Random wisdom glued to the bumpers of our manually steered careening two ton missiles…er cars. There was another bumper sticker next to this one but I didn’t get a snap before the light changed, it read:
“Mission accomplished my ass!”
Archives For Culture
All crews throw your set up!
Going nuclear, yeeehaaa!
Smile, babies and immis are cute!
My Lawyer this one is for you!
A colleague of mine posted one of these videos about an interesting theory (a book) called “The Black Swan” and I picked up on it on my Facebook friend stream. The theory of the Black Swan really captured my imagination because I am an economist by degree, I really love Chaos Theory and I have never heard anyone talking about this particular. These videos are worth your time, check them out, if you like then follow the links.
The REAL Maverick: Present Economy worse than Depression
Youtube Video description: “Interview with Nassim Nicholas Taleb, famous economist and author of “The Black Swan” and Dr. Mandelbrot, professor of Mathematics. Both say that the present economy more serious than the Great Depression, and the economy during the American Revolution.“
Nassim Nicholas Taleb – What is a “Black Swan?”
Interesting no? You can find another full lecture here on FORA.tv if you want to hear more. Logically Nassim’s Theory of the Black Swan really makes too much sense, and intuitively speaking I am pretty sure that the theory is sound.
We as humans have a tendency to dumb things down into more comprehensible terms for our own comfort because it is easier then learning or explaining something more infinitely complex. Do you really believe that economics can be dumbed down into simple linear thinking, regressions, basic logic and reason? Or should we consider that many more things in this universe exist and can effect our realities in absolutely unpredictable ways? Furthermore how does our grouping and simplifying of things truely effect the decisions that people, leaders and companies make?
Let me know your thoughts as I will be posting more on my views on this in the near future.
This is a cool 8 bit music video called “Starlight” by a Japanese 8 bit band called YMCK that you should check out.
I saw YMCK perform live with my friends Alexis and John at the Japan! Culture + Hyper Culture 2008 festival in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center. It would be great to see them at a smaller venue where I could get up closer to the stage.
Ninjas are awesome. Pirates are not. Period. . .I mean do Pirates get their own day? Didn’t think so.
This video just one of the many reasons why I love Ninjas. Intelligent, crafty, deceptive and Gangstaaa! Who knew? Thought that these Ninjas were out-manned and surrounded by a whole fleet of Pirates? No seriously what were you thinking? Ok, if Pirates are so great then why don’t they have a rad super awesome podcast called “Ask a Pirate?” Yeah they don’t. Exactly! I mean look what happens to Pirates:
Happy Day of the Ninja everyone…and as Ask A Ninja would say:
“I look forward to killing you soon.”
So yeah I think that the title of this blog posting says it all…
There was come decent commentary on iPhone Savior with some supporting articles on ABC and the NY Daily News. Since I am not a fan of rehashing check out the above links for more commentary and watch these two videos:
And another Walmart customer may have lost her baby because of this incident which makes me very sad (speaking from the father perspective):
Some open questions about this event:
- Is Walmart liable for not providing enough security to protect its own employees and patrons?
- Can Walmart even be legally charged & what is the legal precedence for this in regards to corporations?
- Can a mob of people even be legally prosecuted for this crime?
- How can events like this be prevented in the future, given Walmart has no crystal ball?
- Should it so how much should the family of the victims receive?
- How can we change the culture that encourages or allows for this kind of behavior?
Let me know what you think by leaving a comment, link to sources if you have facts.
Here this the main reason why I do not participate in consumerist holidays or events. Both the power and stupidity of “the herd” or “the crowd” mentality is absolutely amazing to me!
Besides, if you think about what your hourly wage is, how much time you have to spend waiting in line or fighting (I guess now it is moshing) with other people to get products then you would realize that you gained absolutely nothing by shopping on Black Friday. The cost in time, transportation, parking, getting up early, the hassle of dealing with other people and now the risk of injury/dying = simply not worth it. Perhaps next year Walmart will think about hiring concert security to ensure the safety of its customers on Black Friday from now on.
I think people really need to stop and ask themselves: is it worth dying or getting killed or killing someone else (directly or indirectly) to get a flat screen TV for $100 cheaper or a bag of waffles for five bucks? If you don’t already know the answer this question, please stop reading this blog and go shopping 
I will leave you with the Walmart motto “Save Money. Live Better” though it can be kind of hard to do either of these when you are six feet under!
