Oh, NOW He Believes Me!

Tech Fiend James Kendrick finds a SonyStyle store near him.

Tech Fiend James Kendrick finally gets to see the Sony Reader for himself.

Tech Fiend James Kendrick finally sees I what I told him:

The second thing I saw that impressed me is the new Sony Reader. I must admit that the legibility of the e-Ink screen was much better than that of the Kindle and I can see this working even in the low lighting areas in my house. I was also taken with how much smaller that Reader is compared to the Kindle and while there is no option for purchasing ebooks from the device like the Kindle can do it is a very nice ebook reader. I’ll try to get some photos that compares the screen of the new Sony Reader with the Kindle when I visit the store next time. One thing is for certain, I am going to leave my credit card at home when I visit the SonyStyle store in the future. It’s a matter of survival. :)

Emphasis added by me.

That’s all right, James. Just mail your credit card to me. I’ll help you out.

No, it’s not the Amazon Kindle. It’s better!

Reference: Dubai

Spread the knowledge

Diz Detained in Dubai

Note to self: Never, ever go there.

Dubai was a main player in this first book.

Welcome To My Neighborhood. Got Kevlar?

I’d been meaning to post about this for weeks but normal stuff kept interfering.

There I was on the bus one day a few weeks back and my eyes wander up to the advertisements. My pupils dilated, my jaw dropped.

Do they advertise this where you live?

Yeah, you people with your techmeme obsessions. You’re toast when C.O.A.T. happens.

Keep driving your car instead of walking ten blocks. And you think you know what’s going on around you. Fool.

And I Rarely Grant Appeals

It’s Good to Be Judgmental

Recently I had a debate with some friends about the infestation of gold digging whores who come to South Florida (that’s where I live) looking for rich old men to support them. Many of the gold digging whores are from other countries and want to get married to stay here. My friend said that we should pity all of these girls because they all came from bad situations and just want something better for themselves and that I should be more accepting of this “alternative” way of acquiring wealth. I’m not accepting of it at all. I think it’s fucking vile that these sluts come here from wherever and prey on lonely, incredibly stupid and delusional men in order to take their cash.

I go to school with thousands of Haitian immigrants, many of whom had to come to the US on rafts, risking their lives to get here. They work four and five jobs and sleep with 15 people crowded into a studio apartment just so that they can afford to go to school to learn a trade or to get a higher paying job. That’s coming from a bad situation and wanting something better for oneself. I don’t care what situations the gold diggers came from or if they were raised in a shack in Appalachia or on the streets of Sao Paolo. It’s wrong to be a lazy whore and to have relationships with men just to get money out of them. But guess how the conversation ended?

“Jeez, you are so judgmental.”

Worse than that are the kiddies who have obviously been made into functional retards by their daily pot smoking: “Duuuuude, like … chill.”

Twenty-First Century Snake Oil

Former VP Admits “Enzyte Male Enhancement” Ads Are Complete Fiction

James Teegarden Jr., the former vice president of operations at Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals, explained Tuesday in U.S. District Court how he and others at the company made up much of the content that appeared in Enzyte ads.

He said employees of the Forest Park company created fictitious doctors to endorse the pills, fabricated a customer satisfaction survey and made up numbers to back up claims about Enzyte’s effectiveness.

“So all this is a fiction?” Judge S. Arthur Spiegel asked about some of the claims.

“That’s correct, your honor,” Teegarden said.

Have any of you out there listened to terrestrial talk radio in the past few years? With the collapse of the FCC, radio stations began to run infomercials. Half-hour long ads disguised as programs to sucker in the kind of eejits in this quote.

One person I know was interested in some concoction and asked me to research it. There was no website so I had to call the ordering number. I first asked about a website and the person told me she was the website(!). I asked about the ingredients and was told it was a “secret formula” and “proprietary.” I asked if there were published FDA effectiveness studies. That drew some silence. Whether it was confusion or fear, I couldn’t tell. I managed to talk the person interested in this snake oil out of buying it.

But they are out there. I can only cringe imagining the stuff I’m not hearing in NYC. The stuff being pitched to the Midwest must be frightful.

Edit: Oops! That repro of the movie poster for The Flim-Flam Man had been modified and I didn’t catch it until after posting. Instead enjoy the Lydia Pinkham label.

Quote Goodness

I’ll use one …

Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person.

… and then you can go here for the rest.

Supplemental:

Chanakya wikipedia entry

What Big Lie? It Was Bad Math!

The Movie Industry’s 300% Error

A week ago today, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) issued what had to be a hugely embarrassing news release acknowledging that an aggressively promoted and widely cited research report commissioned by the MPAA in 2005 significantly overstated the Internet-based peer-to-peer piracy of college students: “The 2005 study had incorrectly concluded that 44 percent of the motion picture industry’s domestic losses were attributable to piracy by college students. The 2007 study will report that number to be approximately 15 percent.” The MPAA release attributes the bad data to an “isolated error,” adding that it takes the error seriously and plans to hire an independent reviewer “to validate” the numbers in a forthcoming edition of an updated report.

Emphasis added by me.

So what is this?

Math error? Wait. By professionals?

Then again, these people are supposed to be professionals too.

And I admit I am absolutely incompetent at math. (The accountant who reviewed my expense report years ago — that I did with a calculator — is probably still telling that story!)

And they made an error too.

However, when it comes to the MPAA, I believe it was Big Lie time. And someone caught them.

FAIL In The Real World

I hope this is a Photoshop fake.

How much more doomed can we be than that?

When is the bottom?

A Quote To Learn From

And in the category of ‘Gee, I wish I’d said that…’

Happiness dependent on money or things is not genuine happiness. Happiness based on those items is temporary and requires materialist fuel.

Quoted from an email Steve Salerno of SHAMblog received.

Steve is the author of a must-read book: SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless. (The first chapter is free at that link!)

SHAM is the acronym for Self-Help Actualization Movement. This is the overarching concept that encompasses people such as Tony Robbins, “life coaches,” the book and movie The Secret, et al.

If you’ve ever encountered that gooey mushiness and needed ammunition to counter it, Steve’s book and blog are excellent weapons (or tools, if you’re of the non-violent stripe).

Now I must use a quote that will rile a reader (and maybe even Steve!):

I’m not saying that because I need anything. I have learned to be content no matter what happens to me. I know what it’s like not to have what I need. I also know what it’s like to have more than I need. I have learned the secret of being content no matter what happens. I am content whether I am well fed or hungry. I am content whether I have more than enough or not enough.

— Philippians 4:11-12 (New International Reader’s Version)

See also what I linked to and wrote in my old blog about The Secret:

Redundant Search Terms
The Secret: I Can’t Finish Reading It!
The Secret: Another Bit Of The Real Secret
Quote Of The Day
Another Note About The Secret: Victor Hugo
The Secret: Don’t Be A Sucker
This Is One Part Of The Secret — The Real Secret
Last Night I Saw The Secret On DVD
The Secret Is That They Count On You To Be Stupid
The Secret: Suckers!
The Secret: Law Of (Mal-)Attraction
More On The Secret
The Secret

All FAIL All The Time

FAIL!

That’s better.

And it has arrived!

Although the phenomenal uncov has gone to UnFail Heaven, I can at least get a daily dose of FAIL pictures at the new FAIL Blog!

(From which I swiped that photo. But I am sure they will not FAIL to understand why!)