Smackers and Flashers

OK Smackers I'm done y'all.

For the second time in two days I have had my lunch kind of ruined for me by people that can't close their mouths when then eat.  Folks I don't want to hear your teeth and tongue masticating a piece of chicken. I, for sure, don't want to hear the sucking sounds when you suck the grease off your fingers. It actually upsets my stomach.

Today, I just turned around and stared at an obese black lady who was holding a chicken wing as if it were a tea cup served in the court of the queen. She froze and looked at me, I held the stare for a couple of seconds and turned back. As soon as she smacked again, I turned around again. It only took three times and no words for her to get the message and guess what.... she can eat without everyone in a miles radius knowing that the sow is at the trough.

Now, I know that men do it probably as much as women but it seems that overweight women are my bane. Sometimes its talking on the phone while smacking and sucking, slurping and for all I know farting and scratching.  It's too much.

Therefore, I have nominated myself as the on site reminder of what a polite society will tolerate and the above is not within those parameters. I will stare bullets at the smackers, the slurps, the suckers, the farters, the scratchers and if I was about thirty years younger I would take on, the hands down the pants checking to see that they are still male, punks. But alas, my teeth and nose have taken enough abuse so I will let someone else take up the "hands in the crotch" people.


While I am at it.  The Fashion of the day seems to involve women bearing a significant amount of cleavage. Necklines seem to reside somewhere around "half boob" often with no support, thereby allowing a significant amount of jiggle room and the real possibility of a puppy getting loose so to speak.  Now, So far, I have no problem.

BUT, Listen ladies if you go out of the house into public with half of your breasts juggling around trying to break free of their flimsy bonds, we the male population out there, well we are going to look. I mean what do you expect! But then "IF" we should look and you stare at us as if we should "avert our eyes". No mamma, you decide to air out your flesh then we as males are obligated to look. Heck even other women look you up and down and most of them look sometimes with envy and sometimes disgust and sometimes with desire!

Us guys however, we we are fashion affectionatos in this instance. We couldn't be happier than when the mini skirt was popular, sad when it faded and gladdened anew when it made a resurgence. So air those puppies out whenever and wherever you want but please be true to yourself and when you catch us ogling the twins, well you don't have to smile or grin but you shouldn't look upon us as lechers. After all you cast the lure out there and the fish are definitely interested.

PYRAMIDS

PYRAMIDS

I have been struggling most of the last 4 or 5 days with what to write about. Part of this post will be about social media for sure but thats kind of boring if your not really into the genre. Then, just this morning, I had my world rocked in just 10 minutes. And it is related to the last post.   I'm talking about 99% Invisible #34 The speed of Light for building pyramids.

How about this: the pyramids were not built or designed by aliens but by practical considerations, logistics and lifespan. Oh and not by slaves.

The designers and builders had these things about the pyramids to consider:
1) How much weigh can the ground support with out sinking. That tells you how much weight your pyramid can weigh.
2) What kind of rock and how big are the blocks? OK that data gives you how many blocks you can put on the site thus how high it can be (once the pyramid shape was chosen and that was a practical consideration as well. Optimally! But then there are the logistics to consider.
3) The building is a tomb so it needs to be finished before the ruler dies (in a lifetime).
4) How many blocks can be put down by how many people in a year times the average lifetime of a ruler yields another limitation.
5) Finally, How many blocks can you quarry and deliver to the building site per year.

When the designers considered all of these factors, we have the pyramids. Optimal buildings for the tombs of Kings, for the land, the stone, the time available.

But we all remember the story books with teams of slaves pulling blocks of rock across the desert. Probably didn't happen. Another little twist in the history we learned as kids. Go and take ten minutes and listen to the 99% invisible episode and I think your impression of the pyramids will be radically rocked as mine were.

http://soundcloud.com/roman-mars/99-invisible-34-pyramids

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Google+ is probably the better platform than Facebook or Twitter. It certainly is technologically. But G+ growth has stalled. The question is why?

I wrote in a online forum two months ago, when Google+ (G+) quickly got close to 20 million users, that G+'s primary challenge would be to move Facebooks installed base over to their platform quickly. Facebook had everyones family members, co workers, friends, acquaintences etc.  It was in daily use by everyone in social media. G+ needed to move them to their platform or Facebook would suck them all back to the platform that they knew and where the could find people.

G+ has really failed at that task. Facebook has reformed and charged back making changes to their system making it closer to what G+ offers and making movement to G+ less and less attractive. Where G+ could have done to Facebook what Facebook did to myspace, well that window has shut.

What G+ should have done was a marketing attack that was relentless not just on-line but in conventional media as well. They moved the early adopters, the tech wonks, and the computer savy. But they left behind, as Facebook users, Mom and Pop America. The were new to online experiences and did not understand G+, if they were even aware of it. G+ as the giant in the social media space may happen but the war is now incremental in its progression where the geometrical gains in user base has past them by.

WWII, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and devastated the American fleet.  But they did not eliminate it in their attack. That gave America the time to react, retool and reform. The quick victory passed by and the long war that followed could have turned either way several times but ultimately that interval left by not destroying Americas naval firepower, led to the Japanese defeat.

G+ has done the same. They opportunity was there for the quick kill but was squandered. Now the war that is left is an island hopping like strategy. They can still win but its going to be a long war.

PODCASTS

OK on to one of my favorite subjects: Podcasts.

Podcasts are small FREE audio shows or video shows that you can download and watch in iTunes.
You can load them on to your iPhone, iPad, Android phone, your laptop, desktop PC or Mac it doesn't matter, where you listen to music or radio you can listen to a podcast.

Podcasts turn that unproductive time of standing in lines or waiting rooms, of running around town listening to the crap on broadcast radio into pure pleasure.  NPR has always called these "driveway moments" (which is also a podcast). Its where you get to where you are going and don't want to leave the radio because what you are listening to has captured your attention.

I love these things, I do not listen to radio any more, none, zero, zip. My iPod and phone have all the songs I want to hear and a library full of podcasts on a huge range of subjects. I CHOOSE what I want to listen to and look forward to the time I can listen.

SO to discover podcasts go to the  iTunes store and in the black menu bar at the top you will see "podcasts" click it. On the right hand side you will see the categories for now lets stay with "audio". Click it and there are all sorts of thumbnail pictures of different podcasts that are available FREE. Check out the staff favorites or NPR or if you want to learn spanish there is a button that will bring up about 30 sites giving free spanish lessons, or Japanese or French...

Pick one say WNYC's Radiolab. (Highly recommended, Highly!) Click it and you get a list of shows, pick one, any one like Curious Sounds. Then go all the way over to the right and click free. The podcast will  automatically start to download to iTunes on your device.

After that all you have to do is go to the podcast section in your iTunes browser and there the show is. Select it and sit back, sit down, start your car, start walking, or jogging or making a meal whatever. I guarantee that somewhere you will say to yourself "WOW" that's cool.

SO now that you know how to download a podcast here are some recommendations.

RadioLab is almost as must - interesting, well produced, award winning just try one episode, you'll be a fan. Shows run from 15 minutes to over an Hour.

99% Invisible - I just found this one and I literally have listened to every episode. It is about design. Now don't be put off by that and think this is some foo foo interior decorating deal, it's not. It is really how good design is almost unapparent because it works so well. The episodes are only 5-10 minutes long so grab one. You can search for it in the iTunes store's search bar and make sure you download the podcast. Oh Its by a very talented producer named Roman Mars who does these for a radio station in California

OH MY GOSH, the thing that got me into podcasts and these are mostly video podcasts so not good for driving, jogging etc but great for waiting. TED Talks. These are 17 minute presentations by experts on every subject imaginable. From treating ADD children to The Pulsars in the Galaxy, from photographing cells to how to bring commerce to inner cities. TED Talks was founded with the idea of getting a bunch of smart people together for a conference and giving each 17 minutes to present something to the audience. The result is amazing. Past Presidents, poets, acrobats, philosophers, scientists, teachers, the lists of shows is in the hundreds. Got to the TED Talks site and scroll through the offerings and download any title that appeals to you and get ready for one of those "Wow" moments. Pick one any one.

NPR has a host of good podcasts that will appeal to every one not just the left wing advocates. Try "All songs considered" or "StoryCorp" there is a ton of content from them.

"Marketing over coffee" is another favorite of mine for the business interested.

A very entertaining independent political opinion can be found at Dan Carlins "Common Sense" Dan also has a very entertaining look at History in his "HardCore History" podcast.

And one more of my latest finds "The Memory Palace" by Nate DiMeo.  Fantastic little 10 minute or less "Wow" true stories.

 If you like any of these podcasts you can click the "Subscribe" button and new shows will automatically download to your device when available. And if you can't find one in all the above that made you smile or say "WOW" then I will stop this blog the day you report that to me. Try anyone and you'll secretly thank me.

IT Occurs to me that there may be some folks who don't use iTunes?  I don't understand it but for those folk that want to go directly to the podcast website here are the links for the above mentioned shows:

http://thememorypalace.us

http://www.radiolab.org/series/podcasts

http://www.ted.com/talks/list

http://99percentinvisible.org

http://www.npr.org/programs/all-songs-considered

http://www.dancarlin.com/disp.php/csarchive

http://www.dancarlin.com/disp.php/hharchive

Novasense

Summer is gone, this weekend being the official closing ceremonies.  The final parade of participants can be viewed from any interstate overpass. America is on its way home.

Here in North Carolina, if you view the South Bound traffic all you see is Florida Tags!  The mountains are emptying out for a month or so until the color starts to pop in the trees and then the traffic comes again. I like it, its like a gas guzzling tide that floods and ebbs with the seasons.

But What I really want to write about is "Novasense".  My word, you heard it here first, I googled it and there is a boutique firm, a couple of products but nothing close. I wiki'd it as well , nothing so I submitted it.

Novasense -  The ability of a group, people, tribe, nation to be dulled by repetition to a point where the spectacular, the mind wrenching, the evil, the horrendous, morally reprehensible actions of its members no longer peak the interest of its members as it would have in the recent past. I.E. Novasense is spreading in regard to infanticide.

What am I talking about?

We hear on the news of mothers killing their children so often that it no longer peaks our interest.

Andrea Yates drowns her children in a bathtub, Susan Smith drowns her kids in a car. Casey Anthony, I guess she is innocent.

All of these, dull our senses, to where other acts of evil, of savagery, of mental illness dont even register.
So much so that here in tiny Western North Carolina the middle of the "Bible Belt" and "Family Values" the tragedy of a mother who killed her two sons with a hatchet and then tried unsuccessfully to kill herself the same way barely raises an eyebrow. There should have been outrage or at the very least interest, but there was nothing.

Thats Novasense. Deadened interest.

The example of Libya. Our country, through its three letter agencies, basically assisted in the overthrow of a legitimate government of a sovereign nation, overtly not covertly. We committed USAF fighters and shot down Libyan helicopters and fighter aircraft in Libyan airspace over Libyan soil. That is an act of War, it doesn't matter what the reasons are, it is forbidden by US Law. It may be a nation we don't like but that wasn't our business. After Iraq and Afghanistan, where we basically invaded those countries in acts of aggression, who cares about Libya and its people! We are deadened to the issues that 50 years ago would have resulted, and did, with millions marching on Washington. This was an act of war, specifically defined and declared illegal by any number of acts and laws but we can start with the War Powers Resolution. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution). Circumvented by no President ever again declaring "War". But read the resolution and you will see what the intent of the American people wanted our leadership to follow.  We got some Facebook traffic, thats about it. We should have been marching again. This was not, is not, what the American PEOPLE want. We are broke and need to cut back everywhere and Libya without the peoples consent is costing us more than a million dollars a day now, much more to follow. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/30/us-libya-usa-cost-idUSTRE72T6XZ20110330  But there is no interest in the issue. Why, its Novasense.

Novasense. To get our attention now, you have to be so far out there that it compels people to listen or you have to have a video.  The story needs to be able to be shared over social media, it needs to be tweeterable. It needs to be bloggable. Everyone wants to be the first to tell all their friends about it otherwise its old news. As I did above with the "Novasense" word

Novasense is the reason for Americas tolerance with breaches in our important issues because we are numbed to them.  This is a hugely, dangerous paradigm. It is getting worse everyday.  "That happens all the time" "They all do that" "We can't do anything about that" "Thats not bad, did you hear about the one in....." " Thats nothing new"  Every time you hear one of these phrases being said it is Novasense spreading, numbing the mind against something important that you should be reacting to making you agreeable to issues you should not be tolerant of.  Express your repulsion, stand for your beliefs and call it evil, or horrendous or depraved..... don't just nod and see who just texted you so you don't have to deal with it.