demonstrative

Mesothelioma

05/12/2006

The other day I heard about the disease Mesothelioma, because of the amount people were paying for google adwords (upwards of $50 on a popular site). I did a little look around and the whole thing makes me a little sick. There is simply no place to go on the internet for people to discuss ways of dealing with diseases like these without some lawyer trying to take money off them.

So I started a blog about it. Obviously it's just me now, and still just an idea. Hopefully, in the future, more poeple with an interest in the area will joining up - not just sufferers or victims, but people like me who care about corporate greed causing preventable disease - to discuss ways of finding justice without more heartache and lawyers fees.

Obviously I'm no expert, and it will take up too much of my time soon, but i want to get a bit of a base up. Maybe it will become more of a general site for sufferers of lung cancer because of cigarette companies, those who have been affected by chemical companies etc. They have been free and easy pickings for lawyers for too long.

There are adwords on the site - the first time ive tried to get ad revenue off a site, and as of now, im not sure what to do with the money, if i get any. I hope that if a goup does form, we can use the money in some effective way? Although the clicks I have received so far only generate about $.50, so we wont be making any big leaps quickly.

I wonder if it is simply the time of day, or just an accident that you read about something that seems so grossly unfair, only to hurt people even more int he fight for justice.

Anyway, if anyone is interested, find the blog at http://mesothelioma.blogspirit.com/, feel free to comment about the direction you think it should take (or if i should just give up while im behind) or if you want to help out.

Blogging is a good way of getting good search engine rankings, and I would like a site run by interested people to be the one victims find... not the lawyers sites!

09:20 Posted in Chatting | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this

Dr Doom killing us all (well 90%)

04/08/2006

I was over at Zoliblog, reading round and two articles promted me to comment. Funnily enough, the first was about comment censorship, the second was about Dr Doom. So the second comment was not allowed because my IP has been banned or something, which is sad because I quite like his blog, and my first comment was agreeing with him entirely, and I hate comment censorship - although I suppose my two quickfire comments make me look spammy.

Anyway the second article, which i am not allowed to converse on there is Dr Doom Plans to Save the Earth by Wiping out 90% of Humans. But since, once again, I've gone to the trouble and don't want it to just float away into nowhere, I have to talk here in my own safe space :). The story seems to go that this guy views us as a sort of bacteria, draining the planet till everythings gone. His solution is killing off 90% of us. I'm stoked at all this moral outrage, people who are so appalled that someone could actually think THEY should die! Ha! I love the contradiction. Noone cares that they are slowly jamming the world up with landfills, draining our oil supplies, polluting away the air until it's hard to breathe, chopping down the rainforests and coral reefs that sustain life and turn our C02 emissions into the oxygen we need to survive. Because, at the end of the day, we are humans and that essentially makes us god. And as we all know, God can do no wrong, even if he does do wrong. It doesn't matter that we don't mind discriminately killing other people, someone has just THREATEND TO KILL US! Who does he think he is? Does he not realise that we are WHITE? we are RICH? That the planet is NOTHING without us! Zoli seems like a nice chap, but he is asking for this guy's resignation, he is hoping for his collapse, for daring to tell us that we are killing the planet and to make it survice, 90% of us must die. I think instead of this moral outrage, people should simply take a good inward look and make a few changes in their lives so that the planet can support 10.0000000001% of us, and so on and so on, until we no longer need to kill 90% of us in order to leave things for the rest of the planet's species to enjoy.

Hopefully, hopefully, this very brave man has done something the rest of us weaklings have failed to do: Make it quite clear that we will all die if we continue as we are, that at this rate, the planet can only sustain 10% of us. The shock is incredible.

Myspace

I've never really looked around myspace before, but heard a lot about it. I somehow managed to get a link to 'the most popular girl on myspace' Tilatequila or something and couldn't resist a look at what would make someone the most popular girl on Myspace. Duh! It's the same thing that makes a girl the 'most popular' anywhere - her willingness to pose next to naked in photos and talk about how she loves being a 'hussler'.

I know a lot of parents are full of concern when they sign on to see what their kid is doing online all day, to find out that they are posting revealing photos of themselves alongside details of how to find them. Man I hate it when communities end up putting girls right back in their place - the sex symbols of society, and when girls actually internalise the whole thing and try to be the most sexy girl in the room. Why would you do that to yourself?

I remember going through school with a bunch of girls who thought the same thing, and week in week out delivered themselves on a plate to whoever wanted a bite. By the ripe old age of 17, they were all depressed, had almost zero self confidence, drank far far too much and had set themselves up for a future where they would never experience a relatinship with someone of the opposite sex where they were valued as a person and not as a sex toy.

I'm sure a lot of cool people have interesting Myspace lives (although how they stand to look at those hideous pages and find their way through the site is a mystery to me - let alone how you're meant to communicate with anyone!), but it's fascinating how blatantly this whole world ties together. The movie and music industries pump out near naked girl after near naked girl, inspiring girls to think that is the opitime of cool, then someone launches a communitiy that enables people to generate so much 'virtual' popularity through acting like the famous girls they model themselves off that they too can launch their own pop/modelling/movie career.

Sorry, I don't have any answers for this one, just blatant horror, which, I know isn't very practical.

10:34 Posted in Chatting | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this

Regaining Control

03/28/2006

You hear a lot about how various disorders/problems/issues are a result of loss of control. Bulemia, anorexia, obsessive compulsiveness etc etc. Thankfully, I don't suffer from any of these, although I have known people who do and it isn't fun for anyone. But I think there is a part in all of us that feels that same sense of grasping at what we can control when life skews sideways or upside down. Last night it popped into my head, maybe I was mildly upset about something or stressed, or whatever really, and my first instinct is to clean, to want the house sparkling because I CAN DO THAT. I've kind of noticed it before, like after a fight or a particularly stressful day, I just want to be clean, I can't relax until I have cleaned. Funny. I think it's also a self preservation thing, when life is in disarray, but your surroundings are more ordered, you feel safe, when things are happening that you can't control, the fact you can make sure your house is the way you like it really helps. I'm sure everyone has their quirks, it's just weird to really realise mine. I suppose it's like when you are really angry you just want to go for a fast run, it's natures way of sorting you out. By the time you've exhausted yourself, the anger has faded and you're ok. It's nice to know when you don't know what to do, there is some instinct in there somewhere sorting it out for you.

09:13 Posted in Chatting | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this

WOM - Word of Mouth Marketing

03/23/2006

I accidentally seem to have stumbled into WOM circles on the web, either that, or everyone has just started talking about it. I find the subject fascinating for the moment, because on the one hand, it's a consumers dream and plants marketing right in their hands, on the other hand it has been used to deny power to consumers and trick them even more than before. So this article explores the bad side, the side that's not really word of mouth marketing at all, but something I'm not sure of the term for, 'stealth marketing' 'vile marketing'? anyhoo, interesting experts:

Among the more controversial are campaigns like one in which New York City advertising agency Interference Inc. hired dozens of models to pose as tourists at popular destinations across the country. Their goal: Demonstrate a new Sony Ericsson camera cell phone by getting real tourists to take their pictures with it.
Among the agencies named in the complaint is Tremor, the word-of-mouth marketing division of Procter & Gamble. The unit uses about 250,000 teen volunteers to spread the word about new products in exchange for getting an early look at them.
Interference Chief Executive Sam Ewen also has put people on subways to brag about financial advisers, and once sent models into bars to sit with packs of cigarettes in front of them -- waiting for someone to bum a smoke. Such campaigns are a small piece of his business, but Ewen isn't ashamed of bending the truth a bit.

Like all these despicable ways to make us as powerless as possible, the lovely people behind them go straight for the most vulnerable members of society, our kids. They target the 'coolest kids in their peer groups' and flaunt the need for other children to fit in.

On the good side, the real WOM, I've written a post at Decisive Flow. This is the sort that means you have t really impress your customer by providing exceptional service, then they will talk about it. That's like the ideal world I'm told will never happen. No need for advertising, your product succeeds on the happiness of your customers.

09:03 Posted in consumerism | Permalink | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this

Have We Broken the Limits of Human Possibility?

03/22/2006

I watched about five minutes of the Commonwalth Games last night. Just enough to watch Australian mixed medley team swim so fast for the gold medal that the rest of the field didn't even feel their wake. Celebrations were in full swing before Shri Lanka even competed their final lap and I believe the world record was shattered. Is that kind of speed humanly possible?

I'm not playing the usual NZ vs Australia line here, I don't really buy into that rubbish, what I am interested in is what exactly we are achieving by breaking the limits of human possibility, using people who are literally athletic machines. Dad let out a sigh aftre the race at how it's all about being one step ahead of the drug tests these days, that and massive, massive funding. The great Kiwi athletes of the past were ordinary people, they went to work like everyone else, and achieved the extra ordinary in their own time. They were never paid to do it.

Nowdays with all the money involved, the investors demand a return, seemingly at any cost. Can we as the human race really feel proud of those tiny girls who have been packed off to gymnastics school and never experienced a proper childhood or should we just feel sorry for them?

Yes the records keep getting broken, yes, I also take great joy out of seeing the true limits to what we can achieve. But this doesn't seem to be an accurate measure any more, just a bunch of drugged up machines who must win at all costs. There is no human triumph there.

10:45 Posted in Chatting | Permalink | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this

Don't Touch yourself While at War?

03/19/2006

I came accross this wonderful article at the Huffington post, which, for all the uninitiated is one of the top 100 blogs worldwide, but also a blog that I have never felt a need to read. I was brought up in rather a non-religious setting, which is why I've made it to this age knowing only a handful of religious types. While I feel strongly that the church is a bad thing, because I have about ziltch interest in studying the bible to prove it, I am often at a loss as to how to communicate my thoughts. My favourite comments from the article:

"There is no bigger closet in the world than the Catholic hierarchy, in which there's even room for the Pope's $1000.00 Prada shoes."
"I also was raised a Catholic, well until my parent's divorce when we were all ex-communicated." (isn't 'ex-communicated' a really humourus word? like they were booted off the island).
Man created god in man's image and likeness--unfortunately, he then forgot it was just a joke.

The article starts by saying "As we know, Christ came down to earth to instruct us in the ways in which we must limit our sexual expression." and Goes on to outline a hilarious situation where church raised children are fed warped ideas about sex and war by priests that blatantly contradict their own teachings, to the point I'm sure ANYONE has to question where exactly these 'morals' were dreamt up and why (aside from the few who just feel attacked by someone questioning god)

17:35 Posted in Chatting | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this

The death of animal rights

03/18/2006

Oh dear god. The Body Shop has just been aquired by Loreal, the crusaders against animal testing, the force behind ethical consuming has just said 'Actually, it's ok to harm animals, sorry, this was just a big markting thing'.

I remember walking past a shop a few months ago and seeing t-shirts proclaiming womens rights right alongside little tampon holders that has MTV splashed all over them. The contradiction almost made me laugh. Since when did encouraging women to take of all their clothes and gyrate to bad pop songs in porn style video clips amount to female rights?

I don't know why this hit me so hard. Maybe it's because when I was young, the only company I could ever imagine wanting to work for was The Body Shop, maybe because I spent some good time reading about Anita Ruddock, and actually admired her. Maybe I'm just terrified about what will happen now, that the biggest anti animal testing brand in the world has basically just commenced animal testing. Maybe it's because that everything that starts out so well, seems to get corrupted and become the opposite of what it was.

I don't even want to talk about it. Go read it at Body Shop: Extreme Makeover (I stole the picture from there too)

UPDATE: I posted a comment on Anita Roddick's 'blog'. I had to sign up three times to different areas of the site and to acces the video interviews of her talking about Loreal. I don't think I left a mean comment, just one asking if she could, for the sake of all of us who have supported her over the years and now feel slightly hurt, give us a reason why something like this would get her indorsement. - the comment may still be over to the right on my coComment recent conversations. Anyway, of course, comments are regulated over there, so it wasn't published straight away, however I went back today and three new comments have been published, all gushing over how much they 'trust' Anita. Mine was obviously not 'pro Anita' enough. It's a weird feeling when you see the worst aspects of PR in action. For a self proclaimed activist to silence other caring members of society is a little strange and does make me think it actually was all marketing all along. When you see yourself being censored, you wonder how one sided the conversation really is. The funny part about it was that Tim was always skeptical and I was (for once in my life) NOT. I'm sure there is a lesson there.

The Way People Treat Waiters

03/17/2006

I've just been over at the Brand Builder, and it reminded me of something I've always held true:

"Watch the way people treat waiters. It'll tell you everything you need to know about what kind of person they are."

It's something Tim and I talk about often, how to judge a person by the way they treat the 'lowliest' person in the room - funnily enough that's normally me. The amount of times I'm involved in a conversation with Tim and another guy and have to pinch myself to see if I really exist or if I am a figment of my own imagination, astonishes me. Waiters, shop assistants, all those people who are there but somehow appear not to be for a lot of people are often the best judges of charater you come across. That old 'feminine intuition' thing is also easy to figure out. It's hard to like someone when they think nothing of you just because you're a girl.

I actually have been a waitress (for one night). I was still at school, when I still kind of thought sexism was a myth. I thought it would be inrteresting to see how it would feel to be the unseen. It hurt. But I still remember the few people that night who were friendly to me, that's how dramatic an indicator the waiter test is.

RecycleBank - Get 'Paid' To Recycle

I HATE those free coupons you get in the mail. We don't even have a letterbox and suffer all the hardships of not getting mail because we hate it so much. (Actually that's not strictly true, we hate it and we're lazy and we have alternative ways of receiving mail...) Anyway if you're in the US and like to recycle, then why not use RecycleBank? Basically, they provide you with a bin complete with barcode, that gets scanned when your recycling is picked up. As you recycle you earn points, and when you earn enough, sign into their website and choose the coupons you want (like $2 off every $20 you spend at the supermarket) Business 'donate' these coupons in return for the advertising they get as a result of their coupons (pretty sweet deal if you ask me). And everyone is happy.

RecycleBank isn't 100% clear on how they actually run their business side of things, but the basic gist is that they earn money from cities reducing landfill fees, so you get the service for free.

Interesting idea huh? We are so wasteful, there is money to be made in doing easy stuff to reduce it. Good on them.