This will be a short post, with a good video to watch.
I’ve written before about why tipping is not optional. The video below addresses that, but provides a good overview of why the example provided by Bar Marco – banning tipping and paying their servers a living wage – is a good idea, and should be the wave of the future. Mind you, Bar Marco is not the first – Sushi Yasuda started the practice in 2013. It is my hope that the entire industry is ultimately going to follow suit.
I love eating out, and if prices go up a bit to make this happen, as far as I’m concerned, it’s well worth it.
The video is below. It’s from College Humor, so there’s a bit of language in it – but I recommend this short film to anyone who enjoys dining out.
An article at The Telegraph talks about a new kind of vending machine that is starting to be seen:
The world’s first vending machine with facial recognition technology has been unveiled, and it could refuse to vend a certain product based on a shopper’s age, medical record or dietary requirements.
I was immediately reminded of this bit of whimsy which, while funny, is very disturbing in its implications:
What would happen if vending machines started presenting us with screens like this?
Two forces are at work here: HIPAA privacy requirements which have burdened the medical establishment with hippopotamic and time-consuming (but perhaps necessary) paperwork and procedures, and the free availability of information as demonstrated by the recent hack at Sony, only one of many over the last years.
I’m not really sure which way this trend is going to go, or what my grandchildren will see; I can only hope it doesn’t devolve in the direction of telescreens and thoughtcrime.
With thanks to my colleagues at Cheshire Academy – from the Drama Club’s presentation of “1984.”
While I’d like to think that this is just satirical drivel, there are undeniably Orwellian trends taking place in our society today, witness the massive spying on American citizens by government agencies which were revealed by Edward Snowden. It is my hope that this trend can be reversed.
This is all rather heavy and depressing and far removed from vending machines… or is it?
Well, since I don’t have one, that would be a Neat Trick. But here’s the email:
From: Bank Of America <dugginp@pitt.k12.nc.us> Date:12/08/2014 1:39 PM (GMT-07:00) To: Subject: Your Bank Of America Account is under review
Your Bank Of America Account is under review
Bank Of America is reviewing some costumers account for possible Fraudulent & unpaid bills. The balance for your checking & saving account has reached reviewable level (uncharged & un-deducted billing).This information is accurate as of 5/12//2014 03:44:12 CST. You are required to, sign on and verify your account informations.If you have questions, Bank Of America Online Customer Service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Sign on to send a secure email. bankofamerica.com | Fraud Information Center
Suffice it to say this is a phishing email of the worst kind. The embedded “sign on” links take you to this link (obfuscated):
In case you needed an additional hint, this is not a Bank of America website.
Conway Central Baptist Church will probably not be pleased that someone has infiltrated their servers and is using them to host phishing data; they have been informed.
But the website looks like this:
They want all sorts of information from you, including “Father’s Maiden Name” and “Father’s Middles Name.” If those aren’t screaming red flags , I don’t know what would be.
So many scumbags out there want your identity, your financial information, and your money, and they would sell their own mothers to get it.
See that link to “Capital One” there in the body of the email? It will actually take you to an entirely different website that just looks like it’s from Capital One.
Congratulations, you’ve just handed the key to your bank account and your email account to thieves, probably in Eastern Europe or Africa.
One would think people would understand this by now, but there are a lot of folks who use computers who really don’t get below the level of Lolcats or Pinterest, and they need to be protected. Phishing scams are still rampant because phishing scams are still profitable. Far too many people are duped by websites like the one above, and happily hand over their information to criminals either online or via telephone.
If you are just learning about computers, this is Rule Number One about emails:
NEVER CLICK ON EMBEDDED LINKS IN AN EMAIL – ALWAYS TYPE THE WEB ADDRESS DIRECTLY INTO YOUR URL BAR.
I can’t emphasize that enough.
Not only are you at risk of losing your money or your identity, but you could seriously damage your computer files, for example, if you carelessly open an attachment which contains evil software like Cryptolocker.
If you are computer-savvy and have loved ones who are not, or who might be vulnerable to this sort of thing, please educate them and watch over them.
This beautiful picture by Gordon Parks is one of a series of 40 that will be on display at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. I had posted another image from this series here without attribution, which has now been rectified.
There is very little to say about this era of our history that has not already been said, and better, by other historians and sociologists. Yet this particular image strikes me with the sheer insanity of the entire proposition. Same restaurant, same server, same product, yet a separate window six feet away from the “White” one. None of it makes any sense, and as I take a long view of our nation, I realize that although superficial progress has been made, there is still far too much bigotry alive and well.
I am re-blogging this in toto from “Not Always Right” because it’s hilarious, and pretty much summarizes a huge percentage of the kind of nonsense retail workers have to deal with.
Just Telling It Like It Is
(Two customers approach the counter, the first being a tall, bald man and the second being an elderly lady.)
Customer: “Hi. I’m every customer ever, and I have a bunch of stupid questions and unreasonable demands.”
Me: “Hi. I’m every employee ever, and I present a negative attitude as well as an unforgivable ignorance of both the products my employer sells and how to conduct myself civilly with other human beings.”
Customer: “Like an idiot, I have approached you with no idea what I want. But I nevertheless expect you to keep your full attention on me while I waste your time.”
Me: “That’s fine. I’ve already tuned you out and began to sing the theme song to Duck Tales to myself in my head as you bring us collectively closer to death without having accomplished anything meaningful.”
Customer: “Regarding [liquor], I will now proceed to barrage you with questions about it that either you have no way of knowing, or which I should already d*** well know the answers to.”
(I hand him a bottle of the liquor he mentioned and start to ring it up.)
Me: “I respond to your worthless questions with vague and unsatisfying responses, as my cranial faculties are occupied with lewd and lascivious irrelevancies. That will be [price], you personification of the downfall of western civilization.”
Customer: “I object to the price quoted, even though it is clearly indicated on the shelf behind you, and suggest some sort of extortion on your part, undoubtedly fueled by prejudice towards some aspect of my appearance, race, culture, or creed.”
Me: “Although mentally I am most certainly questioning your intelligence, parentage and/or upbringing, I merely offer transparently insincere apologies.”
Customer: “I proclaim in brash and vulgar terms my dissatisfaction. I make a laughable and grandiose claim of my own importance, such as being a millionaire, the brother of your company’s CEO, or perhaps the good old-fashioned ‘Do you have any idea who I am?’ I further suggest that I could have you fired effortlessly and fully intend to do so for the insufficient quantity of butt-kissing you have exhibited toward me over the course of this transaction.”
Me: “I sadly inform you that my superior is not present on the premises and unhelpfully refer you to the company help line. Quietly I memorize the details of your face so that I can fantasize about committing acts of unspeakable and grotesque violence toward same at some later date.”
(The customer begins walking out the door.)
Customer: “Vague and impotent threat to your person and questioning of your sexual orientation!”
Me: “Sarcastic suggestion to have a nice day!”
(He walks out the door. The old lady behind him looks thoroughly perplexed by our exchange.)
Old Lady: “Who was that?”
Me: *shrugging* “My manager.”
As implausible as this representative scenario seems, it is repeated countless times in various incarnations across our nation in every conceivable retail store. I have not yet figured out what makes people act like Internet Trolls in real life to people behind counters or wearing clerks’ or servers’ uniforms; it is as though they feel empowered to treat those who serve them with all the dignity and respect that Donald Trump or Leona Helmsley would offer a trash collector.
The thing these wastes of human cytoplasm don’t realize is that their cover has been blown. They may get what they want by screaming and bullying and calling corporate (who will more than likely give them the moon to keep them as a customer), but everyone knows they’re a douchebag.
This delightful Epic News video by Peter and Chris (two Irish gentlemen with sharp wit) deconstructs the nature of clickbait to make it easy to recognize. The video is irreverent and lowbrow, but spot on and hilarious. Watch at your own risk.
For those who want the executive summary:
You usually see a highly-sensational title that completely misrepresents and oversells whatever content there may or may not be.
Take a headline like “19 Reasons Why Young Marlon Brando Will Ruin You For The Rest of the Day.”
What do these headlines even mean?
What follows is a summary of how to generate successful clickbait:
Don’t waste your time generating original content.
Spend your day lurking on link aggregator sites such as reddit and repackaging other people’s stuff to get maximum shares on social media.
Add a ridiculous claim about something that will happen provided you CLICK
1) Take a simple video of a homeless man playing a tin whistle for his dog.
This homeless man’s music (will change your life) / (will restore your faith in humanity) / (will make your jaw drop) / (will shock you)
2) If possible crowbar in gender, race, or social issues to make it more provocative:
This blind homeless man’s amazing music for his terminally-ill (gay) dog will restore your faith in humanity.
3) Remove as much descriptive information as possible from your headline to create what the industry calls “a curiosity gap.” Replace it with Hyperbole. If the reader can tell what the story is about at a glance, you’ve FAILED!
Wow! A Blind, Homeless man Befriended an Old Adorable Lost Dog, and What Happened Next Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity.
4) If possible, turn it into a bogus list somehow. Use age and target demographics for greater impact.
16 reasons why only 90s Kids from England will Keep Calm and Carry On While Understanding Why This Blind Homeless Man and His Full-Blown Dog-AIDS-Infested Best Friend Will Restore your Faith in Humanity and Change Your Life (Forever).
5) Add a hashtag
#jenniferlawrence
If you need good examples of clickbait, toddle over to ClickHole, the Onion’s (semi)-parody website originally designed as a sharp stick in the eye to BuzzFeed and Upworthy, but now taking on all the media without discrimination.
As the presenters say, there’s a place for this kind of bulldust tabloid journalism, because enquiring minds want to know. The problem arises when so-called “real news” outlets try this stuff and are deadly serious about it.
Now I need to confess that I often scan media outlets and reddit and other sources for things I consider interesting or worthwhile or socially relevant, and share them with my social circles. However, I don’t think I’ve ever asked anyone to “like and share” anything. I’m not a like farmer, it’s a poor way to make money.
The Old Wolf Has Published a Blog Post Accessible from Almost Anywhere in the World, and Reading It Will Change Your Life Forever! #Monsanto
“A Safe Place to Play,” says the caption. That’s what the playgrounds I remember used to look like.
Awesome rope swing
Don’t forget the merry-go-round, that could fling you off with great force.
‘
Look at this beautiful old slide from the NYU playground project.
And, of course, the swings.
Wow. We never had anything like this. And still, somehow, we survived. There was the occasional bump and bruise. Someone would show up at school with a broken arm, and everyone would ooh and aah over the cast, as happened to my own son after he fell off a jungle gym. It happens. We didn’t even think of calling a lawyer.
Even as late as the 1980’s, playgrounds could be awesome:
Sadly, even looking at pictures like this is enough to give tort attorneys an orgasm thinking about all the billable hours they could earn, which is why modern playgrounds look like this:
It’s not good medicine for a representative of one nutritional product to bash those who rep for another. In my world of ethics, it’s just not done. As a result, I won’t mention any product names in this post, but I want to make a general comment about the way many weight-loss products are advertised and hyped.
Below you’ll find an example, using a homeopathic product as the teacher in the moment, which claims to flush fat and toxins out of your body.
The product concerned contains a panoply of things like Nux Vomica, Ignatia Amara, and about 8 others at 6x and 12x dilutions; the instructions call for placing 10-15 drops under the tongue three times a day.
Oh, yes… and also to eat a 125o-calorie diet while using the products (which cost $150.00 for a bottle of each).
The science behind homeopathic dilutions guarantees that at dilutions of 6X and 12X, there is virtually *no* active ingredient whatsoever in this product – no molecules are left. The physics of Avogadro’s number is incontrovertible.
If you consider the instructions for use of this product, and completely eliminate any reference to the product being referenced, any patient who faithfully complies with these guidelines will have success with weight loss.
Given the average caloric intake of 2,000 KCal for a female, a 1250 calorie diet will result in consistent weight loss, especially when combined with water intake and regular exercise. This weight loss will occur whether or not the patient
* takes homeopathic drops
* sings an aria from “Aida”
* stands on her head and spits nickels, or
* eats a spoonful of portland cement with each meal.
If you are a person of science and reason, you owe it to yourself to take a hard look at the scientific reality of what is going on with homeopathic or other similar weight-loss products, instead of being dazzled by all the marketing weasel words.
screaming red flags 
Playing in the World Game 