Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Friday, May 24, 2013
Strange Kindness
When I needed to pay for street parking, a stranger offered to give me her pass that still had an hour on it as she was leaving.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
The Effects of Old Age While Still in My 20's
Last Saturday I tweaked my lower back. This is the 2nd time over the past three years :(
When I was 15 I was involved in a pretty bad car accident on 580 East bound. My family's Mazda MPV spun 740 degrees before finally stopping facing the opposite freeway 580 West bound.
Over the next 6 months I had chiropractic treatment and till today I can crack my spine by just twisting. I got an x-ray about three years ago and found out I have mild scoliosis, so that may add to my weak back. For as long as i can remember my lower back has given me problems - yup even when I was a kid.
Maybe I worked myself too hard over the last two weeks. Adding Yoga and not properly doing the moves could have messed me up. I do my best to remain core tight but I'm sure these workouts add too much stress on my back.
When I was 15 I was involved in a pretty bad car accident on 580 East bound. My family's Mazda MPV spun 740 degrees before finally stopping facing the opposite freeway 580 West bound.
Over the next 6 months I had chiropractic treatment and till today I can crack my spine by just twisting. I got an x-ray about three years ago and found out I have mild scoliosis, so that may add to my weak back. For as long as i can remember my lower back has given me problems - yup even when I was a kid.
Maybe I worked myself too hard over the last two weeks. Adding Yoga and not properly doing the moves could have messed me up. I do my best to remain core tight but I'm sure these workouts add too much stress on my back.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Nurses Strike: How This Relates to Buy Local
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| It seems so simple to prioritize people before profits. |
We all should know by now that Walmart only hires part-time employees so that they don't have be responsible for providing benefits. That means all they have to worry about is paying their part-time employees minimum wage. That's it! A company responsible for producing billionaires only has to worry about paying the lowest wage legally allowed to a working human here in America. In fact, they teach their employees how to apply for government aid:
Walmart fails to provide a livable wage and decent healthcare benefits, costing U.S. taxpayers an annual average of $1.02 billion in healthcare costs.
But hospitals are not retail stores and we don't have the flexibility to "shop" elsewhere. However, if citizens can show limitless support for these nurses, then our voices cannot be ignored.
As for Walmart, why do we continue to support a corporate with a CEO that makes more per hour than their employee makes in a year. Let's make a more conscious effort to shift local and cultivate a community that buys local.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Profits Will Prevail Despite Moral Ethics of An Early Founder of Tobacco
One of the genius advertisers in the early 1900's was the son of James Buchanan Duke (Duke University!), founder of W. Duke & Sons - one of the first major tobacco companies.
His name is James B. Duke and he knew that sex sells. He created trade cards (ancestor of pokemon, sports collectible trading cards) that were inserted in cigarette packages. Multiple series were created - Civil War Generals, Coins of All Nations - for collection but the most popular were women (mostly unknowns but some were actresses) scantly dressed.
Tobacco will eventually kill or at least disable you, but as long as sex appeal is used in advertising... who cares?
Taken from Duke Library: Emergence of Advertising in America
In this letter, you can see that James Buchanan Duke had some morals - at least guided by a reverend and his Christian faith. He understands the impact these forms of advertisements have on young man and womanhood.
But morals don't lead to maximized profits and unfortunately we are stuck in this world where emotion trumps intellect. And we all know how high on emotion sex is.... what's your favorite sex charged ad?
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| Second-hand smoke kills, but with an ad like this, who cares? |
His name is James B. Duke and he knew that sex sells. He created trade cards (ancestor of pokemon, sports collectible trading cards) that were inserted in cigarette packages. Multiple series were created - Civil War Generals, Coins of All Nations - for collection but the most popular were women (mostly unknowns but some were actresses) scantly dressed.
Tobacco will eventually kill or at least disable you, but as long as sex appeal is used in advertising... who cares?
Taken from Duke Library: Emergence of Advertising in America
October 17th, 1894
[JB Duke, NY]
My dear Son: -
I have received the enclosed letter from the Rev. John C. Hocutt, and am very much impressed with the wisdom of his argument against circulating lascivious photographs with cigarettes, and have made up my mind to bring the matter to your attention in the interest of morality, and in the hope that you can invent a proper substitute for these pictures which will answer your requirements as an advertisement as well as an inducement to purchase. His views are so thoroughly and plainly stated that I do not know how that I can add anything except to state that they accord with my own, and that I have always looked upon the distribution of this character of advertisement as wrong in its pernicious effects upon young man and womanhood, and therefore has not jingled with my religious impulses. Outside of the fact that we owe christianity all the assistance we can lend it in any form, which is paramount to any other consideration, I am fully convinced that this mode of advertising will be used and greatly streghten [sic, "strengthen"] the arguments against cigarettes in the legislative halls of the States. I hope you will consider this carefully and appreciate my side of the question. It would please me very much to know that a change had been made.
My dear Son: -
I have received the enclosed letter from the Rev. John C. Hocutt, and am very much impressed with the wisdom of his argument against circulating lascivious photographs with cigarettes, and have made up my mind to bring the matter to your attention in the interest of morality, and in the hope that you can invent a proper substitute for these pictures which will answer your requirements as an advertisement as well as an inducement to purchase. His views are so thoroughly and plainly stated that I do not know how that I can add anything except to state that they accord with my own, and that I have always looked upon the distribution of this character of advertisement as wrong in its pernicious effects upon young man and womanhood, and therefore has not jingled with my religious impulses. Outside of the fact that we owe christianity all the assistance we can lend it in any form, which is paramount to any other consideration, I am fully convinced that this mode of advertising will be used and greatly streghten [sic, "strengthen"] the arguments against cigarettes in the legislative halls of the States. I hope you will consider this carefully and appreciate my side of the question. It would please me very much to know that a change had been made.
Affectionately, your father,
[W. Duke]
In this letter, you can see that James Buchanan Duke had some morals - at least guided by a reverend and his Christian faith. He understands the impact these forms of advertisements have on young man and womanhood.
But morals don't lead to maximized profits and unfortunately we are stuck in this world where emotion trumps intellect. And we all know how high on emotion sex is.... what's your favorite sex charged ad?
Friday, May 10, 2013
Iron Man 3 - Message Regarding Big Oil
There's so many messages in films that go beyond the surface of what the movie is about. After watching Iron Man 3, I still keep thinking about Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) referring to BIG OIL. As the primary antagonist of the movie, does his message encourage sympathy for BIG OIL?
One of Aldrich's motivation for the bad things he plans to do is because of BIG OIL. I'm torn: is the message a slap on BIG OIL or since it's coming from a bad guy, maybe its reverse psychology?
One of Aldrich's motivation for the bad things he plans to do is because of BIG OIL. I'm torn: is the message a slap on BIG OIL or since it's coming from a bad guy, maybe its reverse psychology?
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