Yearly Archives: 2014

The pendulum has swung

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Scott Adams is funny. Dilbert is funny. For whatever reason you choose to come up with, Adams has his finger squarely on the pulse of the business world, and wastes no time lampooning anything and everything that frustrated corporate workers already know represents the pinnacle of stupidity.

20 years ago, status was determined by how much personal technology you had available.

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15 years ago, the technology was on the road to hyper-miniaturization, and the smaller your phone, the more prestige you had (which gave you the right to treat underlings like dog squeeze.)

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Now that smartphones have begun morphing into pads, tablets, and phablets (what an abominable word!) the prestige tide has now turned.

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Whether that’s a good thing or not remains to be seen.

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At this point, I’m pretty jazzed about the Pebble. This seems like an awesomely useful sidekick to a smartphone… at least until the pendulum swings back the other way again, and everything fits on your one wrist-mounted device anyway.

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Chester Gould had the right idea half a century ago.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Tongan Television

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Working in an international office can be an educational experience. For 22 years I associated with people from all over the world – in addition to Europeans, we had colleagues from many countries in Latin America and the Pacific – and every Monday we would gather for an inspirational meeting to get the week started off right. Often the designated speaker would present an aspect of their home culture, and I had a chance to learn some fascinating things over time.

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This is a “Tongan television.” Actually, it’s a neck-rest, or pillow of sorts; the first time I saw something like this was at the Natural History Museum’s Egyptian exhibit in New York – I was probably around six or seven, and I remember wondering, “how in the world do they sleep on those things?”

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Later I learned that this particular type was typically used for supporting the head of mummified corpses, but the Tongan ones are most definitely used for sleeping or resting.

There’s no way I can convey the same feeling that I had as my colleague described the tradition of the family’s gathering together after dark, and listening to the patriarch tell stories. Stories of customs and traditions and legends, all designed to pass on to the next generation the family ways of honor and decency.

Sometimes, in Tongan society, a child would go their own way and fail to honor family traditions, getting in trouble or living dissipated lives. Of such children, it was often elegantly said that they “didn’t sleep close.”

The Old Wolf has spoken.

An open letter to a blog spammer.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Internet Theft

Thanks to antifraudnews for the image.

I’ve commented multiple times on the kinds of spam comments that appear in this blog on a regular basis. I just got another comment from one of my “regulars.”

Hmm it seemjs like your website ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying yur blog. I as well am aan aspiring blog writer buut I’m still new to everything. Do you havbe any points for inexperienced blogg writers? I’d certainly appreciatge it.

Here’s my response, which (s)he will most likely never see, since these comments are blasted out by bots, but regardless:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Your previous comment was filtered to my spam box by Akismet, may its name be ever praised (over 127 billion spam messages deleted). I deleted your message with great satisfaction. I empty my spam regularly, just to make sure there’s no trace of you, your spoofed email address, or the embedded link to your scummy product or illegitimate service. Whoever you are, you represent the lowest kind of human scum; you are filth, and beneath the dignity of notice.

I’m not interested in garcinia cambogia (a veritable deluge of these recently), porn, “lista de email” (very popular spamming services in Brazil), knockoff products (notably from China and Japan), forex trading, penny stock scams, pirated movies, counterfeit Viagra, or anything else you’re hawking. I’m not interested in being a cog in your black-hat SEO machine. You are irrelevant to the human race.

You want advice for inexperienced “blogg writers?” Don’t spam other people’s blogs with your putrescent effluence. Stay away from my blog. Remember that what you put out into the universe comes back to you a hundredfold; you’re only inviting misery and dark energy into your own life by being involved in these scummy deceptions.

With no respect whatsoever,
-The Old Wolf

If you’re interested in seeing how prevalent this plague is, hop over to Stop Forum Spam, where you can see the most active offenders, their emails, IP addresses, and evidence of their scams. The level of overal scumminess and illicit activity worldwide seems to be increasing exponentially; the only thing we can do is be vigilant and employ good filtering tools wherever they are available, so that the outflow of sewage is never seen.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

The Many Origins of the English Language

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Stumbled across an amazing interactive chart showing the various influences which affected the development of the English language over time, and felt it was worth sharing.

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The picture above is a static capture of the cumulative results; if you want to explore in more detail, have a look at Lexicon Valley. The author, Philip Durin, writes,

The elephant in the room, however, is how Latin and French dominate the picture in just about every period. Even the Anglo-Saxons borrowed from Latin (e.g. fork, street,wine), and ever since the Norman Conquest English has been borrowing hugely from French and Latin—quite often taking the same word partly from each of these languages, especially in the medieval period. Words like government, pay, science, orwar (from French), or action, general, person, and use (French and/or Latin) have become an indispensable part of English. Even among the 1000 most frequently used words in modern English, not far short of 50 percent have come into the language from French or Latin. Numbers do not always tell us everything, though: the total of loanwords from early Scandinavian is relatively low, but the language of the Vikings has left some of the most intimate traces in the vocabulary of English, with words likeleg, skin, sky, and even they, their, and them.

This is an intriguing overview, and now I’m anxious to get a copy of his book, Borrowed Words.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

We are a legitimate business!

Posted on by The Old Wolf

spam

Have a look at this bit of processed meat that appeared in my inbox yesterday:

We are looking for some people that are interested in working from their home on a part or full-time basis.If you want to earn $100, $200 or even up to $500 a day, and you don’t mind writing some short opinions up, this is the perfect opportunity for you!We work with hundreds of companies such as 20th Century Fox, Paramount Entertainment, Ford Motor Company, Google and more!We recruit people to fill 1000s of jobs for companies like this every year.Some of the positions that are available are:

  • Write Short Reviews Of Restaurants (Up To $150 per review)
  • Write Simple Blog Posts (Up to $30 per Blog Post)
  • Review Hollywood Movie Scripts (Up to $500 per Movie Script)
  • Write Short Articles About A Variety of Topics (Up to $200 per article)
  • Review Websites For Inappropriate Content (Up to $20 an hour)
  • Proofread Content For Mistakes (Up to $20 an hour)

We are currently accepting new members. Sign Up Below.

http://paydotcom.net/r/10031/obfuscated/27283730/

These companies are fighting for exposure on the internet and know the more people blogging about them, means the more exposure they are going to get, and ultimately the more money they are going to make.There has been an explosion in the need for online writers, regardless of skill. These companies are more interested in your honest genuine opinions when you’re writing blog entries about their company… not if you are a very talented writer.If you’re looking for work, or just want to make some part time money on the side, please come check out the jobs we have available.

The [obfuscated] link above will produced a spam/scam warning from Web of Trust; if you follow the link anyway, it leads to My Data Team, a work-from-home data-entry website for whom Mr. Obfuscated is an affiliate. The website claims, over and over again,

  • The Legitimacy of Our Company and the Work-from-Home Jobs We Offer
  • … there is no investment required. (Except for that $49.95 “account setup fee.”)
  • Also notice: if anyone charges you for an actual job, it is more than likely a scam. (Pay no attention to that $49.95 “account setup fee.”)
  • I AM PROVIDING THE ACTUAL TRAINING AND JOBS FOR FREE! (Except for that slight $49.95 “account setup fee.”)

A comprehensive review of My Data Team can be found here; the meat and potatoes of the review can be summarized by the following paragraph:

What I found out immediately upon looking over the membership site as a paid member, and reviewing the offered training videos, is the “data entry” work is simply affiliate marketing and the training video was an instructional video on how to sign up as an affiliate marketer with Clickbank.

My number one issue here is the language that is used on this site to attempt to get you to reach for your wallet.  There is a LOTof work that My-Data-Team went to, to convince you that they are “legitimate” and use the words “data entry JOB” over and over.  In my opinion, this is just outright deceptive.  If a program is being offered on providing coaching for Clickbank marketing, why not just state that?

Notice also that the spam email I received focuses on writing, not data-entry or affiliate marketing. This is covered deep on the page, but just minimally:

  • We also provide our team members complete training and job programs in SEO content writing as well as the data-entry programs mentioned.
  • Note: SEO content writing is currently the second fastest growing work-at-home job — right behind our own Global-Data-Entry Processing job.

Sadly, there are no real jobs available; only descriptions of how to use Craigslist as a job-search tool.

For my money, any hint of deception is a bullhorn screaming at you to avoid a given company. This particular outfit is using a 50,000 amp setup to blare its dishonest message to anyone who might be listening from Tallahassee to Mukilteo. Stay far, far away from them.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Frozen: The masterpiece, the controversies.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

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Well, after a long wait for Frozen to come to the local budget theater, we finally saw it last night. Heartwarming, uplifting, technically brilliant, visually appealing, musically stunning, I left the movie house with tears in my eyes and a song in my heart. Huge props to everyone who had a hand in the creation of this masterpiece – the Oscar was imminently deserved, and although the wait was painful, but now the itch has been scratched. As soon as it is available on DVD, it will take an honored place in my collection.

Unfortunately, there are some folks who are not at all pleased with the effort. Some think the Sámi culture was minimized and disrespected:

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Supposedly the Sámi are “people of color,” and the representation of Kristoff on the right would have been more accurate, but just hop over to Google and search images for the Sámi people, and you’ll see for yourself that they’re a mixed bunch. Click through for a great article about the supposed “whitewash.” As for not including people of color, have a gander at this ballroom scene:

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… and those are just the ones I could see at first glance.

I first was introduced to the Sámi when I visited the Norwegian Folklore Museum in Oslo. Up until that time they had not been on my radar – there are so many cultures in the world it’s hard to become acquainted with all of them.

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Thanks to Globerider’s blog for the photo.

But they are a proud people with a distinct culture, language, and history, and I was pleased that the opening sequence of Frozen was an example of Joik, the traditional a capella chanting of the Sami people. Wikipedia notes that “Frode Fjellheim is a widely known joiker, known from Transjoik (earlier called Jazz Joik Ensemble). Fjellheim contributed the opening song to Disney’s holiday blockbuster Frozen, the yoik Eatnamen Vuelie (“Song of the Earth”).” If that’s not going right to the source, I don’t know what is.

Last are those who saw ulterior motives and messages in the film. I’m sorry to say that one of these is a member of my own community of faith. Having now seen the film myself, I can go on record as saying that I saw not a hint of “core message” dealing with the LGBT community, bestiality, or satanism. People with too much time on their hands can find virtually anything they look for anywhere, and reveal more about themselves than they do about the subject they are complaining about.

Nobody likes everything. Viggo Mortensen said “If you’re trying to please everyone, then you’re not going to make anything that is honestly yours, I don’t think, in the long run.” The adaptation of “The Snow Queen” that has now become “Frozen” is a unique product of its creators who gave their all to tell a beautiful story, and from where I sit the film is destined to take a high place of honor in the Disney repertoire.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

To the Bravery of the Swiss – The Lion of Lucerne

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Even though I lived in Switzerland for around 5 months, I never had a chance to see the “Lion of Lucerne,” a stunning monument to the Swiss Guard who perished in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris, France.

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Images: Wikipedia

This beautiful tribute was designed after 1818 by noted Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen[1], and carved between 1819 and 1820 by Lukas Ahorn.

Of this statue, Mark Twain said:

“The commerce of Lucerne consists mainly in gimcrackery of the souvenir sort; the shops are packed with Alpine crystals, photographs of scenery, and wooden and ivory carvings. I will not conceal the fact that miniature figures of the Lion of Lucerne are to be had in them. Millions of them. But they are libels upon him, every one of them. There is a subtle something about the majestic pathos of the original which the copyist cannot get. Even the sun fails to get it; both the photographer and the carver give you a dying lion, and that is all. The shape is right, the attitude is right, the proportions are right, but that indescribable something which makes the Lion of Lucerne the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world, is wanting.

The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff–for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. How head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies.

Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered, reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion–and all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of Lucerne would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where he is.”

Next trip to Switzerland.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

[1] Perhaps Thorvaldsen’s most famous work is his Christus in the Vor Frue Kirke in Copenhagen, of which a copy resides in the visitor’s center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City.

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The Inner Child, by Cristian Girotto

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Fell down this rabbit hole today and wanted to share, for no good reason. I love Girotto’s work, and this particular exercise is intriguing.

“Without bothering Jung and its “Puer aeternus” or Pascoli with its “Little Boy”, we can certainly agree that, somewhere inside each of us, there’s a young core, instinctive, creative but also innocent and naïve. What would happen if this intimate essence would be completely revealed?”

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Have a look at the full exhibition and enjoy as much as I did.

Young children and babies are, with some unfortunate exceptions, almost universally cute and appealing. According to Jeffrey Kurland, associate professor of biological anthropology and human development, “we are inherently attracted to a specific set of characteristics, including large, symmetrical heads, large eyes, small mouths, and small noses.” But why do almost all humans find this particular set of features so appealing? Kurland’s answer: Evolution. Click through for the full article.

Whatever the case, those features have been admirably co-opted and sugar-coated by the ultimate wizards of cuteness, the Disney corporation; feast your eyes on this:

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I was talking to the Goodwoman of the House the other day and mentioned that Rapunzel was probably the most archetypically attractive princess they’ve ever constructed; comparing her features to Girotto’s manipulation above, it’s easy to see why. Once again, “large, symmetrical head, perpetually large Bambi eyes, small mouth, and small nose,” combined with other unmistakable traits usually associated with youth and beauty. In essence, she has all the cuteness of a baby blended with the body of a youthful goddess… how could she not be universally lovable, unless you have an allergy to saccharine?

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Axel Erlandson, the true “shepherd of the trees.”

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Treebeard would have split his bark with envy.

Axel Erlandsen

Erlandson sitting on a natural chair crafted out of trees.

Swedish-American farmer Axel Erlandson had a way of coaxing trees to do the most astonishing things, was highly secretive about his methods, and took his secrets to the grave. His trees were originally exhibited at his Tree Circus, and many were moved to Gilroy Gardens where they can be seen today.

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The “two-leg tree”

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Needle-and-thread tree

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The Basket Tree

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The Cube Tree

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Hook and Eye

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Another Cube Tree

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Squared Circle

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Knot

It’s a shame these techniques were lost.  It would have been wonderful had Erlandson been able to pass his work down to the next generation. But as long as his trees live, others will be able to marvel at his skill.

The Old Wolf has spoken.