water and food coloring that our generation has seen. I introduce you to Coca-Cola Zero, which is in every way identical to Diet Coke save for its target consumer market. I shit you not. It's Diet Coke with a new coat of paint, and the good people at Coke aren't even attempting to conceal this fact.
Coke has jumped the shark in a big way.
Go ahead and click on the "News" link of the Coca-Cola Zero homepage to learn all about this fantastically new-esque product and how it's exactly like Diet Coke except that the reinvention has a new "personality." You'll also find out that people our age don't like to compromise on flavor. Whew! That's a relief. And all this time I thought diet sodas tasted bad.
Aw, cute. They even have quotes from the Coke Director of Marketing as if it were a real news story. "Coca-Cola Zero's personality will be different from any of our other brands, and our marketing will reflect that with some fresh ideas we haven't tried before."
I can't wait. To quote my favorite columnist, "This could be big ... Crystal Pepsi big!"
Oddly enough, as ridiculous as the concept of Coca-Cola Zero may be, I guess I can't really find anything substantial to complain about. You're not going to find me subscribing to AdBusters or sheltering my children from advertising culture, and on a micro-level you won't catch me boycotting products just because they're useless and redundant. There's nothing inherently wrong with ads, so long as they don't lie, and there's nothing inherently wrong with telling stupid Gen-Y'ers and Tweens that they're drinking a new product when they're actually not.
But as long as we're repackaging tired consumer goods for the sake of selling them to a not as of yet saturated market, I can think of a few more products that deserve a makeover. How about the 401(kool), the X-treme retirement savings plan? Any other ideas?
(7) comments
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Added!
Just add Paul Bruno's new blog. Check it out if you haven't already. His old blog was one of the first ones I ever read regularly and helped me form my horrible horrible addiction to blogs that continues to this day. Yeah!
(2) comments
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Environmentalism is all about profit
I had a conversation with a girl who told me that she wanted to be a liberal but was too selfish. She, like many people, somehow believed that Liberalism is all about selfless giving in the face of logic and economics. In reality, being a good liberal can be just another way of looking out for number one.
Let’s take environmentalism. Conservatives often pose the question as if environmental concerns should be balanced against lost productivity. Wrong. We shouldn’t be looking at the harm done to those who have to comply; we should be looking at the harm done to us (me).
X$ of environmental damage should require X$ of payment. End of story. If you let a moneyed elite slip out on their obligation you’re not only encouraging more attacks on public property, your just hurting the economy more since someone has to pay for the damage. If you let a hog farm spew pig shit into public rivers because “it wouldn’t be economical any other way” then the fisherman pay with their jobs. There’s no two ways about it. Maybe the fisherman don’t have as much political clout as a single centralized hog farm but it still harms the economy.
And that’s what it comes down to. Anti-environmentalism as practiced by conservatives (there’s a fitting play on words) basically comes down to special interest politics of the worst types. The corporation dumping mercury into the air has a unified centralized Republican lobby effort and the people whose kids get leukemia don’t; their employers don’t, their customers don’t. The harm is spread out and the benefits are centralized.
And that’s what good old-fashioned self-interested Liberalism is about. The polluters have to be kept in line because it harms everybody and that means me. The monopolies have to be kept in line because they harm everybody and that means me. The public education system has to work for everybody’s child and that means mine to.
So please spare me the bleeding heart liberal crap. Maybe you see keeping mercury out of tap water as some kind of extravagant luxury but I see it as looking out for me.
(14) comments
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Extreme Economics
So I think it's about time I did a substantive post. Last night I watched Independence Day on network television. Although it had been edited for TV it still entertained delightfully. Indeed, Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith can't help but make a movie great. Don't believe me? Too bad.
The film did get me thinking though. What would the world economy look like after the failed alien take-over attempted depicted in ID4? Most major cities had been eradicated so a good chunk of the economy would be gone right off the bat. A great number of people were killed in the first act (sorry vice-president!) but since a lot of people had evacuated before the cities blew up you’d have a greater decrease in supply than in demand.
That's just dealing with the first couple days. What would be worse is the loss of random production sectors. It does the world no good if the bicycle tire, bicycle seat, and bicycle handle bar factory were spared by alien invasion if bicycle chain production was centered in Houston (destroyed by alien blast and a nuclear bomb). And of course, there's the problem of government. After debonair mayor Gavin Newsom gets blown up along with the San Francisco board of supervisors, who's going to keep the Bart running? The looting would be horrible.
There are the enormous crashed alien space-ships to think about though. Once everything is more or less back to normal, the economic windfall of all that technology would probably make the dot com boom look like the boom that resulted when 12th century Europe farmers upgraded the horse plows from choke harness to a horse collar.
(15) comments
Added!
Just add Paul Bruno's new blog. Check it out if you haven't already. His old blog was one of the first ones I ever read regularly and helped me form my horrible horrible addiction to blogs that continues to this day. Yeah!(2) comments
Environmentalism is all about profit
I had a conversation with a girl who told me that she wanted to be a liberal but was too selfish. She, like many people, somehow believed that Liberalism is all about selfless giving in the face of logic and economics. In reality, being a good liberal can be just another way of looking out for number one.
Let’s take environmentalism. Conservatives often pose the question as if environmental concerns should be balanced against lost productivity. Wrong. We shouldn’t be looking at the harm done to those who have to comply; we should be looking at the harm done to us (me).
X$ of environmental damage should require X$ of payment. End of story. If you let a moneyed elite slip out on their obligation you’re not only encouraging more attacks on public property, your just hurting the economy more since someone has to pay for the damage. If you let a hog farm spew pig shit into public rivers because “it wouldn’t be economical any other way” then the fisherman pay with their jobs. There’s no two ways about it. Maybe the fisherman don’t have as much political clout as a single centralized hog farm but it still harms the economy.
And that’s what it comes down to. Anti-environmentalism as practiced by conservatives (there’s a fitting play on words) basically comes down to special interest politics of the worst types. The corporation dumping mercury into the air has a unified centralized Republican lobby effort and the people whose kids get leukemia don’t; their employers don’t, their customers don’t. The harm is spread out and the benefits are centralized.
And that’s what good old-fashioned self-interested Liberalism is about. The polluters have to be kept in line because it harms everybody and that means me. The monopolies have to be kept in line because they harm everybody and that means me. The public education system has to work for everybody’s child and that means mine to.
So please spare me the bleeding heart liberal crap. Maybe you see keeping mercury out of tap water as some kind of extravagant luxury but I see it as looking out for me.
(14) comments
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Extreme Economics
So I think it's about time I did a substantive post. Last night I watched Independence Day on network television. Although it had been edited for TV it still entertained delightfully. Indeed, Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith can't help but make a movie great. Don't believe me? Too bad.
The film did get me thinking though. What would the world economy look like after the failed alien take-over attempted depicted in ID4? Most major cities had been eradicated so a good chunk of the economy would be gone right off the bat. A great number of people were killed in the first act (sorry vice-president!) but since a lot of people had evacuated before the cities blew up you’d have a greater decrease in supply than in demand.
That's just dealing with the first couple days. What would be worse is the loss of random production sectors. It does the world no good if the bicycle tire, bicycle seat, and bicycle handle bar factory were spared by alien invasion if bicycle chain production was centered in Houston (destroyed by alien blast and a nuclear bomb). And of course, there's the problem of government. After debonair mayor Gavin Newsom gets blown up along with the San Francisco board of supervisors, who's going to keep the Bart running? The looting would be horrible.
There are the enormous crashed alien space-ships to think about though. Once everything is more or less back to normal, the economic windfall of all that technology would probably make the dot com boom look like the boom that resulted when 12th century Europe farmers upgraded the horse plows from choke harness to a horse collar.
(15) comments
Extreme Economics
So I think it's about time I did a substantive post. Last night I watched Independence Day on network television. Although it had been edited for TV it still entertained delightfully. Indeed, Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith can't help but make a movie great. Don't believe me? Too bad.The film did get me thinking though. What would the world economy look like after the failed alien take-over attempted depicted in ID4? Most major cities had been eradicated so a good chunk of the economy would be gone right off the bat. A great number of people were killed in the first act (sorry vice-president!) but since a lot of people had evacuated before the cities blew up you’d have a greater decrease in supply than in demand.
That's just dealing with the first couple days. What would be worse is the loss of random production sectors. It does the world no good if the bicycle tire, bicycle seat, and bicycle handle bar factory were spared by alien invasion if bicycle chain production was centered in Houston (destroyed by alien blast and a nuclear bomb). And of course, there's the problem of government. After debonair mayor Gavin Newsom gets blown up along with the San Francisco board of supervisors, who's going to keep the Bart running? The looting would be horrible.
There are the enormous crashed alien space-ships to think about though. Once everything is more or less back to normal, the economic windfall of all that technology would probably make the dot com boom look like the boom that resulted when 12th century Europe farmers upgraded the horse plows from choke harness to a horse collar.
(15) comments