Canadian politicians are a rare bread of animal. They are uniformly at once too concerned with appealing to their voter base and committed to their own moral compass.
Dalton McGuinty, late last week, tried to sneak in new legislation forcing schools to introduce sex ed to kids in grade 1. Are you kidding me? By grade three they wanted kids to be taught about anal sex and masturbation. Why? What exactly is the point of teaching about masturbation? To make sure they know what to do and how to do it?
Luckily, he backed down less than a day after announcing it.
Prime Minister Harper is not as quick to back down on conviction. Now here is an idealist who truly believes in what he is doing. Well, it is well known that Liberals will prostitute themselves for votes while Conservatives have far right tendencies, especially this flavor of Conservatives. Luckily, we still live in a democracy... although I don't know who the alternative might be: Ignatieff? Duceppe? Layton?
At the heart of the point here is the stance on abortion. Religious belief and moralistic superiority against doing what is right for humanity as a whole. For now Canada will not support access to safe medically supervised abortion in countries most in need of the funding. Who cares that in those countries the reason women find themselves pregnant is because of a lack of choice in the matter. Sure there is a fair number of uneducated women and girls but there is also a larger number of men who simply don't regard women and what happens to them as anything worthy of consideration. They do what they will and leave legions of children behind. These girls then become outcasts, destitute and desperate. But, Stephen Harper has his morals to contend with.
Go Hillary Clinton and go Obama. Women's rights are still human rights and they recognize that. I may not be American but, I'm more proud to be their neighbor.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Confusion Marketing
Early on this year I finally got a Blackberry. It was a very exciting moment for me. All that functionality at my fingertips. I was excited. Unfortunately, not long after getting my Blackberry Bold (9000) things started to happen. Strange things. Bad things.
At first it was just a strange pressure in that spot right above the nose, between the eyebrows. Then, there came the burning feeling. A few seconds checking email and I felt like I had spent the day laying out in the sun. My face even started turning red.
Everybody thought I was making things up. I wasn't. The phone has a couple of neat little features. You can set it to turn off and on at a specific time and as soon as it would turn on I would know because I would feel it. I started turning it off unless I needed to make a call and then I discovered that if somebody sends you a meeting request and the reminder for the meeting comes on, the phone turns itself on. I found out because all of a sudden I felt it be on despite having turned it off.
So, anyway, busy life and too much to do and I went over the 30 day return period. So, after six weeks it turned into dealing with arrogant people telling me they'd never heard of these problems and I was out of luck.
Now, it is end of April and it's been four months. Suddenly the tone has changed. They aren't acting like they haven't heard of anything like it. Sounds to me like I'm not as crazy as they thought. A quick web search and at the risk of being accused of self-diagnosis, sounds like I have Electrosensitivity. Now there is a word that even the spell checker has a problem with.
Long and short of it is that even though an increasingly large number of people are suffering from it, it is not recognized as legit and attracts a huge amount of criticism. There is no shortage of cyberhate. Just check out these links for some samples of propaganda of those intimidated by the thought of somebody having a problem with the opium of the 21st Century.
http://www.radiationresearch.org/conference/downloads/011555_rubin_extra.pdf
http://depletedcranium.com/the-blog-of-an-electrosensitive-no-this-is-not-a-joke/
So finally hubby decided he'd humor me and lo and behold the conversation has changed. They were much more willing to talk. It seems people are starting to take this a bit more seriously.
Still, it is a bit frightening. These days we are surrounded by smart phones and when somebody near me is using them I feel its effects. I find myself sitting in my car at a stop light and not watching the insides of other people's cars and then suddenly feeling it. I look and see the person in the car beside me on their Blackberry or iPhone.
Well today there are people who are convinced that it is all in my head but keep in mind that this is exactly how women are treated in medicine anyway. A guy comes and complains about something and he gets taken seriously. A woman is accused of being female.
Now I'm just venting.
Anyway, they agreed to take back the phone and exchange it for something less "smart" but here comes in a common frustration when it comes to mobile device sales: The deployment of Confusion Marketing. I think they go through a special tactical course on how to confuse the consumer.
I have a very hard time believing that the average person can easily navigate the waters of the mobile sales lingo. That industry has basically invented an entire new language, spiced and peppered with acronyms and TLAs. The employees are hired based on their ability to slur all their words and do it as quickly as possible, followed by looking at you like you should be ashamed if you aren't following the most basic of things.
The truth is that very few of them understand the technology and even fewer can explain it properly. This is especially frightening considering the amount of power going through these little things. They keeping getting smaller and able to do more.
You can't just walk in, get straightforward, accurate answers and walk out feeling like you understand what just happened. What you can do is go in and sort of kind of feel like you can justify agreeing to pay too much money for more than you'll ever use, that has a very questionable ability not to cause long term harm to your health.
Cell phones are scary. Bottom line. The only thing scarier than the actual devices are the people who sell them because there is nothing more frightening than arrogant ignorance.
At first it was just a strange pressure in that spot right above the nose, between the eyebrows. Then, there came the burning feeling. A few seconds checking email and I felt like I had spent the day laying out in the sun. My face even started turning red.
Everybody thought I was making things up. I wasn't. The phone has a couple of neat little features. You can set it to turn off and on at a specific time and as soon as it would turn on I would know because I would feel it. I started turning it off unless I needed to make a call and then I discovered that if somebody sends you a meeting request and the reminder for the meeting comes on, the phone turns itself on. I found out because all of a sudden I felt it be on despite having turned it off.
So, anyway, busy life and too much to do and I went over the 30 day return period. So, after six weeks it turned into dealing with arrogant people telling me they'd never heard of these problems and I was out of luck.
Now, it is end of April and it's been four months. Suddenly the tone has changed. They aren't acting like they haven't heard of anything like it. Sounds to me like I'm not as crazy as they thought. A quick web search and at the risk of being accused of self-diagnosis, sounds like I have Electrosensitivity. Now there is a word that even the spell checker has a problem with.
Long and short of it is that even though an increasingly large number of people are suffering from it, it is not recognized as legit and attracts a huge amount of criticism. There is no shortage of cyberhate. Just check out these links for some samples of propaganda of those intimidated by the thought of somebody having a problem with the opium of the 21st Century.
http://www.radiationresearch.org/conference/downloads/011555_rubin_extra.pdf
http://depletedcranium.com/the-blog-of-an-electrosensitive-no-this-is-not-a-joke/
So finally hubby decided he'd humor me and lo and behold the conversation has changed. They were much more willing to talk. It seems people are starting to take this a bit more seriously.
Still, it is a bit frightening. These days we are surrounded by smart phones and when somebody near me is using them I feel its effects. I find myself sitting in my car at a stop light and not watching the insides of other people's cars and then suddenly feeling it. I look and see the person in the car beside me on their Blackberry or iPhone.
Well today there are people who are convinced that it is all in my head but keep in mind that this is exactly how women are treated in medicine anyway. A guy comes and complains about something and he gets taken seriously. A woman is accused of being female.
Now I'm just venting.
Anyway, they agreed to take back the phone and exchange it for something less "smart" but here comes in a common frustration when it comes to mobile device sales: The deployment of Confusion Marketing. I think they go through a special tactical course on how to confuse the consumer.
I have a very hard time believing that the average person can easily navigate the waters of the mobile sales lingo. That industry has basically invented an entire new language, spiced and peppered with acronyms and TLAs. The employees are hired based on their ability to slur all their words and do it as quickly as possible, followed by looking at you like you should be ashamed if you aren't following the most basic of things.
The truth is that very few of them understand the technology and even fewer can explain it properly. This is especially frightening considering the amount of power going through these little things. They keeping getting smaller and able to do more.
You can't just walk in, get straightforward, accurate answers and walk out feeling like you understand what just happened. What you can do is go in and sort of kind of feel like you can justify agreeing to pay too much money for more than you'll ever use, that has a very questionable ability not to cause long term harm to your health.
Cell phones are scary. Bottom line. The only thing scarier than the actual devices are the people who sell them because there is nothing more frightening than arrogant ignorance.
Confusion Marketing
Early on this year I finally got a Blackberry. It was a very exciting moment for me. All that functionality at my fingertips. I was excited. Unfortunately, not long after getting my Blackberry Bold (9000) things started to happen. Strange things. Bad things.
At first it was just a strange pressure in that spot right above the nose, between the eyebrows. Then, there came the burning feeling. A few seconds checking email and I felt like I had spent the day laying out in the sun. My face even started turning red.
Everybody thought I was making things up. I wasn't. The phone has a couple of neat little features. You can set it to turn off and on at a specific time and as soon as it would turn on I would know because I would feel it. I started turning it off unless I needed to make a call and then I discovered that if somebody sends you a meeting request and the reminder for the meeting comes on, the phone turns itself on. I found out because all of a sudden I felt it be on despite having turned it off.
So, anyway, busy life and too much to do and I went over the 30 day return period. So, after six weeks it turned into dealing with arrogant people telling me they'd never heard of these problems and I was out of luck.
Now, it is end of April and it's been four months. Suddenly the tone has changed. They aren't acting like they haven't heard of anything like it. Sounds to me like I'm not as crazy as they thought. A quick web search and at the risk of being accused of self-diagnosis, sounds like I have Electrosensitivity. Now there is a word that even the spell checker has a problem with.
Long and short of it is that even though an increasingly large number of people are suffering from it, it is not recognized as legit and attracts a huge amount of criticism. There is no shortage of cyberhate. Just check out these links for some samples of propaganda of those intimidated by the thought of somebody having a problem with the opium of the 21st Century.
http://www.radiationresearch.org/conference/downloads/011555_rubin_extra.pdf
At first it was just a strange pressure in that spot right above the nose, between the eyebrows. Then, there came the burning feeling. A few seconds checking email and I felt like I had spent the day laying out in the sun. My face even started turning red.
Everybody thought I was making things up. I wasn't. The phone has a couple of neat little features. You can set it to turn off and on at a specific time and as soon as it would turn on I would know because I would feel it. I started turning it off unless I needed to make a call and then I discovered that if somebody sends you a meeting request and the reminder for the meeting comes on, the phone turns itself on. I found out because all of a sudden I felt it be on despite having turned it off.
So, anyway, busy life and too much to do and I went over the 30 day return period. So, after six weeks it turned into dealing with arrogant people telling me they'd never heard of these problems and I was out of luck.
Now, it is end of April and it's been four months. Suddenly the tone has changed. They aren't acting like they haven't heard of anything like it. Sounds to me like I'm not as crazy as they thought. A quick web search and at the risk of being accused of self-diagnosis, sounds like I have Electrosensitivity. Now there is a word that even the spell checker has a problem with.
Long and short of it is that even though an increasingly large number of people are suffering from it, it is not recognized as legit and attracts a huge amount of criticism. There is no shortage of cyberhate. Just check out these links for some samples of propaganda of those intimidated by the thought of somebody having a problem with the opium of the 21st Century.
http://www.radiationresearch.org/conference/downloads/011555_rubin_extra.pdf
Friday, April 9, 2010
How to make money online
As many of my faithful readers will know, I have been dabbling in online freelance writing with marginal success. Every once in a while I have stumbled on some person who hinted at the ability to make any real kind of money. Then, if you ask, they become amazingly tight lipped about it. SHHHHHHHHHHHHH! M-I-N-E!!!! ............precious.....
Unbelievable. Well, amazingly enough there are kind souls out there. I ran into one quite by chance on Helium. She told me about Demand Studios. Pretty cool lady. I appreciate that she got back to me on my question.
It`s an awesome site. I`ve only just started but the earning potential is definitely much better now.
Unbelievable. Well, amazingly enough there are kind souls out there. I ran into one quite by chance on Helium. She told me about Demand Studios. Pretty cool lady. I appreciate that she got back to me on my question.
It`s an awesome site. I`ve only just started but the earning potential is definitely much better now.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Peter's pet may be poofect but the message is flawed
So, this is what happened. A few years ago I bought my kid a book, Peter's Poofect Pet, by Tina Powel. It was an impulse buy and turned out to be one of her favorites. The story is all about this boy that wanted a pet but his parents had issues with the whole idea. So, instead of accepting his parent's wishes, he devised a plan to overcome the challenge.
He figured that if he can address their key concerns, he could get his way. This is exactly what he sets about doing. Well, the problem is that he uses a few lies to get his way. The bigger problem is that apparently, he is able to outsmart his parents, scientists, the mayor and her staff, and all the curious people from everywhere, simply by propelling poo into his neighbor's back yard. Brilliant plan, no?
I have always had my reservations about the message this story was sending but let it go because, well, it was in a book and because she seemed to enjoy the story so much.
So, here is the scoop. She's a clever girl is a bit of an information sponge. She drinks in ideas and them looks for ways to apply them. So, the main message she took away from this book is that parents are not obstacles to getting what you want. They are speed bumps.
Adults, in general, are shortsighted and easy to fool. All you have to do is tell enough lies and then get your dog a new name tag. Then, all will be good. Obviously, this is the right message to be teaching to kids through books.
You see, the problem is that modern technology means that anybody who wants to publish a book can. It isn't tough and there isn't anybody to tell you what a thoroughly bad idea it is, or how socially irresponsible it is.
It isn't cute and it isn't a great teaching tool. It has now become a very difficult lesson to (un)teach my lovely little girl, who is convinced that she is now a "bad girl" because she has really taken to this idea of lying to get what she wants. Thank you so much, Tina Powel!
So, yes, this is a teachable moment. Teachable for me, as a parent, to listen to my gut and not assume that my kid will overlook the innate wrongness of the message and simply take it as innocent fun. Teachable for her, because now she has to listen to me drill in to her the message that I will not abide her negative self talk and that though lying is a bad thing to do, it does not make her a bad person. It simply proves that she is a bit too clever for her own good. That adults are not as stupid as the cartoon characters produced by Big Fat Pen. That if something feels wrong, it probably is, even though an adult wrote a book that seems to imply that if you are clever enough, you can get away with anything.
Just because anybody can self-publish a book for children does not mean that they, and the distributors of those books should not have any responsibility regarding the negative messages they are promoting. The store manager that said "sure, Tina, I'll sell your book here" has a responsibility to not put it on his shelves. I, as a parent, have a responsibility to not trust that just because it is a kids book it is an acceptable read. Tina, as the author, has a responsibility to understand that just because something is cute or funny does not absolve her of contributing to the degradation of our society.
He figured that if he can address their key concerns, he could get his way. This is exactly what he sets about doing. Well, the problem is that he uses a few lies to get his way. The bigger problem is that apparently, he is able to outsmart his parents, scientists, the mayor and her staff, and all the curious people from everywhere, simply by propelling poo into his neighbor's back yard. Brilliant plan, no?
I have always had my reservations about the message this story was sending but let it go because, well, it was in a book and because she seemed to enjoy the story so much.
So, here is the scoop. She's a clever girl is a bit of an information sponge. She drinks in ideas and them looks for ways to apply them. So, the main message she took away from this book is that parents are not obstacles to getting what you want. They are speed bumps.
Adults, in general, are shortsighted and easy to fool. All you have to do is tell enough lies and then get your dog a new name tag. Then, all will be good. Obviously, this is the right message to be teaching to kids through books.
You see, the problem is that modern technology means that anybody who wants to publish a book can. It isn't tough and there isn't anybody to tell you what a thoroughly bad idea it is, or how socially irresponsible it is.
It isn't cute and it isn't a great teaching tool. It has now become a very difficult lesson to (un)teach my lovely little girl, who is convinced that she is now a "bad girl" because she has really taken to this idea of lying to get what she wants. Thank you so much, Tina Powel!
So, yes, this is a teachable moment. Teachable for me, as a parent, to listen to my gut and not assume that my kid will overlook the innate wrongness of the message and simply take it as innocent fun. Teachable for her, because now she has to listen to me drill in to her the message that I will not abide her negative self talk and that though lying is a bad thing to do, it does not make her a bad person. It simply proves that she is a bit too clever for her own good. That adults are not as stupid as the cartoon characters produced by Big Fat Pen. That if something feels wrong, it probably is, even though an adult wrote a book that seems to imply that if you are clever enough, you can get away with anything.
Just because anybody can self-publish a book for children does not mean that they, and the distributors of those books should not have any responsibility regarding the negative messages they are promoting. The store manager that said "sure, Tina, I'll sell your book here" has a responsibility to not put it on his shelves. I, as a parent, have a responsibility to not trust that just because it is a kids book it is an acceptable read. Tina, as the author, has a responsibility to understand that just because something is cute or funny does not absolve her of contributing to the degradation of our society.
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